AndyMan

Oddly, some people say Americans are Xenophobic. I can't possibly imagine why... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I agree that taking out thermonuclear war without a backup plan is bad, however this is not thermo-nuclear war. Having it in writing does NOT elevate the meaning, it just makes it official. If it's not in writing its not official. Also true, but this letter seems like an ideal way of accomplishing that. It's dificult for us to tell how regimented Jessicakes organization is in paperwork. Many larger companies rely heavily on paperwork and burocracy, so writing a letter is recomended. At smaller companies, writing a letter would seem almost hostile and a bad idea. I suspect Jessicakes works for the former, though. At the very least, she's got nothing to lose. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That letter sounds like a great idea. I don't have any issues with the wording, either. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Our sport is littered with requests for money to help our fellow jumpers... and I can't think of many things less ethical. We KNOW there's risks, and we accept those risks. We need to accept the financial risks too. It's completely unnethical to claim that you accept the risks of the sport, and then turn to your friends to bail you out when you get hurt. I have jumped without insurance, but I was always eligible for COBRA, which can be gotten retro-actively. IE, you can get hurt, THEN apply for COBRA, if you're eligible. Keep your options open. Don't jump without insurance. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You want to get RID of lens flares? Odd. I like putting them in... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I only buy red wine. I'll drink white, but I'll only buy red. By far my favorites are red Zinfandels. Don't let the name fool you, these are nothing at all like "white zinfandels". White Zin's are virtually wine coolers, red zin's are strong red wines with attitude, with a literally explosive complex flavor. I don't keep to one label, In fact I try to taste as many different ones I can. That said, Ravenswood makes a few very good Zin's. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

They had one at Rantoul that I jumped... might fit you. Yes, one is on my shopping list. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Otters have hydraulics both to the nosewheel, the tail rudder, the brakes, and the flaps at least. I suspect other compenets like the horizontal stab and ailerons are entirely controlled by hydraulics, too. You'll notice this on Otters with problems with the hydraulic system, the pilot be pumping furiously on a manual backup hydraulic pump... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

So craichead and myself are getting married shortly, we're ordering our wedding bands. She has a pet name for me. It's "LuvMonkey". I have a pet name for her. It's "SweetPea". We're going to have these name engraved on our wedding bands, but can't decide which ones go where. His on his, and hers on hers or hers on his and his on hers? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My normal packjobs are down to about 7-8 minutes. In a rush, I'll do it in 4 minutes if I'm lucky. A BIG part of my speed is that I've stopped flaking the inside of the canopy in favor of a few good shakes of the nose. It seems to work well with my Stiletto. Check the lines, flake the nose. Shake twice, wrap the tail, set it down. Double 'S' fold, put in bag, do line stoes, close container. By far the most time consuming process is the 'S' folds and getting it into the bag. This step can really screw me if I rush it. Even though I do very rushed and sometimes ugly packjobs, I'm confident that any mistakes I make are the ones that will make it dificult to get into the bag, not those that will cause a malfunction. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I suspect this is true of most other altimeters... After all, they all work on air preasure. I also notice a 50 foot change when riding the subway between when its running and stopped. I think the deviations you see are just more poignant because of the digital display... Anybody tried this with a digitude? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've got 18 jumps, and my instructor told me I should buy a Velocity 96, but I think 111 is a safer choice. What do you guys think? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I strongly disagree, I've been using a Suunto Vector for skydiving for the last year, and the refresh rate is simply not a problem. It updates twice a second, which makes it more accurate then I need. As for the original question about the logbook, I've never seen anyone use it succesfully for skydiving. It just doesn't collect enough data for it to be meaningful in this application. BTW - it is true that Suunto does not recomend using it for skydiving, but it does seem to work fine. I attribute their position to liability reasons. If you search their list of dealers, you'll see that Chicagoland Skydiving Center is a officially licenced dealer. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

