DrewEckhardt

You're going to be 200-205 pounds out the door which makes a 200-205 the minimum reasonable size at this point in time. With practice a 190 gets reasonable with 50 jumps, a 170 at 150, and a 150 around 250 jumps. I only know one person who followed Brian's wing-loading-never-exceed formula and still got sidelined with broken bones and she'd probably have been fine if she'd taken a canopy control class. I'd guess 1/4 to 1/3 of the guys I know who didn't follow the chart have become acquainted with the paramedics and orthopaedic surgeons. Mostly it's been tibia/fibula and femur fractures although there've been a few broken backs. Bigger guys fly less responsive canopies at a given wingloading, but don't have proportionally stronger bones than little people so they tend to break more when the little guys bounce and walk away. http://www.bigairsportz.com/pdf/bas-sizingchart.pdf You'll probably get bored with the bigger canopy before you master it but this isn'ta big deal - you just sell it and buy another used canopy. If you got a reasonable deal you're only loosing $1/jump in depreciation no matter how many times you change. If you shop around you can even make a bit of profit. In any event, it'll be more exciting than being broken and stuck watching daytime TV (even prescription painkillers don't make daytime TV watchable).

1) Helicopters don't climb any faster and 2) It's worse. Helicopters have lots of life limited components that time out sooner than other life limited parts do on fixed-wing aircraft.

The last specialist I talked to said the rod was like a battering ram and said I didn't want to be jumping with it inside my leg. As soon as the holes close up I'm getting that thing out.

You might be dead right. The higher performance canopy is going to land first within some window encompassing various combinations of your opening altitude, the higher performance canopy's opening altitude, the time between opening in which the higher performance canopy, and what every one does under canopy. Having the right away when some Muppet almost passes you in the pattern won't keep you out of the morgue or hospital. Everyone is less likely to get injured or killed when you get passed at a higher altitude. My 105 won't go any slower with full brakes or a lot of rear risers than a 170 with some one the same size under it at full flight. The physics of the situation put upper and lower bounds on descent speeds. You're right. But you don't want "He was right" as an epitaph.

It's part of the Cthulhu '08 campaign. http://bumperstickers.cafepress.com/item/cthulhu-for-president-sticker-bumper/228388315

Until you repack the rig, look at the sticker on the Cypres battery compartment, and note that the batteries are expired after which you don't finish packing and sealing.

That doesn't sound correct to me. An antique firearm (not talking about muzzle loaders here) is still a firearm, and the interstate transfer rules apply, requiring the transaction to go through a licensed firearm dealer. Nope. There's a big difference between antiques and curios & relics apart from the 50 year difference in age. 18 USC 921 (a)(3)(D) defines the term "firearm" as excluding "antique firearms" 18 USC 921 (a)(16)(A) defines an antique firearm to include any firearm manufactured in or before 1898. Sub (B) adds replicas that don't fire modern cartridges and (C) adds muzzle loaders. As far as the feds are concerned for criminal law purposes (tax law has its own treatment of firearms; I don't know where antiques fall there) there isn't a difference between an old Mauser rebarelled in your favorite hunting caliber and replica Hawkins muzzle loader. Curios and relics are firearms that are at least 50 years of age or of other significant collectable interest/value. John Moses Browning didn't do his best work until the 20th century, the US military didn't get a good rifle prior to the model 1903, lots of neat guns got built just in time for WWII.... There are plenty of reasons to have a C&R license.

Your speed has components in two directions: downwards and forwards. Too much of either when you put significant weight on your feet means you don't stand up and/or get hurt. That "or" part is tricky - while you can stand up a landing with too much speed doing so is more likely to hurt you than PLFing. When you have a substantial head wind you can't flare as far before the forward component of your velocity becomes zero or backwards although you're still heading towards the ground as fast as you would on a no-wind day. So the timing on your flare is much more critical. With modern canopy shapes if you were plaining out nicely on a no wind day and slowly adding toggle until you run out of lift and have to finish, the same thing works on high wind days although you don't go as far. When you're arriving at ground level just as you run out of lift you're going to run out of forward speed before you're stopped vertically on a high-wind day. The other side of this is perception. For the same canopy flight path, your ground track is steeper. The look of things might throw you off. As a simplification you might start with a lower but quicker flare. You might have just gotten lucky with the Quadra. You might have had some inspiration. It might just have meshed better with you perceive things and fly canopies. Without a lot more landings you can't tell. When you're not getting consistent stand-up landings in all wind conditions with a 188 you're not ready for the 168.

Sure. Of course, most interesting hobbies have a way to correct the problem with broken parts that limit the number of other hobbies you can do.

I've jumped into city parks before. I even got to swoop a town fishing pond. While not the best place to swoop (there was a berm around the lake we had to fly over to get out) it was a lot of fun. My wife thought I should skydive into our wedding in a city park, which would be an open field or level-1 demo according to the FAA. This would have been especially neat because our wedding was exactly 10 years and 10 days after my first jump. Before that, a guy with insufficient classic accuracy experience and bad judgement with respect to winds did a stadium demo for the city's running event and landed on a spectator in the bleachers. Oops! The city parks manager told us no. That's a real life black eye.

