hokierower

Do any of you guys travel to and from the DZ on a motorcycle? I'm riding my Triumph these days and wearing a backpack with all my clothes and stuff (student, no rig/gear yet) but when I end up buying gear I need to figure out how to transport it on the bike. Any ideas?

I agree that while there may be a few things that are out of your hands, especially when growing up and under your parents, but as soon as a person decides to "spread their wings" their decisions are their own. I wasn't happy in my major in college and decided to switch to something much more practical v. theoretical and was much happier. I made another choice to leave ROTC but still had the intention of still entering the service after graduation. I decided to pursue an internship in my field and that turned into another internship and then a job and now, unless I get fired, I won't be joining the Marine Corps, something that I wanted to do since I was a little kid (dad's a Marine, still is). But even though I didn't do it, I'm still completely content and HAPPY with what I do. You make your own decisions and should live with the consequences. I believe that everything always works itself out in the end. It may not always go your way, but it'll level itself out so long as you make good, sound decisions.

I've seen quite a few people at my DZ with Pelican 1500 or 1600 series cases. Definitely nice but definitely expensive. 99% sure those are wheeled too.

I'm at the same point in AFF as you (Lvl 4) and have only jumped out of a caravan (once) and an an otter (twice) so far and I'm kinda looking forward/dreading my first 182 jump for the same reason. Before college I was working on my private pilot license so I've got about 35 hours in various 172 models and climbing out onto the wing strut seems like a crazy thing. Tack on the fact that the highest I ever got in one was probably 4,000 feet and the differences are startling. Good luck on level 4. My instructors thus far have been really good about looking at me and smiling on the trip up so I smile back. I also try and laugh to help relieve all the anxiousness. Blue skies.

Hellz yea I have renter's insurance and as a matter of fact, I just increased my policy from $8k to $15k not too long ago. Pay $125 for 6 months, $250 deductible, and replacement costs included. I love USAA.

I completely understand. I go through so much paper on a daily basis it's almost unethical, but commercial construction for the federal government requires a lot of paper because of all the copies and backup copies to cover you ass in case someone decides to get frisky along the way. The funniest thing is that attached to each of our (my companies) signatures, there's a little blurb that says " Please consider your responsibility to the environment before printing this e-mail." It's frickin hilarious sometimes.

Thank you for that, it was a very good read. That link is just another example of fear mongering by the media.

Just because I turn my electric stove off after 45 minutes of cooking on high heat doesn't mean that the coils are immediately safe to touch. And if the roads between the rental company and your house are choked with debris, cars, trees, and possibly bodies? P.S. - I might be wrong, and that's a very real possibility because I'm not an electrical engineer, but mixing water & electricity is usually a BAD thing

I'll keep going back and forth with you over PM but let's keep this out of this thread since we're derailing it just a bit.

no problem - I have some simple questions so - which taxpayers will you steal from that don't get to afford their own solar panels, and which citizens will you 'subsidize' with that money so they can get the discount solar panels? what's your selection criteria for the those that give up their money for food and education and housing vs those that get nifty discounts on those panels? how is the money transferred, should the subsidized just go over to the others' houses and take their cars? or should it be something less obvious? you might reduce the "price" of those solar panels, but you aren't reducing the COST - someone has to foot that bill too....... I'm having money stolen from me right now to help foot the bill for the Mojave Farm and I will most likely NEVER use a single watt that it produces. I'm having money stolen from me right now so that the building that my CM company is building meets LEED Silver. I'm having money stolen from me right now so that the lazy ass down the street doesn't have to look for a job. I'm having money stolen from me right now because Joe Hippie in Denver wants to put solar panels on his roof. No one group of citizens will be singled out for subsidizing, however geographic layout will play a part in people's decision to go solar depending on the economic feasibility. Dude #1 in Arizona is much more likely to go with solar than Dude #2 in Maine because of the way the sun hits the planet. And no, I'm not recommending you take money from food & education programs, I am recommending that we simply take the funds that are currently being given to power companies to help offset the cost & operation of large solar farms and instead give them to individuals to help offset the power requirements of the overall system. The more individuals who try and install panels, the more incentive companies will have to make them more efficient and cost less to produce. There is very little demand because the PRODUCTION COSTS are still too high for widespread use because commercial construction is using all of the resources & production capacity.

