pilotdave

It'd land like a sabre2, open like an optimum reserve, pack like a worn out 7-cell F111. And cost under $1000. I'll take two. Dave

I think I've voted twice. Once by ballot (when there was a big write-in campaign), and once when our RD brought photocopied ballots to the DZ and handed them out and sent them in for us. Wouldn't have voted that year otherwise, but she made it too easy. If every RD did that every year, I bet we'd have much better voter turnout. Making it harder is a bad idea. Dave

Wikipedia. Isn't that how anybody knows anything? Remember the olden days when people actually had to know stuff in their brains??

It's snowing, but thats why I wanted to jump. I was all geared up and ready to go, but the pilot decided he didn't have enough visibility. Doh. Jumping in snow is fun... Dave

Zeppo Marx? Dave

Sign up for a google news alert for the keyword "skydiving." I can't remember how many articles have been published about the safe year we had last year. Tons. Dave

182 wouldn't be fast enough. But here's an attempt behind a B-25: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1024 And here's Joe Jennings trying it with a 206 and a camera suit: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=974 Dave

He was on shutter priority, so nothing forced a shutter speed other than him setting it. He still got an aperture of f/6.3, but probably only because he was facing the bright sun. I would expect other pics from that jump to be underexposed. But this was a backlit shot... no surprise the tandem pair is so dark. I typically use shutter priority at 1/800th or so with ISO 400. I'll drop the ISO occasionally on sunny days, but I don't find much difference between 100 and 400 with my XTi (as long as the pictures aren't underexposed) and I like fast shutter speeds. Much faster than a lot of people here actually. Dave

Not to the customer! They want to see themselves skydiving. Charging big bucks for sucky pictures is obviously wrong, but not giving the customer pictures at all because they aren't the photographer's best work is wrong too, in my opinion. I've seen people post here before that camera flyers are better off destroying inferior videos than giving them to the customer for free. I just don't agree... Tandem students just want to see themselves skydiving, and while they would prefer the best quality pictures and video possible, they deserve something, even if it's not perfect. But in the case of a wide angle converter, I just don't see the point of ruining the optics of a perfectly adequate lens. If it's not wide enough, fly farther away.

With the cutaway option on the FF2, the ladder strap feeds into the chincup so the end isn't exposed. But without the cutaway chincup, I agree... if you've got a lot of excess, snip them off. Just no reason to have those things hanging out there. Dave

Glad I don't know anything about the politics. I'm sure having so many tunnels around has messed up orlando's business over the last few years. I hadn't gone to orlando in years until a few weeks ago because of the new hampshire tunnel. It's looking a bit older and worn out than I remembered it, but the air felt fine and I had a great time. Didn't really notice any difference between it and the new hampshire tunnel as far as the air goes, but I'm not doing head down or anything and I wasn't in my most familiar position (I was back flying). So as far as I could tell, orlando is doing just fine for a skydiver like me. Dave

I was talking to a guy by email a while ago that's planning to build "D" to lanc adapters so you can use the same old cam eye. The D-connector can do more, but it's got lanc in it (according to a sony schematic for the port) and has been tested with lanc devices. Haven't gotten an update in a while, but I'm not too worried about it. Since it's possible to do, I'm sure the makers of the cam eye will come out with an A/V port version at some point. The guy I was talking to was just working on getting a cheap source of the plugs, but everything else was straightforward (once he figured out how to do it). He was hoping to sell instructions for a do-it-yourself kit too. Dave

We have a cleanup day every year in April. I'm always amazed at the huge projects that get done in a single day. We always struggle with the decision of whether or not to be open for jumping while work is going on. On one hand, it sucks for the volunteers that are working to see other people jumping. But at the same time, those people that aren't helping would be somewhere else that day if the DZ was closed, so we might as well be open and make some money. Dave

Yup, it's been shown many times (and I've tried it myself) that a properly fitting rig can come right off with the main out of it (like during a premature opening in a sit). I haven't heard of it ever happening, but its kinda scary how easy it is to do on the ground. Dave

Does it have the D-shaped A/V port? If it does, a bunch of solutions to your problem are in the works. If not, I'd personally switch cameras since I love having a cam eye. Course maybe it will just take some more practice with the on-switch to make sure you get it right. If you aren't sure if the camera is in the right mode, shut it back off and try again. Dave

If you want the best, I hope you have a LOT of money to spend.

