DrewEckhardt

It's not a problem when you use the right equipment. A sufficiently powerful (I think my Metcal MX500 is pushing 50W) temperature controlled (600 degree cartridge) iron with a tip sized for what you are soldering will get the lead + pad hot enough for the solder to flow almost instantly. You don't put enough heat into the board or part to damage things. With an iron that's not powerful enough or tip that's too small, a lot of heat leaks out when you're holding it on there for a long time.

It took me under 2 minutes to remove my old jack, remove the left over solder, and install a new one. Easily took half an hour getting everything back together and a lot of cussing; I could barely fit my fat fingers between the laptop halves to reconnect the flat cables.

I've accepted six full time software engineering positions since 1993, been acquired once, and had a handful of contracting clients. Never peed in a cup for any of that. Before joining the real world, I spent two summers working as a life guard and a couple years as a student employee at the university. No drug test for that either.

Except when their information was stolen and used to fradulently obtain credit, some one jointly responsible for the debt screwed them, they lost their job (when my startup tanked and the work I eventually took was as a contractor getting paid within 60 days of working, I made 58% of my normal salary thus increasing my debt ratio 72%), they had medical problems and no disability insurance, or they got caught up in rules they didn't know about (people with cards lacking a preset maximum sometimes show up as using 100% of their credit; some one I know reduced their credit limit because they didn't want too much and did a fixed rate transfer at 2.99% into a 5% CD which in turn gives them a percentage used black mark).

Well, in the US you are more than 3 times as likely to be a homicide victim as in Canada, so it looks like you are correct. People in Canada ARE safer. Provided that they have an average chance of being non-white and living anywhere in the country. There may not be a difference for white people when you limit comparisons to similar geographic areas. To use numbers from"Handgun regulations, crime, assaults, and homicide: A tale of two cities." by Kellermen et. al as a white guy in Seattle my chances of being murdered (6.2 per 100K in 1980-1986) are about the same as a white guy in Vancouver (6.4 per 100K).

I was. Didn't start landing with front riser turns until I got my Batwing at 400 jumps; stayed with 90s past 1000 jumps. A conservative 90 degree turn was enough for 48 MPH out of my Stiletto 120 at 1.6-1.7; that was enough for a long time. Some day if I ever get current again and end up doing many hop-and-pops in the Pacific Northwest I might progress from 180s to 270s. I'm starting to feel old.

I think nearly every able-bodied school employee with a clean criminal record should be trained and carry a concealed firearm while working.

I updated my time-in-sport shortly after August 10th, 2006 which was my 11th sky-birthday. Four months ago I got my first license because I figured I'd be visiting new DZs where no one knew me after I'd moved. That seemed noteworthy enough to merit an update. I don't think I've updated my jump numbers for a year or so - my pro-track broke so I no longer have a total count, I wasn't jumping due to my back so I didn't bother fixing it, and then relocating got in the way of jumping.

Less than a year. One of my friends leaves a Spectre 135 packed up in a Vector 3 with a short harness at the DZ for lots of people to use. I borrowed the canopy so I could ease back into things after a layoff from a herniated disc, but didn't fit the rig and didn't feel like repacking it. I trusted my reserve pack job so I just swapped the whole thing over to my favorite Reflex. It spun up, I chopped, and pulled the silver handle right away because I wasn't sure of my altitude. Oops!

I'm a mediocre canopy pilot. With a little currency, stopping a Samurai 105 in a couple steps is not a problem with wing loadings under 1.9 pounds/square foot, density altitudes under 9-10,000 feet MSL, and no tail wind. Pilots at sea level under cross-braced canopies should be able to go much smaller. You just swoop, sink so your feet would be below ground level, and pop back up at the end to kill your forward speed. Looks like the high scoring zone in swoop accuracy now requires a standup landing within 6' of the first point of contact http://www.canopypiloting.com/zones.gif

When you relax in a belly to earth orientation the wind will blow you into an arch.

Just kept it next to the pond, and not in the main landing area, please. Thanks. When you build me a pond I'll consider that.

Assuming you bought a used rig for $2500 (not unreasonable) and put 150 jumps on it over a year, the main would depreciate about $150, container up to $150, and AAD $150. You'd spend about $50 on a repack every 120 days bringing the total ownership costs to $600, a $600 savings over the $100/month demo costs. The rig will also be easier to sell when you're done with it than one that you bought brand new, even if you did not buy obnoxious colors.

