SivaGanesha

It seems to me that the best strategy in skydiving is to be patient when you must but also to jump when you can. The most passionate skydivers never turn down a chance to jump. They'd much rather make one or two jumps now than not jump at all. If they can get in the air today, they'll do so, and let the future take care of itself. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I would suspect there are many of us non-Christians who would prefer to politely say that Christianity is just not for us, shake hands, and move on, without bothering to attempt further refutation. But some of us have loved ones who are Christians and are not willing to leave it at a simple, polite, disagreement. Family is still family even when there is deep disagreement regarding religion. This sometimes forces the non-Christian family member to spend more time thinking about Christianity than they might otherwise prefer--but this proves nothing whatsoever about whether Christianity has any validity. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Glad to hear it ! See you and Keith (instructor Keith, not zen_mtn_climber Keith) there!

Yes and the email from USPA today definitely specifically mentions A licenses so they aren't just talking about the higher licenses. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

There was an email that just went out from USPA saying that some licenses are being denied because Coaches are signing skills cards where only an Instructor is allowed to sign. Can anyone clarify this for me a bit? I have everything in Category A-E signed off by an Instructor. For Category F-H there is a note that says "Under the supervision of a USPA Instructor, a USPA Coach may train only the freefall portions of Categories E-H". I have some stuff in Category F-G (not everything) now signed off. Some of it was signed by a Coach who (I believe) is not an Instructor. Will this be a problem? How can a Coach do their job if only an Instructor is allowed to sign? "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Hi Keith, Thanks--it would be great to jump with you once I get my 'A'. Hopefully I'll see you around the DZ again soon

There's an article in the current Parachutist describing a D-Day jump from "below 250 feet", although it is not clear whether that was the usual altitude for WW2 paratroop drops or if this was because the aircraft had already sustained Nazi fire and was in the process of crashing. Presumably a reserve would be useless that low, though. Agree with your second point. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I find this a bit hard to believe. They didn't have reserves in those days, so unless the mains were far MORE reliable than the mains of today, you'd be looking at more fatalities. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Hi Krisanne-- Thanks for the offer!! Greatly appreciated. I will definitely be at Skydance on Saturday. Right now my plan had been to take the canopy skills course that Lisa has announced for this Saturday--unless there is another plan that is better. However a number of the things I need to get signed off ARE either canopy or hop'n'pop related so I was thinking this course could be a good opportunity to get some of this stuff signed off. But I'm open to other plans as well . Might be good to decide before Saturday AM, though, because I assume that the canopy course will start early Saturday AM and if I start it I'll probably want to finish it. I'll be around Labor Day weekend as well. Thanks again--hope to jump with you one of these weekends . "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Hmmm...I returned to the sport fairly recently (jumped a bit in the 1980's) and essentially started again with AFF. I graduated from AFF in March and was really, really excited. At this point--it is now August--while I still want to do this--my enthusiasm level has dropped a bit from where it was in March. The main reason is that I haven't made much progress towards my 'A' after finishing AFF. At this point I've logged more than 25 jumps in 2009 (I'm not 'counting' old jumps from years ago but I've put in enough recent jumps this year to get my 'A'). It seems difficult--at least I've found it tough--to get anyone to talk to me and sit down and discuss a plan for finishing my 'A'. I'll admit that money is a bit of a concern for me--by this I mean that I have a job, but it is kind of a 'recession job' that doesn't pay too well. But I do have SOME money and if I had a clearer plan for finishing my 'A', I'd find a way from the money side to make it happen. Things seem very structured up until the end of AFF but after that there doesn't seem to be a clear plan for finishing. In talking with others who've finished their 'A' licenses recently; they seem to say that they didn't have to do very many official coach jumps--they would practice a number of things on solo jumps and then do one coach jump and get a bunch of stuff signed off. For that to be effective, though, there needs to be a clearer plan than I've been able to nail down. Tracking has been a bit of a concern for me so I know that is one thing I need to work on. However there doesn't seem to be any clear plan for getting some other stuff done in parallel--eg accuracy landing and hop'n'pops--and so none of that stuff is signed off or even attempted. As noted, I'm finding it difficult to get anyone's attention for long enough to formulate a plan. For example, if I email people prior to the weekend to talk about what I should be focusing on, those emails are often ignored and not responded to. People are friendly but seem too busy to really guide me during this phase of my skydiving career--at least that has been my perception. I realize I need to be persistent but at the same time I'm at a point where my frustration level is a bit high--I was very excited in March but was hoping to have more to show for the jumps I've done since March. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

