AndyMan

Always check on www.resellerratings.com before ordering online. In this case, I would suggest you do business elsewhere. http://www.resellerratings.com/seller4099.html Many people here have had good experiences with www.dbuys.com _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Rest assured, that as long as people think its appropriate to shield the names of unscrupulous dealers or unethical manufacturers, they will not fail to disapear, but thrive, prosper, and multiply. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It's hard to ignore the idea of blue states and red states, especially after two elections with very little change. You get a very different picture when you see the county by county. http://www.electoral-vote.com/images/counties-2004a.gif _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Not very hard to find. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=77956;search_string=nasa;#77956 I don't like the cobalt, and I have jumped one. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

How long did that all take you? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The best canopy for camera is one that opens predictably. To me, any canopy manufactured in the last 5 years meets this criteria. I regularly jump a Stileto, but have also jumped while flying camera: Icarus Crossfire, PD Sabre 2, Big Air Sports Lotus & Samurai, PD Spectre, Aerodyne Triathlon. The debate of 7 cell vs 9 cell is unrelated to the issue of canopy choice for camera flyers. There are appropriate and innaproprite canopies in both categories. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Nope, he was Canadian! Sadly, he was also bi-polar, and had been reported missing. I'm glad he was "found" before he got hurt. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've seen some prety ugly tail (and helmet) damage as a result of rafts taken out of side door airplanes. The incident I'm thinking of resulted in a pretty serious dent to the otter, but I imagine with a Caravan it likely would have destroyed the plane. Rafts are best taken out of tailgates. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Not quite as good, but still funny: Barak Obama (dem): 70. Alan Keys (rep): 27 The race was fun not because of who Obama is, but because of Alan Keyes. What a twit. May he never run for office again... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I use a pair of croakies... but it's probably unnecesary. My FlatTop-PRO is more than tight enough to hold them on. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm trying to come up with the rules. Here's the best I've done so far.... Red States/Blue States Before play begins, each player takes a blank electoral college map and marks who they think will win each state. Whenever a state is called, each map is checked. Each player who called the state wrong takes a shot. Thoughts? Suggestions? Should there be additional shots required for a: supreme court rulings, b: prediction "do overs" by newscasters, c: recount requests? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Unless you're Shit Hot (tm), you need to be using a ring-site if you're getting paid. End of story. I'm not sure what the helmet being a side-mount has to do with the question... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Nope. www.nakednews.com _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Absolutely pointless question. They are all biased. Every one of them. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NPR, PBS, Bloomberg. The only one that can arguably called ubiased is C-SPAN, but it's as boring as hell. The only way to get an unbiased account is to pull from a handfull of sources. This has always been the case, and it always will. Anyone who watches one source exclusively will be wrong. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

He always seemed to have the same smile as seen in this pic... Blue Skies, Chris. edited: For those who don't know Chris, he's second from the right, in the hawaiian t-shirt. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

To answer part of your question... Independent of any other changes, longer lines do mean a longer recovery arc. Longer lines also mean more drag. It's important to remember that the physics of aerodynamics do not take place in a vacuum. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I teach people to "feel" out the different parts of their flare only after they've got their 'a' license, and I only tell them to "start thinking about it" rather than going out and doing it on the next jump. The "feel" of the flare can only be learned by doing, and can't be taught. I don't teach this to students because it'd be impossible to teach them everything they need to know to get it right on the first try. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It's a whole lot of fun, and a fantastic social life. As a profesion, it sucks. Before anyone jumps on me, here's why I think that. A profesion implies that you earn enough money to make a good life for yourself. There's a very few people I know in skydiving that make a good life for themselves entirely through skydiving. The majority of full time skydivers I know either live in trailers on the dropzone, or in a nearby apartment they share with 4 other skydivers. The only people I know who live comfortably either are owners of large dropzones, or people who had themselves setup before becoming a full time skydiver. Examples of this are people who already own their own home, mortgage free. It is exceedingly dificult to live a comfortable middle-class life on the wages paid by most skydiving gigs. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

