outlawphx

Definitely.

He has a valid point... '95 YZF 600 - 90hp/450lbs '05 CBR 600RR - 108hp/370lbs so w/ a 180lbs rider '95 YZF 600 - 450lbs + 180lbs = 630lbs / 90hp = 7lbs/hp '05 CBR 600RR - 370lbs + 180lbs = 550lbs / 108hp = 5.1lbs/hp That's a 37% increase in performance. '95 Stilleto 150 w/ 180lbs exit weight - 180/150 = 1.2lbs/sqft '05 Stilleto 150 w/ 180lbs exit weight - 180/150 = 1.2lbs/sqft or maybe 1.2lbs/sqft * 37% increase in performance = 1.644lbs/sqft * 180lbs = 109 sqft Stilleto So you saying all 600cc bikes are the same is like saying the performance of a 150 Stilleto is the same as a 107 Stilleto. I'm saying with the increase in performance in bikes, you need to re-examine the idea you can make judgements simply based on displacement.

Ask for the serial number to verify it with Cypres.

Sometimes us civilians forget about how rough it must be over there What kind of unit were you in?

This was a useful article I liked... http://www.zct.co.uk/skydivemag/pages/articles/aug00/headupflying.htm

That's not the ass I saw! http://www.skydiveaz.com/SkyventTempPhotoAlbum/source/day315_july17-2.htm

I've got the same problem, and it was very painful in one ear to try and clear my ears on the ground. I talked to my doctor about it, and he recommended a decongestant. He looked in my ears and what not, and figured it was just persistent congestion between my nose and ear canal. So now I take a couple squirts of Afrin (nasal decongestant spray) in the morning on the drive to the DZ, and I'm golden all day. I don't have any pain now clearing my ears, and I often my ears clear by themselves.

9 years. It's nice to be back

I took my MSF class on a Ninja 250, which was a fun bike to ride (although it was my first time ever riding a motorcycle). The funny thing is I never see that class of bikes out on the road. The smallest bike I commonly see driving around is a GS 500. I think a great starter bike for sportbikes is the Suzuki SV 650. It has potential to be set up as a race bike, and it can be competitive in many classes. I went out and bought a brand new '95 YZF-600 after getting my motorcycle license, and I managed to put 10k miles on it with no lay downs. 600cc bikes now days have about 15 more horsepower and weigh 50 pounds less. I think that makes them a little sketchier as first bikes. My last bike was a 2000 YZF-R1 that I ended up decking out with Ohlins shocks front and rear. After putting another 10k miles on that, I decided that I prefer to stick to the racetrack. There are just too many inattentive drivers out there trying to kill me, and they don't even realize how close they've come to being successful. Maybe there is a parallel between that and canopy patterns over the DZ Anyway, I think sportbike riders and canopy pilots do have many parallels, and I think the number one thing that differentiates the safety of people in both sports is mindset. I generally always rode with the same group of riders, and we all were veterans of many track schools, track days, and road racing competitions. We were always willing to mentor to new riders, and we helping many riders improve their skills to become peers. But for every person decked out in full leathers with appreciation for a reasonable skill progression in a group like mine, there are a half dozen kids riding sportbikes in tank tops and shorts trying to do wheelies in traffic. Now my group wasn't exactly conservative though, but we tried to minimize our risk. We wore protective gear, slowly pushed the limits of our skill, scouted roads before blasting them, etc. One day a rider of ours lowsided his R1 doing about 80 mph through a turn going up a popular mountain. We had ridden up the road at a slow speed to scout the road conditions and for police like normal, but he just pushed too hard that day. He was in full leathers with a back protector, and his only injury was to his palm where the road burned through a small part of his riding gloves. While we were waiting for a tow truck for him, and inexperienced rider on a Katana crashed a mile down the hill. He had never taken any courses, and generally didn't respect the position he put himself in. He was wearing a tank top and shorts, so he left a nasty streak of skin on the pavement. He was life flighted out, but luckily he lived. I guess the comparison between those two riders is similar to low timers and experienced canopy pilots that get hurt. The low timer often didn't even realize the position they put themselves into until after the accident. The experienced person knew the risks and just pushed too deep into the safety margin. The other difference between the two classifications of people is that the ratio of low timers to experienced people getting hurt is heavily skewed to the low timers.

I got a 3% cost of living raise this year, plus a bonus.

I think you're sitting a wee little bit too close to your monitor. Didn't your mother tell you that will ruin your eyes.

Definitely! I always look forward to coming home from work to see him, and he's always excited when he hears the garage door open in the afternoon

The first couple minutes had me worried, but then it got funny as hell. I haven't laughed that hard since Old School. They really need to make more movies like these. War of the Worlds was the last movie I saw, and I walked out after that movie going "I need to see more movies that make me feel better, not worse, than when I went in to the theater".

Ouch! That's going to leave a mark

My custom Voodoo came in last month, and I've put a dozen jumps on it so far. It's very comfortable, well built, looks great, quick delivery (7 weeks), and it comes with all of the bells and whistles standard. They even built me a freefly handle at no extra charge. It's not listed on the order form, but they can do it. I really like the velcroless RSL setup, the way the tuck flaps cover the release housings and everything else but the 3-Ring, the way that the kill line bunches up (instead of having a big loop of line inside the dbag when it's cocked), the v-flex legpads are great, and great main pin protection (the tuck flap doesn't even open on deployment). The only thing I'd prefer are dive loops that "popped" out more, and a split dbag for packing new zero-p.

That's what I've learned recently. I'm used to using big flying inputs with counter movements to stop from my 4-way days. I was able to do stable 360's in a sit and do some fallrate control this weekend by concentrating on making small adjustments. The first couple times I tried to do turns in a sit, the turn accelerated so quickly that I spun up on my back. I've come to realize that just pushing one foot down an inch or two, or twisting your torso just a smudge, is all it takes to complete a 360 in about 3-5 seconds.

Congrats! That's great you were able to pack all that tunnel time, aff, and canopy control class into one trip. It definitely makes it easier when you can compress the time between jumps when learning.

Usually by November it's finally starting to get out of the 100's down here It's actually a great time to visit. November's average high is 77 degrees (perfect), and December's average high is 68 (a little chilly for us desert rats).

Unlikely. Your rig isn't worth that much anyway, and if the business isn't worth much more than the value of a rig, it's probably not worth buying.

Yummy. Underseat exhaust looks so sweet, but it'll make your balls sweat in Phoenix

Umm... Reading is not my strong suit, as I was thinking "reserve" pillow

Although I'm a newbie at freeflying (and jumping on my own and paying for coach jumps), I've still made time to jump with some fresh A's to help them with their RW skills. I guess I feel lucky that I started jumping at a small dropzone in the early 90's, because it was a given that experienced jumpers would mentor the lowtimers. That was the way to increase the number of competent divers, and that led to more satisifying jumps for everyone. At big turbine DZ's now days, there are so many good jumpers already that I don't think many experienced jumpers feel the need to help improve the overall quality of the dropzone's skydiver pool.

I went with silver. Just something to think about is if you're in hard line twists (or other senarios), your harness may shift. I think having your cutaway and reserve ripcord in different colors would be an advantage in a situation like that.

Looks like a good deal.

Yep. I've got a set of Beyerdynamic DT250-80's I use at work, and I use some cheaper ($30) Sony MDR-EX71's on the move. The Sony's are nice because they act like an ear plug as well, so they lower the noise floor and raise the bass.