NickDG

You've always been sharper than me, Bill. And I know you are so much smarter than they are. But what I really can't understand is why, after all these years, you are still carrying their water . . . ? NickD

>>Want to make it a three-way? ;)

You nailed it, Granny (I love you now) . . . The USPA is a purely made up organization started by a jumper named Joe Crane back in the dark ages as, help me out here guys, the Parachute Jumpers and Rigger Association? Then it became the Parachute Club of America (PCA) with Norm Heaton at the helm and headquartered in an old whore house on Canary Row in San Francisco. (The heydays). Norm said he kept each member's info on an index card in an old shoe box. Then they moved to DC and called themselves the United States Parachute Association with a succession of Executive Directors like Laura McKenzie and others up through Jerry Rouillard, Bill Ottley, and the Chris Needles (we always used his gang name, Noodles) and now this new guy whose name I haven't learned yet. I know this all sound crazy to you now, but I'm a futurist. I'm counting on an internet-argeologist digging up this post a thousand years from now and going, "Damn, Nick was right!" And to more answer your question, the FAA would be easier to fix, because they, are a real thing, and they work for us. I'm not really sure, even after all these years what the USPA is doing, let alone knowing how to fix it . . . NickD

The problem with "extreme TV" is it’s impossible for the rubes to pick out what’s really dangerous from what's not. (And maybe that's a bit of a problem with us too). The most dangerous thing I ever saw Troy do is he launched himself from the ground in some home built multiple Helium balloon gadget from Lake Elsinore and he rode the winds aloft all the way to Temecula. Then he used a pellet gun to shoot out enough of the balloons to crash land. When I saw him next in the Perris Bombshelter I said, "Game over, brother, and you win." NickD

I bow to your wisdom, Granny! But write me again in 20, er, I mean 40 years, when you're my age (in sport) and let me know how you see USPA. NickD

My GF cracked me up over dinner last night. I casually said, "Evel Knievel died today." "Oh yeah," she said, "doing what?" NickD

USPA does actually have a shit list. Ottley showed it to me once when I visited Headquarters. There are certain people that call USPA regularly with complaints and grips and because they go through so may "phone picker uppers" they prepared a list of stock answers ahead of time. Roger Nelson – We're working on it. Carl Boenish – No, never, not in a million years. Ted Mayfield – Hang up now! D.B. Cooper – Sir, we refer all such inquiries to the FBI (USPA gets tons of calls from D.B. Coopers). Jacques Istel – Yes, that's a terrific idea, but it's not the 1960s anymore. Jerry Bird – Well, no, it’s not the fault of PARACHUTIST that people aren’t jumping your front mounted Velcro container. It's because no one is jumping conventional gear anymore. Ben Conatser – No. We don’t see wind tunnels as being a threat to skydiving overall. And we don’t foresee any competition in your area. Why don’t you spend 3 million on one and see. Oh sorry, there goes one in Hollywood! NickD – No, skydiving instructors can’t form a union or do anything else to better their lot because you're all trailer trash anyway. NickD

>>it won't make you rich, but you'll have a great time doing it.

>>The money or the space?

I can't believe I'm doing this . . . NickD

Craig, You helped me with the BASE Fatality List for years so I'm in for a few bucks on a regular basis. Just let me know where to send it . . . I miss not being able to search that database every time Howard posts one of his "What's this rig" questions . . . NickD

Remember "Mr. Mom" ? He was always going off on how he hated the USPA. He was so ahead of the times . . . NickD

>>Stir away Nick, stir away! Tee! Hee!

Grannyinthesky & Ninjaswooper, Yes, I know this sounds funny; it's funny to me too, being I'm an old hippie and the king of anti-establishment principles. But as I've gotten older I've naturally become more conservative (not in my politics) but in looking for ways to make the system work for me and those I care about. Isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing? All I'm saying is en-mass and on the local level the FAA would be more responsive to our concerns than the USPA is simply because the FAA has the power. Why are we messing around with the Munchkins, when we can go straight to the Wizard? The two main points of my argument are: Get the FAA to badge experienced professional jumpers and jump pilots to oversee FAR part 105, and also to remind them, and insist, the FAA has a duty to promote and facilitate skydiving. NickD

Because the FAA, unlike the USPA, has a "duty" to be responsive to me as a user of the airspace they govern. And unlike a USPA RD, they are trapped down there at the GADO and if I camp out on their doorstep with a legitimate concern I know I'm going to get a hearing and probably some action. Think about it. The USPA can ignore you. The FAA cannot . . . And if they do I have options. I can’t get my Congressman to intervene on my behalf with the USPA. (Who are they?) But they'd jump all over the FAA in a heartbeat if I could convince them I had a valid concern. And if the FAA had experienced skydivers on staff at every GADO district with DZs within them, then all the better . . . NickD

Old hands know well the problems, quirks, and in-house shenanigans the USPA has exhibited over the years, but no one worried much because overall the sport was holding steady and times were good. Now faced with increasing operating costs on both ends of the airplane, the graying of the experienced jumper population, and the practice of sucking the last dime from every student, we face the scary prospect of skydiving as we know it disappearing. It's already happening in other parts of the world. New Zealand once had a thriving sport parachuting community with dozens of DZs that looked and felt just like their U.S. counterparts. Now they are all but gone and replaced with thriving tandem mills. USPA's only saving grace is still the line we all bought into many years ago. And no matter what other "services" they offer like a magazine brimming with happy talk, the promotion of those must have trinkets and pins, and the chance your mug might appear in postage stamp sized photo getting an aforementioned trinket or pin, we tolerated it and all paid our annual monies for just one thing. They keep the FAA off our backs. But now I'm starting to wonder. Could it be the very thing we feared the most is the very thing that could save us? Yes, you are hearing me right. I'm saying let's drop the USPA and embrace the FAA. By continuing to have the USPA between us and the FAA we are insulated somewhat from their oversight, but we are also insulated from their protections. The FAA already does, and for a long time has, considered skydiving to be a recognized aeronautical activity. And that's the very reason we can jump at federally funded airports, the reason we can’t be discriminated against, and the reason Joe Schmo can have his dream shot of being a small time DZO. What I'm saying is we have parents to take care of us, but instead we choose to live with a crazy uncle. The USPA's main problem is they are toothless. Feckless, may be a better term. I won't go into all the issues, but they range from tolerating dodgy DZOs, completely destroying a well oiled and long running instructional hierarchy, and completely being unable to handle, except on a superficial level, aircraft safety issues. And what's even more maddening is when faced with concerns put forth by individual members, especially involving safety and bad practices the mantra of the USPA is, "make it go away." And you have no recourse with the USPA. No matter if you go after them, or they come after you, it's a jungle out there. And if they just choose to be unresponsive there's not a thing you can do about it. Sometimes I think USPA picked the DC area for Headquarters not so much to be near the seats of power, but to insulate themselves from year round warm weather jumpers. The FAA has everything we need in place. And we are already funding them with not just our taxes, but the taxes of every other citizen. Skydiving Instructors should be rated by the FAA just like flight instructors are. We should be CSIs! (Certified Skydiving Instructors.) And Skydiving Instructors and Demo Jumpers should also be classed as "Commercial Skydivers," because we do it for hire. I always felt funny telling someone, when they asked, that I was a professional skydiver. It was too much like bragging. And just like the FAA hires their aviation inspectors from the pool of FAA certified A&P mechanics & technicians, they will also hire experienced skydiving Instructors to oversee skydiving's CSIs. Have you ever went to a USPA Regional Director with a problem you see in student training, but get nowhere, because the only experience with skydiving students the RD has is he used to be one? Similarly what good does a seldom done ramp check of a DZ do us when the FAA inspector has limited, if any, knowledge of jump operations? I could sit for hours and tell you stories of how we've bamboozled these inspectors over the years. But consider for a moment if that FAA Inspector was someone the caliber of Chris (diverdriver) Schindler? I'm saying we already have the necessary pool of talent within ourselves. Among us experienced jumpers are jump pilots to conduct (FAA funded) parachute ops pilot courses and provide oversight, mechanics that can spot a doctored maintenance logbook and know an AD from an AAD, and experienced skydiving Instructors who can just smell faulty or negligent jump instruction a mile away. Give these guys a FAA badge and enforcement power and we'd be on our way to being what we should be, and that's responsible to each other. I can hear all your objections to this. We'd be trading in one old boy network for another, we'd be opening the books to scrutiny we can't stand up under, and the largest prostration, the fact we've been force fed the idea that FAA is a dirty word. But I argue, sure, it might be a rough go in the beginning, but we could certainly stand a good house cleaning, and eventually it may solve our biggest problem. And that is lack of jumper participation on the local grass roots level. We need people actually in the field who know what goes on to be able to interface with the FAA and get things done. The FAA has GADOs (General Aviation District Offices) placed all over the country so let's start banging on their doors. If you have any experience as a rigger or demo jumper you know that they will respond, they are pretty much mandated by law to listen and take action were warranted. What if Bill Von could walk into the local GATO and discuss what's bothering him this week with someone who actually understood what the hell he was talking about? Better yet, what if Bill Von was the local FAA guy you took your issues to? Let's look at airport access issues? Right now the USPA has limited means, both financial, and manpower wise to deal with them. So they pick a few "winnable" causes and do what they can. Instead, access issues could be brought forth at the local level and straight to the attention of individual GADOs and they would have to deal with them. Let the FAA spend their (our) money on us, let them use the lawyers and legal staff they already have. We'd wind up with access cases in motion many times over what the USPA can do and brought by people who know and understand the local concerns. Another argument against may be General Aviation and how they need AOPA to represent them. But the scope of issues affecting general aviation is gargantuan compared to skydiving operations. We have little problems that aren’t being addressed and they are the ones hurting us the most. How about this one? Why is it airports are federally funded? It's partly because the FAA is mandated to promote general aviation. And guess what? Skydiving is part of general aviation. So what we need is less USPA bloviating and more FAA mandating. Taking it further it can be argued that tandem mills are not promoting skydiving and therefore not promoting general aviation. So let's have a new FAR: FAR Part 105-Catch-22 No operator under this part may conduct business solely for the purpose of selling Tandem parachute rides without accommodating and facilitating experienced jumpers. Also under the "new world order" DZOs would be relegated to the status of any other FBO in general aviation. If they want an "outside" organ to represent them let them start one their own and stop using my "fitty" a year for representation, the representation I as an individual jumper isn’t getting anyway. Get into a beef with a major DZO over anything at all, and don’t look to the USPA for help, they'll just side with the DZO and hang you out to dry. One thing that's always scared the hell out of me all through my career as a skydiving instructor, and rigger, is losing a student, or customer, through a mistake or oversight on my part. And thank goodness, so far, it's never happened. But if anything does happen I don't want to have to explain my side to a FAA Inspector who doesn't know a crater from a tater. If the FAA is regulating skydiving they damn well should have people who know and understand skydiving investigating what happened. So WTF? - - - - What in the world is Jan Meyer's doing with a gag over her mouth!!! Let's give the girl a badge . . . NickD

