MarkM

Professional Nerd. Wheeeee!!!!

Great, now just tell us how many students did SL vs AFF in those years and those numbers might actually be worth a shit.

5. Defend yourself without a lawyer, owe nothing in fees if you win or lose. You don't need a lawyer to sue or defend against a lawsuit in this country. I've seen people give in to idiotic suits because they didn't want the expense of a lawyer, yet the person they were being sued by wasn't using a lawyer themselves. As typical in Dropzone.com fashion, lot's of heat is being generated with few facts. The plantiff's case was "Rubio contended Precisions knew before his accident that this model of the Raven reserve was defective but didn't take any steps to remedy the situation." And I'm sorry but if a manufacturer puts out a defective product, knows it's defective and does nothing to fix the problem or warn the consumer, then they deserve to be sued into oblivion. It's not about mistakes, we expect manufacturers to make mistakes and in extreme sports we even accept the risks of those mistakes, but we sure as shit don't expect them to hide those mistakes from us so their profit margin doesn't drop. Of course I really don't know if that's the real issue here or really what the truth of the matter is. I haven't heard both sides of the story. But then neither did the jury, so it's not at all suprising they ruled they way they did.

Pretty cool video. I thought it kind of slowed down a bit at the end though. "Don't look down.... too late" was my favorite part.

I'd say it's a higher than preferred wingloading, but really with your exit weight there aren't too many other options.

Have you looked into a Glock 27? I own a 19C and 26. The 19C I use for target practice(has the recoil of a water pistol) but I used to carry the 26 with a Kydex IWB holster. It concealed very well. The 27 is the same size. Actually here's the holster: http://sidearmor.net/cgibin/MyStore/PerlShop.cgi?ACTION=dummy&thispage=Glock.htm&ORDER_ID=195309352#iwb

You may be out 10 bucks, but you're the bigger man. And that's golden.

Is there any reason this has to be done via the USPA or FAA? Couldn't it be a private voluntary rating? Research what skills you and other good pilots think are needed, what extra risks are involved with jump planes, create a syllabus and start holding camps for pilots that are serious about flying jump planes. Those that attend and pass the tests get their certificate that they can use to show any DZ that they're serious about jump safety. A lot of rating programs probably start off that way. Some school starts up to fill in a need, gets a rep, then becomes the standard.

The good ones won't. And if yours does, it's a pretty good sign it's not a 'good one'. No it isn't. Were the DZs that opposed the new coach ratings bad DZs? And coach ratings wouldn't impact a DZ's business anywhere near as much as pilot ratings could. That's great that Chicago area DZs send their pilots to Toronto for flight simulator time. Not every dropzone has those kind of finances. Some dropzones are 1, maybe 2 C182's, are open only a couple days a week and rotate part time local pilots. If pilot ratings were time consuming to get or involved a lot of travel, it could very well put them out of business.

E) I joined a monestery.

What do you have to lose by calling the guy?

One problem I can see with rating pilots is that DZs themselves would be resistant to it. If I'm a small DZ owner and I have 3 people I regularly use as pilots getting each of those pilots rated needs to be easy. It also needs to be a quick process, what if one of my pilots quits and I need a replacement within a week? One of my other pilots knows someone who can fill in, how fast can I get him rated? Can I do it at the DZ, or is he supposed to travel somewhere for it? I think everyone in the sport is for more safety, but at the same time no one wants that safety to interrupt the flow of business. I don't think you can use the AFFI model for this either. For one, you don't need AFF instructors to run a DZ. You can use SL jumpmasters, tandem masters or even just not send students up. If your AFFI walks off the DZ you can still send up planes without students. If your rated pilot leaves your planes won't be going anywhere until you find a replacement. I think it's a good idea, but it may have to be implemented fairly loosely.

I wouldn't worry about it, I don't think it's that unusual. I've hopped around a bit and known of others who've done the same. You'll often learn knew things at a different dropzone and each place tends to have it's own vibe. If you don't feel comfortable at your current DZ, odds are there's one out there that you will. But you don't have to make any decision right away, just drive out to another DZ and see what they're like.

You can easily go to any DZ and continue your training, but they're all going to want you to back up a bit. You can't be at DZ A on a level 6 AFP and expect DZ B to start you right off on on that level. Because really they don't know you, are concerned with your safety, and will want to see how you handle yourself on a simplier dive before picking up where you left off. Also if they have a different training program they'll need to work you into the middle of that.

The US licensing system is done by a private organization, the USPA. You aren't really legally required to have any sort of license to jump in the US. However most dropzones in the US are USPA dropzones, which means they recognize the licenses handed out by the USPA and require membership in that organization. The first basic license you can get is an A license. An A license means you can handle the basics for simple skydiving, you can spot, pack, land safely and so on. Student progression in the US can be something like: An extensive first jump course followed by AFF and SL. Upon graduation of AFF or SL you are cleared for solos at that dropzone. You then need to complete other certain qualifications to qualify for your A. Once you have your A you can jump at any other USPA dropzone without having to go through a student program. How students are handled, like when they start buying their own gear and so on, is handled differently by each dropzone. The AFF and SL courses themselves are pretty standardized, as are the A license requirements, but stuff like gear, gear checks, misc training and so on are left up to the DZ owner, instructors and the student.

I've always liked Larry Elmore's work.

Wasn't there something about us putting nukes in Turkey which also sparked this whole thing up?

I would say, "No you don't have my permission to search my vehicle" then stand aside as they did it anyway and assist as requested by the officer.

New student training mantra: 1> Pull the correct ripcord. 2> Pull. 3> Pull at altitude. 4> Pull with stability.

I love rules. They're fun to break.

For the same reason women can't.

Ahh, I didn't notice the article link. Must be old age, I'll probably be totally senile in another 10 years.

If I had to guess the guy was using a powered paraglider. Here's what one looks like in flight: http://www.poweredparaglider.com/gallery/dave_5.jpg Another look at the engine/harness: http://www.poweredparaglider.com/gallery/angie_5.jpg and http://www.poweredparaglider.com/gallery/angie_1.jpg I do know that a lot of the newer power gliders use a sort of soft chair as part of the harness system. It makes for a more comfortable flight. The harness can be equiped with a reserve system. Getting out of them quickly probably wasn't a design consideration. I think the biggest unsafe thing about the sport is that it's a new sport, maybe less than 10 years old. Skydiving has had a lot of time to figure out what works and what doesn't. Edit: oh, forgot to mention. Some powered paragliders will actually support a trike instead of just a person and harness. The guy could've been in sort of a small open cockpit shell supported under a paraglider.

I think AFF and SL are about the same as far as safety goes. You can't go by the fatality records because you can't tell how many students are SL vs AFF, and a student will be in SL for double the jumps a student would be in AFF(15-20 jumps til grad compared to 7-10). The DZs I started at used SL and they were very small(one even had a grass runway). I think I've seen more first course jumpers at them than I've seen at Skydive America or Skydive Miami. Class sizes of 4 to 5 students were average and once I saw 3 instructors handle 21 new students. I've done both SL and AFF, both have their pluses and minuses. The debate on whether SL or AFF better is pointless, neither system will make you a better skydiver than the other.

It's even worse when the instructor also manages a bungy jumping outfit and gets the cords mixed up.