NickDG

POPs, SStewart is right. The damn thing is written in order to hold up in court, not hold your butt up in the air. And it certainly does not need a tech writer to fix it, it needs a real writer. with a lot of skydiving and Instructing experience. And it should be booklet sized so you could very well carry it around in your back pocket. And just what the hell is the SIM anyway? Is it a student survival manual, a guide for novices, a bible for experienced jumpers, or the laws and regs of the sport? In trying to be all those things it manages to be none of those things, Sometimes I think it just USPA saying, "Look we are doing something!" And if you come back at me with why don't I volunteer to re-write it I'll tell you it's impossible. It basically needs to be four separate publications. And I could certainly write the student version but some problems would be we are all over the place on student instructions ways and methods these days. And in the process I'd be getting emails every day from headquarters saying, "Holy shit, Nick, you can't say that," or this or some other thing, and working with USPA in this area would be a nightmare if you wanted to produce anything but pablum . . . There are some things they could do right away like give the SIM some real life flow. Student/novice stuff in the beginning, experienced stuff in the middle, and all the rules and regs in the back. But even then using the current format, just rearranging the SIM would be, dare I say it? Putting lipstick on a pig. I too remember the time before the SIM. As an Instructor I made my own, a lot of us did. You collected the hodgepodge of paperwork the USPA put out punched holes in the paper and put it all in a three ring binder. In fact I still have that thing. All the USPA did was the same thing except they used a prettier binder with a cool logo. And I'm not totally anti-SIM as I look stuff up in it from time to time, it's that we hand them out to students/novices and then expect, sometimes even demand, that they know it. And in it's present format, that's lame . . . NickD

You did good pulling high, and being last out you could have pulled even higher. One thing more on the spotting thing however. I'm a firm believer that your twenty some odd dollars entitles you not only to the altitude you paid for, but also a decent spot. Next time stop in the door and look. If you can't see the DZ within reach behind the aircraft you should get the pilot's attention and twirl your finger in the air. You are asking for a 180. If the pilot is any good at all he'll fly the 180 along a different track than the original jump run. But even then get out right over the DZ or a little bit on the downwind side to avoid anyone else that may have opened high on the first pass. Even still keep an eye out for canopies below you while in freefall. If for someone reason the pilot refuses and starts down, walk back up front and buckle in. Once on the ground ask for your money back, then pack up your nylon, and go find a real drop zone. It doesn't matter if you have 14 jumps or 1400 jumps following anyone out of airplane blindly, especially knowing you're last, and the guys in front of you were slow, is not acceptable. You did good for 14 jumps but there's no reason to put yourself into a position of hoping you make the DZ unless it's an aircraft emergency or something else out of your control. NickD

>>I moved on to a Strato-Star (kept my Navy con and one-shots), hand-deploy, and metal reserve ripcord for the remainder of my Wonderhog jumps.

>>He was 82 and she was 46...niiiiiice.

>>I smell lawsuits.

>>I do have this bottle with the seal intact dated 1975.

And here's the latest revelation . . . The crash occurred at 4:23 PM and at 4:22 the Engineer, who is now said to have passed a red light, was texting. He texted a group of rail fans who he regularly kept in contact with . . . and they received a text from him at 4:22. If this holds up it could be the reason he missed the red light. This was reported on LA radio news just a few minutes ago. NickD

It was a supervisor who came on the line to make sure Wesley didn't move the train, for investigation purposes. once he got her stopped. Which most people would have realized wasn't going to happen. And it was callous of him worrying about some investigation when Wesley's survival was still in doubt. And it's why it was so funny when Wesley says at the end, "Yeah, I'm all right, all I gotta worry about now is the typewriter." Because he knew he'd probably get written up for what happened. P.S. for Lisa, a typewriter was a popular 20th century mechanical device once used to create words on pieces of paper. NickD

