NickDG

SSWWEEEEETTTTTT, Jimbo!!!! NickD

>>which I thought was odd

>>feel lucky or smart?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26040857/ >>Pranksters, clueless callers block lines for legitimate crises

This is a 14-year old boy that interviewed John Lennon 1969. John's words still go for today, and even more so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmR0V6s3NKk P.S. The Walrus was actually Paul . . . NickD

>>That's "Eric the EEL", he became a local legend, here in OZ, we love that sort of spirit.

This is the Olympic spirit . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woYG6Uq6OVU NickD

No, it's not that PD will take offense, or that it's dissing the company. It's just that they, and everyone else, would lend more credence to what you're saying if you sound like you know what you're talking about. Using the phrase "built in turn" is universally accepted skydiver lingo for "my canopy won't fly straight." NickD

Just so you can communicate the problem better instead of saying, "canopy not flying in a straight line," which will raise an eyebrow at PD, just say, "My canopy may have a built in turn." NickD

Sure, over water, not land and with for real para sailing canopies that won't easily turn, lock out, and drive into the ground. Para-commanders are way too twitchy for towing. NickD

Jean Boenish, widow of Carl Boenish who filmed most of the aerial sequences for The Gypsy Moths, has a bloopers reel that's hysterical . . . and a lot more entertaining than the short we're talking about here. On the other hand it was incredibly dangerous to tow Burt Lancaster up on that Para Commander with a rope tied to a station wagon. I just don't think they realized how dangerous at the time (circa 1969.) NickD

Here's my take . . . Before forums on the internet completely imploded into anonymity and incivility we urged the USPA Board to use the net to open a dialogue with its members. They didn't, and it was a combination of some not being computer savvy enough, or if they were, thinking it a severe breech of USPAs bunker mentality. And by bunker mentality I mean a combination of hiding most of the year in a cold weather state, allowing their RDs, ST&As, and (as we see here) their candidates to shield them from the heat on a day to day basis. And when they do make a public appearance en masse they use secrecy to shroud their inner workings. Now I'd think secrecy is sometimes called for in cases like fatalities so board members can speak frankly without the worry of offending long time friends or the deceased's families. But they surely abuse the secrecy thing and they use it for every hot button issue. Now a word or two on the first time candidates and the threads here where we're supposed to ask them questions. To the folks asking the questions - ease up a little bit. The candidates are the least culpable in anything the USPA has done in the past. And the candidates, even though they realize there are issues and problems, may think of the USPA like a benign and friendly member association when it's really more like the Mafia or the Hells Angels. What will happen is once elected the hierarchy of USPA will endeavor to convince them it's not them against USPA, it's USPA against the great unwashed, which is us - the rank and file members. So like freshman Congressmen they will either drink the kool-aid and get onboard or life will be made miserable for them. And being onboard means survival of the USPA is job one. And believe it, the board does hears us when we say things like we should drop USPA and go with AOPA, and it scares them. I suppose like many long time members I have a love/hate relationship with the USPA. In my first few years of the 70s, I loved them, I devoured every word in the magazine, and USPA was my hero and champion. Then slowly and through the 80s I saw the cracks began to appear, the nepotism, the old boy network, the don't rock the boat, and the propensity to hang individual jumpers out to dry when that was the easiest thing to do. And while I didn't realize it at the time USPA was becoming less a member's representative and more a trade group for people in the business of skydiving. So when we write long, pointed, almost accusatory posts, asking questions and demanding answers of our candidates we are already starting them down the road where it becomes easier for them to believe USPA and its methods are more sanctuary then adversary. And a lot of people here help that along by saying, "run for USPA office or shut the hell up!" That's B.S. It's like saying run for Congress or you have no right to voice opposition to your government. Yet, where we do fail is we don't confront the USPA enough with our concerns. So where the candidate's forum could work is in just listing our concerns for new candidates to become familiar with. Such as pure tandem mills getting association protection and benefits while excluding up-jumpers, a group member program that should be strictly a member to member program, and the fact USPA pretty much pulled the covers over their heads concerning the swoop death rate issue. I'd also like to see groundings come back. And not on a DZ level, but on a USPA level. People do get kicked off DZs these days, but it's usually for wacky ground antics and not wacky air antics. And anyway the offenders just move on to another DZ. I think any ST&A or Instructor should be able to document a jumper who's an accident waiting to happen, and if they prove their case, the aberrant jumper's USPA card would be flagged as grounded, not for 30 or 60 days, but if warranted for six months, or even forever. One thing that we accomplished when we grounded people all the time is sometimes it kept them from killing themselves in the next few jumps and it matured them a little bit. Another issue is USPA HQs very location. When they moved from San Francisco to the DC area many many years ago it sort of made sense. It was to be near the seats of power, and indeed Bill Ottley like to portray himself as running down to the halls of Congress (sometimes through the snow) for a beat down every time legislation that could possible affect skydiving popped up. But that was flawed reasoning and if you go along with it then USPA HQs should really be located across the street from FAA HQs in Oklahoma. But even that's a stretch in these days of instant communication and cheap airfares. USPA should be where the members are. I believe USPA HQ should be located in a Sunbelt state and next to a large DZ like Eloy, Perris, or Deland. A place where many members rotate in and out of, a place where the most members can knock on USPA's door year round with their concerns. As it is now it seems to me like they're hiding out in the DC area during the winter. Besides that there are other issues. I've watched USPA sit by and watch Instructors have their power stripped away, I've watched the various methods of instruction, the product of years of research and refinement turn into a hokey hodgepodge of hybrid programs designed to favor a DZOs bottom line rather than students and teachers. We totally allowed our AFF certification courses, once a flagship program copied the world over, to be dumbed down to the point of being toothless. There were I know issues with it but the answer was making the AFF cert course real schools on instruction and not just cert courses. But they skipped over that and just made the cert easier to get. Another thing I hear people say all the time is, "I'd rather have the USPA regulating us rather than the FAA." So let's examine that for a bit. This is a USPA scare tactic that works and they count on it. But the FAA, or more specifically the FARs, already does regulate the sport of skydiving, and also more importantly, they protect it. The feds recognize skydiving as a legitimate aeronautical activity and it's the reason we can't arbitrarily be banned from airports that accept federal funds (and that's the majority of GA airports.) Generally, Part 105 of the FARs is all we need to regulate skydiving. The USPA is just a façade built upon those federal regs. And if the USPA did all of sudden disappear and the FAA felt the need to get deeper into skydiving it would not be the end of the world. I'm sure like they do in other areas they'd hire experienced parachutists to oversee things and I could finally get my dream job. A skydiving instructor with a badge! Besides, rarely does an entire week go by without a General Aviation accident that results in fatalities. And most of the time it's not only a licensed pilot who dies, but they take one or more innocent passengers with them. The FAA understands well that when people fly people die. So I doubt they would overreact and start strictly over regulating skydiving. And seriously, if the FAA tried to do anything detrimental to skydiving there is actually more of a re-course already built into federal rule making system, and even more so than what we have with USPA. Thirty five or forty thousand of us could actually get the FAA to do something we wanted in the long run. They are bound by law to consider our concerns. Thirty five or forty thousand of us can't get the USPA to do anything. They can simply throw our concerns in the shitcan and there's nothing we can do about itl. I know many will say, "Who cares about all this?" And don't think the USPA doesn't count heavily on that. They know most of their members stay in the sport for seven years or so and those members just want to go to the DZ on weekends and make some jumps. And that's fine and dandy but who's watching the store? It used to be USPA printed a detailed line item budget every year in the magazine and any member could see where every penny went. They still run it but now it's so general in nature you really can’t tell where the money goes. There's no doubt Bill Ottley saved the USPA in the 80s when they didn’t have two cents to rub together. They were actually cancelling general membership meetings for a time because they couldn't afford them. But through some good real estate and investment deals Bill turned all that around. But the down side is now we have $100,000 per year Executive Directors camping out and collecting that money for years and years. The Executive Director slot shouldn't be a Pope for life position. Term limits should be in place and I'm not so sure letting the Board decide who gets the ED position is all that wise. But I don't know how to fix that as the general membership is too apathic to cast an informed vote in that regard. One thing maybe we could do is let any member run for the job of ED, and have the board vote rather than just decide like they do now. (BTW, I pretty sure that's the way it works so let me know if I'm wrong). And as it stands now the job of ED surely calls for someone who's not necessarily a very experienced jumper but more someone who's an experienced administrator. And in our ranks at large we have plenty of those folks. I've learned and taught others to always end a critique on a high note so here goes. The new website is great, a big improvement, and Shirley has made the magazine into a thing of beauty. But it's just lipstick on a, - Whoa, almost blew it there . . . NickD

>>I didn't blame the tandems though.. it seemed a simple matter of not enough instructors with the right ratings to go around.>>Wanna know why there weren't enough AFF instructors to go around? Because you can make a lot more money and a lot more jumps in the same amount of time with a tandem rating. And you don't have to teach, either, since most of your passengers have no desire to learn anything about what they are doing.

You're all forgetting this minor scribe from the 17th century . . . "And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." NickD

I've got a Tom Tom 1, 3rd edition too. I've had it since last December and I love it. Me and Mandy, that's the onboard voice I use, get around Los Angeles just fine. She doesn't say the street names, but they are on the display itself, and I've never missed that feature. And you can download third party celebrity voices like Joe Pesci, "Da fuck you going? Jesus fucking christ I told you to turn left you dumb fucking bastard" It's a riot . . . but I always go back to Mandy. The one thing to be careful of with these GPS units, if you're not used to them, is you tend to just half listen and half drive. I rolled right through a couple red lights after Mandy said to, "Turn here now!." NickD

>>As regards tandem factories, I'm going to go down to my local computer shop and tell them they suck because they don't do lifts for fun jumpers... or is it none of my business what they choose to do in their business.. hmmm

And as I said upboard, I was trying to provide some perspective into a time in the sport some may have missed. And I left the DZ to go back to school after 25 years of teaching skydiving. Instructing was something I thought I'd do until I keeled over, but you can't live on that pay anymore. I actually think it's better to go out and become a success in some wuffo field and then become a jumper later in life. I did it the other way around. So while I have a few good years left I wanted to try out something else. I'm sure I'll at least fun jump again someday, so ease up you Mofos . . . NickD

Thanks, Larry, but it's only been two years since my last skydive, so things haven't changed that much . . . NickD

Assuming you did it by hand with a needle and thread without removing the mud flap I'd say no. Your reserve risers live under there and also some pretty important stitching . . . NickD

He's way too old school to be using a modern gizmo like that . . . NickD

Okay, Butters, I'll probably be sorry for this, but I'll take the bait . . . I was specifically talking about "Tandem Mills" and not tandem in general. But I'm not afraid to go there too. While I've been a Tandem Master myself I see tandems mostly from the point of view of an AFF/SL Instructor. And I've also been around longer than tandems so I can see the sport on both sides of their invention. I think we were better off before. Sure, tandem has brought big money into the sport, but at what price? One peeve of mine is hearing someone say, in talking about their first tandem jump, "Gee, I could never have done that on my own." But my entire generation did their first jumps on their own, and I taught a whole generation to make that first jump on their own. So it's a shame we present first jumps that way because it's simply not true. Also a first jump student going AFF or static line actually gets a chance to immerse themselves in the sport for a full day, or sometimes more, compared to a tandem student who spends two hours, makes the jump, and leaves for their yoga class. An AFF or S/L student gets to connect with their Instructor, who if he's worth a damn, will leave them thinking, "Man, I want to be like this guy." I'm not saying that for my own vanity or gratification, it was the way I felt about my FJC Instructor. It's why I stayed in the sport, and it's why I became an Instructor myself. Most students land, tandem included, saying, "Boy, I'll have to do that again!" Yet, at least the AFF or S/L student has some small inkling there's more to this sport than meets the eye. Again with a good Instructor whose subtle enough they can see a road from where they are now to becoming full fledged skydivers. Tandem students, after the initial euphoria wears off, feel like, "Skydiving, yup, been there, done that." Now I've actually seen some "Tandem Mills" (and by that I mean a DZ that excludes up-jumpers, that weren't exactly horrible). But none of them have been in the USA. I've seen them where if you really want to continue, instead of milking you for a few more tandems, they'll say here's what you do. "Go to this other drop zone and sign up for this program." And you get maps, directions, prices, and an overview of what's ahead. Who really doesn't think that nurturing our future experienced jumpers is job number one? What's going to kill this sport faster than anything else is not airport access, high fuel and jump prices, or an inept governing association. It'll be the dwindling number of experienced jumpers at the DZ. You can toss out numbers and statistics all you want, but I know, because I see it, there were more people at the DZ 20 years ago than there is today, a lot more. Now I know tandem has begat more student starts, if we call someone without a thorough course of instruction, a start, but there are less student stays. And a student who goes on to become licensed is the goal we should be striving for. Okay, a bunch of you are going to say, "Gee. Nick, I started with Tandem and I'm an experienced skydiver now." But that's not a fair assessment. If everyone who had ever made a tandem jump, and never jumped again, posted to this site, you'd feel like you were looking over the wall at the Alamo. I recall when tandem first appeared and I was the Chief Instructor at Lake Elsinore. Our DZO bought one and we all gathered around giving it a first look. It appeared innocuous enough, kind of cool really, but what we weren't capable of seeing is here, in disguise, was the very Devil Himself. I was actually pretty happy about it. Here, I naively thought, was finally a way the blind, the infirm, and the very old, could actually make an easy and safer parachute jump. That's all I thought tandem would be. But I was wrong and so were Bill Booth and Ted Strong who invented and let loose the beast. Their idea for tandem sort of made sense. It was a way to teach skydiving to everyone because skydiving, at the time, was almost the only aviation endeavor that didn't provide some type of true dual instruction. But in my mind it always seemed like strapping on a person to teach you how to swim. Well, what I thought tandem would be, and what Bill and Ted thought tandem would be like didn't happen, at least not initially. Now again some of this will seem wrong to you if you came to skydiving after tandem gained a foot hold. It would just seem more natural and acceptable to you. But it didn’t to me. I didn't want anything to do with them at first. As a rigger I found them interesting of course, if not a bit complicated, and as an Instructor I was curious what their effect would be. But at first I couldn't shake the idea they were simply too complicated. But then the real effect of tandem started to appear. After a few weeks of offering tandem jumps at Elsinore a funny thing started to happen. We were drawing the usual number of students every day but the AFF and Static Line classes started to get markedly smaller. It was human nature and I should have seen it coming. A prospective student walks up and asks to make a jump. They'd get the spiel about the three ways they can do it, which in their minds, basically boils down to either alone or strapped to an experienced jumper. And alone started to lose out. Also I saw right away there were less first jump students around the bonfire at night. Where once, after already spending the entire day in class, and jumping around sunset, it was normal they'd gravitate to it. They'd eat with us, drink with us, and listen to the stories. At the time, and looking back on it now because it just seemed normal, I didn't realize, and I'm sure students didn't either, that they were deviously being indoctrinated into the sport. People naturally want to belong to a group. And skydiving offered that in spades not to mention for a lot of the younger aimless types, it was better than joining the Army or something. So again in hindsight, what we were really selling wasn't altitude, it wasn't a skill set, and it wasn't even action and adventure. It was a way off the block, a way to separate you from whatever and whoever came before; it was the Foreign Legion of the sport's world. And a lot of us signed up. But I'm afraid less and less do after tandem. I was traveling once on a BASE road trip and we passed a DZ and stopped. It was a tandem mill and the first I'd ever really seen. As we drove up it was mid-day and you could see people leaving in their cars. Before tandem people arrived in the morning and left at night. As soon as I walked into the hangar I heard, "Hey, Nick!" And here was the DZO, a former student of mine who I hadn't seen in years. So he's shaking my hand and introducing me around to his staff as the guy who taught him to skydive. So naturally like we all do when visiting a new DZ, I wanted to make a jump, but I didn't have a skydiving rig with me. So I asked him to let me borrow his. He said, "Sorry, man, we don't allow experienced jumpers here, and if I make an exception for you, I get grief from everyone else who asks, you can understand." Well, I didn't understand and I told him so. "What are you really doing here? This isn’t why I taught you to skydive." I let him know how disappointed I was in him and we left. Later that night we were camped out under a bridge we'd been jumping that afternoon, and I mentioned to no one in particular, "Man, if what I saw today ever happens to B.A.S.E. jumping I'm going to blow my brains out!" And luckily for me, so far it hasn't . . . NickD

