SethInMI

Well add the fact that people use there mobiles these days for a lot more than voice chats. SMS, email, online apps like FB, web browsing, streaming videos, etc. Lots can be done even if it is noisy, so you have a captive audience of largely solitary people with time to kill. Sounds like a good plan. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I disagree, I think it would be a good idea. IMHO, it would build what could be called "awareness memory" instead of "muscle memory". Spiralling with only one hand in a toggle will feel different than a spiral with two hands in toggles. May give someone a mental kick in the head when spiralling after opening, that this might be a brake fire. Here is my brake fire story, from a few years ago. I had a normal opening, IIRC, but followed by a spiral turn. I quickly grabbed a rear and straightened it out, then looked up at the canopy. Could not see anything wrong, let the rear go, started spiralling again. WTF, I think, look at the canopy again, no broken lines, no ripped cells, no line overs...I think I am going to have to chop it, let up on the rear again, and spiral, pull the rear back down. Now I am getting a bit low, and I didn't want to put my hands in toggles if I was going to chop it, but fuck it all, I am going to try to pop the toggles. So I do and hey problem solved, flying normally. Now of course I feel like a bit of an idiot, but brake fire did not occur to me at the time. I think some drills like Jan described could have saved me some grief. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I'll answer your other two questions. 1. Used gear is very reliable. Skydiving gear is professionally inspected once or twice a year when the reserve is repacked. Also, if you bought used gear, it would be wise to have it inspected by a professional before purchase, they would tell you whether or not there were problems with it. 2. Skyhooks can be added to newer UPT rigs. Other manufacturer's rigs, no. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

According to the BLS CPI, Stewart did great with a $121 in 2011 dollars. Twardo got screwed with a $290 in 2011 dollars. Locally to me in MI, FJC and 1 SL Jump are $185 to $220 these days, depending on DZ. I checked Skydive Wissota, b/c I remembered they had good student prices, and it was FJC + 1 SL for $140, but they also had a FJC + 5 SL package at $240, which is a real steal. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

PiLFy, Just a clarification, the amount of wind noise you will hear under canopy only depends on the airspeed of the canopy, not the winds aloft. The wind noise would be the same flying in light winds as strong winds, because the canopy is carried along by the wind. In either case, slowing the canopy down by going to 1/2 brakes would bring the airspeed down and make it less noisy. From your last comment about the garbled static, it sounds more like the issue was a radio range issue than a not loud enough issue. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Awesome, Muffie. Well researched, well written, well formatted! My personal favs: 1. "Nothing new to learn" 8. “I know how to break the chain of events – never skydive in the first place" 10. Bringing personal gripes, innuendo, old hatreds into the discussion. The sad thing is that all this sort of shit keeps people from posting about injuries, and posting details about all incidents, and the community is poorer for it. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

In the APF report on Argus was a mention of an event in Portugal on 3 Sept 2010 where a rig was discovered with a blank AAD display during a gear check. It was later determined that the AAD had fired, the cutter failed, and the reserve was totaled. This is the scariest situation, IMHO. Your AAD fires without your knowledge (low opening, pressure fluctuation in the plane, etc), the cutter jams, and then you jump the rest of the day with a totaled reserve. (Or until you check the display) It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

The container dimensions are a bit different. The smaller M-Series and larger Microns do overlap in canopy fits, and the Microns are narrower, fatter and shorter than the equivalent M-Series. seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

A double attachment is for tube handles. There is much less for the bridle to get hooked under. My tube handle in the pic is attached by a piece of tape that runs through it and that is sewn down at both ends. A (freefly) pud handle can be attached via a sewn strip, making it also difficult for the bridle to hook it. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

If I did write auto-land code, it would be for my personal amusement. For example, if it really worked, you could do a blind-folded jump, and not get to see until you were on the ground. But for students, it would be a bad idea. In accuracy it may eventually work better than most radio operators, but in dealing with obstacle avoidance or the unexpected, it would fail miserably. I do like the idea of an audio based guidance, because it prevents the pilot from watching or glancing at a display and instead they can focus on clearing airspace. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

