pilotdave

I think you should go with a totally unrealistic plot... one NOT involving drugs, smuggling, or the oh so common professional speedstar team. Keep it unrealistic... no chatting in freefall, freefall limited to only a minute, stuff like that. I know, it's stupid and not really believable but it's more exciting that way. Dave

Get yourself windows media encoder. It's free. If ya want it on skydivingmovies.com, I can help with uploading. Dave

Thats definitely the most impressive "amateur" film I've ever seen. The special effects might not be hollywood quality but damn, that's some amazing stuff. Ever thought about doing a "full length short film" with a skydiving plot? Maybe something a little more realistic than the real movies about skydiving? C'mon, git to work, and get quentin tarantino to turn it into a full length movie!

T-34s would be my guess. Dave

Yep, a damn near blind eagle! Dave

What the hell is wrong with making fun of southerners?? They talk funny!

See I got smart. I know there's no way I'm gonna be able to pack a brand new ZP canopy after getting so used to F111 (I've only packed ZP canopies maybe 25 times at most), so I found a nice used sabre2. It's got under 100 jumps on it so it's apparently still pretty slippery (I don't have it yet), but it's gotta be better than brand new. And I even saved about 25% off the BEST price for a new one I could find. All thanks to dropzone.com's classifieds! YAY! I should be getting the canopy tomorrow or thursday, whenever my check clears. Then I'll get to learn the fun of fairly new ZP. Can't wait! Dave

Yeah you can't buy directly from most of the manufacturers (for containers and canopies). Dave

Haha! You've never seen my eyes. And I could pass a class I physical with em too. Dave

You can see a video of a powered parachute jump at http://www.skydivingmovies.com/dl.php?f=misc/als-flying-machine.asf (3 megs). After clicking on this link, right click on "click here to view or save" and save the file to your hard drive. It doesn't seem to stream. Dave

Vortex shedding may not technically be related to stability, but it is related to "skydiver stability" in a general sense. I mean if it causes a belly flyer to potato chip, it might cause a freeflyer to flip out of control. It's just a cause of a disturbance. So the point is that the flexibility of a real person allows us to counteract those wobbles, where a solid belly flyer shape wouldnt. But if chipping is only caused by vortex shedding, how are we controlling it by relaxing? I mean, am I really subconsciously countering each wobble, or are the vortices not being shed as unevenly, or what? Dave

Closing eyes is a bad idea for air sickness, but probably ok for nervousness. For people that get airsick, the best thing to do is look out the window as far away as possible. Watch the horizon. If it's warm, ask the pilot to open his window. Cool air helps. Dave

Not only did he probably not get any good advice on canopy selection, he has no bidness in a white jumpsuit! Not till he learns to fly that canopy anyway!

Aside from when I'm skydiving, I love little planes. The smaller the better to me. I much prefer commuter planes over large airliners. There's nothing worse than getting stuck in the middle section between the aisles of a 747 or 767. And then you have to wait for 300 other people to get off and get their bags. The smaller the plane, the less hassle. When I'm not skydiving, I think of a 182 as a nice, big, fast, complex plane. I have a couple hours in a 206 and it felt massive. Actually I've only flown one bigger plane, a piper cheyenne, which is similar to a king air 90. But when I'm jumping, 182s seem tiny, slow, and uncomfortable. You'll get used to flying in small planes as you jump more and more. Someday ya might even like it!

Stability comes in many shades of gray. It's not just a yes or a no. Belly to earth is more stable than head down or sitflying. So, you may be able to get a head down statue to fall perfectly stable, but once disturbed a little bit, it'll probably go unstable (like I would do if I tried to go head down). The belly to earth statue would be able to withstand a much larger disturbance. In other words, if you dropped both statues out of a plane in any random position, the belly to earth one would probably stay belly to earth, but the head down one probably wouldn't stay head down. On the other hand if you were in a perfect world with no turbulence or anything and you could throw the head down person out in exactly the right orientation, it might be able to stay stable. Of course if you could get enough drag on the legs, it would act like a shuttlecock. But I don't care what you freeflyers say, head down isn't so stable! I'm guessing the belly to earth one would probably be chipping like a tense student. We all know ya gotta relax! Dave

Try it in a soda machine. If it works, you know it was real. Dave

I've been wearing football gloves with a pair of stretchy knitted gloves underneath. They're fine for cool weather, but they suck when it's really cold. After landing I often can't even take my gloves off for a few minutes and my hands just hurt for 15 or 20 minutes. I did one jump on Saturday and had no interest in jumping again just because of my hands. The rest of me was perfectly fine. So I'm on the search for something new. Those mechanix gloves look like they might be worth a shot. They make a whole bunch of different ones though. Anyone know which would be the best? They have one pair that's specifically for cold weather so I'd assume those are the warmest. http://www.mechanix.com/detail.asp?product_id=MCW. Anyone tried this specific type? Dave

Dunno what makes ya turn but just aim to the right of where ya wanna land. (j/k) Dave

Downloaded it and watched it without sound at work. Had no clue what was going on, but it was cool as hell. Nice work! And with no sound, the acting was amazing! Dave

I've known people like that. Luckily I never got screwed. But I knew a guy that lived paycheck by paycheck and when he needed some extra money he'd have to borrow it until he got paid again. But the second he'd get his hands on some money, he'd go buy junk, like an expensive pair of sunglasses. And of course he'd do that before paying his friends back. Dave

Sucks but you agreed to it. Tell him from now on he's gotta pay his share by the time the rent is due, period. Dave

You can only buy or regulate so much safety. All 3 are necessary to some extent. I'm pretty much opposed to any regulation and I'm aware that a cypres or any other device doesn't replace knowledge and instruction (from an instructor, coach, or anyone else that knows more than I do). I think there's a lot of good that comes from requiring instruction from rated instructors and coaches, but I hate that required coach jumps cost over $90 at some dropzones, when there are plenty of knowledgable skydivers that would do it for free. But just because a few coach jumps are required to get a license now doesn't mean skydivers aren't learning a lot from their "elders" after getting licensed. It just costs more to get there. Dave

Noooooooo! Those stupid skydiving animated gifs are sooooo overused and make any website look like total crap. Luckily they've been disappearing but there are still too many websites with them. If you're gonna go with those, make sure you use the same cloud background that everyone used to use too! Dave

There are a bunch. Don't remember where I got these but one of the big buddy icon websites had em a long time ago. I have some others too. Dave