pilotdave

hehe i love wmv. I'd convert the whole site to wmv if so many skydivers weren't freaking mac users (not that there's anything wrong with it!). I'm downloading it now. I'll try to convert compress it with DivX tonight. Dave

I think it's just killing the server at the moment. 97 downloads attempted over a very short period of time. Leroy, 61 megs for a 36 second video is slightly ridiculous. I'm sure the quality is great, but there are some great compression types that will drop the size to a tiny fraction of that while barely changing the quality. Tried DivX or WMV? I can recompress it later if you want. Dave

You guys are arguing with yourselves, not each other. Hook: AADs are good. don't rely on them. kallend: AADs save lives, depending on what the meaning of "is" is... There's no argument here, just a bunch of people repeating themselves over and over again. Dave

That's like a 300% increase in efficiency. Isn't that cool? Dave

I don't think dorbie is disagreeing with you at all. It's not about the jumpers that will do certain jumps only because they have an AAD... it's about those people that wouldn't jump at all without an AAD. Of course those people realize that they need to rely on themselves because the AAD can fail (aside from a few crazy/stupid people who I truly think are the exceptions). But the chances are pretty good that the AAD will work if it's needed. And if it's needed, IT'S NEEDED! I think your point is that people shouldn't change their driving style because they have airbags in their car. She isn't arguing that. She's saying that just because someone won't drive a car that doesn't have airbags doesn't make that person reliant on airbags. I mean, you can call it that if you want... technically that person's driving does rely on airbags. But it's a totally different situation from what you're talking about. And I really think you're "preaching to the choir" here. People that truly think they are safe to rely on backup devices, the way you mean it, are not here reading the S&T forum. Dave

I'll have to find the report... just recently (last year?) an airliner ran out of gas over the ocean and glided a couple hundred miles to a safe landing. There was a leak in one tank. The pilots noticed a fuel imbalance, so they started transfering fuel from the other side into the leaking tank. By the time they realized what they were doing, they had transferred too much to complete the trip. Planes don't fall out of the sky when they run out of gas...even big ones. Edit: yeah, what he said. Dave

Bad sangiro! http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1554133. Dave

Why? It comes up on it's own when you start typing. Dave

Well, I don't know exactly how they work, but I don't THINK any of the doors will open in flight. I'm sure there's a way... but the idea that a passenger COULD open a door in flight scares me. But regardless... if the doors can open, and all the passengers are all panicked as the plane is going down, you're gonna get tackled and beaten if you go start screwing with a door. At 15,000 feet, I think the pressurization would stop you from getting a door open, but then again if you really feel the need to jump out, I'd guess the plane isn't pressurized anymore. I say go sit on the black box... safest spot in the plane, right?? Dave

Ya know there are still a lot of skydivers out there that truly believe skydivers are better off without an AAD. I had a long talk with one of them about a year ago. It's an interesting point of view... not just that AADs lead to complacency, but that AADs actually add risk. I think I might pay to see you locked in a room with one of those people to argue about it. They don't post here much...wonder why.

There's no way you'd get out the door. I think it'd really suck to have your rig on a commercial flight and need it, cause you're screwed no matter what. Dave

Looks like you're uploading a ~65 meg file? Yeah... that'll take a while. I think it's time to start compressing them down a bit more. Dave

FTP would probably be the same speed. How slow is it? I uploaded a file last night at around 60 or 70 kb/s. During the day it's probably more like 40 for me. The server is just at it's rate limit all the time. BTW, check out http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=stats. We're about to hit 666,666 downloads (15 more to go). Dave

Me too. Thanks to mcrocker, I don't have to. But just imagine what a mess it'd be without registration. I think the login screen turns away at least 50% of visitors. Dave

I think the DZ just has to take the loss when it's a student. In my opinion, you never want a student to NOT cut away or worry about keeping the handles just to save money. No idea what the policy actually was where I did AFF, but I'm assuming they woulda charged for everything including the repack. I did once see a student melt a canopy on power lines (and start a brush fire, and knocked out power to the DZ). The DZO let him keep the crispy canopy as a souvenir, and didn't charge him a penny. Dave

A year ago today, SkydivingMovies.com started requiring user registration. 12,835 people have registered and activated their accounts. There are another couple thousand or so that registered with fake/incorrect email accounts. And since March 28, 2004, there have been 509 new videos added to the site, for a total of 1709. Not too bad for a year! Thanks for the support! Dave

I've only done 2 wingsuit jumps, and it took me 6 years to get enough jumps/currency. All I can say is it's worth the wait! I'm dreading spending the money to buy a suit, but I think I'm gonna have to one of these days. Dave

...and the rest. Dave

I just got an email at work with some tips about confined space safety. The powerpoint presentation was too big so I just grabbed the pics out of it. Dave

The last, and possibly only time I've been to a waffle house, it was in enterprise, alabama... or was it ozark? Anyway, there was much discussion about whether or not catwoman had a tail on her costume (big debate among the staff) and what exactly grits are (a nice explanation for us northerners). The waffles were good though. Dave

Yeah, good idea! Freeflyers shouldn't be allowed to post! No, make that guys with purple mirages. Yeah! Good thinking! Dave

ctrl+f? That is SO 1999. Get firefox and turn on the search as you type feature. You just start typing and it searches the page as you type. Single best feature of firefox. Dave

Nothing to learn here you probably don't already know. Backup devices, whether electronic or mechanical, don't always work so don't rely on them. Nothing that wasn't taught at your FJC. Dave

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm just trying to imagine what it would take for me to actually be embarrassed at a parachutist cover. A picture of me on the toilet would probably do it. I am pretty sure no picture of somebody else could possibly embarrass me. Dave

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1527930 Dave