MakeItHappen

There are some white papers for sellers and buyers on the auto sites. Autotrader.com, cars.com etc Also know what the trade in and third party values are for your car. That is the profit margin for the seller. That's the deal-making money. Always assume the asking price is more than what the seller will let it go for. I had to buy a replacement truck this year because of some yahoo driving on the wrong side of the road. I was set on getting another Nissan Frontier, so that's all I looked at. Dealers do NOT all give you the same price, even tho' their invoices are the same. So don't believe them when they say 'we all pay the same price'. They don't. They get rebates based on volume per year. There was a $700 difference between the highest and lowest 06 Frontier from about 6 Nissan dealers out here. I was told on a Thursday that my truck was totaled and had until Tuesday to get a new vehicle. They would take the rental away then. After internet searches, test drives etc I went to AutoTrader.com again on Sunday night. I found a nearly identical truck to mine. It was two years younger, fewer miles, but from a private party. I made an offer $1000 lower than his asking price. We settled at $500 lower. I made out +$1000 from the insurance money and have a newer truck with fewer miles. If you buy from a private party, you should know how to inspect the vehicle. Open the hood, check oil, air filter, oil leaks, tranny leaks etc. Pull spark plugs to inspect them and know what a fouled plug looks like. Always ask for the out the door price. One used truck I bought from a dealer, I told them I had x many dollars (after I let them know this is the truck for me). I want the out the door price to be that. They complied. They changed the selling price, trade-in etc to account for licenses, taxes, fees etc. I've bought my last 3 trucks with cash. They always try to upscale you into some really low monthly payment. Don't go for it, because living without a car payment is heaven. Besides that hides what you really pay for the vehicle. Dealers will always keep you waiting in their booth and try and talk you into buying right then and there. Don't do that. Always go home and 'think about it'. I told every dealer that I was a motivated buyer. I had to get another truck by Tuesday. Give me your best offer. If it's good, I'll be back on Monday and write you a check. The following week after my purchase most of the dealers called me back to see if I bought anything. I told them I found a nearly identical replacement truck vs buying a new one, so I bought it. Most of the dealers I dealt with via email or phone. I did not have to go to each dealer, except to check out the used trucks. I had told every dealer that I would rather get a replacement truck to reset me to where I was before Mr. Yahoo entered my life, but I could tap my reserves to buy a new truck. The late model Frontiers were selling for more than the new ones??? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

The way people read and reply to threads always amazes me. I am not saying everyone ought to jump a pull-out. What I am saying is, that I jump a pull-out for these reasons. YMMV. I am well aware of the possible failure modes of each deployment system. [That article should really be updated for horseshoes on a BOC throw-out] You don't. You can check the routing before every jump. Just ask me and I will show you how to do this. I do it after the last full dress dirt dive and before I get on the plane. I do not know what rig you are referring to. That is not the case for all rigs. I am aware of the many malfunction modes of a pull-out. I am also aware that a pilot chute in tow is NOT one of the malfunction modes. Now there in lies a problem of perception. The pud is not fool proof, and no where do I ever say it is. You can check it for routing without opening the container. I do this on every jump I make. Perhaps, there is a learning curve for people that do not know about pull-outs? Yes, certainly, lost/hard-pull puds add to the 'I couldn't pull the main, so I went for the reserve' scenario. This also exists on throw-outs. Statistically, you'd probably find more people going in on a lost throw out handle than a lost pull-out handle. So what's your point? The fact of the matter is that most of those people went in because they did not execute proper EPs. For the rest, I'll refer you to my top comment in this post. I just laugh every time I see that post quoted. Bill Booth is full of it when he says 'A pullout deployment is out of sequence by definition.' Take a GOOD look at how your reserve deploys and then ask Bill Booth if that is an 'out-of-sequence' deployment. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

The jumper obviously does not know how to check a pullout bridle line. A completely closed main container with no pilot chute out is a much better environment to deploy a reserve into than an environment with a pilot chute hanging someplace above you ready to entangle with your reserve. I've been jumping for more than 25 years and still cannot decide which method is better. Therefore, I do not jump throw-n-tow rigs. I avoid the problem completely. It already exists and has for some time. It is called a pud, pull-out, dildo etc. Even a ripcord or SL system does not have this problem. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I would say yes and no to that. I think there was some cultural influence on this. The people that had her and the five other litter mates gave them all away. The one I took was the LAST of the litter. They did say the dogs (mom)/pups were all outside dogs, they trained them for sit and not to go out of the yard. That was at least in place when RePete and I first met two of the pups a couple of weeks ago. Their gate was always open. I always shut it so the pups would not follow us. That was two, maybe 3, weeks ago. RePete and I went by there several times in the past couple of weeks. The good news is that the new puppy did pretty well on the leash today. It was only a block and a half, but she did well. For a first time out on a leash, she gets A+++++. Anyway, this puppy is on solid food and in good hands. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

As everyone else says, dog ownership is a BIG responsibility, especially if you do it right. If this is your first dog, I would recommend a medium size dog (20-60 lbs full grown) vs either the miniatures are large breeds. The miniatures are somewhat neurotic. The large ones need a lot of space and their stools are MASSIVE. Of course, that depends upon what you feed it. The large ones may out weigh you when fully grown. Combine that with an aggressive dog and you have trouble. If you get a puppy, make sure for know before you adopt how it is on the passive-aggressive continuum. There is a good test in 'The Art of Raising a Puppy'. Both the overly aggressive and very submissive will be harder to train than dogs in the middle. The overly aggressive have behavior problems around other dogs, people and kids. The very submissive have fear problems that lead to behavior problems of separation anxiety, fear of thunderstorms, etc. You cannot go by breed alone to determine passiveness/aggressiveness. You have to put a puppy to a test BEFORE you adopt. Other lifestyle things to consider: - Housing the dog when you go away for several days to several weeks. I've used my yard with neighbors playing with them & feeding them, friends that take in a dog and dog sitters that visit once per day. One dog is easier to place with a friend. Two dogs seem ok with visitors feeding them once a day in their usual home. It also depends on the length of the trip. - Finding a new home. Only ~20% of rental places will allow dogs. It will take you longer to find a new place to live if you move. Are you willing and able to do longer housing searches when you move? Your first question will be 'Do you allow dogs?' and you will get very frustrated. It will take weeks to find a new home as opposed to days. - If you leave the dog in the yard while your are away at work, does the dog have shelter from rain/snow/sun/etc? Doggie doors are better for adult dogs, but not puppies. You don't want a puppy to have free reign inside your house. It's too expensive. You also have to dog-proof the fence line. I had to use an electric fence for one of my dogs. Some dogs are diggers, some are not. - Inside the house is quiet time, no romping around playing tag or fetch. You can teach sit, sit-stay, down, down-stay, come in the house. Training: Nowadays, there are 3 broad groups of training philosophies. They all say the are predicated on you being the pack leader. 1. give food treats to reward proper behavior 2. give lavish praise to reward proper behavior 3. make the puppy/dog watch you and respond to your voice commands to realize YOU are the pack leader to reward proper behavior. IMHO, pack leaders of wolf packs do not give out treats or lavish praise to teach new pups the way things work. I still use Koehler's methods. The best trained dogs watch you, listen to your verbal commands and behave accordingly. You have to be able to stare down a dog's gaze in a non-aggressive manner, ignore a whining puppy, give clear and concise commands and respect your dog's good behavior. I suggest you read books from all of these areas and decide for yourself. Get with some neighbor with a new pup or an adult dog. Try these techniques. Do this all before you adopt a dog. I have a new pup since Monday (April 3). She is 5 weeks old. She knows how to sit, almost the down, how to be quiet inside the house and is house-broken. She is being told mouthing is wrong and almost has that down. She only licks now, no biting. A rain storm prevented some initial leash training yesterday. She follows me or RePete around the yard. She knows her bowl is the square one, not the round one. It is a LOT of effort to train a dog, but when you have a well-behaved dog, the rewards outweigh all the frustrations or inconveniences. I've had one or two dogs since 1984. I made a lot of mistakes with Pete, my first dog. But the more you read about training and keep up the training regimen, the better off you and your dogs are. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Without going into the details, I feel that within 5 years virtually every DZ in the world will have high speed, wireless internet access available. Whether a DZ chooses to support that will be based upon customer base. But the remote internet technology will be available. There are DZs today that have this technology available to them, but have not tapped into it. The person to talk to is the DZO. From my developer POV, it makes more sense to develop for an expanding audience, rather than a shrinking market (ie Windoze users) If I write a Windoze program, I loose the Mac/Linux and whatever OS system in the future users. I realize that some teams might want this information RIGHT NOW and can't wait until Sunday night. I think most teams concentrate on the jumps, not the data while they are at the DZ. Maybe, that's not right? I think that the weekdays are when a team can look at the data and adjust the next weekend's practice based on the data. The data that will be available, once I implement all the fancy slicing and dicing and graphics, will be better used to plan the next weekend of jumps as opposed to your next jump that day. There are many other reasons I have to keep this web-based, but from a team's perspective, those are the most relevant reasons. There is also the customer base for this. It is a TINY market. I only have a handful of emails from people interested in this. I put out a prototype, but I have not seen a huge demand for this. I have got great feedback from people interested in it, but not enough people. So if you are a lurker and want this to continue, please email me. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I have two copies of that issue from collections I've bought or were gifted to me. That was Vol. 1 #1. The mag said it was published quarterly. But I have also not come across other issues of it. All the ads were from the Chute Shop. Most of the gear on Tim was advertised in that issue too. PI tried a similar plan with TNT almost a decade later. That one folded rather quickly too. There were so many pics of jumpers without goggles back then I asked Gary Patmor (who lives near me) once, if jumpers used them at all. He said yes, but there were many times people did not use goggles. I find the 'no goggles' photos to be 'very unusual' from my mere 25 years of jumping perspective. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

It is such a good idea it is even in the SIM, but not for the reason you cite. Section 5-1. A.5 . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Team Training Scoring Tool I made a few updates, so that you could save the data to excel. I have other plans on how to make this better, but this allows you to track scores now. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

In the US, public libraries let you use books for free for weeks at a time. There are significant differences between the 1911 version that is available in several places on the web and the 10th edition. You can also get it dirt cheap at a used book store. The introduction to the 10th edition also includes a historical look at the different editions. RR is one of the most unexpected fascinating books that I have read (and reread on flights to/from USPA BOD mtgs) At first it was really dry and boring - mainly because I did not understand all the terms. But once you get over that hump and see the rules in action at meetings, the rules make perfect sense. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

There is a sample set of bylaws in Robert Rules of Order, 10th edition. There is an entire chapter on bylaws. Your library should have a copy. Get the real RR, not the 'dummy' books. Also the introduction is a great read on the purpose of parlimentarian law. CPI is the oldest club in the US. You might ask them. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

More thoughts on this.... The WTF factor may not exist. As in the collision last weekend, one jumper knew about the collision before it happened. So it is possible that you know what's happening. I think most people (as the top person) will do that self-preservation move of trying to clear the wrap. 'holding on' was meant to include holding on with your legs. I did not mean to imply let go of toggles and grab with your hands. Given the posts by people with pocket rockets, the amount of time and possible actions does depend upon the top person's canopy. I guess the question is would you try kicking off the low canopy as you dropped that last 100 feet? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

A couple of canopy collisions that happened under 100 ft turned out very different. Results range from fatalities to no injuries. I'll pose my questions first and then list some sample collisions. Assume the collision is one where the low canopy wraps the body of the high jumper at or below 100 ft. IOW, it is not a lines to lines wrap that sends you into a death spiral. If you were the top person, would you be inclined to clear yourself from the entanglement or hold on to the canopy? Assume the collision is 100 ft or lower. If you were the bottom person, would you ask the top person to drop you or hold you? Assume the collision is 100 ft or lower. In either of these cases, would your answer depend upon who caused the collision? This can range to 'It's all the other guy's fault' to 'both being at fault' to 'your fault'. At some point, the higher jumper could hold the life of the lower jumper in his hands. Would you let him go or try a 'tandem' landing, knowing that you'd probably get hurt too? Would your answer depend upon who the other jumper was and/or whose fault it was? Would your answer depend upon whether you were wrapped from behind or in front? Here are some sample canopy collisions: - one at Perris this weekend - one in FL a couple of weeks ago - Roger Nelson's collision - One at Perris a few years ago that killed the lower jumper. The lower jumper dropped off the wrapee and the canopy did not have time to reinflate. I am sure there are more examples, but you get the idea. I do not have my complete answer. My first reaction would be to clear the entanglement. But if I knew I was at 50 ft say, I might hold the lower jumper and say 'stay with me'. If I was the lower jumper, I'd ask the higher jumper to hold me. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Can't believe this thread is still going... and with, for the most part, just ordinary things... So, since I feel like blabbing..... Here's what I do that is 'out of the ordinary'. I do all the ordinary things too. - always boot up my equipment when I first get to the DZ - no exceptions. (That is set my CYPRES and dirt alert when I get to the DZ - not when I have a gear up call for my first jump, I boot up when I get to the DZ) - gear check my gear after the last full dress dirt dive (before boarding) - put my helmet on all the way when boarding. It keeps my hands free to check handles, move seatbelts etc, also protects against those occasional head butts when seating yourself - check that the right side bench peg is in the hole in the floor. It is always a pain when the bench falls a few inches on takeoff. Scares the crap outta everyone and can give you bruises on the back of your calves. - make sure my legs are not underneath the benches. - make sure O2 hoses pass over both 'support' lines when at Perris for O2 jumps, even if on turn loads for others going to O2 altitudes - monitor the cloud base, if there is one - monitor the entire route to altitude. This lets me know if we are over rising terrain - just in case there was some sort of emergency exit. - softly clench my teeth together on exit so when that foot kicks me under the chin I won't bite my tongue or chip my teeth. - check my altitude after pulling, especially when the main is slow to open. Check altitude, check parachute, check altitude, check parachute, exit routine when main opens or at decision altitude, whichever comes first. - work into the pattern to land at the gate I am sure there are more idiosyncrasies that I do, but those are the ones I can think of right now. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Well, this does not give me 'warm and fuzzy' feelings about jumper R. Hopefully, he did get a good talking to and will not ever do it again. I can certainly empathize with jumper L. It reminds me of my auto collision at the beginning of this year. Try everything you can to avoid the collision, but sometimes there is not enough space/time to get out of the way. Do you know what type of turn R executed at 100 ft? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

1998. Sandy Wombach (sp?) died on that jump. No AAD... You are confusing TWO separate collisions at TWO separate events years apart. The first one was Sandy colliding with a jumper that had just turned to track away from a funneled formation. The second one was when a guy on an outer wave pulled earlier than his assigned pull altitude. He did not track far enough or long enough. A guy from an inner wave caught up to him and was in the path of destruction. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

See SIM Section 6-5.C You can have only an A license and do intentional water jumps IF you also have the wet training, training within 60 days from an IE or I and are a swimmer. The wet training is required to get the B license. The reason some DZO might say you 'have' to have a B license is because they may not be able to verify the rest of the requirements. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Glad no one was hurt. So they were landing to the south, right? What was the experience level of these two jumpers? Why couldn't the L jumper turn left too? Was L dead-set on landing in the grass? It takes two for a collision, but only one to avoid it. If L was observing R, then L could have watched R's actions and floated or dropped or changed trajectory path. You have to divide attention between traffic and the actual landing. Side by side landings are possible, even 3 across at Perris. You do need people to take a track strictly north or south. Scissor kicks can be used to communicate, except with the blind jumpers (all two of them). The technique is to look over at someone, kick your legs to say 'I see you'. The other jumper kicks backs to say 'I see you too'. If the other jumper does not respond, then assume they do not see you and take evasive maneuvers. Another lesson is that you can violate the 'must land in such-n-such' direction rule if a canopy collision is imminent. IOW, 'land safely' overrides 'land in this direction'. I've broken this rule at Perris and Eloy to avoid collisions. You do have to check your flight path to make sure you do not crash into someone else. You do have to make flat-shashay type turns, no crank toggle or riser turns. I have posted about two of these near collisions. Collisions Avoided I do make reference to the other one here. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Swooping or any skydiving event needs real time scoring to appeal to a spectator. Today, only classic accuracy has real time scoring. Classic accuracy was fun to watch. If you want to draw a crowd you'd also need a big scoreboard to show who's winning. The scoreboard has to be updated and visible to the crowd. The time lag should be no longer than what you see at the Olympics for gymnastics or ice skating. Swooping distance kinda-sorta allows the crowd to see who got the furthest, but you didn't know until later if the person was disqualified by not hitting the entrance gate. The time between rounds is much too long for spectators. It wasn't always clear (at 2005 Nats) who was coming thru the course. Sometimes even the announcer got it wrong. Whuffoes would have an even harder time figuring out who the leaders were. Swooping accuracy needs a LOT of improvement. I saw person after person crash into the ground in order to hit a rectangular box. They landed harder than we did under T-10s, PCs, Pigletts or even 28' flats. Then the judges by the box would show a sign of how many points, but then the gate judge would disqualify it. So you really weren't sure how the jumper did. I haven't seen much swooping freestyle. Whuffoes would have a hard time understanding what moves are more difficult or dangerous. Overall, after watching a few people pass through the course, it gets pretty boring. The only thing that made it 'interesting' was watching people pound into the high point box and ask 'What kind of competition is this?' The time between rounds was way too long. Freefall events could have judges in freefall with the team, judging real time. A much more expensive way to run it, but it would be more appealing to a spectator. Or you could have ground bound judges, judging a broadcast video in real time. Then you'd have to space out the passes in time more. Also more expensive. The big drawback is that whuffoes do not know the formations and would not be able to follow along in real time. One event that could work is speed star or speed formations. Just check out 'how exciting' Cutaway made speed 8-way. The crowd knew by the time the team was landing how well they did. Real time judging would have to be in place to make it spectator friendly. We used to have real time judging in the days of telemeters. Today, broadcast video could be used to create real time judging. Yeah, it is more expensive, but that was said about each team having a video person too. Real time scoring is a necessary condition for a spectator sport. That's what makes the competition interesting to the spectator. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

And so did the Northern Lite III, Briefcase and Swift II. But back then some containers still had the open area between the bottom flap and the side flaps. That was a hold over from the T-10, Piglett and PC days, when bags were not used. Once bags were used, mfgs realized the better way was to put the lines at the bottom and sew up that part of the pack tray between the side and bottom flaps. During deployment the bag rotates 90 degrees before in comes out of the pack tray. Without the sewn corners holding the bag, the bag could rotate around the axis of the bridle line and cause line twists. Today, you see the Birdsuit people cutting away the sewn corners because they have longer deployment times. Really a better solution is to use a longer bridle line, so that the pilot chute is beyond the recirculation zone (aka burble) and use a bigger pilot chute. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

That is BS out of control JP. Racers are sewn up more in the corners between the bottom flap and side flaps of the main pack tray to hold the bag. If you put the bag in upsidedown, you can induce container lock. When you put the bag in with lines at the bottom, the bag rotates 90 degrees before being launched out of the pack tray. That is how it is supposed to work. I knew James from the mid 1980's and packed Racers side by side with him on many dives. If I saw something like that I would have noticed. Even the day he died he was showing off his new rig. His 5th jump, first of that weekend, on it killed him. James was anal about his gear. He xrayed it after repacks with his dental xray. I talked to a lot of the people involved with investigating that fatality. I saw pictures of the rig with the line twisted around the grommet. No where was there a suggestion that James packed the bag upsidedown. The only person I can think of now that stashes the bag different than mfg instructions is Steve Scott. He rotates his bag 90 degrees - on a Reflex. Bag grommet sits directly underneath the flap grommets. FMI see Line Snags on Grommets . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

It looks different, but yet is still confusing to a reader. I can say Containers Icon where "Containers Icon" is linked to what I want it to be. But what happens is a double link substitution. Only the Containers word is linked to where I want it to go. Also, the REs used do not account for whole word matches. That's not rocket science. Only a simple text match is used in the RE. So you still have the Emoticon problem. Content spamming is bad for everyone. What might be better is to list some sponsored links at the end of a post based on the keywords contained in the post. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

How much will your book cost? Dave Around $19.95 That does include freedom to say what you want without links to paid advertizers. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

How to mangle the links on key words (inspired by Joellercoaster) insert an empty tag inside the keyword I left bracket b right bracket left bracket /b right bracket CON eg ICON vs ICON --- damn it changes the case too. view source code....... . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Good Lord. I guess people have more time on their hands than I do, are more high maintenance or get easily bothered by the little things in life. To me, in the big scheme of things, none of this really matters enough to get my panties in a wad over. Life's too short. The entire time this site has been online, my friend Willem has bent over backwards to try to make it less commercial than other web sites out there. If he is having to add this feature, then I trust his judgment that this is what is necessary to be able to keep this website online for his friends and the skydiving community while still keeping it a quality website. Nothing he ever does is a rash decision. I see a bunch of people complaining, but I don't really see anyone coming up with a better way for him to cover his expenses and make a living from providing this website for us. Don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution. You know what... skydiving and skydivers do not owe Sangiro a living. I've made lots of info available for free - only to see it stolen and posted here. That pisses me off a lot. So much so that everything is going into print media and not online, even though the better information dissemination route is online. The good news is that Sangiro takes it off the site - when I mention it to him. But I don't read every thread and don't know of every copyright violation. what you are basically saying is that, since Sangiro can't (or won't) make money the way other sites do, will you please allow this transgression upon your posts to feed him? Sorry, but content spamming is a big no-no in my book. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker