kunosoura

Thats badass. And I'd like to see the answer to the question you pose. Pretty amazing when that engine conks out how quickly they lose altitude.

Yes, a few people. Here's one: http://vimeo.com/15410574 lol that video was such a tease!

Somewhere on here Bill Booth weighed in on the matter of excess lines between stow and riser. I don't have the link to the thread offhand but a quick search should reveal it. Noob here too; just letting you know the info on this is out there. Edit: actually this is the thread here... http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2125996;search_string=billbooth%20lines;#2125996

Sweet! Happy birthday.

lmfao. that sir has made my night. and no, but i've come close!

In addition to what others have said, it's quite possible the student rig would have an SOS handle.

Be there bright and early Saturday!

Best of vibes for sure. As tough as she sounds, she sounds like she will be fine. Good luck.

Well twardo you're always welcome to come vacation here in williamsburg, va. You can get a dose of history, a dose of culture, and we will even see if we can't score you a tri-corner hat! But then again, I have a feeling they may have historical interpreters masquerading as you!

I liked having the radio for the first few jumps. The first jump I'll admit I was a bit overwhelmed. I was happy to have radio help. The second or third jump there was another low-jump student in the air with me. I was doing my own thing just fine, but the other student (for whatever reason) wasn't following the instructors commands. Instead he was constantly following/aiming for me the whole time... no matter what I did to create a little separation, he'd negate it. The instructor was yelling and cussing at the guy, and either his radio was goofed up or he flat out wasn't paying attention. Finally the instructor told me to land in an adjacent landing area (still visible to the instructor) on the other side of a taxiway separating it from the main landing area, and the other student went for the main landing area. I was glad the instructor was there to say, "hey, get the hell away from this landing area, do your thing over there and you'll be fine." Then on jump five or six, after not hearing much on the radio for the last couple of jumps, I learned a good lesson. I made the assumption that the winds were doing the same thing that they were doing when we left the ground. In this case they weren't. They had shifted direction and I didn't look at the windsock to check this. Anyway once it was clear I was doing my landing pattern, good old Jim Crouch was working the radio (thanks Jim!!) and enlightened me on what was going on and helped me get it worked out. And yes, I immediately thanked him for it on the ground. After that it was smooth sailing. I think there are far more benefits than not in having the radio. I also think it should be up to the student to handle cutaway procedures. The there, square, steerable test is easily performed by even a total newbie.

I would guess they are +/-15 feet or so accuracy-wise, even if they show 10 foot increments. But they are pretty damn sensitive. Sometimes when I land with my N3 it'll show plus/minus 10 feet, but usually zero. Even if that is due to a pressure fluctuation while I was in the air, to take it to 14K and back down and have it still that close to zero is impressive. It's got some pretty sensitive components that operate over a relatively large range.

Which Germaine book do you have? In Parachute and Its Pilot, there is a huge amount of discussion regarding landings. Flaring isn't defined as a length of a toggle stroke.. it's a dynamic process that requires processing of and reacting to what is going on in flight during landing. That is why it is so important to practice flares up high, so that you can feel what toggle position/speed of stoke does to your canopy's flight. Anyway, I'm new to all of this, but I can say def. check out Parachute and Its Pilot if you haven't yet.. Good luck man! Congrats on getting back into things!

You women folk have the strangest assumption of what we men do when you;re not around... Pie slicer, lmao.... you women folk?! i'm a guy last time i checked! i was making essentially the same point in my post that you made in reply to mine

Did you mess up the utensil drawer while trying to find the pie slicer? You better clean that up too. lol pie slicer? I bet he has the whole pie on his lap while digging in with a serving spoon!

The pack mat is comfy too, if you don't make it to a hotel. Got my A license here. Great place, can't recommend it enough

You're the man! Love your stories. Actually printed and shared one with my ladyfriend the other day. Hope you get this all worked out. Good vibes.

But was it a low pass?

"I'm not talking about the guys that built the railroads!!"

I agree. The way I see it, I have been way too lucky with life so far to not make an attempt at lending some of my resources to someone in need, regardless of whether they can or would even be willing to reciprocate given reversed circumstances.

I almost gave to Wyclef's org. but couldn't find it on a number of charity-rating websites, so I opted for the red cross int'l disaster fund (I think it was called..) I dunno but it had Haiti quake listed in the description.

Never heard of it until mentioned here. For any others interested: http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Other_SDChesJudy.pdf

This is off-topic but this animated workup of the Hudson River ditching on the website linked above was very interesting. http://www.loop.aero/LPA1774/WATCH+THE+HUDSON+RIVER+DITCHING.aspx

nice a west pointer. you picked a great place to learn/jump. i'm a student there too. i'll probably be out sunday. weather looks iffy but hopefully it'll clear up. maybe see you there!

Replacing your pilot chute with a banner is probably not the safer option.

her avatar on the alti-2 forums leads me to concur, kind sir.