rmsmith

Just remember that you don't need to downsize to get more performance. There are a nice variety of performance canopies available that are still large enough to provide you with a margin of safety when things go awry.

According to George Dubya, you live in a free country. However...reality will cost you since the trial lawyer's association says that you should indemnify even your best friends from your greedy "inner-self" who will demand compensation if you bring injury upon yourself. And pilot compensation is also a gray area. For example, you can barter with your date for sex, say a nice dinner and a movie, and everything will be fine, but if you're in a hurry, and simply slip your date the money you will have broken the law. To sum things up, life just ain't that simple!

Well, if we get the regulations many folks think would save some souls, then we'll have to crack down on log book fraud too, right? Hey, your own spouse might be a USPA spy comparing your logbook entries with your GM-DZO manifest print-out while you sleep!

I know the feeling. Back in the early eighties when I was about 175-lbs out the door, I was on a very windy load, and I found myself landing off the DZ at Antioch, CA. I was headed for a barbed-wire fence, so I thought I'd try a quick 360 to lose some atlitude. Well, I lost a whole bunch of altitude and the ground came up so fast that I barely made it into a fetal position before impact. Fortunately, the field was freshly plowed, so I didn't break anything. I didn't black-out, but it took a few seconds to connect the dots. I was flying a Pegasus-220, but I wasn't under it--we both impacted about the same time. I have never forgotten how fast the ground closed in on me!

Ron, I'm not trying to come down on you personally...just trying to get everyone to think a little bit. USPA is in a difficult position trying to represent skydivers, represent the GM-DZO(s), shill for their advertiser's, etc., which I see as a poor position from which to take stand on an issue. In my eyes, they lose their credibility. Europeans do not yet suffer from excesive tort like we do here in the US. Thus regulations can and do work for them. For example, they have social medicine, so the average person doesn't have to worry about losing everything when disaster strikes. A review of real risk should be part of everyone's life plans before engaging in high risk activities. For example, some people are single living parents of dependent children, yet they still feel that the pleasure of the sport is worth the risk. Surviving children and their grandparents tend to cause trouble in the courts where a ready audience of obese whuffos is ready to award lavishly at the DZO's expense regardless of the fact that the deceased skydiver simply made poor life decisions. I have a wife and two children, and they are largely dependent on me for financial support. Thus, I have also purchased enough life insurance to see them through if I'm not present to meet my resposibilities. I also have adequate healthcare insurance too. In short, I don't expect disinterested parties to have to pay for my mistakes. I'm also an AOPA member, and their membership magazine has lots of insurance ads soliciting their members for a variety of policies. I don't see this with USPA, and many of their members are woefully underinsured or not insured at all. This only causes additional grief when their survivors have to borrow money to bury the deceased.

Yes, the Bytch really cranks 'em!

I find it interesting that you want to impose regulations through USPA. I see USPA as part of the problem as every issue of their magazine depicts swoopers "carving the water", and canopy ads that depict small high peformance canopies (back to the almighty buck!), touting fashion rather than basic understanding of equipment, etc., regardless of the outcome to their members. It's rather like Hollywood's moguls depicting guns violence in so many movies while in real life these same folks are the most vociferous anti-2nd amendment champions!

Stalin claimed to have the worker's best interests at heart. Surely a command system could distribute the country's resources more efficiently than those capitalist folks, right? Suppose the Lada had an engineering error making it unsafe for the average comrade to drive. Why surely the command system would alert all comrades, right? Now recall those capitalist folks at Ford Motor Company. They were not forthright in alerting the motoring public about the Explorer's tendency to roll-over during an sudden steering correction at higher speeds when the Firestone tire shed its outer tread. Neither regulation nor driving education was required to correct the problem. The media transmits the stories, and the public decides to purchase other vehicles and tires. Its the market system at work! The same applies to canopies too; recall the Crossfire issue, or the Dash-M issue. The imformed public's purchasing decisions with provide the impetus for change. In the mean time lets hold off on the regulatory pestilence. People are smarter than you think!

There's always someone else. The proverbial swinging monkey doesn't let go of of the limb until it has a hold on the next one.

Actually, it's always about money. For example, the roads are filled with elderly folks who couldn't pass a simple review in an automobile simulator, but they're still out there. One dealer might refuse to sell an automobile, but the next dealer will complete the sale. As for the driving public's risk? That's what insurance is all about. On the books, it is worth the risk to have the elderly behind the wheel. Sure, we loose some folks, but overall the economy gains ground, and the elderly have mobility. The same logic applies to everything in a market based system. It's nothing personal, just business!

