winsor

Perhaps that would be an interesting diatribe if it related to much of anything. My remark was a distant variant to Clarence Darrow's comment "In the beginning, God created man. Man, being a gentleman, returned the favor." What leads you to suspect idiocy or gullibility, and how do you conclude that those are the only viable options? Blue skies, Winsor

I really don't give it an awful lot of thought, since I stay the hell out of CYPRES territory. If I have two out, my intention is to bury a toggle on the main and chop when they get clear. The shorter bridle on the pullout reduces the likelihood of entanglement with the reserve. There is the stray chance that they will get along. I don't recall coming across results from tests where radically different sizes were flown together. I do know that an EXTreme loaded over 2:1 was flown, at half brakes, in formation with me under an F-111 7-cell at 0.9:1. so there may be a chance that compatibility issues are not as grim as envisioned. In any event, I think the prospect of breaking every bone in my body trying to land a too-small reserve is a more compelling concern than preparing for personal CRW on undersized canopies. Blue skies, Winsor

Thanks for the heads-up. I have 10 Racers at present, and have a rough idea of how they work. As far as little reserves go, I doubt if anything anyone says is going to convince you to pick something that will give you some slack when you need it most. With any luck, you will use your little reserve as many times as necessary, and it will be entirely uneventful. You can then shake your head and wonder why people were being such weenies. OTOH, you may find yourself in a corner where having more nylon overhead would make all the difference in the world. Life is a crapshoot in general, and skydiving moreso, and I think it a real good idea to load the dice in your favor as much as possible. When you go to silver, you are betting the ranch on one pass. Blue skies, Winsor

Hell, I want to see a pic of the rig! They're Racer Elites. Here's a picture of them; it's a poor image and they aren't arranged in a photogenic display, but it gets the idea across. Blue skies, Winsor

Screw tiny reserves. I have a couple of 99 sq. ft. crossbraced mains, and both of them have 218 sq. ft. reserves. Why? Because I didn't have anything bigger on hand. CAN I land something smaller safely? Sure - if there isn't anything else working against me. Do I want to be under something loaded as highly as my main if I'm A) Under canopy low over trees or other obstacles? B) Under reserve because I'm too badly injured to open my main (broken collarbone, arm, etc.)? C) Unable to see from blood in my eyes (been there) or some other problem? D) Unconscious or insensate? E) Other factor I have yet to conceive? Hell no. I don't want my reserve to simply keep me from dying, and maybe require a Life Flight. I want to have a nice soft landing, grab another rig, and be on the next load. If having a big reserve isn't cool, that's just too bad. Blue skies, Winsor

That just relates to timing, not the reason behind the celebration. Wrong, that is precisely the reason. You weren't paying attention in class - Jesus was born in the Spring. The Yule festival, occurring at the Winter Solstice, was mutated into a Christian form for political reasons - retaining most of the existing rituals. The veracity of your beliefs does not change the origins of the festival. Blue skies, Winsor

but I have a right not to have to keep it out of sight. Just as I have to put up with the secular humanist. Even though the Lord God Almighty has seen fit to provide you with genitals, good taste should be the reason you keep them out of sight. I should hope you similarly cherish your religious beliefs enough to have the good taste to keep them to yourself. I'm not talking about rights, but good manners. Blue skies, Winsor

Uh, Christians usurped a perfectly good festivity - the Yule - and created a pseudo-holiday to supplant it - Christmas. Jesus was born in the Spring, closer to the Vernal Equinox than the Winter Solstice. Most of the traditions that we associate with Christmas come from pre-Christian cultures, and have nothing to do with Christianity at all. I don't begrudge people celebrating Ramadan or Kwanzaa or whatever they're into. I do get sick to death of having to put up with two months of Christmas-themed dreck every year ("Grandma got run over by a reindeer ?" spare me). I am indifferent to the "Merry Christmas!" greeting, and find it quaint in the sense of tribal tradition. I am used to the idea that True Believers (tm) of every ilk assume that whatever they do by dint of Blind Faith (not Clapton, Bruce and Baker) is Right, and anyone who finds it annoying is simply in need of The Truth (tm). I consider religion like genitalia. I think you have every right to hold it dear and feel that it gives your life meaning, but I think you should keep it out of sight and I surely don't want to hear about it. Blue skies, Winsor

