AndyMan

Got mine today. Real purdy. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Not all Icarus canopies. On page 16 of that same manual, it says : "From this point on, we recomend the Psycho Pack for the Icarus Extreme FX, VX, and Safire and the Pro Pack for the Icarus Crossfire and Omega." _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Tunnel Camp. I've got all the gear I need, am already doing all the jumps I want to. I'm yet interested in my ratings. The one thing I've never done yet, and would improve my skills more then anything else, is tunnel time. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

http://www.icaruscanopies.com/canopies/Crossfire/packing.htm _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yup! They make some very good micro quality stuff, you just can't get it down here. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've only got 500 jumps so I guess my opinion doesn't count. I do, however, have countless hours teaching ski instruction, including glades, back-country, etc. While not quite the same as skydiving, the risks are similar. Quite frankly, I've never met someone who WANTS to be dangerous. I've never met someone who given two paths to the same goal, won't take the safer one. Going contrary to this trend is an indication of clinical depression and suicidal tendencies. The trouble with a statement like this is that wether something is "safe" or not is entirely relative. According to my mother, there isn't a single safe aspect of skydiving. Who're any of us to say she's wrong? I consider the way that I skydive "safe", because I do it in a way that lowers risk. This doesn't mean that it is safe, just that its within my tollerances. Point: "safe" is relative. Back to my original point, people WANT to be safer. We all remember that rush of our first jump, and we all want to regain that rush. We do this by doing things that are becoming more risky. In the 70's and 80's people did it by going low. Now people do it by doing high speed landings, or flying in newer body positions, or doing even larger relative work. Again, "safe" is relative. I've never met an individual who given a safer approach to achieve that same rush, won't take it. It's for this reason that we rarely see people toggle hooking anymore, first they progressed to riser hooks, and now many are switching to carving dives. Where am I going with this? If someone really does want to be dangerous, not only should they be grounded, they should be introduced to a good psychiatrist and put on anti-depressants because they're a suicide risk. That's a pretty rare person, however. Everyone else, needs to be tought the better way by a good teacher. I don't necesarily mean by an Instructor or coach - I mean a teacher. Somebody who actually knows how to teach, how to properly convey ideas to somebody who doesn't like being the student. Unless that jumper really does want to kill himself (and needs profesional help), booting him from the dropzone is a failure of the teachers more then it is one of the student. Good teachers are rare finds. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I disagree strongly. my pro-ditter and pro-track both fit easily into the pockets in my Z-1. The complete lack of customer service with Para-sport, and the completely awsome customer service by L&B make this a very simple argument, from my perspective. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

In the attached images you can see winglets on both a Precision Nitron Canopy, and a Bombardier CRJ-700 regional jet. In both cases, the winglets reduce air spilling off the end of the wing, resulting in greater lift at slower airspeeds. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

No you can't. You can read excerpts of it online in HTML, but can not download the complete SIM. You could download the complete SIM in PDF form until Kevin Gibson Director of Communications decided that it was more important to take advantage of students willingness to hand over money, then have well educated skydivers. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Looks like I'll be tagging along with Val. Hi Val! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Correct. Skydivers are "Jettisonable Cargo", not passengers. Of course, this raises the wisdom of flying 13 heavily loaded cargo planes in tight formation.... but whoever accused skydivers of being particularly wise?!?!? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It is also frequently related to clinical depression, and is frequently succesfully treated with anti-depressants. I've found that those who deny its simple existance are usually pushing their own agenda. One such guy who lives in my condo has a car covered in bumper stickers reading "don't drug your kids". I was not surpirsed to find out he is also a staunch scientologist. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Have you ever jumped a Navigator? Most are trimmed in such a way that it would actually be very dificult to "hook" one. Navigators are trimmed to turn very flat, for exactly the reason you're alluding to. To "hook" a Navigator, you would likely need to hook your foot through the toggle. Back to the original question: Spectre's and Triathlons are very similar canopies. The Spectre came out on the market shortly after the Triathlon, and was designed specifically to compete with it. Both are virtually rectangular. The Specter has a bit of a taper to it, but the small degree makes it meaningless. Both have seven cells, which makes for landings with slower forward speed, one of the reasons many people consider them safer canopies. The downside to it being a seven cell is that you will have trouble getting back from long spots. The triathlon and specter are both very versatile canopies. I flew a triathlon for two hundred jumps, and a spectre for 30 while I was recovering from an injury. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

T'is true. The tunnel at Pigeon Forge is a good amusement park ride, and not a very effecive training tool for real skydiving. It's fun, I'm sure... but if you're looking to the tunnel to help your skydiving then there's (currently) no substitute for SkyVenture in the US. _Am (Hi P!) __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You'll get that if: a) you're using Internet Explorer, which is your first mistake. It hides the 'real' error message. b) there's more then 25 users connected to my server at any one time. c) you already have 3 connections, and are trying to establish a 4th. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I disagree. The minute you go for (3), you've lost them. They're all the more likely to just go somewhere else where they're unknown and do the exact same thing, only without uspervision or guidance. Guidance and instruction are much more effective. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Pretty short list of options. I think people who are simply 'grounded' will just end up leaving and jumping somewhere else where they're unknown and can get away with stuff. People that really are 'dangerous' should be worked with, rather then grounded. The solution to dangerous activity is education, not punishment. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Sorry, gonna be missing this one. I'd love to come down and see you guys again, but craichead is having a christmas party that weekend, and I'm in the doghouse enough without blowing off her parties. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Last time I drove to Cleveland I was transporting my then-gf's goldfish in an open aquarium. I hit a speed trap doing 92, got it down to 65 just in time. Two thirds of the water from the aquarium was on the floor of my car though... the fish died. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yeah, there's even references to Ohio speeding laws in The Cannonball Run. "For gods sake, just don't go through Ohio". I spent a year in Cleveland. I drive like an asshole, doing usually 20 MPH over at least. Ohio tested my skill at evading radar... got close once, he knew I got on the brakes quick enough so I only got a warning... but still. In Illinois I haven't even had a warning in two years. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I believe the skytronic reports freefall speed in feet per second while L&B report in MPH. With a skytronic, you won't be able to compare speeds with otherpeople, nor will their numbers seem relevant. Plus, and I can't say this enough times... you simply can NOT beat the post-sales customer support from L&B. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It works fine for me. I've put a few caps in place to try to manage bandwidth without just capping the per user transfer rate. The one I suspect you're running up against is a 3 user per IP limit. This means 3 connections per person at home or on a dialup, or 3 people at your company, or school as most organizations show up as 1 IP. If you're using IE as your FTP client, it takes any "access denied" error message as a "access denied until you give me the right password" message - hence the login box. Bad IE. No donut. If you're getting login boxes, make sure you don't have extra windows sitting idle. If you're still having problems, PM me your IP address and I"ll check the logs. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Oh. In 1925 when Biology teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution, fortunately the ACLU was well funded enough to pay for his defense. Yes, this was billable hours. That said, I wonder if you think it was "self-serving double talk, and media hype with little substance." In 1933, a long drawn-out lawsuit by the ACLU against the Attorney General, a New York court ordered the customs service to lift a ban on the sale of James Joyce's Ulysses. You're right, the book was crap, nobody should read it anyways, the ACLU was wasting money by fighting this battle... In 1939, it was an ACLU lawsuit that ruled un-constitutional the ban on unions. Again, I see you're point - absolutely NO value there!!! In 1942, when the japenese were rounded-up into concentration camps... who do you think got them out? In 1954, they led the battle against school desegregation. Even in 1981 they succesfully sued arkansas over a law that required creation be taught alongside evolution. In 1997, they succeded (alongside the EFF) in a lawsuit against Janet Reno that struck down the Communications Decency Act, a law that would've made anyone who posted "BOOBIES" in this forum a criminal. And that's just a short list. While they surely do amass a whole lot of billable hours, most of the lawyers aren't paid. 60 lawyers are on staff, but most of the 6000 cases argued each year are argued by one of 2000 volunteer lawyers. Billable hours, indeed. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

0:0:0 The gf is visiting parents out of state, I've been home alone all weekend. The weathers been crappy, and I've been working from home since I left work wednesday night. Boy, do I wish I was paid hourly.... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Well, they've got a pretty good track record of doing just that. You got a better idea? (alternate groups of lawyers notwithstanding) _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.