DrewEckhardt

Abrasion resistance?

The few free on-line survey's I've looked at were low compared to what I'd experienced personally, heard annecdotally from a few trusted peers, and seen in leaked documentation, perhaps because the job classifications were overly general and geographic scope too broad or total compensation wasn't considered (this can be real hard when options are involved). You may be in a position to do a lot better than the surveys suggest. Or not. I also wouldn't consider the national averages too much since the costs of living and pay vary dramatically. You can earn substantially more and still come out behind. Costs of living are 15% higher between where I moved from and to while stastically speaking salaries are only 8% higher. Microsoft pays 15% more in CA than WA; although with a 9% higher state income tax rate and properties selling for much more @ $7200/year per $100K I doubt it evens out. Unfortunately, I think the only way you'll get an accurate personal answer for many professions is to change employers every 2-3 years until you can't get a raise by moving and not leaving any full-time position until you have a replacement lined up. I never left due to pay, but did receive a nice counter-offer when I had an offer in hand and asked my current employer what they wanted to do about it. Pointing out to the same company that my "raise" from the previous 18 months was less than the rate of inflation only got me the statement that money was tight. Working at many places is a great way to get inflation plus a couple percent for good performance. In fifteen years of work I've had only one substantial raise that didn't go with a change in employers (due to leaving or being acquired) and that came from the CTO and CEO who wouldn't be subject to formal (some big companies specify minimum and maximum raises based on performance ranking that would never catch you up if you were underpaid; most companies have total budgets for raises) or informal limits (even when not forbidden to do so, I doubt many managers would give a raise beyond accepted practices) You may be able to keep your job and get paid better but will have to be in a position where they'd rather have you than some one less experienced that will work for less, and make a credible threat that you'll leave if they don't pay you better.

BASE canopies have span-wise reinforcing tapes across the line attachments. I haven't seen a skydiving main not made by Big Air Sportz (Brian says they make for a more rigid wing) which has the tapes. BASE canopies have dacron lines which stretch and reduce peak opening forces. Almost everyone puts Spectra, Vectran, or HMA on their skydiving canopies which doesn't stretch as much, This disregards differences in slider dimensions, nose configuration, and brake settings which all influence how fast the opening will be.

King Air B90s left the factory with 3 bladed props on PT6A-20 engines rated at 550HP/side. Although all the upgraded engines' torque isn't useable at sea level the engines are still pulling strong at higher altitudes. Sure. People replace the original 550HP PT6A-21 engines on slow otters with the same PT6A-34 motors on Mike Mullins King Air but those otters don't climb as fast when DZOs insist on putting 22-23 jumpers on versus just 14 in Mike's plane.

PT6A-34 engines @ 750HP/side, 4-bladed props, and C90 air intakes. 7 minutes to 14,000 feet I did a hop-and-pop load at one of the Quincy conventions due to a low cloud ceiling and had to have my goggles on before take off to make the two minute call.

Me. In December I noticed that our total witholdings were 120% of last year's tax liability which puts us well into the safe harbor that's needed to avoid penalties, and figured I could ignore it until I had all of the information. That hasn't happened yet, so I figured out the upper limit on what we'll owe and am sending in our form 4868 with a matching check for $6800. We still need to get a W2 that shows we lived in our previous state for the right length of time or get the IRS to yell at them and make assumptions if they don't respond in 10 days. This is after calling to change our residency after moving and a handful of E-mails and phone calls since the start of tax season. We also have to get the interest/dividend/capital gains breakdown by state from eight accounts; knowing what records we'd need before moving would have simplified things. Once that happens I'll FedEx the mess to my accountant and see if they'll let us deduct the relocation company fees we reimbursed my previous employer for (moving household goods and storing them for 30 days is an above the line deduction; but does paying move management, inc count as part of that?)...

Without a couple hundred jumps under her belt, the original poster does not have the experience to recognize how fast and badly things can go wrong; and jumps under ideal conditions aren't going to reveal that. A 132 is still a small canopy which is sensitive to control input and therefore easy to over control which is not something you want to learn the hard way. Right. There's no hurry, and lots of smaller people (especially women) are happy with lighter wing loadings because they're looking for responsiveness instead of speed and the small canopies get them that with a lot lower loading than a big person would need to get there under a larger parachute.

The average American _chooses_ to drive that far because it lets them own a detached single family home with twice a European's square footage and stay there when they change employers. Except for the six months I spent as a contractor with clients in nearby towns, I haven't driven to work in fifteen years. In a less urban setting that meant a town home for what I'd have paid for a nice house elsewhere; down town it's a studio apartment and parking space (more money gets me a separate artist's loft for wood working and storage unit for toys I don't use that often). It's global supply and demand and a distraction from real financial problems like the cost of housing or taxes. The average American drove 13,657 miles in 2005. Average new car gas mileage has varied from 23.1 MPG in 1980 to 24.7 in 2004 or about 590 gallons of gasoline which would cost $1770 at $3 a gallon. Many places you're going to be spending at least ten times that on the house the car lets you commute to. In places with high property values $30K a year in mortgage payments barely covers a $500K fixed upper (assuming you put a full $100K down).

I can appreciate that many Americans are not happy with the current administration and there is a desire to see a change in the way things are done, but would it really serve everyones best interests for every tin pot dictator to have that ability? I Mostly. As soon as they used their nukes on the United States or our allies the dictators will find themselves vaporized so they're not going to do that. Conversely, the United States isn't going to spend thousands of lives and billions of dollars invading other countries that might opt for nuclear suicide over their dictator's disposition. The catch here is that fanatics could seize those nukes and not care about atomic reprisals.

That would definately put a stop to us invading sovereign nations.

I watched a guy dent the King Air tail with his head when we tried a curved jump (canopy camp where the DZO figured that we could get everyone out within range of the landing area if he flew one curved pass which would take less fuel+time than two straight passes) In order to maintain level flight, the tail of a plane must be lower in a turn than if it were flying straight. This causes problems with low-tail aircraft and poised exits.

Falling straight down at the same speed as everyone else. Tracking away from formations gaining a lot of separation and not increasing your fall rate. Taking grips. Side sliding. Unless you liked going for dryer rides as a kid (in which case you might consider sky surfing) or dance/gymnastics (free style), skydiving maneuvers by themselves don't remain very interesting. Skydiving becomes a social support regardless of your preferred orientation (flat or verticle; inverted or right side up; etc.), direction of flight (straight down or diagonal) and aerodynamic attachments (wing suit, open parachute, etc.)

Given a sufficient disparity in wingloading, the more highly loaded canopy is going to land first regardless of exit order. When the larger canopy pilot spirals this is much more likely to happen at pattern altitudes.

It's also not relevant. Canopies with higher wing loadings, longer lines, and more agressive trims loose much more altitude in an intentional speed-induced turn onto final than larger and more conservative designs. When the altitude for the turn onto final goes up, the other altitudes need to increase too.

Good point. So don't be opening a highly loaded canopy at 3.5k, unless part of a planned swooper stack, or headed for different landing areas, or alone. This is incorrect. 3500 feet is less likely to cause conflicts for the higher performance canopy pilot than 2500 feet because it provides more options. While a small canopy with an agressive planform can go much faster than one loaded arround a pound per square foot with a less tapered planform and loose the first thousand feet in fifteen seconds, in full brakes it can't descend any slower than the moderately loaded canopy in full flight. When the small canopy starts out higher, it can land either before (passing above pattern altitude) or after (waiting until the large canopy has landed) the larger one. When it starts out at the same altitude it's going to land first. If the smaller canopy pilot exits from a turbine aircraft after a number of 2-4 person groups (4-way and typical freefly group sizes) and finishes snivelling at 2500 feet, he's going to pass the larger one which exited early in the jump run during his speed inducing landing maneuver. The number of freefall groups that can separate the canopies before this happens shrinks when the pilots under larger canopies try to have fun under canopy by spiraling. Everyone dumping at 3500 feet regardless of canopy size would improve the situation more.

OK, silly newbie question here. What is the advantage of doing the demo jumps as Hop & Pops? Is it so that one can concentrate on the canopy handling rather than the freefall? Right. It should also get you more time under canopy and less congestion in the sky and at the landing area. That would work fine too, but most people like to jump in groups and most groups don't want to loose some of the people halfway through the jump. If you just pay for a hop and pop it'll be harder for your friends to talk you into sticking arround until their normal deployment altitude.

Legislation passes because it makes good sound bites for politicians, opposing it would make politicians look bad, or it fits in with politicians' world views which tend to be over-simplified and elitist. Throw in vote trading (illegal, but common) and threat of sanctions from the party whips. Committee membership and chairs are a big element of campaigning and financing. I left out my favorite: omnibus bills that get enough added until a majority of legislators have something in it to vote for. The 1994 ugly gun ban took 26,000 lines of text (470 pages single spaced with standard top and bottom margins) to pass.

Legislation passes because it makes good sound bites for politicians, opposing it would make politicians look bad, or it fits in with politicians' world views which tend to be over-simplified and elitist.

You'll spend more money and time on skydiving and less on other things. Depending on your resources and other commitments this may or may not be a problem. You'll want to live some place with a consistently high cloud ceiling, sufficiently temperate climate, and reasonable proximity to a turbine drop zone. Depending on what sort of work you do and the limitations you can accept this may or may not be a problem. Being a somewhat active skydiver (150-200 skydives a year) with a few other interests (say flying 2 hours a week) is not incompatable with 80 hour work weeks or being married and is a lot less expensive than driving newish cars. You stop when you decide you don't like the politics, other things are a higher priority in your life, etc.

Works well enough. 750 HP gets you 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, the quarter mile in under 12 seconds, and a top speed of over 200 MPH. If some one ever sells a street car like that for $30K which handles I'll buy one regardless of the technology.

I own a Dagger 244 and Fox 245. The Dagger is more like a contemporary skydiving canopy in terms of landings, and the Fox sinks better. I prefer the Dagger when the landing area is wide open and potentially farther away (Moab, Potato bridge) and Fox for tighter landing areas (El Gigante, Royal Gorge). For tight landing areas I prefer both at arround 150 pounds without gear than I do arround 170. An extra couple of sizes would be nice with 175 pounds of beer gut and baboon butt.

Actually when history repeats itsesome LEOs will be guarding their bridges to keep people in the communities from which they came regardless of the availability of safe water, food, and shelter....

I know a college professor that had campus police called when some one saw the inside of her office and thought it had been broken into and ransacked.

A pro pack is S-folded from front to back (with the two sides in separate stacks). A flat pack is S-folded from front to back (with both sides together) There's no turn, and you can even have symetrical treatment of the nose if you want.

Zero. Drain the white and mix them in your steak tartare, serve atop some tobiko (preferably wasabi infused) & sushi rice wrapped in nori, or mixed up with some raw squid and uni as uni ika somen. Yum!