AndyMan

I doubt this very much. Keep in mind that Precision didn't even attempt to defend themselves. They didn't show up in court. In court were the plaintiffs, the lawyers, the judge, and jury. It was essentially a trial in absentia because the defendents didn't bother to show up. Precision explained their actions by claiming they couldn't afford their legal fees. I don't think "we didn't bother to show up" is grounds for appeal. I am very curious what will happen next. Since Precision has stated that they have no intention of paying, I suspect the court will order them into bankrupcy. Not showing up at all seems like a very poor idea. At least George should have showed up, represented himself and stated "hey, they knew the risks". The Precision SB and recall left a bad taste in my mouth back a year or two ago. I'm not surprised that there's more to the story that just now coming out. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yes, I would sue. Without a second thought. It's up to the judge and jury to decide if I have a case. Most importantly, I have no sympathy for someone who doesn't even defend themselves. If you don't want to pay for a lawyer, then don't. Represent yourself and explain that users accept the risks. But to not even show up in court and complain when you lose is pure cowardice. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm jealous. I tried to get a pallette-full shipped out for a boogie here last summer. Unless I to knew of a plane that happened to be flying this way, it turned out to be WAY too expensive.... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Ours seems to last around 3 hours. I'm not sure what Apple claims. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Every Icarus demo I've ever jumped was badly out of trim. I suspect a Saber2 I once demo'd was also in pretty bad shape, but I didn't measure it. Sadly that is a common problem. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

We got a 10 gig Ipod for christmas, and it works pretty well. I would like something a bit bigger, but the larger ones are just too expensive. The pricepoint is changing, perhaps in a year I'll buy a new bigger one. We use ours almost exclusively in the car - our car stereo as a line in, so we just plug the ipod direct into the car. Battery life is not so great. This doesn't affect us much, we bought a car cigarette lighter charger. My biggest complaint is the cold - the LCD screen does not function at all when its cold, so if we leave it in the car overnight we have to give it time to warm up first. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Of course any skydiver has no business blocking other groups from jumping. Of course you have the right to post the video of them being wrong, and of course we have the right to make a whole lotta fun out of them for it. Moderator or not, who cares? They don't walk on water for gods sake. Just post the fricken video! My year-end video featured a clip of the DZO's 4-way group standing in the door of the skyvan for 17 seconds while the green light was on. It went over very well. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

People who know their shit and want to communicate it to others are not skygods. People who THINK they know they're shit, and harp about those that actually do know their shit, are skygods. I have never met an instructor who'd I call a skygod. For the most part, they know their shit. I will never degrade an instructor, I will never say someone "only" does tandems. What they do is far more dificult than anything *I* do, and without a doubt they have far more skill then I. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Sounds like you had fun. Somehow I knew you'd get along just fine. You missed a great party at JS and KO's - we were still into the Mamosas until 5:00pm the next day. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It seems like an awefully complex solution to a problem, which is far more easily solved by people taking care of their gear. Clean your cables every month. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You should consider the option different... There will most likely be plusses and minuses to the canopy that you like. PD has said it is not a replacement for the Stiletto, they're still going to sell both. Hopefuly by the time you're actually going to buy it, you'll be able to do a demo of both. That is the best approach. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Do a search, its come up here a few times. The nutshell is that concerns over premature deployment of the parachute has too many people frightened away. I may design one for myself at some point. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I would really be very surprised if one person is hogging an entire cable connection by surfing, even if for porn. If that's the case, then you've got a pretty crappy cable connection. Are you sure nobody's running any servers in the house? Like an FTP or Kazza server? Maybe something else is going on....? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

History has shown that pretty much only Sony cameras are strong enough to put up with the stresses of freefall. There are not many people at all jumping Canon video equipment, so I think you'll find we have little to offer, except that generally we do not recomend non-Sony hardware. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Coffee and most teas have a PH usually somwehere in between 5.2 and 6.0 - meaning it is a very mildly acidic. It is pretty much the least acidic common beverage. Even most soda waters are more acidic. BTW - coke has a PH level of 2.53 and Orange Juice is 3.0. Don't ask me why I know this. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I have both a Merlin camerasuit, and a Merlin freefly suit. THe quality is excellent, but the turn-around time in getting them was pathetic. I will not get another, unless I have guaranteed delivery dates, with penalties for being late. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Craichead bought me one of these: http://www.cuisinart.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi/en/item.cgi?item_id=DGB-600BC It is by far the coolest coffee maker in existance. It's got a built-in grinder, you add whole beans and water, the rest is done for you. The upside is the freshest coffee you'll ever taste. The downside is that its a bit expensive, and requires a bit more cleaning then most java-stations. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I can't even remember when I registered, I think it was sometime in the summer 1999, not sure. The "registered on" dates don't go back that far... I remember when there were 200 new posts after a busy weekend, never mind in a busy day. Since then this site has grown faster and farther than any of us could have imagined. In that time, I've been in countless abortion and gun debates, they've gotten tired so I don't do that anymore. I've seen a handful of people come here claiming they've got hundreds of jumps, only to really have none, so I'm less trusting now. I've seen threads grow to sizes in excees of 3 thousand posts, I'm simply not interested in reading that many opinions. A recent thread in the incidents forum grew to over 500 posts. Somehow we expect people to learn something by reading that thread. It would take probably 3 hours to read that thread... I used to consider some people here some of my closest friends. At the time this was great, I'd moved to a new city and didn't know people. Meeting online was an easy way to socialize. Now I'm more content hanging out with people that I see regularly, people I don't have to fly accross the country to meet. The relationships I've formed with "real" people are far stronger then any I had on dz.com. I now realise how silly I'd been devoting so much of my life online. I'll still come to the gatherings, but the online relationships have taken a backseat to the offline ones, as they should. I've gotten married, so I would rather spend time with my new wife then post-whore online. A lot has changed. Some of it has been with me and my circumstances, but a lot of it is the growth of the boards. The growth of dz.com is clearly a good thing, but what's unfortunate is what its lost. We used to talk about it being a family and everybody would nod in agreement. Looking at the boards today, I don't see anything that resembles a family. I only see a large group of people, most of which have a single common interest. Too bad. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The only solution to a 1600 foot snivel is to fedex it straight back to PD for their analysis. Do not jump it again until it gets looked at by a profesional. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm sure Bill can answer this, but the 3 rings patent expired about a year ago, If I remember correctly. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yup, I'm using a Dell Insprion 8200 for editing, it's a P4 1.8ghz processor with 640 MB of RAM. I also have an external Firewire disk drive that I use to store my projects on. I'm quite happy with this setup. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Of course its extreme. People get maimed and killed every weekend. We go to funerals to mourn the loss of our friends. This is not the type of activity that "normal people" do. How here's the problem, if I turn on the TV, I see shows about "extreme sports", and one of those "extreme sports" is kids riding their BMX bikes up and down little hills. That is NOT an exreme sport. Likewise, I'll often turn on an "extreme sports" tv show and see a bunch of kids riding their skateboards up and down hills. Likewise, that is NOT an extreme sport. As you might guess, I hold the marketing of "extreme" in a bit of contempt. I'm a bit annoyed at people who contribute to it, because most of the it is decidedly not. That said, skydiving definately is, and if anyone of us want to take that as our label, we deserve it. I'm pissed at the kids on skateboards, not those who try to jump safely. I can't fathom the idea that skydiving is not the "Big E." as you put it. There are few sports that are riskier, there are few sports that kill so many of its participants. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Thanks! Again - I pose the question - what are these big payouts that are forcing the rates up? Are we really talking about events that happened in 96 before the pro requirement? There does not seem to be an excesive number of injuries or claims in the pro section at all. Now I'm really confused. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I put over almost 150,000 miles on my Honda Prelude original brakes. It was a stick-shift, and I did a lot of down-shifting for maximum engine braking, so I was easy on the brakes. I did drive the car very aggresively though. No, I didn't need to replace the clutch, either... I repeat, I do not think you can beat the price:performance ratio of Honda. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I don't have any asian babies to spare, thanks. Not anytime soon, anyways. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.