wolfriverjoe

Lots of good answers here, but I'll throw in my $0.02 (which is about 2 cents more than it's worth). Student gear has features designed to make it easier to operate by students. Once you know what you are doing, it has more disadvantages than advantages. Many DZs use throwout from the first jump. They feel that training with ripcord and then transitioning to throwout isn't worth the hassle. Others use ripcord because the instructors are "old guys" and teach the way they were taught. Nothing wrong with either option. Ripcords, for example, are easier to find, you don't have to let go of the pilot chute, have a harder (not impossible though) time getting tangled in the bridle if you are tumbling and a few other things. Throw out is easier to pack, not any harder to deploy, and has no chance of losing the ripcord. Once you have adequate experience throwout is more appropriate. Dacron lines are still available on just about any canopy and offer a "shock absorber" in case of a hard opening. ZP is mostly better than F-111. It lasts a lot longer, flies better, and tends to open better overall. As has been said, if you jump a canopy sized to your skill level, fly it sensibly, make jumps appropriate to your skill level, jump with people who you know are safe (both in freefall and under canopy) and jump with an AAD then you have removed yourself from well over half of the statistics. I use an AAD, jump a Sabre2 loaded at about 1.2, usually jump at a one Cessna DZ (only 3 others in the air at once) and don't do anything radical under canopy below 2000'. I am also not in the least hesitant to sit down if I don't feel right. If the winds are getting strong, or even just getting "wonky", if I'm getting tired after a long day, if I had a harder opening and I'm a little sore, anything. And I've never gotten any shit over it. I really want to jump, but the jump I most want to make is the next one. And I can't make that one if I don't make the last one safely. I know perfectly well that I can't eliminate all the risk. But I make choices that minimize it, and I stand by those choices. I know people who make choices based on the idea that "it'll be ok this time." Some of them walk a little funny these days because their choices bit them fairly hard. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Well, other than the "fact" that the translation is awful, every one of the "facts' is wrong in some way or another. At least the ones I can read and understand. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Well, that lead is in the ground and in the environment. Mining it and extracting it must then be good for the environment. Right? We really need a sarcasm font. Seriously, lead is pretty inert. There have been numerous studies at gun ranges that demonstrate once the lead there, it tends to stay there. It doesn't leach into the groundwater or migrate much. Personally I get lead from the shooting range. I pick up bullets and slugs, melt them down and recast them into new bullets. The problems with lead and animals is the waterfowl that eat gravel off the bottom of lakes and ponds (with lead shot mixed in) and scavengers eating the lead shot out of lost game (the condor problem). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

The cookouts/picinics I usually do are more of the "Burgers and Brats" kind. I want to be sure anything in the meat is dead before I eat it. A steak on a grill is a far, far different set of circumstances. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Well, it's nice to know you admit evolution is all made up and that we were designed by an intelligent creator. You even admit it in a different forum. No, I'm not serious. ID is a joke. But I couldn't resist. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Cookouts scare me a little. Sanitation questions, storage questions, ect. I tend to stick with stuff that is less likely to make me sick if it isn't handled "perfectly." Mayo, eggs, milk, anything "creamy' is all stuff I avoid. Salads made with oil/vinegar based dressings, fruits and veggies, melons and that sort of thing are what I go for. My meat has to be at least medium well, and I prefer it fresh off the grill. I freely admit that I tend to be overcautious about this sort of thing, but having had salmonella a few times as a direct result of not doing the above, I'm ok with being called a chicken. The funny part of it is that I have jumped into a couple picinics/parties as a "Bandit jump" thing, and then refused to eat the egg salad because it's "Too Risky." "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

If they made lying to get laid a crime, every guy in the US would be a criminal. Seriously, lying isn't a crime. Fraud (obtaining benefits by lying) is. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Silly argument - there are perfectly good alternatives to lead for ammo. I guess it would depend on the definition of "perfectly good." Tungsten and Bismuth are "good" as far as perfomance, but are very, very expensive. Steel is a vialble alternative, and has been used for years, but it's performance leaves a lot to be desired and it's very destructive to the guns (steel on steel). And these are alternatives to shot, not to bullets. There are only a couple usable alternatives to lead for bullets (either shotgun slugs or rifle bullets). Copper solids are used somewhat, and while their terminal (impact) performance is good, their ballistic (in flight) isn't so much. And they're very expensive. To take lead completely out of the firearms industry would cripple it. Badly. Don't think that the anti-gunners aren't aware of that. One of the more disturbing news stories I heard about this sort of thing was an environmentalist complaining that bald eagles in Wisconsin were being poisoned when they ate the lead shot out of the gut piles left behind by deer hunters. Sounds terrible, right? We should ban lead shot and/or deer hunting right? Well, the reality is that in Wisconsin, deer hunters are prohibited from using shot of any kind. They can't even have shotshells on them while deer hunting. Slugs are required. And a 1oz slug is a bit big for even a large bird to eat. But the anti-gunners have never let the facts get in the way of a good, emotional story. Edit for a typo "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Comment 27: "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

from the link: A pilot 188 is comparable to a Sabre2 190. A Sabre2 170 is comparable to a Pilot 168. So the answer to your question is "One size." http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2246307#2246307 "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Read this:http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4180579;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread The "I'm on a boat and am buying it as a surprise for my Dad (son, brother, whatever)" is a pretty standard scam line. Pretty odd to be buying a harness/container without actually finding out if it fits, no? Pretty odd to be buying a really high performance rig for someone else, no? Skim through the other scammer reports and you start to see patterns. This is a standard one. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Because they are popular. Because nobody (well, at least not many) wants to pay for what they get. Because allowing the tax cuts to expire (remember that they were supposed to be temporary?) is being called a "Tax Increase" Because "Tax Increases" are "bad." Because the idiots in charge care more about being reelected than being responsible. Although if they did do the responsible thing, then they would likely be replaced by someone who wouldn't. Look at Greece. The government that actually tries to be realistic falls and is replaced by one that is trying to renegotiate the austerity measures. More "Bread and Circuses." "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I you aren't scared, then you don't understand the risks. For me, the rewards are worth the risks. I just work through the fear and jump. The fear level goes down, but it is always there for me. And that's a good thing. If I don't feel some level of fear or nervousness, then there is something wrong. That means I'm getting complacent and that is dangerous. It's perfectly normal. There's this Duck that's gone through AFF (and has gotten her A). Her story of the fears and everything else are pretty much dead on. And funny as all hell too. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

so how many DEA agents should die before RWCs can get outraged? It's a bit sad that this was the first use of executive privilege by Obama. Seems simple - they fucked up, Holder lied about it and got caught in the lies. Time to come clean. I won't miss him. Let's bring on the next rights trampling AG to continue the sad chain of the past 20 years. Well, the real question becomes "What did he know and when did he know it?" "He" can be both Holder and Obama. It has become pretty clear that this entire fiasco was more about having American sourced weapons being found in the hands of Mexican drug smugglers than about tracking the weapons pipelines. The failure to have any resources available to track the weapons in any way after they left the US and the failure to tell the Mexican authorities anything about the operation indicate that they had no intention of trying to catch anyone until after the weapons had been found by the Mexican authorities and a trace requested. So the ATF is complicit in providing weapons to the Mexican drug cartels. It seems that this was done to bolster claims that the drug cartels were getting weapons from the US. And to then use these claims to further restrict gun sales in the US. Gun control legislation has pretty much been a "Non-starter" since the AWB was passed. The backlash that was a significant factor in the Rs taking back congress in '96 has had a chilling effect. (how much of a factor is debatable). Obama's record prior to becoming president was strongly anti-gun. He put out a couple ads during the presidential campaign in favor of the right to keep and bear arms and has not publically proposed, promoted or supported any gun control legislation while in office. But... How much did he know about Fast and Furious? And when did he know it? "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

She's gonna fall in love with her TI anyway. What if the TI is a woman? "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

In order: Yes, RAPS is a static line method. It is fine for beginners. If you do everything correctly, it's about 10-15 jumps to solo student status (IIRC, someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this) The cost is a lot less per jump than AFF. Costs vary from DZ to DZ so you'd have to ask the DZs that you are looking at what their specific costs are for the course. Keep in mind that AFF 8 is not fully qualified and licensed, it is just solo student status. Most DZs rent their student gear to students and new jumpers. The DZ may or may not give priority for the rental gear to students over newly licensed jumpers. Weight won't have much effect on cost. Your smaller size might make finding used gear more difficult, but just being lighter won't matter. Cost will vary widely based on age, condition, and a few other factors. Used is cheaper than new, but a better idea for a newer jumper for a bunch of reasons. I guess you are in the UK from your vocabulary, and I don't know anything about gear costs over there but here in the US, you can spend anywhere from $2000 up to about $7500 for a rig. Toss in a couple hundred more for the rest of the stuff - Helmet, goggles, jumpsuit, altimeter, ect. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Yes. That was pilot error. I'd much rather have a plane that doesn't mask piloting errors with "all powerful" computers. Because sooner or later ther will be a pilot who will find a situation that the computers cannot handle, and that will become a tragedy. Because the pilot didn't have the basic ability to "Do that pilot shit." The Air France crash last year is a really good example of this. Edit to add: The plane was damaged more by how it hit than by how hard it hit. It bounced off one main and then onto the nose gear. The mains can take quite a lot of force, but very few planes can take that hard of a hit on the nose gear without damage. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Yeah! What he said! Just be sure to tell your female friends that skydivers are the aviation equivalent of carnies. That's pretty unfair... To carnies. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Property laws and liability issues are significantly different here in the US. Anyone allowing use of their land (and ''anyone" includes cities and publicily owned land) is open to being sued if there is an accident of any kind, not just skydiving. So someone allowing others to use their land is pretty limited. And privately owned airports are just that. Private. The owner(s) can pick and choose who they allow on their property. FAA registered private airports that are open to the public are a little bit different. My (limited) understanding is that allowing the private airport to be open to the flying public limits the liablity of the owners somewhat (not entirely). My old DZ was on one of those. W34 if anyone wants to look it up. The airport was owned by a club and the club was specifically named in the waiver. Being incorporated as a club, the individual members who owned the airport were sheilded even more. The DZ had a pretty good relationship with the leadership and we had pretty free reign. The fact that the DZ probably had 50% or more of the takeoffs and landings helped too (it got the usage numbers up). Being a quiet little place, we even landed on the (grass) runways. Best student landing area ever. All the room you could want. We operated with no insurance (except fire/theft on the hangar and contents), but the airport club required us to get "slip and trip" liability any time we had a large crowd of non-waivered spectators. We did a couple of fundraiser jump events over the years and those weren't a big deal to get. Hope this helps. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

It's been my experience that a suggestion to go skydiving will often generate a psoitive response. Something like "That would be really cool" or "I've always wanted to try it." Asking them to commit to it is an entirely different matter. Discussing it hypothetically is very different from discussing actually making the arrangements. And you are right. Guys tend to be straightforward. He's said he'd prefer a romantic get-away weekend. Do that and then ask for a tandem for yourself in the future. If he wants to jump too, great. If not, then having a "cheerleader" on the ground is fun too. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

One of the reasons it's "controversial" is because most skydivers (at least most that I know) aren't in it for the rush of "cheating death". It's far, far more the simple joy of human flight. Along with the cameraderie that comes with doing something fairly unusual. Plus the unlimited ways to expand your skillset and learn new disciplines. Those sorts of skydivers get a little annoyed at the portrayal of skydiving as "Sport Death" by those who don't understand it. And it really isn't all that dangerous. Use an AAD, be aware of the weather conditions and your own limitations, jump a canopy appropriate to your skill, don't play "chicken" with the planet and be very careful and aware of who's in the sky with you (to avoid a midair collision). Doing these things will allow you to avoid half or more of the incidents. And to make it clear, I'm not saying by any means that this sport is safe, simply that the risks are managable. I've noticed that a lot of the people who get into the sport for the rush of the risk don't really last all that long. They get bored with normal jumping and either find a way to make it more dangerous (like a smaller canopy, swooping or BASE) or just move on. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

No. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I have an "every other weekend off" schedule. So I only get to jump every other weekend. It isn't ideal, but it's certainly doable. Weather, DZ issues and other life issues will also get in the way, so you may find yourself needing to get recurrent at some (or several) points. But you can still count the recurrency jumps as jumps, and you will still learn from them if you try. You just won't progress as fast. Winter layoffs suck. I'm near Green Bay Wi, so I have to deal with it. Going south is an option (after you're licensed) Jumping in the winter is also a (very cold) option. Personally I stay on the ground below about 20F ground temp. Others will jump when it's colder. There's a fella on here who jumps all winter long down in East Troy (near Milwaukee WI). And at least once a month does it naked. The cold is mostly mental. You layer up, appropriate gloves, I wear a balaclava to protect my neck (open face helmet). I always find myself going "Holy crap is it cold when the door opens, but when the cut is called, I forget about it and don't notice it again until after the canopy is open. I may only do one or two on cold days, but it beats none. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Fuck yeah, it does. I may not hear it, but I can goddamn sure as hell FEEL it! Never hit my thumb hard enough to break it though, I aint that stupid. Always start with small whacks on the nails when I hold them. Meh. I just paint my fingers to look like a nail. Best way I know of to guarantee I'll never hit it. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

" .......................................................................... A long time ago (1990s?) EAA proved that most autogas meets aviation vapour pressure standards below 15,000 feet MSL. Early 80s. Lots of good info about autogas usage on the EAA Autogas website. It talks about volatility (vapor pressure) octane (some will be surprised about that) and a bunch of other interesting stuff. Rather than try to convince some people that they are wrong, I'll let them find it out for themselves. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo