hipgnosis

Definitely work out to stay fit for skydiving and marathon tunnel sessions. One secret that I've found though is to do absolutely nothing the friday or day before your jump weekend starts. The stiffness from your last exercise session will have some effect on your performance that day. Bill

I didn't think you meant it Wendy - it was just a bit ambiguous. "Back to backs" for us involve sprinting across a runway, dropping gear, grabbing our second rigs, and running to the loading area. Ah, the curses of a turbine DZ

I'm not sure if you were suggesting that he do back to backs, but on the chance you were let me suggest that he would be better off not to. When doing back to backs, especially with low numbers, the chances of misrouting chest straps or some other equipment problem are hugely magnified. And since you're jumping solo and may not get an equipment check (get them!), then the problem can go unnoticed until it's too late. Instead, have fun with the jumps and try to learn during them. Ten good jumps where you learn how to fly your body better will give you a lot more enjoyment in the future then just jamming out the hop and pops. Bill

If you do decide to go with a backpack system, be aware that it really messes with the center of gravity you feel on your bike and that a lot of maneuvers, especially turns, will feel really odd. My advice is to keep stuff off your back wherever possible, I've been in a couple of accidents where if I had something on my back I would've been hurt pretty badly. Bill

Reading through the product it appears that it has no FireWire nor a LANC connection.

I wouldn't sweat it. I've run XP on 256 meg boxes before. Remember that Windows (and most other OS's) also use swap space on disk to hold information that isn't currently being used. Frankly, you want as much as possible in your main memory - it's much faster than being on disk. Now, if you are getting memory low errors then it's time to reconsider.

So, what you are saying is that if the camera man climbs out we have to go regardless? That somehow appears to be a bad idea to me as well. Different teams will have different ideas what they want to do in this case, but at least knowing in advance that their team policy is to wave at the video guy as he drops off to do a solo is better than the confusion I've seen at some competitions.

I'm on the other end of the camera for 4-way, but can add these items : 1) Determine who is in charge of the spot and how he/she is going to indicate climb out. For my team the OC and camera are in the door, the OC signals when to go and starts the climbout. 2) Discuss aborted climbout procedures aka how to get the video back into the plane. Usually this will involve OC climbing out and acting as a wind block, with tail helping the video back in. Of course this might not be feasible depending on the plane/video. Bill

With me on your team you're still worried about your ego getting out of control?!?

Important! Banks can often times show a check as cleared (ie the money is in your account) despite the check not being valid. It differs depending on the bank, but it can take over a month in some cases for a check that was shown as clear to suddenly turn into a bounce. If you go this route, talk to someone at the bank and get their name and contact info in case they are wrong. Bill

I had some success with an earlier version of Download Accelerator, but only used it to speed up the download of larger files. Now though it just seems like too much of a hassle, so I don't bother with anything (plus my net connections are fast enough it really doesn't matter).

We still had the no grips on exit and the first 2 being base pin. I agree with dgskydive though, just building a star tends to be a bit boring - it's nice to have a block to turn on the bottom end.

Heck, now I'm curious as to what the secret is. Oh, wait a sec, I'm on that team....I guess I'm curious as to why it's a secret.... Perhaps Dom is ashamed of us?

I've played around with U-Lead 7 and found that they really suck doing the encoding for DVD. I highly recommend you spend $100 and get a copy of Adobe Premier Elements - much better program and much better output.

Incidentally, if you want to contribute directly click the following : http://www.acb.org/donate3.htm I ask that you send me a pm letting me know that you donated. Thanks again! Bill

Bulking up so you can pick me up next time you get out to Cali? Keep up the good work!!

(note, if this is in any way inappropriate for this group, please ignore/delete). I am honored to have been asked to participate in a repeat of a special and worthwhile event that a group of us did almost two years ago. On Saturday, January 29th Perris Valley Skydiving Presents “Blue Skies for Future Eyes! 2” A fund raiser to benefit the American Council of the Blind (ACB). You will find more information about ACB below. At the last event we raised over $7,000 in donations. This time we are attempting to top $10,000. This will be a unique jump featuring John Fleming, Perris’ only blind skydiver. He is one of only a few blind skydivers in the world. He had logged over a thousand skydives previous to a degenerative eye disease taking his sight and has made over five hundred jumps since with the aid of radios. Organized by Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld we will build a twenty person formation around John in the sky. The formation will be in the shape of a human eye and video will once again be made available to the media. Three stations in Los Angeles aired footage of our last jump bringing even more much needed attention and donations to ACB. We could all use a few 'feel good' stories right about now, right? Each of us (the twenty formation jumpers and two camera jumpers) will be required to collect a minimum of $250 in donations to participate and will cover our own slots. If you feel that this is a worthwhile cause, then please donate. If not, then don't. No pressure! Checks should be made out to: American Council of the Blind. To make your canceled check a legal tax receipt, write Charitable Donation in the memo section. If you are sending a cash donation (checks are referred) and need a receipt for tax purposes, one will be made available. You can mail cash or checks to: Bill Morrison 25567 Cedarbrook Ave Moreno Valley, CA 92553 For more information you can contact me at 951-442-9443 or send me a PM. Thanks for reading this far! Bill

why dont you think so? Just curious. A self test tests the components at whatever conditions exist when the unit turns on. At the factory they can test for that and for all the different conditions that can exist in it's operational parameters (min/max temperature and humidity, RF exposure, varying power levels from the battery, etc.) Bill

Discussed extensively in this thread : http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1291107#1291107 Note I just bought a factory refurbished PC330 from Butterfly Video for $999. Bill

Thanks Lori, turns out I'm "ambi-eyed" by the suggested test....Guess I'll go with right side - that's what I use for rifle and pistol shooting. Now for figuring out the 6mm vs 1/4" thing. And I absolutely *love* touching people (and will be doing so a lot in the coming year). The video is going to be primarily for the school once I get my skills up to a sufficient level. It was either camera or get my tandem rating Bill

I'm about to purchase my first camera helmet (Bonehead Flattop Pro) and have a question regarding the ring sight. First of all, what is the best way to determine if the post should be placed on the right or the left side of the helmet? Secondly, what is the difference between the 6mm and 1/4" site post (apart from the fact they are different sizes). All help greatly appreciated. Bill

One thing that you need to consider is what your other teammates feel about it. Some people like the consistency of doing a block the same way and/or don't want to deal with a slightly trickier memory game. Bill

The tip thing is everywhere? At all the dropzones I've been too tipping has never been asked for or expected. However, from what I've seen a lot of it goes on primarily with the jumpers who have been in the sport for a number of years and people like the badspot driver, manifest, or others who by doing their job well have made our experiences either. And you seem to have your head wrapped around money. A tip can be so much more - bringing the badspot driver a gatorade or something during one of the hot summer days he's spending driving around a dusty landing area or a beer after the jumping day is over. And hell, you better believe if anyone chases down and recovers my main, or saves my life (rigger), that they are going to get something nice. Not because they are expecting it, but because it's one of the ways I can express my appreciation.

For some strange reason I'm reminded of the drummer(s) from the 'classic' movie "This is Spinal Tap".

You can find a bunch of them on this thread from the Relative Work forum http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1204269;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Bill