Andrewwhyte

BTW Bobby Magee is producing a film adaptation of "Lifeline" now. It will be low budget but, well, lets see what he can do with it.

Time Enough for Love. Honorable mention: Job: A Comedy of Justice

Bin Laden's were not. While it's debatable whether or not the US's support for the terrorists errr.. freedom fighters in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation was justifiable, the question that really needs to be asked is whether the US's support for the Saudi regime is justifiable. These guys are a medieval theocratic absolute monarchy. These guys are nuts. They officially support a brand of Islam that makes Iran look positively enlightened. When you add to that that the absurd wealth that comes to that country never sees the street, it's no coincidence that a high proportion of the the terrorists in AQ are Saudi. But the US considers them friends. For this there is no justification.

Uhhh dude,... those girls are fifteen not eighteen.

Do you ever get the feeling that Jeb Bartlet was that guy in Apocalypse Now? Every time I see him on the west Wing I get a flashback of the young Sheen lying on the bed in Saigon staring at the ceiling fan.

well, if you think it's ok to have a laugh at someone elses expense then go ahead. But remember, a joke at someone elses expense is still just as funny.

We were in a DC3 about a mile off to the side when a 155 way attempt went by at ~8000' at Quincy 1990. It looked like this big platform being built in space in a sci-fi movie. You could see the lines of divers, some diving, some flaring, some docking. Sadly you could also see a few people floating their little hearts out.

Actually just one for the program usually good. The students who have trouble regaining stability have usually induced it themselves on earlier levels. I use the intentionaly unstable exit only on those who are approaching the end of the program without ever being unstable. After their exit task, their freefall task could be one of many things including backloops. I just think that teaching the student to correct instability as its own lesson is better than including it in the when you fail at the backloop part. Why don't you try it sometime? Teach the exit and recovery followed by backloop(s). You may be surprised at how your student does with the whole 'being on your back' thing out of the way. If they have already successfully dealt with instability this is not likely. We still offer standard progression where I work (mostly in the winter) and while the problems inherent with it are numerous, students freaking out while trying to do backloops is not that high on the agenda at instructors' meetings.

My insinuation was nothing of the kind. The reference to hidden agendas was for tasking the student with a backloop when the goal is instability.

Wait until he starts dropping catchable passes and blaming Saint Donovan. The Philly fans will be booing him by thanksgiving. The eagles will never win! NEVER!! Bwahahahahaha. HA! Go Cowboys

If it was a good deal then it was a good deal. However, if you aren't going to be jumping it any time soon, sell it. Parachute gear never appreciates in price.

The trick is to take care of it now. Go see a physiotherapist and get: 1. a timetable for rest followed by rehab. 2. A rehab program, and... 3. advice on a knee brace that you should use for the next year. Landings tend to put a lot of lateral stress on your knee ligaments. Braces range from $10.00 neoprene tensers to $1000.00 post surgical exoskeletons. I have minor surgery planned for next Monday. I have already bought one that is mostly a comfortable, breathable fabric brace with one 'hard' component. This is a link going from above the knee to below it, giving support to the outside of my knee and preventing lateral stress to push my lower leg in. For that I spent $120.00 CDN (USD $90.00). Good Luck BTW asking the physio when you can jump again may or may not yield useful advice. Ask them when you can run.

I didn't say people are never unstable halfway through the jump, just that they are more likely to be so just after exit. Can you honestly say that you are in more mid-dive funnels than blown exits? Yes! have them do an intentionally unstable exit. There is no harm in teaching solo skills on $100.00 skydives as long as the student recently won the lottery. If (s)he is like the rest of us, however, (s)he is trying to find the money. Backloops can be taught by a coach far more inexpensively. What happens if you task the student to do backloops and they do backloops. Now you have to do another AFF jump because you have not achieved your goal of having the student experience instability. Is the student getting their money's worth? I don't think so. If you get your student to grab their right leg with their left hand just before exit and hold onto it for five seconds you will be rewarded with a student who had a blast while successfully executing an unstable exit. This is a much better outcome than one in which the student failed to execute a backloop but learned a 'valuable lesson' anyway. Avoid teaching through hidden agendas. It CAN and DOES teach getting stable. I have had maybe one student ever do a perfect backflip the first time out.

This is the complement to the letter in March Parachutist (Don't Sugercoat It) complaining that fatalities are not incidents. An incident is a much more common and expected occurance than that. To both complaints I say quitcherwhinin' ya nitpicker, that's what they're called.

