Calvin19

word. anyone who has worked in a restaurant knows the feeling. Most restaurants start to close parts of cooking supplies down well before it closes, because the norm of the night is limited customers. when a surprise rush comes in, it all needs to be taken back out. It sucks at 4 in the morning still mopping up after drunk pieces of shit left the place trashed. when 6pm-4am are the only shifts you can work for school when you have to get up and go to class in the morning, people that walk in 5 min before close and stay an hour ARE pieces of shit.

ever see "best in show"? crazy people are sometimes proud of being crazy.

(I have over 300 of these 'bandit' loads) bottom lines; 1-PROBABLY, it will go fine / no one will get in trouble / no one important will notice 2-IF it goes wrong, the PILOT will get in trouble, not you. be sure your pilot knows that.

transportation of the fuel rods/waste is just as scary and expensive as storing it. I remember it being a big deal here in Colorado while Rocky Flats was being torn apart (metaphorically and literally) [nuke weapon trigger building, not power, sadly]

"Evidence" that is rich. I know some pretty redneck inbred idiot skydivers. I also know some very intelligent whuffos that strongly disapprove of skydiving and BASE jumping. I think the lack of intelligence would be shown by someone making statements like "Only stupid idiots jump out of planes..." or "People who jump from planes are generally smarter than those who don't"

on your test I scored in the 145-159 GENIUS range for this test. and that is BS. After a fairly severe accident involving injury to my brain almost 4 years ago I have spent $30,000 IN THE LAST 3 YEARS for some of the most advanced Psychological, neuropsychological and performance examinations administered by some of the best doctors in the country. (the reason for this is FAA medical re-certification) Luckily, when I was between 6 and 14 I was going though a 'gifted student identification program' as I was 'ahead' of all other students in my classes. My score after 3 weeks of pretty intense testing was between 125 and 150 (these scores are of course the given score at that time when I was a young teen) this is interesting, and I was a good brain injury case study because I had these tests at a younger age before my accident. it is rare that a brain injury victim has 'control' data. turns out after my accident at age 23, I scored between 120 and 145 across the board, averaging out at 129. After 3 weeks of testing for part of these exams, I don't think a 5 minute online exam can show much about Intelligence Quotient.

my point is, when done correctly, and it can be done correctly, Nuclear power, solar power/secondary solar*, tidal, and geothermal energy is the answer. *wind, hydroelectric

pretty bad? that is TERRIBLE. Acceptable? never. 600,000 people were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, yes, but the final number actually affected by that radiation is MUCH less. bottom line for Chernobyl, it was a terrible horrible accident and never should have happened. Three Mile Island accident is a testament to the modern failsafes. minimal (alleged) leakage and current containment. did you know that the Einsteins at Chernobyl continued to operate the plant until it became uneconomical even after the disaster?

What kind of plane? there are a few situations where a parachute would be a logistic backup, but none of those situations are very applicable from a normal GA standpoint. These situations are; Aerobatics (structural failure at enough altitude) Sailplane flying (low speed midair collisions with another aircraft) Jump Pilot (idiot dumps into stabilizer*[only good for some planes]) So, in all reality, in most GA situations, a parachute is nothing but extra weight to CAUSE a accident. Unless you are in one of the above 3 situations, I recommend putting an extra 20lbs of fuel onboard and skipping the rig. leaving an airplane flying level with an experienced pilot is one thing, it is totally different when the stab is missing, or a wing is broken. the plane will be spinning INCREDIBLY fast in most major structural damage situations. to the point where you will not be able to release your restraint in time. GA airplanes almost never catastrophically fail in flight. and engine failure that you crash into a forest gives you a better survival chance than trying to bail out at 1000'.

Assuming modern systems and failsafes are used, really the only non-enviromentally conscious part of nuke energy (green energy, literal pun intended) is the waste fills needed for the spent 'fuel'. there will always be some ignorant hippy flashing Chernobyl and Hiroshima victim pictures. ( Part of the problem. ) The Chernobyl AND Three Mile Island accidents were very terrifying events, of course, but at least 3mile was exponentially overplayed. and the final results of the Chernobyl accident were not nearly as bad as was reported or feared. Evac of that many innocent civilians was terrible, BUT that is what you get with the kind of internal competitive government used at that time. -SPACE-

While I refuse to open and read the faux news link, what you wrote and quoted I agree 100%. though not a renewable resource, it IS clean.

I loved it. My girlfriend said I woke her up screaming in my sleep the night we watched the midnight opening. I can see how it got bad reviews though, The writer tried too hard to be convincing of the 'actual' footage. PS- I LOVED "Fire in the Sky" as well. PPS-forgive the thread revival.

try to full stall it and hold it in a full stall, flying it backwards. with a paraglider it straightens out and you can 'parachutal' stall to descend pretty fast. -SPACE-

edit; woopy gliders weight TWICE as much (minimum), not half.

Speed gliding/speed riding/ground launching are pretty much the same thing, only WAY easier and less expensive. Woopy wings are about twice the cost of a speed fly kit, require no electricity, and weigh half as much. -SPACE-

I like that attitude. I think you are a paraglider at heart. A few things you can do that maximize your airtime under canopy, as well as increase safety, is instead of downsizing, buy something like a stiletto 150 or a moderate 'swooping' canopy. I had a TON of fun for a hundred or so jumps on a stiletto 150 loaded at 1.1. this will make you a smoother pilot. Plus the wing is more efficient, meaning you can stay up longer if you want, penetrate better, and go really fast if you want or it is needed.

+1

tried it all, earplugs, ipod, etc. after 1000 or so, I prefer the airflow noise.

Word. the basic stable freefall position probably takes about 5 min, not 20. Most people seem to think the difficulty is 'packing your own chute'. then the classic "I wish I could do that". or "It's too expensive to start". they say this as they lay down $150 for one night worth of drinking, smoking, and partying and then take off work the next day to sleep it off. If you wanted to, you would. get up off your drunk lazy ass and go do it. NO sympathy.

Awesome vid if you leave the sound off. some great flying and terrain in that! wow! just got back from a speed flying trip in Utah, not quite as good, but still awesome.

You know, with a purpose built speed glider (AKA bullet or Nano) you could do a LOT more in that little descent in your video. Probably even a flip.

I agree, I think a lot can be learned from each other. But I also would hesitate that the progression is going for smaller gliders. I have flown a lot in Switzerland and at times i wish I had an 8m due to the shear epic size of flights there, but here in the states, and for most new launches I have been pioneering, a 12m is perfect. I can be WAY closer to terrain and make WAY tighter turns than I could on a similar sized skydiving-originated canopy. hmmm.... maybe. I have about 100 swoops on a Stiletto 120'^2 (loaded at ~1.6), and quit just because it got mundane. I was not great at it of course, I just figured I could get much more relative motion (it's ALL about relative motion) from concentrating on paragliding/speed flying. Agreed. I have noticed that when I BASE jump and then immediatly do a speed flight in the same day, the sit/paraglide harness makes me feel NAKED. I feel at home in a parachute harness for sure, but I have learned to love the twitchy naked super responsive feel of a PG harness. I suggest you try it if you have the chance, it is really an awesome feeling. Maybe, I have ski launched with both. The skis feel really heavy with a parachute harness on, at least doing high G maneuvers. I like the PG harness because it gives the parachute a LOT less moment arm as far as it pulling me or me controlling it. I mean that If the glider load is coming from your shoulders, while kiting, it is a LOT more likely to make you lose your balance than if it is at you waist. I would say there is a difference, yes. Ground launching skydive equipment seems to be a boredom activity for a lot of the skydivers here. The problem with that is there is a MASSIVE difference between ground launching a parachute and landing one from an airplane. and the most important issue here in the US, is the access to launch and landing sites. Speed flying is frowned upon by a lot of the PG community because of the skill level and accident rate of the majority of the individuals doing it. A paragliding training hill might be perfect for teaching paragliding, but absolutely dangerous for speed flying/ground launching. a person coming from paragliding will know this by looking at it usually, a skydiver may not. 100% agree, I teach my students to first kite a speed glider, then kite a full size paraglider until they are competant. because it is far more difficult to kite a large glider but also builds the muscle memory much faster. then when they get back on the speed glider, they think, 'oh, ok, easy'. (because there is little easier than kiting a speed glider) yes, mostly agree, but the problem is the weather and meteorological issues involved in ground launching compared to skydiving. in skydiving, the plane is going this fast, the wind up here is going this fast, turbulent here, wind is like this on the ground. in speed flying/ground launching/paragliding, weather is FAR more a factor, ESPECIALLY in the micro-meteorlogical conditions of flying 0-100' off the ground or cliff for sometimes the same altitude change as a skydive. there was a recent severe injury by a skydiver who bought a speed glider and took it to a paragliding hill here in colorado. it was a accident caused by location decision as well as meteorological. I am the poster child on needing to know EXACTLY what the weather is doing at all times. (edit, note that I do not teach the speed flying students to FLY full size paragliders, your right, there is not point and it is dangerous, but the skills learned from ground based glider control are very valuable with simple speed gliders and active flight control, especially in turbulent air) Word.

never flown anything older than a 007, 6" is tight. I wanna fly it!

GLX is scary. looks like your rocking it though. YEAH! Here are some of my earlier weak speed flights. a few FlyFrame launches as well. http://vimeo.com/7013631

I have thought about that a lot. After doing high load spirals in a BASE harness with a speed glider I concluded that the control and 'comfort' I have in a seated ultralight