NWFlyer

Fixed it for ya, john. Anyway, in the past, I've had chances to meet Joe Kittinger, Chuck Yeager, Paul Tibbits and Thomas Ferebee, but I missed out becasue I was, how best to say it... STUPID! I've been getting a bit of mileage from this photo at the office lately. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

So since this thread was posted, I've found myself as IC on a last-minute casual 4-way team prepping for Nationals. I swear every single time our Meeker exits rotated this weekend, the first thought that came into my head was "Key it!" "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Check the battery level. If the batteries are fine, you likely have a defective unit. L&B provides fantastic service - just follow the instructions on their web site to send it back and you'll get a repaired (or possibly brand-new) unit soon. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Have you made any jumps yet? Are you licensed or well on your way to a license? If the answer to either of those questions is "no," relax. Do your student jumps, use your dropzone's gear (the rental of which is generally included in the price of some if not all of your jumps). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I have a hoodie that I call my "speed skater" hoodie. It's a thin fleece-lined poly material that fits under my other clothes and jumpsuit. It's also thin enough that I can wear the hood under my helmet. Neck and head are extra warm, and no snag risk from the hood itself. (No drawstrings - it has a zipper). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

The DZ.com classifieds. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

From Skydive AZ's FB page. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

That sucks doesn't begin to say it all. How badly was the Otter damaged? Have reports been made to the police? Badly. Plane currently grounded badly. Federal offense badly. Rewards being offered by the DZOs for any info badly. Everyone at the DZ this weekend was equally pissed off and sure as hell hoping it wasn't "one of us." And yes, the FAA, the police, all the relevant folks are involved with the Otter damage (I don't actually know re: the stolen gear, but I certainly hope they've reported it to the police as well). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

The sushi dinner I mentioned in my other thread was with a friend from high school (we also went to the same college, but didn't really run in the same circles as much then, though we were always friendly when we did see each other). We didn't reminisce much about high school (too busy catching up on our lives today!), but the one thing we both observed was how many people we grew up with were still living in the suburb that we grew up in, and how many had married people from our class. Now, I'm not going to criticize a happy marriage (and many have gone the distance) but both of us appreciated the fact that we'd met our current partners farther along in our lives, and that we'd done a lot of cool living in between. He's an avid mountain climber, as passionate and involved in that as I am in skydiving. Are either of us "normal"? Depends on how you define it. But I know I'm pretty happy and he sure seemed to be that way too.

Everyone at work knows (well, those who didn't now know because I was featured on our departmental all-hands call - they like to talk about the fun stuff people do outside of the office). But like you, I also work with a lot of people who do interesting things in their life. The only TV show I've ever talked about at the office is Mad Men, with my boss, and I usually have to remind her not to talk about the new episode with me on Monday mornings since I can't watch till Monday night when the show's available on streaming. Definitely not a Honey Boo Boo crowd. Totally. Lately my dad's been into sending me links to articles about some of the cool, positive coverage that skydiving has been getting. Of course I'm not going to say "Hey Dad, I already know about this" because I'm happy he's interested and I'm happy he's sending the good stuff, not links to every fatality article out there. Plus it's very cool to say "Oh yeah, a bunch of my friends were on that head down world record" or "Yeah, I know some folks who are helping out with the Red Bull Stratos project." I feel like most of the people I know outside of skydiving do cool and interesting stuff themselves; it's not the same stuff I do, but they're not boring people. I did, however, recently go into a Michaels craft store to buy some photo frames (for my "I Love Me" skydiving wall, of course), and since they hide them in the back I had to walk through all the other craft stuff first. I have to admit that I look at that and wonder that it's that interesting to so many people that a store like Michaels can exist. But exist it does, and hey, to each their own, right? "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Sorry, that was a totally positive, enthusiastic "Seriously?" as in I seriously didn't know food could be that incredibly good. I was totally cool with the concept and loved that I got the best of the night picked for me. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I'm on a quick work trip to Honolulu (very quick - touched down at 11:30 a.m. yesterday and head home at about 3:30 this afternoon). Through the wonders of Facebook, happened to notice that an old friend from high school/college (who I haven't seen for about 20 years) and his wife were also in town, so I suggested we grab a drink. That turned into "hey, want to go find a great local sushi place?" I was game. I knew this was going to be good in the cab ride over when the cabbie said "I don't usually take people from Waikiki to this place - usually they come from downtown." Not on the normal tourist path. Check! Meet up with my friends, and notice there's a neon sign in the window that says "Trust me." The restaurant (Sushi Sasabune) is known for its omakase, or chef's menu, and since I'd never done it (and was on an expense account) I decided to go for it. My friend did as well, and his wife decided to order a la carte. OMG. Seriously? This experience has now ruined me for all other sushi. 13 courses, many with multiple varieties of fish, all absolutely amazing. Best part is they're totally militant about the whole experience. "Master Chef will seat you when he is ready." "Please eat with one bite only." "Please no soy sauce." When my friend didn't finish all the roe on one of the pieces, he got a passive aggressive comment of "Next time sir, you can tell us not to include roe" with a disapproving look. Lord help you if you asked for a California Roll! Of course, such an experience (especially in Honolulu) comes at a price, so I more than maxed out my expense account maximum and ended up having to pony up 2/3 of my meal cost out of my own pocket. Still worth every penny. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Of course his DZO said it was okay. The sooner he starts practicing with camera, the sooner he'll be ready for the tandem video rotation. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

He got his A license at 25 jumps so yeah, he's totally ahead of the curve. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

