Patkat

PM sent. But on a public note, all the manufacturers listed already are well worth the price of a phone call. You might also check out APCO http://www.apcoaviation.com/ Chiron, Elan, Hawk Wing, and ASAP/Summit/Steel Breeze. Not all these guys make chutes that will fit the bill for a little machine like the Paraplane, but they're all worth a holler. Sorry I didn't have time to track down urls for the rest of 'em. Try http://www.powerchutes.com or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/powerchutes/ for some hot tips and leads. And if all else fails, slap on a ParaCommander. Heck, for a little ol' Paraplane, a T-10 will do the trick - just make sure it has the 7-TU mod so you can steer. Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

And drink plenty of fluids, and pee before you jump. Mom was right. Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

Nah, there's no need to legislate against Skyride. Does Coke try to get legislation passed against Pepsi when Pepsi rolls out a new product? No - they try to out-market them. Skyride is just marketing skydiving. The way they market skydiving is shady, and they have made enemies of a lot of dzs which they should have been working with, but they are just marketing. The way to overcome the damage they do is to beat 'em at their own game. BillyVance's mention of USPA getting into the national skydiving marketing game sounds like a plan to me, and skydived19006's post also illustrates how an individual dz can out-do skyride. So, to paraphrase Diablopilot, stop whining and start doing. Skyride has been stumbling a bit, and it's the perfect time for our national organization, dzs, and individual skydivers to pick up the ball and do it better. Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

1. Whats your name? Patrick 2. How old are you? 31 this past February 3. Why did you decide to start jumping out of airplanes? There was this guy in a bar... and thne thye told me to come back. So I did. 4. Are you single or taken? Married? Not married, for sure. Not really taken, but there is this girl... 5. Do you have kids? No 6. What do you drive? 2001 Focus 7. Have you ever done a kisspass? No 8. Where do you live? Lancaster, PA 9. Do you have any pets? One very fat cat named Sail. 10. How many jumps do you have? 403 11. What color eyes do you have? Brown, flecks of green. 12. What is your nationality? American. Go back far enough, you'll find a 3 to 1 Irish to German ratio. 13. Have you ever dated someone you met off the internet? Nope 14. Favorite Movie? So many, so many... maybe The Princess Bride - but I liked the book better. Really. 15. What do you do when you arent skydiving? Edit a magazine, play guitar. Sing badly. 16. Have you ever BASE jumped? No 17. If not... do you want to? Maybe. 18. Do you have siblings? 1 sister 19. Where do you want to travel to the most? Peru 20. What's your favorite color? Purple 21. Where was the last place you flew to ( not skydiving )? Maine Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

Handsome Dave is runninghis annual course February 18 through 26 2005. There's still slots available last I talked to him. Matter of fact, I think he put an ad in the classifieds, if anyone is interested. I'll be there. Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

Why not have them act this out, in a simple and safe manner? Just a quick idea, and you know your class best, but what if you paired your students up, and had one member of each pair give the other a simple compliment - a list of acceptable ones would be good - keep it within bounds. The first time, the receiver of the compliment is supposed to do nothing, no smile, no acknowledgement at all. The second time they are supposed to smile and say thank you. Then the whole class discusses how it felt pretend they are "nobody" as opposed to giving and receiving. As I'm writing this, I'm not sure that it would be workable - depends on the students, and how easily you can keep them within non-hurtful limits - the idea is to explore the positive side of openness briefly, and lead into a discussion of the negative side as seen in the book. The essential question in the exercise is, "What is it like to be 'nobody'?" If you try something along these lines, let me know how it worked, eh? Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

If it's got seatbelts, and it should, per the FARs, then it is configured seating. Just 'cause there ain't a chair don't mean it's not a seat. Now, if you can convince the FAA field agent those are cargo tiedowns for the purpose of ferrying a cargo of air molecules to another DZ... Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

Wistfully? How about this use of the word - "The reporter smiled wistfully, and said, 'I wish we had had dictionaries when I was in college.'" Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

One relevant difference is that a stalled canopy loses its shape, unlike a rigid aircraft wing. If a canopy enters a spin state as defined by fixed wing flyers, it will tend to depressurize and start acting like a pile of nylon attached to some strings. Of course, because it has a weight suspended below it, and because of the way it is trimmed, and because of it's leading edge and crossports, it will reopen and become a functional airfoil again, given sufficient altitude and no tangles. So, speaking from relatively minimal experience with both aeronautics and canopy flight, I'd say that any stall induced spin will quickly be transitioned to a repressurized, normal canopy flight, or a ball of s*** that will recover if you're lucky. An attitudinal, straight-ahead stall is possible, and even fun to do with your canopy, given a safe altitude for recovery. Just haul down your toggles til it folds in half and you start falling fast! Then let 'em up slowly and evenly, lest you spin it and have to chop it. As for the flat spin, worry about that in freefall Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

A recent (just before Halloween) issue of Newsweek had an article which discussed why people like scary movies. Basically, the thrust of the article was that people don't actually enjoy being scared, but rather enjoy the relief after the fright. I think that this is the point Brian is making here. We do not enjoy the stressful nature of skydiving, we enjoy successfully overcoming the stress of a skydive, and saving our lives once again. Leaning forward into the energy, in this case, is implementing effective strategies for using the stress created by a skydive to challenge yourself to better performance, to focus yourself on jumping better, and on responding correctly to sydiving stimuli. If we just hopped out and pulled, like, whenever, because we were bored with skydiving, most of us would be scary, unsafe, unstable skydivers. The stress which even very experienced skydivers feel is what keeps us challenging ourselves to do it safely, and to do it better. Wow, this thread has given me a ton of great ideas for working with students, and for working with myself as well. I wonder if maybe we should not be teaching skydiving so much as fear abatement? Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

I would say that the best antidote for fear is familiarity. When people ask me how scary it is to skydive, or ask how you ever get used to jumping out of airplanes, I tell them that it is amazing what human beings can get used to. Most skydiving training is aimed at abating fear by familiarizing the student with the equipment and procedures, and practicing them in a relatively controlled environment. More effective methods allow students to feel an optimum ratio of fear and familiarity. In other words, in order to accomplish scary things, like exiting an airplane at altitude, people need to feel that they have adequate training, adequate preparation, and adequate confidence in order to perform. They also need the ability to function while in a fearful state. Speaking from personal experience, I am very fearful in new situations. For example, on my first jump, I was barely able to climb out of the aircraft. As a relatively experienced skydiver, I am now quite comfortable with exits from the aircraft I have jumped the most. I am still nervous in the face of new situations in skydiving, such as unfamiliar aircraft, new DZ, new canopies, new disciplines, and so on. Because I am familiar with the general skydiving environment, and because I am familiar with and confident in my skill sets, this nervousness is minimal, and I generally perform well despite, (or maybe even because of) being nervous. My main coping strategy at this point in my skydiving career is knowledge seeking. Because I have enough experience to visualize myself performing a new skill in skydiving, I can simply be briefed by a knowledgeable person, mentally rehearse my actions and possible outcomes, and experience only slight nervousness. The further outside my experience something is, the more stressful it is to attempt it. Earlier in my skydiving career, I relied more on blind confidence in my equipment and instructors, and simply gutted it out on my first few jumps. What I think is most interesting about this subject is examining ways to measure a person's ability to cope with the unfamiliar and find the optimum ratio of familiarity and fear which produces the largest gains in performance. Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

Dave DeWolf put together a similar system for a jumper at Maytown a couple of years ago. It was a purple PC on three ring risers put in a big ol' Dolphin container, with a square reserve and a throw out PC. Quite the combination of old and new. Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

Wait! What am I doing? I am definitely taking a shower and putting on some clothes - right this instant! Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

Too bad Malcolm in the Middle hasn't addressed this problem - I'm sure that kid knows the right answer. And anyway, I'm an English major. I don't know much, but at least I cite my sources I'll stick with my basic answer - that gravity and water's fluidity enable it to flow down the drain, and postulate that the spinning effect is caused by the fact that the drain is round and that water tends to adhere to surfaces. The spinning effect is the most efficient manifestation of the water's tendency to flow down the sides of the drian pipe. I just made all that up on the spot. [takes break for a quick education in fluid dynamics.] http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/Edu/newcor.html http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=00069EE7-6D24-1C71-9EB7809EC588F2D7&catID=3 These two sources suggest that it really is just residual motion left over from the filling of the sink, or other motion imparted while it was filled. Coriolis effect can be measured under verrrry controlled circumstances, but is negligible in real life. Guess I overthought it. Patkat gotta exercise my demons!

Gravity, and the fact that water is a fluid, allow it to flow down the drain. All other things being equal, the spin the water takes on is caused by the coreolis effect, imparted by the earth's rotation. It's clockwise in the northern hemisphere, and anti-clockwise in the southern. You can get it to spin the other way with a vigorous swirl of the hand, or with that device featured in the Simpsons episode where Bart placed that expensive call to Australia. Patkat gotta exercise my demons!