Here's good update on things from today's LA times. I did hear one of their reporters faked being an injured passenger to get closer to the action, and I'm all for a free press, but that stinks . . . I also jumped the gun on the "worst train wreck" in California history which I heard on TV. That was actually in 1956 and that one killed 30 people. But the current death toll in this one is 25 and may still go higher. Both Engineers are now confirmed dead. They are saying 5 conductors between both trains survived so I think that means the lone freight train conductor survived as well. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-traincrash14-2008sep14,0,3660884.story?page=3 NickD

The man many say was the model for Capt Quint in the movie "JAWS" has died. And he sounded like quite the character . . . http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-limundus0914,0,320724.story NickD

No, the freight train's crew of two hasn't been mentioned anywhere I've seen . . . I'm not one of those train crazies that would stand by the tracks taking photos and recording train numbers but I am a train buff. I love trains, and train travel and enjoyed being next to the big train museum in Perris when I was living in the Ghetto. And if you have an interest in trains (or even not) you'll love this. I heard this years ago but someone put it on Youtube in two parts and it's really worth a listen. It's the radio com between an engineer on a coal train in a runway situation (no brakes) and his dispatcher. The engineer's name is Wesley, and I won't give away the ending, but by then you'll be pulling for him . . . Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl07BrckR10 Part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGo1PRvFlWA&feature=related NickD

I've made some of B.A.S.E. jumps in that time. But no skydives. I'm on what I'm calling wuffocation and currently perusing a career in EMS. And in order to do get serious about that I needed to get away from the DZ for awhile. I also started feeling I was missing a lot of things "normal" people do after a lifetime on the drop zone. For instance I hardly ever traveled when it didn't involve skydiving, or went camping without B.A.S.E. jumping. A weekend at an amusement park or at the beach for a little surfing was always out of the question. So I'm enjoying myself right now and finding new things like lazily reading the Sunday morning paper over coffee is a treat for me. I'm sure I'll return to at least fun jumping after awhile but I think I'm done with students. I still have a few hairs that aren't grey yet and I would like to keep them . . . NickD

Some new developments this morning. Metrolink has reported the cause of the accident was their engineer passing a red light. Also in looking at aerial photos of the area of the crash site there was one lucky break. If the crash would have occurred just 30 seconds later it would have been inside a tunnel. And in that case the results would have probably been more serious. This is now the worst train crash in California history. They still haven't moved the Metrolink locomotive or cars with the cranes yet, but when they do it's feared more bodies will be found. NickD

Keep an eye on the local pawn shops. When wuffos steal gear that's where it sometimes shows up. Also get the word out to close by DZs. Thieves don't realize how small the skydiving community is and they'll walk onto a DZ trying to sell gear and their story is, "I gave up jumping," or "I don't jump anymore," or, "It belonged to my uncle Bob and he doesn't jump anymore." Once at Perris a guy showed up trying to sell a BASE canopy that belonged to me. But it wasn't exactly stolen. The guy was a security guard who caught me right after I landed in the street in front of his building. He grabbed my bridle and pilot chute as I tried to get away from him. When the tug of war began I cut him away and took off. A few weeks later he showed up at Square One trying to sell the canopy I left behind. A few of us chased him off and I got my canopy back . . . NickD

There's another mystery at UCLA. There's a secret bridge buried somewhere on the campus (built around the same time your building was) over one of the arroyos. The arroyo was later filled in with dirt but the bridge wasn't removed so it's still there just buried. When I was taking classes at UCLA the story was some students had found access down to the bridge. It was hollow inside, like a lot of California bridges of the time (I think they were called box bridges) and it's supposed to be pretty cool in an urban explorer kind of way. I've casually looked for it in my travels around campus but I've never found it . . . NickD

That's a good thing . . . I mentioned the same thing at Perris, but Square One balked because they sell them, and Ben (the DZO) said due to the volume of students we could either have a nice bar and a swimming pool or students with school books, pick one? That was that . . . NickD

I was out most of the night. You know, doing the things some jumpers do in the middle of the night

There's always arguments about this even in the flying community. Say you are flying in high winds, like 30 to 40 mph, as you turn downwind, base, and final for landing. What happens to your air speed during those heading changes. But again you have to think more about a boat in the water than an airplane in the air. An airplane will seek it's trim speed no matter what the winds are doing. Although I'll admit to making wider more gradual turns in those conditions. Gusting conditions are the same except it's going to be bumpy. Now you might have trouble getting it on the runway in high crosswinds but that's a whole other thing. NickD

Something that happened in Italy has always stayed with me. I saw a man have a heart attack in the street and a crowed gathered around. There was this one woman standing right over the guy watching him die and she was casually licking an ice cream cone like she was at a ball game. I'll never forget that. Nobody did anything. So I pushed my way through the crowd and unbuttoned his collar and tried to comfort him, but I didn't really know what to do. It's one of the reasons I later became an EMT. I never wanted to feel that helpless again . . . NickD

If you think it through steady winds, even very high ones, at the hundred MPH level doesn't prevent flight. Hurricane Hunter aircraft fly through hurricane strength winds all the time. The shears and landings can be rough, but they land and take off outside the hurricane's path. And the rest is just turbulence. Helicopters can do it too they just can't do much like actually pluck people up with a winch because they can't hold a position over the ground. And you've probably done it yourself. It's not all that uncommon for airliners to encounter headwinds or tailwinds at their cruising altitudes in the 100 MPH range. I was flying a Cessna 152 through the Banning Pass in California once and there is always a strong head wind there when going East. My airspeed indicator said about 90 knots, but when I looked at the freeway below me the cars were passing me like I was standing still. I doubt I was traveling more than 40 mph over the ground. But an airplane doesn't care about ground speed. So you can fly a Cessna 152 into a 100 mph head wind but you'd be going 10 mph backwards in relation to the ground. But you'd be flying just fine. NickD

"Sometimes fuck-ups happen." "We just got our class action lawsuit money a month ago." LOL, am I the only one who doesn't believe those two sentences belong in the same post . . . ? NickD

I mentioned them in FJCs while holding up a copy. And they are available in the Square One store on the DZ so some buy them right off the bat along with the usual t-shirts. And since they are also online now, access isn't the problem. You said not to bag on the SIM's readability, but you can't wave the issue away so easy. To those of us with some knowledge already in place it's not that bad, especially if you are used to the FAA type writing format. But there is a reason we call the SIM the big blue sleeping pill. None but the most techie/geeky student are going to actually read it through. They may look certain things up in it but they aren't going to pour a glass of wine, lite a candle, put up their feet, and crack open the SIM. And that's a problem. There are many gems of wisdom in the SIM but they are buried in eye glazing minutia. And it's another area of student instruction where we are doing things backwards. Instead of hitting students over the head with a bunch of BSRs and FARs we should first teach all the common sense things in plain English, then when they see the actual regs later on they'll be more accepting because the regs make sense to them. So USPA should stick all regs in the back of the SIM but the first sections should read more like a Boy Scout manual. As in here's how to tie a knot, make camp, build a fire, and so on. Especially with people today, the majority of which, won't be remembered as voracious readers. You even see it here. People kid me for long postings and I find it ironic. After all, the very backbone of this website is words . . . So the SIM needs major surgery with an eye on the demographic of its intended audience. And it definitely needs a new title. Maybe something like, "The Little Student that Could . . . " NickD

No word from anyone since about 9:00 PM last night. It's about 3:00 AM on the west coast . . . Are you guys all right? NickD

I also heard that cold temps affected those plastic ripcord handles too. These were the white ones with the skinny post. There was another type of non-metal handle I had for a while, but it had a thicker flatter post and it was made of Lexan I believe. Those were supposed to be okay. But after hearing about broken reserve ripcords I thought, ah, what's the point, and went back to cold hard steel . . . NickD

>>Was that the one where the idiot parked his SUV on the R/R crossing and walked away??