murrays

Tony, The experienced Bird people on this forum gave me tons of useful advice before my first flight back in September..... I found the advice given to me in these threads very helpful... http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=651485;#651485 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=659689;#659689 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=676687;#676687 Relax!!! and Enjoy!! Blue skies, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I had terrible dropout problems with some less expensive Sony tapes I bought last summer. Wound up throwing them in the garbage. I now use the ones in the Blue wrappers and they are good. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Cool. Tell them I hate them for skydiving in the winter when I'm working like a dog doing tax work. Just kidding. I hope they're having a great time. Don't let Brad weasel out of beer for that first bird flight! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

No. Roger did several years. Seven seems to be popping into my head but I'm not sure if that is the correct number. He was in for a long time. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Ron, You're doing your best to fight the good fight. Sometimes you're a bit repetitive...maybe a bit abrasive...but in my opinion your intentions are good....so consider this a bit of praise. .....Back to the Vigil thread..... I'm officially on the fence about getting my Vigil order completed pending the outcome of the investigation of the recently reported Deland incident. I believe Kim will give us a straight answer after the unit has been examined and I reserve judgment until that time. (Might not be your test jumper after all, Ron....sorry.) -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

1 - Load it up with as much ram as you can... My favourite Mac utilities.... 2 -Photo to Movie - I really like this program for using stills in videos..panning across them, etc, etc. It is much better quality than you get using iMovie's "Ken Burns Effect", 3 - MovieEdit3D...tons of fun, 4 - Quicktime Pro - Great program for all kinds of tasks video, sound and still related, 5 - Stop-Motion Studio - for doing time-lapse photography, claymation. Lots of fun...only caveat is that the developer seems a little busy these days. He isn't as nearly instant with his replies and help as he used to be. Extra hardware... 6 - iPod..great music player, contact, calendar, external hard drive Last... 7 - Sign up for a trial .Mac account, if you don't already have one, hook up your camcorder via Firewire, turn it to camera mode with the tape removed, start up iChat AV and set up murrays@mac.com as a Buddy and we'll video chat!! 8 - Edited to add....I like this iMovie plugin... Slow Motion Smoother 9 - Edited again to add...Buy a Digital Rebel! One of my buddies got one yesterday and brought it over to show me. Very nice. Very, very nice. Enjoy that new machine! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Hmmm....I certainly missed this in the instructions, I just have the indicator light hanging down where I can see it, secured by gaffer's tape. Would this be a heavy gauge copper wire they recommend? -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Hey Steve, First dropzone.com post...ever!!!! I think you owe something for that! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Roger served several years. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Quicktime pro will do Pal/Ntsc conversions for you. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

To be more specific, I am thinking of when you shoot stills to the memory stick, not frame grabs. So, that is the quality that I am wondering about. Per Ed's post, the quality is pretty good. I'll have to do some research and think about this as an alternative to lugging two cameras, charging two batteries, etc. Thanks, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Ed, Can you use the FM-50 or other higher capacity batteries with it? How much time do you get from the various batteries? What is the quality of the still images like? (I am intrigued at the possibility of only carrying one camera. I have a PC-1 and a Sony digicam right now.) Thanks, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

In some circumstances, front risers will allow you to move forward over the ground and reach a landing area that you wouldn't have been able to if you just let the canopy fly. Front risers give you a bit more forward speed...at the sacrifice of altitude. For instance, if your canopy in full flight exactly matched the windspeed you were flying into you would descend straight down relative to the ground. If you wanted to land 10 feet in front of that point, front risers would get you there. As BillVon pointed out, if you're getting blown backwards, at the very least, front risers will reduce the amount of time you are in the air and reduce the length of your walk. Practice with them up high on windy days...face into the wind, watch your progress over the ground in full flight and then try some front riser to see if you make more progress over the ground. Work on things like this when you don't have to and it may help you make the right decision the next time you open and have to make a decision on where to land. In the other thread, some people suggested you know where you're going to land at 1000'. I wouldn't put a set altitude on it, I'd say that you should evaluate your situation immediately on opening and throughout your descent. In the situation you described, I think your decision had to be made higher. Always look at the outs and alternates...a long walk is way better than an ambulance ride. The links posted by Kallend have some excellent posts that do a much better job of explaining this. Read them and practice and add to your bag of tricks.

Here's a Quicktime reference file that will get the video for you...I'm too lazy to do a search. (I hope this will work) Oh...the woman in the video is not "cute"...she's a GODDESS!! -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Also, depending on the winds aloft and amount of penetration you are getting ...Front risers may be how you reach a safe landing area. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

well, that depends on how you look at it! I would expect the product to be designed/manufactured "foolproof" enough, so that it would be virtually impossible to trap any wires anywhere. Especially replacing the batteries I had Vigil in my hands only for a few moments and my first impression on general workmanship is quite good...hopefully good enough for all of us to have a Cypres alternative

Thank-you from me as well Bill. The firing in the loft was not a design/manufacturing/algorithm issue. Makes me feel better about my decision to get one....which should be fairly soon when Kim has enough units on hand to ship my order. Ron, glad to be your test jumper -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Thank you for that link. Norman is an awesome photographer and cinematographer. He has an amazing eye. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Thanks for the replies guys. Due to last minute fears of Brad getting hassled by Canada Customs on his return....they will try and squeeze every nickle out of you they can....I decided not to send it down with him. My friend's name is Brad Kjargaard aka Hot Dawg, he and his wife Annette left in their van for Eloy yesterday in the middle of a howling blizzard. Brad bought a used wingsuit in the fall and hasn't jumped it yet. The reason I tell you this is so that any local Eloy bird-people can get in on the BEER he will owe and maybe help him out on his first flight. Brad is also very close to making his 1000th jump.....just so ya know. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Where would my friend find Kevin? Thanks Tom, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Hi, I need a quick answer...sorry for waiting so long to post...but I am wondering if there is someone on Eloy who can do minor repairs to a wingsuit. I pulled a stitch on a rib in one of the arm wings. I think it needs to be restitched and I have a friend heading down there tomorrow morning. Thanks, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

While on the topic of B & W, a couple of rolls of infrared film might also be very interesting to shoot. As long as you can load the film in complete darkness, etc. you could get some very interesting shots. I think that some ground shots on people landing with trees in the background would look very nice due to the way that ir film records foliage. Here's an example of trees shot with IR film. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

The one button mouse is good for small kids and old people. I just plug in a two button mouse to my iMac and it works....no drivers, etc. to install. Scott, I'd say that was..smart -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

1/200 is fast enough to stop most motion...a little blur on the jumpsuits with the main image "frozen" by the flash would look cool imo. I tried a couple of jumps a number of years back stopped right down and using about 1/8 sec shutter speed with a flash. The flash malfunctioned but the blurry silhouetted jumpers looked quite cool. I think if my flash would have worked I'd have had some great shots. You don't have to have everything stopped dead to have a good shot...sometimes blurry is good. I attached a shot of my older son riding his mountain bike...pretty slowly actually...in the middle of a forest where I was unable to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze his motion. I used a slow shutter and panned with him...I think it's likely a better photo. It has more dynamic than a frozen shot. If you think of less than ideal conditions as opportunities to stretch your creative muscles sometimes you're rewarded with much more interesting photographs. I realize that if you're shooting a tandem they might not appreciate the artfulness of your approach but I offer this as a suggestion for those occasions when you might want to try something different. A photographer I've found very helpful in learning to explore the possibilities of what is in front of you and what is available to you is Freeman Patterson. I have several of his books: "Photography and the Art of Seeing", Photography for the Joy of It" and "Photography of Natural Things". -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

My advice is to find someone else to marry. You'll avoid a lot of conflict in your life. The issue won't go away. Wait until you have kids..it will get worse. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey