AndyMan

While I'm rarely one to disagree with BillVon, Those who claim to leave their student cypres's on during an in-plane descent should do well to read this: http://www.pia.com/airtec/pr_04-11-00.htm _Am

Since nobody's pointed this out, I will. An audible is not a replacement for a visual altimeter. I hope it's obvious that you still need to wear a visual, but there's no point in wearing one if you're not going to use it. I lost my pro-track at Skydive Chicago recently. I discovered it missing at about 4000 feet when I noticed it wasn't going off. I'm happy that after using an audible for a few hundred jumps I still had the habbit of checking my wrist mount. The second point here is that mounting audibles on the outside of your helmet (where you can see it) is a good thing. I had been using the internal pockets of my helmet. Despite the fact that I check the internal pockets on every jump, I must have neglected to check on this one jump. Put 'em on the outside where you can see 'em, and always use your visual. _Am

Bill said: Spray Pam on it! Ask Frank; he has a can Strangely enough, I used to use Pam as a bike chain lubricant. Pledge, too. _Am

Anybody actually know what happened? Anybody actually there? The news reports are spectacularly unacurate...

Does anybody actually know what happened? I've heard rumours of droguelock, then a torn reserve. Anybody actually know anything? Is either Scott or the Student seriously injured? _Am

I put slinks on because I was experiencing bumper wear. I figured instead of replacing the bumpers, get rid of them. I don't regret getting slinks, but I don't think they're all PD says they are. Get used to your slider whacking you on your head. It can hurt. Get used to your slider comming down over your steering toggles. My single biggest complaint is this: The tabs that are used to close the slinks constantly come out of my risers. These are little tabs that fit into a finger trap used to close off the cord. They're supposed to sit inside the riser out of the way. Mine constantly move out to the side, and there they catch the slider making it dificult to move. People tell me after a few months slinks develop a memory and don't move out anymore, but I've done over a hundred jumps on slinks and still have problems. _Am

I did NOT see someone die this weekend. This is a good thing, because he came closer then anybody would've liked. He landed right in front of a taxiing airplane. The spinning prop missed the skydiver by less then two feet. I've never felt my stomach churn the way it did on Sunday. For gods sake people, be carefull and DON'T LAND IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING RUNNWAY DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF A MOVING PLANE. I think one theme for the weekend is this: "Kudos to DZ's who hire good pilots." I never would've thought a plane could turn that quickly. _Am

Ohio is a pretty big state. If you're gonna end up anywhere near Cleveland, the only DZ worth seeing is Aerohio. They're about an hour drive south of Cleveland, near Akron. They've got two otters (one climbs in under 10 minues) and a Caravan. Excellent facilities, top notch gear rental, and truely fantastic jumpers. I also can't say enough about the owners, Tim and Sherry. Be sure to check out Aerohio - www.aerohio.com - when you get to Cleveland. _Am

The question always comes up, usually in the form of an open ended question like "tell me about yourself". I always answer this like "well, in my spare time I jump out of airplanes". I'm very open and honest about it, and I've found that it garners respect from the interviewer. Portraying skydiving as an "extreme" sport isn't a hard sell, and it sells you as a job candidate who's high energy, motivated, and a risk taker. It's not dificult to draw comparisons between skydiving and other facets of work life - like high preasure decision making, etc. I had also prepared a line for the occaision then they did react with the danger line, and it had something to do with George Bush (senior) jumping 10 years ago. I never had to use this line. _Am

Hardcore. I do websites. I've worked on molson.com, littletikes.com, rubbermaid.com, marconihcp.com. Currently working for a startup called buildview.com I'm a jsp/asp guru. _Am

As far as I'm, concerned; if it's green, it's green. You can also check for kill line shrinkage by looking through the mesh of the pilot chute. There are usually three or four lines that run between the hackey and bridal attachment point inside the mesh. These lines should pull tight. If they're loose you're kill line is too tight. _Am

Salon Magazine has a great article on how Red Bull has convinced people that their drink is more then sugar and water. Guess what? It's not. Read it here: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/02/02/red_bull/index.html

I have no ideas, but have you thought of partnering with craig or barry to get the fatalities database? _Am

From Slashdot:

I just found this on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=566827966 Get this - jet powered. For those days when you just can't live without the smell of jet-a. _Am

