DrewEckhardt

Without the slider holding the risers together above your head and chest strap holding the main lift webs together above your hips you have a more direct connection to the canopy and it responds more to harness input. Leaving the slider off should make the canopy more likely to stay facing in the same direction you are when it opens. Perhaps only enough to make a psychological difference.

Once you've learned how to close the rig without relying entirely on brute force, as tight as you can make it without 1. Requiring a positive leverage closing device which could bend the pin 2. Making your ability to close the container dependant on humidity and pack job consistancy

Gouging "the wealthy" less isn't going to mean "only the little people" are carrying the tax burden. In 2001 50% of taxes collected came from the top 10%, 65.3% from the top 20%, and 1.1 percent from the bottom 20%.

But the wings are made out of parachute ZP. A bad landing or time spent sliding arround on seats does put holes in the tail wing.

Flying a typical skydiving canopy at contemporary wing loadings helps you learn to fly a pattern, estimate altitude, and notice the direction of winds aloft. It doesn't translate well to a canopy that gets much less penetration in winds. Ending up on the wrong side of a ridge because your BASE canopy was different is not fun when it means the best alternate landing area is a 15x15' boulder. Oops. Recent experience consistantly jumping a skydiving canopy into the pea pit only helps when you use the same approach under a similar canopy. It doesn't teach you to sink a canopy in nearly straight down. Crashing into a tree because you used a skydiving approach that wasn't right for your BASE canopy in a moderate sized landing area is not good. Oops. Contemporary skydiving canopies won't let you sink in on the edge of a stall and have an acceptable landing . I bought a used Javelin J7 and spent a few weekends doing accuracy practice out of a plane before my last trip. Best $700 on BASE equipment I've spent. It saved me when I got distracted by a guy lying on the ground (oops), overflew half the landing area, and would have hit trees or landed sideways on a steep boulder covered hill if I wasn't comfortable doing that. They probably won't do a good job flying backwards. No although they should put a bunch of jumps on large square F111 seven cells out of a plane in various wind conditions and be current from doing that before it matters. You can get a lot more jumps with sloppy pack jobs out of a plane than you can off objects with long pack jobs and climbs. Although the controls match it's a completely different thing - like backing a semi up to a loading dock vs. driving a race car on the track. Flying a Para Comander round was much slower than my Samurai 105 but closer to it than my 245 Fox. You also have a lot more lattitude in how you land a big seven cell and less drive under it than a small one. A 245 Fox is quite different from a PD126R, PD143R, Lightning 143, or Tempo which in turn are different from tapered 7-cells like the Spectre and Omega.

Some DZOs who believe an AAD is a good idea have sold the Cypres 1 at cost. I paid about $875 for one of mine and a bit more for the other from the local DZO vs. $1200 MSRP from other sources (savings: $325). The Euro is stronger than the Deutsche Mark was and I've heard that there's less profit built in to the current MSRP so the savings may be different. I also have no idea if that deal is still available now that most people won't jump without a Cypres (my new one is 5 years old, the other 7 years). It couldn't hurt to talk to all of the DZs you frequent.

Brian Germain designs parachutes, teaches canopy flight, and has piles more experience than most of us probably including your instructors. He has a WNE Wing loading Never Exceed forumula: Never exceed 1.0 pounds/square foot, + .1 /100 jumps (rounding down), - .2 for canopies under 150 square feet, -.1 for every 1000 feet of density altitude. 200 jumps lets you have a 1.3 wing loading when jumping under standard conditions at sea level.

How does a pilot do that? Do you mean "steer" with the risers? or Come X degrees of the windline, turn those X degrees, and then apply Double Fronts? Straight in for a bunch of jumps in different conditions. Get comfortable turning after planeout. Put a flat 75 degree kink in your base leg and turn 15 degrees for a bunch of jumps in different conditions and get comfortable flying near the ground with the added speed. Repeat for 30 and more degrees. Learn to use both front risers and harness input to finish where you want so you can get away with less precision in the rest of your approach and not become a statistic when you do the same thing in the wrong spot. Learning is easier with less speed. With a gradual progression people should be less likely to turn into unguided swoop missiles and more likely to know what looks wrong before they need to use that information.

I've seen my main flap open on a number of videos that followed a pin check. I've never seen it open when I haven't let anyone touch it. An open main flap exposing the pin and bridle to a 160 MPH freefly breeze does not seem like a good idea. So I just reach back and feel my skydiving closing pin. When the guy behind me manages to open it I tell him to close it. On a belly-to-earth jump the main flap is in your burble so it doesn't matter much. Another skydiver is more likely to catch something that will cause you trouble than he is to do something bad.

