Leaderboard


Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/10/2020 in all areas

  1. 1 point
    I have to say, this is what freedom is supposed to look like. Not the freedom to discriminate on the basis of belief. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/945000341/supreme-court-says-muslim-men-can-sue-fbi-agents-in-no-fly-list-case
  2. 1 point
    Well, he hates muslims but he also hates snitches. Muslims who don't want to be snitches? It's a toss up.
  3. 1 point
    This will help explain their mindset. It's out of date but still relevant
  4. 1 point
    How come Benghazi and emails aren't on this list?
  5. 1 point
  6. 1 point
    The NEW RDS removeable Slider from hardcore Russian swoopers (no bears was hurt!) Developed for terminal deployment. It can be manufactured in any size specified by the customer, and costs about $150. Full version (prototype) has a different design, we strongly dislike traditional separate lines for the bridle connect.
  7. 1 point
  8. 1 point
    Just to be clear, are you saying that it is a mistake to no longer ask for cash bail in "misdemeanor, nonserious or non-violent felony cases"? An astonishing number of people are held in jail because they cannot make bail. As a result, they lose their job, housing, often their vehicle, custody of their kids, etc. All over a misdemeanor or non-violent offense they have not (not yet, at least) been convicted of, offenses that often merit a fine rather than jail time. This is a great way to trap people in a cycle of poverty. Don
  9. 1 point
    Reading Chuck's wikipedia entry brought me to the pile o' drama called Victoria Yeager as detailed in this LA Times story: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jul-02-et-hubler2-story.html 1. I hope he reconciled with his kids, although he seems irascible enough that maybe that never happened. 2. I am glad that as my own parents approach the age that Chuck was when they met, neither are well-enough off to get any serious gold-diggers attention.
  10. 1 point
    Sorry about this post.....I just talked to my surgen for the first time who actually did my surgery and found out that I actually did not have a fusion........ these screws and rods are only to stablize my spine while bone heals on its own. I will take the hardware out in May next year. Guess this is great news!
  11. 1 point
    Some of the savings will be cheaper "fuel", but the main savings will be in the MRO. 2 or 3 orders of magnitude fewer moving parts adds up to a lot of maintenance savings, as well as normal operating temperatures being quite a bit lower (not counting thermal runaway). Fewer parts to TSO will also save a bit on certification (which the manufacturers will pass on to users anyway). For turbines, capital cost could also be a major source of savings - superalloys in the turbine section aren't cheap to make, electric motors would be a lot cheaper. However this benefit is wiped out by expensive lithium batteries, hence some attention on overcoming the current disadvantages of LFP.
  12. 1 point
    Lithium batteries are already highly modular and this is probably a shoo-in feature. Left wing battery, right wing battery. (Ooops, forgive the political puns -- I know this ain't Speaker's Corner). Keep in mind that a Tesla car has more than 1,000 separate laptop batteries in it, and a charge controll activates/deactivates each and every one of them based on imminent failures. An airplane will need more partitioning/firewalling of this, but a large lithium battery is already automatically modular -- they just will have to tree-subdivide it appropriate for aviation: - Cell level & individual cell sensors - Pack level & individual pack sensors - Cluster level (cluster of packs) & their emergency cutoff switches It's only a simple architectural detail for modern large lithium batteries nowadays, as a simple subdivision matter. Three clusters is probably ideal -- left wing, right wing, and underfloor. The underfloor could be a reserve battery. Also, the Magnix motor can theoretically be used as generator for regen descents, recovering between 5%-10% of the energy. The electric trainer already can capture up to 13%, although student pilots find it scary to dive that deep. But jump pilots don't mind doing steep descenbts, so wouldn't mind a bit of regen (if the location's electricity rates are expensive). The kicker: The Magni500 consumed about $6 worth of electricity during the Grand Caravan’s 30min test flight, he adds. At those prices, we could essentially forget about regen. Even a 6-skydiver Caravan load can already be profitable -- since motor longevity is stellar, assuming good battery longevity. But by the end of this decade, I don't think we even need any capacity reductions.
  13. 1 point
    The WL will only tell you the ratio about the force (your weight) applied to each square feet of your wing.The glide ratio and airspeed is influenced by the canopy size, the canopy shape, number of cells, material, the trim, and other variables and they are not a fixed number, it's dynamic according to the inputs given to the wing. If you think a high performance wing, it can have a lower glide ratio with the commands released on a level flight, if compared with a student wing, but it's also much faster and it can "store" much more potential energy, so you have a longer recovery arch ending on a infinite glide ratio (horizontal flight) for a certain amount of time (it's how you do swooping), something not attainable with a student wing. To resume (there's many other variable, this following is simplified): - Same wing, increased WL (if you compare two jumpers with different weight under the same wing, or if you put some lead on you): the glide ratio will not change, but the speed will do; ie: you can have a more powerful flare. - Smaller wing, same WL (you scale down the wing but so the jumper weight): the glide ratio will decrease, the speed will increase: same consequences as before, but amplified; - Smaller wing, increased WL (you scale the wing, but increasing the WL; ie: using a smaller wing than before, or adding weight on you): the glide ratio will decrease even more and so the speed (will increase): again, decreased glide ratio with no commands, much faster speed, much more energy to use during the flare... so you end doing those swoooops.
  14. 1 point
    It depends. What kind of reserve is it? Does it have an attachment point for a deployment system? If not, buying a new one every jump will get kind of tiring. Some riggers won't pack perfectly good PDRs if they are more than 20 years old. It's possible that your reserve may be still worth some money to someone else.
  • Newsletter

    Want to keep up to date with all our latest news and information?
    Sign Up