DrewEckhardt

With a pro-pack, the canopy is accordioned from front to back with the l eft and right halves S-folded separately in mirror image. With a flat pack, the canopy is accordioned from front to back with the left and right halves S-folded together. There's no 90 degree turn.

Yes. Usually works fine. Gives better control over the lines. Makes it easier to bag new canopies. Slows down openings some, without causing closed end-cells like rolling the nose. Also makes it easier to pack a hard, long, skinny shape that catches more in the corners of the main tray than a conventional pack job which leads to line twists.

A standing pro-pack takes less space. When it's 90 degrees out, space is limited inside, and space outside isn't pro-packing means you won't have to choose between making people happy by not using too much room and drowning in your own sweat. A standing pro-pack lets you reduce opening speed some by rolling the tail which will be more significant on your Sabre than more modern canopies. Pro-packing makes symetrical reserve pack jobs which fit into molar bags. The big downside is that a standing pro-pack doesn't offer positive control over the steering lines.

And more to afford to run it. Fuel consumption at 60 knots is 15 US gal/nm; or .08 MPG.

Of course not, although small planes aren't what we should be looking at. Lidle's plane did almost no damage. Loaded with explosives, an 80,000 pound semi or even 6,000 pound SUV can carry a lot more explosives than a 3,000 pound C182. The legal limits can be exceeded on the semi and SUV; too much weight in back on the C182 means it crashes on takeoff.

So If I am understanding that correctly I can take a $1200.00 deduction if my agi was $60,000.00 as an education expense? or is there something else I need to prove on it? No, it's an exclusion not a cap. Lets assume that $1500 was the cost of your AFF training and you have no other miscellaneous deductions. You get to deduct 1500 - 2% of AGI (1200) = $300. And this is only for Employment related education expenses. You've never worked in the Skydiving industry. The IRS has a few years to see if you derive income from Skydiving before the statute of limitations lapses (although there is no limit for fraud). The IRS has issues with people incorrectly claiming their hobbies are businesses. I wouldn't screw with it now. You have three years to file an amended return and form 5213 if you actually become a coach, skydiving instructor, etc. Call your accountant (they'll usually answer questions for free when they're getting paid for their services at tax time) if you really want to deal with it.

Buffs303 just needs to meet the right people. Buying his three cases of beer (Graduation, first gear, and the coming A-license) and talking to the 24-72 jumpers who grab one would be a start. Asking Manifest or one of the instructors (Mike Pintamo, Brendan McHugh, Brad Cole, etc.) after they're done working about who currently likes to work with new jumpers would also be a fine idea. I jumped for 10 years at Mile-Hi. While some of the people have changed, he shouldn't have a problem. Flat RW is the greatest common denominator. You can combine guys who've been jumping for 40+ years, people with a few dozen jumps, and everyone in between. As long as people have dressed for success and you keep it simple, you can have a succcesful jump where everyone has fun. Vertical RW takes a lot more skill.

In the United States where the original poster and responder live, students are allowed to do RW. 1. When accompanied by a Coach operating under an Instructor's supervision. 2. When accompanied by a D-license holder, in a group no larger than 4, with at least one D-license holder per student (this change happened in 2006, and is included in the 2007 SIM) 3. Where the S&TA has waived the BSR limitations on student training for group skydives.

My Stiletto was made in 1994. I bought it with 600 jumps on it and added another 600 to bring the total to 1200. Apart from needing its third lineset and the neon yellow center cell being somewhat dirty it's a fine canopy. With only 450 jumps, unless the previous owner dragged it across runways you shouldn't have to worry about wear. OTOH, you might want something a bit more broken in. 1000 jumps is enough so that the ZP slick is pretty much gone from the outside and for the stitching holes to open up enough that getting air out is easy - you get something which packs like F111 but flies like new.

But some things you don't directly make money on will help it sell faster in a buyer's market. I doubt we spent $500 replacing every wall plate, light fixture, towel rack, and TP holder in our last home. We had the counter tops relaminated and new tile back splashes installed for $1000 (replacing with pre-laminated particle board would have been cheaper). We had an acceptable contract within a week after listing. Our neighbors who had also replaced carpet, floor, and paint but didn't address the details sat for a few months.

It's not that simple. The only clearly legal way to take a $4000 deduction this year is going to be earning at least $4000 in the skydiving industry; which in your first year will most likely be by packing 600-800 main parachutes. Things get more complicated when part of that is equipment. Deductions from activities which are not done for profit (as demonstrated by actually earning a profit in 3 out of 5 years) are only allowed to the extent they offset income. When you earn $2000 growing Bonsai trees as a hobby after spending $4000, only the first $2000 is deductable. Net operating losses are only allowed when you intend to earn a profit. They get applied to previous and subsequent years. Equipment is only deductable to the extent it's used in business. If the use is half personal and half business you only get to claim half the depreciation as a deduction. To depreciate equipment the year it's put into service business use must be at least 50%. If business use drops below 50% or you sell it before the end of its depreciable life (7 years for personal property) you need to cover the taxes you should have paid. I only kept my first rig for 3 years and should have gotten something which actually fit the main I was jumping sooner. If you take the education expenses as a personal deduction they count as a miscellaenous deduction. Miscellaneous deductions only come off your income when you itemize, and then only to the extent that they exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income. Having an S-corp or LLC which opts to be taxed as an S-corp (I formed an LLC because it was easier and $50 cheaper in my state) is only a financial win in that some expenses are subtracted from revenues before they become income. That means you haven't paid FICA taxes before spending the money, it's not subject to the 2% miscellaneous exclusion, and you can still claim the standard deduction. Where everything earned in a sole proprietorship is income subject to FICA, your S-corp can pay you a reasonable salary as an employee and give you additional profits as a distribution which is only subject to income tax.

Very high velocities (> 4000 fps) without excessive barrel wear. No need to have different guns for short and long range (the ballistic coefficient on a smaller diameter bullet of a given length is worse than that of a big one, so it looses velocity faster, has less range, and doesn't shoot as flat). Velocity.

If I die before my wife, I'd rather she have my assets than my creditors.

I left high school knowing how to repair cars, design basic electronic circuits, draft + use AutoCAD, print film, write papers, and speak German. I also picked up nearly 2 semesters of credit for engineering school (Calculus 1 & 2, Physics 1 & 2, 6 hours of English Literature, and some Computer Science) which saved me $10K in tuition. I should have studied Spanish instead of German, although the rest of it was useful. Public high school doesn't have to suck.

I've varied from 145 pounds in bicycle racing shape to 180 with six-pack stomach @ 5'10". While it makes a big difference in fitting your jump suits, it doesn't have much effect on how rigs fit. The wing loading change is noticeable at 105, 135, and 245 square feet; you'll want to size your canopy for you at your biggest.

Even lightly loaded canopies aren't as slow as people make them out to be. You're not going to stay still in full-flight in a light wind if you're not jumping a a round. You will be less able to make progress into the wind and this means you can't have fun spiraling, although it's not a safety issue with a proper jump run & spot. I've jumped my Fox 245+J7+Raven III (about 180 pounds exit weight, .73) in 20-25 MPH winds and not gone backwards. Para Flite spec's the 308 square foot MT-1Z at 42fps (29 MPH) with 200 pounds under it and 55fps (38 MPH) @ 300 pounds (they don't specify if this is an all-up weight with the 62 pound rig or just payload; since 200 pounds is under they're minimum all-up-weight I'd guess this translates into exit wieghts of 262 and 362 pounds for wing loadings of .85 and 1.18), EIFF has stated that their classical accuracy canopy (jumped at under 1 pound/square foot) is good for 10m/s which is 22 MPH.

Yes. It's been useful. The list should apply to charities and political organizations too. Definately.

Right. Lets just eliminate freedom of religion and ban muslims from the country. If it saves just one life....

I don't understand this reasoning. We have banned driving through a red light, yet people still do it. Do you advocate not having laws against driving through a red light? Or stopping for a stop sign? I don't advocate laws against owning cars because some people might run red lights. I don't want laws banning cars with top speeds in excess of the 25 MPH maximum permitted within most city limits. I don't support a punitive tax on automobile purchases which makes cars unafordable for the average person.

Provided that you are of appropriate age (18 for rifles, 21 for handguns) and not a prohibited person (this includes tihngs like being convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year's imprisonment, using illegal drugs, or not being a legal immigrant) you may buy any number of non-NFA firearms (that includes machineguns, short rifles, short shotguns, non-sporting firearms with bores over .5", and things which don't legally fit into the definition of pistol, rifl, or shotgun) from unlicensed residents of your own state without letting the Federal government know about it. Licensed dealers and manufacturers are required to perform instant checks of which records are illegally retained, keep a bound book and form 4473s which are surrendered to the government when their license lapses, and report multiple handgun sales within a 5? business day period. This holds regardless of whether the dealer is operating at a gun show or their normal place of business. No because you're a Californian. If you lived in most other states you could provided it was from a private individual and not a NFA weapon.

Our Decider does what he chooses. A plurality of us didn't vote for him in 2000 (he won with 50,460,110 votes to Gore's 51,003,926) and as few as 30% of us currently approve of his actions (according to the latest Zogby poll; Fox could only show a 40% approval rating).

Why do you have to jump through the hoops to own these weapons? Because the federal government says so. The law, called the "National Firearm Act", or NFA for short, was enacted in the 1930's, as a result of the machinegun crimes of gangsters in the roaring 20's. But guns dont kill....people do. Why make it hard to get a machine gun, but easy to get a .50 cal gun? See what I am getting at? Exactly, the distinction is silly. Machine guns should be as easy to get as .50 caliber rifles and Saturday Night specials without the registration, transfer tax, and prohibition on those made after 1986 which blew prices through the roof ($10-$15K+ for a registered receiver M16 with only a couple parts missing from the $800 semi-auto model is ludicrous)

I'm in my thirties, 24 BMI, walk 4-5 miles a day, no history of heart disease or Bollivian Marching Powder. Some of those miles unaviodably run within a few blocks of places you "shouldn't be when it's not light." What's more likely to save me?

You seem to be assuming that the size of the parachute is responsible for the twisted ankle. The original poster had 10%-20% more kinetic energy on landing than he would have had at a size or two bigger. That can't have helped. People jumping wingloadings approaching 2.0 doesn't make wingloadings beyond 1.0 any less conservative than when that was PD's placarded maximum on their ZP canopies. When I started jumping with an exit weight of 170-190 pounds instructors were evenly divided as to whether I should get a 190 or 210 for a first canopy. Canopies aren't any slower today. Brian Germain's Wingloading Never Exceed table lists 209 square feet as the absolute minimum for a 209 pound exit weight at 20 jumps and recommends a 230. 40 jumps changes the minimum to 203 and the recommened remains at 230. Of course this disregards how Ironmanjay got to the 190 - going directly from a 288 Manta to the 190 would not have been prudent. I saw a guy fracture his L4, cocyx, pelvis, and sacrum at less than one pound per square foot (low turn) and a girl break her ankle under a 295 Skymaster (failure to flare). Going big only reduces the chance of injury.

Until 1933, the United States Constitution stipulated that Congress was to meet at least once a year on the first Monday in December unless they legislated a different day. That's how it should be, instead of them spending a full year figuring out how to spend our money.