yoink

Because 100 jump wonders will equate 'no data' with 'no correlation'. Just because we haven't been collecting numbers to the n'th degree on something for the last 60 years doesn't invalidate the conclusions which are ingrained into the sport. There's also the slight snag that each of your 'data points' is someone who is dead. How many points of reference would you like before you're happy about the factor of error in your data, how long do you think it would take to gather and do you think your conscience can live with that number? Deploying at 50ft will result in death. Should we test that one too, just to confirm that data matches what is intrinsically known? To how many degrees of certainty? Personally, I don't like the graph. It's too easily seen as snide and condescending from a low jumpers point of view. That doesn't make it incorrect, just a piss-poor way of communicating - you'll notice that no-one with thousands of jumps is posting here, laughing along. Some things don't need to be proven mathematically. The application of Dunning-Kruger to skydiving is one of them. Give it 10 years to see what you know then and I'm prepared to bet you a bottle of liquor you'll agree with me.

Well that's fucking bullshit for a start. Unless they knowingly install loops made out of garden string... where was it? Take the rig to a rigger on your DZ along with a bottle of something, and ask him to look over the rig and to show you how to size your closing loop. Seriously, getting on the good side of your rigger is a really good idea. They're a goldmine of information.

Quade put me onto this guys videos a while back. He explains voting methods in a simple way - easy for my tiny brain to understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3jE3B8HsE - it's actually worth watching the previous video to this one to see the problems with First Past the Post voting as well.

The problem with any political overhaul like this is that it's not in the interest of either party, so will never get proposed or passed. It depresses me just to think about it.

(the following is the best change sugestion I have heard in a long time) Close Washington Set up, in every state for every congress critter, a small auditorium style office where congress conducts business via web meetings. In their own districts. Mandatory access to the meetings will be allowed by each congress critters constituents only! This way, they have to fact their people each and every day They go home each night and just think of the operating money that would save! This de-centralization of power would help I know it would never happen but I like the idea Both of these ideas are good. I think the biggest problem is lack of rapid accountability. Like Darius points out, there's no easy way to tell an elected critter that they're sucking at their job and are in danger of losing it as there is in business - They only really pretend to pay much attention at election time, then rely on the public forgetting the previous years of things they've done. Having some form of instant feedback with real consequence would change things. Something where residents of a state can select 'no confidence' (I'm imagining an internet site with a simple tick box for example, which registers the complaint for a certain amount of time - say 4 months) which, if it reaches a certain percentage immediately triggers a election in x months time.... I bet politicians would be more interested in doing a good job and publicizing what they're doing. (I'm not suggesting this as a method because of the potential abuse it would be open to, but more of a conceptual idea.)

The only ones I found for speedflying were integrated into motocross body armor. I did get the lightest one I could find and that came with spine and coccyx protection but it does get really warm wearing it. Of course I wasn't wearing it the one time I needed to... It's a really good idea. I see all these people landing on their arse and keep telling them that a broken coccyx REALLY hurts. And for about 6 months too.

Simplest solution - Ask an experienced jumper to make a jump with it and to compare it to theirs. I had an FT50 which was bulletproof until someone nicked it.

Historically we SUCK at 'self regulation'. Deaths under functional canopies have been the most common cause of death since I've been jumping and as an industry we've done basically fuck all about it. Just throwing that into the mix. and in any case,the very argument for self-regulation you're making doesn't stand up. We ARE suggesting self regulation. You may not agree on what those numbers / quantifiers are, but I don't think I've seen anyone suggest that it should be an FAA mandate. THAT would be an example of non self-regulation. What is being discussed here is no different than the regulations for canopy downsizing or wingsuiting - standards set within the sport which forms the basis for a best practice. That IS self regulation...

But the Republicans generally seem to do nothing to deny it - in fact they tend to see deeply christian families as a base of their support. I agree they'd be better off if this wasn't the case, as it seems to be now. For an example (and not wishing to start a religious argument), there have been politicians running for positions who have stated their intent to make abortion illegal based on their belief in the Bible. To me, that's simply WRONG. Not the abortion issue itself, but that they use their position to foist their personal BELIEFS on a population. Things like that would open a whole host of nasty precedents. Separation of religion and government MUST remain a thing. I couldn't agree more. The problem is that the 2 parties have become caricatures of themselves with each being either extremely right or left wing with very little in the idea of moderation. The most depressing thing about the recent elections is that more moderate positions and overall cooperation seemed to be the message the people put forward but as far as the parties are concerned it's just business as usual.

