Engovatov

>The Safire would'nt have FUD about it if it did'nt need a Company Autherized after market mod to make some of them landable canopies.... Just like pockets on Sabre sliders? And if you are refering to the Derek's mod - that's not the reasoning and situation that HE described..

>Sorry but most Sabres are excellent canopies and if there is a slammer its in the minority by far.... Just like Safires, yet the people still spread FUD about them.. Opinions are like assholes...

>If you can't run a straight stitch, the airfoil will not be consistent. Yeah - but this will have nothing to do with the DESIGN of Safire, would not it? It will affect any other canopy made by a particular factory, so if they where sewing Sabre2 for example, it will suffer from the same problem. Would not it? I am just curious - understanding the issues involved will certainly affect my future purchase decisions.. My Safire opened just beautifully - progressively and smooth. And I am a lousy packer.

>You can definitely find a used sabre at a good price. Yeah, from a person trying to save his back from crappy openings..

>There is a _lot_ more to building canopies than "sewing > along the lines." This isn't a dress - it's a 3D shape > where small details (puckering of fabric in stitching > near nose, thread tension, order of assembly) makes a > big difference. Take a look at some older canopies >(old Ravens come to mind) and compare the quality of > stitching to a modern Sabre II. That's right - my question was - how is it related to the design, as opposed to the manufacturing. Quality of stitching will not change aerodynamics, presumably, but integrity. For early Dash-M with type III tape has lines falling off is unrelated to whether they will all fly the same.. Is not it? While having ribs of different size, with the best possible stitching, WILL cause problems - but that hardly will be a design flaw, like choosing weak tape.. So the Q is: Is it design (like weak tape), or manufacturing (like ribs of different size, or wrong lineset attached - which is definitly not what is on design spec..) As for openings - maybe.. But it is usually rather subjective quality as well..

>But about the anti-piracy tech. Good discussion here: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/22/2345249&mode=nested&tid=103 Have not heard a single opinion around here in the Silicon Valley but just how dumb, misguided and utterly bought out by media monopoly execs this Hollings guy (and a bunch of other Disney senators) is. But in the current political style (think DMCA), they can cause a LOT of damage to the IT industry (which dwarfs the entertainment, but has less political influence); it is not about piracy - it is about total control on who watches what and when. DivX failed miserably in the market - now they buy technically incompetent senators to cram it down our throats. It will cause immense delays and headaches in a huge industry, and it is technically not feasible anyway. And yeah - you favorite artist is getting $1 from the $18 CD. Poor major labels. What a victim of "pirates". Good luck with your internship - do your part of making studio execs richer at our expense. (No recovery for the tech if all standards committees are bogged down by greedy media reps, interested only in status quo, not in new technology - guess why I could not back up my drive on a DVD-R - they hold on the release of a standard for YEARS, scared stiff, because they have no brains to change their business model, and just want everybody else to be just as backwards.. And, by definition, they are great at rhetorics..) BTW - I bought all my CDs and DVDs, even though i could easily copy and burn it.. But I do not want to endure an industry wide productivity and innovation slump and cost rising just to satisfy few morons like Hollings, MPAA and Co. - who try to hang on old business schemes that will be outdated anyway.. If this law is inacted I will not buy a single new CD or movie on principle - and there will be no techically feasible means to prevent me from just copying them, I know that as a professional.... They rob me enough.

>As they have been manufactured in three different places, I would bet it's due to inconsistencies in the manufacturing process. What would it be? People not sewing along the lines? What is involved in the "process" besides cutting the fabric with a computer controlled hot knife and sewing it along the dotted line that may affect flying characteristics ?.. I have not heard about anybody complaining about Safire openings though.. Flare has a difference in opinions (I like it)

>Problem with Safires (and most Icarus canopies) is that they're inconsistent. Since the computer program that does the scaling and cutting ought to be the same to millimeter accuracy - is it a problem of PA manufacturing? (They sew mine). What else could it be? Or are they so sufficiently different in behavior that people evaluating them are utterly confused and cannot verbalize their opinion in a consistent way?

We will all choose sex after we jumped.. a little at first..

>Are you going to Bulgaria for the boogie? No. I wish.. Just answered the question.. On the thread topics - most recently I flied Safire 160 at about 1.3.. (bought at 1.2 ;)

>have you heard anything about a Black Sea Boogie? Skydivers from Belgium are organizing the first international Black Sea Boogie in Albena, Bulgaria. The boogie will take place May 20-26 at the former Baltchik Military Air base near Varna. Very attractive airplanes like the Antonov 26, and the Illuysin 18 from the Bulgarian Air Force, and eventually a Let410, will be flying. Warm and good weather is guaranteed for that time of the year. Very cheap lodging and food will be available at the "All Action in the Air" holiday resort of Albena. For more information, contact Eric at eric.coeckelberghs@chello.be Information about Albena can be found in various languages at www.albena.bg.

>That is one BIG FRICKN chopper.... yeah..i posted some other pictures.. Mi-26.. for 100 (!)something guys..

Mirage is your friend.. ;)

If it is $1100 - it is kinda steep - I think I got mine around $1300 new.. and at this numbers it is up for a reline soon, if it is Vectran, so a lineset price at least should be deducted ($200?), plus - 300 jumps is about 20% of the resourse.., that's about $300.. So it is $800 then.. Otherwise Safires are great, no problems with them. Some people have other preferences, some people do not know about them, that's about it.. If you jump it - why are you asking?

So you will be the guy who will help push this build-in hardware security anti-"piracy" crap down everybody throat for the fat wallets of the RIAA and MPAA?? Good luck with the Senator from Disney. No respect for this jerk. At all.

> Mi-8 right? Think bigger - Mi -26.. It carries 90 troops - or about 120 skydivers I would guess.. Mi-24 military (http://www.skydive.ru/photos//Av18.jpg) is also fun.. Mi-8 are pretty common in many russian DZs - remnants of military spending I guess.. Jumped them - with a cargo door - beats Otter any day.. ;)

http://www.skydive.ru/photos//Av17.jpg What is it - 40+ guys getting out? This thing lifts like 30 tons... And last I heard jump tickets are still $10..

Client obviously enjoying it: http://www.skydive.ru/photos//Av5.jpg

I have done a bunch of jumps from Mi-8 back in Russia - it's a regular jump craft in many drop zones. Ours had a huge opening in the rear, lifted 20 people very fast, and felt like a CASA or something (decent forward speed). Jump ticket are around $10 there now, was like $2.. ;) Some photo for ya: http://www.skydive.ru/photos//Av17.jpg http://www.skydive.ru/photos//Av19.jpg Nice tandem exit out of a heli: http://www.skydive.ru/photos//Av5.jpg - and notice the size of this thing (probably Mi26? This thing lifts, what 30 tons?)

>VxWorks - sadly, not nearly as nice an OS as QNX *sigh* - pretty much requires sloppy programming to deal with OS design flaws, but more work to be found with it and food on the table is a good thing That to put it mildly.. Do not like VxW at all.. had all sort of problems, especially with compiler support with it for our sattelite platform, but hey - I moved on to nice fat Java/C++ development land instead.. But back to the original topic - do they use any integrated enviroment on Cypres at all? Guess not.. couple of custom coded DSPs should do the trick I think...

>or was I napping during that seminar several years ago? That's more of a recent development - since 6.1: currently supported hardware is listed here: http://support.qnx.com/support/hardware/platform/processors.html Wonder what they could use on an avionics for version 4? Do not know about F16, but for space apps, even 386 equivalents are fairly recent development (in hardened version) - in military development cycle time frame of course..

>QNX only supports the Intel x86/Pentium architectures Bull. QNX supports x86, PowerPC, MIPS, Super H, ARM, StrongARM, and XScale. Wild guess would be it is a rad-hard version of MIPS in the avionics...

> yep authorized by icarus, designed by Derek (aka hooknswoop) Thanks. Sounds interesting.

>the safire had a mod done to it that makes the flare 10x stronger What mod and who does it? Authorized by Icarus?

You can buy a much nicer set for $2700. Get some in-stock special container for around $900, Hornet or some PA canopy, if they still have the discount, and a new reserve, and pick up a Cypres of similar vintage for around $300, and you will end up in the same price range with a much better system..