jdthomas

Not that this person who posted this about his main poping out was a coach, but see my thread (100 jump wonder/coach) that I posted here in safety and training about my recent experience with loose closing loops. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

Agreed that problems can arise at all skill levels. they are more likely to happen in the less skilled. and by that I mean more specific in the least number of years in sport and skydives made. We all agree that teen drivers are by far more likly to get into an accident, that comes with many factors. age, car, hourse behind the wheel, and etc.. My thought is that with 100 jumps and the current program(s) that teach these new jumpers to become coaches has a great potential for error in the fact that jumpers like the one in my post are able to slip thru the cracks and breed the attitude that he has. www.greenboxphotography.com

Excellent point Billvon. But this person now has a rating and makes the situation a bit larger in my opinion. When we look to those that have authority and they are in the wrong then it always seems to be larger then life. By the same concept when a person of authority like a CEO or perhaps a police officer commits a crime then it seems to have a larger impact because this is a person that is supposedly trained or educated. It does add impact to this event that this person is a coach. www.greenboxphotography.com

No this was not the case, as he changed the length when he got down. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

Wow I have opened a small can of worms here! I like many of the view points here and I respect everyones thoughts on the subject as well, I guess this thing (the coach rating) has been beat up many times before and I am niot sure when we will see the end of it if we ever do. What I am suprised most about is that the thread took off topic and while many wanted to be pro or con the coach rating we forgot about the event that spurred my post. This person who passed a course and can now "coach" young skydivers was about to place himself, other jumpers and the pilot in harms way over a closing loop.. Myself and others tried to influence a diffrent choice in this jumper but he was not giving in. Next sad point was that the pilot took the jumper into his aircraft and once again I revert back to everyone on that load was an experienced jumper all holding some type of rating! Wow I could not believe waht i was seeing. How many of those people who posted or read this thread that are seeking a coach rating read the part about the real issue the closing loop or did they just read the 100 jump wonder/coach part? The first link in the chain of safety was broken when this jumper bacame a coach, the next link was broken due to his apathy for gear safety and the safety of his "friends" and I use that lightly because it seemed he just did not care about thier safety.. Now when he "falls" and coaches a student with all his wonderous knowledge will the students safety be in jepordy? after all a closing loop that was not safe to me was to him and why would it not be to the student.. Just to throw this into the mix.. this coach made it thru the coaches course with this attitude and this gear!!!!! Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

Spoke with someone this past weekend that knows Rick and Shayna very well, this person was telling me that Shayna has purchased a pure breed dog that was in the 1,000$ price range and then discovered that taking care of a dog and a child at the same time was hard. So the solution was to lock the dog into a small room and forget about it. The person informing me of this was actually going to Shaynas to recover the dog as Shayna was going to allow it to starve to death. I am not making any of this up or trying to over sensationalize it, this is what I was told.. It's amazing that Shayna did not want to get a real job and pay for her health bills or child like most people because she would loose her state insurance and paycheck, but can buy a 1,000$ pure breed dog! www.greenboxphotography.com

Yes coaches are signed off on by coach course instructors.. there are a few programs out there that are quick and easy to pass that don't require much of the canidate.. thats just my opinion and not fact. After all coach rating should be easier to get then instructor.. i just feel that coach rating has not done the sport any favors at this time and shoudl be removed much like the BIC course. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

I taught myself to fly one of these when i worked in the PPC industry.. I had several thousand skydives and a private pilot.. i felt pretty secure in my abilities and it worked out.. not sure I reccomend my method but it worked for me. joe www.greenboxphotography.com

What we came up with was to place the PPC into a turn and exit to the inside of the turn.. it helps to turn the ppc motor off as well. Of the many safety issues we came up with was to watch the snag hazards and there are countless ones as well as watch the prop.. it is in the back.. if anything (pilot chute) was to come free while in flight life will get bad quick! We did these jumps for research for the border patrol as they where intrested in PPCs as you could possibly land, cutaway the main and you have a dune buggy of sorts. The border patrol eventually said these where not pratical and decided not to use PPCs. (smart move) Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

It's funny you said this. There was a guy at our DZ with a coaches' rating and 100 jumps. We got into an arguement as to whether or not 100 jumps was enough for a coach rating. I had over 250 jumps at the time and was just going through the coaches' course, finally feeling like I knew enough to help a newer jumper. This guy was pretty pissed at me for thinking that a 100 jump wonder probably didn't have the experience to be a coach. The same guy now is pushing 400 jumps and was telling me that 100 jumps isn't enough for a coaches' rating Jen jen the funny thing is that when i had 100 jumps or so I went to a new dz to speard my wings and the owner of that dz asked me some questions and asked me to take a small written test.. no problem i thought. Well lets say that I was invited to have a chat with the owner and attend his first jump course for free.. i was suprised at the information that i was getting and should have known already but did not. I missed out on alot thru the shelter of my little DZ and when I finally moved on it was a very eye opening experience. joe www.greenboxphotography.com

in my humble opinion the system is flawed in the fact that many jumpers like this one at not gaining any new information. Some dz's do not progress.. not to say this place does not but it seems to have it's own way of doing things. many jumpers just go with what they learned in first jump class and call it good.. they pick up little things here and there but are some times rare to expand on that. DZ.com for all it;s flaws is a great place to learn and many jumpers never log into this place because it can seem to be over whelming at times. As well many jumpers only ready the USPA rag and have no knowledge of other skydiving related publications in wich to learn from. I for one will admit that when i had 100 jumps i thought i knew alot and only after leaving my home dz did realize that I knew very little. thru my travels and desire I have taken in alot and still try each day to learn more.. It is not a far stretch to say that many 100 jump jumpers don't have perfected enough skills to teach.. you don't usally find guys with 100 jumps teaching training camps or on big way formations. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

getting ready to jump a PPC. I did this while working for the PPC industry. www.greenboxphotography.com

I used to work for a company that made those.. it was alot of fun and a pain in the ass at teh same time! Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

this past weekend I traveld to a DZ that i had not been to for some time now and I was shocked at the lack of safety within the system. While there a USPA coach was about to board a plane when i noticed that his main closing pin was exposed, so exposed that his main flap was actually covering his closing loop and not his pin! I called him out on this and he seemd to not care at all. I informed him of the safety aspect of it and the risk of a mal and perhaps a premie while on climb out and thus risking evryone on the plane and still there was apathy. Another instructor at the DZ told the jumper to fix the problem as they had plenty of time to do so and this jumper was still not going to fix it. he brushed off the comments, boarded the aircraft with other jumpers who also saw this problem. the jumper with the exposed closing pin is a coach, the other jumpers on that load included one other rigger, another instructor and a jumper with thousands of jumps and none of them seemed to care that they where placed in danger thru the lack of inaction of this jumper. His jump with off with no problems and when he landed he shortend the loop one and a half inches! Here is where it gets better, when I arrived at teh dz I gave out a bag of closing loops that i had just made, maybe 40-50 closing loops and told everyone to help themselves as to stay safe by changing these often. Why do people not care? what kind of example is this coach showing to students and is he letting student slide by on margins? I hope not. I am not out to get all the USPA coaches but this is a prime example of the 100 jump wonder at work, this system is breeding stupidity into the system. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

I have been back down in the plane a few times thru my years as a TM and I would rather ride the plane down then fo out the door with a freaked out student. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

I have two rhino 120's and love them for hiking.. all your garmin questions should go to Bruan Gayley and i think he is sbgayley on here.. he works at garmin. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

Just so you know how cold it really is. Jimmy Coinner the midwest freefly legend DID NOT make a skydive this weekend. When the former "load hog" does not make a jump you know it's just to crappy. Hope that this helps you feel better. www.greenboxphotography.com

Shayna did have a mal. but one that she could have fixed. her story is always changing and she has never tried to tell the whole truth of the story. those of us who know her and her boyfriend instructor as just sick of this stuff, the truth is sad and the way she keeps the media hype up is incredable.. she should go into marketing and stop ridining the welfare system that she is currently on. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

I once owned a pop up of that style and the exact color scheme.. yes fabric walls are factory, but I can see that those walls have had an "upgrade" I like the fact that the plug in cord is running out of the back and looks like it's plugeed into something, then note the spare tire and the other tires are still on axels. Nice! www.greenboxphotography.com

thats some funny stuff.... reminds me of bar nights when the urinals have a waiting list! www.greenboxphotography.com

couch freaks the boggie of party boogies www.greenboxphotography.com

we have a salt water tank and we like it. this is our second tank and there are so many tips and tricks out there.. when someone tells you that it is hard to have they are somewhat correct, but like anything else in life if you put the work into it then it's not that bad. Do you want a fish tank or a reef tank and the bigger the better for tank size. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

that is correct.. i am from the fort. www.greenboxphotography.com

I am from a small town in south east Kansas and I guess one of our few claims is that Gordon parks was born and rasied there. and the other notable for the nascar fans is that the bricks in the brick yard are from my town as well. I think more notable and honorable is that we are home of the 1st national cemetary and I think the only one to have native american soliders from the civil war buried there. Joe www.greenboxphotography.com

well dropping off your trash in someone else container could be theft of services, so be carefull. Years ago when I was broke and out of work I had to survive as cheaply as possible.. oh and the simple tricks are as follows. The C-Stores usally have "free" mayo packages as well as mustard and BBQ sauces. Next was I took the first job that i could and that was a "handyman" at a hotel chain and it was poor pay at 5$ per hr and 20hrs per week.. but I was not going to ride the welfare system.. anyway I would take my laundry to housekeeping after hours and use thier machines for laundry and every few days i would take home shampoo, soap and rolls of toilet paper. I was poor and times where hard to say the least so i made due. my bills where kept up. I also used to church's trash dumpster that i lived next to and they where cool with that as I asked before hand. And every chance i got I hooked myself up at the all you can eat food buffets.. zip lock bags kick ass! Joe www.greenboxphotography.com