jimmytavino

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... not very bad,, but certainly very stupid... It was late at nite the cops car was sitting parked at a convenience store... my buddy was driving and he said nothing, but I rolled down my window as we parked next to the squad car,, to ask,,,, "Hey are there any all night liquor stores around here??? " " we just polished off our second bottle of Jack D and wanna get a replacement..." ..... Like i said,, I wasn't driving but i was "flyin" ... the cop????? NO sense of humor whatsoever....

good deal j-farmer..... We were following the local news which covered the visit and speech at a local High School... My children and I saw on the TV that Air Force One was about to take off... so I went and opened a window and told my kids,,,, "we should be able to HEAR that plane shortly after it clears the runway".. hahahah the kids laughed at me and replied,,,"Dad that airport is 15 miles away,,,, to our south..and west.."... I said,, ' yes but the wind is outta the North east, so they will take off heading right at us.... " Sure enough 10 or 15 seconds after the TV showed the plane rotating,, we COULD hear it... Though the ceiling was low,,, so we couldn't see it...but the ROAR was unmistakable.... THEN I did hear what sounded like fighter jets, ( I HAVE seen the Blue angels once or twice,,, so I remembered what THEY sound like.).. and then the noise faded away as the Big Boeing turned south and headed away...cool... ..never did SEE it though.. ...... The evening before..... I WAS driving past the airport on a local expressway... and I saw a 4 engine C -17 sitting on the ramp..... I guessed correctly that this aircraft was likely carrying the entire presidential motorcade which would be used on tuesday to run the Pres.. from the airport tarmac to the School Auditorium, and back.... 2 big limos,,, a number of support vehicles, and yes.. there were choppers in the air leading the motorcade up the highway today.... A couple of protesters were arrested at the speech site,,,and the event was BIG news for a city like Rochester.... minute by minute news coverage,,, lots of chatter about it in the paper and on Tv... He flew in at 10:30 A M made his speech... and blew outta here at 12: 35........ Nice aircraft..... only I bet they'd NEVER let anybody skydive out of it !!!

Veruca........."Don't Care HOW !!!!! I want it NOW" !!!!! "Daddddddy !!! I want an Oompah Loompah "

...is there any chance it might fit in a bowling ball bag...??? seriously...

I saw it... NBC TOday Show the gentleman was there Live, talking with Matt Lauer and seemed pretty sharp... The footage however , while of a fine technical quality, showed the poor "poised exit" during his static line jump. Not good P R for the sport... The solo landing, again was very very well documented by the camera crew... Only he landed HARD,, in a cluster of brush... after footage shows him flying past roads!!! and power lines!!!! and trees!!!!... man....they were DAMN lucky.. he walked away from that touchdown.......!!! but again... It DID look scary... and when done RIGHT !! skydiving is NOT scarey..... so yes the national tv audience saw a rather poor demonstration... The footage which aired,,, was aired,,, because someone sent it to the Media... ( I had seen something of this,, a few weeks ago on cable news.) I agree about the 182... poor choice.. I suppose the idea was that the man was making a SOLO jump...( worlds OLDEST ) But why Not an AFF Level 1 ???.. anyway they must have used the Caravan ( which was used for the Guy's Tandem Jump ) as a camera platform for the Cessna exit.... Heck I remember climbing out on the step of a 182... ( sooo many people in our sport today,, Never HAD that experience,,,) and it ain't easy......especially the first time you do it.... and especially if the jump pilot is maintaining airspeed to fly relative with the chase/ camera plane......... The 92 year old "student" came away looking real good, in spite of his performance, a But at the expense of the sports' image.... ( Though I guess the footage could also be interpretted as " you too can screw up THIS MUCH,, and still get away with it..." !!! )

Line twists... attached. These cleared. I had pulled above 4,500, ( we were long..... on an AFF jump which I was videoing ) It took a loooong time to clear though.. . ALTITUDE consideration is a MUST....as you determine whether to clear line twists, or cutaway the main.. The relative aggressiveness or docility of your main is also a very important factor... some mains may clear themselves and some ( highly loaded elliptical for example ) may get worse..... ask your instructors I bet they have pictures of a number of types of possible mals.

.... whoa... NOW there is a real High adventure sport... Better get a kevlar vest. and some Goooood medical insurance. !!! Just remember,, Getting On a Bull and RIDING it ( 8 seconds. ) are two ENTIRELY different things.... and Oh Yeah.... watch out for the part when you WILL get thrown off... and then I think THAT'S where the BULL starts riding YOU.!!!! rock on brother... only try not to get your neck broken.... And DON"T let that bad boy, " Horn In on your Business"...

sure thing... only I got to thinking and if the "community" video station is set up with cable which has only the 'one pin jack' then these couplers won't be compatible.... So instead get an older AV cable , preferably a SIX footer,,,, and run it around behind your monitor or recorders and plug it in...Then put the couplers at the other end,,, ( out where they are accessible ) and they will mate with anyone's cables... I'm looking at this like a person arrives with their own camera AND outgoing cable right ????? most all of which have RCA jacks to feed into a screen.,,Only now they just plug into the couplers.... IF you'd rather feed video via S connector jacks. then you'd have to figure that out... but for quick viewing and de-briefs at a station where NO ONE should be yanking cables or making " adjustments ".. this sort of video/cable set up might work...

that was MY situation, exactly....Static Line It was college time.. money was tight, there were other expenses.. My 1st jump static line course including EVERYthing was 50 bucks,,,, then 10 $$ for the next 4 sl's.. all with T -10s or 28' cheapos. I did a freefall ( 3 second delay ) on my jump # 6,,, and from that jump on..... Yes... Most places have gotten away from staitic line, and probably just as well... as the gear and curriculum have improved, so should the training techniques.... Still my first love will always be the parachuting part... and that's about all you get from static line Static Line works ok for military troop insertion, but has gone the way of the chest mounted reserve and the round main, in terms of state of the art skydiving.... Still I would NOT have traded those times and all the changes which I've experienced in this sport ,, for anything. I truly can feel that I'm a part of it's history,,,, and it's history is a part of me.

