DrewEckhardt

We as a society owe them nothing. They owe us. We as a society have to pay for their incarceration when they re-offend. Each one that we rehabilitate in prison can cost us $25,000 less a year in the future.

It depends on the equipment. With a fun canopy I want 2500 feet. I can pull, wait for it to do its thing, have a spinning malfunction, chop, spin like a top, get stable, and be under my reserve by 1500'. I've malfunctioned when I didn't know where I was at, fired my reserve immediately after cutting away, and while it worked fine I didn't like it. With a square that opens right-away, 1800 feet (USPA descision altitude is a fine number). If the DZ might care I'll ask for 2050 feet so I can beat my BSR mandated container opening altitude.

No, they're effectively independant.. Yes. Combined with a radically different DZ altitude (which affects how long your canopy takes to come out of a dive) it's even worse because all of your altitudes have changed too. Yes but you're better off using symetric front risers, unless riser pressure would be too high as on a tandem supporting two people (in a stable descending configuration, the sum of the forces on the risers & toggles has to add up to the suspended weight). When you let the canopy surge it gets in front of you and you have to pendulum back in front before your brakes can be effective. Front risers keep you underneath the canopy so when things go wrong you can correct sooner. I got my jumpsuit muddy and had to wash it. The guys on the cessna will probably appreciate that. It's a side effect of not watching television and getting old. Take a couple extra hours a day from not watching TV and instead play with Linux for 15 years, hang out in your guy cave equipped with power tools and pinball machines, make 150-200 skydives annually for a decade, etc.

It depends on size, shape, and wingloading. A 105 square foot elliptical loaded at 1.6-1.9 pounds per square foot is sensitive to harness input. A 240 square foot rectangular canopy at .7 is not. Configuration affects this too. With the slider stowed and chest strap loose you can apply more input. Some people like to move their legstraps down too. Poorly, experimenting over 1000+ high performance landings, being conservative when not current (no more than a 90), approaching things incrementally (400 straight-in landings, working up to 90, 600+ 90 degree landings; 600 jumps before getting to a wing loading of 1.6 and another 600 before changing canopies), video, and luck. The incremental and conservative parts are good advice (there's always next week or next year), sticking with one canopy for 600 jumps was a fine idea (you need half that just to get familiar with the canopy), but being self-taught is a generational thing you should avoid now that there are formal training programs. Experience. You can use an altimeter to fly a consistant pattern which gets you close enough, and adjust your approach if you're too high (slow the turn rate with opposite front riser) or low (increase turn rate with harness input). When you screw up (I did last weekend) experience lets you recognize bigger mistakes (it took me a while; currency and unfamiliarity with the landmarks / altitude were factors) and deal with them. Practice anything 1000 times being careful to keep things consistant so you can isolate the effect of changes and you shoud be able to do it passably.

At 5'10 with a 30.5" inseam it would be a couple inches short for me. Height (in inches) - inseam - 20 is a reasonable approximation.

Sticks aren't very fun in traffic jams on NYC's Westside highway (...or FDR for that matter). That's "parking" not "driving". Automatics are better for parking with the motor running because you don't have to tire your leg on the clutch or put it in and out of neutral. I drive a stick shift, and arrange living+working locations so I don't have to park on the road. Except when driving to DZs in the pacifc northwest.

The serious problems (shooting wars, robbery (but not petty theft), toxic waste from clandestine meth labs, easier access for minors than alcohol) would. Any one who can do the work and be sober on the job. Some one willing to refrain from using drugs adn alcohol during pregnancy+breast feeding and while responsible for the children. Adults should be free to have a beer, joint, or line while some other trusted responsible person is watching their kids. As long as they're responsible about their use it doesn't matter.

While the triple has it's charm reliabilty is not up to Japanese standards and you don't have many service options. Triumph rebuilt the engine in my 1998 Sprint under warranty after it spun a big end rod bearing before the 8000 mile mark. I had the shop that doesn't bolt things down do the work, instead of the one that charged people for work that was never done. Should have rented a truck and taken it to the state's other Triumph dealer. Next time I buy a bike it'll be Japanese or German.

No. You spiral with harness input; no strength is required there. You approach at less than full flight for better accuracy; by returning to full-flight you get a surge that reduces the loading on the canopy and makes it easier to start pulling on the front risers.

Audi's 3.2 liter TT has a pair of automatically controlled clutches that allow shifting without completely disengaging both. BMW's M3 and M5 are available with sequential gear boxes with automatic clutches that are quicker than the conventional 6-speed. While available with a conventional 6-speed or tiptronic, the Porsche type 997 turbo does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds with the tiptronic automatic versus 3.9 seconds for the manual.

