pilotdave

Next time I'm sick, I need to find some of that british root beer tasting medicine. I love root beer. And cream soda. I hate cola. But I like Kolla from PD. Dave

You sound like a purple mirage kinda guy to me. Don't worry so much about what's best for you... get what's cool. Dave

Will it be available online (for free)? Any major changes from the SAE standard? Dave

If that's agreeing with winsor, then winsor seems to be wrong "90% of the time." He says that we adjust exit timing on windy days for the same reason dogs lick their balls. You are saying that we adjust exit timing when the uppers are strong and the lowers are light to increase separation at opening. Yeah I noticed winsor threw in a comment about the differential between the winds at exit and the winds at opening, but he seemed to ignore his own statement with most of the rest of what he said. It's easy to see on kallend's simulator. Set the uppers just higher than the speed of the plane and the lowers to 0. There will be no separation at opening. But winsor has been suggesting (from my point of view anyway) that wind has no effect on necessary exit separation. He may have used cunning wording to make sure what he said was technically correct, but he may have also confused many people. So billvon and winsor don't seem to be in agreement here... at least the way I'm reading this. Kallend? You're up! Dave

The FAA might not understand the equipment, but the society of automotive engineers are the ones that wrote the requirements. Well, I don't agree with you about the FAA thing anyway. The TSO requirements aren't particularly complicated. I'd have no problem with someone other than the FAA setting our standards if it saved some money, but I definitely think we're in a sport that needs standards for the equipment. And since the FAA is about the only organization that can actually regulate us, they work for me. Dave

Why don't you sit down and just write one post that explains your argument in such a way that us laymen can understand? (I'd tell you I have a degree in aerospace engineering, but you'd probably suggest I should give it back ). I'm 100% sure you understand this stuff. But it is very clear that you are doing a very poor job of explaining your position. No amount of playing with kallend's simulator is going to change anyone's mind because it only proves the point everyone else is trying to make. How about the extreme example of a downwind jumprun? Still doesn't have any effect on necessary exit timing? What about the fact that as canopies open, they fly toward the airport, up the jumprun? So write out your complete thoughts, and give us some scenarios to try in the simulator that prove your point. Dave

If all you want a protrack for is to record max and min speed, you might consider a cheaper audible and the $50 paralog software to go with your neptune. I understand why someone might buy a second audible, but why spend the extra money on a protrack for the second one? Dave

Actual pull was around 3000 or maybe a little lower on that jump. I'll try it on my wrist sometime and see what happens. I wouldn't expect the air pressure inside a helmet to vary so much.... On the wrist, it seems to me that an altimeter is exposed to much greater fluctuations since the airflow around it will change with every hand movement. Being inside a z1 helmet with little airflow, I'd expect pressure to remain closer to static pressure. But I guess not! Dave

I attached a typical RW jump profile of mine from my neptune (through paralog). I'm trying to understand the behavior around pull time. Pretty much every graph has that same sort of shape. But I don't believe the numbers. Minimum speed in the track was 82 mph, but it suddenly spikes to the highest fallrate of the jump, 125, just before pull time. Doesn't make sense to me. I'm thinking it's maybe something going on with the air pressure inside my helmet when I'm pulled upright. Anyone have a clue? Dave

They already make the Havoc and Boomerang full face helmets. Havoc has an opening visor and the boomerang is fixed. Is there a new one coming? Dave

I had a friend of mine pack my reserve right after he got his riggers license. It was his first unsupervised pack job. He had me print the directions from the internet for him. There's nothing like watching a kid that was a couple years younger than me staring at the Reflex packing manual saying "what the heck is this picture supposed to be showing me??" while packing my reserve. He started at about 11:30pm. Finished somewhere around 5am. At least I knew he did a thorough job! Dave

Ever tried averaging your ground speeds in opposite directions? That'll give you an approximate airspeed. Wind might be significantly different as you get lower, but assuming the wind doesn't shift 180 degrees right where you turn around, it's probably better than just ground speed to get an idea of how fast you're really going. And how are you measuring fall rate? My neptune puts my fallrate in the lower 80s just before pull time on most jumps. But I don't buy it. It's inside my helmet and I think something weird happens with the air pressure in my helmet when I track. The paralog graphs somewhat match what I'd expect...fallrate drops during the track... but then does weird things like spike way up just when I pull. I wonder if it is actually the air pressure changing as I'm pulled upright or something. I just can't believe my fallrate increases like 30-40 mph during my waveoff, but who knows. I'll try to post a paralog graph later. Anyone else see the same shape on their graphs? Dave

Ugh... I had to do the math... Between March and September, I spent 14% of my net salary on jumps. When I factor in tunnel time, travel, hotels, a couple of skydiving related purchases, and a tandem jump for a friend, it goes to more like 20% or higher. And that doesn't include a half a tank of gas for each round trip to the DZ every weekend. My wallet can't wait for winter! Course, that'll include one or maybe 2 trips to FL. Dave

I partially agree, but it's still a team effort. The pilot can see and hear things you can't, and you can see and hear things the pilot can't. We all have to work together to do this safely. Where I jump, the pilot uses GPS to put the plane (Super Otter) onto the jumprun. Red light comes on a couple miles early, and green light comes on when the pilot believes it is safe to jump, but NOT necessarily over the correct spot. We do the spotting ourselves, and decide when to jump. But the pilot is far more aware of traffic in the area and ATC issues that the jumpers don't know about. So no green light, no jump, no matter how perfect the spot is. And that can include the light shutting off mid-jumprun. Dave

Shoulda given the pilot some spotting directions while he was yelling at you. When you're last out (or any time), don't forget to check the spot before leaving... you could be really long. The pilot might have wanted you to get out ASAP so he wouldn't have to do a go around for you or something. But landing off beats a freefall collision any day. And I was told to use the 45 degree rule AGAIN last weekend. When will the old timers learn?? Dave

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1016 to be exact. Dave

Avoid paragear at all costs, unless you can't find the item anywhere else. Their prices usually suck. As for a logbook, chances are you can buy one at your DZ for a few dollars. Dave

There are tons of free FTP servers. If you've got high speed internet and no router/firewall, it's really easy to set up. With a router, things get a little more complicated, but it still can be done. I used to run skydivingmovies.com on the Serv-U ftp server. There are plenty of others though. Dave

Wow I guess I shoulda just asked about the email problem, huh?

I'm not a college jumper anymore, but I used to be. You might wanna go down to the University of Florida's collegiate boogie in January. There'll be a lot of college jumpers being rambunctious in the air and on the ground.

All fixed. You'll be sent right to the video page when you log in. Dave

Originally I didn't like the registration idea. But it really helps cut down on bandwidth usage. So basically an annoying registration process filters out all the people that aren't THAT interested to see what's inside, plus a few that are, as bonus.

That's not a bug, thats my way of being an ass! Just kidding. Sounds like a good project to work on. I'll see what I can do. Dave

Naah, it's not just the junk mail folder thing. Some people really never get it. I'm sure some have full inboxes too, but not everyone. Some yahoo users never get it. I always get the emails within seconds. Even to my hotmail account. Guess I'm just lucky. Dave

So my website has a bug I haven't been able to figure out. When people register for an account, the site sends them an activation email. Problem is, some people never get the email. I'm assuming some mail servers treat it as spam and delete it. So I put together a script that looks up everyone that hasn't activated their account and lets me send myself their activation email so that I can forward it to them from my own, reliable, yahoo account. It's actually a pain in the butt, but sure beats the way I had to do it before I wrote the script. Now hotmail is the worst offender. Probably 50% of users that sign up with hotmail accounts don't get the activation email. So I put a big bold note on the registration page that says not to use a hotmail account. You wouldn't believe how many people sign up with hotmail accounts anyway. Guess what? When they don't get the email, I ignore em. They've been warned. Then there are a lot of email accounts that bounce. Today, one guy signed up with 3 or 4 variations of a yahoo account. All bounced. Happens all the time. And people need to type in their address twice to make sure they get it right. People seriously don't know their own freaking email address. Lots of em. Some people are definitely trying to use fake email addresses too. It says right there that they will be getting an activation email. WTF is wrong with people? So do you know your email address? Do you have an email account other than hotmail? GRRRRRRRR. Ahhhh I feel better now... Dave