jmidgley

Hi I have a HC42 side mounted in an aluminium box of my own construction. I haven't measured it but on a sight comparison I'd say it was no wider than a 2KC FF2. The box is wide enough to allow an ordinary LANC 90deg plug to fit between the camera body and the side of the helmet - in fact I could probably shave a few mm off if I made another box. I can't believe the camera's any wider than a PC120, say. Over the last 60 jumps I've taken to reaching up to the risers as they start to take weight, and moving my helmet back through them. Oddly, since I've being doing this I haven't had any more off-heading openings (Sabre2). I also haven't had any riser slaps. Regards John

Ah! I can answer that. The 'sausages' are designed to concentrate the force from a blow onto a small area of the skull, kind of like a shaped charge, ensuring that the wearer is knocked spark-out. What, that's not what they're for? John

I won't exactly be thrilled if someone gets it for £1,600 but I picked that as my "I'd rather it gathered dust in my garage" price. At the end of the day it's worth what someone is prepared to pay for it - and £1,600 will make a modest dent in an Aerodyne Icon... John

Hi I'm selling my bike on ebay at the moment - it's due to finish in a few hours. Not having sold on ebay before, I'm puzzled that there are 39 people watching, and no bids. What's that about? If I've priced it too high, I'd have thought they'd just move on. Anyway, admire my bike! John

Hi I have that camera and a Diamond 0.3 lens - fits just fine. Get the right thread, of course... John

Hey! I thought it was a model of clarity! J

Hi I'm not familiar with the helmet, so I don't know the answer to the first obvious question - is there a flat area on top to mount a bracket to? Assuming there is, you could blag a small piece of aluminium sheet from someone that does sheet-metal work (3mm ~ 1/8" at least) and knock up a bracket. You'd need a vice, a flat file and a drill. Or a mate with same. Maybe a round file if you need to 'slot' one of the mounting holes to adjust the angle. Mount it to the helmet with small t-nuts - around 4mm-5mm. I used dome-headed allen-key screws, trimmed so that no thread shows past the t-nut. Both nut and screw are backed with large penny washers to spread the load and to stop the nut pulling through the CF. You'll want a strap or two - velcro or webbing with fastex clips to back up the thumbscrew. Oh, and a thumbscrew! Start eyeing up mouse mats for foam padding to glue to the "side" of the bracket with contact adhesive. Decide to do this before you drill the hole for the thumbscrew, or it will be in the wrong place. If you slotted one of the mounting holes in the bracket (or if your drilling was a bit slapdash) you may find that the bracket needs to be cranked down hard to stop it moving. I cut a thin sheet of rubber and sandwiched it between the bracket and helmet - no way that's moving. I sacrificed a swim cap for the rubber... I have a carbon fibre L-bracket with velcro straps fitted that came with my Side FX from 2K composites. I'm not using it - if you're interested, I could be persuaded to part with it... Regards John

Hi I've just started jumping a HC42 which I'm pretty sure is a similar format. There are a couple of issues with side-mounting this type of camera. The first is that the LANC socket is on the 'wrong' side for mounting the camera on the left - you can't push the camera flush against the mount because the plug will be in the way. The second issue (for me) is that the Royal Lens (Diamond 0.3) sticks out past the 'line' of the camera, inviting a riser to rip it off. I have a FF2 SideFX helmet and I made an aluminium box to contain the camera and protect it. If you haven't bought a helmet yet, you might consider top-mounting it. Regards John

I've always used Airsports, for hang-gliding/paragliding trips and for skydiving. Don't they advertise in Skydive? John

If I may quote myself from an earlier thread: "It's an immutable rule that any discussion of flight will eventually resolve into a debate about whether a wing 'knows' whether it's pointing into wind or downwind. " Hang on while I get a chair... John

Hi I've got the HC42 and I bought a Diamond 0.3 for it. I haven't finished making a box for it yet so it hasn't been airborne. Be aware that the lens still sticks out past the side of the camera - you'd need to do something in the bracketry line to guarantee not having it swiped off by a riser. It looks like you can zoom in a fair way (reducing the degree of wide-angle-ness) before you get problems with focus. HTH John

On the other hand, I know that the main pin flap (on my TD SF) always stays shut, HD, sit, stand, whatever - because it's always still tucked in when I land. This is because the bridle goes in the right hand side and comes out of the right hand side - it doesn't need to flip the flap to get the pin out. No PC hesitation here! John

Apologies if you already knew the following - The LANC socket is doing much cleverer stuff than just switching - there's a whole library of commands that can be issued and responses that can be read, using a serial protocol. To do anything at all with it requires a microcontroller programmed to 'know' the LANC protocol. Google for 'PIC' and 'LANC' to get the idea - there is some code out there if you have the means to program a PIC microcontroller. If you *really* just want a kind of remote tally light, there was a thread about this in the photography forum recently. Regards John

It was some time later that they showed up in hang-gliding, mostly to hoots of derision. I always thought a brand called 'Know Fear' would be more plausible, but I'm too lazy to capitalise on it. Feel free. John

Same, it keeps me from having to rotate my wrist to read it, helps reduce possible glare. I added another smaller ring at a right angle to the main one, which goes round my thumb. This holds the alti in a position where I can read it in a sit without tipping my hand. I need all the help I can get... I get the anti-burble as a bonus I didn't know existed till I read this thread! John