Drugs use is a victimless crime. The laws that make them illegal are not. Cocaine comes from a plant. It's only valuable because of the laws against its manufacture, sale, and use . If it was legal addicts could support their habbit with day jobs or begging like they do with alcohol. Or with free drugs from the government that would cost less than incarceration. Turf wars between Anheuser-Busch and Coors or Ely-Lily and Pfizer don't involve guns.

You can definately start working with the air after about 3-seconds, although the air is very mushy. The typical skydiving pilot chute will be too small for that airspeed though.

Before spending the $ on the ruger mk2 have the dealer show you how to breakdown and clean the gun. IMO It's a Major PIA, check out another manufactor the ruger reminds me of a zip gun. It's not a big deal. You point the barell somewhat upwards when closing the mainspring housing and it just works. I need to get mine delivered so I can play with it again. If anyone is driving thru Wa state and wants to pick up a slightly used Ruger get in touch. R.I.P.

Engines that run at constant output can be far mor e efficient. You effectively get 100+ MPG. It's also easier to cleanup stationary pollution sources. You don't have to use fossil fuels; they're just currently the most affordable hydrocarbons. And you don't have to use hydrocarbons. Nuclear, hydro-electric, wave, and wind are all viable. Solar and thermocline could be.

With under 100 jumps, you should be looking at main and reserve canopies in the 190 square foot range.

It depends on inseam. Height in inches - inseam - 20 is a reasonable approximation of harness length. 5'10 = 70" - 30.5" - 20" = 19.5". Not coincidentally I have rigs in the 19-20" range. Most of the manufacturers websites have sizing charts but maybe it would be a good idea to try on some rigs around your DZ to see which harness size feels best on you.

People have field-packed BASE rigs with the lines daisy-chained and accidentally jumped them that way. That's a good reason not to. You should have a bag for your rig so that it doesn't attract unwanted attention, pick up battery acid from a car trunk, etc. The space used in that bag by your rig + clothes isn't going to be appreciably different if you've packed the clothes in the rig or just beside it. So there isn't a compelling reason to do it.

The AK shoots minute of man. An AR15 configured for recreational use shoots minute of tin-can, making it a lot more effective against the soda cans and paper targets most of us shoot.

That's the biggest moot point of all time. I can't understand why anyone would buy into an HOA the second time. In my last neighborhood, newer single family homes started in the $700s. Town houses and condos close to work suck less than big mortage payments, parking on the freeway every morning and afternoon, or spending your mornings and afternoons on a bus.

Depends on the state. In most places business owners are not exempt from unemployment as long as they jump through the appropriate administrative hoops (form an S-corp or LLC, opt to be taxed as an S-corp, file quartery and annual corporate tax returns, and hire yourself as an employee with automatic witholding) and pay the trivial unemployment insurance premiums (probably $310 - there's a $7K wage cap, 6.2% federal rate, and you get a credit of up to 5.4% for state taxes that you won't approach if you haven't laid anybody off before). Not doing this may also mean paying thousands more than you needed to in FICA & medicare taxes. When you hire yourself as an employee, the IRS only requires you to pay yourself the same "reasonable" wages that you'd pay some one else to do the work - if it takes 2 years of experience to do the work you don't have to pay yourself for a position requiring the decade + of experience you have. You can take the rest as a profit distribution which is only subject to income taxes, just as if you were a passive partner in the business. When you didn't have the time or inclination to figure all this out yourself, you can hire an accountant to do it for a lot less than it probably costs in taxes and lost unemployment benefits if things go wrong with the economy or your business. In Colorado the numbers were about $300 for business startup and $100 a quarter; unemployment benefits totaled about $1600 a month with total amount ($10K?) and time caps (1 year if you didn't hit the $ limit?).

Maybe $150, about what I'd spend on a nice dinner for two. Obviously I'm not a video game addict.

The governments are legally able to tell us what we're allowed to put in our bodies and tobacco is a lot more dangerous than substances that are currently illegal at a national level. While the Federal government used to respect the Constitution enough to ammend it when they wanted to prohibit alcohol, in the last century they've decided that these sorts of regulations are legal under the commerce clause. Perhaps they'll follow California as they do with other efforts to curb air pollution with a national ban.

I don't think so. My freefly jumps without a camera were always better than the ones where I was wearing it.

Of course, although I've taught my cat that covers are only for people with two legs.

Right. Sitting on the floor in planes and walking arround with rigs isn't comfortable, but I'm back to normal within a day or so.