klingeme

Dave, Retail on the Optimum is $1,380.00 and I think everyone is selling pretty close to retail on these. Mark Klingelhoefer

That sounds like poor event planning on someone's part. Might want to consider that when planning the loast stop on the tour for next year. Mark Klingelhoefer

I'd like to ask him haw he feels about Cheryl Stearns' (and someone else, I don't remember the name) plans to break his speed record. It's been a few years since I've heard anything about the attempts, but I know she was planning on making some higher, faster jumps. Has anyone heard anything about this in the last 4 years? http://www.stratoquest.com/mission1.html Mark Klingelhoefer edited to add the link to stratoquest

Nice. Mark Klingelhoefer

NICE!!!! Ditto.

I used to work with a black guy and I took him to Z-Hills where they were doing 100 ways. I was so pleased to be able to prove to him the his statement of "there is no such thing as a black skyjumper" was not true. There were 2 black guys on the 100 ways. I have personally done several jumps with 3 other black people. There are not many in the sport, but they are out there with us. Mark Klingelhoefer

49,812 Mark Klingelhoefer

The Kansas boogie last year was the first time I had ever jumped anything smaller than a 206 (except for the helicopter and the cub but these were both noveity jumps.) and if I never do it again, I'd be alright with that. Mark Klingelhoefer

www.uptvector.com Mark Klingelhoefer

I've never been shy to meet someone on their way back from the landing area for a little discussion about what I saw. Mark Klingelhoefer

If landing=Swooping, "What is "I noticed the powerlline (or tree, or person, or other object) at the last second and burried a toggle to avoid it and died because of that (under say a 170 loaded at 1:1 with a straight in approach with 50 jumps or so)?" this would be a landing fatality and these types of accidents happen every year.

If these rules are not being followed, how is adding more rules that people will not follow going to solve the problem? Education and more active S&TAs is the answer. Mark Klingelhoefer

I realize this however, every time you get in the plane, there are several things out of your control that can kill you. The only way to stay "safe" is to stay on the ground.

Piper Cub 182 206 Porter caravan grand caravan beech king air PAC otter twin otter skyvan casa balloon alouette steerman Pitts and one other type of helicopter in Gap France, but I'm not sure what it was called. edited because my list keeps growing as people remind me of other planes I jumped.

I agree 100% but I do not feel that a blanket rule that people are hearding to like sheep without seeing the actual proposal is a valid solution that will work at every dropzone in the world. I think DZ's need to self police, have an S&TA that is actually at the dropzone the majority of the time and is actually paying attention to Saftey and Training while there, and is not affraid to prull someone to the side and have a frank conversation or even ground someone when needed. The fact that rules exist and get broken very often (cloud punching is a prime example) leads me to believe that legislatin is not the answer. Legislation would only punish people after the life treatening action is taken. Proper education to prevent these things from happening is what needs to be done. This along with better planning (seperate landing areas, or seperate passes, or whatever works for your dropzone) I feel is the only REAL solution to this problem. Slapping someones wrist after busting a BSR or banning them from jumping at a USPA DZ so they have to go find a nonUSPA DZ to jump at is not the solution and is a Knee Jerk reaction that I definantly do not support. Training and planning needs to be the solution. Mark Klingelhoefer

This reminds me of my first jump off of student status 8 or so years ago. I vividly remember on jump 9 (I did an 8 jump IAF progression) I was not affraid of the skydive, or the exit, or deploying my canopy, but I was scared to death about the fact that I didn't know if I actually understood the pattern and flare/landing well enough after just 8 jumps to be "able" to do it without that stupid radio on my chest. To this day (about 1300 jumps later) I love a hop and pop from altuitude or a CReW jump, or CReW video. I love the fact that canopy piloting has become a more mainstream part of the sport. Mark Klingelhoefer

And it would be 212 families and funerals if we were not allowed to skydive at all. Should that be the rule? We all sign the waiver and know the risks involved and accept them. If you don't accept them, stop jumping until the rules suit your risk accessment acceptability. Mark Klingellhoefer If you want to risk YOUR life skydiving, scuba diving, climbing Everest..., that's fine with me. It's killing OTHER people that's the issue here. Then I would not ever suggest paying a packer to pack your main, or a rigger you don't know personally (And trust your life to) packing your reserve, or getting on a skydive with anyone you don't know and 100% trust their skills. All three of these things could kill you on any jump. Not to mention pilots you don't know or DZO's you don't know for upkeep of the plane...... There are lots of risks in our sport and any one of these could kill you. Mark Klingelhoefer

I'll sign this one. Mark Klingelhoefer D 24728

And it would be 212 families and funerals if we were not allowed to skydive at all. Should that be the rule? We all sign the waiver and know the risks involved and accept them. If you don't accept them, stop jumping until the rules suit your risk accessment acceptability. Mark Klingellhoefer

I can't belive people are promoting a policy they have not yet seen. Would you all sign a contract that sounded like a good idea, but had a whole bunch of blank lines to be filled in later (after you signed it)? I think we need to see exactly what is going to be proposed before anyone should "commit" to it. After that, there should be two petitions. One for and One against. Submitting something saying that 500 people support something, but failing to mention the 1500 disagree with it is a little misleading and I would assume that the orignal poster is not keeping a list of people opposed to the new BSR. Mark Klingelhoefer

And FARs have surely prevented me from ever falling through a cloud, because it was a another more strict form of regulation that is not followed to the letter every time. edited to clarify FAR not BSR

You learned one lesson on your first day that it takes most other skydivers longer to learn.....If you want to just the next day, only hang out for a couple beers...... Congrats. Mark Klingelhoefer

"I know you are stoned, but are you deaf too?"

What?

Mains are regulated in the fact that only the owner, Rigger, or someone directly superviesed (very loosely interpreted) can pack a main. Mark Klingelhoefer