Fast

That sucks, hope your feeling better. :10?:1 I don't keep good enough track of how many jumps I make.. I need to work on that. Beer owed and paid for my first jump working as a videot. ~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 am close to 50 for this month. I bought a 50 jump package which has only like 14 jumps left on it and I have done a bunch of hop'n'pops and work jumps that don't count towards that. We have this stupid top 10 year-to-date list printed off at the dz that people like to be on for one reason or another... ~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 would say there is more stuff there that is borderline porn / full porn than I would say there is art. Though, some of them shots would qualify as art. Seems the photographer is going for quantity over quality. ~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

Thoughts: Test jump a voodoo. Then go and test jump a vector and a javelin and anything else you might be interseted in buying. Any modern rig is going to be acceptable for freeflying. Most of the choice in what rig to buy has to do with comfort, what other jumpers on the DZ have, and minor differences in features. If you ask someone what rig is the best they are going to tell you the rig that they fly. I will spare you my vector preaching. Bottom line is, try some rigs out, have someone explain the positives and negatives of each design to you (a rigger not a salesman) and go from there. ~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

Talk to your instructors on your dz. They are fully qualified to answer this question for you. ~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 first morning I woke up in rantoul (haven't been around long enough for quincy) and hear the song playing over the grounds was touching. I don't know what it was, all I know is that I was barely a skydiver and it felt fucking cool to be a part of something so different. The sound of the king air taking off for the first load,... etc. It is an experience that I wont easily forget. ~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's not how I look back on the PD300 I trained on. I had a long history of bruises on my shoulders near the biceps, on the legs, and my ribs felt a bit tender. Instant openings. First time I went elsewhere and had a fusion (270, I think) and Falcon 265s, they opened so slowly in comparison I started thinking about malfuctions. These days, I hear lots of people suspicious of triathlons for opening characteristics and despite my packing, the only rough openers were when I dipped a shoulder. (or blame boogie packers). The video guy from my 4-way team last year jumped a tri that slamed him almost every jump. It was clearly visible in the video that he was getting whacked. I bet the lines had gone bad. Its harder to be going slower than somone in a camera suit. ~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

haha That is amusing. We have already had 2 marriage proposals happen at the DZ this year. There were like 4 last year. crazy wuffos. ~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

Can't leave the pump where I live. It pisses the gas station people off a lot. Don't know if there is a law against it, but you have to "attend" to the pump, even with the automatic fill lever. ~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

pahleeezzz....don't even try it. 1000 freefly jumps = about 250 flatfly jumps 1000 flatfly jumps = 0 freefly jumps There is video evidence. Though I don't have a copy. 4 people on the skydive could belly fly, 6 people could sitfly. The two freefliers who couldn't belly fly at all screwed it up :P ~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

You're in florida... Which dropzone do you jump at? If you had that info in your profile I am sure that someone here would be from that dropzone or know people there and could give you some idea of why. Even better yet, ask more questions at the dropzone, hell go to the dropzone and ask to jump. Your in florida, if your having problems with a dropzone go to a different one they are all over the place. ~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 cracked me up was last weekend the plan was to exit a 4-way belly base, tack on 2 more to make it a 6-way and then transition it to a sit round. For fun. Also, it would have been fun... Except 2 of the people on the load can't fly on thier belly at all and floped around the sky like wet noodles. Now that is fun(ny). Everyone gets a great laugh when we are showing video at the end of the night. Too bad they skipped right into freefly and never learned the basics. Ah well, some day! I am only replying to this thread to satisfy a billowing demand to argue. I know your trolling so its all in good fun right? Would love to see if you could catch me on my belly! Freeflying is about all axis right? ~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 basic things that you need to know about this. There are at least 4 different ways that you can accomplish this. I will point out the two that I find work best. Working with audio on the same audio track: If you have to videos that have audio on audio track 1 and you are butting them up against eachother and want to crossfade you need to have "post-roll" and "pre-roll" (these aren't the right terms but they are get the idea across, i can't think of what it is really called) to use the crossfade transitions. Basically, what this means is. When you are doing an edit if the start of the video in your sequence is the start of the video file there is nothing to use for the crossfade time. The reason is because of the way video and audio transitions work so that they can preserve time continuity. Here is a quick diagram explaining that. * is footage that is being used, and X is footage that exists in the file but is not being used in the edit. | Is a break from one file to the next. Crossfade works: ********XXXXX|XXXXX************** Crossfade doens't work: ********|************ Basically you have to have some time at the end of and before the start of a file if you want to do a direct crossfade inline on one track. Audio on different tracks, or really anywhere: If you are working with an audio track in a sequence while you have that track selected you should bring up the edit effects window. This is just to the left of the main display in most versions of premier. If you have an audio track selected you should see a place where it says volume. You can expand that to see a decible level. Near the beginging of that line you should see a button that turns off and on keyframes. A keyframe is a point in time that signifys a change. What you are talking about, "breaking up the file" to make the audio transition from loud to soft is simplified by using keyframes. You need to make sure that they are turned on. Then, you go to where you would like the audio to start changing volume and insert a keyframe. You then go to the point in your sequence where you would like the audio to stop changing. Insert a keyframe at this point and then change the volume to be the desired "new" volume. This smooths and automates the level change. There are faster ways to get at this in some versions of premier but this is the easiest to explain without me just showing you. Lemme know if you can't get it still. To do any of this you should not have to unlink the audio and video. You can change what track an audio and video part of a file is on w/o unlinking them. (At least you can in Premier pro 2, i think you can do that in a few other versions 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

