riggerrob

... I felt it was extreme as well. People tend to cringe at the idea of castration, but chemical castration imo isn't really castration. It's basically hormone therapy and even used to treat prostate cancer. Several states already sentence some serious sexual offenders to chemical castration. Now while I don't agree with involuntary hormone therapy, I think it's a viable and reversible solution for those that want to get help...even for those that haven't been caught yet. This is too important of a topic for people to just discredit it, so perhaps we should just stop calling it castration? ................................................................................... I agree with half of what you said. However, I have no faith in chemical castration, because there is no way to GUARRANTEE that sexual offenders take all their medication on a regular basis. Fore example, the Province of British Columbia shut down most of its old-school mental institutions decades ago. The gov't was confident that they could release thousands of mental patients to the streets as long as their mental problems could be controlled with regular medication. However, the Province never adequately funded halfway houses, so there was no way to monitor if the mentally-ill continued taking their medication. The end result is thousands of homeless, drug-addicted, former mental patients wandering the streets of Vancouver.

................................................................................. I agree with you that REPEAT sexual offenders should not work as TIs. Several levels of authority share the responsibility to screen repeat sexual offenders ad deny them work in sensitive careers. USPA should refuse to issue coach ratings to repeat sexual offenders. Tandem Examiners should refuse to train repeat sexual offenders as TIs. Manufacturers should refuse to issue TI ratings to repeat ... DZOs should refuse to hire TI with a history of repeat sexual offences. Vidiots should refuse to work with "that creep," etc.

amazing what excessive legislation does to common sense. Especially when pols try to pander, or 'zero tolerance' mentalities take hold ............................................................................... How about if we score sex offenders on a bell curve. The worst ten percent get castrated, while the "least" ten percent walk free. Their score would be based on how well they behave themselves in the first five years after prison.

Roofer?

Why do you hate the Aleutian Islands so much?

A lengthy legal trial can prolong the PTSD of the victim. ... and yes, you can suffer PTSD after being raped.

If the potential TI was convicted (of a sexual offence) as a teenager, but kept his nose clean for the next decade, I would quietly ignore his earlier problems. Similarly, I know a guy who was a serious "stoner" when he first arrived a the DZ, but he sobered up and turned into a great FJC and PFF Instructor. I did dozens of PFF jumps with him and thought he was one of the better free-fall instructors I had the pleasure to work with. He was never physically robust enough to become a TI.

How would they know? Are you expecting the examiners to also become private investigators? ................................................................................. A: that potential TI played some disturbing head games with me B: my predecessor (TE) warned me C: another skydiver warned me about head games the potential TI liked to play with (construction) co-workers

Does your neighbour know?? Yeah, when I posted that I wondered if anyone would ask that. She was very distraught and her husband was sick, so I did the job for her. Cat was ~18 years old.

How many jumps on your Sabre 2? How many jumps on that line-set?

The Mirage update was driven by a problem identified in Europe. Several European skydivers scared their Cypri, then wondered why their reserves hesitated. You have to make multiple mistakes to kill yourself, but one of the mistakes is installing way too long a reserve closing loop. If the pilot chute spring squeezes the closing loop against the edge of a grommet, it might delay the pilot-chute launch. The longer the loop, the greater the risk of hesitation. If I have more than 1/2 inch slack - when I close a reserve - I re-open it and install a shorter closing loop. The EU insisted that several (European-made) containers (Atom, Icon, Next, etc.) be modified to move the AAD cutter higher in the reserve container ... above the pilot-chute. I modified several Atoms and Mirages to the new configuration. The update is optional for Icons in North America, bf I owned an Icon, I would update the AAD cutter location to above the pilot-chute spring.

.................................................................................. Yes. Streamlites were made during the early 1980s. I packed dozens of Streamlites back when they were fashionable. And that is MJOSPARKY's smiling face on the Streamlite manual. Sparky was cool back during the early 1980s.

OUCH! Why did you slap me lady? I was only confirming the correct routing of your chest strap.

"... I came back from a Tib internal fixation at the ankle joint in 8 weeks ..." ..................................................................................... Thanks for sharing your experience. Does anyone know how long it takes to heal a break near the top of the tibia ... just below the knobby part?

Today, my 18-year-old cat died. A few church friends offered me condolences, but my buddy Tom loaned me a shovel. I buried my dear departed cat in the forest below her favorite window.

