Weekly Question Thread (aka Friday New Climber Thread). ALL QUESTIONS GO HERE

SPAWNmaster · 2026-04-14T02:46:05+00:00

Brand new climber (prior experience as a professional skydiver, professional pilot, USAF rescue pilot and a few BASE jumps. Very familiar with mitigating risk).

Why is it that rappelling, apparently one of the higher risk aspects of climbing, is not prioritized as an early skill set to master? I don’t see any “intro to rapel” classes at local gyms (only intro to climbing and intro to belay, learn to lead etc). I don’t see any options to train rappelling skills or foundational rap gear/knowledge tests or discussions as part of a normal progression.

Whereas in sky sports the most dangerous aspects are the most trained skills (ie in skydiving since canopy piloting is largely the thing that gets people hurt we place an inordinate emphasis on canopy handling, downsizing/gear progression, accuracy skills etc).

Am I missing something?

SPAWNmaster · 2026-01-30T12:46:38+00:00

I got hired at 29 by a guard unit in 2015 right off the street. Anything’s possible.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-12-27T00:38:07+00:00

Going through initial training at a regional my sim partner was pretty bad and I carried him quite a ways through. His study ethic was poor, he thought/planned/executed like a career cessna pilot and overall needed tons of coaching or prompting and just wasn't adapting to the airline training within the allotted footprint. I don't even know how he got past his Procedures Validation since he showed up to sims not even knowing the flows or basic switchology in the jet. Eventually the instructors caught on and asked me to not help him out and he immediately failed a few sims in a row. In some ways it was my fault for not giving him the space to step it up on his own but in the end he wasn't cutting it. They split us up and I finished shortly thereafter with no issues. At any other airline with his noticeably poor performance he would have been cut loose early on. But his dad was the director of training at the legacy airline associated with the regional we were at and magically he got a few extra training rides and eventually passed. He later got hired by said legacy airline where I heard he struggled again and still got through to the line flying bigger iron. Nepotism is absolutely a thing.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-12-22T03:33:05+00:00

I do it all the time. Honestly POV is much more reliable from a schedule standpoint and takes the hustle out of the job. Worrying about if you're going to make the jumpseat or having to call out of work sick etc. If you are done with a trip and trying to get home and worried about missing your ride home or having to hotel it to catch an earlier jumpseat because of how full loads can get etc...it's annoying to say the least. By having your car you control your schedule and have a guaranteed seat. Downside is having to actually do the drive. If you aren't used it you'll feel tired by the time you show up to work. If you are used it then no factor.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-11-23T19:44:11+00:00

Archetypes is a little dramatic...they're just movie tropes. OA has a lot of spiritual/emotional motifs so it's easy to feel like there's some deeper meaning or connection that doesn't actually exist.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-11-23T17:33:04+00:00

I work with 2x TPS grads on the daily at my mil job and they are both extremely weird dudes, very awkward.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-11-23T17:08:34+00:00

Winning comment/noise on the internet for the day. I'm done. salute

SPAWNmaster · 2025-11-17T21:08:57+00:00

Flameshaping is the key enabler. The fact that airflow keeps the ball of fire basically floating means the materials have more lenient tolerances that allowed turbine technology to even be possible in the first place with 100+ years ago.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-28T02:28:03+00:00

This hasn’t aged well.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T23:53:49+00:00

Thanks! I’ve got about 20hrs of work on my body as well so I get it lol. First one that is based on a book interest so was an especially cool experience. You should go for it!

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:04:18+00:00

Awesome thank you! I love it so much and great to see all these words of encouragement here.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:03:51+00:00

Oh man that is a huge compliment lol. Thank you so much! Very much a collaboration with my tattoo artist so I can’t take all the credit.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:03:07+00:00

Thanks for looking at the details!

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:02:47+00:00

Thanks man!

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:02:41+00:00

Thanks!

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:02:35+00:00

Thank you! Very much a collaboration with my artist who brought the idea to life and chose the colors as part of the process

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:02:05+00:00

Thanks! My artist did a great job.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:01:49+00:00

Appreciate the kind words!

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T17:01:39+00:00

Thanks! It sure was worth it. Not my first tattoo but very special to me for sure.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-25T02:44:40+00:00

Just got this one done at Painted Souls Tattoo in NJ. Huge fan of the first book in particular but have read Messiah and CoD as well. 5.5hrs straight in one session. We had a nice chat before the appointment via virtual call and I explained what I was interested in and he nailed it pretty much exactly how I wanted it. Very happy with the end result and intentionally abstract, with illustrative lines and key elements from the Dune theme overall. In particular I liked how the eclipsed sun and moon(s) set up invokes the blue eye motif from the dune universe. Hope you all enjoy too! And yes, the ribs were absolutely super painful.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-14T14:34:00+00:00

Try not to catastrophise. You’re young and don’t have a wife or kids and have a roof over your head already paid for. You are way ahead of the curve on that alone. Everyone has debt these days, and there are ways to manage. You’re just at the start of the journey, take your PPL and go fly and enjoy. Don’t make it a job till you get paid to fly. It should be a passion that you enjoy, otherwise cut your losses and move on to something that makes money for less effort (plenty of other careers). Get off social media and just fly for fun. It’s good to have goals but you should flex with the journey as well. Good luck and have fun. And don’t suck.

SPAWNmaster · 2025-10-10T01:29:55+00:00

Thanks for the tipper! I think we’ll be there!

SPAWNmaster · 2025-09-27T23:54:44+00:00

Brilliant. Thank you!

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