FrogNog

"Agiu". It's a 2002 Hyundai Accent. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I don't blame Bush for the Economy, but I plan to vote against him. Mostly for the "WMDs in Iraq" insult. I'm OK with going to war with another country for shitty reasons, but I need it to be on the level. If the rest of the country is not like me and needs to be lied to, that doesn't make it OK for the prez to lie to me about it. Now, if there was some national security reason that they never told anybody, and they had to lie about having lied about WMDs to protect all of us, then I'm in the wrong and in two decades when I read about it in the history books at the library, I will regret this. My second reason is that I believe in balance in Congress. When Republicans won a lot of spots in Congress, I saw a need to restore the deadlock - I mean, restore the "balance" - for the good of the nation. Therefore it's the Demopublicans' turn in the White House. In another 4 or 8 years we'll go back to a Republicrat president. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Try drawing lightning bolts coming out of the eyes. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Porn star. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I don't know if the safety part of this is strictly true. Obviously, ram-air canopies and ZP make for some very soft landings for many jumps (as compared to ram-air F-111 or rounds). But I don't know if the latest, greatest designs necessarily open more reliably or more consistently within the comfort zone than some older designs. If the new stuff is continually getting better, I should like to think the improvements are very tiny - ram-air canopies are pretty stinking reliable and have been for some time now, from what I understand. I do agree that the newer stuff can "fly better", and "fly easier" (smoother control, perhaps), but I don't agree that this makes a canopy safer as much as it give it more capacity to be flown high-performance. Maybe when I get some more money and try some new stuff out, I'll eat my words. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

What kind of plane is that where you typically see the Maw of Hell? I think in the old-style 182s I only see the Kitty Door of Terror. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

If you do it but don't know how, maybe you need to jump with someone with video. And to answer the question, I don't yet turn with my feet in freefall. Almost there. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I thought that FAR 105.33 said the light skydivers have to wear when under canopy had to be visible for 3 miles... -=-=-=-=- Pull.

They said 3000 square meters, which would be approximately 9 times that size. So, nine big outbuildings or barns. Or a single building about 150' x 180'. Of course, they don't say if that's chock full of standing people, of living space. 3000 square meters could reasonably be living space for as few as eighteen families. 150,000 rounds of ammunition is a bit much for a mere enthusiast, but it doesn't sound like that much for someone running a gun store, which the article says he sort of was. I don't have any words of defence for the sodium cyanide, though. Anybody know of any reasonable uses for that stuff? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Here is how I personally handle the incidents section: I expect an average of one U.S. skydiving fatality every ten days. When I see about that many, give or take, I feel that my expectation is being met, and the odds of going in are not changing. The sport is as safe as it is; neither less nor more dangerous. More or less reporting doesn't affect that. The gory details don't affect that. Similarities between them and me may or may not affect that; I use these as opportunities to learn. With the number of active skydivers in the U.S. and about 36 deaths per year, I'm OK with my chances and I feel that if I burn in, that's the price for my enjoyment. Injuries are a bit harder for me to rationalize away, but thankfully they don't seem to be reported as thoroughly, eh? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I was definitely a scared student. Even now, anything too "new" scares me. My biggest scary time was always the plane ride up. I asked some people at my DZ if that would get better, and the general advice I got was that by my 50th jump, I would be good. My 25th jump came and I definitely did not feel halfway there. But around jump 45, after I had been off student status for 4 jumps and I was jumping for myself, not for my A-license requirements, I developed this drive to jump that gets me suited up, gear-checked, and piled in the plane before I have a chance to worry. Quite a few times now I have found myself in the plane on takeoff roll realizing it's feeling more like a car ride and I haven't been fearing my head off like the old days. Of course, there are days of slight regression. Light the turbulence last Friday. But I just complain about it and jump anyway. I say just do your preparations, be realistic about and obey your limits, and psyche yourself up a bit in the plane. You've done it before, you can do this. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Hear, hear. Good Stuff was what got me into skydiving in the first place, and it strength (for me at least) is that it's so damn cool it kept me going. Even through my 10 second delays. (All 9 or so of them. ) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Can you post a larger version of it, and rename this post to NSFW? Your avatar itself is too small to shop around to my (whuffo) friends. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I usually get this the day after, and it lasts for like a week, if I run or walk fast for a long time in shoes with sharp heels (i.e. hiking boots). Hiking works this muscle, as does bicycling if you have the right pedals and use the right stroke. And I do recall some nautilus exercises for this muscle from high school, but I've never been one to sit in a small sweaty room with a bunch of other men working out, so I don't know much about it. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I sure liked some things about Texas when I visited the Dallas / Fort Worth area. If you can stand the distances, I suppose you might find Texas quite rewarding. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Wait for OLED. That's what I'm going to do. I'm banking on significantly lower cost than Plasma or LCD, near 180 degree left/right up/down viewing angle (front-surface emission), no burn-in, awesome contrast ratios, no problem with fast-moving pictures (LED on/off times are measured in millionths of seconds, not thousands), low weight, low power consumption, no or low cooling needs, longevity, and vibration and moisture toughness. Only problem is, I may be waiting a while. However, my DZO has a great plan to help me pass the time! Woo! -=-=-=-=- Pull.

You could voluntarily abide by the BSRs on your own when you jump there... (In fact, aren't we supposed to, as USPA members?) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I use basketball shoes because I wanted the ankle support. And at size 12.5, I have found I'm doing OK without booties so far. My feet sting sometimes on touching down, especially if they're cold. But I don't see any other shoe helping that. I just need to flare better or wear thicker socks (to keep my feet warm). -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I'm not totally up on the USPA's rules, but from the tone of the ones I know, I don't think they would have a requirement that DZs verify you have a USPA membership with your middle name properly showing. And I'm pretty sure that FAI-affiliated licenses (or certificates, or whatever they are called internationally) are specifically engineered to be comparable across FAI members' country lines. I'm not sure whether to hope the person you talked to was being dishonest or dim. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Ooh, and what plane has the records for most skydiving cycles and most jumpers dropped? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Indemnity. Which I take to mean a jumper who screws up (lands out, contacts a hazard, etc.) can end up owing people money. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I have seen this and asked a rigger and he said it's OK for the harness ring to be oversized; I guess the system will perform properly if the overlaps between the three webbed rings are all in spec, and using risers designed for small harness rings on a harness with large rings does not upset this (or not much). Please note that this is hearsay passed on by a 61-jump wonder. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Not if, from the ground, it looks like this picture does! If I'm at 300 ft with one of these and it's flying stable, I'm going to look at my "do nothing" landing point and see if it looks like a comfy place to do a PLF. If it's turning gently, well, I guess I'll be looking all around and seeing if the general area looks comfy for a PLF. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I plan to talk to my insurance agent and, if this argument of theirs comes up, offer a different perspective: main canopy cutaway due to life-threatening emergency. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I would add to also avoid hazards, if you can do nothing else. Even if you can't avoid going backwards, you still have the ability to land more or less backwards, and to the left or right. If you are flying backwards and from way up high you see you might land in an electrical switching substation (or the state pen, or the local Rottweiler farm), I would make some changes to ensure that does not happen. If you're open insanely high (like a premature opening at 10k), spirals to lose altitude can help you get down quickly to where the wind tends to be lower - nearer the ground - with less arm wear than front risering. (Please remember to stop spiralling well before you hit the ground, and optionally high enough to pick a safe spot to land.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.