David Ben-Gurion (and his successors). To re-establish the modern state of Israel after thousands of years of exile and (a) in the face of huge hostility in the region and (b) less than five years after the Holocaust strikes me as one of the most bold, yet successful, military operations in history. This has been one of the most fought-over regions on the planet, and Ben-Gurion and his successors established control of the region at a time when the odds would certainly have appeared to be very long against them. Of course Israel couldn't have done it based on military might alone--Israel has had to rely on diplomacy as well--but Israel has seemed to be able to exercise just the right combination of diplomatic tact and military toughness to succeed in the face of very long odds. This is not to say that everything the modern state of Israel has done in its 61-year history is worthy of praise, but certainly Israel has done some pretty amazing things with its military to secure itself in the region. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Well the particular song I seem to like that no one else does is 1959. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

He isn't down because he doesn't have a relationship. He's down because he turned to you for support and you are trashing him. It's early days in terms of his efforts to find a gal pal. Right now he's just trying to build a support network to help him in his search. You're expecting too much of him too soon. If he's turned off this particular girl, let him let this girl go and support him to find someone else. If a skydiver were making their first jump back after an injury, no one would expect too much of them on that jump. Instead people would be congratulating him/her for getting back in the air. Your friend was seriously hurt in the dating game earlier in his life. You should be congratulating him for having the courage to try again, not trashing him because the first one didn't work out. Figure out what didn't work with this girl and then encourage him to move on. It's going to take time for your friend to become good at something he obviously isn't good at yet. If you don't have the patience or the time or the temperament to be supportive of him over the long haul--and it sounds like it may take some time--then I think it would be better to be honest about that with your friend so he can look to others as he's building his support network. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

A good friend doesn't trash his buddy on the Internet even anonymously. As a practitioner of Buddhism and meditation, you should understand the power of how you hold your thoughts. You are holding a lot of negative thoughts about your friend in your mind and empowering them by broadcasting them on the Internet. That's not how a good friend acts. Many--although they tend to "graduate" into more senior roles like manager or CEO when they start dressing better. Most people who dress well tend not to remain as engineers for all that long hence the negative stereotype about engineers. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

You were there with them on the first date? To feed him lines? Must have been kind of a crowded date. Or do you mean that she almost didn't want to go out with him again until you talked her into giving him a second chance? But yes in general it might be better to let him learn from his own mistakes. Who is driving this process anyways--did he ask you to try to find him someone or did you plant the idea in his mind that he is somehow less of a human being if he is between relationships right now? It sounds like he was rather hurt in his first relationship with a woman. People heal at different rates. Sometimes people dress badly because unconsciously they aren't ready for a new relationship and actually DON'T want to attract anyone. When he is ready he'll start changing some of these things without you having to goad him into it. Perhaps there are some things in his style that need to be improved but he needs to be given a chance to develop his own style of approaching women. It's not going to be the same as your style because he is his own unique person. You can give him a few pointers but he's not going to develop his own style if you are always breathing down both of their necks trying to get him to change. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I'm mainly responding to the OP, shah269, here...you said this was his second date with this woman. So what were the positive qualities that he showed on his first date with her that earned him the second date? There must have been something positive--and you yourself said that she liked him--about him that got him the second date. Can you try to build on that? And encourage him and her to build on that? "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

So are you saying that interpersonal skills--and not skydiving/evaluation skills--should be the primary factor in determining the tip? I think I've made clear but I guess I need to repeat--I think it would happen only very very rarely, if at all, that an instructor would accept an open bribe. But I AM saying that how money is handled affects the culture of the sport and should be considered carefully. My first jump in 1983 was at Skydive SWOOP at Grand Bend Airport in Canada. SWOOP was (and I think still is) organized as a non-profit. OTOH GB Sport Parachuting Center, at the same airport, was organized as a for profit business. I'm not saying which is better--but what I AM saying is that I learned early on that how money is handled affects the culture of skydiving. SWOOP and GBSPC definitely had very different cultures and it had a lot to do with the different philosophies they had about money. All I'm saying is that if you're going to accept tips think carefully about how it affects the culture of the sport. There's more involved here than just the remote risk of an instructor accepting a blatant bribe. What I'm saying is that tipping seems to be a relatively new phenomenom in the sport and I'm not sure if people are thinking through the long term consequences of this kind of a change in the culture. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

