gowlerk

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Everything posted by gowlerk

  1. FWIW it probably wasn't assembled like that. More likely it had the bag flipped through the lines. Possibly when the second rigger opened it up to partially "inspect" it without actually repacking it. But either way the moral of the story is what you say. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  2. This is common in the marketing world. If your product isn't ready yet, but you think some potential customers might buy it, release just enough info to maybe make them wait instead of buying someone else's. It is a dirty trick, and Aerodyne should treat us all better than that. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  3. I once was setting my brakes when a friend's swoop was heading straight at me. I stood my ground because I had been taught that if I dodge, I would be unpredictable, and he had plenty of time and distance to miss me. Well... his knees slammed into my chest, but no one was injured. I asked him why he didn't swerve, he said he thought I would move. Many weeks later he admitted that he did it on purpose because he had his camera on and had always got great video of people dodging out of the way before. I was the first one who didn't. He doesn't do that anymore. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  4. Right off the top of my head (actually in my pocket right now) I have a beat up old Texas Instruments calculater that I use nearly every day. About 25 years old, works great. I've seen many 30 year old cars with original radios that work fine. All this is meaningless, as is your particular arguement. Not to mention your calculator and car radio didn't cost 1300 frickin' bucks. Then don't jump a fuckin Cypres- I wouldn't jump a Vigil if it were free. To each their own. What exactly is your point? Someone else brought up the maint and frustrating lifespan, I took the ball and ran with it. It's a legitimate complaint that plenty of people have. You are aware that the sensitivity and tolerances of an AAD are just a little bit different than a calculator or car radio, right? I am aware of that. That's why I point out that both the comparison and the argument are meaningless. The level of emotion that goes into beliefs about different AADs is incredible in my view. What I believe is that both these manufacturers are being honest about the products they produce and have designed. One knows that the product they make needs service every 4 years and will have a 12 year life. One knows that the device will last 20 years with an in field battery change after 10 years. No one knows better than the makers, they are both honorable. After that the only question for me is simple math. You can make your own choice, whatever makes you feel "safe". Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  5. Right off the top of my head (actually in my pocket right now) I have a beat up old Texas Instruments calculater that I use nearly every day. About 25 years old, works great. I've seen many 30 year old cars with original radios that work fine. All this is meaningless, as is your particular arguement. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  6. Come to our small one Cessna DZ and you will still see a lot of this. The only problem is you won't get very many jumps due to the lack of lift capacity. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  7. It is standard procedure to clean and lubricate the yellow Lolon cutaway cable. If you were to read the manual you will find that you should do it monthly. Although the reality is that it probably only gets done by your rigger at R&I time. You may have found your cutaway easy, as have I, but several people have died due to hard cutaways. It is important that cutaways be as easy as possible. Generally food grade silicon spray is used for this cleaning and lubricating, although some people use a light oil. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  8. In Canada a C CoP is good for all the instructor, demo, tandem ratings. Few people bother with D and the E is discontinued. It was only a vanity rating. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  9. If you need a motor I would reccomend one of these. I have one on my 2 needle. No clutch, it only runs when you need it to and the speed is easy to control. https://atlaslevy.3dcartstores.com/Premiere-CSM550-Variable-Speed-Servo-Motor-_p_103.html It will mount into the same holes as a standard clutch motor. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  10. Yes, pics. Sewing machine motors can be 110 volt or 220. I don't think they would ever use a 3 phase or anything exotic like that. But 220 is very common in factory sewing operations. There may be a wiring diagram inside the connection cover. You can buy a brand new clutch type motor for less than $100 and even better, a servo type for a little more than $100. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  11. That would not explain reserves opening too late from AADs firing at terminal velocity. Do you think that those are basically caused by late firing for whatever reason? The recent Florida double fatality comes to mind here. Surely these guys were falling fast enough for there p/cs to be effective. Perhaps it is well known in Deland through the grapevine what actually happened. But out here it's a mystery to us. I guess if I take my choice from your options menu, late firing would be the logical answer. Late cutaways resulting in fatalities are understandable. No pulls or late pulls are as well. But what is the point of an AAD if it fires too late? I have begun scaling freebags from packed rigs that come in for service. But it's just for my curiosity so far. There is no standard I can apply. Although I will be handing out free advise to customers. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  12. So we don't know if these AAD firing fatalities involve p/c launch hesitation related to using a cutter or if they are related to slow to extract dbags. Or both, or neither? And as far as we know no one is looking to find out, or if they are they don't want to speak of it. I guess the closest we can come to an understanding is that there is a move by the industry to raise activation altitude. It may go a long way to solving the problem without anyone having to acknowledge that there even is a problem. Oh well, sport skydiving is a risk activity. The main public exposure is through tandem where the rules keep us safer. Maybe we have no right to expect more from the PIA. I'm guessing there are many within the industry that understand exactly what the problems are. Maybe Mr. Sherman has been correct all along. Even if he does sometimes sound like a conspiracy theorist. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  13. Ok, I've got it. It is not a ballute. And I've done some searching and now see that the controversy between Bill and John over p/c design is old news. I'm sorry I brought it up again. I still would like to know why we have had so many too late to inflate reserve fatalities after AAD fires and what we can do about that. There is no investigative body to look at this. I'm sure there are people who know, but none are saying. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  14. I shoot Nikon, but I`d be surprised if Canon is different. Exposure should adjust for each shot in a sequence unless you go deep into the menus and set exposure lock on purpose. You can also choose to have the focus lock with the button pushed, which you might want to do with autofocus if you have a large depth of field setup. Otherwise many cameras will slow down while they decide what to focus on. You are probably wanting to shoot rapid "spray and pray" frames. Sometimes this works, but many times composing the shot you want is better. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  15. Which makes me wonder. Why does the Racer have the p/c on the outside? Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  16. Now that's got me wondering. I can see intuitively why a p/c that is shaped like a parachute could be more effective for the size than one shaped like a balloon. Has anyone ever attempted to make a man sized balute type parachute? Would the oscillation be extreme? Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  17. Once for a friend's 100th we had him climb out of the 182 first. We told him he had to get waaaay out there to give us room. When he was out there we climbed back in a closed the door leaving him out there alone watching the airport get further and further away till he finally left alone. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  18. Sandy, A G-10 is a point and shoot and they aren't designed to respond as quickly as a DSLR. The SL1, and any other SLR uses TTL (through the lens) exposure control. Meaning that the camera decides on the shutter speed based on the actual conditions when you release the shutter. (when not set on manual shutter control) Using a wide zoom like 10-17 should allow you to use the widest setting with the lens on manual focus. Just find the place where the nearest important element is still in focus and infinity is as well, the range is huge with this type of setup. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  19. That is interesting, but it only tells us the difference between the three different products in one sample in 1988. I agree that the Racer system has several advantages in regard to potential speed of reserve deployment. But it may be that it is the Racer p/c that is the outlier in terms of extraction ability. What I'm wondering about is not the already proven difference between Racer and everything else, but the difference between Vector type and Wings/Javelin ect. type systems. I suppose in the end that the force generated by a sub-terminal cutaway may be a lot more important than that generated in a wind tunnel at high speeds. Although the fact that the drag increases by the square of the speed would seem to indicate that one can predict the other. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  20. I've not actually seen an Infinity p/c, but I've seen many Wings and Vectors. In what way are these two similar? They look to be very different to me. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  21. 1) Yes 125 mph wind is quite noisy. After the parachute opens people find the difference startling. 2) Only in very warm places would people regularly jump in just shorts. That advice probably is given for a place that is selling tandem jumps, and is likely based on wearing a jumpsuit over top. Although it is generally warmer than that at 3500 ft, most jumps are from 11,000 to 14,000 ft. Conditions vary like the seasons, but can be very cold at times. 3) In soft ground a falling body is said to leave a "crater" Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  22. Poptop safer? I don't buy it, epecially the "semi poptop" rigs. The reason is that although they likely will get the p/c into the air faster without having to push flaps aside, that doesn't seem to be the current problem. The problem is rigs that are slow to extract the bag once the p/c is in the air. Rigs that have the p/c under 4 flaps have large strong springs that do the job, it is a non issue. They also have larger p/c s that I speculate (yes, I expect to hear opinions on this) are capable of generating more force from less airspeed than the smaller ones used by the more exposed versions. What good is it to get it into the air if it doesn't produce enough force to pull the bag out of the tight container? As far as I'm concerned. the Vector balute type p/c is the best at this, it works even on large Sigmas. Talons also have large ones. I feel that looking at your p/c cap on the outside and thinking that it makes you safer is a false premise. I will grant the the Racer solves the problem by eliminating the tight container. Does anyone here know how much force is generated by a Vector versus a Wings p/c? Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  23. And only 150 eur extra for this minor change to the software! At that price I think Airtec will not be taking much market share away from AAD who's Vigil has long included the same feature. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  24. Easy to fix. A little heat from a butane lighter will clean up that fuzziness nicely. (kidding) Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  25. They are dated by month and year of manufacture. They aren't cars, they don't have model years. If you buy one in Jan, it will almost certainly be dated from last year. They are good for 20 years. Will you still be using it then? Buy it before you need it so when it comes time, you have it in hand. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.