Eule

Same thing, as observed by George Carlin and many others. That photo is hanging on the wall at Skydive Dallas. When I first saw it I thought it was a little unusual for the jumpers and the jet to be that close, but I just figured it was part of a demo or something. After this thread I know better... Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Not to burst your bubble, but http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://skydivingmovies.com ... I've tried explaining the sledgehammer ad to people that weren't born when it first aired. They usually think I'm making it up until I go find it online somewhere. I bet I can still kick your ass at Oregon Trail! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I was talking with a fellow AFF student at the DZ this summer, who is a pilot for the regional carrier of a Big Airline(tm). We got on the subject of the financial conditions of the various airlines, and I said that even though that airline had to make a lot of cuts, they would probably make it through without going into bankruptcy. Then I went on, "I do have to tell you, though, that I am worried about the effect that the cuts are having on the maintenance department of your airline, though." (Horrified look) "What? Why? Did you see or hear something that's bothering you?" "Well, the pilots feel like they need to come to parachute school - you tell me!" I was assured that if they felt that they *needed* to bring a rig when reporting to work, that would be a good sign that it's time to consider other employment. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Finally, a low-fare business model that might beat Southwest! Leave: DEN 16:20 Seat: 16A Arrive: SEA FL180 18:37 Equip: B737-300 SNACK SERVICE Leave: SEA FL180 18:45 Seat: 1A Arrive: SEA 19:03 Equip: STATIC LINE NO FOOD SERVICE Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

It's linear over the altitudes of interest to most skydivers. From http://mtp.jpl.nasa.gov/notes/altitude/StdAtmos1976.html , from 0 to about 36,000 feet, the pressure (and density) decreases are linear. They are linear from 36,000 to about 65,000 too, just at a different rate. At 18,000 feet, the air density is about half of what it is at sea level. "It's only a model!" "Shh." Local conditions (fronts, winds, thunderstorms, goose farts) may make for different conditions than the "standard" atmosphere above. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

My first 30 or so jumps were out of a 182. Some advantages I can think of immediately, compared to the Twin Otter and Caravan jumps I've done since then: - You can almost always get a load up. It only takes 2 or 3 jumpers who want to go for most DZs to fly one. Handy on slow days. - Easier to get in the plane - no ladder. - Easy to review the panel on your way into the plane, in case you want to suggest to the pilot that a pre-flight stop at the fuel pump might be in order. - When somebody farts on the way up, you have a much smaller pool of suspects. - Sitting on the floor is easier than sitting on side benches in an Otter or Caravan. In the turbines, the rate of climb is enough that you have to sit funny to keep from sliding towards the back. I have jumped an Otter with straddle benches that was better in this respect, but sitting on the floor is better yet, I think. - Lots of things to hang on to. When you are a student and paranoid about falling out when they open the door for the guy who's doing a hop'n'pop, this is reassuring. - When you're in the door, you can easilly talk to the pilot about the spot. On the other hand, if you tell him the spot sucks and he's a crummy pilot, he can easily kick you out of the plane. :) - I think it's easier to deduce that there is a definite relationship between when _you_ decide to climb out and where you're at when you open. - Possibility of the "bat hang" exit. - If there isn't a step, possibility of much entertainment for the pilot or the rest of the load when the pilot "forgets" to use the wheel brake when you're climbing out. - The pilot can close the door himself. I've seen a couple pilots turn or bank to get the door mostly shut, then reach over with one hand and secure the latch. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I know that _weather_ radars can pick up flocks of birds. See for example http://www.physics.brocku.ca/faculty/black.html, http://www.weathernotebook.org/transcripts/1999/07/26.html, and http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/text/weather.radar.birds.html . The mpeg on this last page has moved to http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/goes/weather.radar.birds.mpg . This has been mentioned in the thread, but in the front page story about the 85-way CRW formation, it says that the formation showed up on radar. In this modern world, if you call the local ATC office and ask, they'll probably assume you're a terra-ist. But the weather office people seem to enjoy talking to the public about what they do. If you can get somebody there interested, then maybe on some weekend with clear weather, they can point their radar at the dropzone and see what they get. I think the weather people are much more free than ATC is to have their radar scan only a certain part of its rotation, change the elevation angle, play with the sensitivity settings, etc. You could probably strap a transponder onto yourself and be sure to show up on the ATC radar. You'd need to strap more hardware on if you wanted the altitude-reporting feature to work. I wonder how small of an object the ATC radar can pick out. Once you know that, you can get a bunch of people that are good at RW to wear tinfoil jumpsuits and do formations that spell rude words on the radar screen... Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

http://www.monster.com/ ? Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I was just talking about it this weekend at the DZ. My list is... - Two or three identical rigs. Jump one, toss it to the packer, grab the next one, make the next load. - A non-jump Cessna with a full IFR stack and the license to go with it. That way I can always fly to a DZ that has nice weather. Maybe take the seats out of the back, like a jump plane, but install a bed and a heater, like a camper. On long trips, I could land, tie down, fire up the heater, and go to sleep. - Cash in sufficient quantities to support the above lifestyle. Or at least a brand new $20 bill, a stack of old $1 bills, a color Xerox machine, and a bottle of bleach. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I think there is. Lots of people join it, but then can't prove that they have joined, because they don't have anyplace to put their membership cards... Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Congratulations! Don't feel bad. :) I remember responding to what was probably your pre-second post ( http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1742664 ) and at that time I had been jumping for about four weekends. Well, now I've been jumping for a few more weekends than that and I'm still working on my AFF. Maybe since I'm twice your age it will take me twice as long... I'll check back with you next summer. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

It seems like a lot of the "wisdom of the elders" is passed down by _doing_ (jumping with them), and not by talking. But I wonder if it would be of value for somebody from Parachutist or just anybody to go around to all the "old timers", buy each one a beer or three, and start running a tape. Let them ramble and BS as much as they want; tape and memory cards are cheap. Then transcribe it and print it, or put it on Skydive Radio or something. I know some people clam up if they know they're being taped, but beer can be helpful in this area. And I realize you're not going to put the experience of 40 years of jumping on a few hours of tape. But it would be a hell of a lot better than nothing. "In Africa, when an old person dies, it’s a library burning down." Amadou Hampatâe Bãa, African author. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

My parents took it pretty well. I had about three jumps when I told them, and the way I told them was by saying "I've got something I want you to watch" and putting in the video of my first jump. At first they were pretty freaked out, but over the course of an hour or two of talking about it, it wound up as, "Do you have any [still] pictures we can take to work and show our friends?" Now they are pretty much OK with it. I think Mom wants to do a tandem. I was a little more roundabout with my mother-in-law, because she has a reason to be opposed to jumping. I didn't think I mentioned it to her when I saw her this spring (before I started jumping), but I know she found out by at least a couple of months ago when my sister-in-law found out. I visited her for Thanksgiving (last week) and was completely ready for anything from a hug to her not letting me in her house. She let me in and we talked about it a bit and her words were basically, "I don't approve, but you can do what you want and I'm not angry at you. Just be careful." I agree with the earlier post that it might be a problem of "belief". Some things can be fixed by arguing with numbers and technical information and some can't. If your Dad has a Honda that he thinks can go 300 miles an hour, it's pretty easy to do the math of weight and horsepower, or take it to a race track and try it, to show that it can't. But if he has a "thing" about skydiving, then it'll be harder to convince him. You'll probably know the difference after a few minutes of talking to him about it. Good luck! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Not sure, but it would be relatively simple to do. You can get "altimeter calibrators" which are basically just a little chamber that you can pull a vacuum on while watching the altimeter-under-test and a reference altimeter. On some of them you can also put pressure on the chamber, if you want to test the full range of an altimeter that reads MSL when you're in Denver. I think it would be interesting to go to a big gear store and test several copies of each model new in the box, then go to a boogie and test the same models of altimeter after they've had a few hundred or a few thousand jumps. I think some of the altimeter manufacturers go to the big events with a calibrator and offer to check your altimeter, but I don't know if any of them have ever posted data on how far off the altimeters they looked at were. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I asked this at the DZ one day. Most of the people who worked at the DZ and also have "day time jjobs" - AFF/tandem instructors, video guys, etc, said they wouldn't mention it unless it came up, and that they probably wouldn't put it on their resume. I'm not looking right now, but I have thought that if I do need to dust off the resume, I've got a section for "other experience" which includes things like having a ham radio license and doing volunteer webmaster work. I've thought about putting something a bit cryptic, like "USPA A-license" or "USPA A-1234567" or similar. If the interviewer asks, I might say "Oh, I'm a glider pilot" (which is true) and if that line of talk goes further and goes well (interviewer is a pilot, or likes planes, or whatever), then I might get into the details of how I launch my glider. Of course, there is always the possibility that somebody who knows what that means and doesn't like skydivers will turn you down for the job, but to some extent, that's life. As far as the "lying to the insurance" thing goes - I think it might be reasonable to ask for a few details about the health plan offered, or maybe to see a copy of the policy. You might not be able to take the policy home but they should let you read it at their office. This may work better once they've called you with an offer and you let on that part of your decision is based on getting a look at the policy. If they ask why you can say something like "I'm just figuring the total costs" or "someone I know got a surprise about what their policy covered and I just want to check" or similar. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I thought it was kind of cool, myself. But that's me. For "damage", you mean to the tunnel hardware, correct? Precedent - of rehabbing animals in the tunnel? Or of bringing animals into the tunnel at all? I'm not asking so I can flame you; I am just curious to hear your thoughts. PM if you want. Eule. PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Maybe so. I recall seeing some video on the Bird-Man site of wingsuit testing in a _horizontal_ wind tunnel, but if I remember right the guy's feet were against a stop or in jesses or something like that. In other words, he was standing up and just leaning over into the wind, not really flying. It might be a little easier to do with an outdoor tunnel. Instead of having the air outlet in the center of a square or round net, it would be towards one of the narrow ends of a long rectangular net. Then you'd put a nozzle on the air outlet that could either be pointed straight up for "normal" use, or tilted over (to blow out over the length of the net) for wingsuits or tracking. This way you only have to move the nozzle, instead of the whole flight chamber, motors, fans, etc. The nozzle will add back pressure to the system and probably make the fans a little less efficient. Or, instead of moving the whole nozzle, you could put slats in the end of a fixed nozzle, like a Venetian blind, or an adjustable turnvane. Point the slats straight up for "normal" or at an angle for wingsuits. This is still a flow restriction but might be easier to do mechanically. You might adapt this to an indoor tunnel: have the chamber on a pivot, but instead of moving the fans and all, have the chamber connected to the rest of the air system by flexible hoses. (Think bendy bus.) Again, the hoses would create drag, but it might lessen the amount of stuff you have to move. Mainly I think that trying to build a structure that can both move and support over a thousand horsepower of motors would be pretty expensive. If you moved the motors, you'd probably have to shut down the fans before you did that, or the gyroscope effects might bite you. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Hey, this one's a fast learner. :) I made a lot of my initial jumps at a smaller DZ (one C-182). There were a couple of ladies that jumped there fairly often and a couple more that came around occasionally. Recently I've been going to a bigger DZ (has their own Twin Otter) and there are noticeably more ladies there. They are still only about 15%-20% of the total population, but the population is larger, so at least there are more of them there. Most of the single guys I know at the DZ are horn-dogs. Some of the married ones are too, when their wives aren't at the DZ... One guy put himself in the position of needing to get a DNA paternity test, and I suggested that he get the results laminated as he was probably going to need them again. I _think_ he knew it was a joke. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

There is in the 2005 edition. Page 209 (paper) or 227 (PDF). This is a reprint of Appendix 2 of FAA Advisory Circular 105-2C. If you want to see the original, go to http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAdvisoryCircular.nsf/MainFrame?OpenFrameSet, and punch "105-2C" into the search box. On the front page, it is dated 1991 - maybe a few more planes have been certified to operate without a door since then? Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I guess I qualify as "more experienced", I've got twice as many jumps as you! (In other words: Caution, low jump number here.) I've always jumped with an analog altimeter. Different kinds - ones with the traditional clock face, and one where the scale was compressed a little so the maximum was 13 and there was a little gap between 13 and 0. Needle straight down on those is like 6.5 to 7. I've seen Neptunes and Digitudes working, both fooling around on the ground and on the climb up, when the Neptunes are still in "little numbers" mode. I haven't tried to read a digital in free fall. I'd like to jump a digital sometime, even if I only look at an analog one and just strap the digital to me somewhere where I can't see it - I'd like to see all the numbers it generates as far as speed, freefall time, etc. I have been fooling around with electronics on a hobby basis for quite a while. There, you use a digital voltmeter if you want to know *exactly* what the voltage is at a given moment. You use an analog voltmeter if you want to see the trend of a slowly changing voltage. Some newer digital meters have a bar graph under the numbers (like the Neptune) but it still isn't the same as watching a needle. I make my money by being a computer geek and I also fool around with working on my own cars. From these experiences, I have a hard time saying whether I trust a computer or a mechanism more. I sort of like the idea of an analog mechanical altimeter, just because there are fewer states it can be in. I read somewhere (on the Alti-2 site?) that the original Altimaster had the face it did because it was felt that most people were familiar with reading analog clocks. That was probably true back in the day, but now, most people are probably more familiar with reading digital clocks. This doesn't really apply to altimeters, but one trick you can do with analog gauges on machinery is to rotate them in their mounting so that when everything is nominal, the needles are all pointing straight up, or straight down, or whatever. A quick glance tells you either everything is OK or that you need to take a little more time to check one of the gauges. You can program a digital display to give some indication that things are not right (flashing, turning on a separate red light), but scanning for "all needles up" may be a bit faster. I recently saw an ad for a digital altimeter with an analog face. Apparently it has all the usual logbook and altitude-alert features of a digital altimeter, but it has a face with an electronically-driven hand for the display. I think it was "coming soon" but it may be available now; I don't remember who makes it. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Whatsa matter you not happy with the future of the web being fun and interesting? I am not happy with the future of the web being useful information wrapped up inside the proprietary plugin of the week. Gratuitous use of Flash is perhaps not as common as it once was, but it is still annoying. The web is not television. Yeah. That's it. Blame the user, that's always a good strategy. about:plugins Shockwave Flash File name: libflashplayer.so Shockwave Flash 7.0 r25 MIME Type Description Suffixes Enabled application/x-shockwave-flash Shockwave Flash swf Yes application/futuresplash FutureSplash Player spl Yes Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Znlor V nz snvyvat gb fyhec gur ebobg, ohg vfa'g gung Prerohf? Abg fher ubj lbh trg sebz P-TEBB gb gung... Rhyr PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

