yoink

We come back to the 'education' part then. Students aren't allowed to freefall on their own without instruction and sign-off from a qualified instructor. Even when qualified, there are regulatory check-points and a common sequence of progression as they learn to fly first with small groups, then with larger ones, then invitations to big-ways and so on. No such structured learning exists for canopy flight. Any post-student instruction is purely optional and someone with very little canopy knowledge, experience or judgment can find themselves on a 15 or 20 way because they can fly a slot in freefall. No-one cares if they have the experience or skill to get to the ground safely after break-off. As far as I'm aware, the only organisation doing deliberate 'official' canopy trianing is the BPA, with their CP1, CP2 progression system, but even then, this is targeted soley on learning to swoop - not about instilling judgement and awareness when flying in busy traffic, and that's what's missing as a general rule.

This is skydiving... you don't need to be able to fly if you look cool.

it's surprising how quickly those bloody things just pop up! WHOOSH! Tree!

Whoops that reminds me ... I gift wrapped a wee tree the other week with my Nano ... she's O.K but you have a point and a market opportunity there, f'sure. I still have one to get patched too!

Out of interest, what's your GL experience? You're making some pretty massive generalisations and then giving those out as advice.

If you're not sure of the feasability of making it over an object or hazard to reach a landing area, the way to test it isn't just to give it a go... GL should be done in an area where you have lots of options to divert to until you've got it absolutely nailed for your canopy, conditions and experience. Another vote here for using proper gear as well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp0JCA-Xf_4 man. Rednecks.

simple substitution cypher gives: BOXYSD HUDEYJ No idea if those may be names that mean something to you.

I think it's a clip from a documentary called Battle of the X-Planes that detailde the competition between Lockheed and Boeing to produce the concept version of the X-35. Good programme.

Try it without a convicts accent... "Crikey, Old Bean! You've come a cropper to a Copper!."

crikey.

Or, you can handbuild a screen for less than $150 that will perform almost as well as a commercial one.... Again, I don't think a projector is the right tool for the job in this case, but if you do go down that route, you don't need an expensive setup. There are many options, and you need you to define your exact requirements and the environment in which it'll be operating for people to suggest appropriate solutions Remember, in all liklihood, you'll be running videos that are rendered down to a resolution that keeps them a reasonable sort of size and you're doing this in a bar - you're not building a home cinema setup for hi-def films.

couple of questions: 1) Is there a requirement to bring audio to the displays along with the video. I'd assume as it's in a bar, there'll be general music in the background so the footage will be silent, but thought I'd check. 2) to clarify - are you wanting the ability to run multiple videos on a single media server simultaneously, while outputting each video to a different monitor? 3) Along with the above, you also want to be able to plug external video sources (DVD players / cameras etc) into the system? - presumably somewhere accessible in the bar, rather than tucked away with all the switching / server equipment? By far the most expensive component of the system will be the video switching gear I suspect. For something that does all of the above, I'd think you're looking at professional quality equipment, rather than a homebuilt solution.

Not something I know anything about, but I'd be interested in learning; however I suspect you're being disingenuous... Should we take it to the Gear and Rigging forum - that might be the appropriate place for that discussion, don't you think?

Wrong way round. Get them jumping first, then competent at canopy flight, then let them play with the big, hard ball of dirt. You're right about off-season ski resorts though. Lifts to the top would be great! As for why it's being discussed here for those complaining, stop being so bloody pedantic.

Sorry? Are you saying that packing a reserve and having it inflate is a gamble akin to hitting a jackpot? I hope it's a damnsight more likely than that!

How about because the second someone 'rates' something for a particular type of impact, they open themselves up for a lawsuit from sue-happy skydivers or family members after an accident. If there's no requirement by the sport governing body for a rating, then it's just a lot of hassle, cost and risk for a comparatively low return. I jump with a paraglider helmet for hop n pops as I feel it has the best combination of weight, protection and visability. It's not the coolest thing around, but is better and cheaper than most skydiving lids in my experience.

Top post.

I've not used Smoothwall myself, but if it's critical that the 2 NAS's are sync'd, you may be better with a hardware VPN between two routers.

That would be one hell of a bad spot! The humbold squid can be agressive and are really intelligent. The programme I saw on them showed some pretty cruel methods for fishing them..

Not necessarily. I picked up an old touch-screen workstation from e-bay for less than $100, that uses a virtual server to get round the onboard OS. The resolution isn't great, but when it's simply used as an interface for picking media held on the server, that's not a problem. Storage is cheap, and a second hand machine to run it all shouldn't be that expensive; I'd put a video card in that allows you to output component video then use a component splitter box to output to multiple displays - those can get a little pricey depending on the number of inputs & outputs, and the quality, but a cheapo one can be had for a few hundred dollars. The expensive part of the system will be the displays. The time consuming part will be setting it up, calibrating it and making it all work smoothly so that inebriated skydivers can't break it. I'd steer away from a projector - for the cost of a decent one, you can pick up at least 2 good TVs, and there's less maintenance associated with them. If you go secondhand for everything, and use a bit of knowledge that's kicking around your dz, I don't think it'll be an outrageous cost.

There goes my 'all experienced jumpers know their landing priorities' theory...

Tomorrow (1/12/10). The compliance hearing will be on January 13, at which time I presume the judge will address that issue. Case has been continued to next month. There was some whining and crying on AST/Skyride's part, about weather, holidays, etc... Might be the only break they get though. Where's my rolling eyes smilie? Can I get $20 on this not getting resolved in the next 6 months due to other random excuses / get-out clauses from Skyride, ending with them hiding all their cash overseas then declaring backruptcy and starting again under a new name?

Not sure how Adrians multiple-revolution, no floating ripcord cypres fire applies, but not doing a swoop landing when things are already going wrong certainly seems the right approach.

The time alloted to clean up the stickers runs out end of today doesn't it? Have any attempts been made to remove them yet?