pilotdave

http://www.rocketmaninc.com/ You can see the rocket belt scene in this trailer: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1748 Dave

That'll never work...they'd need somewhere to upload the videos for impartial judging. Someone would have to go invent that. Dave

Easy for 4-way and 8-way, if you know the names of the formations. My idea was for those 5, 6, 7, 9, etc ways. Just a program/website that can be open at the DZ all day, handing out random, RW jumps of the desired size/number of points. My original suggestions was MUCH simpler, using pre-drawn formation diagrams and just loading random images. pds took it about 1000 steps further. I can think of tons of of great uses for this. Sharing fun formations that you design and try out, competitions between DZs, etc. My DZ does a fax meet every year with other local dropzones. Time to bring it to the electronic age! Dave

You're getting me all excited again. edit: not about the math. Dave

BTW, you can see trailers for a lot of commercial skydiving videos at http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=category&id=29 Dave

Well it also has a rating of 5 stars. Course it only has one vote. And it was me. And I only did it to make him feel better... But it really is great. If the DVD is close to as good as the preview, that'll definitely put this one in the top 500 skydiving DVDs of all time.

Yeah... but what I didn't mention is that I also stayed in a holiday inn express last night. And that it was a joke. Dave

FA is area forecast (french acronym). It's at the beginning of a standard METAR/TAF. edit: Got access to DUATS? If you request a standard low altitude weather briefing for lets say KSEA (Seattle), you'll get a loooong area forecast, starting with the san fransisco area forecast (where the SFO comes from, I assume). It then goes into the area forecast for each region of Washington, starting with the area west of the cascades. Below is the "translated" version, if that's what you're looking for. ...and in case you need it, the same area forecast "untranslated": Dave

What class is that for? Dave

Doesn't the "particular purpose" have to be an unusual purpose? If a seller sells a skydiving canopy to someone that plans to use it for BASE jumping, and he knows that it will be used for BASE jumping, and he implied that the skydiving parachute was fit for BASE jumping, THEN he'd be liable. But selling a skydiving canopy to someone that would be using it for skydiving shouldn't fall under implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. I took a business law class a couple months ago. The example we used was hiking boots. If the seller knows the buyer plans to use these hiking boots to climb mount everest and these are low quality hiking boots meant for strolls through the woods, and the seller knows how the buyer plans to use them, he could be liable. But if the boot tears during a regular stroll through the woods, he wouldn't be liable under that implied warranty. A skydiving example is definitely more complex but I just don't see that particular liability being applicable. Then again, I took one law class and you might have taken a few more. Dave

I had SUCH a good one that I never got to use and now it's obsolete. Before it was cancelled, I worked on the Comanche helicopter. It had a gun under the nose, like an Apache, except this one could spin around and stow inside a fairing, for stealth. The gun was called the "turreted gun system" or TGS. So I was waiting and waiting for the day I could say to some guy, "hey, your TGS is unstowed." But that day never came. So sad. Dave

Yesterday was my bday too. Didn't get nuffin, but Monday I got a promotion and big raise at work so I'm happy! I'll be getting some presents over the next few days. Dave

There are probably 30+ simultaneous downloads of that file going right now. The poor server must be hurting.

No but I saw you on TV today....Science channel, about thrill seekers. Nice job! Dave

I have only seen a couple icons up close. But they looked to me like there is a real good reason they are cheaper, and probably built quicker, than a vector. Quality-wise, I have no idea how a mirage compares to a vector. All I know is Bill Booth can explain every detail of the Vector and why it was designed as it was. And every explanation somehow ends with safety. So anyway, back to the original question that was asked here. The only thing I've read here is they're all the same. I don't agree with that, but lets here from some owners as to why you like one of those rigs. "It's comfy" or "it looks good" isn't much of an answer because EVERY rig is the most comfortable to somebody and every rig is best looking to someone else. Overall I love my vector because I think it's the best designed rig available. I don't believe it's most comfortable or best looking. But I also like the little pockets under each arm. Perfect spot to store my pull up cord. I also love that the closing loop connects to the bottom flap. Only have to get the loop through 3 grommets instead of 4. Speeds up my packing a little. Took a few packjobs to get used to, and my rigger mentioned it was a feature he didn't like when I first got it. But after a few packjobs, I realized how much easier it made packing (compared to my reflex). It also means I never need to pull my pull up cord toward the top of my container, which I always found to be the hardest direction to get leverage, since you can't sit the rig up on the yoke to push toward the floor (my reflex was extremely tight). Of course I also like the skyhook and collins lanyard, but I haven't used either one to see for myself. So what do mirage, icon, and infinity owners like about their rigs...specifically? Dave

Hmm...chopped the wings off an F-104 and put some better wheels on... yeah, that'll go fast.

You can save as another format like mpeg or avi, then bring it into windows media encoder or windows movie maker and make it an avi. I really like the windows movie maker that comes with XP service pack 2. It does a good job of compressing without needing to be an expert on codecs and video compression. Dave

There's no automatic way to fix stuff like that. What's behind the fog? If there's not much detail in it (a bunch of sky), it's probably fixable. If it's people, well, it might take a bit more work. Dave

Off topic but you can order custom t-shirts one at a time from http://www.zazzle.com. I've only ordered one, as a prototype for shirts I had screen printed, but it came out great. Not screen printed, but whatever process they use is very good...shirt hasn't faded at all. Definitely NOT iron-on type things. Much nicer. Nicer than screen printing if you ask me, since it's soft. Dave

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2127 Dave

We were jumping in CT today. It was snowing out during load 1 (a 3300 foot hop n' pop, cause of clouds). Flying my canopy through snow was actually really fun. Clouds finally cleared and we went all the way up. Freaking cold, but fun! 7-way hybrid from today. (that was the entire otter load). Some of us have been jumping most weekends, and I've already been in the hanging harness when I took a coach rating course last weekend (still waiting on the air evals till I'm a little more current). Season's in full swing for some northern jumpers, even in the US. Dave

Yep, our Safety Day is just pushed back to April 2. I think it's a good idea to delay it until people really are coming out to start their season. We just got like 6 inches of snow here... skydiving is still barely a thought in a lot of peoples' minds. Dave

Hmmm.... 7000-9000 unique hits per month... 6700 page views per day... 12,271 members required to click on at least one google ad or get banned... Yeah, this could work.

What's the freezing point of green jello (in radians please... this will have to be done outside the US to avoid an FAR violation and possibly an EPA violation)? I figure anything over pi/4 should be warm enough. Dave

I think sangiro once posted he was denied an adsense account because of the content of this forum. Dave