pilotdave

I can't figure out how that rumor started. Have you tried it? It works fine. Really! Dave

Sport mode and autofocus will work fine. Dave

You can get close... the pictures just look funny. I just don't recommend STAYING close.

Just another video/still comparison... Waycool .45 on a PC1000 and Canon 18-55 (at 18) on an XTi. (ignore the video quality... it's a capture from a small web-version of the video). I've actually never looked at a direct comparison of them before... pretty surprised how close they match! I use a 10-22 now, but I find that I mostly use it at the narrower end. Maybe 16-18 for tandems and sometimes 22 for 4-way. Dave

On what camera? Dave

Well, I didn't choose the 6-8 weeks... his doctor handled that. I think he got off easy. I think there should be a punishment for people that get hurt the same freaking way as a bajillion people before them. Dave

You'll get plenty of advice on here! It won't have much to do with stretching though. You broke your back! That's like freaking rule #3 in skydiving. Since you didn't die, now you get time out. Sit in that corner for 6-8 weeks and think about what you did! Don't even think about coming back early... you've been a bad boy and you deserve a break! Dave

When skydiving becomes work instead of play. Dave

All you need is some wind. No, skydiving canopies can't get 6:1 actual glide ratios, but with a tailwind you can do 6:1 with respect to the ground. I've exited 12 nm from the DZ at 12,000 feet. That's almost exactly a 6:1 glide. Well... it would have been if I made it to the DZ. Had about my scariest off landing ever that time in a back yard surrounded by tall trees on that very breezy day (it's too windy to jump so lets do a cross country!). Ok, maybe you're better off with a canopy that can actually do 6:1 so you don't have to jump when the winds are stupid. Dave

Geez, the math gets a little hard and all you can suggest is distributing poison? Come on, there must be a way to solve this problem! Dave

To be fair, he did talk about Mirage's marketing guy, not their designer.

Search for Shayna Richardson to find the story and her post about it. Dave

Read my whole post. I never said that exit order isn't important. I said it shouldn't have mattered in this case. We shouldn't choose exit order based on slight differences in pull altitudes. If the only lesson that people learn here is that high pullers should go out after low pullers, they haven't learned a thing. Dave

Don't buy anything until your instructors have given the ok on it. Nobody here can tell you what size canopy you should be jumping. If you're light enough, a docile 160 might be ok. Talk to your instructors and find out what size and type of canopy they think you should be on. Yes, 30 sq feet does make a big difference. Dave

Ha. No, no problem there, as long as you got one with really big wings (ya know, lower wingloading). Dave

No worse than Deland: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=4677... first camera jump on his 35th jump. Dave

A falcon and a sabre2 are extremely different. If you liked the sabre2, chances are you won't like the falcon. Expect much firmer openings and a much less powerful flare. The falcon will probably take a bit more timing to get the landings right. Either one at a light wingloading is probably ok for a first canopy, but they have little in common as far as flight characteristics go. As far as the spectre vs sabre2, I find them to be somewhat similar until it comes time to land. I much prefer the sabre2's flare. The spectre (and many other 7-cells) requires better timing to get the flare right... more like the falcon but way better. PD has a great demo program... try a spectre and see how it compares to the sabre2 you've jumped. Dave

There are a lot of versions of the F-18. There are two current productions models... a 2-seater and a single seater. They're for different missions, not just training. Dave

Exit order SHOULDN'T have mattered... although in this case if the lower puller went first it might have helped. But we don't rely on vertical separation. The problem here was that they didn't plan ahead and communicate their plans. They each had their own tracking dive and each tracked into the same airspace. We should have enough separation at exit so that at the end of our jump we can track straight toward the next/previous group while they track straight toward our group and still have enough separation when we open. In this case, both of them tracked farther than planned and they happened to choose to aim for the same point in the sky. I think they learned their lesson on this one... if you're going to do a tracking dive, you need to communicate with the other people on the load so that your groups don't mix. Choosing exit order based on pull altitudes isn't always a smart practice and shouldn't be the lesson here. That kind of thinking can lead to people putting freeflyers out before belly flyers because the belly flyers plan to pull a little higher. Those groups are likely to cross paths in freefall... putting them at risk of a collision if one of the freeflyers has a premature deployment. Never assume the lower puller is going to pull lower. Dave

I've heard the argus gives much softer openings than the vigil. As for reserves, well, I wouldn't want one that opens too soft! But the PD Optimum, packed as a main, opens beautifully. I used it for camera jumps when I got a demo. Dave

What problems have you run into with Lacie? I have a 500 gig lacie... my computer locks up at some point any time i try to do a big transfer to it. Basically gave up on it... looking for something else now. Dave

WTF? You haven't gotten the script down. This is when you're supposed to tell everyone that they're idiots and you know better than them and you'll do whatever you want! Just kidding. Nice job learning from this site. I hope! When you're ready to shoot video, get a decent camera and do it for real. This isn't something you can really go half-assed at. Dave

Unfortunately (or fortunately) it doesn't work that way. The risk of each jump varies. Skydivers build talent and risk decreases. Then they take more chances, jump smaller canopies, try new things, and risk increases. Then they get better and more experienced at those things and risk decreases. Then they try new, more dangerous things and jump smaller, faster canopies. Risk goes up again. The risk on a hop n' pop is not the same as the risk on a bigway head down jump. You can't apply simple statistics to risk in skydiving. Dave

I have no tolerance for dropzone websites that are full of lies, but I have less tolerance for skyride supporters that come here to try to stir things up. Why don't you guys go have fun taking each others signs down? Dave

We can't eliminate all risk, but we can eliminate specific risks. Statistics don't mean much unless you find the right statistics that apply to you. If you don't swoop, you aren't exposed to the risks of swooping. If you don't wingsuit, you aren't exposed to the risks of wingsuiting. And the list can go on and on and on to include everything skydivers do. We have a lot of control over our risk level. But no matter what, jumping out of a plane isn't safe. As long as you are exposed to the risks of boarding a jump plane, you're not safe. Dave