AndyMan

Still, why don't you call up PD and see what they think of that particular packing "shortcut". _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Additionally it has the new style combo a/v output jack, so it will be a bit of a PITA at communal editing/playback stations. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

As long as you dont' value your canopy.... Yeah, great idea! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I know how you feel... I started at a DZ where all the student canopies were 280 square feet (raven 4) and I was left high and dry when it came time for me to buy something for myself - I had no frame of reference for what is appropriate. What I did, is I happened to take a new job in a new city which took me to a new DZ where they had a good range of canopies for me to use. This probably won't work for you. What you will be able to do is ask around your DZ, there's probably a bunch of people who went through this exact same thing as you're about to go through, only they did it a year ago. Frequently there's "post-student" gear hanging around a DZ that's been owned by a handull of jumpers and gets passed down to people just off student status. People use that gear for a while before buying something smaller. The most dificult part is going to be finding a container/reserve/aad for you to use. Once you do that, then getting demos from the manufacturers is easy, and you can easily swap the different mains into your borrowed container, jump a different main each week. Ask around at your DZ about what gear is available. Even though the DZ might not own appropriate post-student gear, certain somebody who jumps there does, and I'm sure they'll let you jump it. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Define "legal". Legal to run? Legal to use? Legal to download anything from? Legal for them to allow you to download stuff? Legal for you to download stuff from? It's semantics, but they're important questions. What are you looking for? IE, you wont' get arrested for using Kazaa, but you'll probably go nuts from the spyware they'll install. If you download thousands of copyrighted .mp3's, the music industry might sue you. If you share thousands of .mp3's, the music industry will sue you. A better option then Kazaa is called "Kazaa lite", it doesn't have the spyware. It's hard to find because Kazaa sued to have it taken down. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Many student progressions have jumpers at 1.1 or 1.2 at the end of their progression - 20 jumps. I presume your are not in such a program. There is no number at which point it becomes "safe" to preform a rapid downsize. In fact, it is never safe to radically downsize by jumping from a big canopy to a small one. No matter what experience level, it is always important to downsize one canopy size at a time. What does this mean for you? Well, you didn't explain much about your experience, so we don't know some basic things like if you're still in a student progression, or if you've got your 'A' license, or maybe have just done one solo jump.... What I can tell you is how things work around here, where a student will do their first jump on a very large canopy, maybe 280 square feet. Generally a student will do three jumps on each canopy, progressing one size smaller every two or three jumps. The student is only allowed to downsize if they properly display the proper skills on each jump. Additionally, as the jumper approached a 1:0 wingloading they do more and more jumps at each level. Later in the progression the decision to downsize is largely based upon the jumpers comfort level with their current canopy. There is no "goal" or "ideal" wingloading for new jumpers. Some recent grads will be adept at canopy piloting and will be comfortable with a 1.1 or even 1.2 wingloading. Others will choose to settle in at a .8 or .9. Whats important for you is a good understanding of what your skills are, and an understanding that downsizing is not to be rushed. Even if your DZ doesn't have a lot of different student gear, there are options available... Many gear manufacturers will allow you to "demo" a canopy for a weekend, so that you can request a different canopy each weekend, progressing one size smaller each week. Be careful, choose wisely, but most importantly have fun. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

