pilotdave

I think the container was just opening....no really big deal except they were fighting over the ripcord. That was taken by Martin Evans a Skydive Delmarva.... His website has a series of pics of a true student total malfunction.... luckily the reserve side JM had the reserve side main ripcord to pull. http://www.skyeyeskydiving.com/images/Ooops_ripcords_pulled.JPG notice the ripcord has been pulled. Then http://www.skyeyeskydiving.com/images/Traceys_opening_the_container.JPG and finally http://www.skyeyeskydiving.com/images/Finally.JPG You can see his other pics at http://www.skyeyeskydiving.com Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Skeered the heck out of me. I thought there was a new service bulletin on the reflex! Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

My Bev suit was about the first piece of skydiving equipment I bought. I was tired of wearing hot pink student suits. My skydiving club had a boogie and Bev donated a 25% off coupon to raffle off. The winner decided she couldn't use it, so she gave it to me. So, I didn't do any research before buying a Bev, but I think it turned out to be a great choice anyway. I have a slow fallrate, so a nylon front and spandex back helps speed me up. I find it pretty comfortable to wear all day. It's very comfortable in freefall. I've had no problems with it, and it's survived a couple bad landings where I got dragged a few feet. Washing it has been no problem, just hang to dry. Overall, I have nothing bad to say about it. It's comfortable and it looks great. My colors are: Front: charcoal gray Back, arms: royal blue Legs: black Grippers: black with royal blue stripes

Recently upgraded my server to an Athlon 1700 with gobs of DDR RAM. I'd WOULD HAVE said the easiest way to speed up a computer is to "throw in" a new motherboard and processor, but it took me a long time to get mine working. I'd suggest going with a new barebones system (just a case, motherboard, processor, and power supply). Problems with my upgrade were capacitors on the new motherboard touching other stuff inside the computer (the zip drive was the biggest culprit), causing shorts. Took me forever to figure out what was going on though. Other problems, or at least slowdowns, were connecting the power button/LEDs from the case to the motherboard. Once I got the damn thing to turn on, I had all kinds of problems getting my video and ethernet cards to work properly. In the end it was definitely worth the upgrade (microsoft flight sim 2002 is so smooth now!), but I think I'm going to go gray a few years early because of it. In fact I still havent finished putting the computer back together. It's in pieces all over my room. But it works! If it's just download speeds that are giving you trouble, DSL or cable internet will fix that real fast. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

I kinda disagree. Although maybe it sounds bad coming from a competitor, the information (assuming it's correct) that he's giving is good to know. I want to know why one canopy (or anything else) is better than another, and not just in flight characteristics. So many canopies are so similar in how they fly, other information is helpful to choose which is best. I'd like to see this information come from an outside source, but the information just isnt out there. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Good start! Keep playing with it, trying different brush settings and stuff. Also might want to try blurring the guy (yourself?) a little to match the rest. Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian blur. Just play with settings till it looks about right. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

There are probably hundreds of ways of doing it, but here's what I suggest. I'm assuming you're using PS6 (although its about the same in all versions). Let me know if you're in another version. Go to the layers pallete, and click on the layer of the pic you added on so that layer is highlighted. Click on the second button from the left at the bottom of that pallete, the Add Mask button (its a rectangle with a circle in the middle). You'll see in the layers pallete that there's now two little pictures for that layer. The one on the left is the layer itself, and the one on the right is the mask. The little paintbrush icon should have turned into that mask icon like the button you clicked. That means you're painting on the mask as opposed to the layer. Now, when painting on the mask, painting black makes the layer invisible and painting in white makes it visible. Any shade of gray will be somewhere in between (so you can make things partially see-through). Just use black paint and carefully paint around the part of the image you want to keep. To go back to being able to edit that layer, just click on the image in the layers pallete thats on the left. To go back to editing the mask, click on the picture on the right. Play around with this and report back how it's going. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

lightening it was the easy part. The reflection on the visor of the second picture was the challenge.

...and while I have photoshop open...

Does this help? (only so much you can do when it starts off so dark, but I think it's better.)

sounds to me like the images are probably in different modes. Make sure they're both set to RGB color. If one of them is a .gif file, it'll be set to indexed color. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

I load my pilot chute at about 30:1. Damn I bet I could get a nice swoop, huh? Maybe instead of yanking on the bridle when I had a pilotchute in tow, I shoulda showed off a little and landed it. Anyone know the surface area of a wingsuit? What are they loading at? Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

your forgot "cuz the door was open."

