wolfriverjoe

Oh, we don't do that at your border; just the other one. It isn't the "we" that is going to be the problem. It's the "they". When crossing the border, they (Canadian Customs)will ask "Did you purchase anything in the US?". If the answer is "Yes, I bought this rig for $3000", then there will be some hassle, paperwork and import duties involved. I don't know specifics, anything I take into Canada is taken care of by brokers. But having all that stuff in order before arriving at the border is a really good idea. "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

Change over time? Yes Go away completely? I hope not. I'm still nervous in the plane. I had a very experienced camera flier tell me that he still gets nervous before jumping. And that if that ever went away completely then he would quit jumping, because that would mean he had become complacent and was not taking the risks seriously enough. "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 know you didn't want to put turn signals on her, but I'm glad you did. I don't think they take anything away from her looks. I was having a conversation with a "scooter guy" last night. This guy collects and restores old scooters. He has a bunch of Cushmans (Cushmen?) and 50's-60's Vespas. A lot of them don't have signals or brake lights and he has had close calls because of how few idiots understand hand signals these days. "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

First off, I agree with you about how few jumpers care about the aerodynamics (How many care about knowing how their gear is put together and maintained?) The riser/brakes question gets a bit complicated. The short answer is that there is an ideal speed that gives you the slowest descent. There is another, slightly different one that gives you the shallowest angle of descent too. In airplanes, there are somewhat similar things called Best rate of climb and best angle of climb airspeeds (Vy and Vx respectively). These speeds are usually fairly slow, much slower than normal flight. You might want to experiment a bit to see how much input gives you the slowest descent (which is pretty hard to judge by yourself). It's usually more efficient to use risers to slow to those speeds because the toggles deflect the canopy farther back and create more drag. The risers deflect the canopy over a wider area, generating the same lift with less drag. But at the price of very tired arms. And the difference in aerodynamic efficiency isn't all that much. BTW, not a dumb question, just one that you didn't know the answer to. "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'm not going to blast you. Skyflower Bloom is a single mom who made sure all the bases were covered before she started jumping. You can search her posts to find out what all she did, but that is going to be a bit of a chore. Will, Living will, enough life insurance to cover whoever will be left behind, enough health and disablilty insurance to cover what might happen if you don't die. Dental insurance is good too. Make sure any insurance doesn't exclude skydiving. The family issue can be tough. Interestingly enough, I had this very conversation with my (72 yr old) mom today. She has been coming out to the DZ to watch lately. She really enjoys the overall DZ atmosphere, as well as watching all of us jump. She said that she isn't scared to watch me jump, but if I had an accident, she probably wouldn't come to watch ever again. We also discussed my willingness to accept the risk in the sport, and that the rewards are worth it to me. She understands and accepts this. If your family isn't willing to have those sorts of conversations, then a letter may be a good idea. Simply stating that the risks are (were) worth what jumpng gave you may help them deal with what may happen (although it probably won't happen). "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 a sport bike too (well, sorta anyway, it's a Katana). I have a Square One gearbag. It holds my rig, jumpsuit, helmet, altimiter, goggles gloves, logbook and a few other odds and ends just fine. It has the backpack style shoulder straps, so I just put it on my back. It's pretty heavy, but I have the straps adjusted so that the bottom of the bag sits on the seat and I don't have to support all the weight. It completely eliminates any chance of either of the canopies coming out. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "locking the bag shut". My gear bag has zippers that are secure enough that I don't worry about them opening on the ride to the DZ. I personally wouldn't do anything to my rig to secure it for the ride. Keep in mind that if you do anything to lock the container shut, forgetting to remove it will probably be fatal. It's easy to say that you wouldn't forget anything that important, but ask any pilot how many planes have crashed on takeoff because the gust lock was left in. "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

c. High speed. NickDG covered it pretty well HERE. Contrary to popular belief, there actually is some usable information in the Cooper thread. "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

What would you do if you lived in a state that suspends the registration if your insurance lapses? You get a letter saying that you need to renew the insurance or your vehicle is no longer legal to drive. Would you: A: park it? B; find some way to pay it? C: drive it without insurance or proper registration? "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

Have you ever noticed that the FIRST Amendment protects freedom of thought and the dissemination of it? Speech, press and assembly are all means of sharing information. The founding fathers seemed to think that was the first priority. Then, the very next thing; before searches, trial rights, property rights, and all the other things in the Bill of Rights comes the right of the people to bear arms. Perhaps the founding fathers felt that the people may have to defend their freedom of thought with force. Many writings (Jefferson in particular) suggest that they felt that there would need to be armed insurrection to overthrow tyrants on a fairly regular basis. "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

Ding ding.... You get partial credit Ok, so what is it? What was it based on? And who made it? It sure looked like a B-52 to me, but I'm no expert and I know the Soviets based a lot of their stuff on our designs. "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

There isn't a "run" through the system like people think there is. The TLETs request for the LP does return insurance information, but if a legit looking insurance card is present, then it supersedes the TLETs return. The short version is yes they can. I've used my cell phone to call insurance agents when I thought something wasn't right. Those turned out to be fake cards or canceled policies. I've wondered about that. Wisconsin just started requiring insurance for everyone, and some of it isn't really clear (at least to me). My insurance policies give me the card with the renewal bill, so in theory I could have a card saying that I am covered, but then not pay the bill and have no insurance. Of course I'd be screwed if I got into an accident under those circumstances, but I think I could get away with it for just a simple traffic stop. Not that I would. I have known too many people that got into accidents without coverage. It isn't pretty. "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

What does that mean? They look nice. I agree that they look nice in those pics. I also wonder what "waved in" means. My big question, thought, is how well are they made? What material? What weight thread? How many rows of stitching? The pics of the new bags look nice, but how will they hold up? Skydivers put a lot of stress on gear. "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

FIFY Riiiiiight. As if all these things iluv2fly is posting are her own ideas. As if she isn't getting suggestions from a certain person who continually pretends to be innocent. "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

Beerlight's picture looks to me like a passenger/civilian version of a B-52. I looked around quick, but couldn't find anything about one, so I could be wrong, or it could be a fake. "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

Gays would destroy the sanctity of marriage. Unlike Liz Taylor, Larry King, Denns Rodman, Britney Spears, Cher..... They're going to have a big fight over who wears the tux and who wears the dress. Oddly enough, just like Dennis Rodman. "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, if you aren't going to shoot the dog, I haven't seen either of these classic reposts lately. So for those who are new to the site... I'm On A Boat Motherf.... And the ultimate repost Best Commercial Ever, but why does it have to be for washing machines??? "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

That depends, when you post the story would you report it as "(a baseball cap wearing guy - relevant?)"? . And would you wonder if he was hired because of a baseball cap quota?? "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, definitely a Mirage! The best rig out there! And just what, EXACTLY, sets a mirage a step ahead of say a Wings, Vector 3, or Icon? The Ads!!! "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

Like someone else said, go hang out at the DZ. Plan on spending all day. It's a fun place. Listen, have fun, meet people and make friends. You'll learn a lot too. For me, getting cleared for self-supervised solo jumps was after the timed delay falls, and a couple from full altitude with an instructor jumping with me. Not right after the H&P. I had to have the basics of spotting down, show the ability to regain stability in freefall (they had me do front and back loops) and the ability to pull stable at the assigned altitude before I was cleared. What it lets you do is solo jumps without having to pay for an instructor to jump with you. You still want to go over a dive plan with them, and have things to work on. That can be freefall manuvers like front and back loops, it can be tracking, it can be other things. You also want to have tasks to accomplish under canopy (you don't need to be at solo status to do your canopy drills). Riser turns, flat turns, slow flight and stalls. THIS Post has a list of suggestions for what to do on solo jumps. "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

Don't know for sure about Fandango, but it was definitely in Cutaway. "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

Sounds like fun. Sign me up. HERE you go. This is where I got my CDL, and part of that was the WDDC course. Watch the video, it shows some of the stuff we did, only with an ex-cop car, not a truck. However, a few years back, the local Porsche dealer brought up some of the Porsche instructors from down south (Alabama maybe?) where they have the factory sponsored classes and also rented that skidpad. We got to learn about how traction control and ABS function, what they can and cannot do (as one of the instructors said: "You can't fix stupid"), and had a lot of fun.

I wish you could teach everyone else that merging technique! There are an amazing number of idiots who: don't check traffic until the very last second. run right alongside me, expecting me to move over when I have traffic keeping me in the right lane. run half a length in front of me until the end of the merge lane, then slam on the brakes, when a slight application of the throttle would have easily gotten them in front of me. flat out don't understand the concept of "sharing the road". I drive for a living and try very hard to be polite and respectful of all other drivers out there, but sometimes I really, really wish that I could squash one or two of the worst one (and with truck that weighs somewhere around 70,000# depending on the load it would be really, really easy). I sometimes say "God must love stupid people and bad drivers. Because he sure made a lot of them" And if you really want to learn "slippery" technique, try a skid pad. For real fun, try a Semi truck on a skid pad. It was amazing to take a real, full sized semi out and do doughnuts and jackknifes and skid recoveries with it. Off the public roads, under tightly controlled 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

What next? Well, the next time you do that, he may well write you a ticket. Off duty cops have their stuff in their briefcase and can and will write tickets if you piss them off enough. Telling them what they will or won't (or can and can't) do tends to piss them off to the point where they will put in the time and effort. You've managed to paint a target on yourself and all the other guys who drive for that place (or chain). I drove pizzas a long time ago and we had a driver who did something similar. It didn't make him real popular among the others. Right or wrong, he has the badge, the authority and the ability to make your life pretty miserable. Do you normally go around throwing rocks at hornet's nests? "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

WOO HOO!! Deedy's bored at work again. This is going to be a good day. (Good being a very realtive term of course) "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 not a terrible argument, it's an economic one. Running a full size pickup into a minivan does more damage than a motorcycle will. It will cost more to fix or replace, and the insurance rates reflect it. However, look at the rates for sport bikes as compared to a cruiser. My 750 Vulcan was costing me $90 year (liablity and comp). The same coverage on a 600 Katana is $225. The same coverage on a 600 GSX-R, CBR-RR or R6 would have been well over $300. Because the sporty bikes get into more accidents and cost the insurance companies more to pay out, the cost to insure is higher. "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