AndyMan

A DZO's voice is important to skydiving. End of story. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Chicagoland added a buck surcharge after Katrina. We jump what may be the fastest -27 Otter in the country. Most jumps are from 14ish. A single ticket went to $22. My block price went to $17. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yup, and thanks for putting up my "tri-bi-side" the week before. You guys are doing good work. Keep it up! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The PC-120 is one of the few models that didn't differentiate a different model number for NTSC or PAL. It is available in both formats. Personally, I think they were originally overpriced because of it contained some (very poorly implemented) bluetooth functionality. I don't know anyone who ever got that part to work. It is a very good camera, though. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Given a change in air pressure, you can extrapolate either a change in orientation or a change in altitude. You can not accurately do both. While we don't know a lot about how the CYPRES algorithms work, we do know that they try to do what I just said can't be done. Since physics says they can't do it, they end up settling for what seems to be a pretty good approximation. It's a fine point - but a CYPRES does not measure orientation, it infers it with a suitable margin of error. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You can also add the Topix.net Skydiving RSS feed to my.yahoo.com. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I jump one too, and cleaning the heads seem to fix most of the problems I've had with it... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm surprised at that, too. I have a PDR 143 that fits comfortably in my I4. I can't imagine a Smart 150 is that much bigger...? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've got 150 jumps on my Icon, I ordered it last fall and it was delivered in the spring. Generally, I love the design. It's got all the important features borrowed from other rigs, and a few new Aerodyne innovations. I'm very happy with the riser protection, main and reserve pin protection, 3 ring system, and what they call "link-stop-panels", a flap to keep risers and links from damaging the reserve tray. At some point I expect to see some of their designs incorporated into other rigs. There are some weaknesses. The Icon has a large section of embroidery on the center of the back, an area that I've found a particularly high wear area. The embroidery quickly started looking ugly. I've also had problems with the design of the freefly main handle, I've found sharp corners of the handle are wearing holes in my pilot chute. Additionally I've had problems with my Dbag, I've had to have it resewn a few times. I have no doubt they'll get these issues hammered out - and probably already have. To me, the design is good and the workmanship is good, too. As a new design I think Aerodyne is finding a few small required tweaks, which they're figuring out. Everybody I've spoken to have been very good at addressing my concerns. I see the Icon as equivalent to the Mirage G4, but priced a bit cheaper than the G3 because of the included options. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I have once further inserted a main pin. It probably would have been fine had I done nothing. Since what I did probably didn't affect any outcomes, I voted "no" in the poll. Despite that, I wouldn't want to suggest that there is little value in jump-run pin checks. There's HUGE value in jump-run pin checks, because most of the things I find are things that should have been checked on the ground. I think finding errors on jumprun - even "safe" errors - like a cocked pilot chute that's showing white in the indicator window - is a good kick in the butt for people to do better gear checks on the ground. I've never made a life-saving correction. I've made many "you should have checked your gear on the ground" fixes. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Many of my pics are in my shutterfly gallery, www.shutterfly.com/pro/AndyCam/Skydive/. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I grew up with Alex Lifeson of Rush as a neighbour. Less famous, but also Alanah Myles (singer songwriter) and Glenn Gould (pianist). All 3 lived less than one block away. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I don't know what Red Bull you drink, but the stuff in my fridge has only 200mg of sodium. 140mg is classified as "low sodium". _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Sort of. If you wait until you're actually qualified to jump the camera, it'll be cheaper. By that definition - then no, it's not worth the price to buy now what you should buy later, for less. Otherwise, to somebody who actually intends to use it - well, it's a reasonable price. Personally I think it's a bit high for what its worth, but that is what they go for. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You don't necesarily need to prove damages under the Lanham Act. Damages are implied. Proving damages isn't the issue. If you prove the unfair competition, damages are implied. From what I can see, proving these allegations will be quite easy. My concern is that the lawsuit tends to wander all over the map. It seems like they tried to get everything into the one suit. I would have thought the suit would have been more targetted. I'm not sure what the Skydive Green Bay deception has to do with the State of Arizona, for example. No, I'm not a lawyer. But I did read Groklaw while staying at the Holliday Inn Express last night. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

All of the photos on this website are copyrighted, and using them without expressed written permission would be criminal. Me? Yup, I've got tons of images and they're available for sale at prices that would probably make them too expensive for use on a casual website... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I can think of two examples why some people don't get a repack until their Cypres comes back from servicing. One, many people service their AAD's during off-season downtime. Two, some people choose to not jump without an AAD, and either rent or borrow gear while their AAD is in for service. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Taking the Cypres out is easy, and there's no reason to involve a rigger unless you also need the repack. If you do need the repack though, just let your rigger do it but make sure to "supervise" so you learn something. Download the Cypres manual from airtec's website: www.cypres.cc. The Riggers manual is here: http://www.cypres.cc/Downloads/6_3_1/CYPRES%20Riggers%20Guide%20English.pdf. There is no reason to disattach the cutter. Carefully feed the cutter through the channels to remove it. Avoid kinking the cable. As for it being a "high value item", so are digital cameras, but we don't tell people to leave it up to the photolab to remove a CF card. Cypres's are well built and no more fragile than any other piece of electronics. Be smart, be careful, and learn something by doing it yourself. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Here's a picture I took earlier in the season. I love it because it shows how badly I sucked backflying at the time, and how I even had issues tieing my shoes... plus I got the shot of the helmet. The helmet was a Z1, it it came off of one of the RW guys without any encouragement. It too was found in a field with no damage. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That advice used to make a lot more sense, back when a 'b' license was 50 jumps and a 'c' was 100. A very active weekender would go from a 'b' to a 'c' in a month or so. Given that USPA was taking a few weeks to process a new license - well, you might have your 'b' license for a week before you applied for your 'c'. Now a 'b' is still 50, but a 'c' is 200 - it'll take a lot longer than a month or so to make those jumps. Probably a good idea to get that 'b'. You probably won't be applying for your 'c' for a while. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Not everyone can afford the weight or the cost of an additional flash. It is on my shopping list, but until I win the lottery I use the pop-up flash when necesary. It's better than nothing. I'll address your points one by one. 1. Does it have much effectiveness in good light? Sort of. If you're a few feet away, it lights enough to get a good shot off. It doesn't light as wide as a 15MM lens, though - so make sure your shots are centered. You may be limited to using slower shutter speeds depending on your camera. 2. The pop-up seems a little fragile if whacked by something climbing around/out of the plane -- anybody worry about ripping it off or being a snag point? Nope. My entire DSLR is fragile, not just the flash. The flash is no more fragile than the lens, or the tongue-switch plug, or the viewfinder, or the body itself. 3. I'm thinking I wouldn't use a flash unless I was mounting an external unit. A good flash is definately a "nice-to-have", especially if you're doing a lot of paid photography. If you mostly just shoot tandems in good light, and once in a blue moon find yourself on a (post?) sunset jump, then the built-in flash is probably good enough. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Also talk to your DZO. Aparently there are quite a few backers to the lawsuit besides Skydive Arizona. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I strongly disagree with that. In addition to eastern european female gymnasts, heavier guys also get a lot of value from chest rings. Anybody who questions their value on bigger guys should only see how my rigs fit. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I do know a few people using Duracell brand batteries, and they seem to work well. They seem to last a lot longer than the original Sony ones, too. Something like this: http://www.tapeandmedia.com/detail.asp?product_id=DR10, but make sure to order the correct one. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

In addition to how it happened, I'm very curious how it managed to be repacked twice without noticing these errors. In fact, I'd go so far as to seriously question the packing competence of whoever repacked the main and didn't notice the problems. #1 and #3 are both obvious rigging errors that should be caught by a simple '3-line check' that every jumper does when they run the lines. I'm not sure I understand #2. I hope that what's happened here is that the jumper himself was playing with his gear and screwed it up, then repacked it himself. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.