nigel99

John, first of all I regret my thread title. The abuse of someone's death really riled me. I apologise to all as I honestly don't like to swear and offend. Secondly, I think that for the large part it is frustration with religion, rather than hatred. I know on a personal level I find it harder and harder to keep a straight face, and not make a comment when someone promotes a religious viewpoint. I also feel that we are wrong as I think that some people need religion to help them cope with the big bad world. By way of an example think about how you generally feel about other religions? Don't you get frustrated that they are misguided, and how could they be so silly to believe in Allah, Buddha or whatever?

Point taken. In my view the USPA are missing a trick though. As part of our membership we SHOULD have an undertaking. Something like "to abide by the recommendations in the SIM, promote best practice in the sport, and uphold the laws of the governing body where we jump".

As this is the first time I've heard this, maybe you could explain what the W, I and E stand for? I can guess the 'F' Agh, the other three are Washing, Ironing,and Eating.

Ok that is interesting. I'm a Chartered Engineer in the UK and although that counts for naught here in Oz (unless I bothered to convert it), if I was found to breach the code of ethics while here. I could technically have my status revoked.

Thanks Squeak APF - bit of a brain fart there! Yes I fully realise that in Oz the APF rules are king. But in some organisations when you join to commit to uphold their standards. I intend to maintain my USPA membership (if for no other reason than I like the mag). So while in Oz I am REQUIRED to meet the APF minimums where the USPA has a higher minimum, does the USPA 'expect' me to follow them? It is purely academic as there is no USPA body for about 5000 miles. Of course I could chose to put my USPA B license number in my profile and jump my GO-PRO this weekend - and post on DZ.com. I really don't want to drag this into a typical dz.com camera thread... We could pick on the currency requirements as another example. USPA 30/60/90 days or 6 months depending on your license. APF is 6 jumps a year regardless. Of course I acknowledge the fact that different DZ's may chose to enforce their own policies.

The views may be interesting, but I found it in extremely poor taste to exploit some guys death to sell your ideology. I think it is entirely true that people spend to much of their life worrying about the 'gadgets' or trappings and miss the big picture. Personally my view is very different to yours though - I feel that I lost about 10 years of my life to Jesus, and I am sure that you feel that now I am 'lost' without him.

As a USPA member is there an agreement in place that we as members abide by the SIM? I am a member of a couple of professional bodies and part of being a member requires that you uphold the standards of the organisation, failure to do so can mean expulsion. I am curious, as I am now a member of both the APF and USPA. As you would expect the two organisations have different restrictions in place. In some cases the APF is stricter than the USPA and in other area's the USPA sets the higher threshold. This means that I can disregard aspects of the SIM if I chose to quite legitimately over here. The easiest examples are 100 jumps minimum for camera and different currency recommendations. My nature is to merge the two and always let the most restrictive rules apply. But it would be interesting to know if the USPA 'expects' its members to adhere to the SIM.

Nah, when the kids are away I am sure the mothering hens will disappear. I am pretty sure it is because I am a heathen and they are trying to get me to see the light. I could always mention that while they are taking care of the W.I and the E in wife, they could also take care of the F?

Bwhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa +1 to your thread title Is that on their website? I should have been clear it is the "view sample clip" that I have seen. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZy_qHjvnl4&feature=related Here is another one for the list. Hand cam footage isn't worth the effort. TI busy doing handsignals that the woman is nuts. A crap landing that results in broken bones. It appears that his final turn is possibly abit on the low side? (wouldn't mind hearing an opinion on that)

Sorry but this REALLY pissed me off! The link to the youtube vid was posted in one of the skydiving threads. http://www.finalfrontier.tv/ "Gospel" based people, using a skydiving fatality video to sell their poison. The only thing that redeemed this was a youtube comment "If Jesus loved me he would swallow"

Well he got coffee didn't he?

It is certainly cost effective. Somewhere like Skydive the Farm has free accommodation, and flights into Atlanta are quite cheap. Food's not really the issue (you can live off of Walmart stuff for couple of dollars a day) - but the beer costs could be high.