No, I hope I was answering the question about making a continuous loop, for bracelet/necklace purposes. The perils of subject drift... John

No, a circle. Refer to my crude bitmap! Pull one end of the line into itself with the fid, to leave a circle with a 'tail'. Then, by threading the fid in a short distance away, emerging as near the tail as possible, pull the remaining tail in, in the opposite direction. Bingo, a circle. This also answers the conundrum of how you splice two pieces of line together, without leaving any fraying ends. I meant it in the sense of 'for those odd occasions when I have to do jobs like this', rather than implying that I have some other cunning way of doing it. As for what to ask for - the hobby shops I'm talking about sell stuff for radio control modellers and allied trades, so they usually have a display of short lengths of brass and aluminium in different sections, as well as wire. In England, it's traditionally know as 'piano wire', but that might just get you a funny look. It's available in a number of gauges, down to just a few thousands of an inch, which is the sort of size you need. Regards John

Not on the 2K Composites website that I can see, but they do a model called 'Side FX' - flat side, chincup, two audible mouldings, Cameye 'nipple'. Got one. Comfy. Midway between the FF1 and FF2, price-wise. John

If you're standing on a field, it's tempting and understandable to have a 'point' view of what's going on with the wind - "It's windy NOW... it's not so windy NOW". For many people, flying a canopy only adds one more dimension - "It's bumpy HERE... man, I'm getting gusted HERE" If air wasn't transparent, things would be different - if you could see the three dimensional picture, you'd know DAMNED WELL why it was worth sitting this one out. Let me have a crack at a typical scenario. It was chilly last night, but it's going to be a scorcher today. Maybe a cold front blew through yesterday or the day before. Large chunks of air are getting heated up by all those convenient things like hangars and runways - or that ploughed field half a mile away upwind. As the heated air rises, it's got to suck in air quickly, and at ground level, it's can only do that horizontally. If the general drift is 10Kts and it's pulling in air at 10Kts, then you're looking at a 20Kt gust. Elsewhere, not too far away, someone is thinking "Wow, it went quiet all of a sudden". Someone else on final will see the sock change direction. Wind blades, streamers on short posts and windsocks pointing in different directions, circling birds who aren't flapping - these are all worth watching for. Cumulus clouds too - when the wind drops, look *upwind*; depending on how far away the source was, there may be a cloud which is sucking all that air. As it passes overhead (or to one side) be prepared for the wind to increase or change direction. But there are days when conditions are right for forming thermals ("unstable" is the term I know, but it may not be the right technical one), but not for forming clouds at the top of them. If you happen to fly into one of these columns of air, you could be in for a unpleasant surprise. The boundary between the ascending air and its surroundings is mixing turbulently. It would be usual to find areas where the air was going down almost as fast as the main colum was ascending. You're flying an aircraft which stays aloft only by virtue of the pressure in its cells. Good luck. The summary - it's not the wind speed alone that's the issue; sure, the canopy can fly at 20Kts (or whatever). It's that the *difference* in wind speed is a good indication that something is happening nearby that might cause a pilot of a rigid wing glider to rub their hands together gleefully, but that should encourage floppy-wing pilots to consider leaving it in the bag. John

I know nothing about these companies personally, but I keep seeing people (in the USofA) pointed to 'Mouser' and 'Digikey' as sources of mail-order stuff. I don't know whether they have MOQs and huge shipping/handling fees. Good luck John

Serious? A phototransistor in a common collector circuit, "Re" about 100ohms to limit the current to ~20mA (assuming a 1.5V battery), a nice Kingbright LED in series with Re. $5 worth of parts? No need for a PCB - you could just 'air assemble' the parts first to see if you can get it to work - with 3 components (OK, 4 if you count the battery) it's got to be worth trying. 'BeerPal' me a case if it works. John

From the towering height of my 200 jumps, can I suggest that it may be that the kill line is not too long; it could be that the tape that prevents the d-bag from disappearing up the kill line is too *short*, preventing the kill line from doing its job. If, instead of heaving on the hacky handle to cock the pilot chute, the OP delicately pulls on the kill line instead, it should be fairly obvious whether the line is too long - should be longer than the apex tapes, but not ridiculously so. Regards John

Mmm... That's what I feared - hence me wondering whether there was some kind of 'AVI utilities' thing somewhere. So, a 24-hour render (Ha! Pinnacle crashes every 20 mins!) or more welding... John

Hi Does anyone know the simplest way to invert a whole video after capturing to a PC? Pinnacle Studio 9 has a buy-able plug-in that includes a 'special effect' for inverting, but that looks like it has to be applied clip by clip. I'd rather just inver the whole avi and be done with it, before starting editing. There are good engineering reasons why it would be easier to mount the camera inverted for this project... Regards John

Does anyone know the answer to this question? Preferably from a UK perspective? I made the one in the attachment from white cotton denim-weight material, tie-dyed. The construction allows me to 'de-bag' it down the outside seam quite easily - I've taken a fair bit out of the arms since I made it. I'd like to make another though, more along the Matter/Sonic line, but like the OP I'm stuck finding the heavyweight coloured poly-cotton. Someone must know...