DeeBeeGee

I recently bought a canopy second-hand from a lady in holland. It got shipped over but the courrier couldn't find my house and instead of trying again they sent it back to sender. That was two weeks ago. Somewhere along the way it has dropped off their tracking system and now they don't know where it is. I'm very happy that it is insured. I'll be even happier if the insurance actually pays out

or tell them they don't have the skill to be on the jump. break it down into smaller groups if you feel that they must be included somehow

Spotted in Bristol yesterday....

Skydive Algarve occasionally has national flights coming in and out

I'm reading your interpretation of stable as if the entire air mass is moving as one, in which case i agree 100%. I'm trying to explain what might happen if the air mass is gradually slowing down as you approach the ground. I drew some pictures to demonstrate *ETA - I've got the bernoulli principle the wrong way round in my speculative explanation, meaning I would expect a canopy diving 'upwind' to recover faster, if at all

I heard from a very experienced swooper that a headwind will tend to keep a canopy diving for longer and must admit at first i did dismiss this due to the basic physics of a canopy having no idea of wind speed relative to the ground. But I took the time to think about it and obviously we don't skydive in a vacuum - if we did we'd go very fast and only in one direction - and was trying to think of whether there is a genuine reason why this might be. I don't think ground effect could be relevant except at very low altitudes but one thing that could be is wind friction. If the wind is slower nearer to the ground then as a canopy dives it moves into air travelling at a slightly different speed to what it was previously experiencing. It is not impossible to imagine that there should be some effect on its behaviour. However it is telling that he spoke of a canopy diving longer and the OP speaks of a canopy recovering sooner so the likelihood is that it's all in the mind of the beholder and I just spent 2 minutes brainfarting. Oh well I've written it now so gonna click 'Post'

I've actually featured in Penthouse. In an article, I might add, regarding my unicycle hockey team

B.A.S.E jumps from 70,000 feet anyone? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11805987/Inflatable-space-elevator-invented-by-scientists.html Please let this be realised within my lifetime...

or just attach to the front ... http://grellfab.com/product/gf1407-hero3-4session-on-kiss damn looks like i'll have to upgrade my gopro 3 too

At the risk of remaining on topic.. One trick that is pretty safe to use to adjust your glide is to make yourself small (tuck in arms and legs, arch) to extend your glide or large (spread your arms and legs, dearch) for the opposite effect. Just make sure you get your feet and knees back together ready for a normal landing before flare height

There's room on the front of the chin to stick on a false grill, just to feed the bungee through

Grellfab are working on it http://grellfab.com/

Chris Southworth at http://www.visionmortgages.co.uk/ arranged my life and permanent health insurance with PruProtect.

Before getting started I was advised to read this http://monkeywithapin.com/ which pretty much spells out how 98% of the profit from all funds ever has ended up in the fund managers' pocket I started out with low cost index funds with mixed success 0-20% As stated already, if you like the look of a managed fund it's not hard to find out what it holds and self invest. Just try to be patient and avoid frequent trading.

In the windtunnel

SQL is very good for set based operations but a bit awkward for complex aggregations as you are finding out. If you are going to be doing a lot of this then try installing SQL Server Analysis Services (it's in the box!) which is designed to do everything you are looking to do and a LOT more. There's a bit to learn but it's a great tool

No, the guidelines are not that conservative, and yet many people still find them too restrictive. For me, I had to factor in British weather induced currency levels and decided to stay in the middle of the range, away from the 'do not exceed' end of the scale. Still injury free and i can count on one hand the landings i'd prefer to have gone unwitnessed

Just to balance this out a little 170 pounds out the door Jump# - canopy - wl 1 - manta 288 - 0.59 40 - safire 209 - 0.81 50 - safire 189 - 0.90 70 - sabre 170 - 1.00 400 - safire 2 149 - 1.14 550 - sabre 135 - 1.26 i've always felt very confident under my wing and that i could downsize far quicker and get away with it but at the same time i understand that people like brian germain probably know a lot of things i don't and respected the effort they make to keep us safe (also known as stifling our mad skillz) by adhering to his guidelines http://www.bigairsportz.com/pdf/bas-sizingchart.pdf

3 premature reserve deployments on the same load??? this sounds like a story that deserves telling in full, not as an aside

Indeed. We had a 27yo Angolan chap land in a residential street a few miles short of heathrow a few years back. Took months to figure out exactly who he was and where he'd come from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20644402 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25576086

What about using the blue of the sky as the "screen" and put the skydivers into some other everyday scenarios? VFS on ice. Tracing around a race track. Freestyle on a theatre stage.

you know, i never noticed until today that there are no playgrounds in the square mile. lunchtime ruined.

I've picked some pretty stupid fights in my time but taking on one million tonnes of liquid hot magma seems like a great idea

Top tip I heard over the weekend... Put a text file with your contact details on the SD card

Still haven't forgiven Eyjafjallajökull for wasting the beautiful blue skies of spring 2010!!