I agree Bill, the subsidies should be completely cut from the commercial side and applied to the residential side. Doing so will reduce the price of residential solar panels and make it financially feasible to install in places where it doesn't make sense to construct a solar farm. The effort is not to completely eliminate the need for power, but rather to reduce the quantity needed. The Mojave Solar Park to be completed in 2011 will produce 553 MW, enough to power about 400,000 homes throughout Cali. It will cost $2 billion and will take up around 6,000 acres, or about 9 square miles. On the other hand, in California there are 4 operating nuclear power units at the moment, all producing between than 1,050 & 1,100 MW all day, every day. When you include the subsidies which lower the price of solar and wind power to put them on a even operating scale with nuclear, coal, & oil, the price for solar is even greater in the long run. Renewable energy as a whole still is not cost efficient and the money is better spent on nuclear energy because we (the US) have a shitload of uranium under our feet and in theory and when used with the right reactors, it is a "renewable resource". This is just my $0.02 so feel free to agree or disagree. I like debating this subject.

Does that mean you think fusion will always be just beyond our grasp? What do you think solar is? Commercially it is a waste of money. Instead of installing panels in massive quantities to provide power for the grid thereby further loading it, the subsidies should be cut from the commercial side and made available to homeowners in an effort to reduce the load on the grid. While some places won't be able to do this because of the weather, you probably won't find a solar farm there anyways.

Are you asking if there was a disaster, the media made what happened into a disaster, or was there some nanothermite in the buildings that blew up. Yes. My opinon is that there was some concern early on, but the media is making a bigger deal out of it than what's really happening. Compare Fox to IAEA. That only works if I thought IAEA was a totally credible source. Please don't tell me that you think that Fox is a more credible source of information & news on nuclear power than the IAEA. They blatantly try and incite panic with the title of that article, trying to somehow link the soaring death toll due to the earthquake and tsunami to the problems at the nuclear plant. While I don't think this is a non-issue, there is no way this is or will be anything like Chernobyl unless something goes terribly wrong. No where in any of the IAEA updates does it say that any of the unit's containment vessels have been breached. The main reasons that Chernobyl was such a large disaster was that the explosion was enough to knock the top completely off allowing direct venting of the nuclear material into the atmosphere. Accident? Yes. Disaster? No. Right now the IAEA is getting it's info from the Japanese government. They have no real info of their own. Neither does Fox, but they turn to shitty journalism in an effort to induce panic and caste doubt on nuclear energy.

Nuclear power is one of the only methods whereby other countries such as the African countries and small countries can have power and be semi-independent of other countries. I say semi-independent cause you still need the fuel. The main difference between between nuclear and oil is oil is concentrated in certain regions like the middle east. Uranium is very widely available and cheap, the new fuel thorium even more. A great example is China, they have no natural Uranium but plenty of Thoriun. And Thorium is cleaner and you cannot make a bomb with Thorium's product U-233. True. And if we ever get to the stage where small units can be created and then sealed and transported it would be a great source of power for developing nations. As to make it safer, I am currently studying High temperature reactors and these cannot explode like Japan's reactors nor can the core melt. It is a long explanation but shortly all decay heat is removed by natural means, eg the outside temperature and the design of the reactor itself. As for the piles of nuclear waste if we take all of the US's nuclear waste we will fill a rugby pitch 3m high. now lets exaggerate and say the world has 3 times as much, that is still only 9 m, and this is without reprocessing. Cut that by an average of 10% and I am still being conservative that is under 1m. 10% is the fission products the rest is depleted, useless uranium, for now. NO WAY!!! You cut that out right now. No hard numbers are allowed in this discussion! If you really want to talk waste we can . Look at the Dec 22, 2008 coal ash spill at the TVA Kingston plant. 1 billion tons of material spilled out covering about 300 acres with toxic waste. I guess we should tear down all the coal plants now . The major fears for nuclear in very wrong, kinda like peoples perception of skydiving, they all perceive skydiving as highly dangerous and we are all on some sort of suicide mission but we are not. Two last things, from 1969 to 2000 there has been 1119 incidents where more than 5 people have died in the fuel cycle in a coal fired plant, nuclear only has 1, Chernobyl, nobody died in Three mile island and no radiation came out. In Japan so far only 2 people have died that we know of so for nuclear to present day it is still 1. secondly as for alternative means of electricity generation, Wind is twice as expensive as nuclear and solar is upwards of 19 times more expensive for baseload power, oh and we cannot guarantee that you will have power. Now tell a politician that should be in his campaign. But, but, but, what if...you know, yea, that thing happened? Then we'd really be up shit creek. As far as generation cost, subsidize it all baby!!! Who cares if it's less efficient? As for Japan, the reactors are still standing after a direct hit from the Tsunami, what caused the explosions, no idea, but the fact that that they have contained if for so long already with no power, I think they deserve a round of applause. Golf clap And if anybody want the facts that I have mentioned above drop me a mail and i will send them to you. Thank you. A very well thought out response to a fear mongering and ignorant OP.

