andybr6

Its a book for my course but its very good: Vladimir Bukovsky, To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter Actualy it was so good i read it all in a day. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

As Mark Twain said "Golf is a good walk spoiled" and i am in complete agreement. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

I am not a rigger/instructer so i cant offer any advice regarding size of main vs size of reserve. However as far as sizing is concerned i have a Mirage M5 with a Spectre 210 and a PD193 reserve. It was put togather as a demo rig at the PD factory in 1998 and both canopies fit fine. Hope this was useful Andy ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Lots of good ones but how about "Something" by The Beatles. Its on Abbey Road and i htink it was Frank Sinatra's fave' as well. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

How about M*A*S*H I always thought that was a good war movie as it shows war in a different way, bit more original than just running around shooting at stuff. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

I think most countries have similar sorts of laws and ideals. In Britain it is illegal to deface or destroy an image of the reigning monarch or the crown. In Britain out of tradition our alleigence is to the crown [all this is in theory and only for the sake of tradition with little basis in modern law] as in America you pledge alleigence to the flag. It all boils down to just a neat and tidy way of summing up your country, a system of government, and a set of beleifs that citizens are supposed to share. I guess you can put as much emphasis on how the icon for your system should be displayed as you like so long as you dont forget what it stands for. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Thanks for all your help, its been really useful. I like the sock idea if only for its comic value. I i were to do this, which of course i would not because it is illegal and immoral , i would get the watch sent over with a "you left it here" note. The i'll get the box and stuff sent over later, maybe to another address. The gift idea would not work, see below. Again thanks for all the help BTW useful info for anyone importing items. source: www.hme.gov.uk ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Of course not, I wouldnt want you too either I had thought about the note saying that "you left it behind" but this watch is new and expensive as well as being hypothetical so i wanted to get all the stuff with it. The birthday card is a great idea, i'll do a little research to make sure its all above board. If you are intereseted ill PM you what i find out? That CyPRes thing sounds crap, i gotta send mine off in june, so that will be a nice hassle with beurocrats for me to look forward to. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Hypothetically of course if I were to get my [hypothetical] family member who lives in the US to buy a watch for me and then post it over to the UK, with no receipts contained within the parcel, how likely is it that customs would pick up on it. Are they allowed to open packages that dont have those green stickers on them saying what you bought, how much it cost and where you got it from? Answers from both US and UK peops' in the know would be great. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

I saw this on tv the other morning its pretty incredible. On a show called "This Morning" which is live [and i have a buddy who does the sound for the show so i know its genuine] the girl correctly diagnosed 2 people when they stood in front of her. She said one guy only had one kidney, which he then confirmed and then she correctly guessed that another women had been operated on in the region of her pancreas. The people were fully clothed do she could not have seen any op' scars. It was pretty cool so i hope its genuine. A P.s."The Sun" is a gutter press tabloid that frequently prints utter crap so its best not to take what they report too seriously. However in this case they seem to have blindly stumbled onto the truth. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

I jump the pre - "G3" mirgae, mine was made in 1998. It does not have any rings and was not even built for me [got it second hand] but it is super comfy. I have jumped a Tear Drop with hip rings and I thought my Mirage was more comfortable. Hope my limited experience is useful to you. A ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

People from Essex, by the way is that an internationaly known thing? I never realised that it was a Joke in the states but when i was in Sebastian last one of the instructers said "Your not from Essex are you?" when i told him i was English. Then followed by the yanks. I am sorry Bill Gates has lied to you, there is no such thing as English US and English UK there is just English . If any of you ask for directions in London please remember Leicester Square is pronounced Less - ter not Ly- chester. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Actually London phone boxes go from 20p to £1 [thats inflation for ya] and you will get to see the errr "novel" decorations inside london phone boxes. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Good luck, but one thing that i am sure you already know. Make sure you pull down evenly on both risers, on my last jump my righthandedness showed when i looked up to see my snivelling canopy trying to put a line twist in itself as i was pulling harder on the right than the left. If you can give me any info on getting the opening time down more i would appreciate it. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

I had exactly the same problem as you, my spectre 210 would reguarly take 1000ft to open but after some excellent advice from the good people on DZ.com and my rigger i think i figured it out. I leave the nose sticking out bias the slider towards the tail and only put one very loose roll in the tail. Then when it opens and goes into that long snivel i pump the rear risers a few times and the speeds the opening up. I reckon i can normally be open between 600-800 ft. I experimented with a few things before this but it seems to me that this has given the best results. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Yeah absolutley, i guess there must have been part of the jump where he has to unhook himself to put his feet through the legstraps. So for some of it he must have been "outside" his harness with no attachment ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

How was that rigged up? He must have been attached to the harness somehow, i am not a very experienced skydiver but i know there is no chance someone could hold onto the legstraps with one hand as the canopy deployed. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Thanks for all the info guys and girls, i think my mind is made up, a bonehead it is. Lisa you will no doubt be hearing from me shortly to place an order. Thanks again all the imput has been really helpful Andy ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

I understand your point, it must be unimaginble difficult to do that and in some cases it may not be the best thing to do, however in this case it was. In iraq we are fighting for a moral victory as well as a military one. How can we expect the Iraqi people to accept a democratic and just system if we do not practice it ourselves. Commanders have to make difficult decisions and deal with difficult situations, if they are incapable of doing this then they should not be in that post. Col. West will have his case heard by an official who follows the law regardless of how he feels about the case, Col. West should have shown the same distance with his prisoner that the judge must show with him. I know this is all theory but it is theory and textbook that the western deomocratic system of government works on, the same system that we are trying to implement over in Iraq. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

As was explained to me by a very experienced BPA jumper the reg's in the UK are actually because our aviation authority says we have to, not the parachute authority. If all DZ's fitted seatbelts in the jumpships then UK skydivers wouldnt have to wear them. I still think its a very good idea, if the oportunity presented itslef while i was jumping a broad i would probably try jumping without a helmet, so long as it was a solo [but then i have a Cypres and a spectre 210]. I cant see any reason not to where a helmet while jumping with others, other than the "want to look cool factor" ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

I am going to finally get a "proper" [as in not Pro-Tec ] helmet and was looking at getting the Bonehead mindwarp, i have looked at the gunner but think it is too expensive and a friend that makes camera helmets said that htey dont make great camera platforms. I am 150 jumps off a camera helmet but dont want to fork out another £200 far a camera helmet. Any way the reason for this post is does anyone have any opinions on the midwarp, the gear reviews are good but mostly review the older one with the external audible port?? ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

I suppose i should start with my discalimer saying that I am not an American [though being British my countries soldiers are out there too] and I am not soldier [though i am the son one]. I dont agree at all with what Col. West did but i can understand it, that does not change the fact that he should not have acted as he did. If you are going into a country to give them a democracy and humane morals you cannot go about acting like the previous government, the Iraqi people whose support is needed will think that nothing has changed. I dont however agree that what he did was "torture" but it is the beggining that will inevitable lead to that. Col. West may have fired shots near the prisoner but if he is allowed to do that then the next person will take it a step further, and the next person a step further still until the bullets are not missing! This is how it started in Russia with the secret police, interrogation tactics were left unchecked until they got to the stage where officers could do whatever they liked. I beleive Col. West must be shown to have acted wrongly if the use of these measures is going to be stopped at this early stage. However he should not be set up as an example for two reasons, one, he does not deserve it, yes he acted badly but it was under high stress in a situation that most of us will never have to be in, and two, he cannot be made a martyr to the cause of those who would torture POW's. It is important that in the highly complex and volatile situation in Iraq where we that are supposed to be showing how to govern people, we practice what we preach. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Thanks for the info guys. It just looked really good, i guess, as you say indyz, the must have rigged it so it could go up one of the lines to the center of the canopy after deployment. Clever stuff. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

Hey Sorry to trouble you with those newbie how do you do that questions but i was just watching good stuff and i saw the bit where someone was filming from what looked like a camera fixed to the canopy. When he landed he seemed to catch the camera as part of the canopy. I was wondering how that was done? Thanks ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"

What and where are you studying? Your are gonna love London but you may not like the English Skydiving weather. I jump at Headcorn and have no experience of any other DZ's but i like it there and it is sooo easy to get there by Train from Charing Cross Station. ------------------------------------------------ "All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction"