[Free]

There is a long history of cover-up at U$hPA.
I tried to get Bob to download all the files he could get while he still had 'insider' credentials.
He didn't listen and now the lawyer has hired a high priced fixer PR man so everything is going to be much harder to get, I suppose.

A lot of money went missing in the Jim Zeisit/Mark Forbes years, that was never really fully explained.
Mark Forbes once said something about hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on a faulty computer system but no details.

There are some old posts relating to this elsewhere. Maybe others can add their recollections on this?

[Bob Kuczewski]

There is a long history of cover-up at U$hPA.

I agree.

I tried to get Bob to download all the files he could get while he still had 'insider' credentials.

I never had 'insider' credentials. They knew from the day I was elected that I was there to represent the pilots. When I asked to attend just one Executive Committee meeting, they refused to give me the code for the conference call ... even though I demanded it. My lawyer even threatened to sue them, but they just dug in even harder. Then they held a "kangaroo court" hearing with Tim Herr leading the charge at the second Board meeting I attended as Director. There was no way that I was going to get anywhere near anything that might be damaging to the real insiders.

[Rick Masters]

hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on a faulty computer system

I see they're storing their documents in the cloud, now. I think that's cheaper than a hundred thousand dollars.

[Rick Masters]

Bad news for soaring parachutists...?

Incidents of airliners hitting turbulence seem to be increasing, say experts
March 7, 2014
A paper published last year by two British environmental scientists concluded that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases both the strength and frequency of CAT: “Our results suggest that climate change will lead to bumpier transatlantic flights by the middle of this century. Journey times may lengthen, and fuel consumption and emissions may increase. Aviation is partly responsible for changing the climate, but our findings show for the first time how climate change could affect aviation.” As an FAA-licensed dispatcher who worked in airline flight operations, I also talked to several dispatchers who confirmed that turbulence incidents seem to be on the increase.
http://news.yahoo.com/turbulence-in-fli ... 23271.html

VIDEO http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/28/ja ... video.html

Intensification of winter transatlantic aviation turbulence in response to climate change
Paul D. Williams & Manoj M. Joshi
Atmospheric turbulence causes most weather-related aircraft incidents1. Commercial aircraft encounter moderate-or-greater turbulence tens of thousands of times each year worldwide, injuring probably hundreds of passengers (occasionally fatally), costing airlines tens of millions of dollars and causing structural damage to planes1, 2, 3. Clear-air turbulence is especially difficult to avoid, because it cannot be seen by pilots or detected by satellites or on-board radar4, 5. Clear-air turbulence is linked to atmospheric jet streams6, 7, which are projected to be strengthened by anthropogenic climate change8. However, the response of clear-air turbulence to projected climate change has not previously been studied. Here we show using climate model simulations that clear-air turbulence changes significantly within the transatlantic flight corridor when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is doubled. At cruise altitudes within 50–75° N and 10–60° W in winter, most clear-air turbulence measures show a 10–40% increase in the median strength of turbulence and a 40–170% increase in the frequency of occurrence of moderate-or-greater turbulence. Our results suggest that climate change will lead to bumpier transatlantic flights by the middle of this century. Journey times may lengthen and fuel consumption and emissions may increase. Aviation is partly responsible for changing the climate9, but our findings show for the first time how climate change could affect aviation.
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/ ... e1866.html

1 dead, scores hurt after United jet hits turbulence
http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9712/28/ja ... ce.update/

[Rick Masters]

First guy to die on a paraglider in 2015? Vitor Stok, wearing a powerpak, I think. Brazil, yesterday. Buried today.

[Bob Kuczewski]

First guy to die on a paraglider in 2015? Vitor Stok, wearing a powerpak, I think. Brazil, yesterday. Buried today.

Do you know what happened?

[wingspan33]

That picture looks more like a woman to me than a guy. ? ? ? ? But that only matters so much if the person is no longer with us.

[Rick Masters]

What happened is what it seem always happens to helpless falling humans on paragliders: "He fell from X meters."

The Brazillian reporter said he fell from 40 meters. Don't know about the sex of the victim. Doesn't matter. Photo is a hyperlink to the news article. I got the impression it was Stok on a PG.

Forty meters is 131.2 feet - a long way to fall with an anvil on your back. Helpless falling humans will be comforted to know that they don't actually fall faster with an anvil on their backs.

From the Parapedia:
HGalileo demonstrated this. According to the traditional account, to refute the Aristotelian notion that heavier objects fall faster than light ones, HGalileo performed an experiment from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa. He dropped two fully-collapsed paragliders, one with an anvil and one without, and observed that both hit the ground at the same time. HGalileo then correctly reasoned that when a partially-collapsed paraglider falls more slowly, it is due to air resistance. A fully-collapsed paraglider moving solely under the influence of gravity is said to be in free fall; near the surface of the Earth such an object falls at an acceleration of 9.8 m/s squared.

Unfortunately, the Church of Paragliding branded HGalileo a heritic and imprisoned him for failing to have faith that every collapsed paraglider pops open shortly before it hits the ground.

[wingspan33]

. . . From the Parapedia:
HGalileo demonstrated this. According to the traditional account, to refute the Aristotelian notion that heavier objects fall faster than light ones, HGalileo performed an experiment from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa. He dropped two fully-collapsed paragliders, one with an anvil and one without, and observed that both hit the ground at the same time. HGalileo then correctly reasoned that when a partially-collapsed paraglider falls more slowly, it is due to air resistance. A fully-collapsed paraglider moving solely under the influence of gravity is said to be in free fall; near the surface of the Earth such an object falls at an acceleration of 9.8 m/s squared.

Unfortunately, the Church of Paragliding branded HGalileo a heritic and imprisoned him for failing to have faith that every collapsed paraglider pops open shortly before it hits the ground.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I do feel guilty 'cause someone died.

But then, I don't sell collapsible canopies to so many (?) future dead people.

To those who do . . .

[Rick Masters]

So many deaths...
It's either laugh or cry.
No one listens so it makes little difference.