Women are like buses, just wait 15 minutes and another one will come along. (For women in the same spot just swap that around.) NickD

There were these French skydivers at Perris and I accidentally bumped into one at a party. So I said, "Excuse me." He looked at me mockingly and said, "Oh, you Americans, always saying excuse me for this, excuse me for that." And his French friends were all laughing at me. So I knocked him over a table, but of course, I said, "Excuse me!" Not my best day in international relations . . . NickD

If we had any balls we'd go around burning Tandem Mills to the ground. And leave a note: "Dear Asshole, You are now out of business complements of the P.P.S. (Parachutist's for the Preservation of Students)." Yeah, okay, maybe that's a bit extreme. But damn if we shouldn't be picketing outside the gate or something. NickD

On the smaller rounds like the Piglets and Starlites we learned to crank hard turns at the last moment (true hook turns) and mostly stood them up. And when you cutaway with Capewells you then covered them up with your non-reserve arm and hand before deploying the reserve. But originally all the releases designed to that point, including Capewells, weren' meant to be used in the air. You were supposed to keep your bad round main and hand deploy your reserve like military jumpers did. And in this case "hand deploy" meant exactly that, you'd actually fed the entire reserve into the wind by hand. It was skydivers who came up with putting spring loaded PCs on the reserves and actually cutting away in the air. And if you think there is/was big controversy nowadays over AADs and RSLs you should have been around when half the sport was in the cutaway camp and the other was in the hand deploy camp. And those arguments sometimes became heated, but not having the internet in those days, we had to actually duke it out in the peas or behind the hangar . . . NickD