mr2mk1g

er... check with Sunrise rigging themselves. Are you sure your container's built for a 190? I have a W13 which is sized for a 170 and would easily take a 150 (if not better than the 170 given how nice and tight it is in there). With wings the smaller the number the smaller the container - although I see no mention of the W12 anywhere on the sizing charts this would generally seem to indicate that a W12 ought to be smaller... although I don't know the significance of it being a -3: http://www.garlyn.co.nz/wings/Wingsizingchart2.html

I remember this hitting the news during the Afgan campaign... snip: "two Air National Guard pilots who mistakenly bombed Canadian troops during an F-16 flight over Afghanistan last year, claimed the “go pills” they took before the mission impaired their judgment. Lawyers for the two airmen, Maj. Harry Schmidt and Maj. William Umbach, contend the military pressured their clients to take the go pills — as the prescription amphetamine Dexedrine is called in the military" http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3071789/

I see what you're referring to now.

My take on it is that the "huge drogue" is there to overcome the difficulties of autonomous flaring. IE the technology that would judge a flare height accurately enough to effectively protect the cargo is not yet economically available – a way round this would be to simply design a system that turns your controllable ram-air into a conventional round for landing. So I take it that round simply deploys at 50ft or so and lands the thing?

Highly appropriate given that today is the 50th anniversary of the day Sir Roger Banister ran the 4 minute mile.

That’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll give that a shot – I’d happily go give a talk on the subject and I know our club has more than enough video to put on a great presentation. I still don’t hold out much hope for even that though. It was the way she spoke about skydiving as if she felt it was a sickening and distasteful subject that would get her in hot water with all the parents. The whole “inappropriate and distasteful” phrase she used springs to mind. Funny how those of us who knew the guy and were actually there think exactly the opposite isn’t it. Worth a stamp at least... or should I say a trip to the company franking machine...

These scams have been arround for years and have ooodles of variations but they always work the same way. You get a large sum into your account and repay to the con artist the ballance. It'll often show up on day one - so you send out the cheque, but then on day 3 it's dissapeared from your account. Cos by then the bank's worked out the money order is fake. Sometimes it's "I'm trying to get my money out of this oppressive regime - will you help" or sometimes its "I need a western account to cash my inherritance" - Then you get a cut of the money just for helping. There is also the purchase variation where they overpay for goods. At least you get to keep the goods cos they have absolutely no interest in what they're buying - they just want the ballance you pay them. Where it's just a stolen money order for the goods its a little different - there are no red lights to tell you it's a scam. Anyone who falls for one of these "nigerian" scam's is so dumb they are beyond help. They would have just fallen for some other confidence trickster or ended up wandering out into the street and taken out. I have very little patience with people this stupid. Please people think before you send money out.

Just got off the phone to the new Headmistress at my old high school. I’d called to see if I could organise a demo into their sports day, entirely at my own expense and without taking up any of their time. I hadn’t expected to exactly be greeted with open arms or anything but I was shocked by her reaction. She displayed what I guess are typical whuffo sentiments and initially said there was no way we could surmount the health and safety problems. I told her I was a lawyer specialising in, amongst other things, health and safety law and could guarantee that any health and safety issues would be more than adequately handled. At that she essentially came out with her real reasoning in that she could see nothing that the school could possibly gain from it. She felt that it would be stupid and dangerous and that it would be inappropriate and distasteful given the recent events in the area (school is 10 miles from the DZ where the murder enquiry is still ongoing). I was amazed that she would be so rude to me. Rather upsetting but I guess predictable in hindsight given the way whuffo’s see the sport.

er... you shot down your own correction. I stand by my statement that elephant's are the only animals with 4 knees. (If you like it can be modified it to "forward facing knees...")

How about the UK progression system. For Licenses we need both jump numbers and "sticker" qualifications. We can choose between a number of different qualifications in order to get the License. We are also effectively prohibited from FF or FS jumps (appart from coached jumps) where we do no hold the appropriate sticker. See this chart for a good description: http://www.bpa.org.uk/progression.htm

So there is a french link sewn inside the bridle simply to create a bulge too wide to fit through the grommet?

Gerbills + Heliums = Derigiberbills - the solution to all man's transport problems. http://www.rathergood.com/mark/ Seriously though - will be biodiesel or alcohol.

Was the french link itself broken or was it just the bridal frayed? Do you check this point on your bridal regularly for wear and tear? Have you seen fraying here before?

Don't worry - they're both going to muslim hell cos they don't face Mecca when they prey. Damnit, I mean Jewish hell cos they've eaten pork... No wait, they're gonna be dung beatles in their next life...

on the elephant theme - they're the only animal with 4 kneas.

hehehe - you guys call Paul "Chirpy" too. To us he is, and will always be "cutaway". Pitty I missed it. I'll be there the next two weekend's though if anyone else is jumping.

99% of the time it's because they think they look cool and actaully look like knobs. In one or two cases there may be a genuine need. Night blindness can be helped by illuminating things with coloured light (usually yellow). We have two types of cell in our eye - rods and cones. Rods see in black and white and are more sensitive in low level light, thus we use these at night. People with night blindness have a problem with these cells -either being bust in some way or being too few. Cones see coloured light but are less sensitive in low level light conditions. People with night blindness can make use of the cone cells in their eyes to see at night if they use coloured lights or tinted glasses. It's not as good as normal vision but is better than their un-aided sight.

dang... I'd have to wear my helmet back to front. ... camera wouldn't film a great deal mind.

LOVE that site. Rathergood did the rounds over hear a year or so ago - some very good songs on there including our favourite - "We like the moon". The guys who made this are now doing TV adverts for insane amounts of money. PS. They also explain what would happen if you cross gerbils and balloons. You end up with Gerballoons... scaled up these items can be made into massive Derigiberbills which can be used to ship vast quantities of goods overseas at little cost and will be the solution to our worlds transport problems of the future... apparently. Go check out their world.

The lying bar-stuards

He didn't miss it, the rigger that packed it last did.

Remember that different harnessess are designed to have their hip rings at different locations. For example, the hip rings on Wings containers are higher up than on Javelin containers because of the different designs of leg straps and rings used by each manufactuter.

Damn you and your californian weather. Its 1AM, raining and I've only just finished my paperwork I'm still behind on because this time last week I too was jumping in Perris... blues

No disrespect taken. Do you seriously think that 2 days really make that much difference in a time scale of months to come up with a statement which says: "we condemn all forms of torture and this matter is being investigated as we speak"? I simply do not buy it and I would be surprised if anyone else did, whether they be connected to the military or not.

Yes it is. That's why I didn't say it 7 pages ago. You equally speculated that the reason they delayed 2 days was because they were still trying to sort out who did what. I think that is far less plausable given they already had over a month's notice in this matter. Besides, they did not have to (and haven't) come out with any conclusions, simply that they condemn torture and that this issue is being looked into. Instead they ignored questions asked 2 days ago in the hope no one would notice. Of course - like I said, that eminently understandable if not particularly worthy of praise.