MakeItHappen

FAA Form 8020-23 is usually filed within two weeks. DPRE reports vary. The inspection is done rather quickly, but the report filed has a longer time line. Reports from an AAD mfg depend on how quickly the unit is sent to them. They are usually very quick about that. There was a non-fatal accident in FL a couple of years ago. I had possession of the equipment and sent the AAD to the mfg, per request of the jumper. The mfg had a report within two days of receiving the AAD. It was less than a week from the accident date. Reports from NTSB take up to a year, but most skydiving accidents do not involve AC. Most eyewitness reports suffer from mixing observations with conclusions. IOW, they do not state 'This is what I observed' followed by a separate section of 'This is what I conclude' They mix it up and say something like 'I saw him track away and clutch his chest, thus he must have been having a heart attack'. Most USPA reports are written this way. The veracity of these 'official' reports at times has been suspect. One DPRE claimed that a Sentinel AAD fired on the jump in question and fired at 1000 ft. Neither of these two claims can be made with certainty. One USPA report claimed that the FAA was going to stop all tandem jumps. The FAA never issued a memo to that effect. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Yes it does. A simple FOIA request can get that document to you. Depending on the nature of the accident, there may be additional documents that are generated months after the accident. Sometimes there is a report by a DPRE. Sometimes they only have what the local FSDO person reports. Sometimes you can get the CYPRES data too. Sometimes there are internal FAA documents between the FSDO and FAA HQ. Sometimes there are documents between the FAA and the USPA. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

See Deployment Initiators . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

What are these rules and where are they? What I don't understand is where the rule is that says pilot A needs a background check under these circumstances. If Pilot A is only overflying the TFR, does he need a check? If Pilot A is penetrating the TFR, does he need a check? I do not know where these rules are written. If you can find these rules, please let me know. If these rules do not exist, then what Mark claims is a legitimate claim. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Did you ever get a certified snail mail from your RD stating what the alleged violations were? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

yeah - next thing ya know USPA will kick you out if you moon an AC doing a gear check. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Mark Send me a copy of what all USPA sent you. Re "The USPA Board's Executive Committee has revoked my membership and ratings for conduct unbecoming a skydiver and or likely to bring unfavorable attention upon the organization." This is BS. My guess is that the USPA fucked up again. They don't know how to read and implement rules. They just do what they want to. You have my email addy. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

reduced our regular trash pick up to once a week ???? We only get once per week for the regular trash and green bin and every other week for the recycle bin. I've been trying to get once per month pickups (at reduced cost) because most weeks there is not much in the trash. Have you created a mulch pile for all the bio-degradable stuff. aka the trimming from veggies, fruit and meats from your food and grass clippings, leaves etc from the yard? (BTW, my dogs just love the veggie clippings, esp broccoli and cauliflower) The mulch turns into great dirt for the yard too. We get one bucket for trash, one for recycle (paper, plastic and cans) and one for green recycle (branches and such). I take the cans and plastic to the recycle places and get my money back on those. Most months I only put these out once per month and they are only about 1/3 to 1/2 full. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

See scan of a T-shirt I have. The story of how I acquired the T-shirt is also interesting. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Check this out. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Here is how you can help Ted out. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Want to see dogs bike riding? The City of Hemet has a web cam that takes screen captures every 30 sec at the intersection of Buena Vista and Florida. Florida is the main drag that runs east-west and Buena Vista is a cross street that runs north-south. The web cam is located atop the city hall building on the SW corner of BV & FL and points east down FL Ave. I want to bike ride with my dogs, Max and Spock, through that intersection tomorrow, around mid-day, and have people - like you folks that always seem to be online all of the time - and have you capture the images of us going through the intersection. I'll make a post to this thread when we leave home. About 5-10 min later, we will be at the intersection. We will pass through the intersection 5 times and then repeat the entire trek, as shown in the attached diagram. What I need is a phone contact to call to say that 'Hey, we are now southbound on BV and starting the course.' That person would 'alert' others to watch and capture the photos. You can email me the pics you capture. The webcam is at http://www.cityofhemet.org/ - click on the web cam link, 9th link down on the nav bar. The city does not save the images. Tomorrow's temps are predicted to be low and this would be a good time to get pictures with good lighting. Max has been bike riding for over a year. Spock has been doing it for about 4 months. They absolutely love it. A word of caution is that you do need well heeled dogs to do this right. I used to do this with Pete and Katie, my first two dogs, and no one made a big deal about it. Now, it's like people are 'Oh my god'. And my dogs are not mush dogs. They are slack leash. They do not pull me around. Please let me know if you can capture the images and/or post after I call you with an update. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Gee I thought it was this: The purposes for which USPA is formed are as follows: To encourage unity among all persons interested in skydiving; to promote safety in all skydiving activities in the United States, to sanction skydiving competitions; to document officially all national and world skydiving records set by citizens of the U.S., to promote and encourage the study and knowledge of skydiving among the membership and the public at large; to cooperate with all government agencies connected with aeronautics or aeronautical activities; to compile information regarding the science of skydiving and to edit, publish, and disseminate the same; to select and train the United States Parachute Team for world competition. from http://uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Man_GovMan_2008_07.pdf . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

That paper seal would not be tamper-proof. It would be very easy for someone to open the reserve and then reseal it. It could also be pencil packed easier. Folding the label in half and exactly matching up the contact area is subject to the user's ability. Any areas that did not overlap could potentially leave a gummy residue on the rig and attract dirt to the label itself. The seal itself would not last long in the hot desert. The glue on those types of labels dries out very quickly. It turns into a course, flaky form and the label would fall off. The ink (assuming it's from a inkjet type printer) will run with exposure to liquids, humidity, swoop pond landing, sweat from hands handling it. The worst part about that label would be when the RC was pulled through the housing. The label might tear and leave pieces of it anywhere inside the housing. That would be hard to inspect and clean. It could even prevent the ripcord from clearing the housing. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

That's story of Gregory Robertson saving Debbie. IIRC, she was from TX. It was the Easter boogie at Coolidge. Gregory was the loadmaster and went out after the last group. The last group was a 'zoomie' load with low experienced jumpers. They had a major funnel when Debbie was docking. She looked unconscious and Gregory chased her and pulled her reserve. She landed between the runway and the taxi way at the east end of the airport. She recovered. Gregory won some award from Bell, the company he worked for. He went on the talk show circuit. Gregory said he lost all altitude awareness and pulled right as she got line stretch. He was open around 3k. Then he had to dodge the others from that load because they did not track very far. It was a pretty amazing save. The rest of the summer students kept asking to jump with him. We ended up telling students after their jump that Gregory was on the load with them. Oh and Gregory did jump a racer, kinda tanish/rust color. I forget how many ppl on a DC4, around 80 maybe?? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Steal the lecture Burt Lancaster does in Gypsy Moths. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Both type of altimeters have approximately the same uncertainty in measuring altitude. It ranges from +-10 ft to +- 25 ft or so for most brands. The error depends on altitude. Usually there are larger errors at higher altitudes. When reading the altimeter, digitals are easier to read accurately. Analogs really can't tell you the difference between 2000 ft and 2010 ft. That error adds to the error in the actual measurement. The big disadvantage with digitals is the transposition of numbers that your mind might do. Some people are more prone to this than others. Many years ago I read a human factors paper that concluded that analog is better than digital, especially in high stress situations. The big advantage of analog is the old adage that 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. A picture of your altitude is easier to comprehend than a number about your altitude. It takes longer to read a number and have your brain decide something than reading a picture (the needle is over here) and having your brain decide something. I read a study about an experiment where they flashed an altimeter to the obsever and then asked them to state the altitude. The analog readings were much more accurate. This was a study about aircraft altimeters. At one time there were thoughts of replacing AC analog altimeters with digital altimeters. Instead, they have added a second digital altimeter. The analog is still there. Analogs also win out over digitals in ability to read under all lighting conditions and perspective. LCD displays have a very small range of viewing angles compared to analogs. If the sun hits the LCD at the right angle, it can render it unreadable. For vision problems, the worse your eyesight is without corrective lenses, the more you should go with an analog altimeter. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

