pilotdave

That's called a heatwave around here. Doesn't qualify. Yeah, you're not kidding. When I heard it was gonna be in the lower 40s last weekend, I was so excited! I figured the nice warm weather would be a good chance to test out my cold weather gloves, when I didn't really need them. I also discovered I love landing in snow! So much fun! I'm definitely no swooper, but I still slid along leaving nice ski tracks.

Yeah, I think in an extremely far fetched case, I wouldn't keep my word. But I'm talking about the civil suit I'd have as soon as the crimnal trial is finished.

I seriously doubt I'd ever sue a DZ no matter what, but there is a limit to what ANYONE should have to let go. A bad spot isn't negligence. A freak engine failure of a properly maintained aircraft isn't negligence. A malfunction on a rig packed my a staff packer/rigger isn't negligence. But are you seriously saying that I shouldn't sue if someone literally tries to kill me? Or is suing an individual not covered by the waiver? There has to be a limit. I mean if the waivers really held up in court, I'm pretty sure the pilot could turn around and shoot me in the head and toss me out of the plane with no rig. I should just let that go? I don't think so. Skydiving has inherent risks. But a DZs negligence, and I mean real honest to goodness "they knew they were doing wrong" kinda negligence, shouldn't be adding to the risks. Poor maintenance is when you change the oil every 60 hours instead of every 50. Negligence is when you change the oil once a year, KNOWING that you are putting lives in danger. Especially if they tell me they change the oil every 45 hours. Yeah, I signed the waiver. And I'm not worried that my dropzone is ever truly negligent because I know that it is very well run. But that doesn't mean I accept the fact that the DZ can literally do anything they want to me while I'm in their plane. Edit: If there was a law that said I couldn't sue a DZ no matter what, I'd be just fine with that too. Dave

Picture yourself on a moving sidewalk or giant treadmill. You can walk normally in any direction you want. Your actual MOVEMENT, relative to the fixed earth, will not be the same as your movement relative to the sidewalk. Wind is just like the moving sidewalk. Does it take any more energy to walk AGAINST a moving sidewalk as it does WITH the sidewalk? Well, if you walk at a fixed rate (ie the same airspeed regardless of the wind), then no. I think you're confusing the fact that if you want the plane to fly at the same speed relative to the ground while flying into the wind, then yes, more power will be required. But otherwise, the plane is just an ant on a treadmill. It doesn't care which way the wind is blowing. Dave

As lots of others have said, the flare height really depends on the canopy you're flying. My old PD150 needed to be fully flared from probably somewhere around 10 feet. With my Sabre2, I've flared so late I had to lift my feet...but still had a nice soft landing. Just not possible to do that with any F111 canopy I've ever flown. I wouldn't worry about how many feet you should be flaring at. You probably can't judge the difference between 10 feet and 15 feet most of the time anyway. You've gotta just keep practicing until you find the spot where it works for you. If you know you usually flare too high, flare lower!

The neumann winter gloves just don't look very warm to me. Anyone use em in actual cold weather (as opposed to california cold weather)? Dave

I use Nike football gloves with thin knitted gloves underneath on the cold days. They really aren't warm enough for anything under 40 degrees on the ground, so I went looking for some new ones. Last weekend I tried out some new cross country ski racing gloves I bought. They didn't fit perfectly, and the palms were a little slippery, but I did about a million practice pulls of every handle and decided they'd work alright. The one thing I forgot to try was opening my Z1. So on the ride up I opened it about a dozen times. I found it very difficult, but got it open every time. So I climbed out of the cessna, didn't slip off the strut, and had a fine jump. Pulled with no problem, steered with rear risers with a lot of difficulty, and collapsed my slider. Now the fun part. My helmet was fogging up, as always in the cold, and I just couldn't get the thing open. Tried a few times, then decided it was time to start flying my pattern so it was time to give up. Luckily only a little of the visor fogged, but my glasses underneath fogged too. But, I still had plenty of visibility and landed without a problem. Anyone wanna buy a pair of gloves?

