alain

I had the chance to get some coaching from frick Marco lately : great inovative flier, good bloke and bluffing coach. I'm still stoke of how much I've learned in so few jumps with the maestro

any web site for the cookie composites ?

My review concerns ONLY the winter French operation in Castellon! I've never been there in summer when the DZ is spanish operated. pros: - Best and most consistant weather available in Europe during winter. - Good price for europe: 17EUR at 14500ft. - Easy conditions: sea level, warm (not hot), much less wind than EmpuriaBrava up north. - The staff is COOL (well it was this year but who knows who's gona be there next year ;-) - Best place to experience the Atmonaute fly with it's creator (Marco Tiezzi spends the winter season there :-) - Beach landing is possible 100 meters away of the DZ if you're into that :-) - With two pilatus PC-6 (9 jumpers/load and 15min/load) you can put as many jumps/day as you like. Cons: - Except the beach and a few of small fields it's pretty insane to land of DZ: lots of houses, many small power lines... As long as you pull at normal altitude you'll make it back. - Not much to do after skidiving, Castellon feels dead in winter. - Some weeks may be quite, bring your mates to be sure to have some people to fly with ;-) - bring your gear: rentals are huge and rare... - you won't find big RW formation there, this DZ is mostly FreeFly oriented. Accomodation: you can rent a flat for 200EUR/week for 4/5 peoples. - Getting there: fly to valencia or Barcelona and rent a car. - FAI license + logbook + reserve packing up to date, you'll have to get a "foreigner license" like anywhere in France. It's free, just paper work issued localy on behalf of th FFP. - AFF training available (cost arround 1000EUR). It's not actualy AFF but it's french equivalent: PAC, no worries. - Operation from midle of december to the end of february (may vary sliglty from year to year) contact: info@ontop.fr (ontop is the French DZ moving down there in winter. Definitely a great place to jump in winter, I'll be there next year :-D Alain

thanks monkey dude alain

wow, scary shit here ! glad you're here to tell the story

ok would have been cool though... do some of you know if the diamond .4 and .5 are going to be available anytime soon? alain

do you now if a .5 would do a significantly better job than the .3 with a little zoom in? my point is: could the .3 be universal? ultra wide if you need it or "standard" with a little zoom in? alain

can you please post this contact? I would keen to have some details about the thing Alain

bought one 18 months ago. it's dead now... I'd go for a classic brand (nikon, minolta) just my 2cent... AL1

To those of you who are (or have been) jumping crossfires: what do you think of their openings? I've heard some wierd stuff (concerning only Xfire1) , like sniveling for ever, erratic behaviour... Is there any difference between the xfire1 and 2 on that topic? (I've allready read heaps about the flying caracteristics but not much about openings.) thanx for input Alain

I used to psyco-pack my Safire when it was new (100 first jumps or so) and I had little packing experience. Then started pro-packing (200+ jumps since), here's my newbie's 2c : - no noticable opening change (for that specific canopy at least) - psyco is easier when the canopy is new (actualy more true when you don't have hundreds or thousands of packs under your belt.) - Pro-pack can be quick and small (even with a new canopy) when you've got the technique to do it properly ('getting better at that game every day ;-) alain

>I havn't jumped anything other than the student PA270 ouch, I suggest you check with your JM / DZO before getting anything as small as 170 !!! that's a huge step down from 270 !!! anyway, I'm neither your JM nor DZO and I'm not gona tell you what to do definitely forget about the BT... this is not for you right now AL1

>nope not french, Australian funny that, I'm French and jumping ozzy stuff whereas you're an australian who's gona jump french... it's a small worl out there have you tested a safire? the NZ made ones are pretty cheap down under... AL1

BT's used to be Parachute de France HP canopy back in the middle 90'. They are very hard on opening I know several people who are (or were) jumping them (1.2 to 1.6:1) and all of them acknoledge this point. They don't have any retail value any more because of that... who wants to get slamded on every jump ?!? You'd better think twice before getting one ! BTW, a BT60 should be a 160 ?!? Try it, but try as well a springo 160 or electra 150 to 170 (whatever your aimed wingloading might be) the Springo is HP whereas the electra is a sort of Saber, anyway at 1.1:1 you will probabely not notice a big performance difference. The electra is probably easier to sell in those size (over 150), in France at least. (I presume you're French, right?) AL1