His profile says he's from Italy, so I'm not sure there's a legality problem unless they have a similar rule there. But anyway, ACs aren't legally binding documents, are they? Dave

I don't like that kind of advertising, but at least you can find out where they are BEFORE paying for a jump. They are trying to catch a wider audience's attention, but they aren't outright lying or trying to hide where they really are. (I still don't think it's right). Dave

Get a demo of a PD Optimum 143. It'll probably fit in a container that holds a microraven 120. Flies AMAZINGLY well. I loved having it as a main in my backup rig when I demoed it. Started off with a hop n' pop, a little afraid of the opening since it has a regular reserve slider with a hole in it. A jumper watching me land said he thought I was gonna stall and land flat on my back when he saw that I kept flaring farther and farther and planing out... but no, it just kept flying and set me down soft, not so different from my sabre2 (but not quite as much flare power). Well, I was shooting video for my 4-way team that day. Plan was to do hop n' pops with my second rig between team jumps. But the team wanted to do back-to-backs and I didn't have time to switch back to my main on my backup rig, so I was stuck jumping the optimum for a video jump. Long story short, the opening was better than my PD150 ever opened. I kept jumping the optimum for 2 weekends on every kind of jump I was doing and wanted one as a main. Great canopy... might eventually replace the microraven 120 in my backup rig with an optimum 143 if I end up using that rig a lot this year (which will probably happen). BTW, a regular PD reserve lands great too... but more like you'd expect a good 7-cell reserve to land. Dave

I got that one at work intermittently. Had a hard drive failure at work a while back, so I immediately started backing everything up that I thought I might need (though I barely put anything on my hard drive at work after the first incident). Sure enough, my hard drive was dying. I've killed 2 at work and had one hard drive running windows on my home computer for something like 7 years straight (almost never shut down). Dunno what I'm doing wrong at work! Dave

You won't get too much positive response on here, but we had a guy jumping a tiny little SD card camera (panasonic I think?) 4-5 years ago and it worked great. He had to have a machinist make some kind of wide angle adapter... not sure exactly what he had done. Quality was just fine for internet or standard def TV. Really seemed to work great, except for no lanc. Don't know about sanyos... i think you can find a sample or two on SkydivingMovies.com. Dave

They changed the way the cutaway attaches since that picture was taken. It can't be installed the way the picture shows... Dave

FYI, when you buy an FF2 new, the strap has no hole in it at all. You need to set it up yourself (or have a rigger do it, like I did) to fit your head, exactly like you did. BTW, have someone lift up on the helmet and test the cutaway. Mine did not work at all when it was set up like yours. The white loop would get pinched to the chin cup... the more tension on the helmet, the harder it would lock. I solved the problem by flipping the strap over and having the white loop come up from behind. Dave

Yep, same with the canon 10-22. Doesn't bother me too much, since it'll probably be a very long time before they put out a compact full frame camera that I'd put on my head. The 10-22s are really popular now and sell fast for not much less than the new price when they are put up for sale used. The sigma 15 looks nice, but I really like being able to play with different focal lengths. 10mm is a lot of fun. Dave

No requirement in the US... I got a full face when I had 40-50 jumps, specifically for a winter boogie. I've seen some people start jumping full face helmets well before that too. Haven't personally seen any problems caused by inexperienced people using full face helmets, but they definitely do make things a little more complicated. In warmer weather it's less of an issue. But in the cold, the visors are more likely to fog, then freeze. Then with gloves they can be harder to open (if they open). And they reduce peripheral vision and the ability to see emergency handles. I have to really think about my breathing as my canopy snivels or I'll fog mine up... and then the fog freezes and it doesn't go away for a while. So I guess I can see why some countries have rules about them. Almost surprised the US doesn't... yet. Dave