denete

What's the difference between those 2 measurements? Easy to measure: Galvanic skin response of a 34 year-old male human seated in a climate-controlled room while watching the second-hand of a clock that moves counter-clockwise for one minute every 4 minutes. That's a specific measurement. Hard to measure: How people feel while shopping. That's a broad measurement.

?? Did you mean broadly measured? Specific measurement is easy. Or did you mean that the field of psychology cannot be specifically measured? - David

Thanks for the clarification. The info that I had was from transcendingfear.com. It must be out of date. - David

Are you sure about that? - David

That report is somewhat confusing (linked below). http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_100807WAB_missing_plane_SW.14e67c6fe.html

Hang in there guys (them...and us), just hang in there.

Yep, it's true. I started sleeping well in 2000-2001, and lost almost 40 pounds in 4 months. I was still eating the same as before, and there wasn't any obvious reason for the weight loss except for sleep. ...then my daughter was born and my sleep went out the window. - David

I usually take a nap before a jump. But, after each jump I drop my gear, walk to my car, (grab some water and a banana), and try to think through my dive before the post-adrenaline headache hits. My parents called me on my cell right after my 5th or 6th jump, and later they said that I was talking really, really fast. I always thought I was extra-mellow after jumping. Who knew? - David

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've got a 2 hour drive to the farm ...and a sleeping bag.

So far I've jumped Grand Caravan, Mullin's King Air, PAC750XL, and Beech99. Mullin's King Air wins...but the PAC wasn't far behind.

SkyVenture Atlanta?

Well, if you enjoy evolution and think the discussions are fun and educational, here's an idea to ponder. Swoop cords for your feet. It could be that this has already been tried. It may have no benefit. Whatever...here goes. Wearing a suit that has normal booties, you also have a swoop cord arrangement that goes from your heel to your hip. It has to have some elasticity in order to allow your legs to go straight, but when bent upward it stretches the back of the suit's legs to form a gusset from your butt to your foot. When adding that to your booties, you now have created a pretty sizable control surface (a classic parallelogram that has been skewed...unless your feet are as long as your thigh). Because it is "fixed" at one end (your butt), spreading your knees apart and touching your feet together will give you wicked fast front loops without a tucked body position. Anyhow, all of this came up after seeing the Brandi Belt from FliteSuit, and thinking about how a similar system might work that connected swoop cords from your hands to your feet (marionette-style). SCR #14809 "our attitude is the thing most capable of keeping us safe" (look, grab, look, grab, peel, punch, punch, arch)

Good point. I was going for the lower surface (of the mattress/canopy) effects when looking at torsional stiffness. - David SCR #14809 "our attitude is the thing most capable of keeping us safe" (look, grab, look, grab, peel, punch, punch, arch)

Okay, try this. Put that same partially inflated air mattress in the swiming pool with suspension lines attached like a canopy. Put yourself on the bottom of the deep end with a harness on (and a ton of weight to hold you down). (The air inside the mattress will move opposite of what it should do in the sky, but the idea is similar.) Pull down on one front riser and watch the pressure try to equalize on the surface of the water (which would be where the air meets the bottom of the canopy and the open nose while in the sky). Now fill the mattress fully with air and try the same thing. Having all of the lines under tension doesn't allow it to pop up like a beach-raft, but it makes it incredibly hard to pull under. Sure, this is an extreme example (a pool full of water pressure versus air in a mattress), but it works. By the way, how many injuries / fatalities were there during the days of pioneering the square canopy before cells were cross-vented? Would a radical turn collapse the canopy? - David SCR #14809 "our attitude is the thing most capable of keeping us safe" (look, grab, look, grab, peel, punch, punch, arch)

Wow, I didn't even get down to reading your post before I posted. I actually came up with the same theory as an AE?? (That's actually very cool...for an arm-chair aerodynamics fan like me.) - David SCR #14809 "our attitude is the thing most capable of keeping us safe" (look, grab, look, grab, peel, punch, punch, arch)

Theoretical thoughts: Speaking of pressure...apply brakes, as you swing forward under / in front of the canopy, the nose comes up. This angle along with the slowing of the canopy would decrease the compression of air in front of the nose. That should decrease the internal pressure of the canopy. If so, the canopy should be easier to "warp" with the front riser (we are just twisting the canopy into a bit of a propeller shape, right?). Am I far off on this one? SCR #14809 "our attitude is the thing most capable of keeping us safe" (look, grab, look, grab, peel, punch, punch, arch)

It seems like a lot of people think of this as though they are pulling the front riser down. I just think of pulling my body up. If you really can't do it...I guess you "could" use two hands. Nah, you can do it with one. Once the turn starts, just maintain it. SCR #14809 "our attitude is the thing most capable of keeping us safe" (look, grab, look, grab, peel, punch, punch, arch)

Unfair question...there is not just one. 1941 (Hollis P. Wood: You won't get shit out of me. I've been constipated all week!) Airplane (Jive Lady: Oh stewardess! I speak jive.) Vacation (Cousin Vicki: But Daddy says I'm the best.) Caddyshack (Carl Spackler: I smell varmint poontang. And the only good varmint poontang is dead varmint poontang, I think.) Best in Show (Buck Laughlin: I went to one of those obedience places once... it was all going well until they spilled hot candle wax on my private parts.) Animal House (Mean dude: Do you mind if we dance wiff yo dates? ) Blazing Saddles (Gabby Johnson: I wash born here, an I wash raished here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter.) Shaun of the Dead (Shaun: As Mr. Sloan always says, there is no "I" in team, but there is an "I" in pie. And there's an "I" in meat pie. Anagram of meat is team... I don't know what he was talking about.) Christmas Vacation (Clark: Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (French Soldier: I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.)

It must be boiled peanut season. I was sitting in traffic yesterday and as it creeped forward, I saw something on the road. Sitting on the double yellow lines were the hulls of a boiled peanut. How in the heck do you eat those slimy things while driving? Of course, it could have been crossing the road and gotten hit by a car.

Newbie Question: Isn't there supposed to always be one person on each load that serves as the jumpmaster (a USPA recommendation/rule)? - David SCR #14809 "our attitude is the thing most capable of keeping us safe" (look, grab, look, grab, peel, punch, punch, arch)

It might be good to also mention that this can happen at your dropzone as well. An eager low-experience jumper may want to share their newly found technique with you...to your detriment. When it has happened to me, I just thanked them for the information and stuck with what my instructor had taught me.

Is there some way that I could get a lower designation than that? There's too much pressure being a sub-lowtimer. Shoot, I'm not even a packer.

Don't downsize, Supersize! Come to think of it, Grimace could probably do some incredible head-down work (he's already a huge shuttlecock shape)...and Mayor McCheese would be the ultimate sit-flyer with that head...or Ronald Mc. flying those big ass shoes like a skyboard. I'll buy a t-shirt.