indyz

Hey everybody, I was just looking at FreeAfterRebate and found this USB-IrDA adapter. Including shipping, the total cost after rebate is only like $6. Might be worth looking at if your computer has a free USB port but no IR. There is a link to the rebate form near the top of the page.

How about ILL Mitch?

Click on "Events" at the bottom of skydivechicago.com

The Idiotarod. Mush from Brooklyn to Manhattan in a shopping cart while getting drunk. Sounds like a good time.

We're getting an almost-new Caravan from Cross Keys (I think) this year. The Otter was nice, but overkill.

"The Atair ONYX System is unique in that its guidance parafoil is capable of operating at extremely high wing loadings; typical weight ratio ranges from 4 to 20 lbs. per square foot. " Have fun with that.

You might want to try AtmosphAir Skydiving Center in Fort Atkinson. (920) 568-1700

I'm making good progress on getting my first camera helmet together. I have a PC105 side mounted on a Hawkeye. I want to put the camera on a quick release instead of just using a bolt up through the bottom of the L bracket. The plate is about 3" long and 2.5" wide, and the bolt hole is located 7/8" from the back of the bracket and 7/8" in from the outside (see the attached diagram if this is confusing). Is there any quick release on the market that will allow me to mount the camera in the same position? I've been looking around at B&H, but I'm pretty much just confusing myself.

Students typically don't know better and really have no choice but to drop it on the packer. As an "experienced" skydiver, if I were to give a packer my rig with a step through, I would expect to be charged extra. Fixing a step through can be a time consuming task and falls outside of what I consider to be the scope of a normal pack job. If you are having lots of step throughs, you should probably talk to somebody about what you can do to try and keep it from happening. I set my brakes and run my slider back up the lines while I'm still in the landing area. My $5 should cover cocking the PC, replacing rubberband, line check, etc.

I like the eTrex series. I've found a dozen-ish geocaches with both the yellow base model and the Legend and they both worked just fine. Mine does not have WAAS, which I now consider to be a must have feature, or the barometric altimeter. For geocaching or ground level navigation the barometric altimeter is not necessary at all but I see how it could be nice for wingsuit flying. The magnetic compass will come in handy when geocaching. If you don't have the magnetic compass, the on screen heading display will stop updating when you stop moving. If you want Garmin and you want WAAS, an electronic compass, and a barometric altimeter, you have to choose between the Vista and the Geko 301. Both are capable GPSRs, but I find the controls on the Vista to be much easier to use. If you go with the Geko, you save $80, lose the built in memory (not a big deal IMHO), and go from a 4-color grayscale screen to a lower resolution monochrome screen. Tough call. Unless size was an issue, I would cough up the cash and go with the Vista. Edit to add: The fine folks at the Geocaching forums will talk your ear off about GPSRs and will be able to answer any question you might have.

Just don't get solid orange. Looks too much like a reserve, in my humble opinion. I had a Spectre that was bright orange top and bottom, but with a black center cell and royal blue ribs. Looked very cool (again, in my opinion) and was easy to spot from the ground.

140-ish. A bunch of 4-way, random other belly flying, some freeflying, and some CRW. Not a bad year.

Also very good. I also liked Ronin.

1996 Dodge Stratus. It was owned by Enterprise as a long-term rental car before I got my hands on it. I got it in 2000, I think. Totalled it in the summer of 2002. Car vs. pedestrian at 50 mph, not my fault. Amazingly, the pedestrian lived through the experience and is doing well enough to sue me.

I don't understand how having different landing characteristics makes a canopy "old technology" compared to another canopy. 7 cell canopies typically just land differently 9 cells. Most people start jumping on 9 cells mains. Then they do a jump or two on a Spectre or Triathlon and when it doesn't land the way that they expect, it becomes a "bad" landing canopy. And that is simply not true. The Spectre lands as well as most 9 cell mains that I've jumped, it just takes a little bit of practice to get used to the 7 cell landing style.

'Sneakers' was good.

possible solution. something else

I've read this guy's interview with the cyber-madame. I'm pretty convinced it's a teenage girl.

Chest rings are just like hip rings, except they are located where the chest strap joins the main lift web.

Of course it wouldn't work. Everybody knows that all of those pictures of "Mars" are just doctored photos of the Sonoran Desert. NASA uses all of the leftover cash to throw wild coke orgies at Area 51 and build earthquake machines.

I don't like it, even it is far from the worst thing that our government is doing to foreigners.

7,200 feet is probably correct. The 672-person record is for most people in freefall at the same time, not in formation (if I understand correctly). They are also doing a 372-way freefall formation, which is shown farther down on that page that you linked to.

I'm a nerd. I work in MIS for a law firm. Everything from coding our in-house apps to maintaing the various corporate websites to manning the helpdesk.

Could be based on a binary tree, a la Huffman. Edit: Link

The whole "look at the technology we got from space travel" angle is way, way, overrated. That said, I wholeheartedly endorse the space program and would love to see an increase in funding.