tkhayes

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Everything posted by tkhayes

  1. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1022-26.htm hmm, some people figured it out long before anyone ever HEARD of Barack Obama...... this article carries just as much weight as the one posted by the original poster......
  2. I have said it for years - I have no idea why Pakistan is our ally....... Sadly, they might give a shot, but simply do not have the resources to deal with their own problems. Yet they have nuclear weapons...... wow
  3. I stopped eating bread, pasta potatoes and lost 25 lbs in 2 months. Eat Oatmeal for breakfast, never apologize for bacon and eggs. More greens and veggies instead of a second helping of meatloaf. really has not been that bad. And I still eat ice cream 5 nights a week.
  4. And you were paid for the banner (quite well I remember), and I expect Kerry and Tony both paid you for your instruction. And I am CERTAIN you were paid as an expert witness. So are you interested in right and wrong, or just money? My 'Uncle Fred' is a nice guy too. He would give you the last $20 in his pocket. Help you build that shed. Put his kids through college and never complained a day in his life.....But he has this problem with groping young kids..... it kinda undoes all the good stuff. All I am saying is as long as you are happy with your decisions, then fine - I would not expect a lot of support for your cause here in the forums. As a DZO, the lawsuits become tiring and all-encompassing. People who help those lawsuits along do nothing for the sport and they generally wear out their welcomes pretty quickly. I am CERTAIN -that in your life you have made money from SunPath and their related products through the services that you offer. - that you have made money from Strong Enterprises and their related products through the services that you offer. Yet you found it OK to stand in court and try to hang the business that helps to pay your salary and in some way DIRECTLY affects your own income. Strong is in the same boat - it ain't about right and wrong, it is only about the money. I wonder what dickhead 'expert witness' will stand up for their plaintiff and say the gear was/is defective? At least we know where you stand. Good luck on your cause. no sympathy from me.
  5. Isn't this the same Mark Schlatter that testified as an 'expert witness' for a plaintiff in the SunPath lawsuit a few years ago? Sounds like you have your own closet full of skeletons, as we all probably do. Before you ask everyone for all their help and toot your horn about all the great stuff you have done, maybe look in the mirror a bit closer. I not saying you deserve anything as I know nothing about your case. But I expect you pissed someone off, and I bet it ain't "all on USPA"
  6. We are hosting a junior accuracy meet in May, I was looking for ideas for the format of it, how to divide the experience levels up and such. Does anyone have experience and could offer some suggestions? thanks TK
  7. "Hey I want to jump" "Are you licensed or is this your first time here" "No my first jump" "OK, we offer tandem skydives or if you are a bit more hardcore, you can take the day-long AFF training class and a sort-of solo freefall" "Well what if I don't want to do any of that - I just want to rent a parachute and go jump?" "Well you can't do that here, there is training involved, it is a complex process to learn how to skydive and there is learning and a lot of progression involved - not to mention my own liability if you get hurt." "So that's my only options? Kinda sounds like a money making rip-off - it does not look that complex...." "Well you don't just go rent a airplane to learn how to fly and you don';t just rent a car to learn how to drive. There is a progression, costs and time involved in anything like this" "So what's stopping me from just finding a parachute and going up in my friends plane and jumping out?" "Absolutely nothing sir, go knock yourself out. I will probably read about you in the obits and your pilot friend will probably lose his license if he does not understand any of the FARs regarding skydiving." "You guys are just jerking me around" "Have a nice day sir." I have had this conversation about 8 times since I moved to Florida in 1995. And these people have the right to vote? TK
  8. Exposing it does a lot to reinforce the view that we were 'wrong' somehow in the previous administration. The cost, time and punishment that may never be meted out would be a valid step, but would probably do more damage than harm at this point to the reputation of the USA. That's kinda the way I see the actions in the past few days. We will show it and talk about it, but we are not going to go after anyone. I don't agree with it totally, but I sorta understand it from their 'political' viewpoint.
  9. *** The 'failed gear' is/was approved by the FAA on more than one occasion, as a TSO'd system and as an experimental system for 20 years.++ Maybe they should be suing the FAA.....
  10. yes they have the right to sue. THey also have the RESPONSIBILITY to sue the correct parties who caused that negligence. But of course, they go after the perceived money, not the actual fault.
  11. I wonder why the full force of the US Navy, with great accolades from the US public, can be used to rescue a ship captain, who through no fault of his own, found his life in danger...... whereas if the Captain's life was in danger from some horrible disease (also through no fault of his own), he would be on his own, and have to either pay for the healthcare or perhaps die? Such a senseless 'socialist' action to be using government to help the individual......
  12. The adoption of the Y-strap afterwards will be presented as a tacid admission of a deficient design an improvement to help prevent NEGLIGENT USE of the product. As far as being successful, these things work in percentages. He might be found 15% liable or 85% liable, depending on the outcome. Or not at all. The fucking scum-sucking cocksucking lawyers don't care, because 15% of something is worth the fight quite often. Their case of course is product deficiency. Ted's defense of course (in part) is to demonstrate that short fat women can be and have been safely participating in tandem skydiving using the old style harness since the incention of tandem skydiving and that he cannot be responsible for the mis-use of his product. The Y-strap improvement to the product is in response to the obvious mis-use of it. Is GM liable if someone dies in an accident because they fell out of the car while driving with the door open? If GM put an interlock to prevent the car from being driven with the door open (after the fact), is that a "tacid admission of a deficient design"? Or is GM just reacting to the fact that some people are so fucking stupid that they do not deserve to live? But earlier posts are right as well - the system has to change. I have no idea why the TM was not charged with involuntary manslaughter.
  13. How much 'cost' are you willing to spend to remain in the sport? If you defeat the lawsuit, the next one becomes easier to defeat, since precedent is set. and costs go down (or at least they do not go up) If you LOSE the lawsuit, then the next idiot has an easier time to pursue their frivolous bullshit and your costs go up and up until there is no more skydiving. Your attitude says "I can't see the forest for the trees". Are you willing to skydive when jumps are $100 each? When gear costs $12,000/rig? When everyone is 'expected' to sue - after all - it's just the 'cost of doing business'...... And most importantly, the rig/gear/tandem system was not at fault in this case - the TANDEM INSTRUCTOR was clearly the most culpable in the entire case, but will walk away scot free. So for that reason, Ted gets my vote. and my support. without Tandem and skydiving, my life would be a completely different experience and certainly not with the benefits, the friends and the culture that I have thrived on for 27+ years now. THAT is worth a couple hundred dollars of my cash...... But of course, this is a free country and you are entitled to your WRONG opinion.......
  14. I doubt it, Strong enterprises, like most manufacturers, is probably NOT a group member or otherwise a member of USPA.
  15. Because of the 'lady falling out of the harness' in Ohio, http://www.dropzone.com/fatalities/Detailed/185.shtml Ted Strong is once again having his ass sued off because of someone else's negligence and is going broke trying to defend himself. Please send some $$$ to Strong Enterprises to help him defend the case and save our sport (and your sport) from similar litigation in the future. Strong Enterprises, 11236 Satellite Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32837, USA I am doing this on my own accord, with no special request from Ted or anyone else. He is completely innocent, his gear is good, if not great, and he will likely spend $600K defending himself against greedy fucking slimey lawyers and people who cannot see justice, but only see money. Bill Booth also knows exactly what I am talking about. The TM has no money, so he is not getting sued I bet, and I think the DZ folded to avoid the same and are probably not touchable. This is an injustice and everyone who ever made a dollar from a tandem skydive owes part of that back to Ted for 50+ years of skydiving innovation and dedication to the sport. Thanks TK Hayes DZO Skydive City
  16. 100lb people do not play pro football and 300lb people do not skydive. Do not bother a dropzone with such a request. It is both stupid & dangerous, and exposes EVERYONE involved to a retarded amount of liability. negligence noun failure to take proper care in doing something : some of these accidents are due to negligence. • Law failure to use reasonable care, resulting in damage or injury to another. Even a tandem harness is not approved for that much weight. The tandem system is approved for a TOTAL weight, using two harnesses to support the total. Not a total weight supported by ONE of the two harnesses. If you think it is OK to do that, you should probably call Bill Booth and/or Ted Strong and see if they give the OK.....I doubt they would touch it.
  17. When I do an AFF jump, I tell the student what we are going to do, what is expected of them, I teach the skills required to do it. And in some remote way, I am responsible for their safety and even saving their life if I need to. When I do a coach jump, I ask the student what they want to learn, and I teach them the skills to do it, then we go do it. I am not responsible for their safety (not completely true), and it does not matter that much if they do well (also not completely true) In the case of coach jumps for a student trying to get their A license - if I do not sign SOMETHING off on their A license card, then I have completely wasted their time and money. (also true for an AFF jump I guess)
  18. I wish the rich and the corporations and the employers had to pay for the military instead of me paying for it - that would be great......
  19. CONGRESS gets to decide what is 'fair'. And the President gets to veto it if he does not like it. Like I said, i am not touting fair or equal, but they are NOT the same thing..... Injustices happen every day in this (every) country despite the 'equality' of law. It is not fair (to some). fair and equal are completely different in many cases - that is why I pointed it out as such..... They are the same is a few cases.
  20. equal is you pay what I pay. fair is you pay what you deserve and I pay what I deserve. both have merits and disadvantages, I am not touting either. the proof that the system is cheaper is already out there. The USA pays more per capita for healthcare that any other 'socialized medicine' country http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf http://www.cmwf.org/Content/Publications/Testimonies/2008/Mar/Testimony--Health-and-Wealth--Measuring-Health-System-Performance.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_and_American_health_care_systems_compared http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm Glad we agree on socializing at least PART of the healthcare system. But which part? It is the extremely serious and the trauma stuff that people cannot afford. providing 'basic' healthcare will probably not solve the financial problems. Maybe we should provide the 'emergency' care, the trauma, accidents, cancer treatments and such and let people pay for their own 'basic' care. Or better yet, maybe we just just extend the bottom age limit of the Medicare system to 1 day of age. THat would be the simplest piece of legislation to fix the problem of who is paying for healthcare.
  21. I had a similar experience with an original Vector Tandem system in about 1992-1993 in Canada. Bag lock malfunction, pulled the cutaway. The RSL side released and the reserve went immediately into it. The other riser eventually released, but I watched the reserve (swimming in lines and crap), eventually open, with an enormous knot of lines, risers and such on the right side just above my head. Hook-knife my ass, I needed a chainsaw. The knot of those old Dacron lines was the size of a football. The right toggle was stuck as it slid through all that and the reserve was spinning hard to the right. I had the student hold the left toggle down to stop the spin, worked enough of the knot loose so that I could steer a bit with the right toggle. But it was so sticky, I just chose to do left turns for the entire pattern. All this time the main started to come out of the bag, creating more and more drag behind the right side. In the end, a stand up landing in the peas, with the now-deploying main parachute trailing behind me. In my entire skydiving career, the only time I eve thought I was going in was when I looked up and saw the reserve deploying into al that shit over my head...... Clearing the risers when you have a bag-lock does not matter a shit if the RSL side releases - the bottom line is that the collapsing drogue does not offer enough drag to pull the 3-rings free. TK Hayes
  22. *** No one said health care is 'free' Universal healthcare means everyone pays for it, usually through income taxes. It is just cheaper/person when everyone is paying their share.
  23. yep, I have a bunch of snakes in my yard. mostly corn/rat snakes, one large indigo, and we caught a fews pics of this one about 6 months ago. Makes us worry, the dogs (6 of them) are outside a lot. if they decide to get curious with the wrong snake - it will be very bad.....