wolfriverjoe

Probably your best choice. To be fair, this is a rather common desire among a LOT of jumpers and pilots. The smart ones ask more experienced people what's involved and what needs to be done to accomplish them safely and legally. "Bandit Jumps" (search that term for a lot more info) can be a lot of fun. It's not that they can't or shouldn't be done. It's that done badly, they generate a lot of negative attention to the sport.

If it's just a matter of reclosing the main container and restowin the pilot chute, I'd be mostly ok with that. In a DC-3, you have plenty of time. There wouldn't be any rush to close it fast.

Ya know? I think that would be up to the voters. Or maybe the UN. Yeah, I can see all the 'patriotic 'Muricans' on board with this.

How did Chinese 'administration' of Hong Kong work out? And I find the idea of a "UN Supervised election" in Ukraine to be rather abhorrent. Since when should a sovereign nation accept invasion of it's territory if approved by a referendum? How about we have a "UN Supervised Election" in Texas, Arizona and California to see if they should be returned to Mexico?

Not 'tens of thousands.' 27. Including two paid security guys. https://www.salon.com/2022/10/08/followers-activists-for-low-attendance-at-dc-rally_partner/

It can be done legally. If can be done safely. But for a jumper who's never done this before (assumption on my part), and a pilot who's never done this before (another assumption on my part), out of a plane that isn't really properly configured for jump operations... Probably not.

He already did. Walker would vote the way Trump wants him to. That's good enough for Ron. They don't care about 'ethics', 'morality', or even 'right & wrong'. They want power. Period. They've even said so.

Noooooooo!!!! His hero Putin is destroying NAZIS!!!!!!!!!!! And replacing the corrupt Ukraine government with a MORE corrupt Russian puppet government!!! We really need a 'sarcasm' font.

Trump got 74 million votes in 2020. "Lying hypocritical ignoramus" barely scratches the surface for him.

General rule in police interrogations is that once you figure out that the suspect is lying, none of his statements are considered 'credible' without supporting evidence.

^This. Big time. If you don't know what you are doing, find a mentor. From the way you are asking, you don't really know what you are doing (this is an observation, not a criticism). If the pilot hasn't done this before, find a mentor. It can be done safely. But there are a lot of pitfalls. If you don't know what those are, they can easily kill you.

Usually. It's a lot easier to string wires and run pipes over/under/inside and existing structure than it is to create new. Interesting article in the BBC, it has a lot of social media posts from both sides. Funny how a very strategic bridge is 'civilian infrastructure'. How a very capable opponent are now 'vandals'. And (of course), "Tis but a scratch". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63183404 In all seriousness, that bridge is badly damaged. They may have a lane open on the 'car' side, but the structural damage is likely significant. I don't think that bridge will hold significant weight without a LOT of work. And the train side is truly screwed. The fires are going to do a lot of damage. Trains are heavy. I don't think anyone's going to see a train on that bridge for a LOOOOOOONG time. Maybe never. If (when?) Ukraine takes back the Crimean peninsula, I don't think they're going to want that bridge operational.

Can also come from a series of close calls. Not just stuff that kills people, but stuff that hurts them or 'almost kills' them. This one was a bit more controversial than many, in large part because it seemed to be driven more by the AAD manufacturers than by actual events. The manufacturers wanted the higher minimum container opening altitudes to reduce the chance of a jumper getting a two-out with higher AAD activation altitudes. That's a reasonable thing for them to want. The reality is that the 750' CYPRES activation altitude is as low as it can be, and that leaves very little room for any sort of opening delay. Reserve pilot chute hesitation? Freebag hangup for a second? Thud. The videos I've seen of AAD fires usually have a reserve ride measured in seconds. And not a lot of them. I'm good with the higher minimums. I have my AAD set higher. I pull around 3k and always have. As I've gone my merry way through the sport, I've seen other people's pull altitudes go up. Most pull at 3500 or higher. So now I feel like the 'crusty old guy' pulling 'dirty low' like I saw the old guys do when I started (but they were pulling 2k or lower).

What are you talking about? The mRNA vax was over 90% effective at preventing infection with the original virus. The effectiveness diminished with the later variants. That's why they called infections of vaccinated people 'breakthrough' infections. From a deeper dig in the CDC link you posted: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/effectiveness/why-measure-effectiveness/breakthrough-cases.html

Oil dropped below $80/barrel earlier this week. So, OPEC+ (that includes Russia) decided to cut production. How many of the idiots are going to blame Biden for not controlling the Saudis?https://www.npr.org/2022/10/05/1126754169/opec-oil-production-cut

I didn't say they aren't dangerous. They are. Doesn't make them 'not stupid'. The kidnapping plot demonstrates that pretty clearly. They somehow seemed to think that kidnapping the governor would 'put them in charge'. They apparently had no idea of the concept of a 'succession plan'.

Yup. Stupid people.

^This. I currently jump at a small DZ. I've was a regular at a larger DZ before Covid. Both places have a very inclusive culture for students. It goes without saying that everyone knows everyone else at the small DZ. The students are welcomed as new potential jump partners by the other fun jumpers. Even at the larger DZ, the S&TA (and head instructor) knows all the students. He may not know exactly where they are in the progression, but he has a general idea. The instructors communicate well among themselves. They make logbook entries that allow the next instructor to know what's going on. And if it isn't clear, I've seen the student and the instructor that's prepping them go and find the instructor from the previous jump. That previous instructor will then sit in on the pre-jump brief and offer both the student and the next instructor guidance on what needs work and what doesn't. Also, the DZO is very inclusive. I've directly heard him tell newer students that "once you've done an AFF jump, you are part of the community. You're one of us. You're welcome at the parties, bonfires, or just sitting around on weather holds." He does a lot to cultivate the fun jumper community. That's because he, his wife and his sons are all fun jumpers too. He freely admits he does it so that he & his family have people to jump with.

I think it would be interesting to see someone launch a military operation to seize it. At this point in time, if it was a Boy Scout troop doing the invasion, I'd give them even odds against the Russian army.

Makes one wonder if that was a coincidence, or if the Ukrainians knew he was going to be there. Hmmm... How would they have gotten that information? Hmmm...

Ah. My mistake. The 2 that got hit by the train were careless and stupid. They were so focused on getting the suspect, they forgot to pay attention to where they were.

As Jakee noted, tying someone up and leaving them on the railroad tracks goes well beyond 'careless'. Good grief, it's a cliche from "Dudley Do-right." The 'rough ride' incidents in Baltimore should have been assault. And intentional homicide. Those weren't 'reckless' or 'careless', they were intentional. The fact that they got away with it doesn't change the reality of the behavior.

Cops do whatever the fuck they want. Go where they want, park where they want, act however they want. Who's going to stop them? Once in a while, it bites them in the ass. https://abcnews.go.com/US/chicago-police-officers-killed-train-chasing-suspected-gunman/story?id=59877169 Two cops hit by a train, Dec 2018. What the story only glosses over is the fact that they weren't actually chasing the suspect when they got hit. They had lost sight of him, and were standing on the tracks trying to figure out where to look next.

Yeah. The idea that the Senators who represent FLORIDA voted against a bill funding storm relief the day BEFORE a major hurricane hits... Florida. Yep, that's pretty stupid. On the same level as someone voting against storm relief funding, then a few years later, when Governor, begs and pleads for aid money. I'm glad I'm not in charge. I'd have told DeSantis something like "I'll tell you what, I'll give you exactly what you were willing to give New York in the wake of Sandy. How about that?"

The Azov Battalion is right-wing. Kinda like the Wagner Group. The Azov's have Nazis in it. That doesn't make the Azovs Nazi any more than it makes the Republicans Nazi because they have Nazis in them. The US government (not just Biden) gave the Ukrainians Billions of dollars worth of military equipment. I don't know how much of that went to the Azov (neither do you) but it certainly wasn't ALL of it. Pretending that it was is pretty foolish. And lots of people know what the Russians did to prisoners. There were witnesses. There were survivors. War crimes committed by the Russians have been pretty well documented. Pretending that a fairly small (but still too many) neo-Nazis are the entire Azov battalion is pretty foolish. Not surprising, considering how blatantly you spread Russian propaganda, but still foolish.