tkhayes

planets in OUR solar system yes, but we also have a good idea what OUR forms of life need to survive and live. Earth did not always have these conditions and will not have them forever - we already know that. We have no idea if Mars, i.e. had life at some point, but some day we will probably find out. And I expect there are hundreds of thousands of other planets out there with life forms. Most we will never meet or know about - but it is pretty arrogant of mankind to asume that we are the 'only ones' - the 'chosen ones' What a crock. Stand on Pluto, look back at Earth and then tell me that Earth looks ANYTHING different from all the other dots out there. And you are telling me that God made ALL THAT UNIVERSE around you to satisfy that little blue dot over there in the distance. (paraphrased from Carl Sagan) again, what a crock. TK

you said it best - he just wearing it to 'piss people off'. I have no time for people who go out of their way to do that sort of thing. It is THEIR airline and THEIR airplane, and they can set the rules if they like. Skydivers need to stop being dicks about the issue of carrying their rig on board. If you are so concerned about the airlines losing it, then drive. Or better yet, ship your rig insured Fedex ahead of time. You are nto allowed to carry a can of gasoline on board, or a bottle of liquor, or your gun, your go-cart and thousands of other things. If they say that you cannot bring your rig and you do not like it, then start your own airline and set your own rules. TK

Yes, but they are learning more traditional accuracy with parafoils and other accuracy models. That type of coaching is definitely available. But we do not teach the accuracy trick for normal people flying normal sport parachutes. Those people too should be able to land to PRO rating standards within I would say 50 jumps or less. Definitely to B license standards by the time they finish their A license.

I for one, do not believe that anyone knows how to teach accuracy or canopy landings, even today. I am living proof of that. 1200 jumps, I was still only hitting the dropzone, but not the target. Now I hit a target every time. whatever, whenever or wherever. After years of trying to figure it out, I finally made it into some exercises that my students are having great success with. "TK's Accuracy Seminar" I was debating whether to try and get something for it, but I would rather share the info, so I hope to see it someday in Parachutist, on dropzone.com as an article, I just have not gotten around to it yet. As usual, fell free to distribute, but please at least give the credit where the credit is due. send me an email and I will send to you tk@skydivecity.com as it is too big to post here (PDF file) TK tk@skydivecity.com

reserve in or out of date, the lawyers don't care, they will accuse you of wrongdoing in every aspect of the skydive. "Throw enough darts and maybe one sticks" Plus it sounds better in court when you have to deny the accusations. They just like you to have to say it. TK

We are not illogical at all - actually it was a joke. But my other post is pure logic. And we use pure logic to defend the non-existence of a God. Simple logic would dictate that there is some PHYSICAL evidence or some repeatable and consistent way to prove that a God exists. More than just faith. Religious types quote scribes, and testaments and sayings of old and more bunk from the Bible. Great. There is tons of proof of the scriptures, of the disciples, the old and new testaments, even the exsistence of Jesus Christ and all those other folks mentioned in the scriptures and the Bible. But that in itself is not proof of ANY God. It is just solid evidence that even back then people BELIEVED in God. I never disputed the existence of Jesus Christ, and I am sure he was quite the guy..... So was Jim Jones to his followers who died for him and his cause. But we all know they were wrong. I think that 2000 years ago, when they thought Jesus Christ was the son of God, that they followed lots of other similar beliefs prior to his arrival. Which actually makes the followers inconsistent in their own beliefs. It just happened to catch on, but not in any way is it proof by any standard other than faith. TK

sometimes a sock with a doorknob in it works pretty good at getting a message across.

moving towards a better existence sounds good on paper, but it is not reality nor does it necessarily express itself in nature. We kill or be killed, we eat or be eaten and so does every form of animal life on the planet. I never said that common sense included mans' inevitable self-destruction. I said that comon sense will eventually explain that which we do not know. So your hypotheses does not fit the situation at all. Sure I HOPE for a better future, but I have little faith in mankind - we will certainly fuck it up for ourselves. Just because the book of revelations prophesied something does not mean that this (today) is the 'event'. Many groups and people in the past has used the same propheses to describe their current situation. "The End is Near" has been used since the beginning of Christianity, even with the books written right after the death of Jesus. So far they have all been wrong. Our demise will be the destruction of our own environment - you can all it 'the Book' if you like, I will call plain old fashioned stupidity. And I also firmly believe that our inevitable destruction will be mostly caused by religion - we cannot get along because we do not share the same beliefs. Those beliefs are entrenched in our faith and the belief that YOU are wrong and WE are right. (and the kill or be killed thing too) Trouble is the other side(s) believe the same thing. TK

Actually your dog is more thinking: "he said No" - feels bad, feels bad, feels bad ooo biscuit!! feels good, feels good They are just dogs, very smart, very fun, but still just dogs. They do not know time, they do not know 'love' as such. What they convey is loyalty and protection and affection of sorts, but mostly from 'the pack' relationship they have with you. Gotta have one - all the time. Got 5 right now TK