If Michael release the source for the firmware, I had a few ideas that I want to put in, and your idea of stereo phones gave me one more. 1. Like Costyn said, adding tones for under canopy glide. 2. Adding a waypoint would allow an old idea of mine, a "you are not going to make it back" alarm. I add a height to the DZ location configuration, and if the calculated glide gets you over the DZ at a lower altitude than the target, you get an alarm. 3. With stereo phones, you can implement a true auto-land system. Input the wind dir and speed in advance or try to calculate them based on known canopy airspeed. Then use the phones to give the canopy pilot steering commands. Fly him/her around to the pattern entry and then fly the pattern to the ground. This would be fun as an exercise in programming for me, just to see how close to the peas the software I wrote would allow me to get. Acutally, even without stereo phones, you could still implement directional control, by using a different tones or sequence of beeps for left turn and right turn (instead of using tones for glide). So hopefully Michael releases the software someday and I get a chance to screw up his device... Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

My PC has the orange plastic tube handle. I ordered the rig with it b/c I liked the low snag potential of the double attachment. But I don't like worrying about getting a finger stuck in it, so I want to make it "finger safe". I considered doing what others have suggested and plugging the tube with a piece of foam, but yesterday I had the thought of sewing a cover out of the leftover cordura tie-die that came with the rig. Anyone done this or seen it done? Anyone see any down side to this? Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Both 182 DZs near me here in western MI offer HC. One that I am more familiar with is only HC at $70. The other is going that way I am sure. Any 182 DZs out there that don't offer HC and are not going to? It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

This is a very good fantasy/medival setting series. But I can't recommend it because George is taking forever to finish it. Just wait till he is done IMHO, probably happen around 2015 at his current pace. His books are so densely plotted that by the time the next one comes out, I have forgotten 1/2 of the previous ones details. I am going to wait till he is done and then start at the beginning and read all 5000-6000 pages in one long stretch. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Sounds like you may have read these already, but I will second people who suggested: Elmore Leonard. The master of crime and westerns. Caleb Carr E.L. Doctrow. Billy Bathgate, The waterworks. Larry McMurtry. Lonesome Dove is the classic western. michael chabon. Yiddish Policemans union, Amazing adventures of Kavlier and Clay. Really good writer. I just started reading Alan Furst. Good writer of espionage. Night Soldiers, The Foreign Correspondent. Shorter books, tightly plotted. For non-fiction: Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs, and Steel (pulizer prize). Collapse. Daniel Okrent; Last call. story of prohibition. Avoid Clive Cussler. Avoid Robert Jordan. it takes more than plot to write a story. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Nice 6 year old thread bump! I have decided that safe is too black and white a word for skydiving; too many assumptions get loaded on to it. Is skydiving safe? No. To my mind, you won't get hurt doing a safe activity. Is skydiving unsafe? No. In my mind, an unsafe activity has a high likelihood of death or injury. I don't want to be doing something unsafe. In USPA's defense, skydiving is a lot safer than wuffos think. This is not sport death anymore. The question becomes at what point does an activity transition from safe to unsafe? According to the USPA website the implication I read is that this happened in the late 1990s when the fatality rate per 1000 members got below 1.0. But in the end, it is just a balancing act, single words don't work well. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Warranty? Delivery time? In the thread linked by cpoxon you mentioned you were planning on open/customizable firmware. Is that still the case? If so, can you share what dev kit you are using and any other details about platform. Thanks, seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I will throw my 2c in, on cameras and coaching. When I was a student doing instructional jumps and coach jumps, I really liked the video debrief. I would specifically search out ratings-holders who flew camera to jump with me. I felt at $60-70 a jump, a video debrief and a rip on to my laptop as a souvenir was not too much to ask. So at the time I remember telling myself, when I am coaching, I will video my students. I think if you are going to get paid to coach, it would be something to consider. If you are coach jumping for fun or to pay it forward, well, the student gets what they paid for. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

The crossfires are not cross braced. They have a highly closed nose that does help give them some stiffness, but no crossbracing. They are elliptical, and that is why they need fewer D lines, as the tail tapers in. Rapaz, you have a Crossfire II, with 6 D lines, 3 on each side. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I forgot the "without an AAD" option! I did that for the 1st time too this year when the Cypres went in for service. One benefit of intentionally skydiving without things is it increases confidence. If you do later get in a "oh shit I forgot my..." moment, at least it won't be anything new. (unless it is a rig). Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Did my 1st few barefoot jumps over the weekend, and now I have jumped without most of the accessories that skydivers normally wear, including all the items listed in the poll. I really like the no-helmet no-goggles H&P. I guess I just like feeling the wind on my face. I didn't like the riser hit I got during one of those style jumps though, so it is a trade-off. Anyone else like a more minimalist type of jump? It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Jesus Christ. It is like Speakers Corner in here, people trying to win points in a argument instead of just working toward clarity and consensus. Robin is saying "if you keep your head on a swivel, you can avoid being forced to make panic turns. Sure you can get hit from behind/above, but you won't ever see that coming, so no panic turn will result." This guarantee, "fly right/head on swivel and no panic turns will be required" does not address HP canopies. Here's a scenario: You are on final in your big boat canpy, correct direction, etc. You hear some whistling sound, look off to the right and suddenly here is Alice the Tool Swooper coming crosswind to low carve a landing. Alice does not see you. It is panic turn time. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

To really push the definition/limits in this "more arm wing"' direction I can think of two ways: 1. Powered/reconfigurable exoskeleton. Jointed robotic arms allow human arms to move freely, but when stopped lock in place to relieve arm muscle fatigue. The pilot is still suspended from the exoskeleton, but he can move it however he wishes. Is that the ultimate wingsuit? 2. Flexible frame. A flexible frame, likely pre-stressed or curved "down" so that when in the air the weight of the pilot flexes it "up" to level. The pilots arms can still bend the frame, but in level flight it takes much of the weight off the arms. The pilot is only partly suspended from the frame. Some one else mentioned the exoskeleton; it makes me think of MechWarrior or some other Japanese anime. They do love their robots in Japan. Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Accelerometers would give better performance, rather than double differentiating position. The nice thing about a sensor like this is the full inertial reference frame (3 accelerometers and 3 gyros). I doubt the quality of either sensor type is good enough for an true inertial solution for any length of time (double integrating accelerometer data requires high quality stuff), but the GPS provides position. The accelerometers and gyros will provide an instantaneous attitude solution, which would be nice to have. This would show you things like: 1. How head low or head high you were at at any point on the jump (was it a steep dive or shallow dive). 2. How fast that flat spin was rotating. 3. What happened on that funky opening. You could see speed, pitch, and rotation of the body during the opening sequence. I don't know how this would work for skydiving. Probably depends on how well the software can take out the gyro bias, and the quality of the gyros and accelerometers. [ramble] Usually the bias is taken out standing still, and for some extreme sports like a short downhill run (skiing, snowboarding, mnt biking etc) this would be easy, stop at the top of the run, zero gyros and get an initial orientation set, then do your run for a few minutes. Skydiving has the whole plane ride thing that would make keeping a known orientation valid more difficult, but if you set a button on jump run that would set a known orientation, it would help. Either way, rotations like flat spins and barrel rolls would be easy to determine, but orientation (pitch, etc) would be harder. Also when traveling at a constant velocity the accelerometers will give some orientation info (basically which direction the ground is), which would be very useful. Blah, blah, blah, Kalman filter, blah, blah, blah. [/ramble] It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

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