So what happens when you learn the canopy was cutaway last weekend and ended up in the power lines or alligator farm???? Or it could be he had a local buyer and that is much easier than one you have to ship to. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

What I don't get is why the court can make a summary judgment on this. Can some lawyer-type explain this? If you make a case and demand a jury trial, how and why can a judge come in and make a summary judgment? Is there something about whether an issue is about a point of law v. what the evidence shows? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Read again 1-800-skyride has never been a corporation on its own. It has always been a DBA of one company or another. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

1-800-skyride has never been a corporation in and of itself. It has always been a DBA that has been passed around several closely held corporations owned by Ben Butler, Cary Quattrocchi or both of them. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

These dogs lived next door to me for the past several years. Two chihuahuas (M&F) plus one litte schnauzer looking one, M. The schnauzer's name is Toto. He is only a litte bit larger than the chihuahuas. None of them are very big. They all seem to be in good health. The home was foreclosed on a month or so ago. The owners moved out and took the dogs with them. However, their teenage son came back and dumped/abandoned the dogs in their old backyard on April 2. I've been feeding them and making sure they have water. They have access to at least part of their old house and stay inside at night. I can only peek in through the tiny doggie door. My dogs remember them and are not too concerned or aggressive towards them at all. The 3 little ones still bark at me, just like they always did, but I am slowly working up to getting them to bond with me. It's hard with 3 dogs at once. Actually 5 dogs if you count mine too. The dogs do not bark at each other. There is a gate between the yards. I just tell my dogs to stay and they watch through the cracks and knot holes in the fence. These dogs might be hard to place since they are a gang of three against any strangers. I can't say much about their behavior, except they are homebodies. They were allowed off leash in their unfenced front yard by the owners and the dogs stayed right there. One of them got through the front gate after the dumping. He stayed in the front yard (I had to go to the dentist and back - gone for about 2 hrs) The dog was still in the front yard when I got back. He actually climbed back under the gate on his own to be with his buddies. I found some stuff to block the exit. They only bark when something is amiss, which is pretty much what dogs should do. Anyone in SoCal that might want one, two or all three can contact me asap. If you know anyone that knows anyone that can take them, please let me know. aerosoftware_AT_makeithappen.com I am not going to call animal control because they can stay where they are until the house sells and I can feed them. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

The WU thing does not sound good. But you can call FedEx and UPS to see if there is a shipment to you from the sender. You know your addy and have at least some idea of the senders addy. Hint it should be near the WU office you sent your money too. Even without a tracking number you can get some info. Shipments from Italy to the US take about 6-7 days or longer if it gets hung up in customs. Maybe the guy is just out of town or his computer broke. Next time also get the part serial #s and check the stolen gear list before buying. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Try it with www.uspa.org The SSL certificate is for www.uspa.org and not uspa.org even though both urls get resolved to the same place. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

On April 1st, not only does California sales tax increase, USPA membership and rating fees do too. No fooling! You can renew now - either online or by snail mail. As long as your snail mail is postmarked by March 31 - you'll get the lower rate. Oh yeah and postal rates go up in May. Invest in some of those forever stamps. One gotcha - rating holders cannot renew any earlier than 3 months. We now return you to your regular programming........ PS: Some smartass, and you know who you are, asked about financial advantages of keeping your money until the last minute v. paying early. The increase in dues is $6 and more than a 12% increase. If you can make more than 12%, net after taxes, on a principle of $49 before you need to renew then keep your money and invest it. Please be sure to take into account your time horizon. If your renewal is not due until next Feb. you *might* be able to make that return - all subject to the Obama rebound percentage. If your renewal is due shortly, then it makes a lot of sense - this one time - to pay up early. Of course, if you have a Bernie Madoff in your life then all bets are off. Oh and one more consideration.... Lifetime memberships are changing from $800 to $1000. If you buy a lifetime membership in the next two days, you break even after 14.55 years. If you buy a lifetime membership after March 31 then it will take 18.2 years to break even. (These estimates should be adjusted by future dues increase and will reduce the break even time span for both cases. The four year differential will still be there.) . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker