AndyMan

I made a chili last year with cocoa powder... I loved it. It gave it a rich velvetty texture like you'd find in a south-american mole sauce. Was really very good. However, it did not win me the chili contest. Cornfed midwesterns thought it was just weird. This year I made an Italian Chili, italian sausage, roasted red peppers and garbanzo beans.... I did win the chili contest. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It's on a flap thats tucked up in the top of the reserve flap. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It's the first I've heard of it... any more info anywhere? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It's also making the rounds on all the geek sites as pointing out how flawed the US Patent and Trademark Office is. Patents in America are pretty absurd. Slashdot. National Geographic _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

So... it's bowling with a metal ball...? Sounds fun! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

C-7? Meaning a military DHC-4? That'd be cool... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

True. However, unlike an RSL, a one hand each handle does have a historical pattern of issues - notably hard pulls on either the cuttaway or the reserve. In my view, the BEST thing is to have both good procedures and a good backup. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You would be wrong. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Well, I can't argue with that, other than to say that people with a lot more knowledge than either you or I have concluded the contrary in a great many cases. It seems to me that at this point in your skydiving career, it would behoove you to listen to advice of people who know more than you, but I digress. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yup. If you paid less than $3,000 for it, it's fake. Still, even the fake ones are nice... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

If you don't jump a Vector, I'd STRONGLY recomend you follow the instructions in the manual for your container and not somebody elses. There are MAJOR, but largely invisible differences to the design of cuttaway systems accross manufacturers. One example would be something called 'compressible housings'. Whether your gear has Compressible Housings or not radically affects how you need to trim your cables. The Vector manual is completely irrelevant if you jump a Mirage, Javelin, Icon, Racer, etc. You're new to the sport. Your job is to learn. Not teach. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Again, a non-answer. What about the jumpers and the jumps make an RSL unsafe? Interesting. Of all the fatalities, many of them are experienced jumpers and don't have RSL's. Odd. Interesting that the safest aspects of our sport are students and tandems, both which require RSLs. I've never said everyone should jump one. In fact, I don't jump one. All I've said is that for the majority of jumpers, having one improves safety. It's very true that if more people jumped one, there would probably be more issues with them. The flipside is that if more people jumped one, there would be a much larger decrease in no-pull/low-pull fatalities. The stats here are solid. Most DZ's have busy student programs. There are more than enough student jumps to indicate a pattern. There is no such pattern. From my observation, even good modern student gear seems to have a higher malfunction rate than everyone except those jumping small elipticals. This often includes students who misdiagnose problems - for example we had a student chop a perfectly good main because "the slider wouldn't go up", and we had a novice chop one because an unstowed brake put his main in a slow turn. The suposition that students have fewer malfunctions than experts is by my observation, false. There are more than enough students doing more than enought jumps to indicate a pattern. There is no such patttern. Again, I allow that the discussion does become more interesting when someone is jumping a small eliptical. Most experienced jumpers are not jumping small elipticals. The most common main being sold today is a moderately loaded Saber2, which is very compatible with RSLs. The suposition that somebody needs to "get stable" from after cuttaway from a moderately loaded Saber2-style canopy is demonstrably false. Canopy colisions and entanglements are very rare outside of CRW circles. Strangely, I can point to a few recent incidents of student and novice entaglements. More importantly, for advanced skydivers these are easy to avoid and most skydivers go through a long career withtout seeing any, outside of CRW. Secondly, this is precisely why RSL's have a quick-release. If a skydiver thinks he's adept enough to properly perform his emergency procedures without an RSL, he's also adept enough to disconnect his RSL in the few cases that it's required. There are more than enough RSL's in use to show a pattern of malfunctions. Such a pattern does not exist. I'm done here. I need to get back to work. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

True. My statement that there are more student jumps than experts was false. Still, there are more than enough RSL jumps made to indicate if there's a fundamental safety problem. There's more than enough jumps done each year to show a pattern of issues, if such issues existed. It's dificult to show conclusively many fatalities caused by the RSL, despite them being used by a large number of jumpers. Contrary, there are an alarming number of people going in who would've been saved by one. The suposition that the reason there's not more RSL fatalities is because people dont' use them, well - that might be true, but it misses the point. RSL's reduce the risk more than they add to it, for most skydivers. For me, that really is the end of story. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Generally, dropzones that fly small planes do so because that's the plane that makes most economical sense for their operation. Generally, a dropzone only flying a 182 will not have the customer base to fill a larger plane. Gemerally, if a dropzone had the customer base to fill a larger plane, they'd buy one. Exceptions apply. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

