flyingferret

With all the buzz these days about extreme sports everyone is trying it

I am posting this in the freefly forum as well as the photography forum. But in general I am asking the freefliers, because we are kinda a little subset of camera fliers. I know the general idea os side vs. top has been discussed here a lot, but I am interested in actual events. I have already have a side mount and want to minimize any problems. You hear a lot of advice for a top mount camera for safety. However, to my knowledge (it could be incomplete) all the incidents that occured last year where with professionals flying top mounted cameras. So, I am wondering where are all the bad reports from the thousands of freefliers wearing side mount cameras? I just put together a Batrak with a side mounted PC, and I will be adding still cameras to the top later. So, I wanted to ask: Who has ever had any problems with side mounts? If so, to what degree? Equally important, how did you safeguard your gear from future problems? thanks Malachi

I am posting this in the freefly forum as well as the photography forum. But in general I am asking the freefliers, because we are kinda a little subset of camera fliers. You hear a lot of advice for a top mount camera for safety. However, to my knowledge (it could be incomplete) all the incidents that occured last year where with professionals flying top mounted cameras. So, I am wondering where are all the bad reports from the thousands of freefliers wearing side mount cameras? I just put together a Batrak with a side mounted PC, and I will be adding still cameras to the top later. So, I wanted to ask: Who has ever had any problems with side mounts? If so, to what degree? Equally important, how did you safeguard your gear from future problems? thanks Malachi

Excellent explanation. Here is a handy link: http://javascript.internet.com/calculators/field-depth.html --- very sweet calculator for depth of field I tried to find I nice little page explaining how the 'f-number' is an expression of a ratio between aperture and local length. It is not too intense math and once you see it, it makes a lot of sense. But I could not find any good links quickly. Anyway, I highly recommend experimenting with aperture. I have not done it in freefall as I am shooting video only, although actually, those AE program settings alter aperture and shutter speed on a digital camcorder. But in aperture control is still one of the things that I find truly amazing about photography...the beauty of how it all works together. Working with macro tubes I have created some awesome shots with of depth of field maybe 1/4 or 1/2" Very neat stuff to play with. Malachi

A lot! I cannot think of the formula. Look up info on combinations and/or permutations. I am not certain, but the 80*79*etc posted early is on the write track, but I think there is a much easier way to write it using combination notation. I can guarnatee you that 5 is not the correct answer. malachi

Well, I agree with you here, like you tought I wouldn't. But at least it won for make-up, music, etc. Oh well, good films speak for themselves. From what I have heard, the whole ceremony was so 'black' it was amazing (don't get me started on this one) I do think Peter Jackson should have won Best Director. BUT...remember this....we have two more movies to go!!! And you have to understand a bit of it on the first. Some of their own hype bit them in the ass. Too much perception ruled it as a kids movies. Hell you, had it in Burger King. The Academy goes for 'deep' thinking flicks. They just don't have any idea how deep LOTR is....YET. Look at it this way, at least we did not get beat out by Pearl Harbor or Harry Potter. Malachi

Yep, welcome to video. I did some projects my senior year in school that were huge. I was shooting with a Canon XL-1 [drool] and the quality was awesome. But I had to put this videos in a multimedia presentation, and some were even hidden features (one of which was a recreation of the printer-beating in Office Space

Zenmeister, Look here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forums/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=forumphoto&Number=107041&Search=true&Forum=forumphoto&Words=mv&Match=Entire Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=107041 Bottom line, Bad JuJu, for skydivers anyway Malachi

Yeah, I was kinda thinking it was for riding. It could probably be adapted. Now if it is a good idea? not sure. Dave, call Bonehead, you will probably get Jeanie. I just talked with her on my batrak and d-box. Very very helpful. She is the one that came up with the idea of using a 110 d-box for a pc-1. Malachi

Any idea what issue? I would buy it if it was that good.

Well, that is my second option. But firefly needs to update their website. They have almost no info on the seperates, and what they do have is all text. It is very hard to decide on jumpsuits without graphical info. Malachi

Well I am built pretty thick. 5' 11" and about 180 or 190lbs. Since I already have a baggy polycotton bev suit, I thought if I could modifiy that it would save me some money. I had also thought about the camera jackets. But I am not sure about holding the bottom of the wings in place, and all the manufacturers I have tried, have next to no info on them in their website. Malachi

Okay, I emailed Babylon. No help: Hi there, Sorry but we dont have any doc for you. But there is many people building tubes in the US now... Ask the boys in eloy or perris, the might have something. Or maybe if you come to Spain we´ll show you all! Sorry... Stéphane So I guess I will try Flyboyz next. Malachi