One of the most fun times I've ever had was at a boogie at an old disused Cold-War airbase in the Czech republic. Some really random aircraft came through while we were there and we poured knockoff liquor into all the pilots each evening until they agreed to take us up the next day. A Russian military helicopter with a crewchief who couldn't spot and a canvas bi-plane that couldn't get above 1500 ft were just two of the randoms that come to mind from that trip. Skydiver friendly? Probably not. but skydiver fun? Sure!

Honestly, I think the only thing that scares me is the idea of a religious fundamentalist becoming President. Typically, those people are more frequently Republicans and I could see that influence affecting my life, but other than that I doubt there's much of a difference.

I won't say the kid got what was coming to him, despite apparently having removed the orange 'toy' indicator on the gun. It's a tragic situation for all concerned but when the police get a call about someone walking around in public, deliberately scaring people with a gun they have to take it seriously. I've a feeling this is one of those situations where everybody loses. The kid gets killed simply for taking a joke too far, the politicians use the situation as a springboard to advance their own ridiculous agendas, and the life of a rookie police officer is ruined - at least temporarily.

So what happened with this? Did you ever take the rig to a rigger?

what's the word for assholes and idiots running the world? That's my phobia.

I don't see it. As long as safety is the primary concern of teaching then there is no good reason that a student should ever require a camera, and students generally expect to do what instructors tell them... As soon as they get released into the wild however, the 'Mad Skillz Principle' is in effect and some students immediately think they know everything and think they have the experience and skill to make their own decisions. (You only have 10,000 jumps, but I have an A licence. You don't know me. I can make my own decisions etc etc..) I agree that the gap in application of the 'MS Principle' is getting shorter, but don't believe it will ever apply to pre-A license. At least not as long as we have any half decent instructors around. I wouldn't be surprised however, to start seeing integrated cameras popping up on people with less than 25 jumps. Edit: Now that I think about it (and playing devils advocate), there's probably an interesting discussion to be had about including cameras from day 1 training and demystifying the kudos that is attached to jumping with a camera. For the instructors out there, if you could completely remove any mechanical interference the camera added, so it was just like wearing a normal pair of goggles, do you think it would be detrimental to the teaching process? There's a part of me that thinks students are so overwhelmed with being strapped to strange bits of kit on their first jump that you might well be able to teach around it. It wouldn't even be worth a mention... 'Put these goggles on. There's a camera built in so that we can see where your focus is on exit and at key points in the dive'. For me, the most dangerous time for a new camera jumper is when they are including that in their planning of the typical (non-camera focused) dive. Even people who say they will forget it know that their first jump with a camera is a milestone in the sport and behave differently as a result. Remove that milestone and you may well have a different uptake and different result.

I gots the mad skillz. U don't no me. Do I pass?

I'm impressed. There's some seriously good advice in this thread with no bitching or arguing. Sorry. I think I might be on the wrong website.

'May of' is the stupid bit of this, and most people wearing GoPros are guilty of it. I'm all for designing specific mounts which have known weak points which will fail in very specific ways at very specific loads. That's one solution to the problem. But skydivers don't do this. We stick stuff on our head and go 'yeah. It'll probably break... because, well. I want it to.' What if it doesn't? For a bunch of generally bright people, we can be pretty dumb sometimes.

Honestly, most of the advice in this thread seems geared towards more experienced jumpers, or those packing their own rigs. You'll get there, and the advice will be useful then, but the summary is this: 1) No. A closing loop shouldn't break after 6 jumps. 2) Get it inspected by a rigger at your DZ - tell him what happened and sit with him through the inspection. 3) Don't just keep jumping without making the inspection... It's probable that the closing loop was defective in some way, but just in case it isn't and there's something on your rig causing the issue, you MUST get it fixed before it potentially kills a plane load of people - maybe on the next jump. - I'm absolutely serious... premature openings are not something to fuck around with.

Poignant social commentary from Armageddon.

I've been to NY. There are far worse things already there.

Not everything in the world is to do with skydiving... that's one of the attitudes that bugs me most about skydivers. The groupon model may not work for dz's (although I don't see why it shouldn't), but as far as I understand it, the share loss this quarter was due to 2 large purchases and greater than expected marketing investment. A $45m bill you weren't expecting would have an effect on anyone's share price. They've sold 20% more groupons this year (at 3/4 billion dollars) and (ignoring one-time purchases) did better than they were expecting. To go from that, to 'short the stock' and relating both of those to a single interaction of a (very) minority sport is just daft. If you don't like what they're suggesting, don't use them. It's not rocket science. Hell - you've probably got someone who jumps at your DZ who works with websites. It's a pretty common skill. Offer them a certain number of free lifts every weekend for doing the IT and marketing stuff for you and do without groupon alltogether.

How do buy a present for something that already has everything?

hahahahaha!

Pot, meet Kettle.