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Phil, here's what I do know and before everyone does the BIGUN dogpile. In the past three years, my daughter's school has been placed on lockdown several times. And, it seems like this, like most things, has an attention span in here of dissipating until the next event. Then everyone starts getting all - "America's Freedom Sucks" again. Here's where "I'm" at . . . ~Two years ago, I spent a considerable amount of time writing up a manifesto for the left - the only one to take action on here was TK and he put it square in his platform while running for office. Some from Canada didn't even realize the baseplate was their own Canadian gun laws. Some from Britain poo poo'd it as not enough. In those same past ~two years, how many on here have written to their representatives about gun legislation. Here's where "we're" at . . . There will never be a change to the US Constitution rescinding the second amendment and anyone on here who thinks it ever would is fooling themselves. So, what "we're" left with is "Well-regulated." How much more - there's somewhere around 2,000 federal and state gun control laws - How's that working for you? /drphil voice. There's currently legislation that has two major components, 1) It would make the waiting period a firm 10 days; no instachecks, here's your gun, thank you, and 2) It closes the "Gun Show" loophole - all sales of weapons including private would have to go through a licensed gun dealer with the exception of spousal gifts. Now, here's the silly part - I'll sell you this gun and we'll back date the bill of sale to before the legislation took effect. And, the Democrats will realize their mistake and make a new law changing the first law and the Republicans will cry - SEE!! They're incrementing their way to take our guns!! And, the SCOTUS will step in and, and . . . And, the Democrats will rise up at the next event and holler louder and say, WE NEED TO DO MORE!!! Those evil nasty AR's are at fault - they need to be BANNED!!! And, the Republicans will say - SEE!!! They want more legislation. They want our guns. They want to take away my choice of guns, my FREEDOM!!! You don't hear about these things: https://ballotpedia.org/Federal_policy_on_laws_governing_guns_and_firearms,_2017-2020 https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5717/text The bottom line, Phil is: Until both sides are willing to sit down and negotiate for all of America on this point - nothing is going to change. Nothing. Everybody is saying words and pointing fingers, but nobody is actually DOING anything. And, it will happen again.

I disagree. He started a thread about a year and a half ago. Whereby at the end of the thread there was agreement from himself, wolfriverjoe, and a few others as to what reasonable legislation should be enacted.

What a crap attitude. No one has ever enjoyed what comes beyond their life. Rejoice and try every cool thing available now or die having wasted your life. I had a contract to fly the LYNX rocket to space that went to hell. Could have thrown my money away on the the Branson thing but who wants to go weightless with six pukers, I thought. That's done now and there is always the next thing. I missed out on the Concorde but until you've flown First Class on the Emirates 380 you have not flown. There are many, many more things on offer now. More than you will ever be able to do. Enjoy.

I've captured one opening so far at 240 fps on my GoPro 9. I hope to capture a few more on this rig with rubber band stows, and then I'll be switching to my new Vector3 with semi-stowless in April. Maybe I'll end up with some useful data.

What’s everyone’s opinion on small reserves? I get it it’s all relative and I heard an opinion that ideally reserve should be close to the size of the main, which supposedly should be easier to deal with in the event of double out, but personally I’ve been reluctant to downsize my reserve, rig specs permitting. I’m flying 105 main with a 150 reserve now, I’m a smaller dude so might consider 126 in the future, but overall my attitude is that my reserve is my last line of defense and so far I can’t justify the benefit of a smaller and slicker rig at the expense of reduced safety (i.e. spinning linetwists). I guess it also is somewhat discipline-specific?

Weren't those cages built during the Obama administration?

Part of what makes a helmet good is whether it fits your head. Not all heads are shaped the same, and the safest helmet is one that fits you well. Wendy P.

I'll bet they were engineering students!

Hey Ricardo, this is gonna be an everybody has their own preferences post. That being said Cookie finally does have an impact rated helmet with the G4, I never understood why it took them all the way to the release of the G4 to put a helmet out there that would actually provide impact protection when other manufacturers have been doing so for many years, I am a bonehead guy. The brand new Bonehead helmet that just came out is really very nice. About the same cost as a G4 and less than the 500 dollars that Kiss wants for their helmet. The cool thing about the newest bonehead is the field of view. when you have it on you cannot see any of the helmet at all. You get open visiblity in all directions. It looks like an astronaut helmet. check it out it is the Bonehead Dynamic.

