kuai43

Sorry for the facetious confusion. I was referring to 'other' DZ activity.. holding your knees together while cocooning keeps you virtuous.

Gowlerk makes a valid point, but the real reason is to preserve your virtue at least at some times while you're at the DZ. Lesson is, if you start to flake out, clamp your knees together. (note: it doesn't really work, but it looks good on the waivers)

That round one in elementary school PE class.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/no-more-survivors-on-new-zealand-island-after-volcano-eruption/ar-BBXXnOR?ocid=spartanntp Article contains a description by a tandem instructor in freefall nearby. Not in danger at all and don't know if he got video, but this may trump your freefall photo near a space shuttle launch.

Take your wallet. The big one.

N420DZ comes back as a Cessna 208, not a KA.

I'll go you one better: To tRump, Twitter is an ice cream cone.. .. and it's sticking out of his forehead.

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this thread and I appreciate all the thought that's been put in. A lot of interesting speculation has been thrown out there. To get back to the original question, this is simply about the amount of fuel used in skydiving flight operations specifically. This should be restricted to the number of gallons actually purchased and then assumed to be poured into aircraft. This should be far easier to estimate just by fuel sales. Discussion about overall skydiving carbon footprints is a bit specious and a speculative rabbit hole. There are too many variables involved. If skydiving ended tomorrow, the people involved would find something else to do that would create their own footprints, therefore it would suffice to call all ancillary carbon impacts a wash. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Excellent article. Thanks for including it. I heartily encourage everyone to read it. Once again, Bryan Burke rules. Fun fact.. he ran my FJC in 1984 at Orange, VA, when he was a college student. I lived. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Depends on what you would be spending your time/money on if you didn't spend it on skydiving. Based on the numbers from the article on dropzone.com linked above, making 100 jumps a year has a smaller carbon footprint than taking a 7-day cruise ship vacation. (Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421510000066) That said, I'm guessing there's not much overlap between "people who skydive" and "people who like to go on luxury cruises," but skydiving probably isn't the most carbon-intensive recreational activity you could possibly do. Cruising impact didn't even occur to me when we had the discussion. Interesting. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Meh if you feel guilty about it plant a couple of pine trees. You missed my point. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Does anyone have a reasonable estimate of how much fuel is burned daily in jump operations worldwide, on an annualized average? In other words, obviously, weekends, boogies, holidays, etc. would be averaged with days when jump ops aren't conducted and in the winter when ops are minimal or non-existent. I had a debate regarding climate impact with my GF's son about unnecessary carbon footprints and I just threw out a gut assertion that an entire day of fuel use in jump ops worldwide wouldn't even be equal to the fuel used by one 737 trans-continental flight, or one day of commuter fuel use in any of the major metro areas: DC, Houston, LA, etc. How far off base was I? Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

You win. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

May 19, 1984 - 25yo I did a season of static-line and one freefall on modified T-10 round parachutes. Then.. took 22 years off due to family/job/dithering around with other shit, etc. Came back in 2006 at 47yo and went through the AFF program. Still trying to balance family/job but have managed to knock out 800+ absolutely fun jumps (except the one in the rain with shorts & t-shirt ) and don't regret a bit of it, except for not getting instructional ratings to make it a profession. My father was Airborne (I was born at Ft. Bragg) and probably the genesis of my desire to do the first jump. I simply knew it was something I wanted to do. I recruited a dozen or so co-workers to go along for a first jump course, but of course none of them continued. Some of the best people I know, I met at the dropzone. It's not all about the jumping. You'll know if you go. Don't hold back. Do it if you feel it. Do it now (or when it gets warmer). Regrets are forever. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess

Ok. I clicked on this, thinking it was a Mexican pilot/instructor. Just ban me now. I've had worse. Every fight is a food fight if you're a cannibal Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man. - Anthony Burgess