In that they ARE Skyride, I expect so. I brought up the link, and went around in it trying to figure out quite what DZ "Skydive Illinois" was and where it could be found. I finally broke down and called the toll-free number, since that was the only contact information provided. The answer to my question regarding the location of "skydive Illinois" was to ask from where I was calling. Since I can't figure out how a DZ's location could be dependent upon my location, I did my very best to get the person on the phone to simply tell me quite where "Skydive Illinois" was located. The bottom line is that it isn't located anywhere. She apologized for my misunderstanding that their mission in life is simply to help me find DZs, and I didn't bother to point out that the website had nothing to do with what they actually had to offer. The impression I got was that of a Ponzi scheme pitch. Although the business model of Skyride varies greatly from a Ponzi scheme - it isn't a pyramid - there is an awful lot of the same something-for-nothing get-rich-quick in it, and their smokescreen is first rate. Not too long ago I ran into a wheelchair-bound person who told me he had made a tandem, and he spoke very highly of the people who took him up. He and his father also went to great length to voice their dissatisfaction with Skyride, detailing a laundry list of duplicity and deception they experienced when dealing with them. I am proud of the professionalism of the people who took this kid up, but I am ashamed of the treatment he received at the hands of Skyride. Over the years I have been aware of dealings within our community that were questionable at best, but Skyride takes it to another level altogether. I will be relieved when they can no longer do business as they now do, and they will not be able to continue for very long. Blue skies, Winsor

When you're in the basement, an altimeter is no longer of much use. Ground rush becomes the dominant reality, and making high-level decisions may take more time than you have. If you ever see the ground getting visibly closer FAST, it is imperative that you get something overhead immediately. I do practice pulls three or four times per jump, but I have only yanked silver six times for real. OTOH, I have deployed BOC throwout and PUD thousands of times, and can do so instantly. I don't jump anything that snivels in particular, and the amount of altitude burned up going for the reserve is easily greater than the difference between main and reserve opening distances. About the only time my game plan involves using the reserve when low is if the plane breaks right after takeoff. Below my cutoff altitude - which varies upon the main in use (EXTreme 99 FX or Raven IV?)and the venue (Eloy AZ or Lebanon ME?) - the plan is to unass the aircraft most rapidly (as instructed by the pilot - and I *have* been told "GET OUT OF MY AIRPLANE!" when one quit working) and pull the reserve when clear of the tail. Above the cutoff altitude, I go to the main as expected. If we're high enough, we turn points after the emergency exit (hey, altitude is altitude...). Blue skies, Winsor

Fair enough. You call that agnosticism, and I call that atheism. We're essentially on the same page, you just have a misconception about what atheism means to me. I've never taken the position that I can prove that god doesn't exist. For all practical purposes, I don't believe. To me that's not agnosticism, it's atheism. You say potato, I say tuber. -Josh What constitutes each category pretty much depends on who is cranking out the definition. A common definition of atheism is generally one who claims proof of the non-existence of . An agnostic is one who, for whatever reason, considers it beyond human ken to ascertain one way or another if exists. Such people as find verification of the presence or absence of fantastic entities unworthy of consideration fall into neither category. I have heard too many explanations of "The Truth" (tm) which claim every other variant is false to take any of them seriously. Rather than fret over which particular set of fairy tales is the True Way, I find them to be equally compelling. Put another way, it's all nonsense. Blue skies, Winsor

Perhaps "nontheist." I, personally, list myself as "Orthodox Infidel." Blue skies, Winsor

You've got to be a theist before you can become an atheist? No. If you reread what I wrote, you will note that I said nothing so suggest anything similar to such a concept. The Catholic church was adept at defining competing systems as "the opposition," vilifying them and characterizing them as existing primarily to defy the church. Wiccans are a prime example, since their concept of humanity's place in the universe bore little resemblance to the concept of "witchcraft" as concocted by the church. People who consider themselves atheists need not have started out as believers, but they have chosen to define themselves in terms of a theist standard. Theists chose to waste their time assuming fairy tales are valid, atheists chose to waste their time trying to disprove these fairy tales. Both of them consider this nonsense worthy of consideration, from either a pro or con standpoint, and define themselves in terms of their acceptance or rejection of the fairy tales. If you need something to believe (or disbelieve), knock yourself out. I have found from long and hard experience that it is too much to ask to be left out of it. Blue skies, Winsor

First off, anyone who characterizes himself as an "atheist" is likely to define his stance using belief as a gold standard - theism is the basis for atheism. "Elect Farfoon!" and "Anybody but Farfoon!" are both standpoints related to Farfoon. "Farfoon who?" is something else altogether. Someone who majored in Philosophy and dedicated his career to trying to figure out that nonsense is, in fact, nonsense is not my idea of a solid resource in any event. The fact that after tilting at windmills for his whole career, in a state of confusion he threw in the towel is of no particular significance. My Sanscrit is weak, but there is a term that shows up in Zen that translates loosely to English as "wrong question," or maybe "would you rephrase that so it makes sense?" The series of logical fallacies that are used to support theism usually boil down to that concept in the first premise or two - the very givens that lead to the obvious conclusion are inherently flawed. Thus, the question of whether or not there is a "God" can be answered as: 1) You're kidding, right? 2) There are countless Gods, all equally real. 3) If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand. etc. If a particular set of fairy tales makes you happy, that's terrific. If you are convinced that said fairy tales give you the right to do my thinking for me, that is not so good and you may not expect my cooperation. Blue skies, Winsor

I don't know your major, but in my field people don't tend to sell their books. Ever. At my alma mater the most basic Math course was Calculus (Differential Equations was a Freshman course), and there were no watered-down Physics or Chemistry courses, either. My texts on Radiation Heat Transfer, Catalysis, Gas Dynamics and so forth are still great references. The only college texts I no longer have are those that people took and never returned. I happily pay retail to replace them when I come across them, since they don't tend to show up used. Blue skies, Winsor

Let's see, 6356 days, 8 hours and 39 minutes, give or take. The consumptive part of the deal is the easy part. Living life on life's terms is where it can get dicey. Accepting reality can be tough when you face nasty realities - and some of them truly are. The bottom line is, however, that it is reality. Whenever things seem particularly bleak, I need but recall the words of Gandhi: "fuck you if you can't take a joke." That may have been Mick Jagger; it was one witty foreigner or another. Blue skies, Winsor

I don't drink it (or anything else), either. Since the last thing I DID drink was Mezcal (down to the worm on 12:15 PM, 15 July 1987), I got a bye on RB initiation. Blue skies, Gonzo

Not to worry, what you think of the KKK doesn't change anything.

Well, as long as the pilot didn't know about it and the jumper actually did have a parachute, then probably the only violation is FAR 91.13. If on the other hand if the pilot did know about it or the jumper did NOT have any sort of parachute, there would be a number of violations. At the very least -- 2-1 G. -- the one regarding minimum opening altitudes. The last time I checked, the verbiage of that particular BSR said you couldn't open below a particular altitude. If you don't open, you are in compliance. If they said you must open above a particular altitude, that would be a different story. Blue skies, Winsor

Life was created by God. God evolved from a Myth.

I think concern beats fear. The biggest concern here is the size of the harness; if it is not secure, it will not be used, period. An appropriate rig, with AAD and large enough main and reserve will be found. The initial suggestion of a BT-60 (175 sq. ft.) was based on the jumper's normal canopy being a Sabre 150. When the number of jumps became apparent, a PD-170 (for a 0.75:1 wingloading) was put in its place. I learned to ask about total experience after encounteriing someone who went right to a Class IV elliptical right off student status, so his high-performance experience was close to his total experience (he's still alive). I have a dozen ramair rigs assembled and in date, a total of 19 ramair mains, ranging from 99 to 340 sq. ft., and 4 CYPRESes. I have put together an appropriate combination for someone coming in from out of town on numerous occasions, and this is no different. I agree that the combination of low experience, uncurrency, and a host of other variables thrown in make staying in one piece more of an effort. By focusing on safety, the level of risk can be made manageable, nonetheless. I think making low pressure hop and pops with forgiving gear during the cold weather months can make things a lot safer at the beginning of the season in the spring. There is no pressure for anyone to get in over their head and become a casualty - quite the opposite. I appreciate the people who have looked out for me, and try to pass it on. Blue skies, Winsor

My personal feeling is that a liar is the lowest form of life. I actively avoid people who are given to mendacity. I find it annoying when someone puts forth on a subject and is flat out wrong, but there is a big difference between a misconception and a crafted falsehood. I have often found myself listening to someone, having no idea what was the truth, but being certain that it was not what they were saying. Whenever I have been motivated to check out the story, I have always been right. In general, thought, it is not worth the effort. In the long run it is better to associate with people who speak the truth. Life is too short to spend it in the company of people who work hard at being contemptible. Blue skies, Winsor

Nope, not at all. I tried it, and it didn't agree with me. The last time I touched the stuff, Reagan was president. I've had enough for one lifetime. You can have mine. Blue skies, pink elephants, Winsor

The way I heard it, the Gurkha Colonel came back and said hie men would do it, but asked if they could jump from 200 feet. The Brit was stunned and asked why 200 feet, since their parachutes would not have time to open. "We get parachutes?"

Not a chance. I'll jump one of my crossbraced canopies at 2:1 all day long, but when the sun goes down I'm putting the biggest, most docile thing I can find over head. If you have an emergency exit at night, you may not land somewhere with lights or with sufficient runway to plane out a Class V canopy. I can think of rather a few things with which I don't mind dealing when there is sufficient light, but can do without in the dark. A high performance canopy is one of them. Blue skies, Winsor