DrewEckhardt

Cheap is relative. The FY2007 MRAP earmark was $1.1B out of a 548.8B total budget + additional supplemental funding.

I don't understand why toggle turn rate is so important? High turn rates and sensitive controls make canopies more fun to fly. I didn't think the FX 104 or Crossfire 109 were as much fun as my Stiletto 120. Compared to square canopies they do. Compared to each other they often don't, although this can be a good thing. Shapes that are pleasant to fly at 1.8 pounds/square foot and 120 square feet are more likely to be too much at 2.4 pounds/square foot and 90 square feet.

Nope. They substract 5% of your taxable income over $150K (married joint) or $75K (all other filing statuses) until it drops to zero.

Dividends are taxed at 15%, and I expect those dominate his taxable earnings. Profits from large coporations are taxed at 50%, although only 15% of that is listed on your form 1040. Just like Social Security is a capped 12.4% tax with only 6.2% listed on your W2+pay stub and not even a mention on most people's 1040s.

Try driving down from any ski area to Denver at 4pm, then talk to me about the lack of traffic. It was great before the ski areas saw the money in selling people over 21 inexpensive season passes and they legalized gamling adding those folks to the traffic on US 6. Ah, those were the days. I remember driving the entire route between Boulder city limits and Copper or A-Basin going at least the speed limit appart from an ocassional slow down on the climb up to George Town.

Normally. Scotch Guard makes mud less likely to get absorbed and the rig can be washed after it gets dirty. Sliding in and really grinding dirt+grass into white leg straps is a different story though; they'll always be a bit stained after you do that.

You can always go down-wind and are going to have more range to get over obstacles with a bigger canopy because the lower sink rate keeps you in the winds longer. If there's an endless forest or something there are going to be plenty of cases where the extra speed isn't enough; so you might as well have more square footage to make for tree landings with less energy. I've jumped accuracy canopies below .7 pounds per square foot. There's nothing dangerous about it unless you compensate for the more forgiving canopy my making riskier choices in landing areas. I can't count how many broken bones I've seen, although a disproportionate number went with wing loading in excess of what the experts feel is prudent (< 1.0 pounds per square foot + .1/100 jumps with adjustments for canopies under 150 square feet, density altitude, etc). Two (both wrists) were on a little girl who downsized to a 150 or 170 before she had the hang of landing bigger canopies because people told her it would be OK. http://www.bigairsportz.com/article.php Heeding their advice over those of us with a just a few thousand jumps and limited experience teaching students would be a fine idea. Local advice to be more conservative because some one has seen your bad landings is fine. A broken bone can mean no jumping for 6 months and set you back $5K+ with health and disability insurance ($40K+ without) not to mention the discomfort and stress you put on the people who take care of you.

A 135 is about 12% faster at trim speed than a 170 which translates into a couple MPH of forward speed. In practical terms there isn't any difference. There aren't any wind conditions in which I'd be willing to jump my 105 but not my 120 or 135 although the speed difference there is a lot higher because I can get 200 pounds under there with my beer belly. Since high winds often imply gusty winds and turbulence, there are surprisingly few days when I'd be willing to jump my 105 but not one of my 245s. Obviously that makes not getting down wind of the landing area more critical if you want to land in.

Exactly. Countries our size have no problems defending themselves for as little as $10B in the case of Canada which shares similar labor costs. Big spenders like China and Russia who have more territory get by on $60B a year. With a budget of over $500B annually we're paying for offense.

Fuel economy is largely a function of aerodynamics (frontal area and Cd) and how much weight you're hauling to the tops of hills. FJ40 Land Cruisers seem to get about 15-16 highway MPG regardless of whether you have a 238 cubic inch 6 cylinder Toyota F motor (a metrified Chevy Stovebolt Six) or 350-400 cubic inch small block in there. While you won't do as well as stock, you're going to do a lot better than if you were driving a full sized SUV with a smaller motor.

If Hillary doesn't weasel out a super-delegate presidental nomination,I think she's in line to be McCain's vice president. Newt Gingrich likes her again now that he's not running, her relationship with Rupert Murcoch is interesting, she'd bring McCain a fair number of her supporters who despise Obama, and Clinton Congressional Collateral among the Democrats couldn't hurt their chances of accomplishing things once elected.

Nope. I ordered the suit in question brand new after the convention in 1999, didn't jump it much until I got a friend into wingsuits, and didn't jump it much after because we got Skyflyers. The first bad landing one of the few borrowers put on it made a hole. The few plane rides seated on the floor made on that since the repair have also added visible wear. The same bird-junky became a Birdman and then Phoenix-Fly distributor, with fleets of suits sent out so it did not get a lot of use after we got the Skyflyers. The parachute ZP is like tissue paper, the hot air balloon ZP serviceable , and newer stiff fabrics pretty much bullet proof. The suits fly fine though; it took us a while to figure out body position to make the Skyflyers fall slower (more forward speed was never an issue). You can also replace the single zipper with a piece of fabric, and add double zippers where they should be for less than an hour of sewing (the zippers are pretty much free).

The question is irrelevant, since Home Depot will rent me a pickup for $19.99. That's way cheaper than what I'd spend on gas if I always drove a pickup or even liability coverage on an old beater I kept around for the few times I needed it. Some combintion of them making less money, increased prices, and/or government subsidies which we or our children pay for in increased taxes. People in rural areas are going to suffer, although even at $10 a gallon and 10 MPG it's not going to be that bad. In places with higher population densities service guys don't cross county lines. A full Twin Otter burns as little as 1 gallon per jumper. One flown less efficiently may burn 1.5 gallons. Jet-A is $4-$5 a gallon now, you can do the math.

Because children whose parents chose "none of the above" will still be allowed to vote for candidates supporting expensive government programs (like housing allowances when they can't afford market rate apartments) even though they're less able to contribute to the tax base supporting those programs than today's median tax payer. We'll spend even more on the ones who remove themselves from the voter pool through criminal acts (in California, the number is over $40,000 per adult inmate per year). The problem here is that schools already reflect the desires of their local constituencies for better and worse. I went to a public school in a yuppie breeding ground where 95% of the 500 member senior class went to college and I graduated with 27 out of the 30 credit hours I needed for sophmore standing in engineering school. Other schools in the same district and property tax base but with different demographics were having problems offering advanced placement courses because the parents thought it was "unfair" to their "average" children. In places where the parents value education the public schools aren't a problem and evidence suggests the converse is also true. Vouchers may be a help for the parents who care but are stuck in bad neighborhoods but allowing bad parents to choose complete ignorance over poor schools is even worse than the status quo in which we've arguably entered a post-literate age where people have three day memories of sound bites.

The originals also have wings made out of parachute ZP (as opposed to hot air balloon ZP on somewhat newer suits) which tears if you look at it cross-eyed. It's a few hours of rigging time to get in there and sew a proper patch.

I don't really get head-down flying and it took me a few hours in the tunnel to manage back flying. Finishing AFF in 7 jumps and solid sit-flying skills did not help either orientation.

Sorry for the lame question, what is a potato chipper? Is it too stiff?? no arch? I think I might be one of those! If you relax in a belly to earth position the wind will blow you into a stable (but not necessarily horizontally stationary) position. 190+ pounds of force on a 170 pound guy (or even 120 pounds on a 100 pound girl) is going to bend you in the right direction. Similarly, relaxing on your back will leave you in a stable (but not necessarily horizontally stationary) back-to-earth position. Just arching is probably easier to "do" than the "not doing" which gets you to relax.

They work great if you jump big parachutes but have too much traction to slide in and aren't good for running. You want to do one of those two things when jumping smaller parachutes (bigger defined as loaded under a pound per square foot). They probably help keep your ankle joints together and the bones inside your skin but won't prevent broken legs. To do that you need to not screw up, pick good landing areas, and keep your legs together if you do land in brush or other crap.

Exactly. 15 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, 2 from the UAE, 1 Egypt, and 1 Lebanon. https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/2002/DCI_18_June_testimony_new.pdf

I haven't been to a non-cessna DZ where it wasn't possible to put together a fun 4-8 way depending on who showed up. What's there to talk about? Figure out who's on the load, pick some formations, explain what the names mean to people who aren't formal FS people, optionally add a few piece moves, figure out the exit, dirt dive, jump, and repeat your planned sequence until you reach break-off altitude. It's the greatest common denominator. You can take any reasonablly experienced set of skydivers who are dressed appropriately, plan something that actually involves being close enough to touch each other, and pull it off.

huh? In war, the loser pays. And let's not forget they were the aggressor. Right! Those damn Iraqis invaded our homeland.

All the listed brand names are acceptable at best. People seem to have a hard time making exceptional IPAs - some brewers don't put enough hops in their IPA while others get that right but don't put enough other flavor in. The Maritime Pacific Imperial IPA is good. Boulder Beer's Mojo is decent. Stone Brewery makes an acceptable IPA. I'll buy Sierra Nevada at the corner 7-11 so I don't go thirsty, but would really rather spend my carb calories on Stone Arrogant Bastard (usually the original flavor)

I can pack a ZP canopy I'm happy jumping in all conditions (even brand new) quicker than F111 because the ZP canopy can be less than half the size, small enough to roll up and stick in the D-bag with one hand. Right. Observe a bunch of people with good techniques. Pick what you like. Practice. Practice more. After 500-1000 pack jobs you should be able to pack a reasonable sized skydiving canopy in 6-7 minutes from shaking it out to putting the pilot chute in its pouch without rushing.

Stilettos are more sensitive to control input (intended or not) than any other popular canopy in the same size. When I switched from my Batwing 134 to my Stiletto 120 at first the thing didn't always swoop in a straight line. I did like mine more than a lot of newer canopies - the Crossfire, Safire, Spectre, etc. More fun to fly and with a better flare than the less tapered designs, especially at the bottom end.

All of England isn't as big as a small state like North Carolina so you don't have far to drive. And with 50 million people in a country not even the size of a state you have enough population density to support public transportation so you do don't have to drive so much.