Yeah, I am interested in seeing this. I have always packed my bridle inside, and always heard there is no 'right' way to pack a PC. malachi

Sweet....I have a baggy freefly suit. I am goona try adding swoop cords because the arms are pretty baggy already. Maybe that will give me the best of both worlds. malachi

I am looking for advice on tube jumps. And, yes, I have done a search, and yes, i have read all the post on the subject. I am thinking about making a tube jump in the future, but I want to really research it first. I would like really experienced advice. So I have a few questions. a) No offense, but based on the previous posts it looks like nobody here has a lot of tube experience. Do anyone know who to contact or read up on to find a really experience perspective? b) My thinking is that foot-tubes, given a release system is used, would be the most stable. c) I am uncertain about deploying with them. If you did choose not to keep them at deployment, what kind of risks are we talking about with the falling object? My dz is not exactly urban, but there are a few schools and farms around. I don't want to let anything go unless I can perdict how it will land. How fast do they typically fall? How much drift? etc Thanks, any advice is appreciated.

Then what are they jumping right now?

Alright here is my advice. Also be warned I have not read all the posts, just dont have to keep up with every thread these days. Advice follows: A) Be yourself....I cannot stress this enough!! Granted I am only a few months out of school, but I am absolutely convinced of these. Be honest and be confident. Everyone is so worried about what I should say or write. If the ask you something you are not sure about, tell them that. I promise that is better than having to admit it when you are supposed to be maintaining. B) In conjunction to the above point, make your resume a picture of you. There is no right resume template. That idea started from the succes of the people that were making their resumes represent themselves. You want your resume to grab attention, but in a clean, classy way. You hear one page, two page, one font, more fonts, blah, blah. DO what is required to communicate an interesting picture of who you are. I felt my resume needed mutltiple fonts to visual seperate information, so I used them. C) For the position you are interviewing for, this might be too late, but always shoot high, once you admit that first figure they will base from there. Also, do research on the job. Everyone here is saying 30K-40K, but a lot of the depends on the size of the company, etc. The market is tight right now, and especially going to school (assuming part-time job) I dont see you getting 30K. If so, more power to you, but do research and dont be afraid to ask for what you need. Malachi

Dave, This one ring a bell: "Have you ever started a fire in an unconventional place?"

Drew, Let me know how you like it, I have been looking at the seperates combination available from firefly, what did you get? Malachi

Whoohoooo....I just ordered a BatRak from http://www.tso-d.com Check them out...$380 on a Batrak. Plus, for anyone who can benefit from this: I have spent about 2 weeks looking for the perfect mounting solution for a PC-1 on a Batrak. Well, the d-boxes are no longer made, even though there are quite a few PC-1s out there. Anyway, after talking with Bonehead, I found that the PC-110 box will fit a PC-1. It is a little looser, but allows for the big battery and also protection for the wide angle mount. This helped my situation a lot, maybe it will help someone else too. Malachi

I think he must think it was a freefly forum, surely that must be a mistake? Malachi

Yeah well I am not crazy about it either, but Dave is the man, he tired to pull us into a hybrid with him in a stand. It did not quite work, but still he was hauling ass. Malachi

Only Jeff I know is a TM named Jeff Hughes. Not sure of his backgrond. But I think it would be okay to post a last name. There is really not a lot of trouble you can get into just having a first and last name, otherwise phonebooks would be freaking dangerous. Malachi

Hey Slappie, I agree with you. I cannot see it from the polution standpoint, although from safety, that makes more sense. Get ready for it, because I think there are already some preliminary studies that say fatalies are up since the increase in speed limit. In my opinion, the need to get rid of stupid ass drivers. And as much as I like Texas, we have a LOT of them. Some people can drive way above the speed limit, others can hardly drive 45 safely. That is problem, stupid people. I feel very comfortable handling my car at 90 or 100. But that requires visual scanning, alertness, etc. And you can never predict that one asshole that over reacts and does something stupid. That is why they lower the speed limits, if everyone goes slower there is more reaction time. At least in theory, but then people get impatient and just ride closer. So, yeah it is pretty f*cked. Other places are better, I was pretty impressed with the driving in both Cali, and Illinois. California everyone gets on the highway, it is anarchy for about 30 seconds, and then everything is screaming. 80 or 90 seems to be standard. Plus they have all kinds of rules, cops cannot run radar while moving, they cannot run radar without posted signs, they have to do studies for months on the topology of a location before they can depend upon radar readings from that sight, motorcycles are allowe to go between lanes, if the traffic is standing still. So, cool stuff, but a lot of other uncool stuf in Cali, so you take what you can I guess. But anyway, all that rambling if from a safety standpoint, as for lowering it because of pollution, not sure I buy that. Malachi