tdog

N/A

Because they will loose their anonymity in the justice system, just like the woman who gets raped... I am not saying hide anything, I am saying, have the police there to arrest them on the spot and read them their rights... Or, hide their identity until actual charges are filed. Let the real justice system do it's thing... It was a great story that needed to be told... But the way it was told???

What Andy Said... I would really do a careful job reading and talking to people like doctors and instructors... I know it is serious enough that tunnels have a big huge sign as you walk in that advises people not to use the tunnel if they have shoulder dislocation problems. So, I would not skydive based upon anything read on the internet, but instead seek solid advice from doctors and instructors... BTW - the force on your arms in freefall with the tandem is the same for non-tandem jumps. But you will be doing flips and moving your arm to pull, and holding on the the plane and other people to launch, so there are many new forces your body has never experienced before. But you should NOT give up now... Where there is a will, there is a way... You just need the will and others will give you the way.

Or are paid to turn a building into National Lampoons Christmas Vacation...

That CAD drawing is funny... I have done some massive X-mas light displays... I have CAD drawings that look like that, that calculate load per circuit and circuit layouts for lights, with trees and all. Imagine a hotel casino needing to win the casino city's best light display... Some people plug their X-mas displays in with a orange extension cord. This one required a diesel generator the size of a locomotive.

Actually, did you see the show. One guy is so screwed up mentally that he goes back on line, and the very next day they trap him AGAIN at Mcdonalds... The reporter says, "I have been in news for a long time, but you made me speechless." As the guy walks away they zoom into his untied shoes. You could see in this guy's eyes that he had some screws missing - he needs help... Serious help... From someone trained in mental health.

Aggie D: The Media is NOT law enforcement and hence not held to the same standard. The coverage you saw in Nightline can absolutely be admissible in court, with the right attorney, as it was not law enforcement who, in techincal terms, entrapped the "perv." Why did the reporter not disclose he was a reporter and the subject was on record and being recorded. When he was asked, didn't he have the obligation to tell the truth? This was not a case of a camera in your face, but hidden cameras. Traditionally, the use of hidden cameras comes with the identity of the people on tape being protected... Not here, they even showed the person's full name... Many communities show CONVICTED sex offenders on public websites and news programs... The word here is in bold - convicted.

what percent of skydivers use wind tunnels? what is the average time a skydiver has in a tunnel? what tunnels do you guys go to?

These guys are sick. I agree... But, our justice system is built on being innocent until proven guilty by a jury of your peers. Public humiliation, without a trial by jury, is not a quality our country was founded on. Have the police there and arrest them right away. Get them mental help. Whatever... But, don't sell shares of NBC-Universal this way...

DING DING DING - because they would have been read their rights and justice would have happened per the established justice system.

Ok, so I am 100% against guys "hooking up" with minors on the internet then arranging coming over to the 13 year old's house to hook up. It is wrong... But, Dateline tonight had a story on... Adults from an action group went on discussion forums posing as cute 12 year olds, posting "their" pictures on line. They waited for someone to make the first move online, at which point they played (aggressively, not passively) along and the discussions got real dirty. At some point, they invited over the adult to "their" house. When the perps showed up, they were invited into the kitchen area as the kid yelled, "come in, I spilled some coke on myself, I need to change my clothes, just sit at the kitchen counter and I will come down in a sec." As soon as the perp sat down, the Dateline NBC reporter came out and started asking questions. The reporter told the viewers that the 7 or so hidden cameras were hidden and that the perp did not know if he was the family member or law enforcement, or that what they were saying in this kitchen would air on national television. The perps, especially a rabbi, asked who the reporter was (not knowing that he was a reporter at all). The rabbi said, "I know I am in trouble and what I did is wrong, but I don't want to make it worse now." The reporter refused to tell who he was, but kept asking questions, finding ways to make each perp talk. These tapes were handed over to the police, yet the rabbi was never read his rights before he was asked questions. At the end he let them know that they were on hidden camera, and he was a reporter. In the process, Dateline showed the perps names, employers, and everything required to find out where they live and work. Their names, voices and faces were on national television without their consent, recorded covertly inside a private home. At the end of the story it is revealed that almost every one of the guys lost their jobs or worse. Now, what these guys did, or were going to do, is 100% wrong. We have a justice system with law enforcement, DAs, Judges and Juries. I believe TV news reporters should not be that justice system and take justice into their own hands, especially by making news and fooling people into not knowing they are on the record. I believe the reporters should have disclosed right away that they were reporters and what was said was on the record, especially when asked. They set up the room to put the reporter between the door and the person, trapping them in and forcing them to answer questions. These guys need mental help, or perhaps jail time... The experts on Dateline said that these guys have mental sicknesses and need help. I just think Dateline should not have run the story showing the full names, occupations, city of residence, faces, and voices of these perps. The story would have been just as powerful if they would have fuzzed it out and given the tapes to law enforcement (like they did anyway) for the real justice system to give these guys a fair trial - or better yet, given these guys the tools needed to fix their mental problems. So vote...

Here are some screen shots from that video.

Download arsvideo 2003 from Skydivingmovies.com. Fast forward to 13:38 and you will see some of the most beautiful canopies doing some awesome CReW.... White skin with red cross brace... Looks like jelly fish or something...

I bet if you ask nicely they will ban you for a while... Or, maybe you could start a thread that if anyone posts they get banned for 24 hours just to feel what it is like... Kind of like a tandem jump, instead you ride some other guy's personal attack into the silence... he he he

About half-way through my first eval jump, Mr. Stokes was backsliding a bit...enough to put me a little out in front of him on his reserve side while my fellow candidate was in the same basic spot on the main side. The backslide wasn't bad enough to require us to use a tongue-signal, but it did have us driving somewhat aggressively. We both threw stable "legs out" signals right in front of Jay's face, at which point he completely straightened his legs. We were smoked, facing the wrong direction to hold position, but we both recognized it and even though Jay had told us before, "Grab below my elbows or knees and I WILL roll onto my back", we both grabbed wrists rather than letting him get behind us, but we did it simultaneously so he didn't manage to roll on us. On the ground, during the "time-in" debrief, I mentioned how a legs out signal means "about 6 inches", rather than something more drastic. His response, "Oh I remembered that, but since I saw TWO leg out signals, I figured I should go twice as far!" Blues, Dave Two questions/comments... 1) Does Stokes have something there, was he really making the point that if two instructors give a signal the student may over react??? Thus, is there a best-practice procedure to have only one instructor give commands at any one time (unless it is something like pull)??? 2) Based upon my experience thus far coaching (limited), I find that sometimes even the most clear hand signal (legs out) does nothing... So I would have thought evaluators would sometimes not respond at all to signals to see how you deal with it... But from everyone I talk to, they always say the evaluators will respond... I guess we can't be that lucky with real students, huh???

I call it a canopy... When I hear Chute, I think someone who is wuffo... Parachute is a-ok, but where I am from canopy is what the "real skydivers" call it, and a Chute is what the guys attached to the tandem instructors call it... Sometimes the context allows a "chute", but it has to be used just right, or else it sounds wrong... "Which chute should I buy" "My chute is hard to pack" Neither are good uses of the word...

What have you learned in your student program about this??? I know some schools use the "There, Square, and Steerable" as a memory aid to inspect a canopy... Others use other memory aids, like "Square, Lines straight, Slider Down"... I personally would have cut away and pulled my reserve on your friend's scenario... Sounds like you have a good conversation starter with your instructors before your next jump. (Going by your profile that you are on your own 2nd jump.)

The part that really sucks is when you have to line up to get that de-icing fluid sprayed on your canopy before you take off... Just kidding... On a real hot no wind day things feel faster to me (the density altitude one day this summer was over 10,000 feet)... But on real cold days, I guess I don't feel things as being that much slower than normal... I guess it is a perception thing. I would say, if you demo a canopy on a cold day, make sure you are not thinking, "I can do it, but this is pushing my limits" because things might speed up in the summer... However another thing to think about... Last weekend I found out that having the entire landing area full of white snow really plays with depth perception... I now know why they say it is harder to judge altitude over water, and now I know that "warning" translates to snow too... However - my landings were actually better, go figure, because whatever my brain was miscalculating on the snow cleaned up my flare timing a hair.... he he he....

Do what feels right... Just know, the longer you go, the more re-currency issues you will have...

I live in Denver... Half way exactly between the tunnel and the DZ.

I wanted the PC1000 or HC90 but went with the HC42 because of budget and I knew I was not going to be making world class video with it... World class as in being pressed into DVDs or sold to TV or movie houses... My thought... In a few years there will be a HDTV 3 chip cam at the same price as the PC1000, probably smaller than the PC1000 - at which point I will upgrade. Or I might upgrade sooner for a higher price... But with HD gaining market share in the TVs, I did not want to spend the $$$ on the PC1000 now, instead I am getting a lower quality now so I can upgrade sooner when I find something I like... But, as Miami told me... If you have the money, go for the PC1000.

You are right... But since I mentioned it in the first place - having a former AFFI as a rat means they know exactly what to teach an AFF student, even if they can outfly everyone else. Can you imagine a rat going on their own AFF1 jump and asking their instructor if they can work on their head down carve?

Can I show up with ya too... Too bad I can't freefly worth crap, because I would love to go headdown on the same jump that you went tracking... We would have to pay for the video so we could get the "you would never guess what my student just did" conversations between our instructors while they were talking us down... But, I think we would have to wait until level 3 because I don't think I could break the death grip most AFFIs give 1s and 2s...

On the way home from our boogie last year.... An oncoming truck splashed so much water on my windshild I was blind - and it caused me to hydroplane at the exact same time... My lane was nearly dry until all the water came over the rail. I turned 90 degrees and slid bumper first into the guard rail. Threw a bunch of sparks and was one of the most impressive 4th of july fire work shows I have seen in a while considering it was night... All cosmetic damage to the 4runner, airbags did not even go off. But still $4,000 of damage. I am lucky to be alive, considering my auto was moving 55MPH sideways until it came to a stop. It could have flipped or bounced or anything - or if the guard rail changed or a pole or something, I could have been impaled or something.. Now when it rains real hard, I choose the far right lane, not the left.

Untamed, I hear the next batch of skyventure tunnels that have or are going to break ground are smaller, designed for non-skydivers, like the one at Universal City Walk.... I think these will help our sport. While the rest of the country looks at those at Perris and Eloy as being world class skydivers because they have had the opportunity to train... Some of the stuff I saw the intermediate tunnel league folks do at Perris is more advanced than what most of the rest of the country could do... If the novelty is wearing off at Perris (and I don't know since I am not there, and I have found you often act as the devils advocate so I don't believe ya at face value) then all I have to say is, you guys don't know how lucky you are, and don't appreciate what a tunnel can do for skills. A top notch well known coach at Perris told me, "I would not be in skydiving today coaching if the tunnel did not exist. The 4 way you just did on your 55th jump ever was better than what I was able to do with 500 jumps without the tunnel. The tunnel gave me the tools and passion to continue." So, dog, I know you like to raise controversy, so I almost am hesitant to play along... But you have a good point, the market is getting saturated. The question is, will the skyventure branding/franchising keep the market prices high, or will the independent owners feel the pinch of the competitive economy as more tunnels open and reduce the price of time... It is a catch 22... The operators need the $$$ to stay open and pay for the huge expense of building the tunnels, and if prices come down less new tunnels will open and skydiving will not improve... But, with cheaper prices, more skydivers can afford the training time and volume will go up. I have some bets with friends about where the tunnel economy will go in the next few years... I am not going to post it, but ask me in a few years if I am right or wrong... Or it could be worse... They could call the tunnel a "Wuffo factory" as some DZs are "tandem factories".... Too many non-skydivers and we will lose our time to the birthday parties... Thank god some tunnels will remain skydiver friendly at DZs and others will open at tourist traps. T