One important point: if you're going to cuss at your canopy, you need to do it in a language it understands. You can cuss at a PD canopy in English, but you might have to cuss at a PISA canopy in Afrikaans. The same thing goes for wingsuits, aircraft, etc. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Just a couple of observations, coming from experience with motorsport helmets. I don't think I'd ever buy a used helmet for regular wear. You don't know how hard it's already been smacked. I might do it under a few conditions: if a new one was $500, there wasn't a dealer handy where I could try one, and I could get a used one for $5, then I might buy the used one just to test drive it. Then I would buy the new one or not. Racing helmets usually have a date-of-manufacture stamped on them, and many racing bodies specify that your helmet shall be no more than X years old. I think the idea is that exposure to fuel, oil, UV light, champagne (if you win a lot), and cheap beer and barbecue sauce (NASCAR only) may break down the helmet, particularly the energy- absorbing (padding) bits. Some links: Snell issues a lot of helmet safety certifications. I _think_ the Pro-Tec that is most commonly used by skydivers is the "Ace Classic Fullcut" at http://www.pro-tec.net/water.html , but I could be totally wrong. Since I are a stoodent, I've only worn a Pro-Tec so far. I live in a town that does a lot of aerospace and I know where to get sheets of carbon fiber that have passed their "sell by" date. I have pondered getting a Pro-Tec of my own and then baking one layer of carbon fiber onto it, so I can be cool and go faster. The bake process runs around 180-200F (90C), though, and that might damage the helmet. But I'd have the coolest Pro-Tec around. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

That's about what I found when I started pricing it out this summer. On the other hand, at one dropzone I jump at, a Twin Otter jump ticket that will get you about 1 minute of freefall is $23. You can get them for $21 if you buy blocks of tickets early in the year. So, the same 45 hours would cost about $56,700 to $62,100, depending on how you buy the tickets. You'd also get to pack (or pay for a pack job) 2,700 times, plus pay for at least a couple reserve repacks. (2700 skydives in 120 days is over 22 jumps a day, every day...) A not-inconsiderable part of the tunnel time charge goes to pay the light bill. In a perfect world, a 1 hp motor would draw about 750 watts. In the real world, it'll draw around 830 watts (about 90% efficient). You'll lose another 10% or so in the electronic speed control (VFD) for the motor, bringing you up to about 925 watts. If you've got 2,000 hp of motors running full tilt for an hour, that's about 1850 kilowatt-hours of energy. At residential rates, a kilowatt- hour runs from maybe four cents (TVA) to fifteen cents (California). At ten cents, that's about $185 (about $3 a minute) just to keep the fans turning. Commercial rates, like a wind tunnel pays, are higher. The actual bill is probably less, since the motors don't run flat out all the time. Also, if you walk up to your local power company and tell them you want to buy several dozen megawatt-hours of power a month, they will probably be willing to negotiate on the rates. Still, the tunnel operator gets to toss a pretty good chunk of change at the power company, before they pay the employees, mortgage, etc. I don't work for or otherwise get money from any of the tunnels; I just went through these numbers when I was thinking about the cost of tunnel time. There's probably people who have done it. $26K is about $12.50 an hour with a 40 hour (ha ha) week. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.