pilotdave

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Everything posted by pilotdave

  1. pilotdave
    Howard White got his D last year with 8000+ jumps and 78 years in the sport (that's an approximation). Bout time. Dave
  2. pilotdave
    Absolutely not. It's his choice if he won't pack a reflex, and it's your choice if you want to change riggers or get rid of the rig. But there's no particular reason why you shouldn't jump it. I still use a reflex as my backup rig. I've had 1 rigger refuse to pack it, but that was right after fliteline went out of business and support wasn't clear. No problems since... except one rigger that forced me to remove the catapult or else she wouldn't pack it. Dave
  3. pilotdave
    Need to use firewire to transfer the video. Dave
  4. pilotdave
    From a couple weekends ago... A 2-point 9-way CRW diamond over Jumptown, Orange, MA. Dave
  5. pilotdave
    Here's a lucky shot. Well... 8 lucky shots. Dave
  6. pilotdave
    They feel something like this... Dave
  7. pilotdave
    I agree! You're starting to make sense. I hope skyride gets shut down and the owners go to prison. But if they had just chosen to operate skyride without deception, theft, lies, extreme prices, and asinine fees, they'd be brazilionaires by now because it's a great idea. You should hope that when skyride does go down, the DZs don't go with it. Unfortunately, they're the same company so that probably won't happen. Dave
  8. pilotdave
    Start with a video-only setup once you have at least 200 jumps. Make at least 100 video-only jumps before you add a still camera. Take the time between now and then to do some searching on here and research on cameras. You can quickly find out that the D40 is not jumpable since it doesn't have a remote shutter release port. The plugs aren't standard across DSLRs. They aren't even standard within manufacturers. Canon Digital Rebel cameras are probably the best suited for jumping because they're small, light, and switches are readily available. Dave
  9. pilotdave
    You're suggesting the owners of your DZ make less money when someone books through skyride for a higher price than when they book directly through the DZ? That's ridiculous. That's how it works for most dropzones. That's not how it works when skyride owns the dropzone though! Sure, less money actually comes into the DZ, but the DZO's profits are higher. That was the entire original point of skyride... to funnel extra business into their own dropzones at higher prices by using deception and lies to confuse customers. Why would a skyride DZ waste money on their own advertising when their crooked big brother is going to funnel as much business to them as possible? Dave
  10. pilotdave
    Sounds like a clique to me. It's your choice to exclude people that you don't know or whatever. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that. But don't be offended when someone calls your DZ "cliquey" or whatever. Not to say most DZs (or most people) are like that too. Dave
  11. pilotdave
    Only about 13,000 more jumps for me till I can do that. Here's my attempt (unknowlingly) at 1/40th. Sports mode gone bad a couple years ago... Course I was orbiting on purpose. Some of the pics came out kind of cool. Dave
  12. pilotdave
    Don't know the answer, but it probably came from here: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=257 Here's another while we're at it: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1732 Dave
  13. pilotdave
    Depends on too many factors. Toggle pressure to flare after a straight in approach is one thing, but what about flaring after a low turn that picked up a bunch of speed? I don't think you'll be able to find one magic number. Start big, work down slowly. Dave
  14. pilotdave
    I completely agree. Even if you go digital in 100 jumps, that analog in your gearbag will get plenty of use over the years as a backup. Just watch the velcro... I'd still be using my first altimaster 3 if it didn't fall off my hand in freefall a few years ago due to worn velcro. But the glow-in-the-dark galaxy I replaced it with has made night jumps much more enjoyable. No more digital altimeters at night for me... had the back lights fail (due to low batteries... my fault) on night RW jumps twice. Night jumps with no altimeter suck. Especially when your partner can't read her altimeter either. Dave
  15. pilotdave
    I wouldn't recommend Tv mode with manual focus. You need a fixed aperture or else your depth of field will be changing throughout the jump as lighting conditions change. You can't guarantee your shots will be in focus that way. I don't think that's the problem in this particular case, but it'll probably get you at some point. Switch to Av or M if you want manual focus. But auto focus works great if you want to give that a shot. Dave
  16. pilotdave
    It's not rocket science... put up a classified ad and price it to sell. If it's all in decent shape, it might be a fine rig for someone. Dave
  17. pilotdave
    We used to operate that plane, with the same pilot, with a limit of 17 jumpers because of our short runway. Took about 25 minutes to 13K. So I'm impressed! Obviously it doesn't climb like a king air, but it doesn't have a king air's child size door either. I'm glad we never had to squeeze 21 people in it. There were 21 seatbelts, but that never seemed like enough for 17 people.
  18. pilotdave
    He didn't drop it. He had both toggles in one hand so he could give a peace sign with his free hand. Dave
  19. pilotdave
    7 years for a container regardless of condition? Damn, 4 of the 5 rigs in my possession are older than that. And the only one newer than that is being sent back to UPT to get the leg straps replaced. Age doesn't seem to have much to do with condition. Dave
  20. pilotdave
    I use a neptune, which has canopy alarms. I use 1500, 1000, and 600. No particular reason... I think those were defaults and I havent come up with better settings. But pretty much 1500 reminds me i should be getting close to the DZ or knowing where i'm going to land. 1000 means its almost time to start my downwind. 600 means i'm getting low and should stop paying attention to beeps.
  21. pilotdave
    I have a few rigs you can practice with Nikita... right after I jump them. Dave
  22. pilotdave
    All I know is that if I put my cameras on Faithful picture style, as you recommend, they look very flat and dull. Exactly the same as an unprocessed raw file. I could pull them into photoshop or whatever and make them look better, but I often post a couple hundred pictures per weekend to my website... I'll let the camera do the work. I do tweak them before i post them, but i can do that in a quick program like picasa. Shooting tandems in faithful would probably be a bad idea. Dave
  23. pilotdave
    That is great if you want to edit all of your photos. But in that case, you really should be shooting raw anyway. If you want to print/burn right off your memory card or create nice photos without having to edit each one (the reason to shoot JPG), picture styles are necessary. I use landscape myself, but haven't spent much time playing with the others. I like the little bump in saturation it gives. You can go wrong with custom picture styles... Way too much saturation and sharpness destroys pictures, for example. But if you want the camera to create usable jpegs (without editing required), there's really no choice but to use picture styles. If you're shooting something important and want to be able to edit it as best as possible, raw is the way to go. You can apply any picture style to a raw file on your computer afterward, if you want to see what they look like. Dave
  24. pilotdave
    Hmmm... maybe... Dave
  25. pilotdave
    He said the first wave breakoff is to pull no higher than 2500. That means they're the outer people in the formation that need to track the farthest. People closer to the center would be pulling higher. Dave