TSO C23C requires a reserves to open in 3 seconds following a cutaway and they should open in 350 feet at terminal. At terminal. MUCH less on a hop and pop. MUCH MUCH less with a fast airplane. 700' is 4.2 seconds. 4.2 seconds from a zero decent rate is 282 feet.

They're not endangering anyone until they get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle which is already illegal, especially when it means transporting passengers or hazardous materials. Cocaine and methamphetamine currently cost more than gold because they're illegal and only available on the black market. If they were cheaper than beer, we'd probably have more addicts begging like alchoholics than stealing.

It's the same fundamental frequency although each musical instrument has a unique set of harmonics (multiples of the fundamental frequency) that it emits.

Required main lift web length for average proportioned people is about height in inches - inseam - 20. At 5'10" and 30.5", I have longer harnesses than some guys 6'3" and beyond. It has to fit your body (the hip ring or legstrap junction overlaps your hip joint) and budget. It should not be loaded beyond 1.0 pounds/square foot - .1 per 2000 feet of density altitude. You're going to be pushing 180 pounds out the door, which will get you a 190 main and reserve as a conservative starting point at sea level. People will tell you that you'll be bored with it in 100 jumps (they're probably right) and to get something smaller (they're wrong). What's safe later will NOT be safe now. Skydiving mains and rigs depreciate about $1/jump; until you start buying new custom gear in your colors your total expenditure on gear can be the same whether you make all your jumps on one rig or own half a dozen serially. It should have a CYPRES AAD and be "freefly friendly." The original owner put 80 jumps on my first rig, left it in a closet for a while, and then sold it to me for $1700. The colors didn't suck (I think the container was grey & teal, main was dark blue) except for the reserve being the same color as the main (white or orange seem more effective in getting people to look for your freebag). What more could I ask for?

Presumably as a non-gunsmith the original poster is just going to buy a barell with the extension already installed (so headspace can't be set) and front sight base installed (this means the gas port will already be drilled) and assemble the whole mess of pre-machined parts; saving himself at least the excise tax. He just has to verify that no one screwed up the barell assembly or bolt machining using GO and NO GO gauges once things are assembled. With both sights on the upper receiver, fit between upper and lower has no effect on mechanical accuracy. The thing didn't even fit in my Armalite (Eagle Arms) - presumably they limited machining in the lower receiver beneath the rear take-down pin so that some one couldn't use a drop in auto sear. Waste of $9.99.

Dropping the weight decreases your kinetic energy without changing your drag; so as soon as you dump it your deceleration will increase. This loss would be integrated over the entire duration of your swoop. Dropping weight slightly decreases your stall speed. So if you dumped it at the beginning, the little gained at the end wouldn't be enough to offset the huge loss.

Incorrect stowage that causes a toggle hangup is very rare on velcro toggles, they don't come loose on opening as long as you maintain the velcro (pile every few hundred jumps, hook side about half as often), and they don't lead to steering line replacement due to wear (spectra steering lines shrink enough to require replacement within a few hundred jumps regardless of what sort of toggle you use) when you place them back on the risers after landing & are careful packing. Toggle hangups are more common on velcro-less toggles which lack a standard way of stowing the excess line, brake fires on opening used to be more common (this seems to have gotten better), and you don't need to be as careful with your steering line. I haven't swapped any of my velcro toggles for velcro-less, but may switch to a velcroless snap toggle + elastic keeper for excess line on the next set of risers since it should be just as secure and lower maintenance.

Nope. I watched Dwain Weston fly his yellow wingsuit into the bridge railing I was standing against 10' away, Robin Heid break lots of bones stalling into talus and then tumbling down head over heels, friends break tib/fib/femurs, and can't say that I really forgot any of the more graphic incidents. People hurt and kill themselves due to bad judgement all the time. The best you can do is enjoy your friends while they're with you, hope they don't kill or injure anyone else when they screw up, hope the ones who hurt themselves recover fully and quickly after which they take the hint to use better judgement in the future, hope others learn from the second hand experience, and try not to screw up the same way yourself. Sometimes shit happens that isn't really anybody's fault.

Are you SURE about that? A BEER is a BEAR combined with a DEER, as used on Anderson Valley's labels: http://www.avbc.com/beers/beers.html I especially like Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout "It's not just shy sluggin gorms neemer."

As a change in my daily routine, I'll skydive before drinking beer instead of going to work and then drinking beer.

No. Highly loaded parachutes have sharp, point teeth. Death and injuries are less likely if you discover this during the move from 1.5 to 1.7 pounds/square foot or 1.7 to 1.9 instead of 1.5 to 1.9. Try a few hundred jumps on a 135 first.

It's fine.