skybytch

Pointing fingers at those who fly their canopies differently than we do is not going to solve the problem. We are all part of the problem, regardless of what canopy we fly and how we fly it. If we don't want to lose more friends to canopy collisions or collision avoidance, it's up to all of us to come together and figure out how we can share the air safely. The solution may mean that some of us will have to walk a bit further to get back to the packing area. I'm okay with that... I'd rather parahike than meet a paramedic...

180 toggle turns to final, sashaying on final and spiraling down to pattern altitude were all cool at the dz I jumped at in 1993. It's not 1993 anymore. For good or bad, skydiving has changed. Even those of us who don't swoop need to keep learning, if only to keep ourselves safe in crowded airspace. One of the things we need to learn is that the only way to land in crowded airspace is to fly a predictable traditional pattern. I know far too many jumpers with numbers like mine who stopped learning back in the early '90's. Until a couple of years ago, I was one of them. It's only luck that kept me from being part of an incident report... edit to add - I am not saying that the incident on the 30th was the fault of the surviving jumper. I am speculating based on secondhand information that was posted by an eyewitness. I am saying that I could very well have done exactly what the secondhand information says the surviving jumper did if I hadn't made an effort to learn more about canopy control. We shouldn't have to make an effort to learn more about survival skills...

Regulation will only affect those who respect rules. You can't legislate against people making mistakes. You can't legislate against people making bad decisions. Look at drunk driving statistics; we all know we shouldn't drive after a few beers but hell, we made it home safe the last time we did it. The same applies to canopy flight. That said, I do support some regulation and I have for some time. Required canopy control education beyond the A license level will save lives - and I'm not targeting only new jumpers with this; every skydiver needs continuing education on canopy control. Limits on the size and type of canopy that new (and even uncurrent experienced - like myself) jumpers can fly will save lives, or at a minimum, save some titanium. It's sad when an experienced person dies swooping but I can accept that they aren't infallible no matter how good they are, and it's likely that they knew the risks they were taking by swooping. It's beyond sad when someone dies because another person has stopped learning and continues to fly their canopy like it's 1993.

It's not just swoopers doing the endangering. It's been stated that the surviving jumper in the incident on the 30th did a 180 toggle turn to final just prior to impact. If jumpers who are not swoopers fly a traditional downwind/base/final pattern they are predictable. Being predictable in the pattern makes you less likely to find yourself in the path of a swooping canopy, and it allows those who are swooping to tell if you will enter "their" airspace or not. Requiring non-swoopers to fly that traditional pattern instead of doing 180's to final, doing big S turns on final and/or sprialing down to 500 feet and entering final after the last spiral (all things that I've seen done very recently) could very well save lives. Perhaps if USPA had produced a DVD that actually taught us something instead of being a 30 minute commercial for canopy control courses... Education, not regulation - that's the USPA line. So when are they going to start educating?? Seems obvious to me that education from USPA will not come until the membership demands it. How many more friends are you willing to lose before you stand up and tell them (note - posting on dz.com does not constitute standing up and telling them...)?

I had an opening hard enough to break two D lines. 850 jumps at the time; loaded about 1.1 on a Spectre 170. I chose to land it, which I don't recommend. I've had line twists five times on my current Spectre 170 (loaded about 1.0, I had 950-1000 jumps) - all on wingsuit jumps (my bad for poor deployment position). It flies straight with five or six line twists.

Trouble. (we really need a laughing as I cry icon...)

Bump.

Tom Gusto... LP won't be the same without your smiling face. I'll be lifting a bottle of Lang in your honor. NorCal weeps.

Congrats! She's beautiful. And your life has just changed - radically!!

Thanks, everybody. Like every other curveball life has thrown me, I'll catch this one and throw it right back. I'm not selling all my stuff just yet. I need a story for when people ask what I did to my neck. So far the winning version is that Keith had me in the triple huckabuck and... well...

skydance 2006 He's about a minute into the video, swooping by the camera. I have a bunch more of his swoops; I'll be going through tapes and will put something together in the next couple of days.

The dz won't be the same without you, Cliff. Thanks for the conversations... especially the one we had after Shannon died. Really didn't expect you to be next. Marco, how is Jen doing? Please give her our love. As Cliff would say - Don't fucking die, folks.

I second that emotion.

I knew it was coming. I didn't do a whole lot of jumping this year. Each jump I did was followed by a week or two of pain and tingling in my left arm/shoulder, but it always went away. But after I last jumped in October, it hasn't gone away. It's gotten worse. It finally got to the point that I couldn't stand it anymore, so last week it was off to a doctor. And now starts the long process of dealing with it. I know what's coming, having been through it all before. It's been almost exactly six years since I had three vertebrae in my lower back fused, and that was 18 months before I was jumping again. This is the neck, though... I may not be able to jump again this time, and I don't know when I'll know for sure. This skydiving thing - it's been a good ride. Since I made my first jump almost 17 years ago I've met loads of incredible people, seen some incredibly beautiful things, been almost all over the US, helped set a world record... Thanks for jumping with me. With a little bit of luck, maybe I'll get to see you in the sky again someday.

Damn. Your teachers are way faster than mine. I only know two of my grades out of four classes so far - and I was pretty sure of those two before they posted them. Hopefully my history teacher is generous, cuz I don't think I did as good on the final as I did on the other test and two papers in his class...

Piercing isn't an option either. He knows that not having a piercing means he'll never be any good at freeflying, but he's okay with that.

The day my son was born. Back surgery - made me realize that life is meant to be lived. The Landmark Forum. JFTC 2002 - from this I learned that I really can set and meet goals. And I met some really awesome people too. Hurricane Jeanne - taught me that "stuff" isn't nearly as important as I thought it was. Even though I lost stuff with sentimental value, I still have the memories that went along with it and nobody can take those away from me. And I'm hoping that my visit to the doctor later today doesn't change my life... but it probably will...

Anything Coleman. Seriously. Having spent 3 months living in one, I can attest to their overall quality - it did leak, but only during a storm with 30mph+ winds that flooded the whole dz. Watch for sales at WalMart/Target and you can get one big enough for two skydivers, all their gear and a dog for under $100. edit to add - the one I had and the one we have now are tall enough for my 6'2" s/o to stand up in.

I'm with Bigun. Skydiving has ruined my life. I hate it with a passion. So far it's cost me thousands and thousands of dollars, hours and hours of time, a credit rating, a back surgery, numerous friends, any hope of a normal life... Best thing you can do is run, run away from the dropzone, as fast as you can, before it ruins your life too.

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Cold.

We had one of those, but we finished it. Good stuff.

I think it's wrong to pie people who expressly state that they do not want to be pied and never participate in the pieing of others.

Well, since you guys are all listing your beer/wine selections too... 4 bottles of Lang Mandarin Hefeweizen A six pack of Lang TriMotor Amber. 3 bottles of Deschutes Inversion IPA. We're not alcoholics. Really we're not.

There's nothing unclassy about Jack Daniels imho; it's my s/o's drink of choice. But have you tried a really good scotch yet? I don't particularly like whiskey but I truly enjoy sipping some fine scotch on occasion. And I'm as classless as they come.