larsrulz

That was kind of a jerkish thing to say. By how you comment, you don't appear to know much about homebuilts for that matter. Take a gander at FAR 21.191(g) and FAA Advisory Circular AC-20-27 (on Certification and Operation of Amateur-built Aircraft) both, and then come back. There is in fact quite considerable emphasis placed on safety and certification. If you don't have detailed information about your plane to prove that it is airworthy, then you aren't legally getting the thing certified! And I have to admit that experimental aircraft builders have a much better track record than skydivers. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Is it wrong to walk over and change the station if he is not home at the time? I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

A staff rig at my DZ took less than 3 weeks. Mine was completely custom (tie dye and all) and it took just over 4 including shipping. So their 6-8 week is an overestimate (at least was in late December). I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Sold my wings/sabre 190 setup recently without a bit of trouble. The good news is those have excellent resale value once you find one! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I'm sure Kim (kimgriffin on here) would be more than willing to give you some info. She was extremely nice when I was asking questions at the WFFC, whereas Cypres wasn't very interested in responding to the same questions. I ended up buying one on the spot (my rigger did too). I haven't had any problem and I second the sturdy construction sentiment. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Actually some do. Back when I was in high school, I went on a canoe trip with my dad and brother and we bought some 3 year old MREs he had sitting around. One was tuna...and boy oh boy did it smell horrible. I think he might have actually tried some, but certain not much! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Why not ask the cousin what service he/she used? I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

It appears someone needs to read their SIM. The SIM says that if you wish to land both canopies on a biplane then: (1) Release the brakes of the dominant canopy (larger and more overhead) and steer gently with the toggles. (2) Land without flaring and perform a parachute landing fall. When talking to students about this, I also tend to encourage only turns towards the center, so if the main (the more dominant on our student gear) is on the right, then make only gradual left turns unless absolutely necessary. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

That's a really good question. I would tend towards both sides. If you want to become proficient at say 4-way RW, then jumping always with the same 3 other individuals will definitely help you get more point with those 3 people. You'll know how exactly to react in situations, whether a certain person is floaty in certain situations, and how much input to give when cranky a piece with those certain people. This will of course overall make you a better 4-way RWer, but I don't think it would make as good a 4-way RWer than if you took 40 people at the same experience level and shuffled them up on every jump. The later case requires you to be able to react to many different situations that you may not experience with your single group of 4. That said, I don't think it's as much an issue of getting into bad habits as it is recognizing different situations. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I certainly hope it's harder than the FE, because that thing was a joke. The fact that someone becomes a licensed professional based off that test means that I'm not so shocked when people end up with random medical instruments inside of them after surgery. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Wait a sec....what do you mean by "big"? I know of some tall/skiny people and they fall slower than short/skiny people. isn't the tall/skinny personal "big"ger than the short/skinny person? I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I did the same as Nightingale and took the LSAT cold. Picked up a review book, but probably spent a total of a half hour reviewing it. But I highly recommend at least getting a book and actually studying. The questions are quite unique imo, and I actually believe it to be a valid test, as opposed to say the SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT, which are the only other standardized tests I have taken. I test extremely well, so did well on the LSAT anyway, but I bet I could have improved my score a couple points with just a few hours of studying. If you are really serious about law school and want to end up at a big law firm, than a prestigeous law school is the way to go! Best way to get into those is good GPA and good LSAT. So spend the time; it'll be worth it! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

You were right ryoder, stand your ground!!! In the simplest form, Drag = 1/2 * ro * V^2 * S * CD Where ro is air density, V is relative velocity, S is wetted area, and CD is coefficient of drag of the body of interest. Calculating velocity necessary for drag to equal weight (m * g) gives the exact equation which Ryoder gave. The 1/2 itself does not appear from an equation anywhere, it was originally included because aerodynamic testing determined a 2-D flat plate to have a Cd value of 2, so 1/2 was included to scale this down to unity. The equation itself is not derived from anywhere, but instead uses simple fluid mechanics and Buckingham's Pi Theorem to determine F ~ ro^a * V^b * L^c, which a=1, b=2, and c=2. The fact that a 1/2 is included matters not because the coefficient is completely arbitrary, at least for the most part, particularly our case. The equation you give for dv/dt~V^2 is how a bodies velocity changes under friction; not how a body reaches equilibrium under friction, not to mention the many components of drag you fail to include such as form drag, roughness, interference, 3-D effects, etc. Your equation is part of it, but it is far from the whole story in this situation. And it ends of complicating the problem far more than necessary for the incorrect answer. And anyone who is actually still reading this thread must also be a geek or be so completely bored that they subject themselves to it anyway! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I'm mostly just going to SDC for the FFC, preferably when I am up there for Brian Germain's course and then for the Spring Expo following. I don't know where regular flockers are around here (just south of Rantoul), but somehow I doubt they are within driving distance. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Well not everyone can be a skygod. Lilchief, I have a red and black tie-dye G3. Have no pictures atm, but I'll see if my rigger can send me a couple as he has it currently. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Far 105.43 says: "The reserve parachute must have been packed by a certificated parachute rigger within 120 days before the date of its use." So on the 120th day, it has been 120 since its last repack. The 121st is the first day it is no good. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Don't think of it like an airplane. Think of it like a glider. A parachute (just like a glider) needs a certain speed to produce enough lift to stay at its desired airspeed. When you decrease the air density, you will not produce as much lift (no matter what you are flying), so the airspeed must be higher to produce the lift that counteracts your weight. Isn't an issue of true airspeed or ground speed, just an issue of equilibrium speed. True airspeed, as I'm sure you know, is just indicated airspeed corrected for altitude. What we are concerned about is this desired, or equilibrium, airspeed corrected for altitude. This isn't something that can be simply inserted into an equation based on the altitude, as many other parts of canopy flight (including both coefficients of lift and drag) change with altitude as we do not fly a perfectly rigid wing....hence this is much more empirical. But basically, the original poster is correct that increasing altitude will increase landing speed for a parachute. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I know we do our SL from a 182 --> left hand, left foot, right foot, right hand. This is for a student with back to the instrument panel. This is the same way that our 10+ year old training video from skydive chicago shows it. Now I did my 5 SLs from a caravan....they were interesting to say the least! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

At least as far as I understand, packers are the one DZ job whose income hasn't raised in many, many years. I have heard that $5 pack jobs have been around for a long time. I would have to call BS on the $1000. Unless they are getting more than $5 a job, then they are doing 10 mins a pack job for almost 17 hours straight; even 8 min jobs are almost 13.5 hours straight. But then again, they are working damn hard for that money. There is nothing "fun" about packing. You can at least do a nice swoop at the end of all but the worst of AFF/Coach jumps. I do base this on $5 packjobs, if they are making considerably more, then such is the case, but that seems to be a rarity in my experience. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

PhD Student you may be, but this makes no sense what-so-ever. This is a simple mechanics problem if you ignore air density. In the simple state of a body, which is stable and falling towards the earth, the force pulling the body down is just the force of gravity, so the force is mass times gravity. This force of gravity must be counteracted by the drag force on the body, which goes as the square of the velocity times the surface area times the coefficient of drag (coefficient of friction is ignoring many many things which are extremely important to the problem) times some miscellaneous constants. If two bodies have the same type of jumpsuit (same fit, same material, etc) then they will practically have the same coefficitn of drag. If they end up having the same surface area, then they will have the same drag force. Now if one person weighs more, then they will have a larger force of gravity, so the only variable in the above expression for drag is the velocity, so velocity must increase to counteract the downward force. Hence the body must speed up. There is absolutely no reason to use a hyperbolic fuction here, not to mention it is incorrect. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Just over 250 in the past 9 months since I started. I wanted to get 365, but I doubt the weather will cooperate. So 300 this year, and hopefully 400 next. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Hopefully doing a FFC at Skydive Chicago in April. I have a feeling that I'll really like it and try to get as many WS jumps as possible this summer. That said, I was wondering what ground workout you WSers would recommend in the 3 months leading up. I'm in the process of training for a marathon, so I now have more time set aside for working out. So what type of lifting do you all recommend? I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

From a purely scientific point of view, the higher altitude will mean higher speeds, but at the same time less lift will be produced at any one speed. I'm not sure on how they will interact, but I would guess sea level swooping (purely from a distance standpoint) would be best. Combine this with a hot day at mile hi and you'll be in for a ride, as these factors are based on air density, which decreases with temperature and is obviously already low up there. I recall having to use 2/3 the runway at Colorado Springs in a 172 on a 100 degree day. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

My first night jump I was spotting and busy staring out the door, and the pilot just flashed the jump light so it didn't mess with our night vision. Since I was busy checking the spot, I didn't notice the flash, and of the other two jumpers left in the plane, the one that noticed didn't say anything. So eventually we were obviously long, so we got a second go around (the first was intentional). No complaint, the pilot was just wondering what the hell had happened. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I haven't a clue what rigger you had recommended. By my advice would be that not all riggers are excellent sewers. Certainly they will be able to make safe adjustments to the harness, but it may also be obvious that it wasn't done at the factory. It may be cheaper this way, but if you want your rig to stay looking new, then sloppy sewing will not help. Ask around to people who have used him for sewing before, or ask if you can see some of his work. This is a $1200 piece of equipment you are having modified. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF