The111

Any flockers thinking of showing up on Friday? I'm trying to decide whether or not to take the day off work...

Your original statement was that HP = flying a canopy beyond one's skillset. And I still disagree with that. The fact that a top pro swooper can make an impressive 300ft swoop on a 2.0 wingloading and do it safely 1000 times in a row does not take away the "HP" (if anything, it makes it more HP, because their performance is higher... get it? ). By your definition (my interpretation, ok?), being in over your head is a requirement of "HP". (And I think we can agree being in over your head is a bad choice). www.WingsuitPhotos.com

One that is above the experience and skill level of the jumper under it. Wait a minute. So you're saying pro swoopers are either (a) not experienced enough to be jumping the canopies they are or (b) not actually flying HP canopies. It's sort of a Catch-22. The way you defined HP there makes it a bad (or invalid) choice in all cases. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I was afraid of that. I'm using XP and NTFS. I will have to check the warranty on the drive when I get home. I know last time I reformatted there were bad sectors, and I was hoping the drive was smart enough to just somehow fix them or block them out in the format process. Don't know if that's a reasonable thing to think or not... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Makes sense and I was planning on trying that this next time around anyway. We'll see what happens... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

NTFS www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Posted to another tech forum, didn't get any replies. I have a 250GB Maxtor external HDD that I use for storing audio and video on, among other things. However, the data on the drive seems to keep going bad (for lack of more technical term), and I have to reformat and repopulate the drive. Fortunately, I keep all the data backed up on DVD-R's, so when the drive screws up, it's more of a nuisance than anything else, but I would still like to solve this problem. I'll admit don't know much about the intricacies of data storage, but I have noticed something that I think is significant. I have about 110GB of mp3's in 1600 folders (one folder per album). I have stubbornly been trying to keep all 1600 folders in the same folder. I.e. "F:\Music\Artist - Album", so there are 1600 sub-folders in the F:\Music folder. I describe this as stubborn because I have noticed that the more items listed in the folder, the longer it takes to even open it and browse the contents. I eventually noticed that when the drive starts acting screwy and certain folders/files become inaccessible or worse (recently several hundred folders DISAPPEARED!), the problems always arise within my "mega-folder" (the one with 1600 sub-folders). I have many other folders on the external HDD besides the mp3 one I just described, but the problems always arise in there. Is there something fundamentally dangerous about putting so many subfolders in the same folder? Is this what is causing my repeated data loss? Should I break them down into groups of a few hundred sub-folders each? Thanks for any insight anyone may have... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You can't like, own a monkey, man... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Count me in.

Mine said something along the lines of: first Birdman jump, great job, cleared for solo wingsuit jumping. Signed xxxx, BMI. That is what I write in my students' logbooks when I am convinced they are indeed safe to jump wingsuits on their own. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I use it, and I think it helps a bit (can't hurt). It is fine for freeflying. Many other posts about this www.WingsuitPhotos.com

So in other words, these places will let Macca fly his wingsuit but should not let him drive a golf cart if they know what's best for them? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

This is a great book I bought after hurting my back last year. It's got dozens, maybe hundreds of stretches in it for every conceivable muscle in your body (try the face stretches!). Well worth the $, it has helped me with my back pain a lot. In case that link doesn't work, it's called Stretching, by Bob Anderson. Has great illustrations too. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

That is cool info but it didn't answer my only question. Does the game have a name? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

What is the name of the game? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I know you know this is there Scott, but for everybody else who hasn't seen it... this is how to do a high-speed exit www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I didn't really like it that much... www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Not if you're talking about a person. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I thought about that. But what if you only picked up a gun to protect yourself? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Ok, not sure if this is safe for the Bonfire, but I'll try my luck. Sure, the current situation in New Orleans, because of the hurricane, sucks. But you know what sucks several times more? All the people looting and panicking, and getting violent. According to media reports I've read (and as skydivers, we all know about the media, but I'll ignore that for now), there have been rescue aircraft that had to abort landing (at medical facilities!) because they were confronted by large mobs, with guns, in their landing area. Seriously, wtf is wrong with people? I realize that (1) complaining doesn't do a damn thing and (2) I probably can't criticize someone in a situation I've never been in. But I can't help myself from being bothered by the fact that people exist who would pick up guns, in a situation like this, and take advantage of others. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Hey can't we all get along and enjoy Papa John's AND Domino's in harmony? Why oh why must there be such a divide in the pizza eating community? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Somewhere, somebody is turned on. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

No, I didn't see that here. I saw a rep of one company (BM) give a very positive review of the flight characteristics of a new suit for a different company (PF). Specifically, he said that he had to work hard to fly his hi-performance suit (S3) next to the beginner's suit (Prodigy) from the other company. That's a pretty good compliment if you ask me. Then he also brought up a concern he had about the suit, in a very diplomatic way. What I have also seen, is someone with no info in his profile badmouth Bird-man at every chance he can for any delay in their new product or anything else he can find. If you're really interested in seeing the brand-wars stop, then quit fueling them. So the PHI was delayed. Guess what? So was the V1. So was my Vector III. So was the pizza I ordered last night... I think it is a valid question to ask that if these "blowouts" (wrong word if you ask me) are all due to user misrouting, why aren't the instructors doing a better job showing the new users how to route properly? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

That's exactly what I said here! I said if you don't really need gas don't go add to a huge line just to get it early, you'll just make the problem worse for the stations, and for those who are really running on empty and need a fillup. And people disagreed with me and said fill up while you can... If we're going to run out we're going to run out, a few days and a few dollars does NOT make a huge difference. I'll fill up when I get near empty, like I always do. Basically you take regular gas, add some premium pellets, and shake it up. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Here comes the free thought police! (me) How do you plan on adding "flaps" or "slats" to a nylon canopy? www.WingsuitPhotos.com