tso-d_chris

Ok. Here's the deal. When you are talking taking some number of objects from a group without regard to order, that is called a combination. What you have a group of five options, but you can choose any number of them or none at all. Lets's say you choose none of the options, there is only 1 way to do that. If you take only one option, there are 5 choices. If you take two options, there are 10 ways to do that. and so on. It all adds up to 1 + 5 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 1 = 32 Walt 5 options --> 2^5 = 32 For Great Deals on Gear

2 raised to the 5th = 32 combinations, including a null option of none of them (as long as the options are completely independent and only yes/no type of option) Each option is yes/no - only 2 choices so 2 options is 2x2 3 options is (2x2)x2 (add the 3rd option) and so on We have a winner! For Great Deals on Gear

I had the same problem as a student. What finally helped me was relaxing in freefall, and focusing on a point on the horizon to help maintain a heading. Don't forget to check your altimeter. For Great Deals on Gear

Three Little Birds by Bob Marley For Great Deals on Gear

VLC for OS X is excellent. I prefer Quicktime, but VLC is more versatile, so I use it more often. Like you said, it plays pretty much anything. For Great Deals on Gear

There, I fixed it for ya! Now it's skydiving related. BTW, I think Bill's beard is going to be a liability for him. For Great Deals on Gear

I've had exactly the opposite experience. Just goes to show, YMMV.

How did you come up with the "value" of your gear. I looked at what you had and came up with substantially different prices. Eight year old containers are not going to sell anywhere near the price of a new one, no matter how few jumps. F111 canopies do not hold their value well when they have several hundred jumps. Especially after being repaired. Fifteen year old reserves are not bringing top dollar in comparison to new reserves with newer designs. While your most valuable item is likely to be the Jedei, ZP canopies lose significant value when the model name is discontinued. The age of the equipment is going to make it difficult to sell. I recently gave away an eleven year old Javelin NJ, because that is the price the market would bear. For Great Deals on Gear

While I understand your point, I have to point out that while the ability to change modes offered the opportunity for error, it was the lack of a thorough gear check that allowed the skydive to take place with the AAD in an improper mode, at least if we are talking about the incident involving a high profile world champion skydiver. For Great Deals on Gear

That's unjustified. And possibly unjustifiable, imo. There's not even an explicit need for an on or off at all, since this concept is redundant with whether it ought to fire. Unless you are talking to a swooper who is about to go big on his next hop & hook, in which case the ability to be able to turn off the CYPRES could in fact be very important.

There was a fatality in the U.S. in 2004, where Astra did NOT fire, althouh it WAS turned on prior to exiting the aircraft (Astra has the LED indicator next to the mud flap, and it was confirmed by other jumpers that the light was in the "On" mode in the airlane). It was still in the "On" mode on the ground, after the person bounced ... Link? For Great Deals on Gear

I know there are many models of prescription goggles, but I have found few (none) users that are satisfied with the products after using them extensively. That does not mean that no such quality goggle exist, only that I am unaware of them. If anyone has 100+ jumps on a pair of prescription goggles, and is still impressed with them, please PM the brand and model, as well as contact information for the manufacturer.

I wear contacts to jump with, but if I could find a pair of durable prescription goggles, I would use them instead. I have lost a single contact into my goggles many times. I have lost both contacts into my goggles a few times. Fortunately, we get our depth perception from a few different indicators, so a conservative landing (under a conservative canopy) is not usually a problem if I'm landing without one or both contact lenses. My experience has led me to use the cheap, soft goggles like Flex-Z or Kroops, as they tend to do the best job sealing out the air. This has as much to do with the size and shape of a particular jumpers face, so YMMV. For Great Deals on Gear

Hey! I said it before he did! Still not making sense to me. Besides the obvious fact that walking backwards is not "walking forwards slowly", there is something even more confusing. The original statement mentioned spending the "least amount of time" on it (it being the escalator, I assume). How do either of the examples given (Jim, Chris) meet this criteria? They both describe spending a considerable amount of time on the escalator. The original post: The least amount of time on the escalator was his solution, not really criteria. The only criteria was that the persons motion had to be in the upward and forward directions. The problem was: how can I touch the maximum amount of steps while moving up an escalator. The alternative solution provided, while unrealistic, is technically accurate. For Great Deals on Gear

Hey! I said it before he did! For Great Deals on Gear

Climbing very quickly, the max number of stairs is the number of stairs exposed when escalator is off. If you move upward more slowly than the individual stairs, it is possible to touch more stairs than by climbing very quickly, since there is no such limiting factor (assuming you can count the same step as two if it comes around twice and you step on it both times). Wow. I'm really bored today. For Great Deals on Gear

Are you sure that's true? For Great Deals on Gear

I was doing fine until I used 9.8 m/s^2 instead of 10 m/s^2 in my calculations. I missed all of those. For Great Deals on Gear

Check out this link. For Great Deals on Gear

Free Guinness. Free Beamish in a pinch. For Great Deals on Gear

That explains it well, also. For Great Deals on Gear

Some from Einstein (blatantly stolen from this site because I was too lazy to dig them out of my books): "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details." "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever." "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." For Great Deals on Gear

I think the average skydiver understood the analogy quite well, as it was a very good analogy for our purposes here. It is a vocal minority that are trying to make the professor appear wrong. For Great Deals on Gear

If anyone is looking for a rigger in Deland, please PM me. For Great Deals on Gear

I think that last bit applies to just about every decision we make in skydiving, from which gear to buy, where to land, or whether or not to use an RSL. There is rarely a universal best decision, except to the question, "should I pull?" For Great Deals on Gear