jimmytavino

great story. happened right here in Rochester N. Y.

re: "large amount of real estate to mount stuff on" ........ you mean Like this ??????

no never heard of a panasonic used in freefall.... which by the way,, you may need to wait on...anyway!!!!!!! til your jump numbers increase... that will give you time to save some $$$$$ so you can buy a sony.. .........and if your profile is accurate, til then, concentrate on learning to skydive..... peace........jmy....

interesting airplane.....

no problem i pulled 7 of them off the camera and will mail on thurs. 4-6-06 might take a while to make it's way to you.. lemme know when you get them...It is good to think that at least some small part(s) of this trv 20 will make it back into freefall

I have a trv20 which years ago freefell to the ground when I opened. I searched for it and found it, all smashed up. It hit trees... anyway I still have it and it has more than a dozen of sony's "standard" ( for that era ) phillips head screws.... How many do you need??? jmy

...I'm guessing this statment is made in jest with just a twinge of truth, but fact is.... they aren't getting fleeced..They get a hell of a deal at a real fair price....especially when you include all the camera coverage...and reasonably priced keepsakes like logbooks tee shirts bumper stickers etc... Turbine proliferation really has come as a result of tandem and of the ability to work with many students at a time.. and Turbines are GOOD for everyone!!! When talking about "who supports the plane" however, do NOT discount the importance of the weekend fun jumper... Many people spend thousands and thousands a year on skydives and they are the ones who fill the loads, they are the ones who are there because they love jumping, they are the ones who wait at boarding, for the tandems .. and in the long run contribute consistantly to the revenue stream..Think of just the handful of friends who make 250 or 300 or more jumps a year. Dz's would be hurting in many ways, without them, because unlike staff members ( who DO work and work hard for their $$ or jumps or flight time ) the fun jumper does not draw revenue away from the dz each weekend...and sometimes the fun jumper brings a tandem student !!! skydive softly, skydive often, skydive with friends

thanks to all, for the realistic and straightforward feedback..... I pretty much expected most of the points which were made... The One Jump tandem is a fickle customer and so it does seem sensible to do the best we can for them, the one time they visit a dz...and if that includes making them the star of the show,,, then OK... I only wished that others might agree with me,, that maybe those first timers need to give US a little more ( like the willingness to make TWO jumps) before we treat them like a movie star. Maybe my position is based on having come from a time when video wasn't even a consideration. Hell I had over 1,000 jumps before I ever had even a snapshot of myself in freefall

Once you get a guy to come back, video becomes a harder sell. Reply....NOT if he/she couldn't get a video the first time... then it's an easier sell and THEN you might really catch that persons attention with a terrific T2 and then they will return,, and those people can become the jumpers of tommorow.. *** Sell the video to everyone you can. And the stills. And T-shirts. And whatever else you can. Most of the time it's a one-shot deal with customers. They come, they jump, and you never see them again. Reply.....True... and that is sad and that hurts retention and then we become slaves to the "customers" Quote........As for the ones who stick around, sooner or later you'll pay them back for selling them everything not bolted down. Mayeb a dub of a fun jump video they were on, or help with a pack job to make a load or whatever. reply....yes perhaps

So i have had this thought for a couple of years now and the recent concerns mentioned by B O D members of USPA,,, regarding first jump retention rates, prompts me to ask here. Are we shooting ourselves in the foot ,, by giving (selling) First jump tandem students, a state of the art "mini-documentary" Video of their T1.....?? Is it crazy to suggest that T1s be "training jumps only" with no need for distraction ( i.e. the vidographer). Do people who might otherwise come Back to make more jumps,, just say the hell with it, and watch their video/dvd over and over and over again???.... No need to go to the Dz no need to PAY more $$$, just settle in,, in front of the big screen and re-experience that rush all over again... I think that If we emphasize that video only becomes available on T2s and beyond....those students, who truely mean it when they land and say, " I wanna do it again" !!!! WILL come back and do it again.... THEN they may be rewarded with a first rate video. IF they never come back again after that,,, then at least we have reaped the benefit of Two Tandem payments, instead of One... Yes.... I have heard ALL the arguments about,, "the videos are great advertising", "The videos prompt peoples friends to come and jump" the camera people will be outta work.... etc etc... Still I think that our retention of first timers is very very poor... and this could be one of the reasons....Camera people would still be busy,,,, because People WOULD come back,, if for nothing ELSE but to GET a video.... We must be certain to show them all a tandem video or two as PART of the FIRST JUMP TRAINING CLASS,,,, but then simply remind them.....YOU can't get one on THIS jump... But you CAN on the next jump.......Blackmail???? maybe,, but Dz have hundreds of thousands invested, Instructors have ten of thousands invested and camera people have a few thousands invested, (NOT counting the skydiving gear !!) The student has NOTHING invested and only needs to lay a charge card on the table to walk AWAY

Good Choice of Cameras..... the stock Nikon remote is MC-DC1.... It plugs into the accomodating port on the camera body, and is a very simple, non-processor copper contact switch and shutter release. We sucessfully used trial and error wire connecting, to splice a conceptus tongue switch onto the remote... ( you'll have to cut off the MC DC1 switch pendant and set it aside... ) ( I'd say leave a minimum of one foot of cable on it,, so that it CAN be respliced, for any reason...) from the male Plug of the nikon switch,,,which goes to the camera, you will find 4 conductors and a stranded aluminum casing wire.. the conductors from that wire are red, white, green and black, plus the stranded. from the conceptus mouth trigger you will find,,, red, white and stranded alum. This connection sequence worked for me.. red from nikon ..............not used white from Nikon >>>>>> white from conceptus.... green from Nikon >>>>>> stranded alum from Conceptus black from Nikon >>>>> red from conceptus stranded alum from Nikon........ not used. Take the time to solder each set of the twisted wires and then carefully tape each connection so they can't touch one another. Finally tape off the whole thing . Tuck away any excess wire length Up inside the liner of your helmet.. This set up alllows me to run the camera from S mode A mode, P mode and M mode...

sure... Mr Ed was a Zebra.... and Wilburs hottie of a wife was a Giraffe!!!!! hahahahahaha....

i dunno about people whom i do not know... but when look at my family members around our breakfast table.... I see good.. evidence????..... our children have manners, are considerate, respect others, and understand right from wrong. Evidence??? i have a cancelled check written to uspa, a year or two ago,, not for me... more evidence???? My friend who is a TM invited me on a skydive, ( my # 1 tandem jump, after 3,000 solos) back last summer..

yes almost always

I made a bunch of my early jumps wearing those kind of boots...AND a Bell motorcycle helmet !!! It's cool that your picture shows the boots with 550 cord for laces!!!!!... that's just the way most of them were laced....

about 10,000 feet AGL...

hey don't sweat it man... what the video doesn't show.... is the realistic likelyhood of KINGER....pushing the cameraman, who got the footage !!!!!!! (kiwi? ).... i'm sure he prefers NOT having 8 or 9 Hundred pounds of BEEF hanging that far aft of his 207's wing... for that length of time....and after all it IS Kingers Place.....right????? hahahahah shrug it off the critics don't know you... i thought it was funny..... AND safe..

what should he invent??? he already invented an automatic shutter release for a digital still camera...

hahahahaha... Oh my God.....!! where is this catalonia Place?? I guess i WILL STAY ABOUT A MILLION miles away from it!!!!! But if it works for YOU.... then you go Girl...hahahahaha...

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