Lisa sez: This reminded me of a topic that went by on the old DZ.com - Someone suggested that women have a harder time landing then men because women are somehow not as good at judging distances as men are, or something like that. I was at the Paraquip "skydivers unite for safety" this last weekend at Skydive Chicago. John LeBlanc of PD was giving a symposium called "wing loading and its effects". He pointed out something that in hindsight is obvious, but until then I hadn't thought of it in these terms. The performance of a given canopy is determined by: 1) design. Eliptical or not. 2) wing loading. 1.0 or 4.5 3) line length. 1 and 2 or obvious, but 3 is something I've always overlooked. The idea is that whenever you turn, the canopy has to physically move the jumper out to the side in order to create the proper angle of attack required for a turn. The same is true with flaring, Changing the angle of attack requires the jumper to move out infront of the canopy. Here's the problem - longer lines mean that the canopy is required to move the jumper a greater distance to accomplish the same turn. This results in larger canopies having kludgier performance then a smaller canopy of the same design, at the same wingloading. Even at the same wing-loading, smaller canopies will be much zipper. Women tend to be lighter then men. If the DZ only considers wing-loading when handing out student gear, then it makes sense that women will suffer. Women will be jumping zipper, or higher performing mains then the men. If it is true that at any given dropzone the women are having more trouble landing, I think it makes sense that this would be caused by a difference in line lengths. Thoughts? _Am

Love them to pieces. Biggest plus is that there's no velcro to wear out. I've never had one come loose. _Am

Spotty lift capacity is this DZ's biggest problem. They try hard to get turbines in each weekend. In a way that's an attraction, you're guaranteed to jump out of a wide range of aircrafts. Frotier often has super otters, caravans, and twin-bonanzas. What they lack in lift capacity they make up in culture. Expect to find at least 30 people around the firepit at night, spanning over 3 generations of skydivers. Look forward to Linda Gath pulling out the "wang". Kids scurying around making smoke signals. Older jumpers telling stories of how things used to be, younger jumpers listening to the stories. Ironically Frontier is a shorter drive from Toronto then - Skydive Toronto. The instruction is top notch, although the student gear is very dated. If you're passing through, it's worth a stop. If you live anywhere between Cleveland, Syracuse or Toronto - it's worth the drive.

Hi Mike. Don't get me wrong - I jump a Javelin myself. The pin protection on the javelin is a whole lot better then many rigs out there, but the Mirage and Wings are better. Check it out: http://www.skydivewings.com/wings.htm I like your colors by the way... (hrm, how do I know that...?) _Am

1) Wings Container. Read Rob Warners article under the gear review section. I demo'd one a while back and I really don't think there's anything that approaches this rig, in both comfort and reliability. Not only do riggers love it, but packers do too. I'm not overly impressed with the Javelin odyssey. Since this is a relatively major upgrade, I would have liked to see them add some better main pin protection (like the Wings or Mirage) while they were at it. As far as I'm concerned the biggest advantage of the oddysey is the new colors available. I'm not overly thrilled with the new comfort aspect, because the Javelin was a pretty comfortable rig to start with. It's weakness was pin protection. 2) Raven Reserve. Yeah, I know what you're gonna say. Check out the new line. They've now got more reinforced taping then the PD. They're cheaper, too. _Am

It wasn't a cross-country, I supose it was very novice CRW. We got out at 15,000 feet, right after the pilot yelled to us that it was -5 degrees outside (celcius). We burned down to 13,5 before deploying.... It took us over 20 minutes to get down. The pilot was literally flying circles around us. I wish I'd had a camera...

A low pull for me is actually "pulling" below 2,5. If you actually pulled at 2 then after an 1000 foot snivel, you'd be in the seat at about 1,000 feet. You're starting to get into Cypres teritory... It'd suck to have a cypres deploy in the middle of a snivel after you pull at 1,800 feet. Pulling at 2,000 complicates your cuttaway decision time. You're awfully close to 1,200 when your canopy opens, you've got to make up your mind to chop quickly. Anybody know what an average snivel fall rate is? Is it above the cypres activation speed? Obviously it depends on the snivel, but still... _Am

Try positioning the ditter so that it is positioned right over your ear. I've found they tend to migrate forward, and that really hurts.

Anyone know what comes after Enthusiast?

I found a new bug in IE. It crashed. I rebooted. Doh!