nacmacfeegle

"tell her Houston is right on her route" Hmm I-10.. actually most of Houston will be on her right. And it will be there for a while, unless the traffic has improved. A year ago I could have waved to her as she crawled past, my office used to overlook I-10. Sigh Happy days.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Obviously not Paint me bad, but I'm an old fashioned (some would say simply 'old') kinda guy, and I like my old fashioned documents. Like my old passport, driving licence, D licence. and pension book. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Well mine hasn't cos I haven't broken any laws (or at least been caught for breaking them) for a while, or moved house.... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Mininac says.. "If you wash it daddy, it will fit me sooner or later...." -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Yeah the usual paperwork, they need a copy of your drivers license, and as ours don't have pictures on them they will need a copy of your passport, apart from that its just the same as anywhere.... BTW Alamo were okay to me, we used them for about 10 months, about a dozen of us, each with cars, for typically month at a time hires, they were decent service, dunno about value for money, the company picked up the tab. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Just your license is fine, take a few photocopies copies with you, and a couple of passport photocopies too, its also a cool idea to have these scanned and stashed somewhere accessible like a website or something. They will need a credit card to swipe. Just out of interest, what 'else' did you have in mind? The above worked for me for about 9 hire sessions last year.....I opted for their insurance. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

How do I avoid collisions with other jumpers? Keep my head on a swivvel. Keep an eye out for people I know are going to be doing HP landings. Keep my head on a swivvel. Keep an eye out for newbies. Keep my head on a swivvel. Avoid s-turns, sashays, and other unpredictable manoeuvers on final approach. Keep my head on a swivvel. Land off the swoop lanes, don't cross the swoop lanes, stay out of the pond approaches etc. Keep my head on a swivvel. Fly an agreed pattern, normally a left hander. Keep my head on a swivvel. Know how to flat turn, land downwind, crosswind, and sink it in. Keep my head on a swivvel. Communicate with the swoopers, they aren't demons, just ask them where they will be landing, and stay well out their way. Keep my head on a swivvel. I can do all this and still get hit, but at least I like to think I'm doing everything reasonably practical to avoid a low level collision. And when walking back in, keep my head on a swivvel......Its not over till I'm re-packed... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

THanks Dude. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"hey! Neil Gaiman had a good bit to do with that book too..." Yep your right, its early morning and I hadn't had my coffee hit then. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

I've been watching this firestorm from across the pond with interest. I'm voting for education without regulation. This doesn't mean that I don't recognise an issue here, but I do believe the 'regulation' should be at a local level. So much of assessing a jumper's ability rests in actually knowing the jumper concerned, their attitude towards learning, and progresion, character, general awareness, availability of peer advice, physical condition, currency, etc. I reckon the answer lies in local policing rather than a blanket control. Although some reconised guidance would certainly help the situation, eg the adoption of the Dutch system, Brian Germain's guidance or similar, which also recognises canopy type. In the UK our CCIs (equiv of US S&TA) will ground you (after several words in your small and shell like) if they think you are pushing the limit, which makes them kinda nazi-like, but it does seem to have an affect, if you have issues with the local 'police' go somewhere else. The other problem I see is the availability of canopy coaches at smaller or more remote DZs, and the issue of visiting foreign jumpers. I do agree that 'something has to be done'. I'm just not sure that enforced education will make a huge reduction on the incident rates. I don't indulge in HP landings, I've learned the hard way and am lucky to be able to talk about it. 1200+ current wl app 1.6, I've lost too many valuable friends to badly judged HP landings. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Read 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett, its a take on The Omen. It will be right up your street, then start on his discworld books, should fill the gap until the new one from JKR arrives. Just don't take them seriously. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Intentional cutaways are kinda frowned upon, unless you have a rig set up for 3 canopies... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

It sounds to me that the APf don't necessarily require a rigger's seal, neither do the BPA here in the UK. Different strokes for different folks. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

If you have the serial number or part thereof, why don't you contact PD? -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"ANNOUNCE all at once where they will be and when" Working my ass off so I can provide for my family and buy a new house, most of the summer will pass me by I'm afraid. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"I think it's called Liquid Silver and it'll run you 25-30,000 dollars " NOICE! shiney thing with lots of buttons! Hardly a laptop solution though, which is the current holy grail for itinerant editors. When you get to this level of technology and budget you are way beyond even a busy DZ's (like Perris or Eloy) requirements. But I say again...NOICE.

Instead of the "balloon" turning a needle via pinions, gears, wee rods, and stuff, it compresses a piezoelectric device. When you distort a piezoelectric device, its electronic characteristics change. If you can link a lever to a "balloon" in the altimeter described above, to a piezolectric device, you can change the amount of distortion of the peizoelectric device as the balloon expands and contracts with pressure change. You then take the change in electrical characteristics, measure it and use that to drive your display. This is how audibles and digital altimeters work. They still need a "balloon" as a pressure sensor, its just a different way of translating the movement of the "balloon" into something meaningful to your eye and brain. If you then take this altitude calculation and hook it up to a clock, you have a pretty good speed calculator, add on some logic circuitry and you have something that can alarm at various heights, or even actuate a small explosive charge which can be used to drive a piston and cut a closing loop. Et Voila, you have an AAD. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

And I thought I was being gloomily realistic. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

This is indeed interesting, but bear in mind that the people who would deliver these weapons don't really care if they die, or are hurt in the process. The remote controlled drones sound cool, but all you really need is a car or van or truck. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Yup, John there's going to be a bit of a HooHa over this, should be interesting. I'm not going to criticise either Bush or Blair until I've seen the outcome of the forthcoming enquiries. On both sides of the pond. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Hey Alun, how did the Boogie go, a roaring success I hope. Yep these look similar to the Aquabouys, but with a different float. I'd be surprised if these kept a rig afloat, let alone a rig with a jumper attached. But they do comply with the wording of the rules, if not the spirit. -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

She IS famous in the UK, she whipped her dress off as part of the routine, very risque... parachutes are too good for worn out celebs, I say dump the ballast! -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Thanks Bill, if you delve deeper into the article, after registering you can find the circuit diagrams, courtesy of "Todd Owen, Linear Technology Corp, Milpitas" and this footnote....... "Altimeter testing was performed using a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter for an ascent to 13,000 ft, followed by free descent—limited by the engineer's parasitic drag—to 3000 ft. Subsequent deployment of an aerodynamic decelerator (Precision Aerodynamics Icarus Omega 190) prevented engineer injury or circuit damage. Aircraft rental for testing is available at many local airports. Extensive instruction in free descent and the use of aerodynamic decelerators are highly recommended before undertaking testing of this nature." -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

"just change the preference and start a new project...import the PAL footage and export it to Quicktime in DV/DVC Pro - NTSC. Then, change the preferences back and import the Quicktime back into an NTSC project. Turf the PAL project" Has anyone tried this, cos it just doesn't work in windoze and premiere primadonna -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

Flowers shmowers, Suz seems like a chocolate kinda gal to me.... Or even a frisky whisky lass..... -------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson