DrewEckhardt

Roller coasters get pretty boring and cease to be worth the wait in line. Of course, with a little time skydiving stops scaring you and becomes more like 3d square dancing with goofier outfits and better music. When that happens and you want some excitement you'll have to find something more intense.

I like the Japanese demonstration more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Vsnw1u5g4&feature=PlayList&p=CB30EB9C1504FDBF&index=10

Stupid. You never know when some one is going to move left or right within their lane to avoid road debris, or because they're yakking on the phone/putting on makeup/etc. I'd probably do it though if I had to commute in traffic like that.

It doesn't feel any different in free fall, but you get noticeably longer free fall times down at sea level and are going a lot slower on landing.

And the velcro destroyng your lines? It doesn't happen when you're not stupid enough to drag your gear back to the hanger without stowing the brakes. One poster had two tru-lock failures in 200 jumps, which maintained velcro doesn't do.

It takes about 1HP to run a properly functioning air pump, which would be about .5 pounds or .08 gallons of gasoline an hour. That's not enough to matter.

Unless you've jumped sufficiently different opening canopies. Made a bunch of Sabre (original) or Monarch jumps? Made a bunch of Stiletto jumps? Spectre and Sabre2 openings are different in terms of how fast the slider comes down the lines. Or in different environmental situations. Made a bunch of openings at different density altitudes? Parachutes open faster and harder at elevation and ground level is pushing 9000 density altitude places like Denver on hot sunny days. Or different line/slider grommet friction. Have you jumped stainless, nickel plated, and brass gromets mated to all the vectran, dacron, hma, and spectra sizes? What about the rings used on RDS systems? Or are doing something different. Some things are more resilient to operators doing different things. Here it might be sitting up on opening, what happens to the lines, I don't know. There are a lot of variables. People usually only die when they stack up - thin new line (HMA/Vectran just getting popular), grommet might be a little off, packing/deployment which causes a snag, horseshoe, main which won't cutaway cleanly, main/reserve entanglement. Oops! Only killed a few people, but in hind sight was something which needed fixing. Given the small number of skydivers to start with and fewer using problematic subsets a single incident that gets analyzed is enough to identify a problem and a couple or more unexplained ones a pattern. I vote for Velcro toggles. 1. I've only seen Velcro with an elastic keeper "fail" when it was very worn. 2. I've seen packers cause toggle locks with velcro-free but not velcro. 3. It gives you a place to park the toggles. 4. If you stow your toggles on landing, with Spectra the lower steering lines have shrunk too much so they need replacement at 250 jumps even though they don't look worn. It's not necessarily a maintenance reduction. Vectran is just starting to fray a little (perhaps just from the little ring) and replacing it "early" isn't a big deal. Next might be snap toggles with a cloth stub.

Your timing+speed have to be much more accurate to land comfortably from half brakes. Mastering full-flight landings first would be a good idea. Then get the hang of braked landings under that canopy because it's a survival skill to use after finishing a flat turn too low to return to full flight before flaring.

Your national health service wasn't instituted by private health insurance companies as a way to force everyone to buy their product, with those same companies being the ones that countered the group plan requirement that "coverage not be denied based on participation in hazardous sports" with " source of injury exclusions for hazardous sports." Personally I'd call for the legislators' government plan to be opened to the rest of us, but I'm not masochistic enough to run for office or unethical enough to fund a successful campaign.

They already want to control fat people and smokers because they're lifestyle is unhealthy. I imagine that when high risk sports become a burden on government costs, they'll move to shut them down too. The government will only be happy once we are all passive little lab rats, safe in cages. Laws in America (and other countries with first-past-the-post electoral systems and no country-wide proportional representation) aren't based on what's happening in reality or the burdens imposed by classes of people. They're about favors to some one in some podunk district who has their pet cause which must be in to vote for your 1000 page omnibus bill, public perception, and appearing to "do something" while ticking off as few people as possible while bringing home the most bacon to legislators' districts (I read one local papers where the incumbents were actually ranked on dollars brought home and bills authored). Maybe 30,000 out of 300,000,000 people would be deeply hurt by loosing health insurance coverage for skydiving.

The fine print needs to be read in the context of existing law. It's currently illegal for group plans to deny coverage based on hazardous sports, but the insurers managed to retain the right to exclude coverage for injuries based on source. Fall off a ladder at your house and it's covered. Get an ambulance ride to the DZ and you may be out of pocket $40K for a broken leg.

Right. The threat exists in both legislative riders to thousand page bills no one reads before voting on and in the rule making authority delegated to executive branch agencies headed by appointees to the current and future administrations and in legislative changes tacked on as a rider to a thousand page bill no one reads before signing. The motorcycle market is a $15,000,000,000 a year industry with 6,600,000 registered bikes and 280,000 dues paying AMA members. There are 3,900,000 horses owned for recreation in this country. While those two groups got HIPAA to include a clause prohibiting group plan participation restrictions based on hazardous sports, they were unable to keep out a source-of-injury exclusion so those plans are free to reject your $40,000 claim for a broken leg skydiving. They've been lobbying since 1996 to get that fixed. With just 30,000 skydivers in the US (it's impossible to take advantage of the vast majority of lift capacity without a USPA membership, and the few who jump without are probably outnumbered by the retired skydivers who retain their membership and subscription) we don't stand a chance. To say nothing of the poor BASE jumpers and street luge riders.

Network is great and in my rotation (currently movies get re-watched about every five years with a few TV series, new releases, etc shoehorned in) Coppola did some of his best work in that decade. If you liked Network, you should probably see The Conversation (obviously not as relevant, but still good) The other obvious pieces in that decade/ouvre would be The Godfather, The Godfather 2, and Apocalypse Now (better than Platoon or Full Metal Jacket). Other excellent 70s films would be They Call Me Mr Tibbs (police drama, Sidney Potier. I don't remember if In The Heat of the Night was better) Serpico (police drama, Al Pacino) The Deer Hunter (a town after vietnam, De Niro, Maryl Streep) Taxi Driver (one veteran; Scorsese directing with De Niro and a very young Jodie Foster) Dog Day Afternoon (one crime gone wrong with Al Pacino) A Clockwork Orange (classic Kubrick from the Burgess book) The God Father & The Godfather 2 (Coppola, Brando, the most mournful trumpet on the score) Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks. Very funny. Cameo by Count Basie and his band) Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks. Funny) Netflix should let you extract your viewed list by director, actor, or decade. It used to be possible to download that for easy post-processing.

1 in 100 may be a better extrapolation for people actually in the sport for 10 years, and 1 in 25 for long-timers assuming only average levels of testosterone poisoning. With higher levels of testosterone poisoning your chances go down. I knew six guys I figured were going to die. Two died running into something solid. Four lived but got close - one cleaned up and got conservative after a heart attack on the plane aged 20 something from too much cocaine; one managed to survive at least an object strike BASE jumping plus at least one hospital stay skydiving (can't remember if I visited once or twice) before getting tossed out of a DZ for being too stupid; one got more conservative after a run in with a wall BASE jumping and broken leg skydiving; and one seemed to be acting smarter after an epic low pull where he got open far enough that only the leg landing on the runway broke (although from a plane it was a BASE canopy, so we're talking a few hundred feet). The bigger concern might be broken bones. Extrapolating from The epidemiology of skydiving injuries: World freefall convention, 2000–2001 Journal of Emergency Medicine, Volume 28, Issue 1, Pages 63-68 T.Barrows, T.Mills, S.Kassing A 1500 jump career gets you a 60% chance for an emergency room visit and about 1 in 4 for a hospital stay. Broken legs can cost $40,000 which will bankrupt many people, especially without health insurance, and perhaps without disability insurance.

It'd be a good but not exciting choice if you weigh 150 pounds and it's not jumped out. While I have no reason to suspect that poster and it should be fine "unknown number of jumps, lines look good, no patches, no tailpocket, no mods, nothing crazy. Nice tarp, well cared for." leaves a lot of wiggle room. I loaned a girl who wasn't too big a spare canopy after she sprained her ankle jumping an old Raven (at least the Raven 2 which is 218 square feet) that looked fine but didn't have flare left. It may also limit the sorts of winds you want to jump in although I personally don't run into wind conditions where I'd be willing to jump my 105 but not my 244 or 245 provided that I get to spot or get out well up wind with the big canopies. Moving up to 190-195 pounds it needs to be fresher. Above that forget it based on experience and the wing loading it was designed for. With new lines every 600 jumps, no desert sand, and covered packing a ZP canopy can be good for a couple thousand jumps. That makes it a lower risk purchase. With average testosterone levels you're going to want a smaller canopy which means ZP. Classic 7 cells don't land or fly anything like that and you need to pickup those skills before becoming an unguided meat missile so jumps on a same sized ZP canopy may be prudent when you down size. You may get the same sort of deal on a more modern canopy if it comes in a package with the rest of the rig so it may not even cost you more. Having been a starving college student who lived in a machine room for a month rent-free to afford my season ski pass, I'd stretch $100 and eat more ramen. With a little patience and negotiation you should be able to find a usable Sabre or Monarch (with the revised nose - my new version was made in 1992, so that would have to be real old to not have the update) for $300 and change which will be easier to sell for what you paid. Some people complain about hard openings, but most of them are new jumpers who've gotten soft. No one had anything negative to say in 1995 when nearly everyone who'd moved past 9-cell F111 PDs was under such a parachute.

America had enough experts in effective interrogation that it didn't need to torture using its employees (water board) or out sourcing (extra judicial rendition). Belief leads people to do unnecessary and potentially illegal things.

I love my wobble and flexible extensions. They'll get you into places you can't fit a U-joint. I love my S-K 5 degree ratchets. They'll let you work in tight spaces where you're working blind and can just get your arm in. I loved my 1970 Land Cruiser FJ40 with a 350 Chevy. Enough ground clearance that I didn't even need ramps or jack stands for reasonable maintenance (oil + filter change) or unreasonable upgrades (new transmission). I could stand in the engine compartment on a frame rail. Took just a few bolts to fold down the grill to change out a cam. The engine had one vacuum line for distributor advance, two wires attached to the HEI distributor ignition and tach terminals, and three wires on the alternator. I only needed my wobble extensions for drive shaft bolts and the S-K ratchets were nice not necessary. I like driving my 1998 A4 on the highway a lot more and don't miss 15 highway MPG with single digits around town but cringe when it's $512.50 in labor to change the water pump because the whole front of the car has to come off.

Go to school, get a good job doing something you like, and have enough money to pay for all the jumping you want even after you stop working in 40 years.

It depends. I like working hard on interesting problems which lead to delivering product to customers and increasing share holder value. I can do 70-80 hours a week that way for years and 100+ hours for months. May 1 - June 8 I did eight man months of scheduled work. I worked continuously May 1 through mid July except for sleep, commuting, taking my wife out for dinner twice, and having two beers a week with my cow-orkers. I met my wife while working like that, learning after the fact that while I was sleeping under my desk (you get more work done when you don't waste time commuting) she was down in the parking garage sleeping in her car. I even work around the unreasonable people and situations which go with it, being the last one in my group to quit twice. After enough incidents of such projects which are essential to corporate survival getting postponed or cancelled in favor of crap that doesn't even provide a real competitive advantage I stop caring and may not be at the office eight hours a day. I can't stand wasting my time on uninteresting things that don't serve real purposes or working around other people's avoidable management, hiring, and technical problems. Especially when I've made rationale arguments before the bad decision illustrating why things needed to be done differently. Even 40 hours a week is 30 hours too much if the difficulty doesn't go with an otherwise personally rewarding project. I can't stand boring situations where I can't apply my skills or experience. I've taken $50K pay cuts to get out of such situations. I'm working towards avoiding the crap by being independently wealthy from reasonable ownership shares in organizations where I can theoretically make a difference as a technical employee, or getting to a founding CTO role where the avoidable problems are my own fault and therefore not repeated a second time. I'd live off the grid before doing hard manual labor for money.

Mass defaults resulted when home buyers were steered into property they couldn't afford and accelerated when times got tight. The government is encouraging people who probably can't afford new cars and probably don't have car payments to buy property they can't afford with more debt. Anecdotally, people who are in a financial position to buy new cars which are averaging close to $30,000 and would run $500+ a month already have a trade-in worth more than the credit.

Practice. After hundreds of pack jobs it'll take you six minutes too.

I'd only write off $425 since a jump ticket is usually $25, but am not an accountant. IRS Topic 506 says

Body positions are boring; it's what you do with them that counts. With 500 jumps total and just 80 jumps a year you may not have enough experience to build interesting sit formations although you should be able to fly flat well enough to make those jumps with other people. Casual flat RW can be a lot of fun, and it's highly unlikely that you'll be unable to find at least one other person who can complete what's planned. 4 is a nice number because you can split it into two pieces and you won't be waiting too long for people to get in.

No, but jumping stopped being the highest priority. I've skipped going to the DZ to stay home and play in my workshop with power tools or cars.

We wouldn't recommend that. We owned a Tempurpedic DeluxeBed and bought the comparable Angel Bed for a second property and found it to be simultaneously less supportive and harder feeling. Spent close to $200 in truck freight to send it back (while it comes vacuum bagged in a UPS-shippable box you need to ship it back like any other mattress). Ultimately we sold the Tempurpedic and bought some sort of hybrid memory foam topper/inner spring thing pushing 18" thick. It doesn't sink like a foam mattress (sex is one application here) or get as warm in the summer but has the same sort of better-than-pillow-top feel as a Tempurpedic with great support. Haven't a clue on the brand. What parts of your back you've managed to break so far (I didn't know that guys aged 30-50 often herniated discs in sneezing accidents until it was too late) obviously have a big impact on what sort of mattresses you tolerate.