pilotdave
-
Content
7,302 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Feedback
0%
Everything posted by pilotdave
-
3am, someone's in the house, sword drawn "WHO THE F ARE YOU!"
pilotdave replied to kansasskydiver's topic in Speakers Corner
Is that...ummm...common? A friend of mine had a guy get into his apartment. They asked him to leave, he seemed out of it (turned out to be high on something). Then he started trashing the place and screaming at them. They locked themselves into a bedroom and called the police. By the time the police arrived, the guy had pissed on their couch. Turned out he lived upstairs and got confused... thought they had broken into his apartment. Dunno where the pissing fits in. But no swords involved. Dave -
Quit calling me a whuffo. It really happened, I swear! Dave
-
Bulk buying tickets-any disadvantage
pilotdave replied to Unparagoned's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
Dropzones make those deals over the winter to keep some cash flow when nobody's jumping. It's temporarily good for the dropzone (they'll hate you in the summer while you're jumping for "free" -
The glass is half empty damnit! Dave
-
Yeah, when I did a helicopter lesson in an R-22, the instructor cautioned me that it isn't like a plane. You don't move the controls, you just apply pressure in the direction you want to go. Most of the people I work with are former or current military helicopter pilots. I was just talking to someone today who trained in TH-55s (Schweizer 269s). Not only do you have the cyclic, collective, and pedals to worry about, but you also need to control the throttle with the twist grip on the collective. So any time you change the collective setting, you need to change the power setting too... and of course the pedals. That's a lot to think about. I'm still trying to figure out how to get a ride in a helicopter at work. Only managed a tiny bit of time in the comanche simulators. Now that thing was touchy! Dave
-
That's +/- 300 feet variation from day to day, not second to second. They're saying that at a typical location, the barametric pressure will typically vary that much. With an analog altimeter, you've gotta zero it every day. It might be off by as much as +/- 300 feet from the last time it was zeroed. A 300 foot shift in pressure altitude during the day would be a good sign of some nasty weather about to hit. I don't know why they chose to display "MSL." The number is not particularly useful, unless you want to compute density altitude. And it shouldn't really be labeled MSL since it's really pressure altitude, a completely different thing. If you think yours is varying too much, you might want to go into demo mode and see whats happening in all the different modes... aircraft, freefall, and canopy mode. It should not say that you're doing a 2000 fpm climb when sitting on the ground. But it will occasionally show "very slow climb" when it senses a pressure change. Dave
-
The "crappy script" on skydivingmovies.com is a problem with the server configuration for wmv files. Shouldn't happen in IE, but it does in firefox. I'm trying to get it fixed. For now, to download a wmv file with firefox, copy the filename, right click on download, hit "save link as" and paste in the filename. I had a much improved download script working for a day until I realized that the entire contents of every downloaded file were getting written to the server's memory, crashing the server after a short time. Back to square one... Dave
-
http://www.penguinwarehouse.com/ Am I the only one that didn't know you can have a pet penguin? That'd be way better than a dog or cat... at least for the cool factor. Dave
-
Both of my brothers are lawyers so I've learned a little bit about law school. You can predict with good accuracy what law schools you'll get into using only two pieces of information. Your college GPA and your LSAT score. You might have some idea of where your GPA is likely to fall, and you can take a practice LSAT to get an idea of what kind of score you can expect (unless you take a course, which can significantly change your scoring ability). Then you'll have a narrowed down list of the schools you're likely going to be capable of getting into. You can narrow it down further by location, etc. Law school just sounds like hell to me. I'm sure some people love it, but I just couldn't handle the teaching style (which is probably not the same everywhere). To get an idea of what law school classes are like, see the movie Legally Blonde. At least according to one of my brothers. Dave
-
I'm with you. One year left till I have my MBA, and it's all free. I'm actually about to head out to take a Business Law exam. One 5-week law course is PLENTY for me. My company covers 100% of tuition, books, and application fees. The program I'm in also includes dinner and books as part of tuition, so I get free food and get my books brought to me with no forms to fill out to get them paid for. Couldn't be easier... if it weren't for the schoolwork and all. Dave
-
ERAU is NOT a cheap option. Might want to look into the Sport Pilot certificate. It's brand new... not sure you can even get the license yet, but if not, it'll be possible very soon and you can start the training now. Much easier requirements than the private license or even the recreational license. Probably the cheapest way to get you in the air now. Dave
-
http://www.nepal-paragliding.com/parahawking.htm Tandem paragliding in Nepal, with falcons guiding the way to thermals. Looks like fun! Dave
-
I knew a few good things about the Vector before buying mine. I've learned so many more since then. I actually learned about the Mirage SB from Bill Booth at the PIA symposium when a friend of mine (a rigger) asked him why he placed the cypres cutter in such an inconvenient spot. Needless to say, my friend's only gripe with the Vector 3 suddenly became a safety feature. Some other manufacturers have prettier rigs than RWS (and prettier salespeople than Bill Booth too), but when it comes to safety, I think they've got everyone beat. Dave
-
You can try all you want... you can't make a mirage look good, no matter what colors you choose. J/k .... anything in royal blue, gray, and black looks good.