How can it have 'automatic cancel on turn signals' if it doesn't have turn signals? In a related story - I once watched a bunch of college kids try to drive a tractor to get a Christmas tree. Clutch on the right, two brakes on the left, throttle under the steering wheel, six gears. The first guy knocked over the chicken coop and we spent the next half hour trying to catch all the chickens.

I understand the two out argument but it's a rare day when a two out happens for a reason other than incompetence on the part of the jumper. Other may disagree but I base my personal choice of reserve on the basis that I don't want to be dealing with a relatively unfamiliar canopy the size of or smaller than my main when I'm super stressed, at low altitude, potentially with line twists to deal with while looking for someone's garden to land in. The smallest reserve I've owned is a 140 and I wouldn't want to go smaller, despite flying smaller mains. I see people at my DZ on 106 reserves loaded at more than the manufacturer's maximum loading and shake my head.

I didn't check the cascades but will most def do that now. This is all still as it came from fluid so pretty sure it will not have twists... But worth checking anyway. Thanks

Hi Keith, Re: It's a great time to be alive It always is; well, unless one lives in the slums of Brazil or somewhere similar. My maternal grandmother*, born in 1879 - died 1967, saw a lot of technology develop during her time here. From no electricity, using an outhouse to seeing men in space. My kid's will probably think the same about me. Of course, we now wonder how anything got done without a smartphone. Jerry Baumchen * She is still the most influential person in my life.

Brent, I'm about as right-wing as one can get and I'm probably the one most responsible for suggesting that thread be shut down. In 2007, I was not unlike you. I believed that AGW was bullshit and was deeply resolute in our party's platform. But, when people started using scientific data to erode my political beliefs; it began a period of exploration. One of the things that I reflected on was - we were the party of conservationism, environmentalism . . . From Ulysses S. Grant to the late 70's/early 80's; it was our party that vested the most in the environment. I can point to the time of change - 1973-1974. The first US oil crisis. Lack of oil/fuel, long lines at the gas stations, people fighting with each other at gas stations as to who was in line first. Price of gas for those who could get it was ridiculously high. And, the fight for cheap energy began. Then, in the early years of Reagan, there was this sudden stratospheric ozone hole which had been attributed to CFCs and HCFCs and the world shit its pants. It was the Reagan administration that pushed for an international agreement based on the work of atmospheric scientists and then began substantive regulations to address the world's greatest environmental issue of the time. But, the problem is/was you cannot fight for clean air, conservationism, environmentalism and cheap energy at the same time. So, the Republicans sided with the purses that were getting them re-elected and shifted from the party of conservationism to the party of Oil & Gas and abandoned what was for me - one our biggest core values - conservationism. So, with the help of several one here. some still here, some not; I asked for and received a path to understanding their side and to be honest; it wasn't with the intentions of learning their position as much as poking holes in it. Debate 101 shit. Learn what they know, so you can be prepared to defend against it. (this is where you're stuck). What happened was the opposite. I found out they were right and it unnerved me. So, I set out to learn more. Same result. The more learned the more I realized the "right" became so dug into being vested in cheap energy; we'd lost our way. But, there is an entire new faction of young republicans and it may interest you to know that young republicans between 18 and 38 actually score two percentage points higher than democrats in the same age range regarding their concern for the environment. For the first time in almost fifty years, both republicans and democrats are looking to discuss AGW and have real conversations about it. But, you are not. Your don't want to have an open dialogue. You want to dig your heels in deeper and go from stubborn to obstinate to defiance. And, it was a really bad game of cat and mouse. Populist BS versus scientists. Mercy rule? yeah, it was me calling for mercy on you.

The senate as selected is a very bad idea. The filibuster is a modification of that basic flaw that succeeds in making it even worse. Moscow Mitch is the most disingenuous politician of our time. Being a non American I did not vote in your poll.

The theory: It requires both sides to work together to pass bills. The reality: It enables one side holding 40-50 seats to obstruct everything.

Hi Rob, And, anyone who says that there is a limit as to what one can do via a Minor Change does not know what they are talking about. Jerry Baumchen PS) Wonderhog, TSO'd in 1974, & still going strong.