What you're proposing isn't exactly common... But you certainly would not be the first person to do it. What is a lot more common is people shipping their gear because they don't want to check it while they travel, so dropzones (especially in florida and california) are used to packages showing up for jumpers. First it is important that you not only ask the DZ first, but make sure they know when it's coming, too. Give them a call when you order it, and a call again the day it's expected to arrive. Speak to the same person each time. Secondly, I'd try to make sure that it arrives when you're actually at the DZ. If that's not possible, than a day or two before you're scheduled to arrive. The last thing you want is your stuff sitting on a shelf in manifest for two monthes waiting for you to claim it. It will dissapear. Thirdly, I'd be sure to pay for upgraded shipping, make sure the shipping collects signatures for deliveries, and that you can obtain the name of the shipper easily. This means either Fed-ex or UPS. You want to make sure that when the DZO says "I have no idea what you're talking about", that you can respond by "well, you signed for it..." It can be a hassle. It's commonly done for expensive stuff... but I'm not sure if it's worth it if you're only saving a hundred bucks... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It doesn't need foam. The dividers are good enough. I see a lot of people with pelican cases... I don't like those because all the room is taken up by foam! There's no room to put stuff! I put two SLR's, one PC 120, 5 lenses, 2 chargers, a box or two of blank mini-dv tape, a dozen rolls of film... plus every cable imaginable in mine. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I bought mine at Home Depot. http://shopping.msn.com/trackoffer.aspx?p=1906:1:1:8777:7:8777:0:0:1:0:0&merchId=3090&invMerchModel=165052 _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I was reading this review of the new Epson RD-1 Rangefinder, and was surprised to see that it sported modes for Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red filters. I was surprised to see these on a digital camera. I have a very basic understanding of the effects of colored filters on black & white film - such as red adding more "depth", but I do not understand the physics of why this works... Nor do I understand if these techniques transfer to the digital "lab". Is boosting the magenta channel in photoshop before dropping the saturation the same as using a real filter? Do colored filters have the same affect on B&W digital as they on on B&W silver? Can a "filter" be reliably added algorhythimcally, like in the RD-1? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I wanted to give a good amount of time before starting editorials because I didn't want to discourage people from posting for fear of being jumped on. It's been a few days since the last post, so I think the poll is dead, so now I offer my editorial. Feel free to disagree. Here's what I thought of the numbers. The ratio's remained relatively constant throughout the active life of the poll. Those who admitted having Cypres fires was relatively constant at about %10. This tells me that even though we have a very small sample size, it's likely that the numbers wouldn't change if we did a bigger (and better) survey. While it's smart to not draw conclusions from this poll, I do think it gives a pretty good idea of whats going on. Of 210 posts, 22 people reported having a Cypres fire. That's in excess of 10%. This number is much higher than I would have guessed. USPA 2002 member survey shows roughly 30,000 members. Given that some members may not be active jumpers, the figure is till a good ballpark of current members. If %10 of these can be expected to have a Cypres fire, than we could expect many thousands of Cypres fires each year. I'm amazed. In 5 years I've only seen a single FXC fire once. I'm also amazed, that of 22 Cypres fires, only 2 people landed without their main pin having been pulled. The idea that a significant number of Cypres fires occur because of a innatentive jumper in freefall is clearly false - most have simply begun their main deployment at a lower than usual altitude. Likewise, the idea that bodies are plummeting at the earch while the jumpers do nothing to save themselves is also false. Most jumpers report their Cypres firing significantly higher than the commonly believed 750 feet. Had these jumpers not had Cypres's, many would have landed uneventfully under their main canopies. A few would have died. I would love to see a similar survey done on a larger scale. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I shoot digital for all non-tandems I do, and shoot film for tandems. Moreso than changing film, I'm constantly changing cameras. A quick release is critical - not to the technical aspect of bolting on your camera, but to your sanity... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

There's a $20 rebate... but more importantly the prices you're seeing now is MSRP. Expect the street prices to be less. We'll know more in a few weeks... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.