Dolph

Heh, that wasn't a push. That was a gentle reminder "you guys need to jump off this plane now". If he'd pushed me and I thought the spot was all f*cked up, I'd turned my head and let some words fly. If OTOH we were just sitting there waiting for each other to count, I'd think "yeah OK" and get out of the plane. As said before, really depends on context.

Our DZ operates along the same principles. If you get on a load, you pay for max climb height, whether you jump or not. Skydivers are expected to know lots about personal responsibility. The risk of $20 in comparison to almost all other factors seem rather limited to me. Complaining about not getting money back is very rare and almost exclusively limited to foreign jumpers - who have been briefed on the policy.

Irony 2: incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs; A deaf person not hearing a horn and consequently being killed because of it isn't ironic at all. There's a very clear correlation between been deaf and not being able to hear a horn. Walking down some rails and not getting out of the way because you're deaf and don't hear the horns is, in fact, amongst the lowest Irony Factors in the world. I'd give it a +10 on the International Irony Totally Misunderstood Scale though, so there's some consolation in that. This has been a public service announcement by the People Against Irony Impairment. Ironically, we're totally against public service announcements.

I'm in love again. Respect!

I keep count of my jumps but am pretty bad about actually putting pen to paper. Since I'm going abroad this summer, this has become somewhat of an issue. I've jumped virtually all jumps either with the same persons (freefly) or with the same persons in the plane (hop n pops). Getting signatures won't be a problem. Logging jumps 164 to 900 will be time consuming even with the aid of my Neptune and Protrack. Laziness in logging jumps is a pissing-in-the-pants solution. Warm here and now but just adds more work down the road.

[reply "Your car - your responsibility" "Your dick - your responsibility" "Your pussy - your responsibility" Bold added by me. The analogy of the parked car is a pretty poor one (and I know it wasn't made by you lawrocket). I tend to not look at women as inanimate objects incapable of critical thinking and action. As Rehmwa has pointed out, there are some quite interesting "side issues" to all this. If we follow the Moral Law Of Responsibility and apply it equally to both genders, abortion becomes an issue. A man helps get a woman pregnant - his responsibility. A woman gets pregnant with the help of a man or by artificial means - her responsibility. A man can dodge this responsibility to some degree by abandoning the mother . A woman can do the same by having an abortion. Of course this has no nuances whatsoever, fails to take other issues into consideration (self determination with regards to own biology for example) and is black and white. A poor model for reality. I'm still personally an adherent to this simplistic way of looking at things. You fuck up, you face the consequences. In the case of women and pregnancy it is not so simple. A woman's right to personally determine what goes on with her body way overrides my idea about responsibility. Still, abortion is a big "oops!" in many cases, an oops that in itself comes with many serious consequences.

You should stop posting as much as fish should stop riding bicycles. Or, like ummm, something. Seriously, it's SC. Go for it dude.

My announcement: after I demoted all that have previously been promoted, I put Billvon's old socks on. I believe I have contributed to this thread. Silly thing about a silly thing.

Spring is soon coming up even though it's hard to believe with some of the weather we've been seeing. With it comes the start of the boogie season and all that. Last week I did some high altitude jumps - 13k freeflying with my buddies. I was pretty surprised of the degree my "skills" had degraded. What was easy before has become something I need to pay more attention to now and what used to be difficult now I kinda just messed up. Only a handful of people in the jumper pool retain currency over the winter in the colder places of the world. I've perhaps averaged 3 jumps per weekend with the majority of being hop n' pops. The freefly jumps really put in perspective how quickly ones skills deteriorate. We'll have the annual Easter Boogie pretty soon. Lots of jumpers will be spreading their wings for the first time of the year during this event. Assuming that canopy skills degrade at a scale similar to freefall skills, it makes it something to be aware of. Judgement might be spotty. Skills may be perceived higher than they actually are. All that stuff. This phenomenon is not new in skydiving, with it being a seasonal sport and all. I'd like to tap into the knowledge already existing about how best to handle it. How to address the issue in general, people in general etc. It's not my responsibility directly (I am not an ST/A) but somewhere building a good culture is probably not too bad. Perhaps somewhere it can save someone from having broken bones or worse.

Fight the opression! LORETTA: I want to have babies. REG: You want to have babies?! LORETTA: It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them. REG: But... you can't have babies. LORETTA: Don't you oppress me. REG: I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?! LORETTA: [crying] JUDITH: Here! I-- I've got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans', but that he can have the right to have babies. FRANCIS: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry. REG: What's the point? FRANCIS: What? REG: What's the point of fighting for his right to have babies when he can't have babies?! FRANCIS: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.

Man. All you guys make me feel like an old slacker. I started at age 28. Late start. Jump all I can (weather and aircraft types are limitations here) and have basically cut non essential costs (no car etc.). And still I'm lagging behind. I'm paying for every jump. Am in a club where all work is done for free, so no money to be made there. I'll just hope I get a raise. Seems I got a lot of catching up to do.

Spreading of the True Words of God. Of the Supreme Messages. Or. Divine order to spread the meme. A godly command to tell those that already have heard, and do not want to hear any more. Depends on perspective.

Which makes this not a little deal, but a very big one. I am very surprised it wasn't handled at the BOD meeting - when you personally got involved in the process. You could not get me to accept such responsibilities. Others may, either out of ignorance, deference or gung-ho'ness. In all cases, it add a substantial amount of risk to everyone involved. What will be done about it now? I do not know how the USPA operates.

Quoting out of context and putting words in my mouth, all while formulating a question. Your future Young One, is bright on this forum . No, I can't speak for Zenister; he does that very well himself. What bother me in general is that organised religion is generally passed won as cultural heritage and one of the consequences is a great lack of interest in studying "the other cults" so to speak. The One True Answer is given by the surroundin environment and most followers are so content with that that they close their eyes to other possibilites. Or frankly reject to see that religon indeed has a tendency to be a result of the environment. No one needs to do anything wrt. religion. Your faith is perfectly acceptable to me. What I am merely pointing out is the close correlation between faith and environment. This in turn is self propagating and you yourself is a good example of it. It lends itself to turning a blind eye towards alternatives - and that bothers me a little since knowledge in the end is of extremely high value. I gather I have tried it as much as I have tried Santa Clausism. When I was a kid I believed, because adults told me it was true. When I came to age of reason, my faith in organised religion started to fade. But you cannot shift the onus of proof here; I make no claims - I merely point to sources

It would bother me Windcatcher. By then I'd be 2033 years old, trying to get the NanoBots(tm) to cooperate to get me to the nearest brothel. What bothers both me and I gather Zenister is that you haven't even scratched the surface of accumulated human knowledge on the divine. Most likely your religious choice has been hugely influenced by your immediate family and environment. What Dawkins would call a mind meme.

Well he did alienate me at first with his strong views and rather blunt delivery. Then I started to do a little thinking. The man behind the keyboard is, I think, a lot different from the man in person. The medium used for communication (and of course other variables) have a great deal to say in how things are communicated. Nowadays I see through the abrasiveness - or rater see it as an advantage. What Jeffrey essentially is doing is runtime-typing with no filter. I doubt he is the only one thinking this way; most people just compile their crap first, run it through a filter or two and then see if the "Post Reply" button pops up. And it's arguing as much for the sake of arguing as it is for the sake of "discussion". Which is fine. At least every little aspect is made clear. Drinking beer and talking shit with PJ at some boogie is probably a vastly different thing than talking about gay boogies on some bulletin board. So even though his posts occasionally put me in "dude WTF?" mode, some of them bring up interesting things. I initially thought this boogie was about "getting respect and recognition" from gays and I was proven wrong. And that's a good thing. In this case.

What exactly does supervising a student in the plane mean? Ensure their gear is on ok, working? Gear checks? Evaluating their mental state? Their conduct and movement while in the plane? Their spot, if they spot? All the other details that I don't pay attention to because I'm not an instructor and don't know what to look for? Or more like with licensed jumpers? If you're asked to do something you're not really qualified to do, it's a pretty shitty situation from a moral and liability point of view.

Heh we have the wide-bodied 182. And by no means are all the people at the DZ dwarves. There are some real heavy dudes with long legs. I's certainly doable on normal bodied 182s too - it takes a little experience to get it loaded right. Only time I have a difficulty is when there are two of the big tandem masters with two big tandem passengers - with the latter having their legs more or less stretched. It leaves my 145lb body in the upper left corner just a little shy of important looking knobs and levers. I favour paying per pound. Skydiving would be pretty cheap for me then. Not sure how much gas she uses though - will have to ask the pilots. She isn't extremely thirsty by any means. We have a Continental 300 HK IO-550 engine with a 3-bladed Hartzell Scimitar propeller, as well as wing extentions. Looking at some climb data for today, I see we averaged 18 minutes to 13k with 5 jumpers and around 230m/m climb rate.

How much is an average AFF course in different areas of the world? At our club, we do both SL and AFF. However, it being a club and all, instructors aren't paid for the jumps. Member can loan rigs and so forth. The student pays for his or her own slot, plus the slot of the instructor(s). 13k here is about $20, which for level 1-3 means $60 a jump and for 4-7 $40 a jump . So, at least here, there isn't really a huge difference of price between static line and aff. I understand that at commercial dropzones, the difference is quite significant?

now your being rediculus

Alright, thanks for the clarification. And it is interesting.

Watch out. Or he shall unleash a fury of "their" where it should be "they're". "Loosing" where it should be "losing". And so on. Their stupid, the loosers that do that.

Probably. At least it happens elsewhere. Would you be more comfortable if they used the same kind of tools as we use at slaughter houses? I.e some kind of piston gun that is all but guaranteed to give the receiver a quick and painless death? My issue isn't so much that baby seals are being killed. Yes, they're cute and cuddly and it's easy to relate to them. Their cute anthropomorphous ways do not give them any inherently higher value than, say, a pig however. It's more the methods employed - seems greedy, unnecessarily crude and primitive.

You'll have one. It just takes a little longer for 'em to post if it is not in their FAQ

Yes, but I believe you added this: (emphasis mine) >This is a must read by all Americans. History will >certify its correctness. I took that as a quick jab at us Yuro-pee-ans. Maybe I just need thicker skin or something Our little cartoon wasn't as much as yell as as a "hey dudes. We're censoring ourselves, aren't we?". The answer was pretty clear. I do think that a couple of good things have come from the whole thing; a raging debate inside and outside of Europe, a drawing of lines and an awareness about the ever increasing self-censorship that's been going on for many years. It's god that the Europeans and Americans are at each other in petty ways. Makes us both see our flaws. We won't admit to them though but that is beside the point