Andrewwhyte

Last year one of our instructors had an electric tennis racket. Now thats good clean fun!

I thought that was a W C Fields Quote Nope. If I recall correctly the woman was called Lady Astor. On another occasion: Lady Astor: Mr. Churchill If you were my husband I would poison your food! Winston Churchill: Madam, If you were my wife, I would eat it.

I don't know much about Oprah, but I'd be really interested in the soundtrack to that.

Hell that's easy. Try moving to a new city and evaluating a new mechanic.

You should go to an eliptical not before you have mastered your rectangular/semi-eliptical canopy. This is not possible during your first five hundred jumps.

Hey, at least the goalie looked good (except the second goal).

I recently had some tandems on a very windy day. It was within my comfort range but my other TM had exactly three paying tandems under his belt and one of them had taken him for a drag. I really didn't want to forgo the revenue but didn't want to put a new employee in a position of "if the boss is willing to do it I guess I have to." I talked to him and he declined; big deal. The money I lost by having an extra Cessna flight is fuck all compared to the exposure of having a TM who is not confident in what he is doing, or the cost of losing an employee who is already a good skydiver and instructor, and will become a good TM.

Like the monkey said, it's really a question of confidence. If not wearing an opener will bug you to the point of dominating your experience then it's worth the money to rent the other rig so you have a good time; if not then you make your own decision. Changing the subject. I don't think a new DZ is the right place to downsize, not on the first day. The extra money to rent the 190 will be well spent to be under a familiar canopy on your first 2 or 3 jumps at Deland. after that you will be able to decide whether you are comfortable enough to try another new thing (smaller canopy). Talk to the staff. You have among the most experienced staffs in the world at your disposal and they all work for YOU.

The Bellingham WA station rocks. When I was working in Victoria BC I got hooked on it. The jazz was great and "All Blues" on sunday nights was fantastic. When I went to school in Ontario for a while I listened to "North Country,..something er other." The music was mostly classical. That was Ok but what really got me was learning about the little things about the people of that particular corner of New York. What they thought about the big issues of the world and what they thought made them unique in their little corner of the universe.

When we moved onto the Pitt Meadows airport there was definitely a lot of friction between ATC and the skydivers. Most of the problems, however were in class C being controlled by the (TRACON) Vancouver controllers. The tower controllers tend to appreciate professional pilots much more than your typical 50 hr/year GA pilots. All new controllers are encouraged to come for a fam flight as well as a free tandem. If they are interested PFF is also free. All new pilots go for a tour of the centre to see how they do things, but also to put a face on the voice (hiring pretty women hasn't hurt over the years). The number one thing the owner has done is insist that the pilots present themselves on the radio at all times as the professionals they are. In the grand scheme of things these measures have cost peanuts and paid huge dividends. If the presence of a controller causes less movements to take place, the movement level at that airport was too high to be safe.

I disagree! Our government has not been complacent with respect to security; they have simply not been as vocal about it as have the governments of US and UK. CSIS has had, I believe, a great deal of success in developing a benign if not bumbling public profile while actually doing their job. The assassination attempt on the Japanese PM in Toronto in the early nineties, the guy busted at the US border who wanted to blow up the space needle (or was it LAX, I forget), this latest bust. These are all the results of CSIS doing it's job. The fact that I have never seen a CSIS spokesperson on the news is a good thing; it does not mean they are not on the job. Have you noticed the US administration's complaints on this have vanished since the Conservatives came to power. I'm guessing FOX news is continuing unabated.

I guess the TM can refute Strong's findings by publishing the footage referenced. As far as it legally biting him, most waivers make a point of mentioning that instructors sometimes do it wrong and that the participant accepts this risk.

Anyone tried it? It seems heavy. Thoughts.

Yep. The truth is we will rake it in the direction I need to rather than how I would like to. I need my full-time guy to eat most of all so he will jump first. Next is my need to have my part-timers coming back when I am really busy so I have to make sure they get something on light days. Last is the fact that I would prefer to be in the plane myself; tomorrow is not busy so I will sit on the ground while I pay other people to do what I would rather do myself. That way I have staff on Sunday when I need them when we are busier.

Right you are. I have never seen a PC assist system in use so I always forget about it. The only DZ near this guy (Southern Ontario) that uses SL uses D-Bags.

After using IADs for over fifteen years I bought into a DZ that dropped a bit over 2000 static line jumpers last year. I was overwhelmed by the hideous opening characteristics of the static line sport rigs. Our line twist rate was at least five times what it is for IADs out of the same aircraft, my students lost or destroyed four altimeters from being hit by the deployment bag and we suffered three malfunctions which, as far as we could tell from the video, were at least contributed to by the out of sequence deployment inherent in a S/L system. To add to that the abrupt snatch force early in the count kept many students from progressing as maintaining an arch through an out of balance (of to one side) pull during a dummy pull is very hard. Some of these problems can be alleviated by various non factory aproved packing innovations and in some aircraft, raising the strong point high in the aircraft. That is not practical in the Cessna's in common use in North America. The better solution in my opinion was to convert to IAD. The argument has been made that static line is a more sure way to get 'something' out. To this I call bullshit. The last time I saw a pilot chute in tow on an IAD was over ten years ago. Static line was developed as a way to deploy soldiers who use round canopies and face the tail after exit. It is still the best method to do this. For sport jumping, however, I don't think it is a very good technique.

I've had a few students express anxiety about opening shock over the last year or so. I have gotten in the habit of telling them I will, and then yelling 'here we go!' just before I pull. That is their cue to stiffen up. So far the results have been good with the students appreciating the warning.

This has easily been the best series of the year so far.

The internet is a funny thing. I can't remember ever feeling like this about someone I never met. Thanks for the pics everyone.

Why? And did they sell their student gear? Is Norm still jumping? They closed for a variety of reasons. They never recovered from the two crash summer they had in 2004. Their insurance was astronomical after that. I don't know what happened to their student gear but it was very old. I doubt whether Norm will jump any more but if he does it will probably be in Pitt Meadows.

You realize of course that other countries would recipricate: Microsoft, Exon, et al would no longer be welcome in other countries. Didn't Castro enact similar legislation around 1960?

The problem with this is that the BPA keep (in their oh so British way) excellent stats on everything. Getting comparable stats from other parts of the world to compare them with is not usually an easy task. I have a DZ that trains British soldiers under BPA standards (the one that Riggerrob was mercilessly forced to flightline check 100 plus students/day) and it becomes apparent when we try to suggest changes such as throw outs for students that we need to come up with stats that are essentially unaquirable in the private world of North American DZs.

You guy's realise that karma is never repaid in this lifetime right? Your karma is what determines what caste of human or what lower life form you will be when you are reincarnated.

I've been listening to it for a while, but lately I've been really digging Alice Cooper the DJ.

Ok, I'm from Alberta. remind me again why this is bad?