redlegphi

Done. Will you be posting the results online anywhere? Either on this forum or on the survey website?

Yeah, I did Airborne school first and it's both a completely different method of jumping from an airplane and a completely different way of teaching a person to jump from an airplane. I enjoyed Airborne school and my jumps there, but looking back on it and comparing it to my AFF course, I realize that the Army did their very best to suck all of the fun out of jumping. Also, I do enjoy my knees continuing to work, so I don't think I'll be volunteering for an Airborne unit anytime soon.

Maybe they've got it in their heads to start a national team or something? I'm kinda surprised you didn't ask them what they planned on using them for. Kinda like selling a similar system to somebody off of the classified pages without asking them what their experience level is.

I'm not sure what "piped to the post" means, but if it means that the Belgian beer is better, than I fully agree.

The problem with imported beer in the USA, is that the foreign brewers have to make a batch with the alcohol content limited by law. That content varies from state to state. Alabama and Florida sucks donkey balls. I've drank Stella in Belgium. It's still shite. There are much better tasting and stronger Belgian beers to get drunk off of.

I'll begin with the several caveats that I'm not an instructor, have zero time in a wind tunnel, have very few jumps, and have no jumps in the last year (damn you War on Terror!). That said, here are the suggestions that I have: 1) Ask your instructor. This is the boilerplate answer here on DZ.com, and it's a good one. Your instructor knows what you should be doing and what you're doing right and wrong, and can therefore tell you what you need to work on. 2) If you're looking for a little more guidance on what to work on/what to expect when you start AFF, go to the USPA website and download a copy of the SIM (Skydiver's Information Manual). It'll tell you what you'll be working on in freefall and under canopy on each level. So you can start off just working on form in the tunnel and when your instructor says that's good, move on to heading control, etc. Welcome to the sport!

Also Afghanistan, and about 60 days behind joblades.

I've found that visualization helps a lot (thanks Instructors!). On your ride up, when the videographer isn't filming you to get all the pre-jump footage to put into your movie, just close your eyes, breathe nice and calm, and walk yourself through all the stuff your instructor told you to do on the skydive, from getting set up in the door to what crazy faces you want to make in freefall all the way down to what you're supposed to do when you land. Do that over and over again until it's time to get in the door. It gives your brain something to think about other than "I'm about to jump out of an airplane that's over 2 miles up" (not to mention it will help you do better on your jump, especially if you choose to work on getting your license later on, when you have a lot of tasks to remember to do).

Given that kids in High School or just out of High School don't tend to have a lot of disposable income that they could spend for instruction and gear, I'm not sure that's really the best group to be targetting. I'd say the best target would be single, young adults with jobs. Jobs meaning they have money and single meaning they probably aren't spending that money on a wife, kids, and mortgage yet.

Since you apparently can't be a skydiver without having an opinion on this, I'm gonna drop my two cents in. First off, while I do see the point you're making about using exit order to gain separation between people of different canopy types, I don't think that's the best solution to the problem, for two reasons. First, we're already using exit order to keep a reasonable distance between people while in freefall and opening their canopies. It seems like if we try to throw landing separation in on top of that, one of them is eventually going to have to give; either people are going to hit each other in freefall or they're going to hit each other when landing. You can't prioritize two things. Second, while your plan works for the load you described (3 groups of 4-way RW teams) it can get alot more complicated than that. For example, I was used to seeing 4-way RW teams, smaller groups of belly-flyers, groups of freeflyers, single freeflyers, students, and tandems all leave the same Otter. Even starting to try to figure out canopy separation for those various groups while still keeping them separated in freefall causes my brain to lock up. I don't even want to think about trying to figure that out for every single load. Especially when it seems like there's an easier answer. So, if we aren't going to use exit order, then the only method we seem to have left is separation of canopies once they're open. As has been said, there are three basic ways to do this: space, time, and space and time. So first off there's space, meaning that if the DZ has room, than they partition off two different landing areas: 1 for HP landings and 1 for straight in landings. I realize this doesn't solve the problem, as people could still fuck up and run into each other in either area, but it at least simplifies things and reduces the number of potential obstacles a person might encounter when landing. Second up is time, meaning that all the jumpers use the same landing area, but HP landers land either before or after straight in landers. There are a couple ways to accomplish this, the best being high openings or hop n' pops. Less ideal would be just having HP landers hold in brakes until they can see that EVERYBODY else is down, since it can take a hell of a long time for student rigs and tandems to land and there's always the possibility that the HP lander could not see a straight-in lander still in the pattern. Of course, if the holding in brakes option is tossed out, then that means that a person couldn't do a 4-way RW dive AND swoop on the same jump, but maybe that's the price that has to be paid for increased safety at DZs that can't establish a separate swooping area. Finally, the best way (I think) to achieve separation is using space and time, meaning that the DZ establishes separate swooping and straight-in landing areas. On top of this, the people within each area coordinate so that not everybody is landing at the same time. For example, the swoopers talk ahead of time and establish a landing order, with individuals holding in breaks above the landing area until it's their turn (from what I've seen of swooping, I think most swoopers already do this?). The same would be done in the straight-in landing area. This doesn't guarantee that there'll never be another canopy collision, but it at least mitigates most of the risk by providing maximum separation between landing canopies. Such is my two cents, for what it's worth.

Well yes, but as I understand it, military chutes are also packed differently from, say, a civilian static line chute, causing them to open quicker. Or so wikipedia tells me. I don't really think you can compare the two.