Are you asking if there was a disaster, the media made what happened into a disaster, or was there some nanothermite in the buildings that blew up. Yes. My opinon is that there was some concern early on, but the media is making a bigger deal out of it than what's really happening. Compare Fox to IAEA. That only works if I thought IAEA was a totally credible source. Please don't tell me that you think that Fox is a more credible source of information & news on nuclear power than the IAEA. They blatantly try and incite panic with the title of that article, trying to somehow link the soaring death toll due to the earthquake and tsunami to the problems at the nuclear plant. While I don't think this is a non-issue, there is no way this is or will be anything like Chernobyl unless something goes terribly wrong. No where in any of the IAEA updates does it say that any of the unit's containment vessels have been breached. The main reasons that Chernobyl was such a large disaster was that the explosion was enough to knock the top completely off allowing direct venting of the nuclear material into the atmosphere. Accident? Yes. Disaster? No.

I'm a student sitting in the middle of the AFF progression waiting to do my Lvl 4. This weekend was a no-go due to weather (winds & clouds) but I did get to chillax at the DZ and even had my first packing class taught by none other than Brian Germain! One of the things that I've been told is that the AFF progression this time of the year is hit-or-miss due to the weather and because of that I was thinking about getting some tunnel time under my belt. The nearest tunnel & most likely the cheapest to get to is SkyVenture Colorado meaning I have to pay just shy of $300 for a round trip ticket there. A couple of questions... 1. I have 3 jumps under my belt. How much tunnel time should I be looking at? 30min? 1 hour? 2. Should I have a coach for all of it? 2/3? 1/2? 3. Is it feasible to fly out early in the morning Sunday, get into Denver around 8ish, head straight to the tunnel, fly all day or so and then fly out Sunday night? 4. OR do I make a weekend out of it? Any and all advice is welcome. This was something I was thinking about today while waiting for the clouds to clear.

Woohoo!!! Bonus got posted in my account today, should be good to jump tomorrow so long as the weather cooperate! Lvls 4-7, here I come!!!

Subdivision restrictions not recorded yet; will have architectural control committee Pretty important points right there. The way it sounds to me is the land adjacent to the DZ is being sold to people interested in building houses with access to a private strip. The surrounding land is a tossup but I doubt you'll see a sprawling subdivision.

I'll get right on that ...wonder if Butters would be my pimp???

Will do. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm just short on cash at the moment. All of my bills came together at the perfect time to rob me off all my money. Rent, water, electricity, MC loans, MC insurance, life insurance, cable, etc. Luckily I just have to wait a week and a half and I'll be back in business. No responsibilies (other than myself and my snake) is great! Buying gear is gonna suck when that time comes, but luckily I'll just divert the funds from selling one of my bikes to the skydiving fund.

Emptied my pasta reserves last night to feed myself for the next 3 days. I might catch a break, boss said that we might be getting bonuses this Friday...

New guy here, took the FJC 3 weeks ago but wasn't able to jump for 2 weeks because of the weather here in south Texas. This past Sunday turned out to be a FABULOUS day and I spent Saturday night at the DZ so I could start jumping first thing. Managed to get my first three levels wrapped up and got signed off for 1 instructor jumps. The DZ was packed all Sunday with tandems but the staff was just awesome and the instructors were great. Major props to Skydive San Marcos for a great first experience with the sport. I'm stoked now and I can't wait to go back and continue my jump training (lvl 4+) but I've run out of money due to silly things like rent and bills . I might be able to get 1 jump in if I don't eat for the next week and a half but I like eating. I really, really do. I guess I'll just dirt dive in my apartment all weekend

Great to meet you today!!! Had an absolute blast today. Managed to go 3 for 3 and am cleared for my Lvl 4. Don't know if I'm shivering from the cold ride home on my bike or all the adrenaline finally leaving my system.

Picked up a pair of these: [img]http://imagethumbnails.milo.com/009/149/526/trimmed/9149507_10763526_trimmed.jpg[/img] yesterday after work. They should work for now. Thanks for the helps dudes & dudettes