AndyMan

Hey Mark Good to see you. Do you remember arguing with my of my not recomending Static Line as an instructional program? See ya around... _Am

I think people have repeatedly stated, that ANY 9 cell will give you the bottom end lift that you're looking for. People have recomended the Sabre 2, the Stiletto, the Crossfire (issues notwithstanding), and the Cobalt. EVERY ONE OF THESE WILL GIVE YOU THE BOTTOM END LIFT YOU'RE MISSING. In addition, all of these canopies were designed to be flyable at a 1.8 wing loading. Your Diablo, was not. If you can get around the fact that people are telling you thinkgs you don't want to hear, you might just find the answer. _Am

I'm going to go with the Ranch, in Gardiner, NY. They've got great planes, a killer bondfire, and wonderful people to jump with. I showed up at Gardiner for a weekend, I had people asking to jump with me. That's rare. _Am

I was in discussions with a DZ to do exactly this. My fee was 10 free jumps. I could write this script in under half an hour. In my profesional history, I've taken lead posisions in www.molson.com, www.rubbermaid.com, wwwlittletikes.com, and others. Previous that that I have a background of enterprise data systems at companies like CIBC. I have absolutely no doubt this could be reduced to a very simple procedure. Raid 5 is easily done with software rather then hardware, on IDE disks. Especially under linux. Still, I think it's fair to budget $2500 for a server. This easiy buys a base model Dell 2550 rackmount. That's way more hardware then this application would need, including hardware raid with scsi disks. Yes, doing this would be dependent on people actually WANTING digital pictures. Personally, I think they do, but I'm a geek. That's if you want paper prints. With the people that I know (which granted, are geeks) they would only have one or two printed, and they would be printed to a very large size. Even my mother prefers digital pictures to prints for informal events. Again, this whole project assumes that people WANT digital photos. Remember that I offered this as an alternative to handing out CDROM's for people that wanted digital. I would agree, that there's probably a whole lot of people that aren't ready for digital yet. _Am

As for the time it takes to offload the digital pictures, that is easily scripted. It should be as simple as plug in the campera, click an icon, type in a name. Every thing else should be automated. As for the price of the server, yeah - obviously this is expensive. I was proposing this more as a big DZ solution more then a solution for individual videographers. Most DZ's already have internet connections at the DZ, etc. As for disk space, disk is cheap. When a 120 GB disk sells for $400, that's 40,000 images. I suppose you could also offer a CDROM's for people who don't have internet. People would only use the 4 meg/shot versions for reprints, which they could do at their favorite photo retailers. For web browsing and mailing to friends, a 125K jpg is more then enough... _Am

Rob is correct. The NAFTA visa is the easiest to get. You simply apply in person as you cross the border. I have a NAFTA visa (called a TN visa) as a "scientific technician" because I didn't fit the requirements of Computer Analyst. _Am

Mike Mullins just posted to wreck.skydiving. I thought I'd post it here. These changes make a whole lot of sense to me. ->begin quote Mike Mullins USPA Members: The USPA Board of Directors is soliciting your proxy. We need your proxy for the upcoming board meeting in Alexandria, VA, this Feb 22-24. There has been much speculation and suspicion about this proxy solicitation. The reason we are asking for it is so that we can change provisions to the bylaws relating to the size and the composition of the board and to the election of directors. The board can already change anything else, the proxy can only be used for the stated reason. Here is what is proposed: 1. Date of the USPA Election. The membership, through a previous referendum, has stated their desire to move the date of the USPA Board of Directors election to a summer date from the present winter date. The reason for the move was to allow campaigning and discussion of candidates while most DZs are open, in the summer. The Boards effort to implement this change and comply with the memberships wish was thwarted by the legal requirement, under the state of New York law that we are incorporated under, that such changes can only be made by a vote of the membership or with their proxy. If you want this change made, we need your proxy. 2. Election to the Board, specifically how to get on the ballot. This is a subject that I am very interested in as although I am currently a USPA National Director, I was not allowed on the USPA Ballot in the last election. I had to run as a write-in candidate and was, obviously, successful. There are two ways to run for the board, either as a National or Regional Director. I will discuss the National Director candidate first: Under the current bylaws National Director candidates submit their application to run to the Nominations and Elections Committee who then decide who will be allowed on the ballot. A maximum of 20 will be placed on the ballot for the 8 positions available. Under the proposed system any member will be placed on the ballot as a National Director candidate who submits a petition with 100 current members names and pays the $50 filing fee. I feel that this proposed system is much more democratic and takes the politics out of placing candidates on the ballot. Regional Directors: Under the current system Regional Director candidates must submit a petition signed by 10 per cent of the total membership in the region he is running. The problem is that it often takes far more names to get on the ballot than are cast in the election! In regions with a large membership it places an undue burden on the candidate and thus limits the number of candidates. Some Regions have even had no candidates running. Under the proposed system, a candidate for Regional Director would need only submit a petition with 50 members signature. Under the current system, incumbent Regional Candidates are placed on the ballot without the need to submit a petition, under the proposed system they would need to supply the same petition as the non-incumbent candidate. The above changes to the election procedures were drafted by me with the help and direction of the Nominations & Elections Committee, of which I am a member. I feel that the changes are necessary, that they will help make the election process more democratic, and that they will encourage qualified candidates to run for the board. In all fairness, I must also state that the proposed changes are not favored by all Board members but I hope that the changes will ultimately be accepted. The only other issues before the board that would require the proxies are changes in the number and/or ratio of National and Regional Directors. There has been discussion in dividing the larger regions into smaller divisions so as to provide better representation to the members. There has been discussion of reducing the number of National Directors and increasing the number of Regional Directors and there has been discussion of eliminating the National Director position and having only Regional Directors. There has been no consensus, so far, on these issues. There is no other secret agenda. We need your proxy. I am making a personal appeal to each member to please fill the proxy out and send it to USPA. I am aware of many members concerns that there is a hidden agenda and the board will make some radical changes to the detriment of USPA. I give you my personal assurance that this is not the case. Please print and distribute this appeal and post it on your DZ bulletin board. The proxy form is printed below. Please copy, distribute, and encourage all members to return it to USPA. If you have any questions you can reach me at Arizona Skydiving Coolidge, toll free at 888-741-5867 until 21 Feb, or you can email me at mikemullins @skydivekingair.com Thanks and blue skies, Mike Mullins USPA National Director Fill out the below and send it to: USPA 1440 Duke St Alexandria, VA 22314 USPA MEMBERSHIP #______________ The undersigned regular member of the U.S. Parachute Association (USPA) hereby constitutes and appoints the USPA board of Directors, acting in a majority as proxies to appear and vote in the name of the undersigned at the Annual Meeting of members on February 22, 2002, and at any and all adjournments thereof, including without limitations the approval or disapproval of amendments to the provisions of the Bylaws that refer to the size, composition and election of directors. The undersigned hereby revokes any other proxy given by him or her with respect to his or her membership in USPA. This proxy may be revoked at any time prior to its exercise at the Annual Meeting by execution of subsequent proxy by written notice to the Secretary or by voting in person at the annual meeting. Print name___________________________________________ Signature ___________________________________________ Date ___________________________________________

If that's the best website out there... I think we're in trouble. _Am

Sweet! Which one's you?

Well, ya picked a hell of a week to move up, dude!

I didn't know dropzones still used Jump TIckets... That's something I've only seen at boogies. How many DZ's still use tickets? _Am

Somebody should email that to Kirlin.... lol No he just needs a place to fly it. _Am

I think a better solution would be to drop them on a webserver, email or print the URL where they can pick them up. You could script photoshop to automatically resize the entire "roll". Auto resize into tumbnail, small, medium, large, and print quality... This saves the time of burning, plus you save the media cost. In fact, it completely reduces the cost to capital and labor. You'll never have the risk of running out of film on a busy Saturday.

I would love to see that plane fly.... _Am

At skydive toronto, you will jump ancient gear. I know of no other dropzone that jumps gear THAT old. (manta's and easyfliers. FXC's on reserve and main). Reserve hanldes FALL out of the easyfliers. Your ownly trianing method is Static Line. SDI does not do any AFF. You can do a tandem, but it is one of the most expensive tandems in Canada. A tandem at STI is nearly twice the price of Skydive Gananoque. STI is openly hostile to experienced jumpers. Experienced jumpers daily get scratched to Joe can throw out more static lines. STI uses 5 widebody 182's. Despite that the DZ could easily support at least a Cessna Caravan, STI is simply not interested in turbines. Joe Chow knows that his 182 put out static lines just fine, and that's all that he's interested in doing... _Am

It was Hinckley, in the fall. It was a packing error. I packed it. Doh! It was a twin otter, It was a 22 way. (moral of the story, someone always has a cuttaway on big ways.) I dumped, I looked up. I had a complete line over. My right steering line came down, did a complete 360 around all the lines, then anchored at the slink. I was spinning, fast. I could counter the spin by hauling DEEP riser on the other side. It wasn't worth it. Right hand blue Left hand silver. Arch. Pull blue Pull silver look up, see white. It was that quick. I didn't go belly-to earth. I didn't feel falling. No stomach in throat like I expected. The canopy was instant. There was no tension when I pulled silver. When I landed I was laughing. Damn that was fun, I wanna go again! True moral of the story is don't be lazy when you pack. I saw the problem as I was putting the line stows on. I thought I fixed it. I should've opened up the canopy, checked the lines, repack. I didn't. _Am

