pilotdave

I was talking about the reserve. Dave

There WAS a problem with the equipment and/or the packing. Maybe an easy problem for a more experienced jumper to fix, but there was a problem. What's the big deal about the "guaranteed to open" comment? Everybody knows that no parachute is guaranteed to open. I'm not talking about skydivers, I mean everybody. Most people believe most skydiving fatalities occur when parachutes "fail to open." If all parachutes opened, it'd be a really safe sport, right? In her Good Morning America interview, she even recommended that the interviewer try skydiving. She said something like "you've got to try it to understand." The message I'd take from that is "DAMN, it MUST be good for this girl to say that!" All these news reports will be long forgotten by the time the student season starts back up in most of the country. And I seriously doubt they'll have any negative effect anywhere. Are people upset because they believe this will have a negative effect? Maybe I'm dead wrong about this. What do people think? Regardless of how bad the reporting is, what difference will this make? Dave

Am I the only one that's not particularly upset about this?? The news reports don't seem to be all that wrong. Exaggerated? Sure, like they'd be for any story. But people are talking about this like it's another Scott Lutz. What's the fear? Skydiving is going to go out of business because of some bad publicity? Hell, you'll probably find all kinds of infertile women suddenly coming out for tandems hoping that'll help them get pregnant. People think skydiving is dangerous. IT IS! Shit like this happens! Why would we expect the media to report otherwise? Dave

I found my source about ouragan... Nancy herself on skydive radio show #13 at 20 minutes in. "...we make swoop pants, tunnel suits..., camera suits,... camera jackets, and we're gonna pretty soon go into RW." I'm not insane! Dave

El Al (the israeli airline) has put over 1000 into a 747 with no seats. An A380 could do way more than that I'm sure. Dave

Shoulda edited the background to say 1-800-skyride and they surely would have accepted it.

Add Utah to your list: http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_346193211.html Dave

Terminal may not be constant, but when you are at terminal, your drag equals your weight. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by terminal not being constant... Do you mean terminal constantly slows down as you descend? Or do you mean one's fallrate is not constant due to fluctuations in the air? Terminal velocity can be defined as the velocity that results in drag=weight. It's the equilibrium point. If you're accelerating (changing speed), you're not at terminal. You might temporarily be faster or slower than terminal. Dave

You really believe that injured skydivers get worse medical treatment than people injured in other ways? Attitudes toward skydiving are one thing... they can say what they want (they're right anyway, aren't they?), but actual medical mistreatment is another thing. Prove it, sue, and expect really quick response after the next skydiver gets what he has coming... Dave

Shipping is free on amazon if you're buying FROM amazon. They sell for other companies too, like toys R us. You don't get free shipping on those. You also don't pay tax on online purchases if the company doesn't have a physical location in your state. I shop online all the time... it's often the best way to go, but not always. Dave

When you're at terminal, your drag is equal to your weight. But that doesn't matter much when it comes to exit separation, since you're not at terminal... Dave

I beg to differ. See evidence that I have no standards: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3073 (Only videos I really don't care for are fatality videos. I coulda lived without seeing a PC-in tow all the way down at an old bridge day...) Dave

Where'd I read/hear that ouragan suits plans to start making RW suits? I'm pretty sure that wasn't a daydream. I'm sure those will be as custom as you want them to be... unless it was my imagination. Dave

Ew. Gross. Dave

I almost had to throw up a little bit just now. Duke?? WHY? Did you go there or something? I'm pretty sure my school's official motto was "Fuck Duke." Well during basketball season anyway. Actually they had to change some school rules to stop people from wearing fuck duke t-shirts to basketball games. And ESPN really didn't appreciate the fuck duke chants on live TV. Anyway... 2 jumps and nothing else exciting enough to deserve the proper format.

My point was that even though I hate tye dye, royal blue/black tie die actually looked good to me on one particular rig. Pssssst... if he was buying it for me, I wouldn't be picky about colors. Edit: And pssssst. I think you overdid the tie dye on yours. Dave

A grocery store can sell a gallon of milk for $250. Just because it might be worth $250 to someone doesn't make it reasonable. Dave

That's more than I paid for AFF 1... so, no, not reasonable. Not even close... Dave

I HATE tie dye.... but the guy I bought my canopy from had a vector with black/royal tie dye on a flap or two.... I thought it looked great. But stick with small areas of tie dye. Dave

I did most of my student jumps on very lightly loaded PD230s, then bought a PD150. I've also done a couple jumps on a manta 288. At the wingloadings I had, the 3 canopies were all totally different. The manta scared me... I had so little control over it. Turned WAY too slow, barely flared...not that it mattered. The PD230 was MUCH sportier. It would actually dive when it turned. Still slow, but not bad. I was nervous buying a PD150 since I thought it might be too similar to the student canopies. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a LOT faster and didn't feel anything like the PD230s. Still very docile and all that, but lots of fun. Opens a bit firmer than a more modern canopy and it doesn't flare nearly as well, but it's a great canopy. I have no regrets about buying it. Still have mine, just haven't seen it in a couple years now. Dave

Looks like it's working ok....wasn't for the first 10 mins or so until I remembered to upload the 2nd file that was edited... Anyway, I should probably give credit to Craig Poxon for giving me the idea to steal the idea from IMDB.

Looking for some skydivers from around the world to help me test a new little feature on SkydivingMovies.com. Just log in and rate some of the newer files. (http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=viewall for the new files list). Edit: if possible, watch em before rating them so your rating is meaningful. Specifically looking for some people from outside the US to do this. The feature you're testing is the Rating Details pages, such as http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=ratingdetails&id=3097. I can't test the ratings by country graph myself, at least for ratings from outside the US... BTW, to see the graph after rating the file, just click on "Details" next to the rating on any file's info page. Thanks! Dave

Couldn't you remove the main and reserve and just send back the container for a retrofit? Can't imagine that would cost all that much... Factory repacks are very expensive anyway. Dave

A few years ago, it took me about 5 hours to connect my canopy when I first got it (used). It came with slinks attached, but the lines were terribly tangled and a couple of the slinks had come open and some lines had fallen off of them. So I ended up taking all the slinks off and spent forever getting all the lines untangled and sorted out. It was a pain in the ass and it made me realize that I don't want to be a rigger, but I did learn a whole lot and in some sick way it was sort of fun. Felt great when I got it all connected and did a really thorough line check. I'm sure it's a bit easier when the canopy gets packed up more carefully though! Dave

Easiest way will probably be to just get a firewire card for the laptop. Should be pretty cheap. Then you just need to make sure you have the right cable (usually 4-pin to 6-pin). S-video is most likely video out from your computer, not in. Dave