Fast

Too stay with the original topic, lets consider the following. If we even consider to compare the total amount of driving to the total amount of skydiving, I would say that could shut down the argument pretty well that driving is safer, Lets just look at the total miles traveled last year in the united states: Grand Total: Vehicle( Million) Miles Traveled(2001): 2781462 (Thats 2,781,462,000,000 miles traveled last year total in all 50 states and Washington DC.) Reference If we stay with the same 2,000,000 jumps in a year that was sugested earlier in this thread with an average of 35 fatalities per year thats 57,142.9 jumps per fatality. On the contrary we have (42,116 Fatalities in 2001) 66,042,881.6 miles driven per fatality. Thats quite a saftey diffrence. I will further digest this to include the comparison to injuries resulting from a vehicle accident (3,033,000 injuries in 2001). So that comes out to 917,066.3 miles per injury. I think that puts the saftey versus driving comparison to bed. Even if we were to assume 4,000,000 jumps in a year thats only 114285.7 jumps per fatality which is still WELL below the injury numbers for driving. (Edit: Spelling) and: To clarify before anyone asks how they can know the exact miles driven, the number is a population estimate based on a colection of sample data from people living in the US. Thats why the numbers are given in millions. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Oh how I wish it was snowing... I would take snow over 45 and rain any day!

Depending on your definition/use of the word sweet I can go along with that... I like the smell of the nylon... Was driving around with my windows up in my car and the smell of the rig was evily calling me to drive to the DZ ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Awesome Congrats on both achievements!

It took 28 questions to guess parachute. I would say that most of my answers were close to what they should of been, but it did find some discrepencies, though I think its probally the things thats wrong. The good part is that it can learn from what people are telling it. It had this as: So it isn't perfect but it sure did suprise me that it guessed it. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Glad your ok, hope they don't hurt too long ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

lmao ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I think the determination of whether you get the magazine for your first 'month' of membership is based on if your applicatoins is processed before or after they process the monthly mailing list for the people who print parachutist for them. If your a member before that list goes out im sure you will get one, if the list went out before you were a member, then you wont get one till next month. I did not get my parachutist for the first month of membership because it processed late in the month, I did however get the next months. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Hmm, Can I asume this was split out of some other thread? Anyways, I have had this conversation with a statistics/mathmatics professor at the college I goto. We were talking about the merits of comparison between driving fatalities and skydiving fatalities. Too make things short, we can't have exact numbers unless a decent sized population of data was taken from various dropzones around the country. The things that affect saftey are so numerous that we could develop a multiple variable regression to determin the likelyness of injury/fatality per jump. The same can be said about driving. The differnce is that for driving we do have most of the data, and this inherently provides us with a scapegoat to compare against. Often unrealistic and unjustified data is used in the comparison against driving because no one really knows how many skydives were made, injuries that occured, etc... There are so many ways that you can look at statistics, such as 30-40 fatalities per year something on the order of 40,000 uspa members, so thats 3-4 fatalities per 4000 uspa members or about 1 per 1000. The thing is though, that means absolutely nothing to what risk you are at in skydiving. Are you reckless, pull low, pack sloppy, and don't ever gear check or go over emergency procedures? Well I can bet your at more risk to die jumping than the person who does do those things safely. There is a inherent risk just by what your doing but that risk level is modified by activities. Your at more risk if there are 40-60 people in the air with no idea the experience level, and not sure if landing patterns are being followed (say a large boogie like the wffc) than the person who jumps with only thier friends at a cessna DZ. Does it mean there is no risk cause its just 4 of you and you know each other, hmm, no... but it is less risk. Experience also is a factor, etc. Does a person participate in swoop competitions, or other high preformance things near the ground? More risk thier too. Driving is the same way, but the mitigating factors have a much different effect. I highly doubt there is any way that we can say driving is safer than skydiving. I think it is hard to compare the two, but it is not probable that in reality we can say driving is more dangerous. The only way I could see that is if you were the safest skydiver in the world and the most reckless driver I have ever met. Then maybe you could say driving is more dangerous. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

The thing that you need to have in mind when you are reading the incedents forum or talking about mals, is that its for your best educatoin. We can learn from the mistakes or circumstances that other people have experienced. This can help you in the case that you are in a similar situation. When I first started jumping I often had the same thing you did, because I knew a lot of the things that could go wrong and they made me nervous. Eventually I realized that it was a good thing to know and to just let the stuff hang out in the back of my mind so that I have it as a tool to help me survive in a bad situation. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Happy skybirthday!

Welcome

That soooo shouldn't be funny... But somehow it is... ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Congrats! I bet it feels great to be back in the air

Great looking rig on a great looking girl. I too am glad to see that you went with the rig over the boobies I guess I'm a natural type of guy ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

0:2:0 Two jumps yesturday, lows ceilings and rain kept us on the ground today. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Gah I'm sitting at home with nothing to do... all the people I know are busy already... this sux ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

There are pictures if you follow the link to the service bulletin ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

very cool

Welcome to the fourms! Blue Skies.

Ahh the things I would do to find someone with just that atitude that lives near me. I don't think there is anything wrong with it, and it wouldn't really make you any less datable in the future so whatever, have fun, no reason not to. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

hmmz yep ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I can't say I know why, but I can say that sitting facing forward has seemed more comfortable to me. The cessna that I jump does not have the pannel that you lean on. We sit with the student and JM positions back to back. You use the other jumper as your backrest. Don't have to worry about your back/head hitting the control stuff and I find it to be more comfortable (Yes I have jumped cessnas both ways.) ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I'm sure you will find your way to some standup landings soon

Welcome to the forums!