Kris

The truly sad thing I have noticed is that the neater I pack with my Stiletto, the worse the opening. The best openings I have had have been from some of the ugliest pack jobs on the planet. Kris "Rapidly knocking on wood"

Tap only once to start the process. Here is where it gets tricky: As soon as you see the LED flash, tap the button quickly (jab it with the tip of your finger). You will need to do that part three times. They can be hard to turn off until you get the rythm down but then again, you don't want it to be easy to turn off, do you? As Dave stated, it is easier on the battery to just let it turn itself off after 14 hours. That's not 14-hours of inactivity, it's 14 hours. If you turn on your CYPRES at 8:00pm to do a jump, it will turn itself off at 10:00AM the next day, even if you are in freefall. Kris

Someone correct me on this but isn't there a fault line in the midwest that makes the San Andreas fault look like a sidewalk crack? Good thing it isn't tectonically active. Kris

Hey, just because I decided to take the three-hour back-country hike back to the DZ while your wussy-butt decided to ride back in an air-conditioned car is no reason to pick on me.

Here is mine. Kind of Geiger-esque... Kris

Umm, with some of the newer (i.e. higher capacity, smaller heads) disc drives I really wouldn't recommend this. One good head-slap (when the GMR head hits the platter) from a knock against the case and your disc drive will be a door-stop. Tell me about it. At least with the older AT PSU's you had a bit more room to work with and it was possible to work on them. But at least with the glut of ATX systems, if it was an ATX PSU they're pretty in-expensive to replace unless it's a big one. I have a 430w in mine and that bad boy is $100. Kris "Ex-Seagate Technology Monkey"

Open the case and reseat every card, every stick of RAM, the CPU, and every cable. If that fails then pull all the cards except for the video card and try again. After that fails, haul yourself to the local PC store and shell out some $ for a new PSU. Kris

Sweet! I'll be there Friday & Saturday. Hope to see you two there. Kris

Yeah... I thought I might need a 28. Even at my terminal (125-130), there's still a bit more hesitation than I would really like. Thanks, Kris

Okay, I've checked my pilot chute as per Bill Booth's "Is your Pilot Chute Correctly Made?" thread and it's perfect. I have a 26" ZP collapsible PC with a freefly handle that came with my Mirage. My canopy is a Stiletto 190. Over the last several jumps I have had more & more hesitation. I went on a CRW jump with a friend of mine today and I took two seconds to build up a little speed, then dumped. He saw the throw and saw the inflated PC towing behind me for 3 seconds before it pulled the pin and finished the deployment. I thought It might have been in my burble but a check over my shoulder showed that it was at full extension. My closing loop is not tight, but not overly loose. I don't have to strain to put the pin in but it is still secure. The end of the pin is pointing up and I insert it 3/4 of the way through the loop. I am going to give Bill at Mirage a call tomorrow but thought I would see if anyone had any ideas... The apex isn't below the skirt when I tow it through the air, the mesh is offset 45-degrees, the tapes are even and the kill-line has 1/2" slack compared to the four tapes. Stumped, Kris

Hopefully, I should be in NC for a visit before September. I'll have to get together with you & Pammi! Hmmm... What is this "Merrick" that you speak of?

BRIT! Damn, that girl rocks! . I wasn't able to make it to Houston Memorial Day to see her off. Hopefully I'll run into her at a DZ someday. Kris

It was probably still attached to him.

Umm... DAMN! Glad to hear that everything worked itself out, Merrick! Hopefully, you'll listen to that little voice from now on.

Hmmm, this would certainly explain all of the detention time that I got in high school...

You're forgetting about the pressure at that altitude and what it is also doing to your body chemistry (blood gasses). Forced O2 is your friend at that altitude.

Speak for yourself.

127.0.0.1

You are truly Lisa's progeny.

What Episode II would have been like if Obi-Wan was still addicted to heroin: Choose Life. Choose a Master. Choose a Lightsaber. Choose a Clone Army. Choose a fucking big holo-projector, choose sonic showers, land-speeders, and electrical R2-D2 openers. Choose good health, low midichlorians, and blaster insurance. Choose fixed interest moisture farm repayments. Choose a starter smuggling ship. Choose your Jedi. Choose robes and matching sandals. Choose a three-piece body armor on hire purchased in a range of fucking alloys. Choose sitting on that Bantha-hide chair and watching mind-numbing, chain choaking slave girls, stuffing fucking slimy worms into your mouth. Choose rotting away in the belly of the Sarlack, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up aprentices you spawned to kill all your breathren and take over the galaxy. Kris BTW, here's a trivia factoid: Samuel L. Jackson's lightsabre supposedly has the initials B.M.F. engraved on it. Mace: Hand me my lightsabre. Yoda: Which one is it? Mace: It's the one that says "Bad Mother Fucker"!

Hey Don! I will definitely have to make it up there one of these weekends. I was going to go to Hinton this weekend and then I'm off to Dallas the weekend after that for the memorial weekend. I'll try and make it up to Tulsa sometime in the near future. Congrats on your upcoming 400th and give Robin a hug for me! My friend Bobby Finch jumps there and has nothing but good things to say about the place, the people, and the vibes so I am going to check them out this Saturday. That and the fact that it's 40 minutes closer than Cushing really makes it a sweet deal.

I'll be at Skyfest in Dallas this July and I will be in IL for part of the WFFC (not sure which part yet), and I *might* make it to Summerfest for a day or two. Kris

Nope, I escaped my pieing but number 200 is right around the corner. I really appreciate your posting the pic and I had a blast jumping with you JT. I don't care what Merrick says, you're a good guy.

I have only put about 70-80 jumps on my Stiletto but I have only had line-twists twice and both times were my fault. The first time I anticipated the canopy's intended direction too early while it was snivelling and it came up with two line twists before I got it back under control. The second time was when I was tired of watching it snivel so I gave the rear risers a yank to start the second stage. I wasn't even with the input and it spun once. Both times I was simply hanging there and the twists were easy to get out of. Now that I have stopped doing those things, or have corrected how I do them, my Stiletto rarely goes more than 20-40 degrees off heading. I just make sure the flaking is somewhat symmetrical when I pack her and I make sure I am symmetrical when I throw out. Kris

SCHWEET! I get to be Rakim! Anyone seen Eric B.? Kris (Bad 80's rap group name pun, Eric B. & Rakim)