tkhayes

Presidential TFR's do NOTHING to secure the American public - is that not obvious to you? They do a lot to secure the PRESIDENT. They do interrupt my business and my customer's leisure time, take away revenues from my staff, and generally DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to reduce the level of terrorism in this country. They cost the economy millions and millions every year. The TFR discussion had its own thread(s) many times over with all the reasons why they are plain silly. I have posted many reasons why TFR's do not do much for security, except demonstrate again to the world why we have a paranoid government. (Did I not use those terms in my original post?) Am I for heightened security? Yes. Am I for taking away nail clippers? absolutely not. Israel puts armed soldiers on every flight, eliminating hijacking 100% since 1972. There is somethign practical that we could have done. Apparently it works. $300B plus the DHS, as I said in my original post, is not the right answer. TK

If it passed Congress, why would it not pass the Senate? And if the provision in the law says that it is lawsuit-proof, then how could it not survive the first lawsuit? We have dozens of instances every day in this country where different courts have different rulings on the same subject. DHS/INS will use whatever ruling favors them or choose to ignore any ruling either way simply because the law now says they can. ("I have earned political capital and I intend to spend it.....") I expect this will pass. I expect the DHS and INS will use whatever power thaey have been given if the law says they can do it. I state again that this is a very bad idea and is part of the 'wrong' solution' that I stated in my first post. I also believe that this is only part of the beginning of the end of freedoms in this country which those in power seem to have so many suckered into believeing that they are defending. TK

I did read the reports - you read it as not acting fast enough, and I read it as not doing enough, period. Your analysis is as good as mine, or as bad as mine, whichever way you want to look at it. My point was thqat I did not see the string of people sacked for not doing their jobs - which I believe is valid. Enron gypped people out of money and people went to jail for it. USA security failed the American people, so we re-elect the government - ???? In 2005 we have VERY RESTRICTIVE travel and rules - why was that not implemented years ago when these threats were apparent? I remember several years ago, several times, being stopped for vehicle searches at Tampa airport, during Clinton's reign (suyppoedly for terrorist threats that had been examined by the authorities) - so do not blame Clinton for that. I have yet to be searched int he same manner since Bush came to power. However I have had to surrrender my nail clippers on several occasions. Yes the FAA was not doing things, so were other agencies (my original post's point). Who runs them all? Ultimately, George W Bush. My other point was that solution we have implemented (war and DHS) may not have been a appropriate solution.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146947,00.html http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/10/911commission.faa.ap/index.html Funny how this report did not come out BEFORE the election. So instead of sacking the people that should have been sacked for not doing their jobs - not only the FAA, but the CIA, FBI, NSA, INS etc. we invade two countries at a cost of $300B+, build the paranoid Dept. of Homeland Security (see HR418 thread - the law passed), and re-elect the guy that was in power when it all happened. wow. TK

I try to keep it simple for almost all malfunctions: try once try twice Go immediately to plan B While very generalized, of course there are many more specifics we cover. But I try ot hammer than into their heads that if they have already tried twice, to fix, adjust, assess, deploy, untangle, kick out, whatever, then they are now simply wasting time. TK

http://www.skydiveratings.com

H.R. 418 being voted on in congress tomorrow, has some tightening of border and immigration restrictions. That I am all for. Section 102 of that bill states that the Dept/Secretary can and has the right to 'waive' any and all laws in order to expedite the construction of barriers, roads, etc. So in the name of homeland security, barring any environmental, economic, or ANY other reason, the DHS can build whatever they want, wherever they want, any time they want, no one can ever oppose it, now or forever. Do you feel like some of your rights just got taken away? I do. Write your Congressperson to object - one way to do it is the http://www.nrdc.org and speak out. Once again, the government wants to be above the law. This is not right.

And Drew and Harry will also be organizing

Great stuff, thanks

after reading much of the thread - a lot of what USPA does for DZ's also directly benefits the jumper. They helped keep a 10% tax of jumps in 1996 or 1997. They help with STC's, airport access, keep the regulators off their backs. Most recently, helped keep the requirement for terrain warning systems out of airplanes. A direct benefit for the DZO, but also a driect benefit for the jumper, as it keeps costs down. They HAVE kept their nose out of a lot of business issues. For example, they stopepd fighting for the right to hot-fuel, since it is illegal in most places, but people do it anyway. But it was decided that this was a problem for a few larger DZ's and they should do somethign about it themselves. I think USPA is a great organization, does a ton of work with few resources. Want to see some piss poor skydiving organizations. Just look at severla other countries to compare what we have to what they have. We shine. If you do not like it, you can leave. Most DZO's do not 'force you' to be a USPA member, we only do it because they offer insurance for you. Secure your own insurance and I bet that you can jump wherever you like - but I bet you cannot find insurance for under $60/year. TK

funny, I do not remember DZO's opposing the ISP. I remember a lot of flack from INSTRUCTORS about having to change. Personally, I never gave any input, nor was asked for any input to the program. I would like to change, but it does not happen overnight. It is a complicated process of switching and retraining staff to teach things that they have never taught before, restructuring all the pricing and then trying to teach everyone on your staff how to sell it, how it works and then following up to hope that it all works. And trying to do that with all the other day-to-day business operations that I have to do. What exactly is my motivation? People resist change in general, not just DZO's. This DZO also helped lead the way with Skydive Chicago to go to BOC for students. Also encourages students and instructors to improve canopy control techniques and the way we teach it. Makes regular changes to our trainign programs to stay in step with better teaching practices and techniques. For the most part when we see something good, we move towards it. Perhaps not at lightning speed, but I have a page listing all the changes we have made to our programs over the years I have been here. The staff for the most part is not that interested in changing their day to day routine. There is a lot more to it than just staing that "USPA lost to the DZO's" - and I do not believe that. A lot of people at a lot of levels had a lot of input and a lot of questions about the new ISP program, as they should. To expect everyone to drop what they are doing and jump to some new, un-proven program is simply not realistic. TK

Skydive City - Z-Hills, always a big event http://www.skydivecity.com TK

Mardi Gras parade, Tsunami's (not Hurricanes), Muff Punch, jello shots, Beef dives - Hoop dives - masks and great food as well. Limbo contest too We are trying to raise $$ for Tsunami relief and hoping to build a needed house in Thailand. Come and have some fun, see the new big-screen and let's party!! TK www.skydivecity.com

Hmm, ....so invading another country is a terrorist action? VERY interesting. Now I know why so many people in the world think GWB is a terrorist! No actually I would not - the Nazi's tortured and murdered millions, much of it filmed. We NEVER called them terrorists. The Rwandans tortured, hacked and mutilated 800,000 people in 100 days, and we never called them terrorists either. I think George Bush is really happy that the average American is gullible enough to buy this crap and bullshit about 'terrorists'. So easy to keep tying it to WMD's and 9/11 which has been proven again and again to NOT be related

all through this thread - they have been called 'terrorists'. Nice change of language. Before we invaded, Iraq had few, if any, terrorists. First we call them insurgents, now we call them terrorists. Very convenient. I wonder how many of there 'terrorists' that we supposedly kill every day, have EVER launched an attack against ANY target prior to the invasion. I said it before, and I will say it again. If someone invaded our country, we would clearly go out of our way to launch attacks against them, pick them off one by one, bomb them, whatever had to be done to get our country back. But we would NEVER consider ourselves to be 'terrorists'.

Amazing how the thread has progressed: From all I have read, I think you are suggesting that maybe there should be a law - since you suggest that she should be punished andperhaps go to jail. BUT, a lady here in Zephyrhills last year shot her husband 6 times through a closed door, thinking it might have been an intruder, also did not go to jail or suffer any punishment. Everyone around here seemed to think that was an unfortunate accident, but never held her responsible in any way. So gas your kids, go to jail? Shoot a family member and get nothing? People do all kinds of stupid things, first, the cooking inside, but at least they have enough sense to call the police. Maybe the laundry room had an open door or somethign liek that- the article does nto go into that detail. LOTS of poeple made similar mistakes during the hurrincanes down here TK

Yep, Canadian police are systematicallt trained to pick out Florida plates fer sure. Seems you like to complain about bad treatment - so why bother putting yourself in situations where you get to do that? Stay home. You bought a radar detector so that you COULD break the law by allowing you to speed anyway. liek the others said - you got caught WHAH!

A few years back, a Cypres failed in Europe and did not fire. The batteries were old, but it passed the startup checkout. You post was concerning students and since MANY students still jump with FXC's, the reply is valid. Yes Cypres' are quite secure and safe and extremely reliable. I feel that we have already dumbed-down this sport to a point where it is almost OK to have a Cypres fire. Not acceptable for student training to have them rely on it, but I also do not believe that people deserve to die just because they make simple mistakes.

there have been MANY incidents where AAD's have failed, likely due to lack of service and maintenance - don't kid yourself. Yes, on older models, but those older models are commonly in use by schools around the world

wasn't a question at all - and they are pure Aussies. Max is finished champion and Foster has a bunch of ribbons too.

Aussies?

No the CEO does not get fired if the janitor is a child molestor, but he DOES get his ass sued off if he knew all along that it was going on. And the company stock prices plummet because of the lawsuit. And then, and usually about then, the shareholders decide to get rid of his ass because the CEO was not looking after the companies best interests. Thanks for drawing the parallels, they worked well TK

I did not have any planned, but I can try to get a sign-up sheet for night jumps those days as well. Also planning some high-altitude loads, probably Sunday morning

Check out the schedule of events at http://www.skydivecity.com TK Hayes

do you really feel that un-safe? I do not. All we hear about is the 'new threats', which tells me that the measures we have taken are not working. Or more likely, they just want us to stay scared so they can further the agenda. Are you are willing to give up so many freedoms in the name of security? It could, can, and probably will get much worse