tdog

Well, if you want a "real" projector, you better hope a Barco, Christie Digital Systems, or Digital Projection, brand falls off the truck... Sony just does not have the projection market share in the professional world for large format presentations.

Normally I am a polite person. But when people knocked on my parent's house door when I was growing up, trying to sell something material, I would just say, "no thank you." When they sold something religious, I would always become a brat... The following were my top two replies: 1) No thank you, I just purchased the book of atheism from the guy who came yesterday. 2) Hold on, I have a copy of the book you are holding in your hand, that the guy gave me a few days ago.. I was reading it last night, I am really interested, and I have a few questions. Would you mind waiting a moment while I find it, because I really need you to help me, because only you can save me. (Close the door. Never come back)

You gotta like going in crawl spaces and attics - walking roofs - and flirting with a bunch of real estate agents to get on their lists. The one that inspected a house I was involved with the sale of - found all the little things that did not concern us as sellers, (leafs on the roof, cosmetic paint blemishes on the inside of the house) but did not see a few of the big issues that I was aware of and did absolutely nothing to hide - like a big 3 foot hole under the front door sidewalk with a huge crack across the patio - or a pile of mud on the basement floor that clearly came from a flood. Now the people who purchased the home were smart people and asked the right questions and we answered them. 1) we were mud jacking the patio anyway due to a gutter that broke causing water to run along the foundation and reveal poor back filling that lasted 20 years before being exposed, but they were buying it so fast the contractor had not been there. 2) the flood in the basement came from a broken pipe that had been repaired, and the mud came from the crawl space. Neither were structural. And the homeowner did not make us paint the bathroom or clean the roof as his agent's inspector recommended - because it was fall, and the leafs had already blown away... If you are at all mechanically inclined, know a bit about construction and repairs - or you think you could learn about these things - I bet you will be better than the average guy in the industry....

Would you like to submit this marketing plan to Valtrex, or should I....

I only have done two tandems (on the front side, one as a newbie, one as an experienced skydiver) and zero as the TI - but I jump at a DZ where my friends/fellow instructors do 100-200 tandems a weekend as a team, so I learned a lot from them... I think that not being in control, not knowing what to expect, has more to do with it, than the center point... However, you bring a good point, not so much the student being not directly under the canopy, but where they are relative to the lines and the CG as it swings out... I mean, we as experienced skydivers can easily change where we are in the "window" of the canopy during a turn - by pulling both brakes hard before a turn we are forward of center, for an example... That does not make me sick... But the student is father forward... Anyone with more direct TI work wish to share???

It does not really count as a monitor, however when I was doing a Microsoft event - they showed the prototype for what you guys call the XBox... But this box was more beefy so it was rendering at very high resolution. Well, we had a projector capable of a movie theatre screen, but we only blew up the game to 15' wide by 20' tall... And since it was Microsoft and we were also showing this new OS called "Windows XP" to the customers, we had to have computer level resolution so when they showed the workings of the OS the audience could read the text. But the biggest screen I have worked with was a 40 foot wide LED wall, and short of imax, skydiving footage never looked so good.

A jump ticket? Within three more posts, I expect someone to say - "A lifetime supply of Valtrex."

I work in the entertainment field... So I know a lot of actors and musicians. Most will "sell out" to a commercial here and there... But... What would it take for you to be in this commercial - and keep a straight face - knowing your mother would see it on national TV... So what would it take?

You are 100% normal. I know many tandem instructors who keep "barf bags" - but I don't know of any experienced skydivers who do... The reason is - between uncomfortable straps on tandems and lack of being in control... Well, you know... Being in control of the canopy makes a huge difference. (You don't have to spiral down if you don't want to either).... The car analogy is true... The passengers normally get sick before the driver.

floridadiver81, Don't worry about memorizing anything.... I say this seriously. As I have seen so many people spend so much time memorizing the details they don't see the big picture and how simple it is. Then they get in the sky and get all nervous because they did one of the small details out of order... For an example, at our DZ, our AFF level 2 is pretty much the first half of a Level 1... Then we add, "altitude-turn, altitude-turn, altitude-forward." Try saying that with a little bit of white boy rap, and you will see how easy it is to memorize a dive. Now, your level 2 dive flow likely will be completely different, but just say it with some rhythm when your instructor tells you what to do, make it a dance, and it is so easy to remember. So relax. Don't stay up all night studying.