Dan> yes, please contact stacy in our office 718-923-1709. or via info@extremefly.com thanks, I'll do that

thanks for you input Geoff, I apreciate that

kirk> I would suggest demoing several different kinds and a few sizes I've put some jumps on Stilleto 135 and Contrail 135. I preferred the openings of my safire. The stilleto was much more sensitive to body position, ok you get used to that quickly. The contrail gave me a couple of hard openings, probably due to packing because my buddy who flies them at various loadings (1,4 to 1,8) has nothing but great openings. I found the stilleto much more responsive to command and harness input (despite lighter loading), part of that was probably due to the exessively short steering lines (the guy I borough it from likes to fly it this way). I actually prefered the Contrail, maybe coz it felt closer to what I'm used too (smother command inputs). Anyway, both canopies had litghter riser presure and way more flare than the safire. (I plan to demo stilleto 120, contrail 120 and eventually springo 120 as soon as the weather warms up ) I find the safire kinda tricky to land properly in no wind without additional speed (I'm fine now as I have enough experience under it to know how to fly the beast ;-). This has nothing to see with the longer command lines: it actually flies and land better since I had the mod done. I was positively surprised to discover how easy to land arms up the Stilleto and Contrail are... Maybe someone used to a stilleto would be surprised to land a safire ;-) My interest in Cobalts comes from their high speed deployment abilities (this is a safety concern as I'm mostly freeflying) last question: do you reckon I would get a larger recovery arc with the cobalt? (I mean significantly)

kola> Also take your time with your current canopy too - really learn how to fly it and make sure you have fully explored all that it has to offer before you move either up in performance or down in size - be safe agreed: you've noticed that I'm not really moving down in size I don't intend to switch until I'll have 400+ jumps under the safire. My point here is just taking time to do some research and make my mind. + I expect at least couple of months delivery time for the cobalt, that would quite a few more jumps on the safire too >be safe I'm the first one to preach education and humbleness

good news, that's exactely what i'm looking for. What about riser presure ? botom line is: is it possible to demo cobalts in europe ? Dan ?

yes, I'm aware of the safire sizing issue (I wasn't when I bought it). Keep it quite, my DZO doesn't want to know he let me fly that wing loading with less than 100 jumps (my safire is a 135, custom size, with long steering lines to avoid front riser erratic behavior)

I might downsize from my safire 135 (loaded 1:1,25 - 250+ jumps uder it - 330 jumps over all) to a cobalt 120 (would be loaded 1:4), sometime next year; probabely after 100 more jumps on the safire. Have some of you experience downsizing from safire to cobalt? What's your feeling? thanx for input

anyone has some experience with Canon to share? The optical stabilizer of the MXV2i looks like a really good idea to me and Canon optics ar renown, but are their DV products as bullet proof as Sony's PCs ???

>Not all lens are the same. eg my kenko 0.5 is not as wide as my sony 0.6!! The kenko is a good lens but does seem to be a bit narrower than other 0.5 lenses. I had a vivanco 0.5 that I was really happy with - it lined up almost perfectly with a 24mm still lens, the Kenko 0.5 is a bit narrower than the 24mm still lens. ok, maybe a kenko 0.42 or 0.43 would be a sort of *true* 0.5 ??? Anyway, 0.5 = 24mm depends on the camrecorder too, right? For exemple the canon MXV2i zoom specs are 4.2-42mm and equivalent to 48-480mm according to Canon. (that depends on the lens and of the size of the CCD too) Therefore a true .5x on the MXV2i would result in a 24mm (35mm equivalent) what are the zoom specs of your camrecorder ? >You don't say what you are going to be filming in your post. I need a lens for outside formation freefly shooting (something equivalent to 24 or 28mm ?) I'll get a 0.3 for inside formation freefly shooting, didn't think of which one yet... alain

What .5x would you recommend? My two concerns are sharpness and low profile. what do you think of Kenko? anything better out there? I know this topic has been covered many times but I thought it would be interesting to get an up to date over view... alain