I can't see a bad spot as ever really being negligence. I mean maybe if they drop a student a mile out to sea just for fun. But aside from students that know absolutely nothing about spotting, everyone else is responsible for themselves. And even the student is responsible for finding a safe place to land. So the only time I could see anyone suing for a bad spot would be a student that was purposely put out over a dangerous area, with no way of making it back. But purposely is the keyword. edit: I still think they shouldn't be able to sue, but since there's nothing stopping them, I'd find a situation like that understandable. Dave

It was one show about one group of people. Not every show needs to give an objective view of the topic and cover all aspects. I just love the fact that Miles can use the expression "dialed in" more than once in a sentence.

Some Extreme Tribes BASE footage with some excellent quotes. 6 megs. Hang glider jump with 1 year old packjob. 11 megs. Dave

Just more proof that the theory that the longer a canopy is packed, the longer it takes to open is complete bullshit. Dave

But why would anyone pay $27 for the video when they can just download it from skydivingmovies.com? Hehehe just kidding.

Thats awesome. No go find the royal blue/gray/black vector3 that's probably barely started, and get it rushed through! Sorry, my new reserve is sitting in my apartment here so ya won't be able to pack it.

Same episode? I got the last one taped and have been putting clips on the computer. Dave

It says javelin, but it doesn't look like any javelin I've ever seen. Is that a really old one or what? Dave

I don't have a clue either. But I'm still finding it funny! Dave

I nominate this as the best thread EVER! I can't think of any other thread that's made me laugh so many times. Dave

Proof positive that Sangiro is putting something in the air here that gets people addicted. CONSPIRACY! Now would everybody please quit yer bitching? If you're not banned, go post something useful. Or useless. Just don't bitch about not being banned!

I think its more important to get an RW suit for RW than a freefly suit for freeflying. If you want to do both, get an RW suit. I'm new to sitflying, but I do it in my RW suit. I'm no pro but it works fine for me. Dave

Leave your legs alone and just bend the top half of your body . I used to find it tricky when I was overthinking it. Just bend, you'll flip. Dave

Totally off topic but since you mentioned the hand mount... I complained on here a while ago that the altimaster 3 style handmount is uncomfortable to me. The O-ring is too thick and gets squeezed between my fingers when I'm holding my toggles. (I have a -3, not a neptune). So about 5 minutes after my first post, Roger Allen, Alti-2's CEO, wrote to me telling me the neptune would be able to use a thinner O-ring since it weighs less and doesn't need as much strength. He mentioned it was a change they were planning to incorporate in the future. Well, skip ahead a few months and I asked on here again if they were shipping with the new handmount. Again, minutes later I got a message back saying they were planning to try new mounts soon. Just a few more days later, they had some prototypes built and offered to send me one to try out. It arrived last week. It's PERFECT. The O-ring is MUCH thinner than an altimaster 3's. It fits easily between my fingers, and even when I squeeze them together I can't feel it. So now I need to go buy a neptune. Anyone wanna sell me a used one for under $100?

If you really want to do it, you've gotta be fully commited to it. When I went to the helicopter school to get some info, they gave me a brochure about their school, a brochure about transitioning from fixed wing to rotorcraft, and a brochure about getting a loan. I can't find the info right now, but basically if you go all the way through the commercial program, they help you find a job when you get the license. I'm sure you'll get paid shit and have to move around for quite some time. But you'll be flying helicopters! Personally I'd rather just fly for fun. It'd be nice to get paid for it, but it might not be fun anymore. A guy I work with is a retired army pilot with over 6000 hours in helicopters. He says he doesn't miss flying. Guess it probably doesn't help that he's been shot down multiple times, crashed a huey into high tension powerlines, and all that. Dave

One thing I noticed. I've yelled at a college yearbook editor for this (and she never did it again!). NEVER EVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES stretch a picture to fit in a certain spot. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS crop to make it fit, or deal with pictures of different sizes. Dave

My DZ is across the runway from a big helicopter flight school, and I work for a helicopter company. I'm dying to do it, but I know I just can't afford it (and keep flying planes and jumping). An hour of dual is something like $220. I did a half hour a couple summers ago just to see what it's like. Maybe someday I'll do it for real. Dave

Hahaha... don't get me started on Aerodyne rigs... Just kidding. Saw you guys at Williston last month. Nice looking rigs. I shoulda tried one. Dave