What is it about Student RSL's that make them any different than "expert" ones? Don't take the cop out of "different gear, doesn't apply", tell me WHY it doesn't apply. Most modern student gear is functionaly identical to expert gear, with the exception of canopy size. I grant that the RSL discussion gets a bit more interesting with small elipticals, so tell me (other than that), what is it that makes student gear so different? Now tell me why these differences make the RSL unsafe. Student RSL's presumably get far more use than expert ones. Given that the equipment is functionally the same, if there was a problem it would show up with student gear first. Expert skydivers deploy lower, meaning they execute their reserve procedures lower. This means an RSL is even more important, as they're more likely to need it. 20 years of history has shown conclusively that there is not a big risk of RSLs for most of the skydiving population. Contrary, fatality statistics indicate there is a significant risk to jumping without one. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I used to work for Molson. Keg beer is by far the freshest and tastiest beer available. Generally it is unpasturized, which will give it a fresher, cleaner taste. In blind taste-tests, beer drinkers will consistently pick fresh keg beer as their favorite. The downside to keg beer is that since it's unpasturised, it MUST be fresh. Keg beer does not age well at all. Keg beer must be constantly refrigerated to keep it fresh, and should be consumed within a week or two of purchase. So, to answer your question: Keg pro: 1) Keg beer tastes better. 2) Keg beer is cheaper for a given volume. 3) Cleanup is easier since you don't have bottles to dispose of. Keg con: 1) Any left-over beer will likely be discarded after the party, since you probably don't have a fridge big enough to store it in. 2) Keg's are heavy when full, and are pretty much unliftable by people who don't have strong muscular shoulders. 3) Keg's limit your choice. Rarely have I met two different beer drinkers at random who both prefer the same brand. Generally, unless I was hosting a Frat party... I'd buy an assortment of bottles from a discounter like Costco. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The numbers of student (including tandems) and novice jumpers (and total jumps) out there FAR exceeds the number of advanced skydivers at almost all DZ's. By far, most skydivers quit the sport long before then become "experts". There is a tremendous number of RSL's in the field for the last 20 years, and by far most of them have worked flawlessly. The stats are valid. Especially with students and novice jumpers, RSL's are far more helpful than harmful. Flying Camera? A good exception. Flying a tiny eliptical? There's an interesting discussion. Got 34 jumps? You'd be a fool not to have one. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You don't need any special drivers for the PC120. Windows should auto-detect your camera when you plug in the firewire. Do not try to use USB. 500 MB of RAM is more than enough to do basic editing on a PC. I recently edited a 30 minute video with premiere on a machine with 512MB, and I had absolutely no complaints. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

So, um... What happened? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Ron has come up with handful of cases over the last 20 years where one may have contributed. The flipside is that I can show 3 examples no-pull/low-pull fatalities this year where an RSL almost certainly would have worked properly, and saved a life. Especially with newer jumpers, the advantages of RSL's greatly exceed their risks. Quite frankly, I'm at a loss to understand how anyone can come to a differing conclusion. But as I said earlier, it is up to the individual jumper. If that's what they want, I won't stop them. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Most cameramen would not jump with the Skyhook. The inventor, and producer of the Skyhook thinks most cameramen are wrong. Of course, he is trying to sell them... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

While it certainly is your choice, I think you're displaying incredibly poor judgement. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The point of practicing emergency procedures is to repetively do the same action over and over again. History has shown that when the shit hits the props, we'll perform exactly what we drilled. How do you drill making a choice? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm amazed that people even contemplate this choice. Living in a trailer on a DZ sucks. It can be a brutally tough lifestyle, especially if you're in an area with harsh winters. I have some friends who literally park their trailer in a barn for the winter, and spend 4 monthes living there waiting for the DZ to reopen. Alongside that, skydiving is one of the most expensive sports I've ever been involved in. You can't get a marketable instructors ratings without at least 500 jumps, so figure those costing you at least $11,000. Plus you'll need to buy gear, that'll bring the total north of $15,000 - just to get to the point where you can apply for a rating and start begging for work. There are people who try to get into skydiving without a well paying job, but successfull ones are few and far between. Get the degree, get a job so that you can pay for your skydives, then enjoy. Many schools have skydiving clubs, so you can jump during school. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Airlocks add rigidity to the nose of the canopy. By closing the nose off, airlocks ensure the canopy stays pressurised even in low speed flight. Crossbraces are different. The key design goal of crossbraced canopies is to have the design characteristics of a 21 cell with the line drag of a 7 cell. This design choice affects the aerodynamics in a very specific way. Airlocks do not approximate this. One popular side effect of crossbraces is they add to the rigidity of the canopy in slow flight. Crossbraces help keep the canopy stay well formed through the flare, which keeps the wing flying efficiently. This means that you can safely load a crossbraced canopy to a higher level knowing that you'll still be able to reasonably shut it down on landing. This is the aspect that airlocks mimic. I should mention that I'm hardly a crossbracing expert. I've not yet found one big enough to play with. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.