skytash

Just tried and got: We could not calculate driving directions between hong kong and los angeles. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Cookie & Biscuit asked me to send their kitty vibes.... tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

well done guys - it was fun to watch from the ground and not have all the stress you had tash edited to add: Gareth, does this mean I was the second choice you only hit on me after a few beers - I'm starting to likely you less and less Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I also used etravelinsurance and am paying less than £80 per year - no wintersports and not as many of the bells and whistles referred to although I do have worldwide cover. I was so astounded by the price I called them to make sure I had understood it properly. The guy I spoke to explained that his understanding of skydiving is that the chance of an injury is relatively low, so why not include it. Not sure if anyone has claimed from them, so the pudding for the proof hasn't been eaten yet to my knowledge. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

there I was, thinking you were a physicist - and you have been a closet actuary all this time???? tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

ok, I take it back, note to self: check facts better in future before posting tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

that's a bit spooky. I'm coming up for my 10 years and am sick of politics and that affecting the fun I used to have. I quite seriously considered hanging up the rig after the events I'd registered for in 2007. Then someone started me on CRW and the fun is back as I'm too 'young' in the discipline to worry about politics, I'm just learning. So if someone hadn't got me into a new discipline, I may well have left without any outside pressure. Who knows, I may get sick of feet tangling in lines and may give up at year 10 in any case! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I think we need to remember, that although WE think that tunnels are all about skydiving when the weather is bad, a financially successful tunnel realises that the one-offs are more lucrative. In the same way that there aren't too many rollercoaster parks in the US, it will be a while before there are too many tunnels. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Cookie is purring Biscuit is purring my garden is still neat after all the work last week I went swimming and feel good for it I tidied my garage Lots of achievements, plus health, family and the sky! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

there are two types of boob job out there, one that stuffs silicone or saline into your boobs, the other to lift what is there already and make it a bit perter again. I would say, the latter is ok, and if you feel that approaching 40 yours are a bit 'dangley' (my nephew accused my sister of having dangley boobs once and I love that phrase) that would do the trick and not really affect what God gave you. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

There are multiple types of insurance offered by various people and needed/wanted for various things: 3rd party liability - example: you land on someone else's car to cover the cost of repairing the car. Part of the BPA membership and required if you jump in the UK. cover is as mentioned above. Empuria may offer something similar, but it is likely only to be valid there or in Spain or something and if you want to jump in the UK, you'll still need BPA membership, so worth finding out whether you may be double paying if you get the one at Empuria. Not many providers out there in the UK apart from BPA Personal accident insurance - will pay out if you hurt yourself jumping, may only cover jumping in the UK. Lots of providers out there, read the small print to see if they cover you while jumping. Works on the basis, you gt £x for breaking a leg and £y for breaking an arm etc. It will pay a lump sum for the fact you have hurt yourself, irrespective of how much it may cost you to be treated etc. Useful if you think you may not be able to work and get paid for a time as a result of getting hurt as it would allow you to pay bills. I don't have one, as I get sick pay and can work as long as my brain and mouth are in order. If neither of them are working, I may not have to worry about bills as I'll be on a hospital ward. If you make a claim on personal accident, your insurer is likely to want to get someone else to cover their costs, so if there was a second skydiver involved, they are likely to sue the other skydiver, giving rise to a member on member claim - different issue, but I think Brits know what I'm alluding to here... lots of providers out there including the big insurance companies, Endsleigh, groupama, Legal&General Travel insurance - will pay for medical treatment if you hurt yourself abroad, may cover re-patriation costs (eg you have to lie down so need to be upgraded for your return flight, they pay the upgrade), may cover your kit while abroad as well. Unlikely to pay out damage to make to others and most likely will only pay the amount of cost incurred, so won't allow you to have lump sum to cover bills while you aren't working. Again, check small print to make sure it covers skydiving. Not many insurance companies out there, Axa used to be the preferred provider for most Brits, then they took it away again, now Endsleigh, etravelinsurance, Harrison Baumont and others advertising in the mag I recently got myself etravelinsurance and was amazed at the low price. I called them up to check and basically, they have a higher excess for skydiving accidents (so you pay the first £500, still better than paying the lot) and they don't believe that skydiving is as dangerous as people make out! Make sure you don't confuse the different types of insurance out there and believe that having bought one, you will have cover for something else. Also worth looking at insurance for kit, which ideally includes replacing a cut-away main you can't find. I haven't done much investigating on this one, so don't know who provides what kind of cover. Just as an aside - insurance companies are very careful to investigate large claims. If they have too many large claims, they need to increase the premium they charge, or withdraw altogether (as Axa did). They will therefore try to make sure they are only paying for what they have covered you for and interpret things as narrowly as possible. Read all the small print, call up to check if necessary and make a record of when you called them and who you spoke to if you got the answer you wanted to hear to refer back to in the even they decide that they intepret things differently once you claim than you thought they would at the time you took out the cover. tash edited for spelling - I haven't finished my morning coffee yet (and then had to re-edit as I didn't spell coffee right - I'll go now, wake up and log on again...) Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

after Martin top-docked me and then attempted on a couple of occasion to dock me, but I was too scared to let go of my toggles to grab the topskin sliding down my back . I now know just to let them go and grab the canopy quickly and will give that a go next time. Thanks to the CRW-dogs and -doggets at Langar! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Agreed, you could remove certain types of claim from coverage and let people take their chances if fees are the issue. You have the NHS as a safety net which you all pay for already anyway. In this thread I detect an undertone of entitlement when a UK skydiver gets hurt (beyond essential medical care), if you have that attitude you have NO BUSINESS complaining about membership fees, because you're the problem/cause of that. If you want a safety net you should buy it up front not sue for it and force everyone else to pay for it post-facto. taking this a step further, wouldn't everyone having personal accident insurance actually make things worse? Say I didn't have it, and had an accident, it would be up to me to decide whether I sue or not and I could choose not to sue. If I had personal accident insurance, I would get something from them, and they WOULD sue to try and recover their losses. Having personal accident insurance would therefore increase the likelihood of member on member claims having to be dealt with. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

You CAN'T really believe that, Do you? You have got to be shittin me! I've had plenty of hangovers in my time from drinking too much the night before, but I've never had that kind of sensation after a night smoking, so I definitely believe it and I'm not shitting you. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I always think that a joint mortgage is a bigger committment than marriage. In the UK you can get a divorce practically over the internet for £40. You download the forms and both sign them and send them to a court with a cheque. Getting out of a joint mortgage is a lot more hassle and expense! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

two quite different experiences: when I bought my flat, everything was sort of predictable or a matter of choice, so insurance, ground rent and paint to decorate. It could have done with a new kitchen when I moved in, but I didn't get that fixed up until 8 years later (to be able to sell it!). I then sold it for 3 times what I paid for it, so all in all a good deal. When I bought my house, I knew there was work needed, so new plumbing for one of the bathrooms and the hot water system, insulation for the loft, double glazing, so I took that into account when I bought. It's still working out at a bit more than I expected though. In terms of hidden costs etc, if you look closely they aren't that hidden and a lot will depend on what type of property you buy in what area etc. So you may want to take into account the local politics as that could influence property related taxes and how they may rise! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I'm sure it's on their webpage: http://www.symbiosis.suits.btinternet.co.uk/products.html although you may need to download the order forms. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I do and I know a couple of others at my DZ too, we are UK qualified though and don't think we can help with a 1099 (whatever that is!) tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

yes and no - if you like jumping out of planes, you'll know (that sounds lame, but it's true!) and no, you won't get used to it - but in the way that it is unlikely to get boring . The chemistry in my body before a jump used to be adrenalin driven by fear, then endorphins driven by relief of having walked back to the packing hall in one piece. Now it's more adrenalin driven by extreme concentration on what my task is on the next jump and then endorphins for having achieved at least some of that task when walking back to the packing hall (and getting back to the packing hall in one piece and walking is part of the tasks of every jump!). There is still a fair amount of apprehension, just ask one of my friends how I feel about floating from a tailgate and if I don't have at least some form of apprehension before jumping out of a plane I'll start reconsidering whether to jump. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

My own view is that I don't have any entitlement to say loss of income from another party. I choose to fall out of planes, and take my chances. Unfortunately there is increasingly a culture of entitlement here in the UK and from what DH said at the AGM, I now understand better why he would not want to operate a DZ without insurance cover as a lot of the first time (any type) jumpers may choose to have that attitude and therefore he wants to be covered. The BPA has also taken the approach that there is one policy which covers both jumpers and DZ's, that way everyone shares a bit of the cost. This policy may be arguable, for example, how many claims have there been against my actions vs the number of claims against say a instructor or a DZ, surely I should pay less of the share. The Insurance sub-committee believes that if there was such a proportional sharing of the cost, there may be not only fewer DZs but also fewer instructors, as they would be put off by having to pay more. I haven't seen the numbers, so can't really comment on that view, I would say that in my experience there are very few individuals in the UK that make a living as an instructor alone. Mainly as there isn't enough work in any one place to occupy an instructor full time. Some are riggers too, some are military hence get their wages paid that way, others have businesses that do trips abroad as well, or also work as load organisers. Many dropzones still rely on the people who become instructors out of the desire to pass on a passion. If they had to start paying for that, they would go and the DZs would go with it. It's a difficult problem, and I think lots of people have tried applying their brains to solving it. With all the facts and understanding of the bigger picture, so far none of those brains have come up with a solution. I'm sure DH and any council member would be more than happy to hear from anyone who can come up with a solution, rather than just winge about the problem and the effect on their wallet. If it is a workable solution that addresses all elements of the conundrum, I'm sure it will be put in place. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

you'll read this a lot - talk to your instructor(s).

what are the implications of that on flying in it compared to other tunnels (if any)? tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

the local tunnel instructors are probably the best people to approach. If you are hoping to freefly, they'll start you backflying as that is the standard recovering position. Have a chat with the staff when booking your next sessions and then find out who will be spotting in the tunnel when you are flying and talk to them about it. The guys at airkix have been very helpful to me in that respect! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

either way, making everyone take persnal injury insurance doesn't seem to be the way to reduce claims against the BPA insurance. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe