Bertt

I wouldn't quarrel with your decision. You did fine. One thing that struck me was " 1500'... finally notice pilot chute wrapped around lines". When you check your canopy, you really want to take a good look at everything over your head to check for rips, tears, broken lines, tangles, etc. Diablopilot - no more than one toggle pulled down to the ear - sounds like a good rule of thumb to help with decision making. I'm going to remember that one. Thanks. You don't have to outrun the bear.

I've had the good fortune to meet several of those guys. Hearing them talk is the kind of history you can't get from books. My dad was in the Navy in the Pacific in WWII. One year my sons and I went to an airshow where they had a replica of a Japanese "Betty" bomber. We were telling my dad about the airshow, and when we mentioned the "Betty", he said, "Yeah, those are the ones that used to come over and bomb us at night." A few years ago, I landed off the DZ and just happened to land in the back yard of a WWII vet who had gone to Europe a few months after D-Day. Based on that introduction, I got to know him a little. He used to come over to the dropzone and watch the skydivers and airplanes. He had a Purple Heart, but never said what for. What I did find out was that he was part of an anti-tank unit that took over 30 percent casualties on its way toward Germany in the fall and winter of 1944. I also got to go to lunch several times with a group that included one of the original Tuskeegee Airman and another WWII pilot who had 3 kills flying a P-38. All those guys are gone now, but what a privilege to know them, if only for a little while. You don't have to outrun the bear.

Hang around the DZ, ask questions. You don't have to outrun the bear.

"...making all packers get chest-only senior certificates" Wouldn't that be a great use for the lap rating? I agree with AggieDave. There has to be a provision for some "user maintenance". You don't have to outrun the bear.

Right, so the wind is mainly used to add potential energy, like putting gas in a gas tank, while gravity mainly provides the thrust, like the engine in a powered airplane. Thought experiment: if you took a glider to, say, 10,000 feet, then turned off gravity, could the glider fly at all, much less go faster than the wind? You don't have to outrun the bear.

Just a general comment; gliders are really more gravity-powered than wind-powered, so they don't count for the purposes of this discussion. You don't have to outrun the bear.

Some of the best advice I ever got was: "There's more fish in the sea." You don't have to outrun the bear.

I'm not a canopy designer or builder, but I'm going to speculate that having these lines the same length has nothing to do with flight characteristics and everything to do with making the construction simpler, cheaper, and easier. I bet the disadvantage of having the lines the same length is very small compared to the cost and potential problems of having them different lengths. You don't have to outrun the bear.

Skydiver to pilot right after the engine quit: "Hang in there, man. I'm going for help." "I know the minimum pull altitude here is 2500 feet, but if I'm below 2500, I'm pulling - rule or no rule." You don't have to outrun the bear.

Be sure to tell Sgt. Airborne that you have lots of skydiving experience....Oh wait, what I meant was - bite your tongue every time the subject comes up. You don't have to outrun the bear.

I'd say don't get too fancy. Something like Tony's Deli, or Momma's Deli. Say it a few times and see how it sounds, and be sure to look around and make sure your name is not similar to a business that's already in the area. And don't put up a sign that says "Eat here and get gas." You don't have to outrun the bear.

Not that it's my business, but remind us again why he's your boyfriend. You don't have to outrun the bear.

Given the requirements you've stated, I would agree with those who suggest Sabre2, Safire2, Storm, etc. and would add 1 thing. If you want softer openings, look into Dacron lines instead of microline. Storm, for instance, has Dacron as an option. You don't have to outrun the bear.

As you are holding the moneys for your customer, I would be willing to invest the excess moneys at a generous rate of return, taking only a small commission for myself. I have much experience in these methods as I have in the past been the investment adviser for a Nigerian prince who is very wealthy now. I will need your name and address, a copy of your birth certificate, your social security number, all your bank account numbers, and the original copy of your drivers license, which I will return by parcel post very soon. Trust me. By the way, I think the email you got from the non-English speaker who lives in the city of "Michigan" might have been a scam. You don't have to outrun the bear.

Why don't you just ask Cary Q. how he wants to do it, since he's a member in good standing and his vote counts just as much as anybody else's You don't have to outrun the bear.

Every airport manager thinks his airport will turn into Jetport, USA. Be sure to point out that there will be no negative impact on non-skydiving traffic. You don't have to outrun the bear.

Will he split the gear? The helmet, ditter, and altimeter might be a good buy for you if the price is right. You don't have to outrun the bear.

That dropzone has a fairly narrow landing area between a salt pond and the Pacific ocean. If the wind was light, you wouldn't have any trouble hitting it. The wind is not usually light. Whatever you decide to do on Kauai, you're not likely to be disappointed. You don't have to outrun the bear.

Dolphins are used a lot for student rigs because they are less expensive. They aren't "freefly-friendly" in that the bridle and pin protector flaps aren't as secure as on some other containers. They lack things like hip-rings and lots of padding on leg straps. If you stick to belly flying and you don't want to spend more money on things that are nice-but-not-necessary, Dolphins are good containers. I can't speak to the Aussie sense of humor, but around here no one would get laughed at for jumping with a Dolphin. They might get laughed at for buying a real expensive rig they don't know how to use. (Edited to correct spelling) You don't have to outrun the bear.

To the O.P.: I'd go with the responses from Skypuppy and Skyjumpenfool. Tandems are fairly low-risk, but there is risk. Those skydivers are using real gravity out there. As far as the statistics are concerned, think of Russian roulette using a revolver with 6 chambers, one of which is loaded. Your chance of not dropping the hammer on the loaded chamber on each spin is 5/6. Your cumulative chance of survival for two trials is 5/6 X 5/6 or 25/36. For 4 trials your chance of survival drops to 625/1296 or a little under 50/50. You can think of skydiving as roulette with a revolver with upwards of 100,000 chambers. You have some control over how many are loaded. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure the odds of Russian roulette with one of the new, magazine-fed semi-automatic pistols. You don't have to outrun the bear.

Trivia question: What is the stall speed of the AN-2? You don't have to outrun the bear.

marcantonio152 is in Alabama, but you make a good point. You don't have to outrun the bear.

There's another issue besides cost here. If a rig has an AAD, which is a requirement for students, it's a violation of FAA regs not to maintain the AAD according to manufacturer's recommendations. You don't have to outrun the bear.

I suggest you see if somebody around your dropzone has one you can try before you buy. I'm not looking at one now, so correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Mirage have a short closing loop on the flap? If you can't shorten the closing loop enough to keep the pin tight, you've got a problem waiting to happen. You don't have to outrun the bear.

I did the DeWolf course a couple of years ago. We weren't asked to identify samples, but we were given a big book with all sorts of line, webbing, thread, and canopy material to use as a reference and were shown how unknown samples could be matched up to materials in the book for identification. You don't have to outrun the bear.