Your A, in the US, means that you can jump with other skydivers. You can do solo jumps. Mostly it means you are the only person who technically has to look out for you. I am sure there are other jumpers around who will look after you some because thats how cool this sport is. It should mean that you are proficent enough to go make a skydive and know what to do. How to check your gear to be safe, how to spot, how to handle problems. Think about the things they made you do to get your A and what that means you now know how to do. I started jumping with new and different people when I got my A. I kept the groups small and the goals targeted. Set some goals, decide what you want to get good at and seek out some people who are willing to jump with you and help you get good at them. gear wise, well that depends on your DZ. I am guessing you have to pay to rent gear. That cuts into money that you could use to jump or buy your own gear. I think its important to get gear as soon as you can afford to do so and keep jumping (once you get an A). Every dollar you spend renting is a dollar that you can't spend on your own gear. ~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

Hell yeah!!! I don't mind landing off. I think its fun. I don't get to do it that often though. My first off landing was my 13th jump my last was just this past weekend. I chased someones main and flew all around it to get a good vector before I landed in a small field. I wouldn't mind getting into demo jumping either. Better start working on a pro-rating huh? ~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

Watching that video it appears that the person robing the cashier either fired a gun or threw something at the people behind the counter. If you watch the left side of the video you can see some dust/debris fly off the wall. ~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 we got past the time of people talking shit like this? I mean really grow up some. I can bust hot points in 4-way, dock on a big way, sitfly, and I am learning head down. What does that make me? p.s. Yeah I am only 23. ~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 saw the same video and didn't like the use of a seatbelt right next to the open door. I think the risk of a PC out the door outweighs the risk of the student falling out. I wouldn't have had the seatbelt on if it was a coached student that I was in charge of. ~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 think it sucks that you have to pay to get someone to watch you. You aren't limited to just one person though. If you ask around there must be someone at your DZ willing to help you out. If there isn't it doesn't sound like that cool of a dropzone to be a part of. Taking a canopy course would also get you on the right track! If you are in the US there are lots of dropzones that hold them throughout the country every year or you can make the pligramige down to florida and take one there. While I might not have addressed your specific questions in my first post, I hope I gave you some good advice. There are lots of reasons to want to use front risers and I think people should understand what they do, how they can get them out of and into trouble, and how to be safe while using them. That just isn't really something you can teach over the internet. ~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 am a maybe. I would like to go again, depends on work and if I can get a group of people interested in going down there this year. ~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

Why do you want to pull on the front risers for landing? Do you want to learn to swoop? Trying to get down faster? Just feels cool? What is your longer term goal other than the next jump? My suggestion to you is to seek out someone on your DZ who is a respected and safe swooper. Ask them about you flying your canopy the way you are asking us. Tell them why it is you want to use front risers on landing and learn from that person about this question. In the hands of a skilled pilot (which at this point you are not) it would not be a major risk. However, you need to learn some basic things about what you are doing and get some advice from someone who knows you if you want to learn to swoop. If you ignore that advice and just go nuts and do whatever you want, you might be fine, but you run a higher risk of hurting yourself. Some people would say there are risks to trying to swoop on lightly loaded canopys. One of the major risks is a very short recovery arc. You need to seek out local mentoring if you want to learn to swoop. Let me rephrase that.... Seek out local mentoring if you want to learn to swoop Edit: p.s. A more complete profile might garner you more responses. ~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

This gives me something to think about,.. I guess I never thought that it might be damaging the rig. My rig hangs in the video room at my DZ. Same with pretty much all the other videot's rigs. No one has had a problem yet 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

What I learned in the tunnel is that you can side slide many different ways. I was overamping my slides and it was causing me to make way to large of moves. The coach i was with stopped me and made me do side slides with just my hands. I never knew you could move so much just by turning your hands one way or the other. I don't think it would work so great in the air but in the tunnel it proved a point. Anyways, I teach students how to slide by telling them to push away from the direction they want to go with thier arm and leg. Thats not a great way to do it if you want to do 4-way or close fast flying though. Thats just to get the idea. Another way to side slide is using both your legs. If you want to slide to the right you can drop your right knee and extend your left leg. To the left, drop your left knee and extend your right leg. This is good if you want to keep your arms free for taking grips giving hand signals, whatever. For some reason in my mind it seems like it would make you move forward, but that doesn't seem to be the case as I proved to myself in the tunnel. Maybe I compensated with my arms a little, I don't know. You can also practice half moves and work up to the slides. If you are flying mantis start by working with just your upper half. It helps to have someone to reference but you don't have to have that. Use your arms only to rock your body back and forth. You will be turning with the pivot point on your legs if you do this right. It is half of a center point turn. (Can you do centerpoint turns yet?) Once you can rock back and forth smoothly add your legs into the mix. Right Sidesliding is using a right turn position on your upper body and a left turn position on your lowerbody. Think about what you would be doing if you were doing a centerpoint turn and adjust that for slides and practice on the ground. You want the air to be spilling off you on all parts of your body towards the side you are going away from. There are lots of ways to do it you just have to find the right one for you. ~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

You should talk to your rigger. Don't have one? Find out from people at your dropzone who you should have your rigging done by. They can tell you the largest size of reserve that will fit in your container. Beyond that, ask yourself this... If you have a malfunction, cutaway, and are flying on your reserve, probally lower and farther from the airport than you want to be, is that the best time to be jumping the smallest, fastest canopy you have ever flown? You don't know anything about how it flys and its more aggresive than your main. What if you cut away at your decision altitude then have to land off field? Do you want that to be the first time you have ever flown a canopy that small? Sounds like a bad idea to me. ~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

Awesome - that means I am accomplishing what I set out to do. [Bartles and James Voice] Thank you for your support[/B&J] I messed up the reference. I was meaning to talk to jimmy. ~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