DrewEckhardt

As a WAG, maybe $350-$400 with jumps left on the line set, subtract $150 if it's getting out of trim for new lines. The rule of thumb street price - $1/jump doesn't really work for old canopies of any design - you'd start arround $1500, knock off 20% which is $300 for real street price, and at $1 a jump would reach 0 at 1200 jumps. The availability of newer canopies which open nicer, land better, and are more exciting to fly also limits the amount of money you can get out of it. Given the choice between a Sabre and Spectre, most people will buy the later for the same money.

Although you can requalify with just 3 jumps under an arbitrarily small canopy.

Yep. No DZ permission required. The board approved changing the SIM 21-0. To be pedantic - According to the rule it looks like a Coach can take 99 unlicensed skydivers up for a 100-way while four D-licensed skydivers can't take one student up for a five-way without S&TA approval. Coaches' freefall training must be supervised by an Instructor while we D-license holders aren't restricted by that clause. Quoting the new SIM section 2-1E6: Students training for group freefall (waiverable by S&TA) a. Student freefall training for group freefall jumps must be conducted by either: 1. A USPA Coach under the supervision of a USPA Instructor or; 2. D-license holders provided there is a minimum ratio of one D-license holder to one student with a maximum of a 4-way. Neither the SIM nor Category E on the ISP proficiency card has been updated on the USPA web site to match this.

In other words, it's a back-door ban on buying new handguns in California until some one decides its worthwhile to produce a California-Legal piece. Then it's a only ban for poor people and inconvienence for the rest of us.

I doubt it. Most people will do anything for enough money, which would include taking up running. We spend so much on other things that even "high" salaries would be a drop in the bucket. 500,000 troops at $100K per head would be just $50 billion, which isn't even 2% of our federal budget.

The first party to name a number always seems to loose. If you're under paid they'll only put you a little closer to parity. When you have valuable benefits, companies seem to be good about matching your base salary but ignoring the rest. And when you're making a lot more than they want to pay they may waste your time in the interview process. Leaving for money is a bad reason. Leaving because your current position is a bad fit (boring work) isn't. I'm looking for work after 3 months in a position. As I see it, the two biggest reasons to favor one job over another is what you're working on and who you're working with. Neither matches what I was told before I got hired.

Get a firm grip on the scruff of their neck, tip their head back until their nose is pointing at the ceiling, their mouth will open, and toss the pill right in (it has to clear their tounge). This works to get small kitty downers into Willard; other cats and bigger pills are probably more difficult.

Some dropzones have minimum jump number or license requirements for certain landing areas. As a fun jumper at the swoop nationals you'll need a D-license to land on the beach. IIRC Skydive Snohomish requires 200 jumps to land on the airport which you can prove by having a D-license. I skipped getting any license until I moved and expected to be visiting new dropzones without anyone who knew me, at which point the difference between an A license and D license was just the number of log-books I had to dig out and three more multiple question tests.

Look down.

I've jumped step-throughs and found that although my toggles were on the wrong side of the rear risers, the canopies flew straight, were controlable, and landed fine.

Sure. You just have to pay the Federal government a $200 transfer tax, live in a free state+city that doesn't have its own laws against destructive devices, and get a CLEO (Certified Law Enforcement Official, usually this means the Sheriff, Police Chief, District Attorney, etc.) sign-off on the transfer. After purchase, you'll also have to ask for ATF's permission if you want to move the gun across state lines.

As long as you deal properly with the pilot chute, slider, nose, tail, and lines the parachute will open comfortably and not damage itself. You'll just take longer to pack than some one who has been packing longer and use more profanity in the process.

Lots of people have hiked to somewhere arround 400' for parachuting accuracy competitions. Planes just make it more convienent and safer.

Depends on how much of your height is in your legs. skybytch's recomended harness length rule of thumb for average people is to take your height, subtract your inseam measurement, and subtract 20". I'm 5'10" with a 30.5" inseam. 70-30.5-20=19.5. I think my custom rigs measure out at 19.5" and 20" respectively. Just trying it on would be a good idea - the articulated harness ring or legstrap junction should end up even with your hip bone.

Jobs pay well when demand exceeds supply; and supply gets limited because there's a lot of training or experience required or people don't want to do the work... My last cleaning service got $22/hour each to scrub my toilets, do any left over dishes, etc. I'm not sure what the hourly breakdown is on the $92 the current guys get per visit. No expertise required. If you can pack a parachute in 6 minutes that's $50 an hour, although that requires experience

When she plays too rough if you say "RROWWRRROWRR", let whatever's being attacked go limp, and then ignore the kitten she should learn to behave when playing with other people and animals. You and your dog should then be fine as long as you avoid playing with the irresistably cute soft kitten belly that's protected by fangs and claws, especially when kitty is most adorable and sleeping. If not, you might learn your lesson (people are probably harder to teach than dogs) Sisal rope scratching posts/surfaces in your kitten's preferred orientation (horizontal or vertical), in the rooms she likes to scratch in, and the Invisible Water Spray Bottle of Ghod might avoid furniture scratching; although I didn't care enough about my college era couch to be consistant about that so it's more theoretical.

Lots. My wife doesn't skydive. Lots. Roughly speaking I figure that I spend 49 hours a week sleeping and 45 at work getting to or from there. That leaves 74 hours to do other things of which I seem to spend at most 8 skydiving (weather, coordinating with people to jump with, other interests....). Sharing most of what goes on the other 90% of the time is a lot more satisfying than the rest of the time. Obviously there are compromises. I don't skydive every weekend and we sometimes make trips where there's not much for a non-skydiver to do. You have to do what's right for you.

Sure. I've skydived without a reserve because I wanted to jump from a helicopter in a foreign country and only had single canopy rigs with me. Jumping with a reserve is about risk reward trade-offs like most other aspects of skydiving (canopy choice, jump type, jump size, etc). On most jumps I wouldn't want to live with the equipment (245 square foot F111 seven cell vs. 105 square foot elliptical) and packing (60 minutes vs. 6 minutes) limitations needed to make the risk personally acceptable and there'd be no reward from the exercise if I was opening with ample altitude to use a reserve. Since you're jumping a Safire 189 instead of a Parafoil 302 you've already made at least one risk-reward trade-off that's increased your risk of dying or being injured. Subsequent canopy choices you're likely to accept as a male skydiver are more likely to kill you than not having an AAD.

Still live in the same country. Left for school, because I wanted a decent education that didn't require living amongst farm fields, let me snowboard in the winter, and didn't mean living with 90+ degree summer days with 90% humidity.

Because big resorts are crowded and therefore get skiied off quickly?

Gotta love (or hate) inflation. $8 in 1977 = $26 in 2005. $10 = $32.45. From another post $7.50 in 1966 = $43.94 in 2005. Not a bad deal if "23,000 feet" means AGL. Otherwise.... Last weekend I was paying $20 to somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 feet in spite of Jet-A selling for $4 a gallon. Maybe these are the good old days?

Blaming government is reasonable when its treatment of the press is the likely root cause of coverage and editorial policy. Legally speaking the press is free to do what they want. Practically speaking, media conglomerates are responsible to their share holders. Local newspaper companies are in turn responsible for their contribution to the corporation's bottom line. That used to mean maximizing advertising and paper sales within their target markets by catering to the local population. You'd get a "liberal" slant places like Boulder, CO and "conservative" in towns like Crawford, TX. Scripps Howard told Boulder's Daily Camera that they couldn't do things like put protestor's photographs on the front page with the president. The move wouldn't have made financial sense unless wholy-owned papers' editoral decisions were going to affect Scripps' access to the politicians in power (the way the administration controls individual reporters) and therefore their ability to cover the same news stories as their competition across the nation.

Cooked beef isn't for real carnivores. My favorite restaurant throws a piece of fillet in the grinder and serves it up raw as tartare with a quail egg, capers, and diced red onions. Yum! Sure, if you don't mind taking the risk of getting sick... wild animals can handle it, not us... You're more likely to die skydiving than to get sick from eating raw beef. Steak tartar consumption has been studied in the Netherlands, where they found the rate of E. coli infection to be 82 per million person-years among raw beef eaters. In skydiving our fatality rate is 1 in 4000 participants or 250 per million. Food poisioning from raw shell fish is as likely as breaking a leg skiing.

Cooked beef isn't for real carnivores. My favorite restaurant throws a piece of fillet in the grinder and serves it up raw as tartare with a quail egg, capers, and diced red onions. Yum!

And have their freedom of movement restricted. Peace activists, civil libertarians, and even Democratic senators have been added to the no fly list. And have their freedom of speech restricted. We now have "Free Speech Zones" and "Designated Protest Areas" which keep dissidents away from the media covering the other side. Reporters who cover the dissent sometimes have their access to officials limited. Media owners limit the prominence of opposition coverage to avoid problems.