There is a safety issue with it, but you got it backwards. Collapsable pilot chutes require much greater attention while packing. Failure to 'cock' the pilot chute will result in a high speed malfuntion, which is can only be dealt with by going to the reserve. A collapsed pilot chute is one of the few exceptions to the saying "a parachute wants to open". A collapsed pilot chute certainly does not "want to open". There are some minor safety advantages of a collapsed pilot chute. The impact of a pilot chute comming over the leading edge is much less then an inflated one. This reduces the chance of the canopy disforming. IMHO, this is a minor advantage compared to the risk of forgetting to "cock" it. The biggest advantages of collapsible pilot chutes are performance related, not safety. _Am

I didn't diss Ontario DZ's, I dissed Toronto DZ's. This means STI, which goes without saying. This also means Arthur, which IMHO is just to small. Simcoe is nearly closing. The best of the bunch IMHO is SWOOP, will sometimes get turbines. I have free lodging at Simcoe (people who land off, land at my aunts farm), and I still prefered Frontier. I love Gananoque. I jump there while at my old man's cottage, in Gan. I wouldn't call it a Toronto area DZ, though. A three hour drive is too far for a 182 and 206. I'll defer to your opinion on PFF beating AFF. Frontier has a TIAF program, 3 tandems and 5 AFF's, resembling more what Gan is doing. As for the dollar, I think I made that disclaimer... _Am

I know of people using both rubber bands and twist ties to hold it in place. Whe I lost mine, L&B recomended to me in an email that I use rubber bands or velcro. I'm sure anything that adds strength to the clip would be a good start. _Am

Is it not the case that the stuff we call F-111, when new, is of a similar perosity to ZP? Since reserves rarely have more then 5 jumps on them, can't we assume that reserves are almost always equivalent in fabric to their ZP counterparts? While staying within the manufacturers placarding, doesn't this mean that we can safely nudge the wingloading beyond 1.1:1? Notice I said nudge, not launch... Does the difference in fabric make more of a difference then the difference in shape? Is it sill the case that all reserves are 7 cells? Are there any 9 cells on the market? Are they all shaped like Manta's, or more like a Triathlon? My thoughts after loading my Tempo at 1.1:1 was that I found the control range very deep. I was at completely full arm extention during the flare. On a moderate wind day I had dificulty getting penetration. This may sound weird, but I actually WANT to load my next reserve a bit more. I like getting forward drive on my canopy... I hope there's a reserve out there designed for it. When I buy my next reserve, I will probably load it at about 1.25. I load my main at just under 1.5

Oh, the URL. Right. http://www.skydivefrontier.com/

Since you're in the area, Go to Frontier, they're in upstate NY. One of the nicest DZ's around. They usually have turbines. Their instruction is excellent, the evening firepit is legendary. When I did it two years ago it was cheaper then swoop, but the dollar's taken a nosedive since so do the math yourself. The USPA progression makes so much more sense then the CSPA. You should save money by going with the USPA. Frontier is located in NewFane, NY - a 15 minute drive from the Queenston/Lewiston Bridge. You'll find that about half the jumpers drive from Canada, most from Toronto - simply because Toronto area DZ's simply suck. _Am

Or more appropriately... Fandango is actually good cinema. _Am

Cobalt Dan will be disapointed to hear that I ruled out the Cobalt for exactly he same reason. Before the Icarus issues surfaced I'd been seeking a Cobalt to demo. Once I realised how important customer can be I instantly decided to go with PD. He might consider these issues before mocking his compeditors... _Am

Personally, I would question the wisdom of even giving this advice. In my mind, because audibles are so prone to failure (dead battery, etc) they are a luxury even more then a backup. The primary means of Altitude awareness is by looking at the ground. The secondary is looking at a visual altimeter. Altitude awareness in a two way is one thing. Altitude awareness in a eight way where you're trying to get that last point is a whole different ball game. Until I got my audible, my third backup was the people around me. If I saw other people taking off into a track at the bottom half of a dive, I knew I screwed up. I didn't buy an audible until I stopped screwing up. IE, I didn't buy an audible until Altitude Awareness was already drilled into my frontal cortex. A recent jump at SDC this saved me. I was doing a two way sit fly with a recent grad - 20 jumps. As luck would have it, I somehow lost my audible in freefall. I noticed it missing when it didn't go off at 5,000 - breakoff when in a sit. My point here, is that I actually noticed that it wasn't going off at 5,000 when I was trying to chase a recent grad accross the sky. The recent-grad didn't notice it was break-off time, until he saw me go belly-to-to-earth. Most audibles have will beep at three altitudes. Break-off, Pull, and a flatline for Decision Time. While I do set the break-off altitude, I don't tend to use it much. I usually beat the audible on this one. Where I do use it is the other two. I like to set the Pull altitude so that I have an indicator of when to stop tracking and pull. I use the Flat-line Decision altitude to help me cope with a high speed malfunction.