Your mom is so much cooler than mine. I'm being interviewed tomorrow by a friend on why I skydive and what it's all about. It's for her final paper in a "feature writing" journalism class. Guess she's supposed to write an exciting article, so i might just have to make up some stories for her. Anyway, if I come up with any good reasons for why I skydive or anything like that, I'll let ya know. I have no clue what I'm gonna say yet. She says "cuz it's fun" won't cut it. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Those with fast internet connections (although not too fast since my server has been slow lately) might want to check out stratoquest.mpg in the /from tv/ folder on my server. It's a 5 minute clip from Discovery News about her. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Ummm... parachute packing training is what you're SUPPOSED to do on windy, rainy days! Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Had one last week after I had a pilot chute in tow. Don't remember what the malfunction was in my dream but I cut away then went for the reserve. I was pulling the reserve ripcord as hard as I could and it moved very slowly. I grabbed the cable itself and kept reeling it out. Took forever but it finally deployed the reserve, which snivelled till I hit the ground. I landed on a grassy hill unhurt, but I was pissed at my rigger! That's about when I woke up. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Yep. I tend to think I haven't changed at all since I was about 6 years old... at least in the way I think (no short jokes please).

I want as little of my rig to be "certified" as possible. The less FAA involved, the better. It shouldn't take laws to force manufacturers to make their 3 rings correctly, if that's the reason for making this change. If skydivers KNOW there's a problem, they will demand it gets fixed, or they'll buy from someone else. Nobody's demanding anything now because, at least the way I see it, not too many people realize some 3 rings aren't made right. Are there any organizations that do independent testing of skydiving equipment? Why don't we have our own "consumer reports?" I think a bunch of riggers, not connected to any manufacturers, should get together and write a report about faulty 3-rings. They'd have to say which companies make the mad ones, and explain why they're bad. People will buy the safest equipment if they have a reason to believe it's the safest. When I was looking for a container, I was told they're all about the same. I was actually told to stay away from reflex, which I ended up getting, but I couldn't ever get a real reason why it's inferior, and I heard some reasons why it's better than others. Nobody ever told me that brand X has improperly manufactured 3 rings, or brand Y sews they're pilot chute support tape off the bias. I think this goes for all skydiving equipment. I read plenty of reviews before I bought my Z1 helmet, but I'd love to see a report on the crashworthiness of various helmets, not just comfort and stuff like that. How about altimeters? Do any have more error than others? Do some break more easily? Bill, you give tons of great info. I had no idea that some manufacturers make better 3 rings than others before you posted about that. But you're a business man that wants me to buy your equipment (you're doing a great job at marketing, by the way). If you say that some manufacturer's 3 rings aren't safe, you'll piss off a lot of people and many more will stop trusting you. Thats why I'd like to see an independent group that has nothing to lose just go ahead and say WHO makes good stuff, and who makes bad stuff. Not just that there's bad stuff out there, but what companies should be avoided. Maybe you can whisper the answer to a friend to post for ya. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Remember when Skreamer used to be in that awful disco band? Great voice but what was up with the outfit??

I've got Nike football reciever gloves. They fit good and tight and dont take away much dexterity, but they don't do much in the real cold. I wear those stretchy knitted gloves underneath them when it's really cold, but they really only keep me warm during freefall. Once my arms are over my head under canopy, my hands get really cold right away. I've been told it's because your hands don't get as much blood flowing when they're over your head. Guess that could be it. I saw an ad for those mechanics gloves the other day and they looked pretty good. I've also seen motorcross gloves that looked good but I haven't tried anything else. I jumped at cross keys during the last freeze fest when it was in the 30s on the ground. My hands were purple when I landed. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Hey kato, thanks for the video. Got any info you'd like to go in a text file with it? Name, date, location, equipment, or comments... Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Oh by the way I moved em to /misc/ride.wmv and /landing/digin.wmv in case anyone cant find them. Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

Great vids. I'll be moving them out of the uploads folder today.... Thanks for the uploads! Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com

"Gee, I hope my parachute opens." Ok, not too bizarre during skydiving but it would be a freaking weird thing to have on my mind during any other situation! Dave http://www.skydivingmovies.com