The Bedford tunnel is fantastic. Windtunnel is different to skydiving though. I haven't done a tandem but it would definitely be more of a skydive than the tunnel. If I were in your shoes, I would probably choose to do AFF level 1 as my birthday present. My wife did 3 or 4 tandems prior to AFF, and she came off absolutely BUZZING (ask popsjumper if you don't believe me). The fact that YOU contribute significantly to the jump is what makes it. If money is a concern or issue, then static line is a good option I suspect that there is more ground school involved in static line though, so it may require a full weekend of learning, rather than a morning. I'm not saying that is a bad thing.

It is very odd, I've seen it on a couple of base videos today. That and the idea of both front and rear facing go-pro's. I don't have a clue about base, but I am surprised by it. I would have expected guys to be more concerned about snag points - not less. In wingsuit base jumping a camera mounted on your helmet is about as far away from the deploying canopy as you can get (apart from a chest mount). See if you can find any rear facing footage of a full flight base deployment. There were some great shots in one of Robi's movies, Fly The Line 2 I think, you can see the canopy deploying so far behind its brushing the trailing edge of the leg wing. Opens up a whole new can of worms in terms of ankle mounts (and I have seen people mounting GoPros on their right foot in WS base) but the helmet mounted cameras aren't such a big deal. (Of course sub-terminal is a whole different animal again) Jakee that makes a lot of sense.

You are completely correct that the sport is full of hypocrites. But just because other people are too stupid to follow best practice, doesn't mean that we all should! At the end of the day there are people who are safety concious out there and don't push the limits. They may not be the cool squad, but I can almost guarantee they are the guys with less injuries.

Andy I'm a baby when it comes to camping out on the grass. Freaking branch fell in the woods and the first thought through my head, was it would really suck to be killed by a tree on a skydiving holiday. Bunkhouse is good, just bring a pillow and sleeping bag - I don't think the farm have them? I've never asked...

I'm sure you are right. It just appeared contrary to what I've grown up with. 90% of me thinks they have the knowledge and experience to do the job right, but when I see a big old stock thumbscrew sticking out of the setup, it makes me go umm? Something that costs a few cents to replace with a normal low profile machine screw.

It is very odd, I've seen it on a couple of base videos today. That and the idea of both front and rear facing go-pro's. I don't have a clue about base, but I am surprised by it. I would have expected guys to be more concerned about snag points - not less.

I'm curious at to why some jumpers don't seem bothered by Gopro's snag points. I've watched a couple of videos on youtube and you see their camera's on "huge" extensions. http://www.sikharchives.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/jeb_corliss_bat_suit.jpg This pic of Jeb is a typical example, notice that he hasn't even bothered to replace the standard large gopro screw with a low profile screw. Are these guys simply ignoring the dangers, am I missing something? I guess you could easily have it rigged so that it will simply snap off with a few pounds of force? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I normally stayed at the Days Inn down the road, when I didn't stay at the bunkhouse. In the past I have just winged it. If the DZ got rowdy or the bunkhouse was full, I went to the hotel. On Friday night you can nominate yourself as designated driver and go out to dinner with a bunch of the farm guys

Have you looked at an Access upgrade carefully? I know in the past that certain programs that are part of the pro suite accept any installed version of Office as a baseline.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/aussie-speedflyer-killed-in-south-island-accident/story-fn7x8me2-1226274533348 Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

That is what I don't understand in the digital versus analogue debate. The colour coding makes an analogue a binary instrument. It is red or it is not - very easy to process under stress. If all that was important to recognize was whether you were in the red zone or not, that makes some sense. We usually want to know how far away from the red and yellow zone we are. The typical glance at an analog alti I think takes much longer to happen and process than the "I don't understand in the digital versus analogue debate" analog advocates appreciate. I completely agree that it is not all that matters. It is an interesting trade-off. When I was new to freefall I had a very scary event. I had a metric alti so was used to deploying at 1. I borrowed an alti in feet and had a brain fart so was in freefall waiting for "1". At some point it clicked that I was well into the red zone. It was the days of my jumping a C9 which is essentially a reserve so I got lucky. Both have their strengths though without doubt.