nigel99

I have just done a search through the old thread and I can't find the reference, so maybe I mis-remembered. But I thought that i recalled you stating that his illness and belief that he did not have very long to live (I paraphrased to months) as a possible motive. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Sounds like he was quite a guy. Shame that he died. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

From following the 2 threads I seriously doubt that it could have been Duane for the following reasons: While I am not familiar with the exact parachute types mentioned I did do all my training on T10 and C9's. They were very heavy and constricting in movement and this was with no baggage. Add the money, briefcase etc and I really think you start to need a fairly fit individual (granted it appears there is no belly mount reserve which helps mobility) It has been stated that Duane had some sort of illness that made doctors think he only had months to live at the time - that doesn't tally - especially as it was a stated potential motive. Finally having progressed through SL I have never come across a first time free-faller who didn't pull virtually as their feet left the step (maybe even before ). At the speeds that are being talked about for exit I guess a quick pull is going to (probably?) result in death or very serious injury. If the person didn't bounce then I think they had more than a handful of jumps to their name - or were very lucky. My gut feel is that the person was probably some sort of special forces person who had experience with "most" of the elements. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

But being British territory not mainland Britain it is probable that it was pure miscommunication. Ultimately it is the US to blame - they are behaving like a true rogue state - they would be screaming bloody murder if Iran did that to a US citizen. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Does this admission mean that we no longer need to question who Cooper was, but ask you how you pulled it off? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

20 per day is way to high if enforced daily. I agree use it or lose it policy would work best - otherwise after a 2 week break someone could provide a flood of drivel. The problem with a low daily limit is that if you are off-site for a few days interesting topics may leave you wanting to post to a number of different posts. Starting a thread shouldn't count extra - but maybe a limit on the number of attachments? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I can see the point of trying to act quickly but the saying "winning the battle, but losing the war" comes to mind. I guess it is only natural that this type of thing causes resentment. It is also a gross violation of being a superpower, as it is quite likely that another nation behaving in this manner would at the very least find itself in a diplomatic row, and at worst at war. Lastly actiing quickly tends to result in innocents getting killed - how many times has the US had to back-track on "suspected terrorists" only for them to have made a mistake? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

As someone else said it is a good idea. If feasible a weekly limit would be better as it would enable people who come in less frequently to "catch up" with posts. I think that the non-bonfire/sc threads should have a much higher limit as there are non-mods who often have alot of good idea input. Finally I think it is fair that premier members get a higher post allocation. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

What if the mugger IS your 75 year old grandmother? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7248555.stm I was going to post this for JR anyway as it is knife crime in England Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

This morning I collected my bike with a brand new front tyre - and fairly large maintenance bill. Frost/ice on the road and I came off on the first corner about 100 yards from the bike shop. I was probably only doing 20 miles an hour but I am pretty bruised. Anyway it's back in the bike shop with the exhaust ripped off and damage to the crank case Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I disagree with this if you mean forcing them to compete is wrong. The problem is that of balance. In general most of us are good at something. Our daughter is extremely bright and realises that she is way ahead of most of her peers - as a result she struggles with arrogance. If there were more competitive sports she could then realise that she is non-athletic and the class dunce whips her ass at sport. We see the same thing in other bright "nerds" and the sport would help knock them down a peg or two. Similarly a child who struggles academically could get a boost of self esteem from doing well at sport. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I didn't mean "spot" in the conventional sense that we use the term. Simply in the sense of "hey DB you are over-head now". I can't visualise a corridor that is +/-4 mile corridor 10 thousand feet above in terms of horizon. Also it was mentioned ages ago and I don't remember an answer - if aircraft fly reference to Above Sea level (and their altimeters are referenced to that?) then what is the elevation of the DZ - people say it is rugged is it 1 or 2 thousand feet ASL meaning an 8-9k AGL potential exit? People have mentioned that it would not have been to co-ordinate with someone on the ground as there were no mobile telephones back then - this is just an option. Now the problem is that even IF he had a radio in the plane he isn't going to be able to use it under canopy - but then again having it on him may allow for a final meeting post jump. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I am curious as to why nobody mentions mobile radio's as a possibility? I am to young to know the state of PMR in the early 70's but young enough and from a background where hand-helds had good range 2-3miles on the ground and small enough to be highly portable (pre-mobile phone days). A big speculative "if" but could he have co-ordinated a drop with someone on the ground using radio? range is hugely extended with height and a 20 mile "line of sight" is possible with a plane at altitude. Potential scenario is that IF he/they knew the flight path someone could "spot" for him even without a visual cue through the noise of the plane passing overhead? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I saw the bbc article and the part that caught my eye is bolded above. I really feel that within a country there SHOULD be a common law for everyone. We have seen recent examples of disparate laws here for different groups (e.g. MP's exempt from police monitoring). Fundamentally it is wrong. I am pretty ignorant of Sharia law - but as an immigrant to the UK I do know that I had a choice to come here and as such I accept and abide by UK law. I don't think that freedom of speach and freedom of expression extends to freedom to have your own version of the law. If he is talking about stupid laws that govern aspects such as marriage and divorce etc that are based on victorian attitudes and cultures sure get rid of them and if muslims want sharia law to cover cultural aspects let them have it - but let me have my 3 wives! Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

In the UK it is classed as theft and not legal. It is also against the terms and conditions of use from most ISP's here to allow uncontrolled access to your WiFi. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I have scanned through the thread and firstly I think it is a great idea to clean up a little. dz.com is the only forum that I have hung out at for more than a month or 2. Someone suggested putting bonfire at the bottom of the list HH tried that and it didn't work so he put it back. I do think some of the problem with the bonfire is that gradually over time the "meaningful" threads have had forums created for them (rightly so). So while previously goodbye threads were intermingled they now have the blueskies forum, similarly speakers corner and the womens forum. This leaves the bonfire as the general talk zone with no soul of its own. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I seriously struggle with the right and wrong's of this. I grew up climbing tree's riding a bike without a helmet, motorcycling in shorts and tee-shirt etc. Most of us had broken an arm or leg at some point (or both), the worst "accident" that I knew of was a boy in my brothers class who killed himself falling backwards off a school chair (his head caught the desk behind him). I now as a parent have to reconcile my children either being "wimps" who are terrified to ride around the backgarden without a helmet on (all neighbours without exception do NOT ride in their gardens without helmets). The alternative is encouraging a sense of risk taking and having to live with the consequences. It is not easy and I hope that we are striking the right balance. An unfortunate side-effect of a risk-averse nation is that not only do sports such as skydiving, moto-cross etc start to die out, business risk taking also gets impacted. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

While I can't imagine riding my bike without a helmet, I do find the general UK mindset towards full protective clothing a little more extreme than I was used to (still do it though). However I can't justify wearing a helmet on a bicycle - even for my kids, I just can't relate a cycle helmet to increased safety (despite having a 12 year old killed 1/2 a mile from our home on his bike). It seems that lack of cycle tracks is a far higher risk for people on bicycles? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I don't know the details and as someone mentioned maybe it was when he was a kid? Anyway for all my concerns about UK surveilance society I really think that US criminal law sucks bigtime - the fact that information like that is given out and published on the web with such little regard to the criminals privacy. I am NOT defending this guy - but perhaps you remember the arrest warrent of the cute blond that surfaced here a while ago after a skydiver was arrested -that had her name age and address? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Going on the no-pull theory would there not be a significant chance that the money that was found would be contaminated with blood. I don't mean soaked in it possibly just speckles? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Isn't that because most people see Iraq as at the very least an unjust war and quite probably illegal and so there is more focus on it. I know I am hijacking Skyrad's Afgan thread but it really does irk me that we are so immune to the damage we cause that the "news" only reports deaths in Iraq if there are more than about 20 people killed simultaneously - anything less is not newsworthy. We are constantly barraged with the terrorism "threat" and yet in the name of defence we do so much more damage. Imagine for a second that in this so called "war on terror" there were 10 deaths a day in the US or UK. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

If going in June remember that is the middle of winter in Aus. You could ask Squak or Bigway? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

During the course of the past week the following PC trash has really irritated me. 1) School hot-dog day was cancelled because none of the mums had food hygene certificates and therefore were not allowed to "make" and hand-out hot-dogs. 2) I am going on a business trip to Scotland and decided since the snow is good the kids can skip 1 day of school so we can have the weekend there. It turns out you have to fill in forms to the Council (not the school as we thought - they are not allowed to say yes or no). 3) Neighbours son's school has just opened an after school club - for blacks only! How the hell do they justify that? 4) And no this - 3 little pigs is now "offensive" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7204635.stm Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

George Bush met The Queen, and he turns round and says: "As I'm the President, I'm thinking of changing how the country is referred to, and I'm thinking that it should be a Kingdom." The Queen replies "I'm sorry Mr. Bush, but to be a Kingdom, you have to have a King in charge - and you're not a King." George Bush thought a while and then said: "How about a Principality then?" To which the Queen replied "Again, to be a Principality you have to be a Prince - and you're not a Prince, Mr. Bush". Bush thought long and hard and came up with "How about an Empire then?" The Queen, getting a little annoyed by now, replies "Sorry again, Mr. Bush, but to be an Empire you must have an Emperor in charge - and you are not an Emperor." Before George Bush could utter another word, the Queen said: "I think you're doing quite nicely as a Country." Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Isn't this happening slowly over time anyway? The Euro is growing stronger, the US is more and more nervous of the Chindia alliance? As you imply economic power is probably greater than military might, the danger for the rest of us, is that as the US loses its dominance it might resort to military means. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.