Definately. As a weekend-only skydiver you spend 100+ waking hours a week on other things you might have in common with a mate. Values are probably more important to you than skydiving. It'll be much easier to find a better match when you don't rule out non-skydivers. It's also much more fun to be with some one who isn't exactly like you. You want compatibility not sameness in all areas. You need someone who accomodates the time and money you spend on your hobbies and be able to give them the same consideration. The hobbies in question don't matter - it's a general relationship issue. You also can't expect your life to remain the same apart from having a significant other. You may spend less time skydiving on weekends because that's what you want.

I'd pick closer to home. A longer commute isn't worth the sort of money companies are willing to pay to offset it. You might have other priorities.

Same story. You are a test jumper. Sliders have big effects on openings. Expect changing your slider to do things. Be sure to test jump in a safe environment. I think my Dagger sliders are marked 222/244. Asking the maker would be a fine idea here.

How about symetric front risers in various degrees, 15,30,45,60,75, and then 90? A 90 degree (carving or hard) still generates a lot more speed than a symetric front riser approach - about 50 MPH for a conservative carving 90 under a Stiletto at 1.6-1.7 pounds/square foot. Done sufficiently low it's also no more recoverable than a 180 or 270.

No more than I do stepping over a dead four-legged animal which presents a similar health threat. No more than I do going arround an unconcious drunk who's an unavoidable side effect from combining personal freedom with human psychology and biology. Laws against public drunkeness do a fine job adressing that when it causes safety problems. It would bother me a bit less than my neighbor's dog pooping on my lawn because fatal over-doses are a once-in-a-lifetime thing while my neighbor's golden retriever will be back some other day. I don't want to be run down by some one under the influence whether alcohol or other drugs. Driving under the influence of either is and should be illegal. Simply being under the influence is a different issue which is only legal for some drugs but should be for all others for moral and practical reasons. Outlawing drugs causes more problems for non-users than legalization does. With legal crystal meth a clandestine labs won't contaminate my rental property or poison people in national forests. Without the huge profits created by the current legal climate I won't get caught in the cross-fire between criminal organizations. Without the high costs drug addicts could satisfy their habit without turning to theft. With legal drugs the police will be less likely to kick down my door serving a warrant granted on a bad tip. Nope. Yes. The government has no business deciding which reasons are acceptable for suicide. Many of us would support people wishing to end a painful terminal illness early. Some would include chronic depression in that category. Suicide is a personal decision the government should stay out of.

Nearly everyone used to have hard links. With hard links my sliders never made it past the bumpers and I never had a brake fire. Now we have soft links that install without tools (like slinks), new canopies come with them, and a lot more of us use soft links. The slider on my slink equipped rig usually makes it to the risers and I have had a brake fire.

Don't use a braked approach, fly your canopy all the way to the ground, and PLF if you get dumped. Going home when the winds get gusty is a better idea.

"Mr Smith is a wife beater" is usually slander. Without knowing what Mr. Smith does behind closed doors "We cannot say Mr. Smith isn't a wife beater" implies ugly things but isn't a lie. A similar difference exists here: "We canot say the second ammendment guarantees" is quite different from "The second ammendment does not guarantee." The court said the defense didn't provide evidence showing the shotgun was a useful militia weapon and refused to rule on whether other arms were covered.

The founding fathers couldn't forsee the future. They feared a corrupt government abusing the law. The Constitution and Bill of rights address both problems by saying the federal government can't do anything not allowed by the Constitution, we _really_ mean it about these important things, the states can only do things they're not forbidden to do, and everything else is left for the people. Ammendment 5 "No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" doesn't say "unless they're accused of terrorism" or "except when we accuse them of drug crimes, seize their property, and try it in civil court where they aren't entitled to representation, such representation may cost more than the amount in question, and the standard of guilt is prepoderance of evidence" Ammendment 6 "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial" does not say "unless we accuse them of terrorism and hold them on secret charges." Ammendment 2 says "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed". It doesn't say the peasants are only allowed arms appropriate for their stature. It doesn't say we can only bear arms if other people won't be offended. There are no prohibitions on the type of arms we're allowed to have or the maner in which we bear them. Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons aren't excluded although I'd support a Consitutional ammendment to prohibit private ownership. Privately owned SAMs and fighter jets should not be and are not excluded - the people are supposed to have the means to oppose a repressive government. In the founding fathers' time this meant private warships; now it means helicopter gunships, fighter jets, and tanks. BTW, the Miller decision doesn't imply we can only keep arms appropriate for militia use. It said that a dead guy's lawyers failed to show that a shotgun was an appropriate militia weapon and some other court has to decide the issue.

