Fast

Well you know, about like jumping out of a plane. Really cool. My tandem master was an awesome guy. Took my friend with me (who I warned on thursday that she would be going) and a couple other friends spectated. I'll tell ya though, my dreams did a pretty good job recreating the experience prior to every doing it. The wind was less uncomfortable than that, but everything else was spot on. And I will be jumping again. God knows I want a $1,000 a month raise to devote to doing this Skydiving is an expensive hobby, thats for sure! $180 bucks for your first jump then half your paycheck for the rest of your life.

around $3.10 ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Managed 4 jumps and one ride down with the plane this weekend when the weather cleared up for a bit over the dz. The last one the pilot turned yellow on for the door and we all laughed at him.... We were at 1000' agl... Oh well, that makes for the #3 time that I have landed with a skydiving plane Other than that it rained all weekend and we didn't do a whole lot. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Wow, that is pretty crazy.. Them birds have managed to survive a lot from the time they were layed to becoming chicks. I am supprised the cold air at altitude didn't kill the eggs. Wow ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I can't make up my mind. For reference, I am shooting mostly freefly and tandems. I just can't decide if its worth the significantly larger investment to get the 10-22mm lense. It has a much smaller aperature and that will mean slower lense speeds. It also weighs more, but it is much less of a fisheye. I did a bunch of searching this morning and looked at lots of pictures. For the tandem students, I'm not worried about them in regards to the fisheye, most of them have never seen that type of picture of themselves and will find it cool. I like the idea of a fixed length lens so I am only taping focus down, or maybe even trying auto focus, I don't know. I haven't been shooting stills that long, but I do know I am sick of my kit lens. It is crappy glass and just doesn't take high quality images. I am trying to decide between the sigma 15, canon 15, and canon 10-22. They go up in that price order, the canon 15 costs about $60 more than the sigma... is it worth it? I wonder what the difference in lens quality really is between them. The canon is something like 1.5 oz ligher, but thats not significant. The 10-22 is a few hundred more and I am wondering if anyone can give any compelling reasons why I would want that over one of the 15s. Thanks, ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Generalizations based on jump numbers when it comes to canopy flying tend to be pretty spot on. Even if every jump this guy ever made was a full altitude hop'n'pop, 280 jumps is still only 280 landings. It wouldn't change my opinion that he doesn't have enough time around the sport and in the air to know what the hell he is doing. It took me over 300 jumps, in the course of 1 years time, to even start to understand what was going on with my canopy. That was after already having 300+ jumps worth of skydiving experience. You can't fake experience, you either have it, or you don't. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

WOW Also, Arvel, how is the weight on the 10-22 I am trying to make up my mind between that and the straight 15mm ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I had a PC350 and liked that, replaced it with the PC1000 and LOVE that. great camera a+. There are at least 5 people at my DZ with the PC1000 right now. None of them have had any complaints. If you are doing mostly POV shooting you should look at one of the low profile .3 lenses too. They don't vignette, are light, and take decent video for close FF / RW work. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Good thing its the DZO that doesn't want him to fly that canopy. Let him buy it and waste his money... if it was my DZ I would tell him to go somewhere else. I don't argue with people anymore about canopy size. They are going to do what they want. I will have one good conversation with a person then it comes down to "If your gonna be stupid, you better be tough" In the case of 1.7-1.8wl @ 280 jumps, when your friend fucks up, and he will fuck up, EVERYONE fucks up,... your friend will hurt himself if he is lucky and be killed if he isn't. He might get _really_ lucky and not do either of them two things, but statisticly speaking, thats not likely. Who is anyone on here to say though. If you come to dz.com asking about wingloading your gonna get the response I just gave. This kid might be god's gift to skydiving, but based on the fact that your DZO doesn't want him jumping over 1.5 I don't find that likely. He also need to get some coaching from a pro. Not just the hot shit swooper of the dz, he needs coaching from someone who knows how to teach canopy flight. Al la, Brian Germain, Scott Miller, or take the trek down and jump with some of the PST guys that offer coaching. Its expensive, but he might as well get all he can get out of what he is doing before he ends up in the hospital. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

ok maybe not hot swoop pics, but after all the suggestions from people on the XF2 riser technique... I have to say, I love my new canopy... ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

The pilot, safire2, and saber2 all dive just fine if you learn the right technique. You can swoop any canopy. That said, they all have a more positive recovery arc and that is probally a good thing for someone who is learning but it will make keeping the risers down a bit harder. I have 300 jumps on saber2s, 300 on saber 1s, and a good 30ish on my new crossfire 2 and imo, there is a significant difference between the saber style canopies and the xf2 when it comes to turns. Have a much higher chance of oversteer on the xf2 and it just turns a whole lot faster. Its not a bad canopy, in fact, its a great one! Just don't know it its quite what the poster is looking for. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I thought it was bad form to try to dig on rears, due in part to the much greater chance of inducing a high speed stall. Thought the recomended practice on diging out from a low hook was to abandon the rears (since they are just for getting longer swoops) and use the toggles. Clarity: I am not talking about the basic coaxing you have to do on a canopy like a velocity to get it out of a dive, I am talking, "oh shit im gonna pound in,..!! pull up!!!" type of digging out. If there is anyone that could enlighten me on this topic it would be great. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

oh, i am also more bored than i could possibly be. I don't know what to do and im sick of sitting at work. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

thread necromancy!!! Anyways, its appropriate. I feel dead with the crap that has been going on all week. I am not going to get to jump this weekend. It is total bullshit. Its friday and normally by now im ready to leave work and race out to the dz for some friday afternoon jumps... Not today In fact, NOT ALL WEEKEND THIS SUCKS>>>>>>>

saw that on another site the other day, hillarious ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Not a bad DZ to jump at ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I got sick of _having_ to drink a can of moutain dew to stay awake. I just toughed it out and quit drinking anything with caffeine in it. The only time I break down is at the bar on the weekend if I am getting tired and want to stay out longer. I do feel it the next couple of days too. Other than that, I feel much better now that I don't need it to make it through the day. The headaches did suck when I was getting off it though. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I still like it to just give people a taste of what it's like to get vertical. I prefer equal drag top and bottom personally but some people just need a little more help to start. I agree it builds dependance on arms, which is bad, and a problem I still struggle with, to a limited extent, in the tunnel. I don't have the problem in the sky though. Probably since my freefly suit has less drag than the tunnel suits I wear normally. The problem is when you give a person the taste of this, then they get stuck with bad habbits right off from the start. There is no good reason to want bad habbits. Screw getting a taste, learn it right from the start so you don't waste time and money fixing problems from doing it wrong for so long. It might help a person get upright, it wont help them learn to sitfly (feetfly) so they will know how to do it and have all the bad habbits. I know this cause I did it and am STILL trying to fix problems with my sit from learning in shorts and a long sleave shirt. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I can't decide what I would do... I know that I would miss many things that I take for granted right now..... ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Naked or boxers depends on my mood when I fall asleep. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

What shower pic? Walt Clicky! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

That shower pic made this thread worth clicking on!

I think some people miss the power plug that is located on the lower left of the back of the camera... I know it took me awhile to find it. I finally ordered a second battery and charger though... sick of runing out mid day. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

The color on the A1 does look much nicer. I would love to see the 60sec clip of both compressed as windows media hd if you can and posted to skydiving movies... if not there has to be another HD format that isn't outrageous for a 60s clip. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

hah, yeah... Brian is a pretty cool guy just in general too! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka