AndyMan

Under tension, risers will cut like a hot knife through butter as long as long as the knife is sharp. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I would think that we should not be so quick to give such concrete advice. Ultimately, we need do whatever the situation dictates. We need to do whatever it is that will keep us alive. The question was "what if you've got a malfunctioning premature reserve"? To me, a malfunctioning reserve is one that is not landable. As I understand the situation as described, doing nothing is not an option. Given the situation as described, the correct answer is that the jumper should use any and all tools available to ensure they land safely under a good parachute. This might mean using a hook-knife to clear a line-over, if that is that malfunction. Indeed it might also mean using a hook-knife to manually clear the malfunctioning reserve and deploying the main. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The Swift Plus was made by Para-Flite, and they do not have a demo program, they don't even make that canopy anymore. This is a good reason not to fly 20 year old gear, no? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I have. Every canopy manufacturer has a demo program where you can hookup a reserve as a main. Smart jumpers take advantage of these kinds of programs. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

There's a product called "Frixion" that works real good... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I entirely reject the notion that getting revenge for a murder is somehow "justice". The purpose of a justice system should be to reform and/or punish. It should not be to give revenge to families. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

If your coach course was anything like mine, expect a weekend of sheer hell. One of the lectures you'll be given on is on how people learn. One of the points they'll cover is that you can't teach for extended periods of time and expect students to learn. IIRC, they mention 90 minutes. In my coach course, the lecture where they told us not to teach for more then 90 minutes.... was 4 hours long. Excrutiatingly boring and frustrating, both at the same time. When I got home I was utterly completely drained, do the point that I doubt I'll ever get another USPA rating. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yup, a lot better now. Very cool. I wasn't expecting to see Darren, too. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Nah, not the highlight of the trip. You're going to have to stick to being the highlight of my life. Sorry babe! I LOVE YOU!!!! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yeah, the whole group was walking down the street towards the tunnel when we ran into Wittenburg, and Dove was with him. She goes "hey! I recognize you!... You're AndyMan!" It sure is odd to have people walk up to you on the street and say they know you from online... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Oh yes. Without a doubt, tunnel time is the single most valuable tool avaiable to learning pretty much any kind of body flight, exits notwithstanding. The rate of progress is simply amazing. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You can freefly, The tunnel will go up to 150MPH, but for most people they simply won't turn it up that fast. Which is fine. They kept it around 135 for the freeflyers, which is just fast enough for most people to sitfly. The slow speed is a good thing, it forces people to focus on their form and technique so that they're in control. Myself, I worked on my back-flying, and it took pretty much 30 minutes of me in the tunnel until I could do it properly... Very cool. The biggest realization is that just because you can do something in freefall, doesn't mean that you know how to do it. For example, I thought I knew how to fly on my back until I tried it in the tunnel. Only then did I realise how little control I had. Likewise, there were some people with lower experience who thought they knew how to sitfly, only to find that they never got off the net in the tunnel. Only through refining their skills and learning control could they sitfly in the tunnel. Some people never got their skills refined enough to do it in the tunnel. The highllight of course, was that I met Dove in passing on the street friday. I didn't get a chance to meet Arlo. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Cute pics! that was a fun weekend! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Here's an odd question that I'm sure will have me being accused of being blasphemous.... What about doing digital black and white? Quite simply, is there any point? I haven't done any black and white photography since I was a kid, but is the black and white digital toolbox at all comparable to the film one? Are there any profesionals out there shooting digital black and white, or is it simply too much of an anachronism? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

ok, this one I'm more sure of. The view larger clickthrough in Rantoul 03 doesn't seem to be working. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My bad. CLicking 'freefall photography' works. I was clicking the images themselves, I thought they were suposed to go somethwere. It's confusing to have the mouse change to a pointer (by using a ) and not have it link somewhere. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I am unable to click through beyond the home page. Did you test with Mozilla? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I bought one because I got my coach rating, I figured I should know what I'm supposed to be teaching. I have roughly 500 jumps. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Most definately something newer would be a smarter choice. Whatever you buy, make sure it gets checked by your local rigger. This is not a sport where its wise to penny pinch while choosing gear. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Well, you have to decide if you want to jump gear that is at least 16 years old. You can get good used gear relatively easily if you keep your eyes open. Have you gone through the dz.com clasifieds? I bet you'd be able to find something a lot newer for whats still a good price. Would I jump it? Assuming its in good shape, sure. I've jumped gear over 30 years old. Would I buy it? Personally, I like newer gear. Is it set up for a Cypres? You may need to have a rigger modify it to accept one. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Bush used the 40 minute claim in his State of the Union address, IIRC. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Craichead is busting my ass. Maybe next year I'll be running "Andy's downtown rigging service". Drop of rig afterwork, pick up next morning. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

This raises an important question. What are the good porn buying stores in Chicago? Strangely, thats one area I have no knowledge of... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The Globe and Mail is a fairly conservative Canadian newspaper. Yesterday they ran the poll "Janet Jackson's revealing moment during the Super Bowl halftime show has caused quite a stir in the U.S. Were you troubled by it?" Yes / No. 80% said No. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.Page/document/polls/pollResults?id=23711&pollid=23711 I would LOVE to see a similar poll by a national conservative media organization in the US. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The three authors came up with their solution, and they're doing something about it. The question is, what is your solution - ie, how should your "education" work, and more importantly, what are YOU doing about it? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.