Emphasis mine. By who? The Instructor of the candidate? The Tandem Examiner? The USPA Headquarters? I think the ONLY person other than the sex offender that has any responsibility to protect the public is the "school" that hires him. The certification isn't the issue, it's the person's actual contact with the public. .......................................................................... I disagree. Tandem Examiners should refuse to train TI candidates who have been convicted of sexual offences. A decade or so ago, an old Tandem Examiner told me that he refused to train a potential TI because the guy had spent time in jail for sex crimes. I never did hear all the details, but apparently the old TE had friends who worked in the criminal justice system who told him more than could be said in polite company. All also heard some disturbing stories from another TI who had worked construction with the convict. The convict also played some sneaky head games with me. CSPA may have been willing to certify the convict as an IAD Instructor. Even though I have been a Strong TE for 6 years, the convict never asked me to train him. The answer would have been NO! Thankfully, the convict has disappeared from the local skydiving scene.

I do similar to pchapman, just a simpler version of the hook-up. I just sit on the floor, facing aft. The student sits between my knees and I hook them up in that position. Hook-up is only difficult in older (as old as me), narrow-body Cessna 182s. Then I am forced to snap on side hooks before the door closes. After the pilot opens the door, I put my left foot on the step and tell the student to swing their feet out. Ideally, they put both their feet on the step. The smaller the student (and the fewer outside videographers) the less important it is for students to step on the step. The second option is for the student to simply hang their feet aft of the step. I push off aggressively. My hands go high, overhead and I tuck my feet up onto my butt. 9 out of 10 exits are stable. On my good days, I turn 90 degrees right to keep the plane in my hand-cam for four seconds. Sadly, every tenth student extends their legs too far, forcing us to front loop.

It's distressing that I have to write this, but historical accuracy demands it. I have been skydiving for 35 years, and I am as big a fan of Bill Booth as anybody, and in no way do I mean to denigrate him or his contributions to our sport. But he did not invent the skyhook. He may have redesigned it for skydiving rigs, but the first MARD system was invented by Mark Hewitt, on a base rig called the Sorcerer, and Bill knows this. Credit is deserved where credit is due. ............................................................................. Yes, but Mark Hewitt invented a pin-type MARD, while Bill Booth invented a hook-type MARD. Two radically-different RSLs that do the same job.

My prices are closer to psiifish. I charge $80 for a sport reserve or PEP. Since I have repacked thousands of PEPs, I can repack them quicker than sport reserves. PEPs are hassle because they are too long to repack in my apartment, so I have to repack them on the hangar floor at the local DZ (30 minute drive form my apartment).

I dis-located my shoulder in 2008. I did a couple rounds of physio-therapy, but it was still a bit weak when I went to Eloy, six months later. Eloy's staff never mentioned risk sin flying after a dis-location. I got a bigger reaction when I flew in Vancouver's tunnel a couple of years later. I knew most of the Vancouver staff since I had skydived with them for several years before my injury. Staff at the Vancouver tunnel asked me some pointed questions, but gave up after I demonstrated 30 push-ups. They also knew that I had done 300 tandems since my crash.

..................................................................................... I still WANT an FG 42 ... just cannot afford the $100,000 price for originals. Originals rarely come up at auction. Originals are far to valuable to fire. Fortunately, replicas are now being made in Germany and Texas. I reviewed a replica of an early FG 42 made by Dittrich in Germany. Smith in Texas makes a replica of a late FG 42. Modern FG 42 replicas only fire semi-automatic and retail for $8,000 US.

Did the Royal Canadian Air Force ever update their CF188 Hornet fighter planes with NACES II ejection seats? This was proposed back in 2008, but I never heard if the RCAF completed the update

... Think you old-timers just have an issue with mobile phones to be honest. ................................................................................. Careful how you phrase that ... you young whipper-snapper! Back when I started jumping, mobile phones were so so expensive that only emergency room surgeons could afford them. Mobile phones were so heavy that surgeons hired porters to carry their phones. If they wanted an entire day's worth of batteries, they had to hire the toughest of paratroopers to carry the batteries. Remember that in paratrooper-land, only sissies jump with 100 pound rucksacks.

................................................................................... Minor correction ... the planet rotates under Chuck Norris.