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I agree with Horseshoe..... and would like to elaborate,,, that you can have two kinds of horseshoe One where the canopy gets outta the bag,,,, and one where the bag gets outta your container,, but two or more locking stows fail to extract....and so the canopy does NOT get out of the bag... ... Remember .. if the pilot chute is trapped or snagged... there may not enough drag above you to open the bag... Then you're horseshoed,,,and Locked.., and you're going FAST.... a loooong time ago I had just that,,, on a rig which had a hand deploy on the bellyband.. I threw out my pilot chute,, and was immediately put head down and feet down.... ( hung from my waist) and was spinning.... I had inadvertantly twisted the bellyband harness while donning my rig... and failed to notice it before we exited.... The bridle pulled sheer, through the harness and popped the pin and so my main d bag got out....... Only not alll the lines stows released....so i was locked... Whoa..... I took a quick look at the ground and saw I was right over the pea gravel.... Only it was about the size I was used to seeing as I was setting up my accuracy final...... I resisted the urge to pull my reserve ripcord while I was spinning and arched real hard.... I got square in the air,, and I FELT the main D Bag come down and hit me on the back of my thighs....... THEN.. I thought,, "we should have clear air, above us right NOW!!!!".. and fired my reserve....I was using a piggyback rig, with the reserve on my shoulders.. This was pre- cypres,,, pre ram air reserves and pre- reserve ripcord D handles,,,, I had an old style "blast handle". which I blasted.!!! The 26 foot Strong Lopo opened clean around 600 feet... and I stood it up near the peas.......I was damn lucky..... And so friends,,,,, I call tell you from experience... Horseshoe/Bag Lock... is BAD news......... Fortunately gear improvements have reduced the likelihood of such events....

...since this question is about #'s needed for flying Camera,, and Not for earning a TM rating, I can speak to the issue.. More jumps than you think...... I began flying cameras 10 years ago when i had 1,700 jumps..... Fact is I was sorta losing my enthusiasm for jumping and thought i would start recording some of my fun jumps...I got into tandem video because the demand was there, and the place i jumped at only had only one other video guy.... ( and HE was being 'run ragged' ) He asked me if I would step up and help out and so I did... ( then we BOTH, got 'run ragged", and got UNappreciated, and got dissed when we wanted to make a fun jump, and so got fed up with the DZO) ( at least I did) ..... The key is NOT the # of jumps,,, so much as the jumpers abilities, experience level, comfort in the air, and willingness to be AT the DZ ALL the time.... Minimum I would say ought to be 500 jumps..... 500 FLAT FLY,, relative work jumps... While I do recognize that there are many many freeflyers who are multi-capable and can shoot video in a variety of body positions,,, I'm more old school, and think that a flat flying camera person, is what most TM's are comfortable with... ( You TM's out there,,,,,, please correct me, if the previous statement is inaccurate. ) The idea is to have the skydiving part be second nature,, before adding the complication of wearing and properly operating one two or three cameras...... I also feel that a jumpers choice of Main canopy is an important consideration... Sure Sure... we all think we can handle ANYthing,,, But until we are faced with it... we really don't know. Handling a problem on a highly loaded elliptical as you're coasting through 2 grand, can not only be challenging,, but can also be caused or complicated by a camera helmet with all the accompanying items which are attached to it.... As for Tandem requirements... Listen to the guys and Girls who do THAT.....THEY are the real heros,,, we just go along to document the event...

Whoa!!! Hey Jim that's a nasty injury.. any deeper,,, and i'd hate to think what would have happened... What are the details on the driver and if there were any other occupants in this careless persons car...???? Did that driver stop and offer assistance???.... Damn...I hope that your son is doing OK...... ( and you were thinking that living in or near NEWARK,, New Jersey??? would have be scarey???) forget that!!..you better watch out for suburbanites with their own agenda.... And thanks for the heads up for all of US,, to be careful of bicyclists, pedestrians motorcyclists and animals,,,, since as we all know,,,, It's more dangerous on our roads, than it is in the air. jmy

I agree with those who say this is a bit much... Sure thing he/she can charge for stills,, but NOT the slot...Speaking as a camera Man who put the "free" in freelance..... I think he over did it... What little I EARN shooting Tandems and AFF, goes towards covering cameras tapes, printing supplies etc.... However,, ( and i KNOW this is a mistake), I often share pictures with my friends and skydiving pals..... That is... at the end of a day,, if I got a particularly nice shot of a TM or of a fun jump 12 way,, or of an intermediate jumper who I know has NO freefall photos,,,,I'll stroll around the DZ while beers are being cracked open,, and I'll GIVE pictures to people of MY choice... The smiles and the gratitude I receive in return,, makes it worth it .. to me... Then... I am often touched to find that packages of Photo Paper and packages of Ink Cartridges, and yes sometimes even CASH, seems to turn up at my video editing station..all by itself...