rasmack

I was not trying to start a discussion over any of the specific issues. I was merely trying to figure this funny thing out. To oversimplify a little, why are all the Americans I meet so nice, when I tend to disagree so strongly with the American people? I am sure that some Bush supporter at some point has had the same thought: "The French stink... but the French guys I jumped with last weekend were outstanding guys. Strange." HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I do not hold the Americans I meet personally reponsible for whichever fallacy I believe the Bush administration to have. Likewise I do not expect to be held personally responsible for the strange things the Danish government can cook up (such as sending a submarine to a desert war

Yes, Ireland is such a nice country

Can't blame a guy for trying HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

OK. I'll hold you. Does that make you feel better? HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Following up on this: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12486032-23109,00.html http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7836484 A couple of quotes; So right now the picture seems to be along the lines of "scared boys with guns" or communications breakdown within the US command. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I hear they are tasty

Thank you for that clarification. Someone once wrote: Apparently you don't believe that any more. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

What planet are you from? I have a hard time to hear someone from "the land of the free" say that it is OK to deprive human beings of due process. If you feel that the constitution really does not matter, then what are you defending? Please tell me I misunderstood you. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Surelu you do not mean to exclude the possibility that scared 21-year old guys with weapons can make bad decisions. It is probably a tough environment down there. Mistakes can be made. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Dude: PING www.stevelowry.co.uk (82.39.114.182): 56 data bytes --- www.stevelowry.co.uk ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss Doesn't seem to be possible to see it. Have you put it anywhere else? HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

He he I like this way of lining it up. Option 1 is of course ridiculous. Options 2 and 3 are equally unlikely, and I would think that the truth is somewhere in between. Cheers

Did you read the rest? Furthermore: I am not saying that I know what happened here. I am just noting that it seems that two different perceptions of this incident exist. It is possible that the Italians think they did everything they could to appear friendly. It is likewise (obviously) possible that the soldiers felt threatened. None of us are in the position to determine the "objective truth". We can just note another tragedy in this war. Please do not try to assign blame from the comfort of your home. (not aimed at you in particular) Peace HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

From Knudsen & Hjorth, Elements of Newtonian Mechanics, 3rd ed., p. 27: EDIT: I should add that inertia and mass are identical up to a multiplicative constant that can be (and is) absorbed into the definition of the constant of gravitation. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Too much snow at my DZ this weekend. No jumps. I track down the only other DZ open this weekend. Oh joy! I silently rejoice, only to learn that their plane is grounded a few hours later due to problems with the landing gear Landing gear?!? Who needs landing gear???? I thought we were going to jump out of the airplane... HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Yes. Terrible movie. "Cutaway" on the other hand... HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

As we are talking about linear motion, one would normally consider "inertia" = "inertial mass" which is certainly a constant, unless you regularly pee your pants on your way down. As for terminal velocity, it was covered pretty thoroughly in this thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=1458775;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Sitting... on... hands... Must... not... make... geek... remark... Failing.... miserably... You Nazi! Sorry. couldn't help it. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

The SL pulls a ripcord. Spring loaded PC comes out. Jumper has poor body position... We have also now switched to a direct bag setup as you describe. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

If we can share I-know-a-guy stories, I have two: The day I made my first jump, one of the other first-timers had some line twists. He kicked out of them just fine, but one of the toggles apparently got stuck to the opposite side risers. As he could not reach it to free it, he elected to perform his EP. The other story was a guy who got the PC under his arm on his first jump (SL). He made no attempt to clear it. He did not perform his EP. He just lay there, until the FXC saved his ass. He does not skydive any more. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

I just thought I should post a follow-up to this, if someone looks it up later. The nearest DZ's seem to be: Annemasse: http://www.parachutisme74.com/ Para Club Valais: http://www.pcv.ch However one was closed for the winter and the other deemed me too inexperienced for the DZ of the weekend. I ended up going to Gap-Tallard (http://parachutisme-gap.com/). It was fantastic. Nice people, nice airplane and a fantastic British instructor, Kevin Hardwick. It was not until I got back and did some research I found out this guy had 9000+ jumps. The reason I note the instructor specifically is that they were hesitant to let me jump solo without an instructor, so Kevin interrogated me for the better part of an hour on rigs and possible malfunctions before he got in a plane to supervise me on the first jump. First video I ever saw of my self in free fall. Only minus about the weekend was that the French apparently think it is cold up there, so I only got 4 jumps out of the weekend. EDIT: I should say that it was a hell of a drive from Geneva. I hate mountain roads. HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Am I the only one, who thinks it is worse packing for others? I have no problems jumping my own pack jobs, but I can assure you I had my head out the door first time someone jumped one of my pack jobs. Boy was I glad to see a nice opening

I would like to know if there are other major contributors to the fatality rate. It would help me as a newbie to know how people get stupid, so I could make G*d d**m certain I don't f**k up in the same way. I know. I know. If I just train to be perfect, I have done my part. You don't need to tell me HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

Interesting. Are you nervous because you are sitting in the door, or because you're afraid you will "fail"? The reason that I ask is that when I took my spot test to go solo, I thought everything went wrong. It felt like we had to fly over that landing strip a thousand times. It was not until I came down they told me that the pilot had been instructed to obstruct my job as much as possible. My point is that I was nervous and I felt ridiculous, but this was mostly because of the test-like situation, the pressure of being evaluated, and not because of the open door. I passed by the way HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227 “I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.” - Not quite Oscar Wilde...

The weight is just me. As for the canopies, they usually put me in a Falcon 300 or a Manta 280ish. My instructors have suggested I look for something at about 210 sq.ft. One of them said 190, but I prefer to be conservative on this exact point