By that standard, I'd have to vote Canada. After all if we're going to exclude Oxford or Heidelberg, then we're also going to exclude the Ivy League. Once you do that, I'd take pretty much any provincial school over a US state one, and most of the private ones, too. As a percentage of population, far more Canadians get to University than Americans. Probably because the US has more schools than any other country. Again, if you want to measure in percentages, Canadian universities have far more foreign students per capita than American ones. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Absolutely it is fair. That's specifically why the General Aviation numbers INCLUDE student flights, which consists largely of take-offs and landings. Student flights do far more take-offs and landings then skydiving flights, but even THEY have a far better accident rate. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I don't know if you noticed this, but the mayor did it on a special day called a "weekend", when courts and lawyers don't tend to work. See, it's got to do with this thing called a "5 day work week", which basically means that most white collar workers don't work on two special days, called "saturday", and "sunday". The court has said they will hear the case on a day called "tuesday", which comes after today, which is called "monday". "Monday" is the first day after the "weekend". To make matters a bit more complicated, "Monday" in this case is a special day called "holiday", where again people with white collars don't tend to work. In this case, the "holliday" in question is called "Presidents Day". Hope that helps, _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Best quote so far.... "His wife Carleen packs his parachute, the ultimate show of trust between a man and his wife!" _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I think you'll have no luck at all complaining to the feds. I do think you'll get a lot more value out of complaining locally. After all, cities don't have to invite presidents to come visit. Only if local governments start complaining will things change. My beef is that whenever the president comes near Chicago they shut down entire extressways and downtown arteries. Hundreds of thousands of people get stuck in traffic for hours because of the backup. It's a major headache. Thankfully, its a rare occurance. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My wife Craichead works for the Chicago Historical Society and she found this in their collection. They've got high resolution reproductions, enlargements available up to 20X24. If you're interested, PM craichead. The caption reads "Clem Sohn, who jumped from 10,000 feet in his 'trick suit' at Curtiss Wright Airport. He is standing with his helper Harold Neuman. April, 1935. Photographger - Quinn" Craichead just pointed out... "He's even wearing stylish Wingtips!" _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Song Name: When You're Falling, Artist: The Afro-Celt Sound System Album: Volume 3: Future in Time. It features vocals by Peter Gebriel. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Here's mine: http://66.102.107.165/andrew/2003pgS.wmv _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Damn linz.... you crack me up. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You have an interesting version of history. Would you prefer that instead of complaining and politicking, people who had a beef with the current administration took to arms and overthrew the government in a bloody messy rebellion? Didn't think so. Personally, I can't imagine anything more patriotic then working to improve the country you love. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

. It's EXTREEMELY rare to find a piece of hardware, especially from the major manufacturers that is not compatible with XP. Did you go to the manufacturers website and search for an updated driver? That will solve 99% of "incompatible" problems. Also, if I'm going to call someone, I'll call the printer help line LONG before I'll call the Dell line. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Perris always has a great lineup of load organizers just waiting to help. Ask at manifest, and they'll hook you up. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Playing up high is the best time for you to discover for yourself the capabilities of your canopy. Collapsing a canopy isn't something you should fear, provided that you do it at an appropriate altitude - above 2000 feet. Unless you're flying a high performance canopy, which I hope you're not, collapsing your canopy is no more dangerous then the opening you just went through, and has the same issues as that opening... IE, line twists and the possibility of a spinning malfunction. As long as you're at sufficient altitude, the risk of these malfunctions should hardly stop you from practicing stall recovery, with the posibility of an occaisional collapse. Practice aggresive toggle turns and see how the canopy dives. Practice front and rear riser turns to know the difference. Practice flat turns until you can do them quickly with minimal altitude loss. Dive your canopy, then use the toggles to plane out the canopy quickly. Up high is the time to learn the skills that can save your life when you need them down low. Don't fear collapsing your canopy up high because you already know how to deal with any issues you may cause. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

See? I knew I shoulda gotten her something..... My ass is SO gonna be grass come saturday.... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I REALLY think you should be qualifying this with your obvious conflict of interest. For those who don't know, Rob is in the business of making and selling wrist-mount camera mounts, among other things. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Offtopic, but for the record, I agree. MACK Waranties suck. I would have gladly paid the $250 for Sony to repair my PC120, at least then I would have gotten it back in less then six weeks. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

A slam it may be, ignorant it is not. I've been in this field for 10 years, and there most definately is a difference in the toolbox of those that come from purely techinical backgrounds. Without a doubt the strongest individuals have a wide and diverse background to draw from, and having a non-technical degree facilitates that - provided they have the training required to do the job. The opposite is also true, someone like BillVon is a great example. Clearly, his social interests lie outside of his field, and the skills he's picked there are equally important. That said, in the places I've worked, which include an impresive list of fortune 100 companies, its the soft-skills which are valued far more then the technical ones. I've noticed this not only in the engineering staff, but other technical disciplines like accounting. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm a liberal arts major, I have a degree in Canadian Studies, from a Canadian University. In real life I pretend to be a software engineer. In comparison to the "real" engineers around me, I have superior written and oral communication skills, and I relate better to management and to our clients. Most importantly, my career has progressed faster then the pure-play techies I started out with. If you want training, a technical degree can be a good answer. I skipped the training and instead chose an Education. I have no regrets. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I use cheap scanners... so I've got a different story. I've found that the shine inherient in glossy pics can be a problem, so I've had much better results with Matte. The shine or the gloss reflects back and blurs the image. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.