It's the same negative story for gun owners. The news media only gives us the armed robbery or gang style shooting stories. Not a single story regarding a situation where a gun's availability has saved someone's life.

It could use more memory to store recent jump data for the ProTrack software.

Body piercing and tattoos cause a "one-year" rift with the Red Cross when you are a blood donor. In addition, it also becomes a permanent mark/scar for the authorities to identify you for the rest of your life should you decide to live on the wrong side of the law.

The pull-out on my Racer is short too as this is all that is required to "lift" the d-bag from the pack tray, not yank it out possibly dropping line stows.

[reply1. The issue is instructor drug testing, not other skydiver drug testing. That's the issue at the moment, Bill. When property seizure was introduced, the mantra was that it was for drug dealers only. Well, I now read that someone who solicits a street prostitute is now losing their automobile as part of the penalty. The earlier property seizure laws have been applied using a wider brush. Who's next, the atheists?

I've got unthrottled fiber right to wall of my house. This morning, I downloaded a 14.6-MB MPG in 73-sec while I browsed some war photos. The slow-down is the NNTP feed, which is throttled. The fastest downloads come from the farm the hosts Microsoft's service patches. http://www.newsguy.com/~rmsmith/fiber/fiber.htm

The problem here is that it's the beginning of the end. Next, the excuse will be anyone who jumps can be a danger to someone else. No problem, let's just test everybody, right? No, thank you. I'd rather rely on my own personal judgement if the environment looks too dangerous for me. However, just because I may be wary of a particular environment doesn't mean that I would ruin it for others who may be enjoying themselves.

An experienced skydiver did this stunt several times until his foot caught a couple of suspension lines resulting in a long violent diving turn into the ground. And yes, he died.

Go to Walmart's automotive section; these batteries are used in some of the "key-fob" remote control units found on newer vehicles.

When that time arrives there's no mistaking it!

I always order my containers on the large side as I prefer a "squishy" feel for both the main and reserve pack jobs. Canopy volumes vary greatly too due to calendering during fabric production. I also prefer all white reserves as they tend to have a lower pack volumes.

Give that guilty bastard a fair trial--then hang him! --Judge Roy Bean

COLORADO SPRING, Colo. - Shaggy-haired Sonny Bono once sang, "There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb." An accident on a mountain was what killed him. When Bono skied into a tree and died in 1998 on a Nevada slope, the impact shook the ski industry and, a top industry leader said, overnight changed how the media portrayed skiing. The death of Bono is the reason people learned two snowboarders became the 12th and 13th snow riders to die this season in Colorado. "It all changed with Bono and Kennedy," said Michael Berry, president of the Denver-based National Ski Areas Association, referring to the deaths of Bono and Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy died a few days before Bono after he slammed into a tree at Aspen while catching a football as he skied down a run. "A couple years before that (1994-95), we had a record number of deaths nationwide (49), and I didn't get one call from the media, not one," Berry said. Is the angst justified? Ski safety experts say even with the upward trend in ski deaths during the past decade, skiing is far less dangerous than many other sporting activities. Forty-five skiers or snowboarders died in the 2001 season in the United States. Many more died the same year while swimming (1,200), scuba diving (91), boating (701), and bicycling (800), government statistics say. So why all the angst about a few, admittedly tragic, deaths in a sport with more than 10 million participants? People have become increasingly risk-averse, Berry and others within the ski industry said. To put it bluntly, they demand to be warned about every risk. They want them removed. If they aren't, and people are hurt, they'll cry and sue. Technology -- good, bad Colorado Springs' Pat Pfeiffer has an unusual perspective on the changes in the ski industry -- and in skiers. Pfeiffer, 75, and husband Bill, 78, a former ski patroller, started their four children skiing at an early age. The technological advances that made skiing more fun have a downside, Pfeiffer said. Fast chairlifts put more people on the slopes, creating crowding and increasing fatigue. Groomed runs -- which customers demand -- allow faster skiing. The new generation of shaped skis -- shorter and built to turn more easily -- can give skiers a false sense of expertise. She said the real change might be in the mindset of skiers. "When I was learning how to ski, I didn't go to the top of the mountain," Pfeiffer said. "Now I think a lot of people go up and attempt things they shouldn't attempt."

Finish school son, or you'll only be dating your hand later in life!

Bill Dause stands out for his "rugged individualism" philosophy preferring simple sole proprietorship rather than group politics. He's also quite a businessman having done business with RK for twenty years.