Humidity vs wet.... I can't honestly see any way non-condensing humidity would turn into thick enough ice between the layers of fabric to cause enough cohesion between the fabric to keep the canopy from opening. There is just not that much air, able to hold the humidity, inside a packjob. Ok - the science content... Lets say you packed at 100% relative humidity (the maximum water content in the air before it rains/condenses) - at 25 degrees C (77F) - 100 grams of air would hold 2 grams of water. The density of air at ordinary atmospheric pressure and 25°C is 1.19 g/L. A sport parachute DBag contains between 10-20 liters of content - so at an average 15 liters, with no canopy, the bag would contain 17.85 grams of air. 17.85/100*2 = 0.357 grams of water. Knowing the air inside the dbag could hold less than 0.357 grams of water in worst case scenarios, which is basically a drop of water, there is not enough water to cause enough cohesion for 150 square feet of fabric to stick together. Now - can the ZP fabric absorb enough water to become rigid and stuck together. ZP is not exactly the most water absorbing material made... So I ran a quick experiment. I took the opposite of ZP - a paper towel designed to absorb water. I saturated it in the sink, squeezed out any excess, folded it in half, and put it in my freezer. The towel was stuck together, but came apart with some force and be could be crinkled up - proving that it was not so stiff it could not change its shape. So - if you take your rig and get it wet with the addition of water (spill, water landing, etc) - I believe it could freeze and cause issues, especially if there is standing water between the layers of folded fabric. But there is some new evidence that wet canopies even unfrozen may cause issues. But, if you pack your rig at 100% humidity and take it to a cold climate (where the moisture in the air between the fabric will condense) - there simply is not enough water content in the air to cause any issues. And - as you take your rig to a different climate, it will find equilibrium with the air - meaning if the canopy has some moisture content different than the air around it - the moisture will wick out. If you think the container is too thick for moisture to wick - consider a building that flooded. They installed dehumidifiers inside the building and made it very dry compared to the outside world. The restoration company could not understand why the walls would never dry out. The reason was because the moisture from the outside world was traveling thru a foot of cinder block walls and getting stuck in the drywall on the way in the building. As soon as they turned off the dehumidifiers, the walls quickly dried as the moisture was no longer trying to get in the building... So a rig will do the same thing - in the aircraft on the way to Alaska in your example, humidity levels inside the rig will find equilibrium with the dryer air. So, while I have not tried it and do not suggest anyone should if they are concerned, I claim "myth busted" - a rig packed in high humidity will not have enough moisture content to freeze into a brick in very cold climates.

In my first flight course for Paragliding - there were three. One died. One won't walk again without a limp. And me... Ground launching scares the sh&^ out of me, after seeing what happens to perfectly good canopies close to the ground. But I think it is cool you want to learn. Please do! But from a person who has "been there done that", respect it... If you want to fly, then you should learn from people who know the details. I would recommend perhaps finding a paragliding instructor to help you out - they probably would do it for a kind gift... Trying it without instruction is not a good idea. For an example, this is what you learn in paragliding... Why do you need two windsocks for ground launching? Where should these be? Which direction should each face? What is a rotor? Where is the most dangerous spot to fly on a hill? What are the effects of thermals on the mountain? Where are the areas of sink? How can you inflate your canopy facing the canopy (reverse inflation) vs forward inflation. Knowing what I know, and after a few bad launches, I would not jump into this quickly. Here is a good skill... Can you kite your canopy for 2 minutes on flat ground? If it dives one direction, how do you get it back over your head (using your feet and arms)... Once you can do that, then you have the baseline for a launch...

That scuff is probably from putting the rig pinside down on the floor, as I bet it is the "touching spot" on the rig when put down that way... Am I correct???

Assuming the traditional non-high performance landing.... What is the rule at the DZ? Can you have left hand and right hand patterns? I know many times I cannot get to a left hand pattern without cutting people off, so I go right hand or visa-versa. I believe the key is more so landing the same direction as everyone else... The key with both left and right at the same time is to not cross the whole landing area on your x-wind, because you will be facing the canopies in the opposite pattern, so set up the pattern so the turn from x-wind to final is at the edge of the landing area on "your side", and they turn on "their side".

