Ozzie

Hey Derek, I just wanted to thank you for all the help you are giving me and my instructor (Brad Cole) in the tunnel over a SVCO. It is amazing now living in a city that has its own tunnel. By the way, Brad is out of town Sunday and YOU are my coach that night!!! This twice a week training is sucking the wind out of my account and blowing it into the tunnel! Peace, Oz I just had some engineers do the numbers for the Colorado tunnel (based off your measurements) and your sq foot calc is pretty good. They came up with 108.0405 sq. feet Motion = Emotion

I am all booked and ready to arrive at SKYFEST on July 12th!!!! Staying at the Best Western in Angleton. Spaceland was always my home DZ but I am now in Denver (WIND TUNNEL!!!) and look forward to seeing some familiar faces in Houston. Peace, Oz Motion = Emotion

Actually, to get to a point of having theory that one thinks will work but then to have to “worry” about price is what in the engineering field (or any other creative field) we would call a “Quality problem” to have (much like paying “too much” taxes and only making 2 million afterwards)! This is still far above and beyond the original premise that said we can never get pass the limitation of this or any other joint muscle/joint group. My dads first calculator cost 120..00 bux (in 30+ year ago dollars) and only did addition, subtraction and multiplication and division. Eight years later you could get them on watches for next to nothing. Suffice it to say, the computer was not designed because we needed a calculator on a watch but it was a side benefit that resulted from a greater need. All it takes is for some larger related industry (aerospace, etc) to come up with a like need and then it comes into the realm of possibility HYBRID DESIGN: In actuality, I think such a design would have smaller cells that were already highly pressurized in strategic and opposing locations (in the form of ribs, cubes, etc) and the ram air cell (separate from the high pressure ones) would just serve as to lock these opposing cells into each other to form the more rigid overall wing. A kind of hybrid design somewhere between ram-air and the pre-filled innertube that most people automatically will want to associate with the idea. Seriously though, if as much creativity and energy was spent on thinking of the ideas as opposed to thinking about how something cannot work, many new things would come around much faster. There is much historic proof to support this but yet we still do so. First we go from “it cant be done” to “it can be done but...” to “hey look at what they did I bet we could do the same thing for our own purposes” and finally afford to prototype it. The privatization of space flight is the perfect example. Actually, now that this discussion is forcing me to think about it. I think the next logical step is pressurization only around and between the joints (arms primarily) and not into the extremities just yet. The full blown delta wing can wait. This could just about be done now and be a great “proof of concept.” of the idea. I suspect the military will be the one that bites first or perhaps the transportation industry in trying to prevent injuries from crashes. Oz (Just thinking out loud and in the context of the thread premise) Motion = Emotion

Your right Lurch. Just a matter of technical creativity like any other of the great inventions that now seem obvious to us all but were once considered impossible and insane that seemed to upset naysayers just as it does today (like boats made of steel that can actually float and not wood). What you are ultimately talking about is a suit that will inflate into a monolithic wing that bridges across our body width and perhaps one day even the length of the body as well and gains structure from the pressurization (increasing as we go faster). The wing would still be flexible and we would in essence be flying “inside” of the wing instead of the current modality of simply “hanging on hinges” (joints and muscles) between three separate wings we poorly attempt to made rigid with our own strength. Unless the plan is that we are going to flap like birds and fly away, this is clearly inefficient, archaic and unnecessary but part our flight evolution and improvement process. The current design has the pilot both make the wing (muscle forded rigidity) and steer/adjust it as well (more subtle muscle input). This new design would create its own rigidity (monolithic and not hinged at all our joints) and let you focus on simply bending and reshaping the body (changing the shape of the wing in doing so) for control and not exerting strength in forming it. Though we would be able to go limp and the shape will fly itself, we would ultimately be able to press, pull, push, contract and make changes from “inside” the wing and still feel like we are flying it and not simply riding along on a hanglider (that is why it is called hang gliding) or sitting in a plane, since they have external control systems / wings that are far removed from your body and that take away from the “I am the one flying” experience. This will all be done one day without all the structural steel and heavy reinforcements mentioned earlier and somehow base on available pressurization and strong but pliable material / fabric. Oz Motion = Emotion

I have to agree with you Ron. The main problem I see is in the dudes timing .. We are all feeling the pain for the loss of such a wonderful DZ and some of us were not ready to hear the finger pointing just yet IMHO ("If I owned that million dollar aircraft it sure as hell would not be.......") The reality is that if the true owner of the plane had this guys superior intellect and tact, he probably would not have ever have made a million dollars to buy such a plane

"Kimmy" is purty killer IMO. She is a Gravity Rat So is Krista "Pippy" http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?username=kimmy; Motion = Emotion

Man and I can remember the day you did not know how to short a stock!!!!!! Motion = Emotion

Did you even read his post? It said: "what you could try is getting down to a 170 first then buy your gear.". He did not say HURRY and get down to 170 nor did he say WHEN you get down to 170. He said TRY getting down to 170 (as if it may not even happen). That means be patient and not in such a hurry to get your rig. Learn to fly the 190 first (in the mean time learn more about rigs and what u really want or need) and THEN go out and buy your rig with a max size of 170. "Spoken like a true freeflyer" was a total BS comment to make and a flame on way to many people in with one stroke of the brushy mouth. Whichever way he goes, a bag 150-170 or 170 to 190, the problem you describe will still be there and is the subject of a whole other topic. This topic is, can I get a rig that will easily and safely accommodate a 150 through 190 main and save money over time for doing so. Oswald Motion = Emotion

Maybe instead of "How to Dye Your Parachute" the article was supposed to say "How to DIE with Your Parachute!!!! Oz Motion = Emotion

I am putting a 190 in a 170 bag now and am doing it for the same reason you stated. What helped me is that I used a PISA Hornet and due to the small packing volume of the canopy (south african material is less slippery and packs smaller) I am able to pull this off with relative ease. Try to find u a used or shelf Hornet or other SA material canopy and you can do the same. The Hornets are no longer being made due to the aquisition by Aerodyne but you can find them. Actually I may be willing to sell you my 190. It has 100 jumps on it. I need to find me a 170 in good shape. Oz Motion = Emotion

Trent, Nice talking with ya yesterday about the freefly event and the coaching. I am looking forward to jumping with you and the Chibo Loco and will want to get started tomorrow if the weather holds. Do you guys do the video on the teams if a team cannot find someone that can do it???? Check ya later, Mean Oz Motion = Emotion