And the student probably won't tip those other instructors--at least not as well--because they won't be seen as "nice guys/gals". Exactly. And they'll continue to get the big tips and leave it to their poorer fellow instructors to do the real teaching. A student isn't in a position to evaluate how well an AFFI is doing their job, and shouldn't be asked to make that evaluation. Asking a student to make a determination as to size of tip is adding additional stress to what is already a challenging learning process. That's why I'm suggesting that, if you are going to have tipping for AFFI's at all, put it in a jar and have the instructors divvy it up amongst themselves in the way they (or the DZ) see fit. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I have no doubt that the vast, vast majority of instructors--and especially of current instructors who entered the sport and became instructors without the expectation of big tips--would behave in ethical ways especially where safety is concerned. But I remain concerned about the effect of tipping on the culture of skydiving. There might be the occasional bad apple among current instructors but my bigger concern is that if you change the culture by making tipping a big part of the sport, future instructors might get into the sport for the wrong reasons--not because of a love of skydiving but because of a love of money. I think if you are going to have tipping in skydiving at all, it should be via a jar which all instructors share at the end of the day--even though I know one poster expressed dislike for this kind of tipping--NOT via tips for individual instructors. That way the taciturn instructor who acts like an a****le because he spends more time thinking about safety than about being popular can share equally with the better liked instructor who tries to be everyone's friend by passing them a bit too leniently. That's the way it should be IMHO. BTW I have no problem with tipping for packers or, in most cases, for tandem--because those folks are usually just providing a service and if you feel they are more than earning their money, it is great to give them a little extra. It's when you start getting into AFF and real decisions are being made about the student's skydiving future that I'd be more concerned. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

My concern--although it is not such a big deal for tandems but definitely a factor for AFF and beyond--would be that an instructor receiving a tip would feel a pressure to pass a student on a jump they otherwise should be repeating. A waiter usually doesn't have to make any decisions that are so important so it is not so big a deal. I think the tradition of showing appreciation by buying beer that everyone can share is a good tradition in skydiving and appropriate to the nature of skydiving. Tips for individuals would cause me some concern in skydiving. I have no problem with the quality of a waitress' service depending on how large a tip she is expecting to get. I do see an issue with the safety of an instructor's performance depending in any way on the size of a tip. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Ouch! Can you do traffic school? I just finished traffic school for a speeding ticket back in March. Attached is a page from the traffic school course.

I think in this case "finishing what you start" would have meant recognizing he was too low and leaving the 270 until the next jump. I'm not recommending doing anything that causes lasting damage but putting off college for a year or two to pursue other dreams will NOT cause lasting damage in most cases. It could. It might. Are you going to take the hit and support him if it does? No, but Barack's asking me to take the hit and support him if he defaults on federally guaranteed student loans. I'm okay with that if he's thought through his options and has made a wise choice of college/program/major, but if his heart isn't fully in college/university yet, I'd prefer as a taxpayer/investor in his future that he wait until he is ready. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I think in this case "finishing what you start" would have meant recognizing he was too low and leaving the 270 until the next jump. I'm not recommending doing anything that causes lasting damage but putting off college for a year or two to pursue other dreams will NOT cause lasting damage in most cases. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

The advice I was given when I was very young (I'm now 43) was that I should finish what I start. Good advice but in your case I think finishing what you start means you should get your 'A' then go for your degree--not the other way around. Both are important but since you have two jumps--clearly with the intent of earning your 'A'--you should finish earning your 'A' before accepting admission to college/university. You definitely need to do both but since you've already started working towards your 'A' I believe that--for now--college/university should be worked around skydiving and not the other way around. Once you're done with your 'A' you can reduce the priority of skydiving a bit, still make some jumps, but focus on your degree without being in a rush to get the higher licenses. You've set a goal in skydiving and you've started working towards it. You need to finish that goal. College will always be there. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014