If you spent any time "in the life" you will enjoy this! http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=5377078 NickD

Here's another view of the Snake River jump from locals in Twin Falls . . . NickD >Locals Recall Evel's Circus of '74 Times-News staff Evel Knievel made Twin Falls the center of the universe for just one day. In the boldest act of a life built upon audacious stunts, Knievel rocketed across the Snake River Canyon at the edge of a sleepy farm town, which exploded overnight into a media-frenzied cesspool of daredevil super fans and Hell's Angels. Then, to the chagrin of those left behind, he ditched town without paying all the bills. Knievel's death on Friday at age 69 offered those who witnessed the Snake River Canyon jump another opportunity to recollect the circus events of Sept. 8, 1974. "People say, 'Where's Twin Falls?' and he did put us on the map," said Rex Lytle, owner of Lytle Signs in Twin Falls, who had a closer look at the jump than anyone. ABC Sports hired him to operate the crane truck and remove the cameras right after Knievel's jump. Ray Barsness also remembers Knievel. More precisely, he remembers that the daredevil still owes him money. Barsness, now 83, helped build 200 plywood portable toilets - "real nice ones," he said, with good-looking coats of paint. The toilets were placed on the 200 acres reserved for bikers who were camping out during the jump. But bikers will be bikers, he said. During the inevitable riot those fine new toilets were smashed to pieces and burned, along with a wooden cross that once adorned Shoshone Falls Park, a beer truck (after unloading the 2,600 cases of cold beer, which were never seen again) and virtually everything else at hand. Knievel was supposed to make four payments of $25,000 for the toilets, but Barsness saw only three checks. "(He was) always likable, but he's sure a con person," Barsness said. The 'zoo' Providing security for 15,000 ��" and some say it was more like 40,000 marauding bikers, thrill-seekers and assorted wanderers on Sept. 8, 1974 was a blur to the cops, who until then spent their slow summer days regulating the "good souls and true" who "mostly minded their business," as Steve Crump wrote in the Times-News on the 20th anniversary of the event. "It was a zoo," said Dave Randall, a former Jerome County Sheriff's deputy who spent the day guarding the Perrine Bridge. A Time magazine correspondent called the Twin Falls scene "a bizarre spectacle, garnished with machismo and the threat of death: the ultimate expression of the motorcycle culture â€- Fans from every state in the union formed a camper city that was soon awash in beer, dope, cocaine and false rumors of savage beatings and rapes." Randall said deputies tried to keep the raging crowds from crossing into the desert on the north rim of the canyon ��" where spectators didn't have to buy tickets. But they started running so fast that the deputies gave up. A portion of the 106-foot dirt ramp built for his launch pad still marks the south edge of the canyon, within view of the bridge. It's one of the city's most-sought after tourist attractions, though it remains inaccessible on private land. The City of Twin Falls, however, has negotiated a deal to trade land for the site. Officials plan to complete a canyon rim trail that would make it more accessible for visitors. Eye on the canyon Knievel never doubted his ability to blast himself across the 1,800 canyon at the controls of his "skycycle" ��" in reality a large steam-power rocket. "I was there and know that it took a lot of fortitude to make a jump into the unknown," said James J. May, a retired judge and attorney, who defended Knievel against many damage claims. "His theme for life was a quote from President Theodore Roosevelt suggesting that we become involved in the excitement of the events that spring up around each of us on a daily basis." But he never made it to the north side. In fact, he barely cleared the rim before his parachute deployed, pulling him back like a giant hand and gently lowering him to the canyon floor as millions watched on live TV. Knievel, already a famous motorcycle airman, settled on Twin Falls after the U.S. Interior Department told him he couldn't jump the Grand Canyon. He already knew the area from previous travels between his home in Butte, Mont., and Las Vegas, in addition to other memorable experiences. "When my son, Robbie, was born in Butte, I was here - in jail," Knievel told a Twin Falls crowd in 1999, during a commemoration of the jump. "I had been in California, and when I heard Linda was in labor, I borrowed a little Ford from a guy and they caught me going 106 (mph) through that speed trap down there (Hollister). I had a (revoked) license, so the old judge threw my ass in jail for five days. "I got back at him, though," he added. "I didn't have a pilot's license either when I flew over that canyon." Keith Qualls, 73, and now a resident of Filer, remembers meeting the daredevil several times as Knievel pursued a spot of private property for his jump. "He was wanting to jump the canyon, and I didn't know what to think," said Qualls, who along with his father and brother Tim, then the Twin Falls police chief, jointly leased the land to Knievel for three years. "He was really kind of a nice guy, but he was kind of like Muhammad Ali - the more you talk, the more publicity you get," Qualls said. As for the business deal, which Knievel described as being done over a handshake, Qualls didn't any complaints. "He paid us what we asked and what we agreed on." Flight and flop Once the day of the jump finally arrived, state Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, then a member of the City Council, watched directly from behind the ramp as a crowd of hundreds stood watch. What happened next has been a matter of controversy for decades. "I stood right at the back of the ramp when he climbed into his little mobile, and I watched his hands on the controls as he ignited it," Smith said. "As it started up the ramp, I watched his hand reach forward and pull something. Immediately after that a drogue shoot pulls out. It deployed and his parachute deployed with it, and so he just barely made it over the ramp and made it over on the south side of the canyon. "It looked to me like he panicked, but he insisted that he didn't." Qualls has a different take. Like Knievel, who blamed the botched jump on his cycle engineer, he believes the skycycle malfunctioned and in the process, probably saved the stuntman's life. "If that parachute hadn't got come off right off that ramp he might have gone all the way to the interstate," Qualls said. "Anybody who thinks he pulled that on purpose, they're crazy. If that (chute) had whipped around that ramp and jerked off there, he would have been a goner." Knievel left town one day later with minor injuries - and a host of disgruntled locals. Many claimed he never paid his contracted debts. But in a return visit to the city in 1999, he claimed otherwise. "I had $3 million in a checking account in a bank in Butte, and I paid every bill that was presented to me," Knievel said. The claim didn't take. Days after celebrating in Twin Falls for the anniversary, Knievel was given a summons by a Twin Falls resident, and a bill for $ $9,591.71 ��" plus interest for 25 years. Staff writers Cass Friedman, David Cooper and Nate Poppino contributed to this report.

"Skydiving is like getting married. You had better want to run down the aisle and really desire it before you do it." Nancy LaRiviere, Deland, FL SKYDIVING, December 2007 NickD

>>Snuffy

>>Student IAD Jump

It would be fair to say I've tried every way possible when I was a younger jumpmaster . . . NickD

>>Second, the student's rig is right up agianst the controls.

>>Suffered from premature activation on THAT one!

>>cheesy was 1st @ 2:22