He explains why he got kicked out like this:
Yes, I will elaborate. What I did to get thrown out was write more than 70 emails complaining with increasing audacity and ferocity about the behavior of the USPA headquarters staff, beginning with the new Director of Government Relations. Government Realtions is a service of importance to skydiving entertainers because we have allowed USPA to become recognized as the experts in the field and worthy of respect from the aviation industry in general and FAA in particular. Today I'm ashamed of that reality.
I work with more than 30 FAA offices in an average season and have written thousands of documents and hundreds of letters to make the red-tape that come with skydiving performances easier for both the performer and the FAA safety inspector who must process the documents.
Our previous Director of Government Relations knows this is true and knows of my wide raport with FAA wearing many hats including DPRE for more than 13 years. Undergraduate studies at Purdue taught me much about FAA. My BS degree is in Aviation Technology. I hold A&P and pilot certificates and was admitted to Master's Degree too at Purdue in technology teaching pursuits.
The original issue that touched off this campaign is that TSA (Transportation Security Administration) has agreed with me THREE times that a pilot does NOT need a background check if he will not penetrate a TFR during a jump flight over a major sporting event. The jumper DOES need the check. No argument there.
Last season, FAA took over final vetting of the TSA Waiver process. They did so rather clumsily with a new "BETA" website for applicants to apply. Clumsy means there was no transition between the established application process and the new "BETA" process. Beta means in general terms "almost ready for prime time but still up for review or repair." The new site is easy to use and the process efficient, BUT.
When the new BETA system refused to allow my waiver without subjecting my pilot to a background check I SPOKE OUT instantly. Here we go for the FOURTH time on this issue, I thought. When I called FAA, I was scolded by a belligerent pair at FAA Security named Kerry Fleming and Brian Throop.
Once scolded, I was angry and turned to USPA for help. Not only did the new director, nor his boss, nor any member of the board have a clue what the problem was, but the new director, a 30-yr. friend and peer in the industry replied but once in insultingly curt language and then immediately stopped all service or replies thereafter.
Research will show this is not uncharacteristic for your new representative.
We have a problem here. When so called industry leaders chose to ignore the most experienced and professional experts and then spend substantial resources and time - your dues money at work - to undermine and discredit the expert in order to mask their own ignorance ... well, we just aren't getting anywhere, gang. We are moving backwards.
I flamed out on this guy and I will stop when he quits this job or gets a clue. It is the least I can do for the common good. We simply cannot play the way this staff plays now.
We are a tiny, tiny swarm of gnats in the big aviation eco-system. Until we play nice and start sharing our crayons, using all the tools for productive progress, we will remain a spoiled bunch of cry babies who deserve to be regulated out of existence.
Share your crayons, boys & girls. It makes a nicer picture.
Child's play comes with temper tantrums. I have staged one for entertainment using grown-up straight-from-the-packing-area get-down-and-get-nasty call-a-spade-a-spade language. It is language we would scarcely notice with more than a guffaw on the DZ.
When you get a new business card or a brass plaque on your desk, should you stop allowing your friends to treat you like they always would before? I think not.
And please, tell your Regional Director that USPA needs all the help it can get. Tossing out a full-time professional skydiving entertainer who writes prolifically and who will have no choice but to spend the next few years explaining to dozens of FAA offices that the professional weakness of the USPA became unbearable ... well.
Why NOT pay higher dues in this economy? USPA is voluntary. Do we have enough experts to form a recognizable splinter group. A think tank perhaps?
A watchdog?
Several have said "so what?" "Why not just check your pilot?"
Try producing 75 performances per year? Then you will know.
Try producing one 500-way performance.
Then 500 of us will know. Today it seems, only me and a bunch of aviators who fly at big events can see how blind your leadership stubbornly insists on remaining.
Something is really wrong here. Do you REALLY need Uncle Sam telling you how to skydive?
Does Uncle Sam even know how?
Ask your local demo expert whether Uncle Sam knows anything about skydiving. Ask your jump pilot whether Uncle Sam knows anything about skydiving.
Ask your LOCAL FAA office whether THEY know anything about skydiving.
On the local level, the department of your Federal Government that is grudgingly tasked with dealing with skydivers is known collectively as the FLIGHT STANDARDS Division.
There's ONE guy in the whole division who has knowledge on demo jumps. One guy.
Here's the link:
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/field_offices/fsdo/
You can find your local FSDO very easily here. That stands for Flight Standards District Office and we ALL pronounce it Fizz Dough. (More on dough later, Jay.)
You can call them up.
Try this. Look up your local FSDO using the link above.
When you call, you will have to negotiate through a call tree and you want to get to the "Operations Supervisor on Duty."
When you find him or her, be polite, and ask if there is a person there who "usually" handles parachuting issues regarding parachute "OPERATIONS."
(Not jump aircraft. Aircraft issues are handled by the "AIRWORTHINESS" guys.
Then ask them anything that comes to mind ... like ... oh ... say ... "What can you tell me about the US PAyrachute Association? Do you think they know what they are doing?"
In a flat world, in a wink-ee-peed-eee-ahh type environment ...
we don't need no stinking government telling us what to do.
We just need to pay the salaries of the chosed few.
Right Ed?
Right Randy?
Right Lee?
Right Jay?
Right Glen?
How bout a little bj among friends, Randy?
Bend over members.
You have a new director masagging your uncle's heads. His name is not Peter.
Hope that helps.
