AndyMan

When a friend of mine informed me of her desire to downsize two size, and go from a square to a fully eliptical canopy, I took it upon myself to convince her such a drastic move was not wise. Over a period of weeks she did eventually change her plans. Giving good canopy advice is not somthing that happens in a 5 minute conversation, it is an active fluid discussion over a longer period of time. I have, do, and will nag people for weeks until they see WHY I don't think they're making a wise choice. I'd recomend the same. Younger jumpers seem to value my opinions, and for this I'm fortunate. I attribute this to my attempts to explain the logic that forms those opinion, rather then simply stating them factually. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've seen a few of these going around. All I gotta say is that it's typical for Cubs fans to find scapegoats for their team screwing up. The Cubs lost because they got cockey and gave away 8 runs, not cuz of a foul-ball or a long dead goat. The Cubs will never win until fans hold them responsible for screwing up. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Easy there Casch. He said "maybe they'll teach me that when I start my solos". Yes, it seems his previous jumps have been tandem. To answer the original question, they'll teach you the PLF when you do your groundschool. It's not worth fretting over for. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Coincidentally, Mozila 1.5 came out today. Download from www.mozilla.org _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The blind leading the blind, maybe? I can see it now. Andy: "Bill, just in case you forgot, I think your aniversary was last week. Craichead just threw a frying pan at me, so I think mine is today". _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It wasn't that long ago I was driving from Toronto down to New York state, because there wasn't a single turbine to be found anywhere in Canada. Be happy this is changing. It's great to see turbine planes in Canada, even if they're not year round. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Agreed. Not only that, but I'm shocked at who it came from. I've never seen such an exhibition of bad taste. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Gary, thanks for posting that recount. This is not the first time I've heard that version, and I thank you for having the courage to post it. I personally look forward to the truth coming out at trial. Until then nobody who didn't see it first hand has any reason to understand what happened. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Not recently. I don't think there's been any reports of misfires since the modifications were done to eliminate the need for the electro-magnetic sheidling. I don't remember any in the last 3 years. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I don't know of anyone at my DZ who fit this criteria. I was hit 1.6 right around when I also hit 500 jumps. I don't know of at a higher wingloading then me, who has fewer jumps. There was no poll choice for "my big dz doesn't work that way". _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Any updates on the ETA? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I don't see that difference, because I doubt he was buying it himself. They were perscription drugs, after all - and most people who abuse perscription drugs DO have perscriptions for them. Most people who abuse perscription drugs bill the payments to their insurance company. By definition, any bill paid by an insurance company is a bill paid by all the clients of that insurance company. It's no different then people who abuse medicare. I see no moral difference between rich people abusing expensive drugs and poor people abusing cheap drugs. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I think it's a pretty rare case where a plane takes off fine, and then becomes truely un-landable. People survivie "crash" landings all the time, planes are succesfully put down in fields, in trees, even on highways. Miraculously, people sometimes walk away from these "landings". The act of putting two people under normal gear is called a "Mister Bill". Its done for fun under certain circumstances, except the second jumper lets go and deploys his own parachute for landing. I don't believe two people have ever succesfully landed one "normal" sport canopy. Myself, it would take one hell of a plane emergency to even contemplate sharing a sport main canopy. I can't even contemplate what would have to be wrong with the plane for me to do this... Most the mechanical malfunctions I understand - I'd still ride down the plane then try to hang onto someone, or expect somebody I cared for to try to hang off of me. None of this answers your question, because you weren't asking about plane malfunctions, you're asking about parachute malfunctions. I think the answer to this is that it may be possible, and even worth while trying if comfronted with someone in freefall without a deployable parachute. That said, I think the conditions that you've described are unrealistic. By the time your wife has attempted to deploy her main, failed, and tried her emergency procedures, and failed, I would hope that you yourself would already be under a parachute - because you need to have saved your own life first. The altitude that she would be at when attempting her reserve is not one at which that you should be with her. Secondly, in the conditions that you've described you've got the case where both a main and a reserve system have "failed". In this case, it's a sure guarantee that there's at least a few hundred square feet of nylon released behind her, which will not help her land safely, but will make it virtually impossible for anyone to help her. Parachute systems to not simply "fail" to deploy, "failing" parachutes generally do not leave somebody falling at terminal velocity just waiting to be saved up by a concerned jumper. "Failing" parachutes result in whats generall called "a big ball of shit" trailing behind the jumper. There are risks in skydiving, and one of those risks is a malfunction that is impossible to solve. This is just one of the risks that we accept when we jump, and our loved ones accept when they jump. Indeed its also a risk we accept when our loved ones jump, too. In this case, as you've described it - there's absolutely nothing you can do, nor should you even attempt it. If you can't accept the risks, then don't jump. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I have very little sympathy for people who choose to work outside the system. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

1 week til I get married: 6: 2 Jumps were all interesting. One was a six way horney gorilla. Talk about cluster-fuck... One I flew on my belly at 157 MPH, had a guy dock on his head. I'm told I'm quite flexible. One I flew video on a 12 way, got some great footage from the Casa. On another I did a floating exit on a raft jump. It came off beautifully, and I got some awesome footage. Saturday night we brought out a case of bubly, and the DZ partied in our favor. The next time we visit the DZ, we'll be married. Not a lot of jumps because the winds picked up in the afternoon both days. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Well, I'm still not sure whats going on. I normally store the camera in a relatively air-tight container. I had theorized that this contributed to a build-up of moisture, which condensed in the cold air at altitude. This last week I left the camera out, letting it dry out. Saturday, it worked fine. Sunday it worked fine until my last load. It worked fine at 8K, at 10K, and even at 12K. Once the door opened, it wouldn't turn on. I quickly power-cycled it, and instantly turned it to record, and it stayed in record throughout the dive. It did not fail when I had it off my head on jump-run to see an error message. I did fail when it was on my head and I couldn't see what was going wrong. So... I learned little, except for the fact that because it worked fine on saturday after having been dried out for a week, I feel my theory of moisture condensing at altitude is credible. __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

This should be a new thread, but I'm lazy. What exactly is going on in the philidelphia mayors office? I've read about the buggings, but I haven't heard any speculation about why the bugs were planted. I've heard the mayor is not the subject of an investigation. What's the rumor mill say? Whats really going on? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Wow! That is awesome. Very best wishes to both of you for all time to come. Myself and craichead are getting married next saturday. We're ecstatic! Which reminds me.... Bill, do you think you could give me annual anniversary reminders? I'm not very good with these things... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

How's that expresion go again? Something about glass houses and throwing stones? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The best is the pro-track, followed by the pro-ditter - in my ever-so-humble opinion. I use both a pro-track and a pro-ditter, because 2 is better then one, but I only need one that logs. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Pix is the gold standard, but quite frankly it's too hard to figure out. If you go Pix, you will need a consultant to set it up, and you won't be smart enough to do it yourself. I like Borderware, myself. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Heavens no. A conspiracy would involve more then one person acting togeather. I think those who believe skydiving is as safe as other common activities are deluding themselves - or they know better and are deluding others. I don't know who wrote the quote you posted, so I don't know if they're misguided themselves, or are attempting to miguide others. Skydiving is dangerous. Although we can, should, and do minimize the risks, it will always be dangerous. Honestly, I think that's a part of the attraction. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Peoples own beliefs are certainly not becoming irrelevant, but the trend is away from institutions like the Catholic churtch. The people I have the most respect for are those who've found their own god, not those who've grabbed onto the one the preacher told them about. People aren't giving up on religion, just specific monolythic churches. This is the good part. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yup, it seems like everytime the church speaks up on social issues, they become less relevant to society today. This is a good thing. I can think of few groups who've caused as much pain and suffering as the Catholic church. I'm happy to see them approach irrelevancy. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You get what you pay for. Don't go cheap. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.