-
In the system safety world, this is the LEAST desirable method of risk reduction. It's the least effective way of preventing a hazard (as we can clearly see). Is training/procedures/rules the only option we have to prevent these injuries? BTW, here's the definition of safety as it applies in my job: "Freedom from those conditions that can cause death, injury, occupational illness, damage to or loss of equipment or property, or damage to the environment." (MIL-STD-882) Dave
-
You can probably get another reflex for a little more than the cost of the handle. Dave
-
Well, I love firefox but I do find that I need IE every once in a while. I installed a "open this page in IE" extension so i can very quickly switch to it when i need it. But overall, firefox is soooo much better. Dave
-
I preferred to make it easier to download/save videos instead of trying to prevent that. There's no perfect way to prevent a video from being downloaded, if someone wants to go to enough trouble. But from a bandwidth perspective, I'd rather have each user download a file once and never again as opposed to downloading it each time they want to watch it. The site currently has over 10,600 registered, activated users. I'd guess that the vast majority are skydivers. But any one of them can send a video to a friend or whatever and suddenly it's all over the internet. Here are comments about Jeb Corliss' A Year in the Life: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1378344. So back to my original question. Are some BASE videos more fit for the public than others? Should they be treated differently? Dave
-
Yep. http://www.uselessjunk.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1110 Scroll down for the comments... pretty entertaining. And comments about it after it was posted somewhere else too: http://www.fazed.net/?p=comments&t=c&last=1&id=7374 Dave
-
And you jump a Mirage G4, subject to a service bulletin regarding AAD installation. Think about what you're saying. Edit: this was not a knock on Mirage (well, maybe it was... Bill Booth had solved that problem years ago). My point was the AAD is part of a system, designed and tested by humans. No matter how perfect each component is, they all have to work together to save your ass. It's been proven that a particular AAD installation is not 100% effective. Perfect software isn't always going to work perfectly in the real world. Dave
-
That's from Comanche 3D! That was a GREAT game. I think I still have the disk and original box somewhere. I was very disappointed when I upgraded from a 486 to a pentium... the game played in fast forward. I got to fly a couple Comanche simulators before the program was cancelled (the portable ones should be in arcades now...they were great). A whole lot harder to fly than it was in Comanche 3D though! Dave
-
I woulda included you in the poll, but I didn't know you were a candidate to be the next US presidential helicopter. It's the Sikorsky VH-92 vs. the Lockheed/AgustaWestland US-101. HUGE decision. What's your opinion of the US president flying in a british/italian designed helicopter? Dave
-
There's a gray area between "agressive marketing" and fraud. But ASC is so far outside that gray area, I can't believe they even attempt to rationalize what they do. I'm not a fan of 1-800-skydive either, but you don't see people complaining about them all the time even though they aren't all that different, in theory, from 1-800-skyride. It's HOW skyride does business that most people have a problem with. Not exactly the business they do. Dave
-
What can we do about the USPA.....
pilotdave replied to diablopilot's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
I think I've only been to one non-GM DZ. They DO require USPA membership. BSRs, student training programs, etc are all voluntary. We follow the guidelines not because they're law like the FARs but because they help keep us safe. The non-USPA DZ does not follow all BSRs or the ISP exactly. They do have an S&TA though (don't know if he's an "official" USPA S&TA or not) and a DZO that make the safety/BSR enforcement decisions. The DZ isn't a group member because the DZO can't find a real benefit to joining. But requiring USPA membership, having all USPA-rated instructors, and all that makes sense to help protect the DZ. The jumpers have USPA insurance, they're properly trained, etc. Dave -
Big decision will be announced at 5:00 pm (eastern). Who's it gonna be? You do know what I'm talking about right??? Dave