kkeenan

No. USPA insurance only covers damage/injury that the jumper causes, not any coverage to the jumper. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I agree. Dispute it through your credit card company. I ordered from them a year ago, got no suit, and finally had to get the $ back through the credit card company. Yes, they make great suits, but if they can't do business, then it doesn't matter how good the suit is. Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

CYPRES - 10+ years and many saves vs. Argus - 1 year and a couple saves. That's what I think it means. If you're using any AAD during the first couple of years after introduction, you should consider yourself a test jumper. Test jumper with 8k jumps is way different from test jumper with 13 jumps. This piece of gear is not the one you want to pick out based on price. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

One reason that newcomers to this sport (and this site) are encouraged to listen more and offer opinions less is to prevent statements like yours. Certainly, everyone is entitled to an opinion, even the newest jumpers. To use values derived from other walks of life to evaluate things in the world of skydiving is not always valid. I would never attack you personally. Your statement, however, reeks of ignorance and insensitivity for the people involved. Please try to absorb some of the culture of this group before posting ill-informed opinions. Kevin Keenan _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

So you think taking up Ballroom Dancing will complete his skydiving training ?? Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

That would seem the case at first. But, the number of people who continue to jump drops off steeply after training. So, the "base of customers" really doesn't materialize as you think it might. When you add to that the fact that the DZ makes far more $ from training students than they do from having experienced jumpers, that makes it more lucrative to keep the training prices up. I'm glad to know that there are still DZs out there who have reasonably-priced training and where people still give of their own time to support the sport (even with toilet cleaning). Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Steal Anna Nicole's body and transplant Brittany's hair onto it. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I was diving in some really low visibility water that was about 90 ft. I was descending next to the anchor line, and had let quite a bit of air out of my BC. I was in a face-down freefall-type position and was descending pretty fast, playing with controlling movement with body positioning and grooving on the whole thing. As I said, the vis. was bad, about 1 foot. I saw the bottom about 1/2 sec. before I pounded in on my face. I guess it was better than doing it in freefall, but I really felt like I had burned in. Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I think jumping may be the perfect thing for the short-attention-span types. It is something that, while lasting only one minute or so, is so intense that you cannot ignore it. It focuses your mind so closely for that short time that it is impossible to think of your bills, your job, or your bitchy mother-in-law. Then there is the occassional malfunction or CRW wrap that will really focus your attention and get you aroused... While this sounds like great fun, there is a reason that everyone doesn't do it. It can be very scarey at first. Some are totally paralyzed with unspeakable terror and some are just scared shitless. But everyone is scared at first. You're dealing with very powerful forces, and you can be killed or disabled very quickly if you don't do things right. You can also be killed if you do everything right. It's funny that way. But that's part of the appeal. Don't get into it after hearing someone say that it's perfectly safe. It's not. People stay alive by knowing the risks and managing them with proper safety procedures, experience, and luck. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Why skydive ? The world that exists outside of the airplane door is completely amazing. Leaving an airplane and entering freefall is like entering another dimension. It is a world where, when you learn to work it, the elemental forces of nature are at your disposal to play with. You can move one hand and propel yourself in any direction - then stop and zoom back. You can change the muscle tension in your legs, and spin yourself at a blinding speed, then raise one hand and stop. You can see and feel things that no special effects lab has ever been able to recreate, and do things that you can never describe adequately to someone who has never been there. People have all sorts of reasons to skydive. Those are a few of mine. Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

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Word use varies a lot within a language and among different age groups. I've heard the worg "sick" used a lot lately in various contexts. What's your definition ??? _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I remember the part about weighting him down with tha engine cylinders. They were from an airplane engine that Ed Fitch had worked on, according to Doc Anagnostos, who told me the story. This was a couple of years before my time. I made my first jump from Doc's C-180 a little while after that all happened. Sorry I never met Doc Fitch. Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

We always looked forward to the next issue of RWunderground from Pat Works. That's because you never knew just when it might come out, but also, it had the best writing and graphics in the skydiving world of its day. Thanks for the memories, Pat. It's sure been a long, strange trip, and you've been a good bus driver. Kevin Keenan _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Certainly not relevant to the discussion, but how do you figure that "most" Americans don't take responsibility. Of course, you imply that you are the exception to this. Do you feel that the rest of the world differs in this ? Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

You can put on a lot of Baby Powder. Or try this. See if you can find some pads that are made for the shoulder harness of an automobile. The wool fleece ones are best, and they are sold in stores like Wal-Mart in the U. S. They are made to slip over the auto harness webbing, and will fit on legstrap webbing the same way. Then cut to size and slip them over your leg straps, on top of the existing legstrap pads. You will have to un-thread the webbing from the adjusters first, but that is easily done, and someone will surely help you. It is fairly easy to put these onto a rig and remove them when you are done, so just put them onto any rental rig that you use. Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Looks like that fucker never stops smiling. Good job and thanks for sharing it. Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I think it's pretty outrageous that we have 70 CRW jumpers coming to Lk. Wales next weekend. I don't know if anyone expected such a big sign-up. There's been some crappy weather lately, but I'm hoping it is all gone. At least there have not been any Killer Tornados in several weeks. So, who all is coming, and what are you hoping to find in your quest for enlightenment through CRW ?? This will be a great kick-off for the series of camps that will bring us some nice big-ways this year. I hear that there will be a panel of judges grading the landings on style, grace, comedy, and miraculous survival. So wear your prettiest jumpsuit. Kevin K _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Funky Canopies I have Known: Delta II - Freaky opening and random turns. Starlight - Outrageously hard openings until the introduction of the "Spider Slider". Para-Plane (Baby) - My neck has never been the same after those openings. ThunderBow - Why did they even put steering lines on it ?? Unit - Opened so slow, I was always asked, Why didn't you cut that thing away ??" Jumping a Katana now, it's hard to believe those bad old days. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

The problem with a hand-held mirror for these applications lies mostly in the interpretation of the images. A convex mirror shows a wide angle of the sky. This means that everything in it will appear smaller and farther, thus small things are hard to see. When tracking, if someone is behind or above you, and they are pointed directly at you, almost all you will see is the front view of their helmet. Not a big target. I think the biggest challenge is the aiming of the mirror. On your car, you set the mirrors to a certain angle. Once you know what that angle is, then you can tell the location of an object whose reflection you are seeing. With a hand-held mirror, you don't have a set angle for the mirror. It is moving freely with your hand. If, in scanning around with the mirror, you pick up the image of another jumper, how do you know the spacial relationship of that jumper to you ? It is unlikely that you will be keeping the other jumper in view, so all you will see is a flash of something in the field of view of the mirror. So, all you know is that there is someone somewhere around you. The worst case is that they are already moving to avoid you and you make a turn that messes that up and causes a conflict. I contend that aiming a convex mirror with the back of your hand in freefall is not a reliable enough imaging system to rely on for freefall separation. It adds a needless distraction without producing a tangible benefit. Under canopy, unlike freefall, you can look behind you without rolling over. So, clear your turns and your airspace under canopy by turning your head and looking around. Keeping head and eyes locked forward also contributes to a lot of accidents. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

In tracking away after a jump, we are all traveling downward and, presumably, outward from some more or less central point. Since the primary direction of flight is forward and downward, that is the direction that a person can most effectively look for traffic. The convention that has been agreed on for safety, is that the low person has the "right-of-way" and the higher person, who is looking forward and down, will maneuver to avoid them. We have agreed to trust each other to follow these guidelines to assure each other's safety. One of the things that a person is expected to be able to do in order to jump with other people is to competantly perform this action. Of course newer jumpers are not expert at this, and it is something that they need to be taught and evaluated on as part of the decision, "Should this person jump on a load with these other people?" When a new person is still learning this, the other folks on the load should know about that, so that everyone else can keep an eye on the new guy. If no one knows, or if there are a bunch of new guys, this doesn't work, and it will be an unsafe skydive. Back to the point. If the process works properly, everyone is moving away and looking downward and avoiding the people in front of them. This involves an element of trust. It also involves an assumption of risk associated with the competance of your fellow jumpers. Skydiving has risks, and this is one of them. You can't properly do your job of looking ahead of you if you're barrell-rolling to look above you. If you don't trust the abilities of the people you're jumping with, don't jump on that load. But don't further jeapordize others because of your lack of confidence in your fellow jumpers. In some cases, skydiving culture has moved away from that where people knew the experience levels of newer people and where everyone helped the newer jumpers grow in their experience and expertise. It is common, now, for people to not even know each others names when they get on the plane. And keeping low-experience people off of a big group is considered discrimination and bad for their self-esteem. Low timers should work on the necessary skills one-on-one or in small groups until they are ready to assume the responsibilities (and earn the trust) required to operate in a bigger group. Remember - Just saying, "It's all Good", doesn't make it so. Kevin K. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

It sounds like you'd like to do AFF, but are avoiding going alone. I think the more tandems someone makes, the less likely they will be to get away from them. In my opinion, a tandem jump is just an amusement park ride. No one should consider themself a skydiver if all they do is hang on someone's harness. Kevin _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Yes, it is not true. Quote from PD website - "After more than a year of development and testing, Performance Designs introduces a totally new design for a reusable soft link. (The PD Slink Pat. Pend.)" _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

Years ago, one of my instructors told me, "Keep an eye out for the Herd". I guess he was serious. _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?

I know that spelling and grammar are optional here, but this just cracks me up. Did you think that the part of a rig that fits around your neck is enough like the center of an egg to share the same name ? _____________________________________ Dude, you are so awesome... Can I be on your ash jump ?