There are indeed FAR worse places to be stranded. I wish I'd get stranded in a place like that... My dad played in a pro-am golf tournament there a few years back. He STILL goes on about how nice it is. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My favorite porter.... the Polka Porter! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Stiletto at 1.6 _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I made the latest Skydiving Magazine... In the WFFC section, the DC-3 picture. I'm in the top right corner, sporting my ever popular purple and turquoise outfit. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

No, nor do I have a history of that. I'm arguing because you sound like an old fart who thinks that only people with "the right stuff(tm)" should be skydiving. In looking at this for three seconds, I can come up with 8 different scenarios which end with a cypres activation. In only one of them, was "doing nothing" a cause. If you really think that the only cause of a Cypres fire is "doing nothing", then I think you don't understand how it works. Or did everything you could, and couldn't get it done. This is the more likely case. Not the slightest. Granted that I've only been around here for 4 years, but I've never seen anybody have a Cypres fire because they did nothing. I've seen 4 fire for very good reasons. I've never seen anyone be non-chalant about a Cypres fire. I'm not saying there never has been someone, but if in 4 years I've never seen a single one, there can't be that many of them, certainly not enough of them to warant a thread like this. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Both the pro-track and the pro-ditter have the same tones, but the specifics of the tone seem to vary between different units, so they might not sound exactly the same. IE, the "siren" of the flatline might be a slight pitch higher on one, or it might oscilate fater on one. Generally, they will be the same, though. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Again, I ask why is this different then a reserve. I'll even use your words: "They should use their brains (and pack their main properly) not a device (reserve parachute) to save them." Is the only reason we use a reserve because the FAA requires us to? If it weren't for the FAR's, would you have the same feelings towards one? Again, gear dependency is inherent in the sport. I do not understand criticising someone for accepting it. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Why is this any different then a reserve? Why don't we jump base gear, because we shouldn't need our reserves if we learned to pack properly. Clearly, if we're depending on our reserves, we shouldn't be skydiving because we don't trust our pack jobs. Learn to pack and ditch your reserve! I'll say it again, trust in our equipment is inherent in the sport. Criticising someone for it is meaningless and ludicrous. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You can't get a half decent GPS system on the Audi, you can on the lexus. Am I being pedantic? No. GPS systems have been around for decades in true luxury cars, I don't understand why Audi can't have one. Lexus dealerships will suck you off, while Audi dealerships will piss you off. Your mileage may vary, though. I thought we were talking luxury cars?!?!? It's a nice car, but definately not luxury. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

What I don't like about Audi's is that I think they're overpriced. By the sticker, you'd think they're luxury cars, but they're not. They're good solid cars, but I just can't put them into the same ballpark as Mercedes, BMW, or Lexus. Unfortunately, they cost around the same as those... Given the coin for an Audi, myself I'd be looking at BMW or Lexus. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Every DZ I've been at has some kind of system for knowing whats inside. Bigger DZ's embroider numbers on each rig, then have a chart showing what each rig contains. Other popular solutions are to sew a tag to the risers which can be viewed under the riser flaps, or write the size on the cuttaway handle with a marker. One DZ had a simple solution, all their mains were the same size. Another had different colored rigs for the different mains. Lastly, if the student still didn't know, they could (and should) ask their instructor. Know your gear. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I live a few blocks from Union Station in Chicago. I used to always walk to work, but now I walk through downtown at least twice a day for other reasons. I get asked for change about 6 times a day, More when I walk to work. I will not, do not, and have not given change to homeless people. The last time I saw someone actually give change, it was a couple of high school girls right out side the train station. A local cop observed the transaction, walked over, put his hand into the "homeless" guys back pocket, and pulled out 3 rocks of crack. He told the girls "this is what you're paying for". I was amazed that the cop was that confident, he didn't have any doubt the guy was using the money for drugs, it just took him a few moments to figure out where he was hiding the drugs. I do live by the train station, and people asking for help getting home comes with the teritory. While I'm completely unwilling to help street people looking for a handout, I am very willing to help people get home. Usually those looking for help getting home need a few bucks for commuter rail, I'll hand that over pretty quickly. I once bought a ticket to Cleveland for a guy, tho... Fortunately that doesn't happen too often. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.