livendive

Smartass! g Hey, some of us have to balance out all the dumbasses. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Consider this thread reported. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Why do you think one species is "more important" than another? And how are you defining "important"? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I don't have (and you can't provide) enough information to answer the question. My decision would vary on far too many factors, most importantly my gut reaction to the stranger. I would presume a child to be innocent and worth the sacrifice of my pet. I would presume a burglar in my home to be in need of someone else's assistance. In between it's just too tough for me to say. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

That's impressive! I couldn't get the videos to play, but the audio only "hunting song" was pretty cool. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Given that your relationship never grew beyond friendship, and you still have that, you haven't lost anything more than an opportunity, and not much of one at that (she was with someone else). In other news, you lost a similar opportunity with countless other women who got married or otherwise hitched in the past few months. The bottom line is that you didn't lose anything that you don't lose on a regular basis. Get over it and maybe be a bit more aggressive the next time you see an opportunity. Blues Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

:12:0 7 tandems, 4 tandem videos, 1 A-license check dive. Temps were surprizingly moderate (high 80's), and getting out from underneath a drogue was a nice change of pace, especially since I had a demo Katana to play with.

How's that workin' out for ya? It got me a visiting short redhead. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Attention? I'm here for my 15 minutes of *fame*! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

It took me a long time...like a couple decades. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'd argue this point with you, but I doubt you'd take your own advice. Since you're no doubt going to keep talking anyhow, please provide us socially-challenged noobs with even more of your sage advice on improving our standing in this community. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Thank you John. I'm not surprised in the least by your skilled flying and decision-making, and I'm grateful that one of my friends had another there to save him. Beers are on me at your earliest possible convenience.

I would agree with that, "if altitude permits." In a two out situation, an RSL can do nothing to help you and there is a chance (however large or small) that it could cause an entanglement during a chop. A quick risk/reward comparison would suggest disconnecting unless that would present greater risk (e.g at low altitude). Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

In b4 divorce. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Yep. I think USPA assumes all the small DZ's have already gone under, when in reality some of us are trying to thrive despite their best efforts to the contrary. Five ratings might seem like small potatoes at Perris and Eloy, but they make a big difference in a 2-3 man rotation. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Like I said, if it's worth doing at a GM DZ, it's worth doing at a non GM DZ. In my experience, dedication to safety (e.g. seperating landing areas) has zero relevance to whether a dropzone pays USPA a group member fee each year. And to the topic at hand, I could see appointing an S&TA who sometimes jumps at a particular dropzone, but not one who never or nearly never jumps there. If the latter is the case, politics are likely at play. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

MadJohn, John & Valinda Mitchell, Jim Bozarth. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What does the GM program have to do with safety? Anything worth doing at a group member dropzone is equally worth doing at a non-group member dropzone. Simply put, the program isn't about safety. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I actually read all that guys editorials, mostly because he seems to actually engage in critical thought, which is conspicuous by it's absence in most of the partisan hacks CNN finds to write that kind of stuff. For what it's worth, I also like Ruben Navarette, even though I disagree with both of those guys quite frequently. There really are people thinking real, original thoughts out there--it's just hard to find them. I find Roland Martin to frequently be a breath of fresh air, even though I also frequently disagree with him. But Ruben Naverette is boring to me, perhaps because I have the capacity to think that some things actually have absolutely nothing to do with Mexican immigration. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I've been previously been S&TA at a non-group member DZ and I'm currently S&TA at a group member DZ. You know what the difference is between the two DZs, from a safety & training perspective? Not one damn thing. If it were my call, my current DZ would spend that $400/year on something that had a bigger impact on safety than the GM program does...say, ergonomic seats in the plane or something. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

This won't be the first pollutant to be restricted, so to what extent did this effect happen with PCBs and CFCs? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Which facts do you think are missing? And which state has claimed that it isn't a legitimate form of identification? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

That article is worthless and most likely partisan. LOL - as opposed to all the credible sources linked earlier in this thread? Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Do you expect this of every President? Representatives and Senators too? If I remember correctly, Obama did put it on display on his webpage during the campaign. And he did provide sufficient proof to the government. There is no requirement (and indeed a good argument against) him proving it to each individual according to their own level of satisfaction. I suspect that if there were a legitimate claim, McCain or the GOP would have brought it. They have substantially more resources and motivation than the average tin-foil-hat wearing nutjob. If you think he's now doing something wrong, the burden is on you to prove it. Otherwise, I'll presume him innocent of forgery, impersonating the President, or whatever other unsubstantiated assertion you'd like to make. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I vigorously disagree. The hoops necessary to re-rate or cross-train an uncurrent or non-USPA tandem instructor are absurd. In the last 3 years I’ve had 5 experienced guys face an uphill battle in this regard. One had 600 tandems and expired S/L & IAD instructor ratings, but never had a USPA tandem rating and was 2 years uncurrent…he drove several hundred miles to get his mfg’s rating, but the USPA side of things wasn’t completed properly and that took months to resolve. Another was a very current jumper (coach rated) but new TI whose examiner didn’t cross USPA’s T’s & dot their I’s, so I had to sit him when the BSRs changed because it took months for the examiner to fix things on the USPA side of the house (his mfg rating was fine). Another was a prior rig owner with hundreds of tandems, in the past year, and a current coach rating…his best bet for the USPA rating ended up being to go to an examiner he knew on the other side of the country. In the works now are two guys with >5000 jumps each, one of whom has >1000 tandems and a current S/L-I rating, but he’s never had a USPA-TI rating and hasn’t done a tandem in two years. The other has 3500+ tandems, is a former rig owner (different mfg), and has an expired S/L-I rating, but he hasn’t had a USPA tandem rating and hasn’t jumped in 4 years. One’s about done after only a week and several hundred miles. The other is still a couple weeks out. I’ve been a USPA instructor of one sort or another for 10 years now (currently all four sorts), an S&TA for 6 years, I own 4 tandem rigs, have around a thousand tandems, and have been front-side somewhere around 20 times, including with a first-timer who froze up and not only didn’t pull, but blocked both drogue releases at pull-time. In my opinion, my qualifications ought to be enough to train brand new tandem instructors, but, at a minimum, I ought to be able to get these sorts of people (listed above) recurrent and properly documented. Instead, I have an option of paying thousands of dollars to travel somewhere and be blessed by the powers that be, despite my complete disinterest in doing it commercially, or joining guys in the head>>>wall-banging that is bound to ensue any time a USPA tandem rating or any lack of currency is involved. I’m not trying to toot my own horn here, and I don’t consider myself god’s gift to skydiving instruction, tandem or otherwise, but c’mon…this stuff ain’t rocket science. Some reasonable amount of experience teaching skydiving and teaching tandems (and even teaching skydiving via the tandem->AFF method) ought to be good enough for at least some minimal abilities in this regard. Blues, Dave (happy to take flames on this issue...you won't piss me off any more than it already has) "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)