weid14

technically for any declared accuracy requirement you are supposed to spot for yourself. Real spotting requires looking at the ground and not the green light :)

they won't fly backwards, unless of course the wind is high enough. But, yes, a true accuracy approach entails "sinking" is down. those canopies open like crap, steer like crap, and land like crap, but if you want to put your spiked heal on a quarter, they'll do that. I speak from experience (although I was able to hit the target, not the center though)

those wouldn't be on the most popular size list, that's why... I tried to get a 150 Stilletto - they said 6 weeks, they finally called be in Novemeber (I called them in July), by then my new canopy had come in... your milage may vary.

I think you should start a contest to see who can put a name with all those butts!

The guy that hit the plane in Massachusets sued (and won) - he only broke his ankle, the plane went down and 4 died in the 80's I think

I just opened an internet account at home, at work the instant messaging is totally behind the firewall, so AIM is: jetstreamic

My first canopy was a Titan 260 (that's the 7 cell version)!!! Had a split slider. I cut it away 3 times in 200 jumps for various malfunctions - two broken lines (incorrect angle of cut on the cascade line caused a stress riser at the finger trap - one hard opening and no more A/B center lines), once the steerring line broke (actually my first mal -- I had 75 jumps) and wrapped around the C/D lines, and the last was a friction knot a packer packed into it in DeLand (should have seen her face the first time I laid it down - the stabalizers aren't connected on that canopy, plus the split slider, Dacron lines - definately wasn't modern). It was excellent for accuracy, landed it in a small barge in Norwich Harbor Ct on a demo once - I could put it anywhere, of course it flew like a truck though. I much prefer my Crossfire now (although I wouldn't want to try to land IT on a barge.)

Unfortunately we couldn't get our act together, so Jetstream will not be there this weekend (well, me any way - I will however, have to try to make a trip to the tunnel, and may head to DeLand). Kelly will be in the packing area I imagine. PhillyKev I'm guessing will be out and Fruce is always there losing his new helmet. I'll be here in hot Florida until next weekend.

hey Rob, that was actually John's first attempt at that sort of thing. He preveiwed a rough cut last year at Cross Keys Am Cup event, I was sitting front and center, you could hear a pin drop and I figured most people had left, turns out, it was packed and everyone was just watching. It's really good. not that it matters, I'd just use it as a model of how to do it well and keep everyone interested.

just a question -- if you are jumping with someone else -- aren't you doing RW no matter what dimension? just checking. snowboarding was supposed to supplant 2 skis, too. myself, I prefer turning points on 4way, but that's just me, you want to stand on your head, have a ball.

Check out the Airpseed documentary by Flying Pigs productions, it is an excellent look at skydiving (ok, it's 4 and 8 way, but whatever), and really touches on the human side and teh competition thing.

Please remember a couple of things -- Airport security checkpoints are the main determiner of what you can carry on, but the PILOT in charge of the aircraft has final say. As far as I know there have not been any changes in the CYPRES policy when going through the checkpoint. You can get through the checkpoint, and the pilot can make you gate check you carry-on. No carry on policy was a rumor, but it could be searched. The Pilots for a certain flight are only known in sone instances the day prior to a flight, with all the schedule changes it will be even more random. Flight crews can be from any area of the country, and the airline will not tell you the flight crew names anyway (and if you asked, right now, I would imagine a visit from Law Enforcement personnel would be wondering why you wanted to know). I have flown over 40 flight segments with USAirways this summer, about half with my rig, no problems, make sure it's in a gear bag. I really wouldn't expect that to change. It is not a bad idea to bring all the info. If confronted and you really feel the need to carry on, do not get irrate or unreasonable, explain why you feel the need to carry on, if the answer is still no, either check it or find another flight. In short - talking to the airlines really doesn't matter as it is ultimately the security at each airline who lets you through and in my experience it is highly variable from airport to airport.

Cross Keys is 13.9 nm from PHL, but the class B airspace is shaped like a D. A jump run to the northeast will, however necessitate either a short spot, or two passes as it's really, really close.

Hey Kel didn't you get the plane some extra altitude on that one tandem YOU did?/// I wasn't there (darn the luck)

Our camera guy -- looking real cool in his Oakley's, on the ride to altitude, with the door open stuck his head out -- came back in teh plane sans glasses. he was bummed (he also had no goggles for free fall) - his camera helmet kept the glasses on durng freefall, though. We all got a chuckle at his expense.

yes plain clothed armed military on the Israel national airline. As far as the rigs are concerned, I don't think it will change much... the hijackers used knife like devices, plus they can do a chemical screen on the container which would show up any residual explosive -- I've had my baggage screened in that manner 4 times in a row.

Hooker cutting people off - ouch -- oh wait not a bobbett thing here.... actually if a person doing ahigh performance landing cuts someone off, they are not flying the landing pattern set up. It's possible to have everyone land in the same area, as long as everyone is flying the same pattern. albeit, a high perfomance 270 turn to final really confuses the heck out of some people up above.

My teammate had his Z-1 open on three different occasions in freefall - he is now jumping an Oxygen.... If I were to buy a new helmet it would be the factory diver. the lens is a little thicker, and I never open the dumb thing anyway.... About the lens with permanent fog on teh Oxygen... last week someone said, use some easy-off oven cleaner it will clean the lens right up... so I tried it this weekend. It worked - basically it remves the coating on the lens, which you can't see through anyway. If there are scratches, it doesn't help that situation though (I may try some furnature polish - it works on glasses, what the heck).

in reply too: "When is the Halloween Boogie???" is that kind of like "who's buried in Grant's tomb?"

floating pud??? that's a possibility. although some of the new systems out there are nice.

well, the explanation now makes sense thanks for clarifying... you could also put them in a side by side and let it go if you wanted too. (although I would rather avoid the situation all together).

in reply too "In a situation like that there is always an intentional downplane" How do you figure? why would some one put themselves in an intentional downplane. UNintentional downplanes happen -- depending on the orientation of the main as it's deploying (if it's second out). you can also get a nice stable bi-plane or a side-by-side with two out. There are arguments both ways (cut away or not). I would opt to go straight to the reserve. I feel that the possibility of the main entagling with the reserve during the reserve deployment (i.e. risers snagging on slider and pulling it up to choke the reserve - ask Mike McGowan about that one) is more difficult to deal with than two out. Break away -- the video -- is a really good malfunction video that talks about low speed, high speed mals and two out situations.

probably density - the paint on the bottle may have also have had some metallic component which helps... you could definately read it, make out the outline of the bottle and pinpoint it's location.

a friend of mine's wife worked at an x-Ray facility. They kept "interesting" x-rays in a back room. One was of a Yohoo bottle placed in an anal cavity. the funny part was you could read yohoo in the x-ray perfectly. other exhibits included a light bulb that couldn't be retrieved without medical attention.

in reply to: A pure substance is made of one molecule (well, one type od mulecule, many many many of oen type of molecule). A molecule is a set of atoms. PVC is a pure substance (Polyvynil carbonate). Margarine is not (its a bunch of oils, with are themselves not pure substances - allthough some oils are, but not un-relined oils - mixed with other additives). engineer mode on: PVC (polyvinyl Chloride) and it's cousin CPVC are not pure substances the only pure substances are on the periodic table of the elements. They (PVC, CPVC) are plastics derived in a fairly stinky, hot and chemically oriented process. engineer mode off.. something interesting.... the term "whole 9 yards" came from WW2 -- the ammo belts for the fighter planes were 27 feet long and when the dough boys were loading them they told the pilots they were giving them the whole 9 yards.