I was at a boogie in Z-hills a long time ago and there was this guy who would lurk every group on his DC-3 pass in sequence. Olaf somebody I think.

QuoteI think you are missing the point of the why a backloop is important.Quote I am not missing the point, I am merely disagreeing with it. If you think the student needs to be unstable while you are there, then tell them to leave unstable. That's when most people are going to find themselves unstable.

Not only that but he speaks French! According to the GOP website he even looks french!!!

QuoteOK - time for a little clarification. I'm really talking about what you would call coach jumps. USPA allows jumpers with a coach's rating to supervise students (defined by me as anyone that does not have a license) on levels F,G,H. These 'students' have been cleared by an instructor as being able to exit stable, and pull without assistance.Quote OK thanks for the clarification. In Canada coaches coach and instructors instruct; it's kept very distinct. If the USPA says they need some supervision then I think you need to stay in the plane. As far as who's paying the slot, I think the nicest DZO in the world is still a businessperson first. It's important to not let them set precedents like that. Whether a student gets in the plane for marginal weather should be the pilot's or DZO's call.

Depends on your definition of a pond. If you mean a small lake that would be bad; still water is hard. If you mean more of a marsh or swamp, that would be good (well, less bad anyway).

The looser the fit, the more the student moves around in the air, the less control you have. That said, if you shorten the main lift webs too much you will 'crunch' their torso. This will be very uncomfortable (find a rig that is obviously too short for you and try it on for a demonstration). Make sure your student is standing up straight when you size the harness.

A backloop is not unstable. It is rotation upon an axis. Barrel rolls and 90 degree turns are other examples. I agree with Bill, the backloop is a recreational move that is (or should be) outside the basic survival skill set for AFF. Teaching backloops is an excellent task for aspiring coaches. In the CSPA system the backloop was dropped from the mandatory PFF skills a few years ago. The unstable exit task was replaced with the sit exit.

None of the available answers is appropriate. I have jumped with a round reserve, our student gear does not have them, I have jumped them in conjunction with a square main, but I do not do it even occasionally any more. A visiting jumper at Pitt Meadows will be accommodated, but other than that round parachutes are not permitted.

The 'E' or 'Hubris' CoP had things in it like water followed by minimum swim time to a target, video or film jumps, and night accuracy. When the requirements were designed video would have put you into fairly elite company. The CoP did not come with a lifetime membership. It included, rather, a waiving of the FAI annual sporting license fee. This is something you needed to purchase when you entered the nationals (maybe you still do.??). The D CoP now only is required for a course conductor rating (equivalent to an instructor-examiner in the US). The requirements are now tough enough that people are getting it just for the challenge. As far as I know Andreas Tize and Dave Brown are the only people who have successfully accomplished the freefly task.

I've been there. It's very nice. Oh that's right I was working for an oil company.

I have been on four aircraft in these situations 1. C-182 I was hanging when the guy in the jm seat was moving into the crotch, leaving his bag in the plane. The pilot grabbed the guy's main lift web and dragged him back into the plane. As soon as I saw the lines I let go of what was clearly an unsafe aircraft. After I let go they closed the rig and everyone got out. I was a bit low for four-way. In retrospect: No big deal. The in flight door was a properly fitted one a la Chas Bunch's FAA approved mod. There is no excess air movement in the aircraft when the door is closed. 2. On a Beech-18 senior jumper's reserve pc came out at about 9000'. The container was closed by a committee of riggers onboard and the jump proceeded. In retrospect: The guy later said that an eight-way with camera costs money and closing a reserve container is not magik. Given that he had a cypres closing loop and a regular pullup cord, I don't think I would have made the same decision. 3. and 4. on the same day in eloy two guys from the same group, on consecutive loads for them (and me), opened their reserves by slumping in the skyvan. In both cases they went forward and took their rig off. We all jumped. In retrospect: Ya, that was the appropriate thing to do. When I see people saying, 'everyone land in the plane' I think that's good for a cessna but not for a bigger plane. If we do all land in the plane, who pays for my plane ride? On the DZ with your friends in the 182, that's one thing. In eloy with people you have never met and are not jumping with, that's another. I mean,... these guys were from France. If it's a student load and anything more than a pilot chute comes out, we're landing now. That's just part of the cost of doing business. I guess it helps that my DZO has a brain.