They set as of the location that they are turned on. For a dropzone with a small elevation difference between the airport and landing area it's not a huge deal. For other dropzones (Hollister, CA is one example - you do a 450 foot offset, though it's been so long since I jumped there that I can't remember which direction it goes) where the difference between locations is greater you need to do an offset. This incident shows what can happen if you turn your AAD on at a significantly different altitude than that of the dropzone. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1517491 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1540249 "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

It seems that you're trying to drive people to your Facebook page lately, with promos for sharing content, etc, and the new "Like" button up on top of the forums links. Problem is that I have accidentally "Unliked" dropzone.com a bunch of times when accessing the forum on my phone because the button is placed very close to the Forums link and it's very easy to fat finger. Just an idea - move the button farther over on the page so that it's not as close to the forum link (but still visible). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

So I'm not sure if you've been on the DZ during an incident before. I have been on several different ones for deaths or serious injuries that required immediate medical attention and ground or air ambulance trips. Every single time there have happened to be multiple trained first responders there. Medics, EMTs, military PAs, ER docs, ER nurses/NPs, etc. You get the picture. All of them bring much more to the situation than me or most of the rest of the people on the dropzone. And in every case I've seen, the untrained folks do one of two things. Stay out of the way, or provide other help -calling 911, getting gear out of the way, fetching medical kits for the trained folks, holding a canopy up for shade, etc. You seem to have a misconception that incident scenes are just random folks performing CPR on dead bodies. Frankly, your harping on this point here and in Donny's incident thread just shows you're kind of obsessing on the wrong thing, and insulting both the medical credentials and the humanity of those who decided that trying to save their friend was the right thing to do in a single casualty situation. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Yes, because I'm sure that everyone who hit the ground at high speed did so because they assumed CPR was like the reset button on their favorite video game. I'm not sure what the point of your "lesson" is. Is it that any trained medical professionals on the DZ, including trained first responders should just chill out when they see a serious hit? Because I'm sure that'll make everyone feel better about watching their friend bounce. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

That's a really good point, Dave. I don't swoop, but I do try to build my proficiency in FS, and I find I enjoy skydiving less when I jump less frequently and my skills stagnate or even degrade. I've never ever been a "natural" at this sport, so I need to jump frequently to maintain the level of mediocrity I've worked hard to build. But seriously, for the newer folks chiming in, for a lot of people, the "OMG adrenaline junkie" part of this sport wears off fairly quickly, and you find your thing - or things - within the sport that you want to get better at. Maybe you want to compete, maybe you want to be on bigway records, maybe you want to instruct, maybe you just want to be really solid in your chosen discipline. That takes some level of focus and commitment. Or you do it for a while and decide you're cool with being an occasional jumper that shows up every few months and gets some airtime then does a bunch of other things in between, too. That's cool too, but I personally find I need more to motivate myself to continue to stay involved and take on the risk. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

This sport, especially in the beginning, requires a pretty big investment - both in time, and in money, to get to the point where it's possible to participate more casually and intermittently and still be safe and aware. Sure, you can be an intermittent skydiver for your first few years, but you'll need to limit what you do and it's not going to allow you to progress all that quickly in the sport. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it's something to consider before you decide to make the up-front investments of time & money in your student program and gear, etc. I started skydiving and scuba diving at the same time and decided I couldn't deal with two money- and time-intensive sports at the same time, so I chose to participate in scuba diving more casually. Partly because I felt like when I did decide to scuba dive, I could control more of the variables to make my casual participation still a safe participation. In skydiving, you can control some of the risk variables, but the inherent risk is still quite high and being current does make a difference in how you manage that risk. After 8 years in the sport I can comfortably take a few months off and focus on other things in my life, and I still feel safe and comfortable when I come back. But in my first couple years in the sport, more than a few weeks had me nervous. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I funnelled Airspeed… …in a restaurant! Bwahahaha that was hilarious! Sitting across from you, wondering why you're leaning all funny onto SkySprite, then BAM, you're on the floor, almost taking Eliana with you. Since she was sitting with a different group it's like you funneled Airspeed from another skydive altogether! Well played, mate. Those were fun times. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Just look and listen. You can learn just as much from the mistakes of the bad skydivers as the good. I like this. But I'd add to it - where the real learning takes place is in the discussion and debrief of what happened, and it's important for a newer jumper to have context on that discussion to tell whether the person who made the mistake is making an honest assessment of the string of small errors that led to a big error (because that's usually what happens ... it's a chain of events), or is placing the blame on something/someone else. Example. Winds have been at 20-25 MPH for a couple hours, coming over a building. Jumper goes up, has a bad landing and breaks his ankle. The jumper you want to listen to is the one who says "I should have known better with the winds that high - I would have been better off staying on the ground. But since I was on the load with the winds that high, I would have been better off landing much farther away from the building so I was less likely to hit object turbulence. I put myself in a bad position." The jumper I'd ignore would be the one who says "I don't know what happened, that turbulence just came out of nowhere!" "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Interesting stat - where did the numbers come from? I wonder what percentage of those that fired were on student Cypres units? I might think that number would be higher because 1) Well, students and 2) Those rigs are used only a few times by a large number of different jumpers, so the likelihood of multiple fires / unit is much higher than an AAD that's owned by a single individual for a higher number of jumps (at least my hope is that there aren't too many jumpers out there who have multiple AAD fires). So, that assumption above would skew it so that it's not one in four units, but that there are probably a decent number of units in service that have multiple fires. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke