goobersnuftda

Thanks, I'll give them a call and see what I can find.

I am looking for the STC number for a Cessna 206 for the extra seat belt. If anyone knows what that specific STC number is (P206 if that makes a difference) or someone who is operating a 206 skydiving plane with the extra seat belt, I would be most appreciative for that information.

At our DZ, we waited until the tandem took off in the plane then we wrote it in the grass with flour. The Tandem master knew to keep her busy once under canopy until they got closer. You know on the ride up they don't look out the window and down, during free fall they are "pre occupied" so it is all up to the tandem master to point it out at the proper time.

Mid season again and time to replace student goggles. What are DZ's using out there for their students that seem to hold up? Don't want anything too fancy because they will take them home for a souvenir but the cheap ass $15 clear wonders at Paragear simple do not hold up for a full season. What would you recommend?

I've got a still picture, not as good as video but this is one of those action shots that once you see it, you know exactly how the next 5 seconds are going to play out ......

Know what you are getting into with every Mr. Bill jump. I've posted these pictures before but it is relevant to this topic again. Deployed right from the door but the participating jumpers were not straight up and down but rather 90 degrees on their side when the main opened up. Riser caught the reserve tray and ripped it. Did not notice or feel anything different until back in the clubhouse and started to pack. Now say to yourself, what would have happened if the reserve began to come out of the tray and deployed? No handle was pulled, no flap was opened instead, it snuck out through the bottom rip instead. You would have had a perfectly good main above your head and some dumb ass messed up reserve trying to inflate with the reserve risers no where near in alignment of where they should be if the reserve were to deploy normally rather than coming out of one side of the tray. It is really good that people post videos like this because somewhere deep in the back of peoples minds they know events like this can happen but they discount it and don't give it a second thought.

Here is something that might help you but it involves conversion through a video editor. Good old Gmail, always keep copies of these things in my account, never know when you will use them again. ======================== One great undocumented feature of Sony DV camcorders is that they ALL play back NTSC or PAL tapes without a hitch. If only we were all interested in playback, that would be enough. It gets complicated, though. For example, a true-blue Sony NTSC DV camcorder will play back NTSC tapes fine, but PAL tapes are output as NTSC50. NTSC50 is NOT a legit signal and beffudles any attempts at analogue capture (including but not limited to the analogue inputs of DVD recorders), so we stop right there. DV capture through FireWire is just as complicated: the camcorder tells the Non Linear Editor that it's NTSC, so the Non Linear Editor preps for such. Then along comes the PAL signal which gives it fits. There is a way around this in Premiere. Turn Device Control off in capture. Premiere then becomes interested ONLY in the incoming DV stream itself, not whether the camcorder is this or that. Alternatively, as was pointed out, don't give a chance to Premiere to figure out the camcorder type by putting it in play/pause mode BEFORE either plugging into the FireWire port or starting the NLE program. So what I did was open Premiere and create a new PAL project. Then went to Device Control (Edit/Preferences/Device Control) and changed my Devices to None. Then I hooked up my NTSC PC330 via firewire with my pal tape in it and put it in Play/Edit mode and pressed play. Then you just open the capture window (File/Capture) and the video will be playing there. Just hit the record button and it will capture your PAL footage.

Yes, this is just playing around with Photoshop. The levels and curves were played around with as the first step because the picture was taken in real poor lighting conditions on a very cloudy day. The best shot of course was right between flash firing cycles but oh well, that's why man invented photo editing software for computers right :) Here are a few more with just trying things out but I still like the "motion blur" effect. The photo still looks like a real photo. It's been a number of years since I was in the Bent Prop in Eloy. If anyone happens to come across some good photo examples, please post a link so I can get an idea of what looks good. Thanks.

I'm looking for some ideas in trying to spice up the same old tandem still shots. In about 60 seconds, here is a simple example of some radian blur, tilting the horizon and playing around with opacity brush levels. It's nothing great and composing the right shot sure does help but in this example, your eye goes directly to the students face as he looks like he is screamin right in at ya :) Does anyone have any good examples of what else to do?

Both. I am not looking into WalMart chepo radios as Motorola seems to be doing the best in the field for performance. The going rate for most of their industrial new ones are $200-$300 each. Granted some students don't listen to radio because of brain lock but come on really, out of a jump year there are FAR more people who can not hear the radio because of not being able to clear their ears than brain lock. I've had non responsive students follow their training until about 2,000 feet when their ears finally popped then they were 100% at being able to listen to the radio. Compare that to only a scarce few that brain lock. If the radios are smaller (like the Minitor V) you have the possibility to mount them on a hard helmet right above the ear. Having a chest mount is fine but even at that we have taught our students that because of the wind noise through the helmet to turn your head 90 degrees and you can hear it much better if it is difficult to hear over your 180 bpm heart rate :) I'm thinking that because most of us mount our Pro-Track above our ears, that is the best location for optimum hearing. Yelling directly in a students ear long enough is like hearing the flat line at 120 db 1 inch from your ear drum, it gets your attention finally :) ***Visual aids only are not an option. Students are taught with the target and arrow but on a normal jump day and having the spot 0.5 miles away, if the student will not turn around to face the DZ they can not see you standing with your paddles...

Our DZ is looking into upgrading our Motorola Minitor radios for student use. They are the first generation Minitor not the later models. They are integrated into the chest pillow altimeters. One idea was to get the new smaller style of radios that are rechargeable (instead of our old N style batteries that must be replaced) and put a hard pocket on the outside ear of the Protec. No more issues of "I didn't hear the radio" but then there is the possibility of riser strikes. What are the best or most popular style and mounting of student radios that you are using at your DZ now?

In Canada, that is actually one of the questions on the EJR exam. WP stands for "white phosphorus". It burns and burns and there is no putting it out until it is done. Dangerous stuff and is highly illegal to skydive with.

Thank you for the link and information. It looks like their web page is kind of a mess. On my end the pictures all overlap what there is to read and it looks like they are using DEMONSTRATION software that has expired and is giving them the warning. Thanks for the info and I can still read the email address at the bottom so I will try that.

I've been flying smoke for a number of years now and our DZ has 5 different foot brackets as well as lanyard style. I am looking for some heavy smoke and not the usual crap that comes from Paragear. That is OK, but it is far to weak and small. A few years ago we found a surplus supplier in the US that purchased expired smoke made for Germany. Was the size of a large Chunky soup can, orange, and pumped out real heavy smoke, like thick. Got a few pair of crappy now orange jeans to prove it :) Does anyone know of some place that has really, really good smoke and if it were to be in green, that would be awesome. Also, some foot wide plastic streamers. Really long and not the paper kind. Thanks for any info.

I don't care that he is french or anything like that but isn't anyone else worried that this guy should be stopped before he does something really bad right in front of everyone watching him on live TV? It seems that the simplest things go wrong for him. Balloon problems and now a simple detachment left him on the ground. What if it was at 1,000 ft when the detachment problem occured? What if something really complicated went screwy like the oxygen delivery system? If you can not keep a balloon attached then what happens when you have something with multiple systems that depend on each other to sustain life? Man, if you get up in the morning and you can not tie your shoes properly and you stumble on your ass then maybe you should not go into the hospital operating room and think you are still qualified to perform brain surgery :)

Remember that Florida is also the state where a DZ allowed an infant baby to do a tandem jump. The tandem master was the father and mommy dearest was the pilot of the aircraft. Did that make it OK to have their 2 year old baby as a tandem passenger (and proud enough to have the story and pictures published in SKYDIVING magazine)? Most issues are pushed to the limit then the point of the courts must step in. It's too bad that those abuse the situation because when finally a net is cast to rein them in, not only do the 100% crazy people get reeled in but the 5% crazies as well :)

Delay was winds and cloud cover. This link has the news story as well as an audio interview about what happened today. Clicky

Yes it was scrubbed for today. They will try again tomorrow. Hopefully they keep the same web address for the camera :)

I'm watching the live news feed (no I dont' have a life) and Fournier was in his yellow suit and helmet and he walked from the capsule to the transport vehicle and they drove away. A few minutes later the crane holding the capsule drove away from the lauch site too. The balloon still left uninflated was left on the ground. This is his 3rd attempt and he must have a complete set of wankers working for him. Balloon shreads one time, a valve fails another and will not inflate and he simply can not seem to launch a balloon. Makes you wonder if that can not be accomplished, what issues can there be with his suit ? Screen shots attached.

It is Monday morning on the 26th. Here is a live news feed from CNN of the record attempt. There is no sound because it is just a news camera set up pointing at the launch site. Clicky You may not have the latest plug in on your web browser so just click on the download link and update it. Screen shot attached.

He's baaaack................... Michel Fournier is going to try for the skydiving altitude record as well as the speed free fall record in Saskatchewan, Canada. Clicky What they don't tell you in the story is that his attempts here in the province have been fought with failure (mechanical etc.) To date he is in $19 Million to get to this point.

Most people are suckered into the marketing scam of "natural". If you think about it, the most natural things in this planet do the most harm: -Heroin (comes from a nice natural plant) -Ricin, another plant is one of the most poisonous naturally occurring substances known -there is no known antidote -Botox, (Botulinum neurotoxins) are the most potent toxic reagents currently known to man (severely diluted to put in women’s foreheads to reduce wrinkles) -Puffer fish poison... This poison is about 10000 times more potent than cyanide ....the list goes on. "natural" or not, if it is made in the lab or grows in a field, it still has the potential to kick you in the ass :)

OK people, there seems to be a new bad boy ENERGY DRINK on the market. Red Bull is #1 in $$$ sales but the Monster drink people claim to be in first place on volume (size of liquid in the can). Soon to be released CLICKY Check out the ingredients of this bad boy. I particularly like the #1 ingredient. They are toting no preservities and no artificial flavors. They even use the original ingredient that the first colas used.......Coca leaf !!! I sure hope the DZ doesn't impliment random drug testing. Might be a few false positives :) But can you see it now? A 6 pack of this stuff with a dozen Crispy Creme's. How dangerous is skydiving now as compared to that ?

Take back control of your Apple hardware crap: Pod Maxx It is not rented nor leased, you bought it so you should be the one in control of it.

The initial thought I had about this boogie (being that it is starting up for the first time) is the exact same situation as HUNTING GEESE IN THE FALL WITH A SHOT GUN. Sounds weird but let me explain. When you hunt geese, they live on the water. What you do is set up where you are going to be and let the first 3 flights of geese fly over you untouched and land in the field to feed. It is tempting but do not shoot at the first 3 flights. This established a safe flight pattern. Then, have at her and blast away at the following flights. The Vietnamiese have NOT figured out capitalism. Capitalism is designed to be sustainable. When the very first flight of skydivers arrive and they get hosed and taken advantage of, all future skydivers learn from the sacrafice the first group went through and they find some other "field to feed in". As skydivers and people, we can easisly spend thousands of dollars to attend a boogie. When you get some place and they have that little evil smile on their face when they completely hose and take advantage of you for $30 because they can, that is the same as a handfull of sand in your underwear. It irritates the hell out of you. Forget the thousands, it is that $30 that completely bugs the crap out of you and it is what you remember. Screwing with the jump planes, moving goal posts and taking advantage of prices simply because you are already there and have no alternitive has to be the stupidest atempt at Capitalism.