AndyMan

I disagree. The most common eliptical canopy is the Stileto. At lighter wingloadings the Stileto becomes very prone turbulence, largely because it has a very flat glide - it's easier for the nose to fold under then the "tapered" or "square" canopies. I presume this is also true for canopies that have a relatively similar wing, like the Crossfire, Heatwave, Etc. PD does not recomend the Stileto for students or beginners. They do say that very light intermediate jumpers can jump one at an intermediate level. Icarus does not recomend you jump a Crossfire below a 1.4 wingloading. Surprisingly, PISA does not make any recomendations for anything on the Heatwave... As far as I can tell from their website, a student could equally jump 190 at 1.0 or a 95 at 2.0. I believe either condition is equally bad, for different reasons. _Am The St __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

1) Zero Perosity Fabric vs. F-111 (0-3 cubic feet per minute) fabric is the biggest difference. 2) Reserves are 7 cells while most mains are 9 cells. 3) Perfectly rectangular reservers while mains frequently have varying degrees of "taper" or "elpitical". Can a reserve be used as a main? depends on the reserve, but generally yes. For years, the Raven was popular as both a main and reserve, but now is only used as a reserve. A reserve being used as a main will age at the same rate as a F-111 main, which is faster then z-po. Reserves are sometimes used as mains for long after their worn out as reserves. Not common, but it is done. The biggest problem with using a reserve as a main is that many of them don't have a bridle attachment point. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Flip-Flop, large wing. 4 weeks and counting. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Eric, a few questions. 1) where did you get the parts? 2) does the spring provide enough tension to force the chin strap off the pin while under tension? I don't doubt you can pull the pin, rather that the system will instantly dissasemble when you do. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

http://www.merlinsuits.com/ Seems to be working for me. Myself, eagerly awayting a new camerasuit... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Oops! Yup, typo. My bad. No donut. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Or until 2000 feet. AFFI's are taught not to chase a student below 200 feet. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Don?!?!?? DON!?!?!?!?!?! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yes. My real name is Enrico. Anyone wondering who Geronimo is might want to read this: http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois?STRING=parachutehistory.com&SearchType=do _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Is this the one...? http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0915516802/qid=1036871927/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-8637294-7980757?v=glance&s=books _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Personally I find the auto-focus on the 120 is really good, I usually just use that. The only time it ever gets confused is on opening when I get stood up. I haven't used auto-focus in heavy cloud, so I'm not real sure how that'd work. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Thanks. I should really pick up a copy of that... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It depends on the plane, and where you're sitting in the plane. In the US, most cesna 182's are type-certified so that everybody (including the pilot and obverservers) must wear rigs, due to the risk of a canopy/tail entaglement. Larger planes like Caravans, Otters, etc do not require those in "seats" to wear rigs. In an otter, if you're in the right seat you don't need one, but if you're riding in the back you do. I would have no hesitation about flying right seat in an otter without a rig. I would never even step into a 182 jump plane without one. In a caravan or king air I probably still would want one, because it has a low wing and still has entanglement risks. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Anybody remember when the Sabre was first introduced? A friend of mine is looking at buying a Sabre that was aparently manufactured in 1990. This set off alarm bells as I really didn't think the Sabre existed in 90. Aparently it only has 500 jumps, which I also think is doubtful. Anybody know when the Sabre was introduced? Secondly, anybody know if there has ever been service bulletins on it, or major upgrades in the 12 years since? Would she expect it to fly relatively similar to a modern 500 jump sabre? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

How old is too old? See attached. As you can judge from the look on my DZO's face, the question is redefined as being "how old do I actually WANT to jump", vs "how old is safe to jump". Properly maintained, gear can last a long time. Wether you actually want to jump that gear, is a whole other question. Any gear you buy used should be inspected by your local rigger, wether it's 6 monthes old, 6 years old, or looks like something in the attached picture. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Tom is a really cool guy, I suspect he lurks here. Funny ad, glad to see someone that's confident enough to be honest about the condition of stuff in auctions. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The 120 also has a larger lens, and a larger CCD - which basically means a crisper, cleaner picture both for video and digital stills. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yeah, I went to the Gear and rigging forum, did a search on "sewing", and turned up nothing. Then I did a search on my username, and found the thread I started dealing with sewing machines. Something fishy, methinks... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

see the thread here. __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Derek, I am in need of two aditional pouches for a Jack-the ripper knife. I'd like to have one pouch sewn permantently to each jumpsuit. Can you help? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It usually says this when the number of connections is full. Try putting 'anonymous' as the user, and your email address as the password. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm heading off for a nice dinner with a "special" someone, then heading off for a rather interesting event at a local uber-hip lounge type thing. There will be no pictures, but there might be some interesting stories when I get back. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

A couple of things going on here... First was that I moved the server to a different data-center, which doesn't appear to have quite as good connectivity as the first. Disapointing. Secondly, there's a handful of people who seem to have taken it upon themselves to download the whole archive. While this is a serious breach of "nettiquette", rather then ban their IP's, I just hope they'll get it over with and finish up already. Thirdly, because of very high volume affecting the other websites I run, I had to cap the bandwidth, and figured 75 KBps was a reasonable level. I may turn this up at some point. Bandwidth isn't cheap. EDITED: As an experiment, I've bumped the bandwidth up to 125KBps, and enforced a limit of no more then two connections per IP. This will likely piss off those who're snarfing the whole connection, who were downloading 5 files at a time... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm not. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That's one way of thinking about it, but by the same token the US is taking advantage of the highly skilled foreigners because their own school system is incapable of producing enough talent. The rediculous sums of money guys like me get paid even after the ".com collapse" is tribute to this need. When I was given an invitation to live and work in the US and lend my skills to the its economy, giving up my freedom of expression was not mentioned. If I happen to think a certain president is a bumbling moron, I will not hesitate to say so - especially because I'm denied the right to vote him out. Foreign workers in the US are not here because of US benevolence. We're here because the US could not function without us. Lastly, I think it was Jefferson who pointed out that patriotism was a tool of the weak. "Love it or leave it" made little sense in the 60's, and it makes little sense now. Clearly, my dislike for elements of american culture and politics do now reflect my appreciation of the country as a whole - it's real easy for me to leave at any time I chose. If I wanted to, I would. Should this country continue down its current path of curtailing human rights, imprisoning its own citizens without trial, and arbitrarily inflicting its will in parts of the world it has no business in, it will lose a very talented individual when I do in fact leave. For the record, I have no intention of getting US citenzenship. This is a good thing, because one of the conditions of the visa I work under is that I'm not allowed to seek one. A simple application for even a green card would result in the revocation of my work visa, and likely result in my deportation. Denying my right to even apply for citizenship WAS on the invitation. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.