Military jumps are 400 Feet and above. Though I'd point out that those are done using static lines, pretty much guaranteeing that you'll have something over your head after 4 seconds. Also, in wartime, they're done with the possible added variable of people shooting at you, meaning there is more motivation to sacrifice whatever you have to in order to get down fast.

Suunto actually (two U's...it's Finnish I think). Though I have to ask what you plan on using it for. I have a Vector and I love it, but I wouldn't use it as a skydiving altimeter, as that's not really what it's designed for. The numbers are smaller than on my actual altimeter and all it will tell you is your altitude. For the same money, you can get a decent digital altimeter specifically made for skydiving with digital logbooks and all sorts of other good stuff.

I'd suggest talking to your instructor about what you're supposed to be doing with two out. My quick answer is if they're front-to-back or side-by-side, I'd leave them the hell alone at that low altitude. On the other hand, if they come out in a downplane, you've got to cut away. You pretty much have to wait to see what your canopies are going to do to make a decision.

When did "Muslim" become a country? How exactly do any of those attacks relate to the invasion of Iraq?

I learned to skydive at Skydive Dallas and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Every Instructor and Coach there that I worked with was both completely professional, but at the same time fun and friendly. The DZ certainly has the vibe of being one great big family, but an extremely welcoming family. Jumpers there are more than willing to take newly licensed jumpers out for fun or to show them a thing or two. The friendliness continues after the sun goes down as well. The aircraft selection is good, with a range of large, mid-size, and small aircraft to jump from. Showers, free bunk space, and the food are all fantastic. My only regret is that I'm no longer living close enough to jump there.

Actually, I went to the range last night and put 42 out of 42 rounds in the Bullseye at 50 feet with a Sig P225. Here's the point so pay attention. If I had 15 round mags that I kept loaded for home defense, I would load them with 10 rounds so the spring doesn't weaken prematurely. Also if I wasn't a law abiding citizen I'd take a road trip to the Grand Canyon and pick up some 15 round mags on the way. Edited to add: I was shooting at your standard human silhoette target. Well then, with your shooting accuracy, it would seem like you could put 7 rounds in a 10 round mag and still be able to kill at least 7 people attacking you. Are you planning on getting attacked by more than 7 people?

It looks like this is yet another bill sponsored by some crazy feminists, who alleges that "porn degrades women", and is immoral. Well, as it's coming out of Utah, I'd have to guess that it's actually religious conservatives, not feminists, pushing for this. Most of the feminists I know tend to be more criticize the consumer of the smut, not the peddler. Or such is my experience.

The issue isn't the use of the word "retarded" to describe a person who is. The issue is the use of "retarded" as an insult or synonym for stupid.

She's 14. Everybody here who didn't do something stupid they regret when they were 14 may apply for rock-hucking duty with the Lord between 9am and 5pm EST. On the topic of her parents being pissed, I could've sworn that a parent had to be informed if law enforcement wanted to talk to a minor. And finally, doesn't the Secret Service have something better to do than track down 14 year olds and give them classes on teh limits of the First Amendment. It seems clear that they knew she wasn't a threat, so why go through the drama of embarrassing her at school?

Given that type of reasoning then all Americans should no longer give a flying rats ass about anything beyond our borders and just be happy wearing expensive designer clothing made in the sweatshop by the children of third world nations. Let's not be concern about the starving and the dying and let's just be concern about a child that is helping the family business. After all, we are U.S. citizens and far better than the rest of the world (that is sarcasm for those who did not pick up on it). Your reply flies side by side with hypocracy. I"m not saying people shouldn't be concerned about the living conditions of people in other nations. I'm just saying it isn't hypocritical for an American citizen to show concern for a child in America and not immediately bring up the plight of children in her home country.

Do you find it hypocritical that this woman would complain of a child in the U.S. doing an easy task while children in her own country work long hours in sweatshops. She should go back to her own country and fight for the rights of children there or just STFU over here. Um, she's a US citizen. She should no more be concerned with solving all of the problems of India than I should be concerned with voting in the Irish, English, and German elections. So, while I don't agree with her, I certainly don't think it's hypocritical of her to make the comments. The US is her nation now.

In my limited experience, people don't particularly care where the violence is coming from, they just want it to stop. This is part of the reason the Taliban was able to seize power in Afghanistan after decades of civil war. Sure, they were ass holes, but they brought a level of order that allowed people to gain some level of predictibility and peace in their lives. For the same reason, I think we'll be seeing (are seeing) various powerful personalities gaining more and more individual power for themselves as this war drags on and only they are able to bring peace to areas (muqtada al sadr springs to mind).

1) I don't think North Korea and China are as tight as you think they are. They're still "allies" but China doesn't have any interest in a nuclear Korea on its border. 2) China already has more than enough of its own nuclear weapons. It doesn't really need to borrow any from North Korea, should it wish to nuke Taiwan, so this doesn't change that situation at all. 3) Even if China didn't have nukes, I strongly doubt North Korea would loan them one to start a war with Taiwan. North Korea appears to desperately want a nuke as a strong deterrant against US action. They wouldn't invest billions of dollars to get that deterrant just to give it away. This is also why I don't think we need to worry about North Korea selling nukes to terrorists. Considering how much I'm sure they've spent on the program already, it wouldn't come close to being profitable for NK to sell the one or two nukes they'll be able to develop unless the theoretical terrorist can raise billions of dollars. I'm pretty sure that that kind of cash would be beyond even Osama's reach back before we started confiscating all of his bank accounts. Also, if you're a terrorist with limited funds, are you going to use almost all of those funds to buy a bomb of questionable reliability from North Korea? I would think the better bet would be to see if you could get one from a former Soviet stockpile.

How much oil does Afghanistan produce each year?