Fallcoholic

Actually I was responding to someone who specified Christianity. I DO NOT believe all religions are fear based, it's mainly Christianity and Catholics that pass the most judgment and condemn others to hell, from my experience.

FEAR, that is how religions work. They sell you on the fear of death and "Hell". Without the fear of hell and the promise of everlasting life, how many people could you sell on religion? Huge tax exempt, money making machines, that keep people trapped with fear. They are the most self righteous egotistical closed minded people I have ever come across. They honestly believe that every other religion is wrong and will perish and they will be with god P.S. If hell is a place without christians, then it is my heaven.

In my world, responsibility and blame mean two different things. All I was saying is that if it is obvious that there are clouds in violation of a FAR, why is the plane in the air, full of skydivers in the first place? (my guess would usually be $$$) And you are correct it is MY choices to get on the load, and MY choice not to jump when it is obvious I shouldn't. If the DZ sends a plane up I would assume there is a reasonable chance for a decent spot. If after getting up to altitude I realize they sent me up into a ton of clouds, then it is also my right NOT to jump. Are you saying since I got on the load, I should be required to jump through the clouds? Edited to add: Saw your edit after I posted this. Think we are on the same page.

So no responsibility goes on the DZO or pilot? I know I am new, but I have already seen planes grounded at my DZ for far less menacing clouds, and with higher ceilings. Flame away

No beer at a DZ, isn't that in violation of a FAR or something?

Ah my friend, that's where you make a mistake. See, this person isn't a noob because he is wearing a camera and we all know you need 200 jumps before strapping a camera on. (Note: Sarcasm...) I wasn't calling the person in the video a newbie. I have no idea who they are. They could have 10 jumps or 10,000 for all I know. Everyone wants to make this about the camera all of a sudden. Do you really think that if there was no camera on his head on this particular jump that things would have somehow gone miraculously better? I personally have no desire to jump a camera, or geek one for that matter (I'm a 36 year old newb, my glory days are long gone ). I just have a problem with the blanket ideology that "cameras" are the issue. People can fly like shit, and make poor decision's whether a camera is present or not.

That is mighty presumptuous of you. Just because I point out that lots of people post gopro videos in no way means that I am in a hurry to strap one on me during a skydive. I participate in plenty of other sports other than skydiving and have never had the desire to film myself or others. I could give a shit about a gopro on a skydive. I jump because it brings me joy, not because I want to show off. So, let's stop assuming that every new skydiver wants a gopro please.

I agree with you. People posting gopro videos to youtube has exposed near fatal idiotic mistakes in every conceivable sport/hobby, not just skydiving. These things have most certainly happened countless times before cameras, they are just documented in high definition and can be uploaded and be viewable by millions in the blink of an eye now

That is what was most disturbing to me too. It didn't appear that he ever even looked at the canopy after the collision, and certainly didn't do a good control check. I am a newbie myself and know that I don't know shit, and don't want to sound like I am bashing this guy. That being said, I really appreciate people posting videos like this even though they get publicly blasted for their mistakes because I think it is a valuable learning tool.

http://youtu.be/eQSkN0Trrjk HOLY CRAP! Saw this video and had to post it (sorry if it has been posted before) This is a scary video, but also a good chance for some education. I think it all starts going bad when the spotter says "I can't see shit" before they proceed to jump from the plane. Then things go progressively wrong from there. This guy is very lucky to be alive. The ground crew aggressively educates him after they verify he is not dead.

Heck, they even got the Miami part wrong. They shoot that show in Long Beach, CA. I used to have to go get signatures in the neighborhoods they filmed in. Those were some good times, getting yelled at by rich people pissed about losing their parking spot for a day .

That altitude was for students. I think the reasoning is that as a student we were taught that if we didn't have a properly functioning canopy by 2500' to go to EP's. So exiting on a main lower than 3000' feet as a student doesn't give much time before the 2500' EP hard deck. I understand what you are saying though, seems a bit high to go to your last option. I would also be interested in seeing what the general consensus of what a good hard deck for pulling the reserve on exit is in an emergency situation.

Related questions: -Is it taught to check altitude for main/reserve threshold altitude? -What altitude threshold, if any, do you tell a student to go on main or go on reserve? -Did the OP know about those things? Being a newbie A licensee, I will say that yes, I was taught to be altitude aware even on the flight up. I was instructed that in an emergency if below 3000' feet to go straight to reserve, any higher pull my main. I was also told to look out the window periodically to get a visual reference of different altitudes (see what 1500' looks like, etc.). Frankly, I think I am a bit obsessive with checking my alti, but that is probably a good thing for a newbie.

I think the issue is that you seem to continually keep talking about a defective AAD, when clearly that was not the issue in this particular incident. His AAD fired and the reserve deployed, but became tangled with the jumper. Seems like the typical actions of a lot of lawyer's to try to find a scenario in which they would be justified in suing someone, rather than looking at the facts of the case. Just my opinion.

Such a wonderful thread. I love a good laugh!