DrewEckhardt

The same place it is for most of the other 16,999 murders which occur each year.

From looking at jump videos I've found that my main flap comes open in free fall a lot when I've had a pin check versus nearly never when I haven't. So I don't get pin checks unless I've rubbed against something. I have no idea what's so much harder about getting the tuck tab back in place correctly on a standing skydiver versus the rig laying on the ground but it happened a lot.

Too dangerous for a girl enrolled in Future Home Makers of America. In the 1980s for my Wilderness Survival merit badge the Boy Scouts (aka Future Conscripts of America) sent me into the forest with a knife to build a shelter to sleep in.

Having been tough, stupid, and/or young enough to ride street bikes in all weather conditions (even a blizzard coming back from a boogie at Calhan, CO) I've found that while not water proof, decent leather doesn't seem to look worse after 90-100 degree days, rain, and snow.

Toggles are going to let you turn a lot farther, especially when you have less speed or a larger canopy. There isn't any altitude limit to their use, although at zero altitude you can't put too much weight on the ground or stick a toe too far into water. This doesn't mean burying one toggle which can earn you a trip to the hospital or morgue. The restrictions are that your descent rate needs to be zero when you reach ground level and canopy enough over your head to affect a reasonable flare. That means that at low altitudes you never raise the toggles when you've dropped below trim speed since doing so will produce a forward surge where the canopy is no longer above you. You always turn with both toggles since that yields high turn rates with minimal roll with the canopy over your head. At ground level you need to add toggle fast enough to maintain level flight and get rid of your roll angle before running out of lift. Flat turns and flare turns are essential survival skills you need to learn before they're needed and before you downsize to a smaller canopy which will make learning them harder and more intimidating.

Thanks! But do you carry on or check? I'd hate to have my plane get ready to crash and my rig be in cargo :( Carry on at least one rig, jumpsuit, helmet, and altimeter in a gear bag. When the airline looses the rest of your luggage, you stop by someplace like Target for toiletries and clean boxers. When the airline looses your skydiving equipment, your vacation may be over (gotta have gear to jump) or ruined (while you might be able to rent student gear, that wouldn't be much fun). With the gear bag, people can't accidentally pull a rip cord, spill anything on it, or get upset (after which the pilot can require your rig to go down with baggage).

Working.

I like a high carving 90 degree turn a lot. It fits into a standard pattern, is good for accuracy, and will take you through gates at 50 MPH. Where that's not enough fun in a straight line you can do it going around a corner (although that does hurt your distance). I didn't really learn to fly a parachute until after I had maybe 900 jumps at a 1.6-1.7 wing loading. It would have been more fun, less scary, and gotten fewer grass stains on my rig if I'd done it sooner.

When there are strong head winds at various altitudes and the King Air (which is not a slow plane) is basically sitting there (we got great winds aloft in Colorado coming over the continental divide) you shouldn't get out until well past the drop zone regardless of when the inexperienced pilot turns on the green light (with a bunch of fuel tanks, two engines, and a good glide ratio he's going to make it back no matter what happens). When the same pilot doesn't turn on the light until the plane is over the top, there aren't significant winds, the first group takes forever to climb out, and the 8 2-ways after it take a while you aren't going to land in unless you're jumping a wing suit or open really high. You need to learn what the land marks are, how bad landing out is in terms of safety + neighbor relations + actually getting back to the drop zone within the hour, what the winds are, and look outside the plane. Then do what you think is best. Taking a cellular phone in a jumpsuit pocket is DEFINITELY a good idea when you guess wrong and end up too far away. It would suck to land out with issues and have to wait for a farmer to find you the next day. Buying beer on a regular basis is DEFINITELY a good idea. It'll keep people happy with you when you are wrong.

I don't like broken legs. One second you're having oodles of fun, the next second you're sitting on the ground counting your parts looking at ankle joint, knee joint, between joint. Between joint? that wasn't there before. You talk to your friends "I just broke my leg" and they make the radio call that you just sprained your ankle "no, it's broken." Nerve damage sucks more than broken bones though.

One that fits and doesn't cost too much, because it's comfortable and doesn't cost too much. Its great that you price your life based on your wallet Many if not most less expensive "full-featured" rigs come from new companies who haven't had time to become popular, pick up military contracts, and be able to focus on the higher-spending end of the sport market. Being new means that the rig you're jumping was what got certified, instead of a series of modifications to something that got drop tested twenty years ago. Being new means that the rig is more likely to be tested and certified under TSO C23(d) with higher weights and speeds. You can be safer and cheaper (apart from the MARD - that's a good idea, although IIRC Jerry Baumchen was willing to license his design for free, so it's probably just a matter of waiting). Beyond that, parachute harnesses and containers have been around for the majority of a century making them well understood. Everybody gets the same textiles, and uses functionally similar configurations with the same stitching. I don't hesitate to jump $700 (which doesn't pay for a TSO or demo van which travels to boogies) containers made in the USA where labor isn't cheap.

One that fits and doesn't cost too much, because it's comfortable and doesn't cost too much.

Don't jump with more than one person when that person is likely to have a fall rate, corking, or body position. If a jump has grown too big with questionable or unknown people get it split into separate groups - you'll have both increased safety and fun.

I bought a brand new 1998 Triumph Spring Executive operating under the theory that I wouldn't have to deal with any problems given no one having abused it before me and the Hinkley tractor-like horsepower and demonstrated reliability. I was wrong and had the engine rebuilt at 8000 miles with a spun big-end rod bearing. A used BMW R-series or Yamaha FJ would have cost thousands less and been more reliable.

When you're starting to sit fly in the tunnel they limit air speed for safety reasons and don't give you enough to get off the net without using your back to generate lift. In the air you can rely almost entirely on your arms. Obviously, getting drag from your back allows a lot more latitude in the grips you take, even allowing you to sit with both hands in front of you, so that's what you want to be doing but it's different and takes some practice.

Yes, that's video mode.

1964 Bally Sky Divers http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2193 1973 Bally Sky Kings http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=2196 Sky Jump was also produced in add-a-ball versions with extra balls instead of replays (Free Fall for the domestic market, Sky Dive for export). Different names were stuck on it by at least one Italian company that copied it and another European company which produced it under license.

$80 for Sky Jump (I had to adjust one switch to get it working), $1225 + shipping for No Fear (In working condition; stripped, cleaned, and waxed 100 games ago; although I had to put in new leg bolts and plates, translite glass, reconnect both 20V flasher lines, and I still have four intermittent micro switches to replace).

I added a 1995 Williams No Fear http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2852 to my collection which is 180 degrees opposite of the 1974 Gottlieb Sky Jump http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2195 next to it. Playfield art includes a skydiver plus twin otter and canopy silhouettes. There's the always broken skydiver/dropzone plastic. The translite has a Cessna dropping skydivers. And to top it off Air Challenge is my favorite part of the game Sports commentator: It's a beautiful day for skydiving. Tell 'em how to do it BoneHead. Talking skull: Shoot the Skydive (The skull's jaw moves when he talks. Amusing and it won't wreck game play if it breaks) Diver: Wait a minute! I've never done this before! How do I do it? Where's-the-rip-cord? I-wanna-go-back! Talking skull: Shut up and JUMP! A count down starts at 25 million points, animation of a sky surfer about to exit during a lightning storm with periodic thunder. Shooting the skydive shot freezes the value and obviously causes him to jump. After that you have 30 seconds to make each of the eight major shots, awarding the frozen value and causing inverted spinning skysurfer animations with the last shot good for 75 million and opening the parachute. The game's great other than that; while I wouldn't want one as my only machine it's fast and gets me sweating. In the mid-1990s I learned to sky surf from guy nick-named Black Death Billy, so there's the nostalgia thing going on too.

It's hugely cheaper. I log about 45 seconds of free fall for free fly jumps, of which 1500 feet (maybe 7-8 seconds? I don't know how long it takes to slow down) is lost to break off. For a two way with outside video we're spending $60 for 37 seconds versus $7.40 in the wind tunnel. That's 1/8th the price. 4-way flat fliers with video pay $100 from a plane versus $9 in the tunnel to get 45 seconds of working time. That's 1/11th the price. Adding a coach in the plane is slot ($20) + pack job ($5) + time. In the tunnel you're just paying for time.

The things I dislike most about parachute sports are 1. Friends dying 2. Other people dying through no fault of their own 3. Getting hurt 4. Friends getting hurt 5. Other people dying through their own stupidity 6. Other people getting hurt I know from experience that time-in-sport teaches people judgment that makes all of those less likely because it gives people more opportunity to learn from others' mistakes.

A small DZ is more likely to have less experienced, part-time instructors than a large one who don't see enough to draw valid statistical conclusions about what's less safe. Skydiving is easy when everything goes well. Flying a wingsuit is about like tracking. Hundred square foot cross-braced canopies nearly land themselves. It's when things start going wrong, people lack the instinctive behaviors needed to deal with them, and the total stimulation gets too high that everything goes to heck. That isn't predictable beyond the assumption that it takes a certain amount of repetition to get there. There's also the issue of the instructors having less skin in the game. When a low experience person dies on a wing suit jump, the rest of us feel bad but aren't dead. When some one adds an extra joint between their ankle and knee while jumping a parachute that's too small we might visit them in the hospital, but don't have to deal with the pain, lay-off from jumping, or complications.

Surviving 'advanced' skydiving requires learning judgement. Acquiring good judgement in a few hundred jumps requires exceptional self-awareness, starting with a deficit which allows pain to be a teacher, or learning from other people. The first option is unlikely. We like people to avoid the middle category and don't like to see them hurt worse when their early mis-adventures don't do the trick. That leaves second hand experience. Second hand experience comes from time in the sport.

Although nearly all of those classic, antique, and specialty vehicles can use junk-yard parts as-is or at least as the start of a rebuild. For example, old GM cast iron bell housings are nearly bullet proof, have a convenient sheet metal inspection cover, and don't need any more than rust removal. Muncie SM420 and SM465 truck transmissions with 7:1 and 6.5:1 crawler gears are perfect for off-road use. Availability of such used parts keeps cars affordable as a hobby. While I couldn't spring for a new $2000 transmission on my third vehicle, a used one for $175 worked great. And restorations need to start some where.

The IRS doesn't specify how contractors get paid, and the opportunity to service other customers (part-time) and make a profit or loss (profit saring) are factors that point towards a non-employee. The funny part is wanting a "rock star" to re-work and re-launch their existing software stack where any one fitting the moniker is capable of getting more interesting new work.