Nigel

TI's are highly trained, though perhaps badly paid, professionals, doing a very pleasurable job - when did you last press $20 bucks into your GP's hand as you left the surgery? Bar/restaurant staff are basically slaves (see Barbara Ehrenreich's excellent 'Nickel and Dimed') doing jobs they hate because they have to. I don't see any comaprison between them and skydive instructors....

So how many tandem owners abide by these numbers? Any? Some? None?

Sounds like Burning Sky at Burning Man: 60,000 attendees, wall to wall gifted booze, food, nudity (and sex, so my wife tells me) plus a PAC 10. If more jumpers sign up in advance, I think the organizers might be able to lay on more interesting planes. The photography problem is non-existent (unless some dick/dickette fails to self-regulate, which I don't think has happened yet).. Did I mention the 90 foot bonfire? The spectacular scenery? The crazy art cars? Even crazier costumes? The Google/FacebookYahoo 'models' (no idea how they transact their business, as there's no commerce on the playa)? The mindblowing art and camps? All night discos (I'm showing my age here)? The list is endless - just needs firm commitment well in advance... In fairness, I should mention Black Rock Desert is 5000 ft ASL, and can be quite warm. The high temps and altitude add 20% to your wing-loading. The diamond-hard playa makes no wind/down wind landings even more fun...

You can add Carl Roland, from Norway, who got his A license at Davis last weekend. He broke his back skiing, is paraplegic. Katie Hansen helped him through it, I believe. I was privileged to do a hop and pop after him - his landing was better than mine (which isn't normally difficult)!

I think your post has the data to answer the question: If heading into 18mph wind, and slight gusts will push you back, then 18 mph is close to your top forward speed (depends, of course, how 'slight' is defined. 2-5 mph would be my 'slight, which would make your max speed 18-23 mph) I 'calibrated' my canopy (Stiletto 120, loaded at about 1.7 lb/sf) forward speed empirically by slowly increasing the upper windspeed at which I'd still jump without going backwards with no brakes. It's between 25 and 28 mph. So without knowing how to calculate drive speed formally, your 18ish mph estimate sounds right. The factors I can see affecting this would be condition of the canopy, composition (spectra, vectran or HDMI etc) lines and trim, plus changes in your weight. Also altitude of DZ above sea level and air temperature. I have 3 Stiletto 120's. One has > 1000 jumps, the other 2 are both new, have < 100 jumps each. With steady 30mph winds, I'll happily jump one of the either newer Stiletto. For the old Stiletto, I don't go beyond 25 mph. Maybe a canopy designer can chime in here...? That you're standing up your landings is great. But 30ish jumps over 2 years would, I think, raise questions of currency at most DZs. I would aim to do 50 hop and pops in quick succession, in varying conditions, on your current 220 (or maybe with a 210, but nothing smaller)Quote

"There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bit pedantic I know, but breaking a BSR and not 'getting away with it' is ipso facto, more dangerous, maybe even lethal than getting away with it....

If you mean the NRA, I really, really neither need nor want their 'protection'

Does 'others' include a drunk-driver who kills a random child or adult?

+ 1 (and as a responsible gun-owner I support tighter regulation around the acquisition of fire-arms. And emphatically not an NRA member...)

Quote>A four year prison sentence for a Swiss guy who ate a bagel with poppy seeds at >Heathrow airport and 3 poppy seeds were found on his clothes Sounds like something that would happen at a US point of entry. Zero tolerance for drug smugglers and all that.[/reply Apocryphal? Is there a credible source for this?

I'd also think twice before visiting Louisiana... http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/01/abused-disabled-iowa-plant-workers-awarded-240m/2126651/ Having worked, lived in and visited most most M East countries, I'd write this off as a very unfortunate rarity. Injustice (eg extra-judicial execution) never occurs in the US, right?

I like the 300/600/900ft reference altitudes...I'm going to try that next jump. When you're trying it out, note the amount of time you get in full flight from the last turn to flare. You want at least 10 seconds - if you don't get that, you should take your altitudes up. Understood DocPop. Thx, Nigel

Not sure I think this is a fair analogy. If the 18 yr old demonstrated his/her competence and met the course 'Pass' standards, then he's competent, albeit inexperienced. I used to jump at a small DZ, where most of the TMs were around 20 yrs old: I was impressed by their professionalism, their willingness to say 'Too windy today, lets do it another day' to customers. The DZO always supported their decisions. I do believe DZOs deserve to be sued/run out of town if they don't adhere to industry standards of practice, especially for tandems. And as other posters have pointed out, they're dumb if they think the waiver allows them to do whatever they like.

I like the 300/600/900ft reference altitudes...I'm going to try that next jump.

Secretive? No...just talking with Nigel. Yes, off-line with him would have bean a better idea. You guys are doing quite well with the topic at hand, Mark. If you want my opinion: Set it for however high you want. Just let every body on your jump know what your pull altitude is going to be and, since it's different than the norm, let everybody know what your AAD firing altitude is. Is everyone going to do that? Hell no...now we got problems. Standards...standards...standards. Ad hoc doesn't work. I get everyone on the load sharing their pull altitudes. Not sure I care if their Cypri go off at 950 or 1150 instead of 750ft... Am I missing something?

You can take an expert model and bump the activation altitude up to (say) 1500' AGL using the offset functionality, but now you've moved the "does not fire below" altitude up to 880' AGL. If that's what you really want to do, drive on. Just know that there are second-order effects. Ken Thanks Popsjumper. I'd already thought of, and discarded the offset approach. But maybe for the wrong reason - I thought it was a 'before every jump' procedure, so never bothered. But your reason is sounder... I was asking Nigel...quizzing him to see if he understood the problem with that. Thanks anyway.

Question answered - glad to know not mad or more stupid than usual. Thanks Phreezone and Deyan. My first 4 year service is due soon, I'll add 200ft when I get it back.

Anyone else had difficulty increasing the activation altitude on a Cypres 2? I want to increase it to 950ft ('A2'), have tried every permutation of the instructions. SN is 57962, DoM is 2009. Can't even get it to display 'A0' after the climb count, SN and service date display sequence I'm about to conclude the instructions in the manual are wrong, which seems improbable....

I too struggled with accuracy. But I pretty much did what you're doing, and it's got a lot better. I also found imagining I had to land in someone's back yard, and then only flying in the airspace directly above, helpful... On windless days, I calibrated a pattern against reference points on the ground, so that if I entered at 750ft , I'd land on 3). If windier, I'll take it up to 950 or 1150ft. (I used a Suunto Vector for landing altitudes, regular analogue units don't seem accurate enough). Disciplined repetition (50-100 jumps) has taught me the sight picture, so I barely need the Suunto now. Seems to me you're doing the right thing, just keep at it.

I've bought several old canopies with much worse wear than this - including a Stiletto 120 from Action Air. I sent it to PD for a reline, patch repairs & inspection. Came back with new label on it (so I then could read the DoM - 1994 - and the serial #). I don't think there was much change from $600 (incl shipping and tax). I asked PD how many more jumps/use could expect. Reply was basically unlimited if properly cared for and maintained. I've put 500 jumps on it since, still seems fine, flares perfectly well. So...I think the Israeli riggers inspection and estimate are reasonable (I'm not a rigger & I'm lucky enough to be able to afford all necessary repairs)

Agree. Drug wars are prohibition all over again. Legalize and tax is the solution.

I'm with Andy908 on this... seems pretty sensible to me.

This seems a pretty open and shut case of discrimination to me. As other posters have commented, if the couple were black and white, or black and black, such discrimination would be intolerable. Playing the religion card is silly. Otherwise we'd be tolerating female genital mutilation and forced marriage based on religious grounds. I think this is 'Seculars - 1; Bigots - 0'... which makes a bit of a change.

I did my first jumps at Lympne Airfield, UK, in 1976. We used 2L rounds, the 'school' (Eagle Air Sports) was owned and run by ex-REME Captain, Alec Black, with ex-para Sgts (George Dunn was the firm but kindly chief of torture) as instructors. I don't know about the rigs, but I do remember seeing 20 or so boxed, new, Merlin MkVI twin hose scuba regulators in the hangar. One night in 1977, going to the cinema, I remember the London Evening Standard headline was of a Cessna crash. Capt Black plus 2 jumpers and jumpmaster all died when engine cut shortly after take-off. Turned out Capt Black never had a pilot's license, rest of his operation was all a bit dodgy. I suspect the rigs (and the scuba gear) had all been 'diverted' from the military without payment. But this is just conjecture... Despite the unprofessionalism, mayhem and death he left behind, I always liked Capt Black and his roguish operation. I still have my log-book signed by G Dunne, D2332. Rumor (before he died) was he was an NCO, then commissioned. Who was subsequently caught shagging his CO's wife...which was considered 'conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman'...

Islam is growing. What confirmation are muslims getting? Only because they are breeding like cucarachas under the refrigerator, not because they are getting much in the way of converts, voluntary or otherwise. No beer, no bacon? Who in their right mind would willingly sign up for that, eh? mh . Oh some humorless Scottish sect, such as the 'We Frees'or presbyteriasns. Joyless lot, the bunch of them