Three. Reflex R335/Samurai 105/PD143R to have fun under canopy after most jumps. Reflex R335/Monarch 135/Tempo 150 for wingsuit jumps without unlacing or jumping an aggressive canopy. Makes it easier to get on the sunset tracking dive, although other back to back loads are rare. I've used it for a few CRW jumps and wouldn't mind having a Lightning 126. I also have a Stiletto 120 to stick in there if I want to use it for heavier jumping without a wingsuit. Javelin J7/various/Raven 3 for practice before jumping into tight landing areas with my 244/245 BASE canopies. It'll get used for my wedding and other demos too. Five if I count the two BASE rigs. Stunts Extreme/Fox 245 - it sinks real nice. It could do double duty as a ground launch harness. I got it used as my first rig so the price was right. Warlock/Dagger 244 - it's custom so the harness is more comfortable and the Dagger has more drive to go farther under canopy. Having more than one allows for more jumps when the winds or light will be right for a limited time. It cuts the amount of packing I need to do outside. I could use a third one. I think skydiving and BASE equipment breeds after it's spent enough time in the sport.

My last round of coaching (as well as a conversation with Nick K when he was in town a couple of weekends ago) has been geared towards me breaking my habit of doing long carving turns in favor of a more snappier front riser turn onto final (both Jim and Nick have told me that I will build more speed this way ... both PST swoopers). B I think getting close to being above the trailing edge is slower because I became faster once I stopped doing it suggesting it's a matter of degree The relationship may not be causal although logic suggests anything that makes you unable to sustain the dive makes for a slower swoop. My understanding is that the first part of the turn establishes roll angle so your lift vector has a smaller component perpindicular to the ground for a higher terminal velocity, the second part maintains that angle so you continue to accelerate, and the third part lets the canopy flatten out without you adding speed robbing drag. The last two parts get you where you want to be. Seems to work for me although I really should attend another and more thorough canopy workshop.

An aggressive front riser turn will get you behind the canopy, swing you back in front, and make holding the dive difficult. A lot of us did this when we didn't know any better. Luck played a part in our survival. A carving turn gives you more outs, lets you start higher, and gives you more speed. Take courses. You'll learn a lot more from a class than we did with experimentation, in a much safer environment. And wait. You really need to learn survival skills first - flat turns, turning after plane out, etc. What you do above 1000 feet has a lot to do with your swoop accuracy - getting that nailed first will help a lot.

Changing both planform and size at the same time is not the best idea. It's safer to get used to the different harness input sensitivity, dive characteristics, etc. with less speed than more.

1. Behaviors which stem from giftedness lead to various misdiagnoses like ADHD. Some one with ADHD may be unable to sustain attention period. A gifted person's attention wanders when they don't get enough mental stimulation from the situation at hand. "Spot jumps over the fence" doesn't hold a second grader's attention when they can comprehend any book in the school library. Computer programming might. Amphetamines may improve concentration but don't fix the environment which led to the problems. You should read Misdiagnosis And Dual Diagnoses Of Gifted Children And Adults: Adhd, Bipolar, Ocd, Asperger's, Depression, And Other Disorders 2. I'd reserve judgement on declaring "life is good". It's a mixed bag. Asynchrony between intellectual and other development means gifted children don't fit with children their age or older. A gifted person may have an A+ average without studying in more challenging classes that interest them but get Cs in the ones that don't. Such stimulation dependant performance isn't allways compatible with getting a college degree and the working world. A gifted person who remembers nearly everything interesting and is nearly always right does not mix well with a conversation they find boring, especially when that's the most interesting thing going on. Intelligence three sigmas or more beyond average is as rare of that three sigmas below which is considered mental retardation. People in general have a harder time understanding and accommodating the rare people that far above than below. I wouldn't wish either intelligence level on anyone.

Currency varies along multiple dimensions with the implications dependant on what you're doing. If you meet the BSR minimums to avoid a recurrency jump you probably won't kill some one else on a relative jump, probably won't forget to pull, and will probably have injury free stand-up landings under larger parachutes. You probably won't perform well on relative jumps, probably won't learn anything new, probably won't land as close to your target, and wil probably have issues landing smaller parachutes - perhaps being less graceful, perhaps not landing standing up, or perhaps breaking something. I think you need to make at least 3 jumps at a time to learn anything. I think 10 jumps a month is getting marginal for faster parachutes. Without a few hundred jumps a year I wouldn' jump beyond ~1.7 pounds/square foot at 5000 feet MSL or closer to 2.0 at sea level and suspect ~150 jumps a year are getting somewhat marginal at those loadings.

A Spectre 170 with some brakes applied, Spectre 190, Sabre 2 170 with some brakes applied, Sabre 2 190, Stiletto 120 (not a choice for you) with a lot of brakes, Stiletto 190. To get a lower sink rate you need to jump a larger canopy or fly in brakes/rear risers. With rear riser input on my Samurai 105 I can keep up with a same-sized guy under a Spectre 170 - meaning I'm matching him on both forward speed and sink rate.