indyz

This happens with alarming frequency. Time for a reline.

Vengeance 135 1.5:1 Custom colors (not chosen by me) Hybrid Triathlon 160 (top one in the stack) 1.25:1 Custom colors (again, not chosen by me) Photo by Fast

The club I was in existed to promote awarness of the sport, arrange carpools to the dropzone, and work with the DZ to get deals for club members. What we did once we got to the dropzone was our own business, not a club- or school-sponsored activity. Some college clubs actually do own their own equipment and even airplanes, but I think we were prohibited from doing that for liability purposes.

How much of your education are you paying for yourself? My parents paid my tuition, room, and board. I had a dorm meal plan so food was basically free. If I had lived in an apartment and had to buy my own food, or had a car and had to make insurance payments, it would have been tough. I got a job and cut my expenses, but I didn't live like a hermit either. I still had money to go out with my friends and have my non-skydiving fun, just not every night. Basically it comes down to recognizing that little things add up. That $1.50 bottle of Coke? Two of those a day for a week costs you a skydive. Fast food seems pretty cheap, but every 4 Extra Value Meals costs you a skydive. Every night out at the bar costs at least a skydive. Every new CD or DVD costs almost a skydive. I took a summer job and worked by ass off to buy gear. I didn't make many jumps that summer, but it was worth it in September when I had my own rig. Most skydivers I know don't go to the wind tunnel in an average year. Most skydivers I know don't travel to jump in the winter; if we can tough it out in Wisconsin, you will do just fine in Tennessee.

My Vector 3 is well over 1000 jumps by now (700 by me, 500-ish by the previous owner). It's still going strong. Downsizing will be what forces me to get a new container. I have an airlocked 135 in it right now, and the loop is almost as short as I can get it.

I found this quote by Googling, and it's a good summary of common IC features: "DV tapes with IC Memory Chips allows you to build a 'Table of Contents' of the tape that can be accessed automatically to locate a particular recording date, index point or even add titling to the memory that can be turned on and off during playback." So the main benefit is that you can have the camera pop up a menu of shots stored on the tape, and have it automatically seek there. Pretty nifty. That said, I don't know anybody who uses the IC tapes, and I don't know anybody who has ever found themselves in a situation where they wished they had an IC tape. I guess it could be useful for those who shoot lots of tape and do automated cataloging type stuff, but for the average joe who shoots one tape a weekend, it probably isn't necessary.

I'll let John explain his qualifications in 10-way. But anyway, star is in the dive pool and it was drawn for round four. Two teams scored 40.00s on round 4. Judging by their averages for the event, one of those teams was just out to have some fun. The other team, however, was consistently scoring under 20s. There is no reason why they shouldn't have been able to bang together a star in under 40.

A jump is a jump. Log 'em all.

I agree that "fanatic" was the wrong word to use, but "nazi" is such a loaded word that I'm not surprised that any editor, at any publication, would use it unless absolutely necessary. "Fascist" would have made the same point, without all of the associated ickiness. I think you are looking for a conspiracy where there is none.

Thanks for mentioning the Vision M. I've been trying to decide between that and the iPod for a few days now. On one hand I like the iTunes integration, size, and battery life of the iPod. On the other hand, I like the better screen and video format support on the Zen. If the Zen had h.264 support it'd be an easy choice... I'm pretty much set on the iPod, though, because I'm willing to bet that even with the Zen's video support, I'd still spend a ton of time transcoding.

Has anybody bought a refurbished iPod direct from Apple? I was going to buy one of the new 30GBs ($250), but I can get a refurbed 60GB for $230. They have a 1-year limited warranty so I'm not especially worried about getting a defective unit. I'm just curious as to whether anybody has gone this route, and what your experiences were, good or bad. (Before anybody points it out, yes, I know that the new iPods have a slightly longer battery life, brighter display, and gapless playback. I don't care.)

I've been wearing Vans since I was in high school because they are cheap, comfortable, and I don't have to tie/untie them like athletic shoes. That they happen to be good for skydiving is mostly just a bonus.

And which dropzone is this happening at?

Because they can get money from his estate if he is found to be liable in the accident.

First, you need to be able to get video from your camera to your computer with firewire. If you aren't already set up for that, do a search. It is covered in-depth elsewhere on this site and on the Internet. From there, you can record from the VCR to a mini DV tape (using the same A/V cables you use to watch your video on a TV), the use firewire to go from the camera to a computer. If you can get the VCR and computer in the same room, you can set the camera up as pass-through and skip the intermediate step. Both options are covered in the PC105 manual.

I've seen it happen a couple of times. The DZ staff explained why the waiver was necessary, the people understood but still didn't feel comfortable signing their rights away, so they didn't jump. No big deal. The waiver essentially says "I am going to intentionally put myself in dangerous situation and rely on some guy I've never met to get me out of it in one piece, and I promise not to do anything should I get hurt." It's not difficult to understand why some people would be hesistant to sign that. I'd rather have a student refuse to sign the waiver than have somebody sign with no intention of honoring their promises.

Not sure if I have the experience that you are looking for, but I'll be there all weekend and I'll make sure to bring my hybrid triathlon. Just ask for Brian M.

??? Birdman Instructor rating, maybe?

My favorite part of Google Earth is how open it is. I had a service going that would automagically show you the 20 geocaches closest to wherever the map is centered. It was way cool, and only took me a few hours to get set up, but scraping the geocaching site for coordinates was way against their TOS and apparently they notice lots of traffic and ban IPs.

A KMZ file is just a zip file. WinZip or any of those programs can open it, and you can edit the KML files inside with a plain old text editor. But the easiest thing to do is just download Google Earth and use that to load up the KMZ and edit everything visually. Unfortunately my home DZ is in the low-res part of the world.

Right click on My Places and create a new new folder. Put all of your markers in that folder. Then right click on the folder and pick "Save As", save the KMZ file, then upload it here. If you are one of those single-mouse-button Mac types, you'll have to figure out what to do instead of right clicking.

Personal responsibility, man. I don't think racing thunderstorms is a good idea, but some people are ok with it. It's not like any reasonable person can't predict the effects of getting caught in a t-storm. If they still want to go, then whatever.

Has anybody used one of these things (you can see it in Para Gear's online catalog here)? I like that I can keep my mouth closed with my tongue switch, but I have trouble with the tiny button. I was hoping that this might be a decent compromise. My other concern is customer service. Conceptus has always taken great care of me, and I'm not even sure who makes the Pro Mouth Switch.

That's exactly what I was hoping. I've got an email in to Aerodyne but so far no answer. My rigger is willing as long as she has good instructions, but so far she doesn't know whats involved. To anyone who's looking to part ways with their hybrid, I'd need a 190, and it must be the stock rainbow color pattern. _Am When I was looking for a hybrid Tri 160 a couple of years ago, I put a want ad in the classifieds and three people contacted me within a day. Your needs are a little more specific than mine, but it might be worth a shot.

Man, I'd love to be there. I'll have to see if I can get school, work, and my bank account to reach some sort of agreement. Since I'm off looking for airfare, where should I be flying into? LAX?