None of that is relevant to how things should be running. If your key issue is hookers and beer for everyone, all that matters is whoever happens to be in power isn't giving out free sex and booze. Heck, they're probably even intent on keeping the oldest profession illegal. For most of us there's at least one other "real" issue that's similar even if we ignore guns and abortion. And if we do get serious: 1) Karl Rove may be the real president. The VP doesn't matter since although they say he hangs out in an undisclosed location he may be spending his time in Dubai where the government contracting company he was involved with has relocated it's head quarters to. 2) It doesn't matter. With our middle eastern policy a successful attack on US soil was inevitable (the WTC was also bombed in 1993, it was just a matter of time before they pulled something off with a significant body count) with the time being unimportant. If there were other real terrorists in America they'd have been on TV when they were caught and run through kangaroo courts. Since they're not I'm in a lot more danger from eating too many hamburgers or getting run down by a drunk driver so I worry more about such things. Actually, I worry most about the disproportionate cost of living in the first world (and necessary pay checks to survive) when foreign countries are producing oodles of capable people (with 2B Indians and Chinese, only 1 in 7 need to be as good as us to put us out of work when their semi-skilled factory workers make $100-$200 a month and some of their university educated graduates get $5K a year instead of $50K). I worry some about deficit spending devaluing the dollar enough that my investments are worthless so I can't retire when I'm older. I worry about my kids finding homes and careers in that financial world. I don't worry about more terrorists. 3) It doesn't matter because the Democrats don't have a super majority in the house and Bush 43 rubber stamps or vetoes along "party" lines. This doesn't mean that the Republicans I grew up with are in power either. While they used to be the party of small government their discretionary non-Defense spending increases are the highest in history and Bush 43 has made Clinton look like a fiscal conservative.

In other words, they're just like adults. My wife is especially interested in this election and has been staffing campaign phone banks. She's talked to people of all ages who have a reasonable recollection of sound bites and not much real knowledge.

Mateba semi-automatic revolver Mannlicher M1900-M1905 Mauser C96 Steyer-Hahn M1911/1912 Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver Under Federal law, an old enough Mauser C96 isn't even considered a firearm. If the design and metalurgy allow you could even rebarrel it in a more modern caliber without changing its status as an antique (A friend has a model 1892 Mauser which left the factory some time between 1894 and '97 but was redone in the modern 8mm caliber for WWII). Your favorite courier company can deliver one to your doorstep.

I was working on my computer, just polished off my second Lagunitas IPA (22oz), was thinking about stashing some money in a small German speaking country, and realized Ich habe eine Mass Bier getrunken.... Here's one measure of beer shown with an Indian tourist for scale from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:N1605558_33754397_2410.jpg It's a liter. The last time I was in Germany, I got puny little 0,2 liter cokes that didn't sate my thirst. In America we have 64oz Super Biggie Gulps (1,9 liters). In German beer gardens I got proper measures of beer. Why is it we get puny little 12 or 16 oz (not even a proper pint!) beers and not something that's been super-sized?

Used. Nearly all of the mains released in the last 10 years in a shape (lightly tapered, like a Lotus/Pilot/Sabre2/Spectre) and size appropriate for your experience and jumping conditions (most likely a 230). I wasn't too fond of the Omega or Safire I demoed but other people like them - a lot of this is personal preference. I like nine cells more for skydiving too but that's also personal preference. Reserves should have span-wise reinforcing tapes which PD has always used, Aerodyne used on their SMART, and Precision has on the R-MAX. Anything made to fit some one with about your torso size. Obviously this means that most student/rental rigs aren't as comfortable as they could be. If you're exceptionally big or small some companies offer more range in their yoke sizes that might fit you better. If you have breasts you might find that some rigs have a better chest strap location. Ones made to your measurements. I like jumpsuits made by local riggers who know how to sew. They get measured by the person making the suit, get built quickly because there's no back log, and cost less because they aren't being made as a full time job and there isn't much overhead to run a sewing machine in a spare room or basement.

It's a function of canopy design and wingloading. My Stiletto 120 did at a wing loading of 1.6 - 1.7. Turn, release front riser, swoop, apply brakes, swoop more. Modern designs built for swooping don't. It's a lot more user friendly because you can finish a little high and descend to swoop altitude while you still have plenty of speed.

Night jumps a are a _LOT_ of fun. I did my first one during the lunar eclipse which coincided with the Hale-Bopp comet's visit and followed it up on most warm weather full moons after that. Note that winds are different at night. As during the day, if there are multiple loads you want to be on the second load (on one jump I was one out of two to make it back to the DZ because of winds aloft). High moon is like high noon. At some DZs the DZO wants to go home before the moon gets high enough to be really useful. You want to jump later rather than earlier if that's an option. A bigger canopy if you land out might be a better option but you still need to land on even ground - after over 1500 jumps I managed to join the titanium club with a tibia+fibula spiral fracture a few feet before landing when I went through a piece of wood in some brush with a wing loading under .8 pounds/square foot. That said, there's no reason to rush it. You'll be more comfortable and safer with more jumps.

When the pilot tells you to get out at 1000 feet, waiting to pull until you're at 0-500 feet is not going to be a good idea. If that happens you might just decide to ride it in so you don't have to lie with a low opening leading to a fate worse than death. Being able to get and deploy immediately is a safety issue. You should practice at a comfortable altitude. There's usually a good reason for safety rules and you don't want to be breaking them. What if you have a malfunction, the AAD is turned off, the RSL is disconnected, and your harness shifts? Is it possible to exit the plane and pull within a second or so? Sure. You can pull as soon as you've cleared the plane. On a poised exit you can see when the tail goes by. With a fast opening canopy (like a reserve) you can loose less than 50' feet of altitude leaving 950 to figure out where to land after you got out at 1000 feet.

When the pilot tells you to get out at 1000 feet, waiting to pull until you're at 0-500 feet is not going to be a good idea. If that happens you might just decide to ride it in so you don't have to lie with a low opening leading to a fate worse than death. Being able to get and deploy immediately is a safety issue. You should practice at a comfortable altitude. There's usually a good reason for safety rules and you don't want to be breaking them. What if you have a malfunction, the AAD is turned off, the RSL is disconnected, and your harness shifts?

You want to try a Samurai with the regular line set (there's a longer line set for swooping). Apart from glide ratio at trim speed (you'll want rear riser input to get back from longer spots) it flies a lot like a Stiletto but has a modern recovery arc. It shuts down at a slower speed so that if you're so inclined you can jump a size smaller. The Samurai 120 was the only canopy I jumped which I liked more than my Stiletto 120 (Katana was not yet released). I lost 25 pounds and bought a 105 to maintain the same wing loading. The Samurai would be inappropriate for the original poster, with the manufacturer strictly forbidding its use by persons with under 300 jumps and requiring a full size larger than a less tapered planform at a given jump count.

Yet.

The original poster ought to be talking with his instructors, and in general people should get some instruction before trying these sorts of things. That said While being in full-flight makes getting a decent landing easier, it's not necessary and braked approaches are a skill you need to master before you have to use them or downsize to a canopy where figuring them out will be harder. Braked approaches are tricker under smaller canopies but especially not a big deal at accuracy/student wing loadings. I've landed canopies 105 to 245 square feet, .65-1.8 wingloadings, F111 seven cells to ellipticals (but don't go quite as deep on the brakes there) this way. Done properly they'll get you the same vertical speed you'd have with a flare from full-flight although you don't have as much excess energy you can use to kill your forward speed. Early in your career if you get hung up on always flaring from full flight, sooner or later you'll try to return to full flight with too little altitude. Maybe you'll barely get back from a long spot, make a flat turn into the wind at a very low altitude, and not have enough room to return to full flight. The canopy will dive in front of you and surge to faster than trim speed and even with a flare (the canopy is still in front of you, so flaring pendulums you into the ground) you'll land a lot harder than you would have if you didn't manage to flare all the way from braked flight. The difference can even be between broken bones (at faster than trim speed) and a comfortable stand-up landing (even if things don't go as well as they can) but note that trying to salvage a bad landing is more likely to hurt you than just PLFing. Braked approach pictures attached. While not skydiving it's illustrative. You can go too far. Eventually the canopy will start flying backwards or get real ugly. Before that happens you want to slowly ease off the brakes but may stop short of full flight so you don't get too much of a surge. A classic accuracy approach starts the same but often ends with forward speed reduced to zero before getting to ground level. You don't want to do that without a soft landing area like pea gravel (especially with the risk of going too far). You don't want to do that with a canopy not stable in a sink. It's a question of whether you put the emphasis on getting the most accurate (stop over the target) or most comfortable (don't risk a hard stall that dumps you on your back) finish.

Oh really, I've never seen a reserve unpacked. If you were to jump a reserve as a main would you change the slider or just deploy sub terminal? Just suck it up. Good reserve designs (PDR) aren't appreciably worse than the the Sabre and Monarch squares we used to jump. If it's going to ring your bell you want to find out at 2700 feet instead of 700.

Yeah, square canopies are tricky to land at high wingloadings and often won't stop like tapered designs do. I have 1500 jumps, a Samurai 105 main loaded aourd 1.9 pounds/square foot, and a PD143R loaded under 1.4 pounds/suqare foot. You may also be landing the reserve with broken bones and/or dislocated joints that make it hard to run and/or flare.

At which point a 190 would be the minimum size considered prudent assuming you were current and learned a lot over the last 100 jumps on a 210.