pilotdave

I don't know anything about the tandem canopies you fly. But I did take Scott Miller's canopy course a few weeks ago. He suggests 3/4 brakes for getting back from a long spot (no wind or downwind), NOT half brakes, 1/4 brakes, or rear risers. Flying into stronger winds is different. The reduced groundspeed will allow you to sink, even though your glide ratio through the air is increased. Your tandem canopies might be different. Try it with a sport canopy. Dave

But you're missing the fact that only accuracy canopies will sink in light or no wind. Modern canopies will fly farther in half or deep brakes in no wind or a tailwind. Dave

I have really learned to expect my audible to fail on every jump. That's cause it fails on almost every jump. But it's probably taught me a good lesson! I love my neptune, but the pull alarm almost never works anymore. Was fine at first, but yesterday I think it worked on maybe 1 or 2 of 7 jumps. Breakoff works fine, and I've heard the flatline right after opening a few times. But for whatever reason, the pull alarm usually fails. But I'm 100% sure that I'm more altitude aware because I expect the failure. It's very hard to truly expect it to fail when you are pretty damn sure it's going to work. Some people set their alarms 500 feet low to train themselves. If you hear the breakoff alarm and you aren't already tracking, you screwed up. Probably a good idea. I'll email alti-2 (unless they write to me before I write to them, which has happened before) and see what they think. I don't have the latest software on mine, so that might be a good place to start. EDIT: Already got an email from Lara to help solve my problem! I've heard good things about L&Bs service, but I bet you need to write to them to be taken care of, not the other way around! Dave

video Dave

Dont forget that harnesses can be resized if you really cant find one that fits. Costs less than buying new... Dave

Also http://www.aeroplanner.com might make things a little easier. Dave

You might be surprised by how big some helicopters really are. Corporate helicopters can be well over 10,000 lbs. A fully loaded blackhawk (not that anyone's worried about those) weighs more than a fully loaded twin otter... almost twice as much in fact. A light blackhawk could lift a twin otter. Then there's the CH-53E, which can gross over 70,000 lbs. But yeah, I totally agree. Even a 70,000 lb helicopter could do some pretty good damage, but it would be absolutely nothing compared to an airliner full of fuel. I'd be a lot more afraid of a rental truck than a typical helicopter. Dave

Deep stall also refers to canard aircraft, which supposedly can't stall. But if the pilot manages to get the angle of attack so high the canard stalls, it's usually not recoverable. Same idea. Dave

If this was bonfire, I'd say a urinal is beyond a stall. But here in S&T, i'd agree with nullified above that it depends how you define a stall. I mean in planes there's something some people call a deep stall. Sure, it's still a stall, but... deeper. Has a stall occured when the canopy rocks back, or is it only a stall when the canopy folds in half? I'd say they're both stalls (aerodynamically), but one is deeper than the other. Dave

Still got the hot pink canopy? C'mon... that needs a name!

One more reason to get a vector3... linkless bridle attachment. RWS has put so much thought into the rig... they just don't do a good enough job marketing how well thought out the rig is. Dave

My fax number sends faxes right to my email. I guess you could probably fill my email box pretty easily. Eh, I don't like getting work emails anyway so it wouldn't be so bad.

The world of skydiving is MUCH bigger than this website. I think you'll see a lot more posts by the conservative types because the crazy thrill seeker types (I'm not one of them) get flamed for everything they say. There are MANY skydivers that could give a rat's ass about this site. Dave

I had a great time with stalls during Scott Miller's canopy course a couple weeks ago. Rear riser stalls were nothing... tail flaps around a little. Toggle stalls were pretty wild. Canopy folded right back until the end cells basically touched. Holding it there was so unnatural, but since Scott said it was ok, I figured what the heck and just held it there until it started to turn. Dave

Ahhh that was fun. Been getting tons of spam from the same company for the last few days. Finally decided to do something about it. Did a little research (gotta love whois lookups) and found a phone number for the parent company of the people spamming me. So I chatted with their operator, who was actually very friendly. I wanted to talk to the guy who actually registered the domain name, but she knew instantly that he was already on the phone. After making sure I was removed from their databases, I asked her what it's like to work for a spam company. Told her I was really just curious. She got very defensive for some reason and told me they don't spam, they send out permission-based direct marketing. I asked who gave them permission to send me spam. She asked if I had used travelocity or any other travel website recently, and checked the box saying I want to receive email. I said no, and asked if I could have a list of companies that work with them. She asked why I want that, and I told her I don't want to deal with any company that would work with a company like theirs. She didn't seem to like that and told me she can't give me information about their customers. Ahh talking with spammers is almost as fun as conference calls with telemarketers. Dave

Naah...just a rerun. Well, not JUST a rerun... it's family guy! I'm just glad to be able to watch it at all even if it is old. Apparently it's coming back for real in january. Dave

Alright, we know what the stupidest stunt was this year. How about other years? What's the dumbest (skydiving) stunt you've seen attempted at the WFFC? Dave

Parachutes are much less prone to collapsing than paragliders. Turbulence can be very dangerous, but won't normally cause the canopy to change shape drastically. Also paragliders are searching for updrafts and thermals... we try to avoid those kinds of things. Here's a video of a skydiver, from his perspective, hitting a dustdevil right before touchdown. Dave

Seems to me that it comes down to what kind of canopies the rig has, and what the person already knew going into it. What did you know about skydiving before your first jump? I think the silver handle is recognizable to an average person as a ripcord. And everybody knows that you jump, count to 3, then pull the ripcord. As far as steering goes, well, I think the average person knows to pull the left string to turn left, and the right string to turn right. Flaring is another story, so the landing would probably hurt. But assuming they don't run into an obstacle or make a low turn, and it's a big reserve canopy, I think the average person could have a survivable landing. Dave

You might be surprised how much quicker that 170 will be than what you're used to. My first canopy was a PD150 loaded at around .85. Most of my student jumps were on PD230s. I wondered how much difference there could possibly be between a 230 and 150 of the same, slow, boring type. Wow was I surprised! Even at such a light loading the 150 felt like it came in at 100 miles per hour compared to the 230s. Turns were so much quicker too. It was still docile and easy to fly, but it wasn't boring. After 100 jumps or so I demoed a couple of zero-p canopies and felt out all over again like every approach was at 100 miles an hour. Glad I started with a more docile canopy though. A zero-p 135 for my first canopy (as most of my instructors recommended) woulda just been too fast after jumping only slow student canopies. Dave

NO SOUP FOR YOU! Dave

Only ~13,400 downloads till #1! I think #2 is a little more realistic. Dave

I went and got grocery store sushi once. I was a little scared but it was better than I expected. Dave

When I saw that paralog worked with the neptune and a palm version existed, I got excited. But reading the web page, I didn't see anywhere that the palm could download directly from the neptune. Seems like it would be possible, but I guess they haven't gone that far yet. Dave

My view of Charley from the motel 6 next to the wind tunnel during the storm and after, and a shot from orlando international. The night shot was much more impressive in person. The cloudiness around the top of the sheraton was the rain just pouring around that globe on top. Dave