bert_man

my favorite (when I recognize them on caller ID) is to pick up the phone and, before they open their mouth, start throwing my own sales pitch at them. "Helloooooo, Ameriquest Mortgage! Is your website not performing as it should? Are your sales in a slump?......" one time I did that and the chick just started laughing her ass off, and said that her husband needed a website, and I almost got a new client He was too cheap, though :/ Plan B is to put them on hold and play some really annoying music into the mouthpiece. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

double-clicking the mouse

notice how the two most common birthday months are september and december. *cough* valentines day *cough* I'm a december baby :) -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Yep, for logos, Illustrator is the way to go. If you know what you want and can draw it on paper, do you have access to a scanner? I could recreate it pretty much exactly how you want it if that's the case. What's the logo for? -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

I religiously use Brinkster . They are really cheap, have great 24/7 support (I know their support people by name, theyre great and even help me out with coding problems), and they give you alot of bang for your buck. I set most of my clients up with them on a dedicated server that they manage for me, too. edit: they also give you a free domain name if you prepay for one year. I think there's like a 90 day moneyback guarantee too. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

*!#^%&@$%!*@#$%T!*@&$%!(#&^!*&$%!(&%!@&(^!%$&^%&@^#%!&*@$%!*&@^#%*&!@%$*&!@#%!&@$%!*@&$%!@&#^%!&@#^%!@*& $!@&#%!&@ #^$!@*& $@!#!&^$#&!@^ I WISH I COULD GO!!!!!!!!!111!!111!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I can convince a few other ohioans to pony up some gas money and a few days off work to go down there... -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

thx for the heads up. It's airing at 7:00PM here too.. EST... very odd. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

And if you start doing them on your own, and you seem (to yourself) to be doing fine, don't get cocky. People like to use jump numbers as a concrete scale for determining whether your ready for something, and most beginners think that's bullshit. But if you find yourself 'progressing' from straight-in approaches to 180's in 40 jumps, even if you feel OK, you're probably wrong. I just learned this the other day when I found myself way too low, without any outs, on a turn that I shouldn't have been making in the first place. I managed to pull it out of my ass and only pound in lightly, but I had no more safety margin left. 5 more feet wouldve been really bad.

I don't mean to butt into a topic that I just started reading, but if they did do everything that people here say they did, it doesn't matter how 'great these people are'. That doesn't make them innocent. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

I was maybe 13 when I was helping a family friend move out of his house. One of his other friends was there, who happened to be a blossoming skydiver who had just gotten off of student status. I asked him how much it cost and everything, including training and equipment. I never really asked what it was like, because I just knew it would be fun. So I decided to start when I turned 18 (didn't know about the 16-yr-old thing) My 18th b-day came around, and I realized that it was december, and snowing. I looked at some local DZ's websites, and realized that the prices decreased with every level. I just figured it would be more worth the money if I jumped a lot of times, rather than once. Early that spring, I called the DZ and finally talked the DZO into having a static line class with only two people. I then made the goal to get my A by the end of that summer. I ended up getting it before I finished high school two months later

I italicized the word 'relative' 3 times in my post. relative wind is the wind moving in relation to the canopy. If you fly in full flight downwind (or any direction), the wind is coming from the front of the canopy to the back (and up), if you make that 90 degree turn, the relative wind is still coming from the front of the canopy! (or diagonally across the topskin, depending upon the aggressiveness of the turn). The wind never pushes on the topskin, because the relative wind is ALWAYS going to come (generally) from in front of and beneath the wing in a simple 90 degree turn. You can't slow down enough and lose pressurization in the manner that you speak, because you will always be moving forward relative to the air, which is what keeps the cells pressurized. If you were to have a breeze hit the top of the canopy, the canopy would simply lose altitude fast while staying pressurized. See? Ryoder knows what I'm talking about

I have a friend who also has a hell of a time getting the slider past his toggles after opening due to his third riser setup. I've seen some of his video after opening, and it takes up to 15 seconds sometimes to get all that crap through the gromets. Also, in reply to the question of why someone would want bumpers: I have a vector I rig, with big fat risers, with a big fat guide ring. Using normal (thin) toggles caused me a malfuction, as the toggle got sucked through the guide ring and got caught in the slider before it could come down all the way. Now I use big fat toggles (like tandem toggles) that don't fit through the guide ring, and also don't fit through the slider gromets. Now I can't pull it behind my head if I want to, so why bother risking a premature brake release on deployment? -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Does that mean that this robot can pack? Only 8,000,000 Euros??! I'll take 5!! Now, if only they made a female robot that could flash the pilot on every load... -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

He was not moving in equilibrium with the wind. The wind continued in one direction. He said that he turned at a 90 degree to it. In effect, he has now stopped and the wind is now pressing on the topskin of the canopy. The forward motion of the wing is what creates internal pressurization. Internal pressure is what maintains the wing shape. Slowing down and change in direction and could reduce it. A low internal pressurization and a pressure on the topskin could cause the canopy to collapse. He said that he had a canopy collapse. Jump numbers don't mean that I'm a canopy expert, I'm not. I'm a very cautious canopy pilot. When I had 80 jumps, I had a similar experience to the one described over a chain link fence at 30 ft on a windy day. When I said 'equilibrium with the wind', I meant only at the instant that he started the turn. No matter your heading in relation to the wind, if you are at full flight, you have the exact same airspeed and angle of attack. After the 90 degree turn, he has not stopped, and the wind is not blowing on the topskin of his canopy any more than it might if he were turning downwind. He has slowed down relative to the ground, but that is irrelevant. He is part of the atmosphere, not the ground. If you thoroughly read this document, you will notice that none of the equations (other than the ones calculating groundspeed) ever actually take into account the speed/direction of the wind across the ground. The only factors that are taken into account are, correctly, the atmospheric conditions within the block of air surrounding the canopy, relative wind conditions at various points on the canopy's surface, and the attitude of the wing itself in relation to the relative wind and the horizon. If he is moving downwind and turns crosswind, he does not stop moving, he keeps moving with the wind that he was already moving in. He has turned crosswind, yes, but now he is moving sideways with the wind. The wind has affected him in the exact same way it did before the turn, and that is only to change his speed/direction across the ground. Does anyone else agree? (edited to fix quote tags)

the wind speed itself shouldn't matter at all, once you and the parachute are moving in equilibrium with the wind. You could be flying your canopy blindfolded in hurricane katrina and if you flared your canopy in the air, right up to the stall point, you would feel very little wind at all. You wouldn't know you were even in a hurricane until you smashed into the side of the superdome at about 120mph+ (except for the whistling of the wind around the buildings below, of course) If you were at 2000ft in hurricane katrina, traveling downwind, and there were (magically) no gusts at all, you could still make a downwind->crosswind turn just like you would on a sunny sunday at the DZ. Then you would probably begin begging the wind goddess for some type of miracle as you watched the ground race past your feet as you slowly descended into nature's meat grinder.

Maybe the pilot is expecting the downwind->croswind turn to be different, so they are subconsciously doing something to compensate? Or, more likely, the pilot is being hit by a gust during the turn. What billvon and I are speaking about is referring only to a static breeze, but if you are hit by a gust during the turn, it would have the 'crosswind' effect. In this case, everything you've been saying about the cell dynamics in the turn would be correct, and the downwind->crosswind turn would be the most susceptible to this gust.

Oh yea, didn't mean to hijack the thread. Here's my extensive list of lifetime injuries: -Shattered thumb (playing baseball as a kid, swung at an inside pitch with my long, lurpy arms, and hit a line drive with my thumb) Yep, I guess that's the list. I learned that breaking bones isn't all that fun, so I have tried to refrain from doing so again

work sucks

This is the airspeed Forward speed plus the wind vector = groundspeed. The ground has no effect on our canopy while it is in the air, so groundspeed can't be a factor that acts upon our canopy. If we are flying upwind, our groundspeed is our airspeed - windspeed. Let's say that my canopy, weighted as it is, has a full-flight forward speed of 25mph, under standard temp/pressure conditions. The wind is traveling south at 25mph as well. If I fly downwind, my groundspeed will be 50mph, and my airspeed will be 25mph. If I fly upwind, my groundspeed will be 0mph, and my airspeed 25mph. if I fly facing due west, I will be traveling southwest at ~35.4mph, and my airspeed will be 25mph. Every variable that I know of that affects canopy flight will be constant in each condition (relative wind, angle of attack, angle of incidence, stagnation point, static/dynamic pressure, drag, thrust, weight, temperature, density etc.) If you are given two identical sets of conditions, and respond with two identical inputs, shouldn't the result also be identical? What am I missing? No, because I'm stuck here typing shipping information for 150+ customers into MS access.

If you tried this exercise while drifing with the current without letting your feet touch the bottom of the stream, I think you'd see the same results no matter which way you turned, upstream or down. The stream itself would be completely stationary relative to you unless you started to swim in it.

All good points. I just don't see where the crosswind is coming from. The pilot's inertia, causing him/her to swing out from the canopy, would keep tension on the entire system resulting in the relative wind always coming from somewhere below the bottom surface of the wing. Keep in mind that the pilot had been moving through the air at, say, 20mph before initiating the turn. If a crosswind did push against the topskin of the canopy, wouldn't line tension be compromised? I understand what you are saying about each cell moving through the air at different speeds, hence necessitating the use of crossports, etc, but I'm still not sure how the wind would act differently upon a canopy that was turning upwind than one that was turning any other way. In both situations, the canopy begins the turn with the same airspeed, angle of attack, and angle of incidence, and is given the same control input. The only thing that I see different is the groundspeed, which has no bearing until the jumper or the canopy (hopefully not before the jumper) contacts the ground. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Considering the fact that you have 8 times the number of jumps that I do, I am not in any way trying to be an expert. That said, I have to disagree. The direction of the wind across the ground should have absolutely no effect on the way your canopy flies, until your feet touch the ground (excluding turbulence, etc). Since your canopy is flying through the air, the only direct physical relationships that may act upon your canopy must come from the air itself. If the air as a whole is moving across the ground, it has no different bearing upon your canopy. It as if the air is still, and the ground is moving independently beneath the air. If I'm wrong, feel free to let me know why. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Here's a little bit of unwarrented input from somebody who probably shouldn't be throwing ideas around... I just thought it might be worth mentioning, even though safety is more important than not getting caught. P.S... Jumping from a corner, however, seems like it would typically open up more potential landing areas. if it is in a city, for example, you have four directions in which to fly/land rather than two. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

Yep, happened many times, probably to everybody. I guess they just couldnt answer every line at the same time, so you had to get through just as someone else was hanging up, or in my case, getting disconnected due to a shitty cell phone. -Ghetto "The reason death cannot frighten me, is because life has cured me of fear." Web Design Cleveland Skydiving

i had 2 phones going since 6:58 (i was planning on asking directions for two minutes before reserving, if I got through