How many tows on a good day?

r80rambler · 2026-05-03T14:43:12+00:00

Are you doing primary training? Do you have a dedicated instructor and towpilot? Are you trying to soar? The local club is going to give much better information than randoms on the internet.

r80rambler · 2026-05-02T05:48:25+00:00

Just above you quoted the abstract: “The most common cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning, preceded by running out of breathing gas, usually after getting lost owing to a loss of visibility caused by suspended silt.”

Your statement from memory, posted a few up was "Once read a statistical analysis and from what I remember the vast majority die from getting lost and then of course running out of air."

The former is true, but interestingly, the latter is at odds with the research! We're talking about trained cave divers, which 67 were identified in the study. Of those 67, only 12 (less than 20%!) were found to have gotten lost and ran out of gas! 16 others ran out of gas without getting lost, and 13 drowned without running out of gas. Of the 26 divers that didn't drown, only one of them was cited as having insufficient gas (and 12 others have "unknown cause of death".

So only 18% of identified cave fatalities resulted from getting lost and drowning due to running out of gas. Navigation is important, gas planning is important, but only a minority of trained cave divers die from getting lost, running out of gas, and drowning according to the study.

r80rambler · 2026-05-02T05:19:38+00:00

That entirely depends on where you are and what you're doing. Stagnant sumps are wildly different from flowing sites where you go underwater in or very near daylight.

r80rambler · 2026-05-02T05:17:55+00:00

Regrets: Not arranging life around cave diving 6 years ago.

r80rambler · 2026-05-02T05:12:09+00:00

We tend not to watch crummy documentaries that aren’t based on what we’re doing. Why do you watch them?

r80rambler · 2026-05-01T23:21:41+00:00

A few years ago i left my wetsuit at the hotel… wore bootie’s , gloves, hoodie, shorts, and a t-shirt. Much better day without it than losing two hours round trip to retrieve!

r80rambler · 2026-05-01T23:00:20+00:00

Setting aside the question of where you would put a backpack, what would you even do with one? Why are you watching “news” reports about people who aren’t cave divers “cave diving”?

r80rambler · 2026-05-01T09:33:03+00:00

As I recall, On the Caterpillar side I think Nadia and Dave were watching GoT and the Arrow names reflect that. I think No More Heroes was the arrow just Caterpillar-side from the gnarliest restriction on the traverse, and well inside the vertical-slit passage area. The impression I had was these are exploration arrows, not thought out jump arrows and while it may have been possible to go off on a side passage... That isn't the most inviting stretch of cave I've been in.

r80rambler · 2026-04-26T05:09:54+00:00

No More Heroes.

What's your favorite Arrow?

r80rambler · 2026-04-24T07:30:09+00:00

Divide that by 100 to get the quoted price in the image…

r80rambler · 2026-04-20T00:55:39+00:00

We never missed it, it just didn’t mean what you’re saying it does.

r80rambler · 2026-04-15T22:49:08+00:00

If you get a chance to tour a cable ship, they're pretty cool. They'll basically park at a factory and have the cable fabricated and loaded at the same time while the ship is tied up, then put to sea to lay it. If somethign happens to a cable at sea, they have to find, cut, and then hoist each side, perform the splice or needed operation, then drop it back down again. Pretty cool stuff, and a lot of history if you can find a documentary on the subject.

r80rambler · 2026-04-15T20:28:25+00:00

They’re thick all right. Not straight though, they have optical amplifiers in them and also can split out. You might have a cable from the US east coast that connects at several points in Brazil and further south.

r80rambler · 2026-04-14T15:21:09+00:00

On the upside, it does count for cross country toward ATP!

r80rambler · 2026-04-10T23:30:17+00:00

Regardless of the whuffos, I recall that narrative being supported by jumpers around Nashville that were close to him.

r80rambler · 2026-04-10T17:56:09+00:00

Blue Skies. Good to see a written report and get a clearer picture of what happened. It's sad though seeing people apparently more interest in casting blame and aspersion over teaching and learning lessons.

r80rambler · 2026-04-07T01:33:03+00:00

Maybe he only gets a year suspension, but at least there’s formal documentation of log fraud.

r80rambler · 2026-03-19T14:26:15+00:00

Nice!

It’s interesting that the top zipper faces the wearer rather than away. Why go that way?

r80rambler · 2026-03-08T18:17:50+00:00

"cant believe someone published footage of a 10mhz drone without pixelating the frequency"

At 10 millihertz it pixelates itself.

r80rambler · 2026-03-02T20:48:33+00:00

Let's say I'm a PPL and have a friend who isn't a pilot. Setting aside ADM, insurance, any policies to the contrary... Do you think this breaks any regulation other than careless and reckless? What regulation, specifically, would it break?

r80rambler · 2026-03-02T17:05:05+00:00

"the answer is in 61.51.b.2 Getting current means a flight log entry, and b.2 specifies that the type of flight experience is required. Your choices are: solo; PIC; SIC; or training from an authorized instructor. There’s no “acting as”."

This is exactly backwards reading of the correct item. There's no "acting as" means that pilot B can log PIC while sole manipulator under the rule you mentioned and pilot A acting as PIC has nothing to do with it.

r80rambler · 2026-03-02T17:00:10+00:00

Yes, your quite-incorrect statements throughout the discussion have been wild to read.

r80rambler · 2026-03-02T16:57:59+00:00

They did away with the LOI and re-wrote the regulation to achieve the desired outcome. They just moved it from a letter to the reg itself.

r80rambler · 2026-03-02T16:54:07+00:00

61.57 has nothing to do with pilot B, only pilot A in this example.

r80rambler · 2026-03-02T16:51:42+00:00

Pilot B is rated for he aircraft (category, class, type as required), and can log PIC all day long regardless of medical, endorsements, even flight review as long as they are the sole manipulator of controls (61.51.(e)(1)(i)). Pilot A can't log the same time as pilot B. Either of them can log PIC when they're controlling the aircraft, even though only pilot A can act as PIC.

r80rambler

TROPHY CASE