I think also that fundamentally, human beings have the capacity to ask 'Why?' Because of this, we invented gods and icons to explain the unexplainable. As long as we can do this, we will continue to come up with things that we believe in with little or no proof - of course until we prove otherwise. I know of no other creature in the world that can ask "why?" Terrible accident happens - we say "God works in mysterious ways" Someone has a close call and it is a 'miracle from God' we are so unwilling to accept that 'shit happens' often for no reason at all and we seek explanation. Which is fine by the way, if you really need to seek explanation and meaning in everything. But do it on your own time and don't force it into the laws of the country and thus into my daily life. I have rights too. TK

Document: USA Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB57/us.html We seem to forget that in many ways, we actually helped to put the Taliban into power by countering the Russians in their war with Afghanistan. "CIA Funded" - in this article......does that mean money, training, weapons, or all of the above?

"If God is so almighty powerful, can He make a rock so big that he himself cannot lift it?" - George Carlin TK

What a crock....just because we cannot explain the 'unexplained' does not justify the existence of a God, - as they said in Men in Black - 500 years ago, EVERYONE knew the earth was flat..... Well we explained that away. And the fact that we cannot comprehend 'infinity' and the 'end of the universe' also does not mean that some God somewhere exists. The Bible says that time will be replaced by eternity? They are not even the same thing. Time exists WITHIN eternity. This we already know. Bullshit. I do not, for one, 'demand' that everything has a beginning and end. Quite frankly I am totally willing to accept that the universe never had a beginning or an end, it will just continually change form. I know for a fact that I will have a beginning and an end, but not that everything else will.... 'faith' - you said it. it is all about faith,. but just because you believe it does not make it so. I will stick with physics, math and biology, and someday, not far from now, we will know a lot more about everything around us. Will we explain it all? Never. Does that mean that some 'magic' created it? not a chance.... Have your faith if you like - I will stick to good old common sense based on what is actually going on around me. (and backing it up with solid and proven science. TK

Carburation as a 'science' is very inefficient, so there is no silver bullet as was already posted. Fossil-fuel engines are inherently inefficient. Large amounts of fuel, mixed with oxygen and then burned produce energy and lots of it, but much of the fuel energy goes out the tailpipe, tons is exhausted in heat etc etc. Kinda like an incadescent light bulb, tons of heat, not much light for the amount of energy it burns. Regardless of the 'engine', the 'carburation', or the end result use of the energy produced, it is a pretty inefficient process. The obvious solution if we are to continue to use this technology (and we have no current replacement) is to carry more people per pound of fuel burned. More public transportation, more trains and connectors, commuters and such. One engine - one man does not make any sense - but it is the American Way (and the Canadian Way too). 100 people on a train that burns electricity generated en masse by burning fossil fuels is far more efficient a way to get around. As long as the North American population is convinced that the car is the perfect mode of transportation for them, as well as the massive lobbying by oil and car manufacturers, it will never change. I was all for the hybrid cars, but they are not the solution either. Overstated mileage, and how much to replace the batteries in the Pruis? Thousands. Someday you will have to foot that bill. A far better solution would be to open the market to smaller lightweight foreign cars with SMALL engines that are already available. 1000cc to 1500cc engines that run on diesel or gas, they go slower, but they do the same job. little Daihatsu minivans, Renault Kangoo, there are dozens out there. But they do not meet our 'safety standards' so they do not get into the country. I would love to have a Kangoo, but cannot get one. My 1970's Honda Civic used to get 40+ MPG, but my 2002 Corolla only gets 30 on a good day. How is THAT possible? Mostly because the market 'demanded' more horsepower, so instead of the 70-80HP I need to get around, they make it with a 130+HP engine, totally unnecessary for the size of car that it is.

no need to reply - your post was not obviously intended for me, it just tied me into it, this appears to be between you and the original poster.

1. I never 'bashed' free military jumps - I simply used that as an example of why the public chooses them over us a lot. 2. $3000-$4000 is not 'easy demo money'. Because of the price, I do not get any demos. That is fine by me. More accurately, I do not do demos anymore, but I will if they pay me $3000-$4000 since they are a pain in the ass, cost way more than we always figure they will, and with all the post 9/11 security crap out there, are often impossible for a civilian group to manage to get permission for. (and funny how it is impossible for me to get access to free military helicopters to do jumps) 3. I have no 'ulterior' motives for any of my posting. He posted an incident, you stated reasons why you thought that was not cool and I countered your comments because I think that is fine. And the Green Berets are more than welcome to counter whatever they like as well. 4. Bashing any demo team that does a very bad demo is not necessarily 'military bashing' either, but it still hurts our sport when demos go bad, so I, with a very vested interest in the sport's survival have every right to be upset about ANY demo that goes bad, military or otherwise. My insurance costs, access to the airspace, ability to fly, EVERYTHING that we do gets affected by this sort of thing when the insurance company decides not to renew a policy. (Just one example). The insurance may be required to maintain your or my access to the airspace or airport that we occupy. THerefore we are quickly put out of business. Or the insurance quadruples in one year and the dropzone has to eat it, or perhaps raise jump prices YET AGAIN to cover costs. Now if some guy decides to use a very large flag, on a tight demo, in bad weather and then fucks up in any way - yes, I (we) have every right to be pissed off about it because it may FUCK UP my career. I would not have cared so much if one out of 4 jumpers made a landing error or something like that. Sounds like almost everyone on this demo screwed up or had some 'near miss' - that tells me something is/was fundamentally wrong with the decision and planning of the jump. TK

I have a big head - tired of my frap hat, and am looking for a decent half-shell helmet. Seems all the new ones, even Protec, have styrofoam liners, very hard and uncomfortable. None I have found are the right size for me or even come close to fitting. I would be happy with a half-shell protec with a regular foamy liner Anyone know of where or what model? Anyone see other helmets out there that would work? TK

check out http://www.landoverbaptist.org/ they got all the great facts - funniest stuff I have read in a while

I disagree. This is EXACTLY one of the forums to dicuss this and regardless of what is said or even how it is said - it is still a good way to bring light to this sort of event. Afterall, the very existence of forums is for the purpose of spreading information. 1. His 'objective' is of little relevance to the actual situation. Even if his objective was to put the screws to some people for no good reason, the information contained herein may still be valid. You are also welcome to validate or disregard it. 2. He already stated that he wrote the CO, and I would assume that he will likely do that again. Or possibly give up in disgust. 3. Maybe he already has done that. If he wrote the CO last year and they basically did the same sort of 'bad jump' again this year - then perhaps his comments fell on deaf ears. 4. Just because he has a PRO rating does not mean he is interested in replacing a team on an event. But it does make him relatively experienced enough to comment on a demo jump. Why do towns, events and others hire military demo teams? Because they are often FREE. I charge upwards of $3000-$4000. Plus the public percetion most likely is that the military are 'more highly trained experts' than just us 'stoopid sport jumpers'. And they may not even realize that we even exist. 5. Offer your services to help out with the jump? Will that realistically change the outcome? If I was an ATP, and I did not like the way that Delta airlines flew their planes or handled their ground operations, would I then 'volunteer' to Delta to offer to help out to make it safer? No. I would probably write a letter or an article, such as this, to tell the story of the poor operations. It sounds to me that the only thin wrong with this post is that maybe it shoudl be under 'incidents' instead of the bonfire. TK

And there is nothing stopping the jumper from choosign even a smaller flag for the jump either. a 20x30' flag (my guess from the picture) is a big-ass flag with many more complications than a simple 4x8 flag. The crowd does not care - as in most demos - they are just amazed watching someone jump and land. From the clouds, I have to wonder how many FARs got violated as well. And yes, the whole town has the right to think that skydivers get hurt all the time and that we do not know what we are doing - we just demonstrated it to them in full view. Pisses me off to no end. Learn to say NO for fuck's sake. TK

He's an asshole. Vying for the survival of the Republican party in the next election. "Let's pretend we give a shit so they will hopefully vote us back in", then we can continue with the same bullshti all over again. When are we going to get a new third viable alternative in the country? I like the idea of the French Revolution. All the poor people finally rose up against the rich and the aristocracy and beheaded the lot of them. Everyone bad-mouths the French, but one thing the French do very well is take care of the French. The American Government simply has everyone believing in the 'American dream' to keep you hoping. But where will youl really be in 30-40 years? - mostly poor.... TK

On the Jacksonville Sectional, it is a prohibited flight area, R-2910, probably a military installation, and definitely off limits on the charts up to 23000'

Instead of fighting wars in Iraq, we should be sending our special forces guys out to hunt down and execute these motherfuckers. They cost society biliions of dollars every year. If they ended up lynched in a pool of their own blood more often, left on public display, the message might get out there that this will not be tolerated. Of course, it might not help, but I sure will feel better about it.

Sadly the Commerce Committee Reports FAA Investment and Modernization Act S.1300 passed by one vote. Now it still has to go through hoops to get made into law, but this is a LARGE SETBACK for some, if not many dropzone operations. If passed, a $25 user fee per flight will be assessed on commercial flights. I am not clear on the interpretation of the legislation, one part says for commercial flights, and another says that GA is exempt if piston powered or Turbines operating in controlled airspace. So is a commercial flight still considered GA? Whatever, - Skydive City operates almost every flight in the Class B dome of Tampa, which means $25/load being paid to ATC. That is more than a $1/jump increase in the costs to the end jumper. Are their other DZ's operating in controlled space? There must be some all over the country. Anyway what to do? SUBSCRIBE to the notices that get emailed out by me at skydivecity.com, to the USPA email lists or simply email ED Scott and ask that he keep a list of concerned parties. AOPA is another great source of information and notices. Because when they finally get down to making this law - we will ALL need to write our representatives to derail this, or in the end, we will ALL be paying a lot more money for jumps. And we will receive little or no improvement in services rendered. TK Hayes Skydive City

11. Queerios - you pour milk on them and they eat each other 12. Prostitooties - they don't snap crackle and pop, they just lay there and bang