I buy that in the context of on the DZ training, meaning - learn now, jump in an hour. There is no time to process lots of info into longterm memory, so what is learned the day of a jump needs to be focused by importance and without conflict. I have taught many large FJC last summer. I always end with a verbal quiz of the "key things". Then there are two written quizzes that we discuss after they answer. I use the scores and the speed in which people answer to determine how well they remember what I taught... I then use the scores to tweak how I teach next time... One thing I have learned - if a student can answer the "why" question, they are going to be able to put the answer in their own words quickly. If they don't know the "why", then it is just a matter of memorization, which is much harder to recall. I would also argue, understanding the "why" allows for better problem solving when the circumstance is "not in the book." That being said, I want students to think about things, and ask questions, that prove to me they are learning "why" they are taught what they are taught... But - I don't buy the fact information overload exists off the DZ, because all it does, if done properly, is allow them to question "why" and get a deeper understanding. What people learn by critical thinking and analyzing from what the see, read, watch from training videos, books, and the internet - does not conflict with the on the DZ learning if the student has been taught that every task has more than one solution, and some are right, some are wrong, some are simple taught to students, some are advanced that they will tranisition to eventually. If anything, off DZ thinking, causes better retention, because the student might read about EPs, then ask themselves, "what did I learn in school" and it will tickle their memory. Hopefully their instructors have built the culture where their student knows there is more than one way to skin a cat, to follow the instructor's way until they are no longer a student, and then they can make their own decisions based upon their own knowledge. If the student has not been introduced to this concept, and hopefully accepted the culture of learning, then I would blame the instructor, not people on DZ.com who shared their opinions....

Good luck.... I had tried DotNetNuke on a very beefy webserver... I ran into bugs left and right. The worst was that, the first page, if no longer in the cache of the server, would take upwards of a minute to load. I found some aftermarket plugins to "fix this problem" by basically running the homepage every timer click - so the site would never leave the cache, or if it did, the daemon, not the user, would have to wait forever... I could never get the daemon to work. If you have solved this problem or know anything about it, please let me know. I would have liked to use dotnetnuke for the skydiving league, but instead opted for good-olde HTML/Dreamweaver because I ran out of testing time and the ROI became cheaper just to abandon dotnetnuke...

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Ya - but guess what... Dropzone.com in the public forums is probably a "safer place" for someone to get advice, because there is always someone here to cry foul to really bad advice... In the hangar, two guys in the corner talking - there are no checks and balances. At least here, the newbie will see more than one opinion and see a heavy debate and should "understand" that they need to think more about the questions at hand.... Start the culture of critical thinking when someone has 1 jump so when they have 25 or 2500 they are not the ones giving the bad advice.... And, if someone on these forums reads real bad advice, which many other people offered in debate as being bad, and follows that advice... More power to their stupidity...

Yep, he sure is... (Replying to your post because I agree) And, what I liked about Bills post is that he says he will add value while also recommending that the person talks to someone at their DZ... It is not the autotext, "Ask your instructors", which is just going to cause frustration and not solve the problem for the person asking the question when someone else posts an answer... You guys are all right! Bill, you, Aggie - all in your frustrations working with students, - but saying "Ask Your Instructors" is not going to solve the problem longterm for the student, only defer that ONE question. The fact is, I am guessing - 60% or more of the advice someone is going to get in this sport is wrong. At 2 jumps or 100 jumps or 1000 jumps, we all can open the new skydiver to the concept to hear what other people are saying, but never believe it at face value until they have thought about it critically and decided if it is good advice.

Then don't answer at all! Just kidding... Actually - the hardest "I read on the Internet questions" I faced all of 2006 were the "So, I saw on the news that someone fell out of a harness" and "so I saw on the news that someone's reserve malfunctioned." Both of these happened in the "uplifting, why we enjoy this sport" part of the FJC with 9 other people I then had to educate on the subject. The rest of the questions "from the internet" normally start a good two way conversation and I don't mind someone reading up on the internet. I will give links to manufacture web sites, etc... I use the line to students when I am working with them one on one: "I learned more from the internet and even Dropzone.com than anywhere else... I DID NOT answer my questions using just these sources, but I learned of questions I did not even know to ask. Once I discover the question on the internet, I answer it with any and every source of information." I also say in the first jump course: "Yes, I am a rated AFF instructor, which means I have a rating to teach you the absolute basics required to jump from a plane. I am not always right. No one is. Your job as a student is to open your mind and start learning who to believe. Find mentors on every subject at hand. Until you are cleared to self supervise, we need to work together as a team on every jump, so don't get creative based upon something you read, but very soon you will no longer be a student and learning how to learn in our sport now is very important."

I agree and I almost said something about this in my post... "Dear Friend, your skydiving school has a method they have designed, and it probably will best work if you follow it pretty closely." I only have just over 100 student jumps last year, but I actually like when people ask questions, even from the internet. I have enough confidence to say, "we teach this way because..." And sometimes I say, "that will work too, wanna try it?" Of course these are for the small picture decisions that are already instructor discretion. I will agree - it is real bad when a student does something you are not expecting because they read something on the internet or talked to someone else - but as an instructor, I hope to build a relationship with the student where they understand we are going to jump the plan, and the plan is what we put together before the jump.

If I read that line again (yes the subject line for this thread) on these forums one more time, I am going to shoot someone. Often times this advice is given by someone who is not an instructor. SINCE THEY ARE NOT AN INSTRUCTOR, their advice to talk to an instructor is useless... Don't believe it. Don't do it... Unless of course... The person giving the "ask your instructor" is an instructor. Then their recommendation to ask an instructor is a solid recommendation.... But only if that instructor is rated by the agency that governs the newbies activities... Get my point here? At what point do replies in forums become useless... If all someone can say is, ask your instructor, why even post? Why should the person on the other end of the discussion believe you???? At what point does a student have to assume that everything they learn here is opinions, some are great, and some are crap. Can't we treat students with the respect that they deserve, as grown ups? Rant, over.... Here is what I would so much rather see... A newbie comes to these forums and asks a complex question... The first person to post, instead of saying, "Ask your instructor" - if they want to "protect" the student from the "B.S." on these forums - assuming their instructors have not already instilled that culture, should "protect" the student by instead saying: "Dear friend, you know that these forums are just like the DZ hangar. You will get many opinions, some from instructors, some from pros without the rating, and some from idiots. In order to be the best skydiver possible, you should ask as many questions as possible, and hear as many responses as possible, and then decide for yourself what makes sense, and who to believe. You will learn as much from your fellow students as you will from the people who invented this sport. That being said, here is my opinion, barely worth the bandwidth it takes to post, but it is my opinion... Don't buy that canopy, the wingloading is just too high for you." So - that is my story. Next time you feel compelled to say, "ask your instructor"... Instead, start getting the student to understand how to learn in this sport, specifically introduce the concept that no one should blindly follow advice from anyone, but instead should open their mind and accept various opinions and decide based upon critical thinking, not blind faith in a rating, name, reputation, job title, number of jumps, etc.

Just because I had time on my hands, I finally got out the tapes from Moab 2006 and put something together.... http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=5211 The first few minutes is a lot of fun two way flocks and skyvan exits... See ya there in 2007!

There are two "yellow cards" in the sim. They are designed for all the different progressions. Either, once completed, earns an A. The 2 page vs 4 page depends on school preference. Are you asking - by reading the card - how can you tell if a student is on CAT C or CAT E, per the ISP? You can't. The logbook will tell you that. This does yield the "teach to the card" versus "teach to the ISP." phenomenon. I know I have before, as a coach, looked at the card and designed a jump that would allow the signature blocks to become full instead of following a curriculum. It all depends on the school and their program. Some are very specific and you will see in the log book "Completed Level XXX" or "Cleared to CAT XXX". Others are a less formal after AFF.... A coach will jump with a student, discover their workons, and target the workons. I have to admit I like the informal "target workons" method better, assuming the coach has the ability to make a few jumps, so there is no redundancy in switching the instructors. If it is a "one night jump stand", having a specific program allows a new coach to pickup where the last left off - ignoring the fact some students need work in some areas while others have already proved work in others, which a good coach can tell in one jump where to spend the time with the student. So - allowing instructors to "jump around" in the program, completing the card in an order logical for the student's needs, is a nice thing. I know one student who needed many jumps to get tracking completed. I know another student on his first jump after AFF, turned 12 legitimate RW points, working on outfacing on the second jump, all with two other AFF instructors, while remaining altitude aware, tracking like hell, etc. After a few of these RW jumps (some with linked exits, others diving) his in-air proficiency skills were all signed off because he was outjumping someone with 50 jumps. He was a natural, we did not need to go as slow as the ISP. Target the workons method worked.

Ya - I talked to him last week... He told me that he has plans to work hard in the real world, nothing more than 20 hours a week. I don't know if that is because he has real good skills in the consulting field he is returning to - or just wants to continue to live at the Airspeed income range to remember good old times....