pilotdave

Here are a few from RWS... not much to see and a few years out of date. Last one is something I see almost every weekend even though I'm 1000 miles away... Dave

Still beats another very busy DZ... actual traffic pattern briefing before my first jump there (earlier this year): "Don't hit anyone." I would have preferred "follow the first person down." Luckily they do a pretty good job of picking a landing direction in the boarding area. But they don't use any kind of standard traffic pattern and swoopers are completely unpredictable (to me). But they like not having any rules... Dave

XSi has some real improvements over the XTi... spot metering, better grip, better lens, and a bunch of other stuff that probably isn't all that important. On the other hand, the XSi uses SD memory instead of CF. Not so good if you might upgrade to a higher end camera in the future. If I was starting from scratch now, I'd get an XSi. But I won't upgrade to it. I disagree about the lens thing. I upgraded lenses and don't see much of a difference in my pictures except that I can get a wider angle. There are definitely technical improvements, but it's not a night and day difference. The kit lens with the XTi or XSi is perfectly fine for skydiving. Dave

Unfortunately the only camera that works for skydiving is this one: http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=15710. It's a bit pricey, but it takes a really high quality camera to survive freefall and opening shock. Dave

What were the personal reasons that factored into your decision? ...if they aren't too personal to share...

Alternate landing area? You mean the 8-foot-tall corn? Tight back yards? Trees? Grass next to the runway with helicopters practicing hovering? Yeah, we have alternate landing areas...

Whats the minimum helmet-held shutter speed?

That was an easy one! I went for a ride in one once... Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. Previously used for running drugs. Room for 4 passengers and a pilot... or a bunch of drugs. Dave

I almost took stills on a night jump once. Tested the (onboard) flash in the dark though and found that I'd need to be REALLY close to get anything. Didn't think it was worth bothering for crappy pics (not to mention that I'd blind everyone else). There's enough to worry about on night jumps. But once I get my big flash mounted... can't wait! Dave

http://www.cardowireless.com/ Met an israeli jumper in FL that said they made a prototype skydiving version that worked great. I emailed the company a while ago asking about it but never got a response. Dave

From the manufacturer: http://www.questaircraft.com/index.php?filename=trip_log.php Dave

Yup, that's very scary. And thats why all the manufacturers will tell you not to jump a unit that does not pass the self test at startup. A blank screen doesn't necessarily mean the unit is shut off. That's a downside to jumping with an electronic AAD in general. Since airtec just recalled a bunch of cypreses, i think it's hard to say that they just wait till they see the units for a 4-year inspection before they fix them. They seemed to handle the recall well. But don't get me wrong... I'm not a devoted airtec fan. Not suggesting that they're perfect either. Dave

Doctors are also required (in the US) to have malpractice insurance. Too bad (and thank goodness) that there's no such thing for riggers... Dave

And cypres2s just needed to be restarted, right? I think we fundamentally disagree on an important point. I believe that the worst thing an AAD can do is fire when not needed. You seem to believe that the worst thing it can do is not fire when it is needed. They're both bad, but in one case it could kill you whereas in the other case it simply fails to save you. It also has to detect that the altitude has previously reached arming altitude and that the current altitude is within the firing range (both low enough and high enough). Maybe if you turn it on below the bridge and then go up to the top. I suspect it would fire before impact... dunno if it would help. Not sure why that's a good thing. Personally I think 150 feet is too low for an arming altitude. If I fell out of a plane at 200 feet, I don't expect that an AAD firing would save me. And I think it really increases the chances for a misfire inside an aircraft, possibly with the door open and jumpers belted in. Worst case scenario for an AAD... IMO. I don't know that 1500 feet is a magic number either, but I do believe it reduces the probability of what I consider to be the worst thing an AAD can do. But at the same time, it might mean the cypres might not work in a very low emergency exit. There are jumpers that choose to use rigs other than Vector 3s. I think it's weird, but it's their choice... I don't choose gear based on who gets to jump it for free. Dave

Are you referring to me, or agreeing with me?

Well, I don't disagree with you completely. Cypres has had misfires... mostly many years ago and the problems were fixed. They had a recall recently... our DZ had a few tandem cypreses affected that had to be fixed. Neither company makes a perfect product. But here's the thing... we got our cypreses fixed when there was no misfire... and got loaner units to use while they were being fixed. We got no explanation from AAD when we had a real live misfire (tandem under canopy) with a vigil. They came out with some press releases soon afterward and then quietly released the vigil 2. I don't have any agenda... I don't care if someone buys a vigil or a cypres or an argus. I agree that the buyer should beware. And when I see people saying how great the vigil is because it even fires on the ground, I just like to point out that that person might just be a tad biased toward it. So serious question to anyone that knows the answer... AAD says in a press release: "If Vigil I owners are compelled to exchange their units as a result of this French directive, we will exchange the Vigil I units for a nominal fee." Does that apply to Vigil 1 owners outside of france? Anyone know the fee? Dave

So the vigil has a 150 foot activation altitude. Your vigil fired on the ground when it detected a descent (due to pressurization). You donwloaded the data, right? Did it detect a climb to over 150 feet first? Dave

I'm not sure if there's more to it than just the 1500 foot arming altitude. At least in thailand, the cypres 1s shut off and had to be sent back. That's not great, but to me it's better than firing. Apparently they have some smarts in them to see that something is out of whack. Seems reasonable to me that the unit should "see" a climb before it sees a descent and be able to tell whether or not it's calculated fallrate is reasonable or not. Dunno what the cypres does... but it's apparently more than the vigil. Dave

Very informative and also very biased. You put positive spin on a misfire you had inside an aircraft. Sorry, but your AAD didn't work properly. It worked as designed... that's true. But that's just a sign of poor design. But they fixed that issue on the Vigil II, right? For me, I don't particularly care if the AAD is smart enough to deal with a pressurized aircraft. I've never been in a situation where that would matter, so it wouldn't affect my decision. But the fact is that the Vigil was easily confused by a simple situation. It saw unreasonable pressure changes and apparently wasn't able to identify the pressure change as being unreasonable. Instead, it did the worst thing an AAD can do... fire when not needed. The vigil definitely has some design improvements over the cypres. I completely agree with that. It also has some nice added features like data logging. That's a nice addition. Some of the improvements don't seem all that useful to me... words instead of a countdown at startup? Who cares? If a vigil or a cypres gives an error, it's no good. I don't care what a cypres happens to be testing when it says 5 or 500 on the screen. The vigil would be (or will be, or maybe is) a great AAD... if the problems have been solved. But there's still a bit of a trust issue with the company. They did a really poor job of dealing with the misfires in the past. I honestly don't know if Vigil 1s are safe to jump or not. Our DZ didn't take any chances after a tandem misfire... replaced all their vigils in tandem or student gear with Cypres2s. Can ya blame em, considering they never really got any explanation for the misfire? Dave

I don't know what you're talking about. I said B-25. See? Look at my original post! Gimme a break... it was before 9am.

You don't have to find t-shirts... they find you. Just about all the t-shirts I have were freebies or raffle prizes or gifts of some kind. The shirts I've paid for are all nearing the end of their useful lives... Dave

C'mon now, post links...

Is that a joke? Seriously... I mean maybe the Vigil II fixed the problems with the original vigils, but I'd hardly say it's proven itself at all. Ok, well, it's proved to fire much better than the cypres... it does it in freefall, under canopy, and on the ground! FYI, I'm not really anti-vigil or anything. I might buy me a used Vigil for my backup rig. But I really think most of your assumptions are way off base... both about the cypres and the vigil. Dave

Feeling comfortable is not the same as being safe. You may feel comfortable pulling that low, but it will bite you in the ass when you least expect it. Not too many experienced jumpers pull that low on normal jumps these days. Wait till you have a pilot chute hesitation or go unstable as you begin to pull... or see traffic, have a malfunction, etc, etc, etc... Things happen FAST at those low altitudes and you will find yourself dangerously low sooner or later and you won't see it coming. You should be fully open and deciding if you have a good canopy by 2500... at least until you have an A-license. Finishing your opening around 2000 will give you very little time to make any decisions... and NO time when things go unexpectedly. If you're jumping student gear now, you should also realize that your own canopy will probably take longer to open. I was doing 30-ways last week. Organizers told the people on the outside of the formation (where I was) to pull at 2500. That's what I was doing, and somehow I always seemed to pull lower than anyone else. Course it helped that I was always tracking toward the DZ. Dave

Because they put a 12-year life limit on their products? Any other reason? It'll be interesting to see what happens to Vigils as they reach age 12 and beyond. Hope they got their reliability analyses right... Based on their history, I don't expect that they've thought of everything yet. To me, the choice between cypres and vigil has little to do with the units themselves. More to do with the companies behind them. I'd take a cypres over a vigil and a vigil over nothing.