pilotdave

Websense lets companies (or militaries

Far as I know, http://sdm.crocker.com is not blocked by websense. Lemme know if that works for you. Dave

The nice thing about a (reputable) reservation company would be that the DZ only pays a fee (in lost profit) when the student actually jumps. If they didn't have to do any other advertising to bring in tandem business, it might be a good deal. But if a DZ is willing to give up $40 per tandem to retrieve back all the business that was stolen away from them, imagine how much more effectively they could spend that money through advertising. How many paid ads could you serve up on google if you were willing to shell out $40 in advertising for every person that booked a jump? Dave

Autofocus (in AI-servo mode) works great for me. I occasionally get an out of focus exit shot when I'm looking right into the sun (like the one attached), but usually the autofocus works great. And I'm using the kit 18-55. Praying for good weather this weekend... I have a canon 10-22 to play with. Also praying for soft openings cause this thing feels like a brick compared to the 18-55.

If I remember correctly, they offered our DZ something like $170 per tandem (normal price of $215). I don't know what their customers would have actually paid, but I'd guess it's a tad more than the $165 they advertise. Dave

So I take it you use manual focus? Thanks... I can see why you'd use Av mode when using manual focus. Makes sense. For autofocus though, I can't see the point. Dave

Right, but what's the huge deal about a wide DOF? As I said, even at f/3.5, I can't get the background to blur noticeably. The narrower DOF does make the autofocus hunt more, so you get fewer keepers, but I'd prefer to know that the shutter speed is high enough over knowing that the DOF is really wide. Or is DOF more important if you use manual focus? I guess that would make sense... Really doesn't matter much on a bright day I guess. Dave

Just curious... why Av mode? I care about shutter speed. Aperture has very little effect on my [freefall] pictures. I tried to get some background blur by using f/3.5 on one jump, but the pictures came out about the same as they do at f/10, but with more than usual out of focus shots. I don't understand why you'd prioritize aperture over shutter speed. For portraits on the ground, sure. But for skydiving? Not saying it's bad, and you probably get high enough shutter speeds on most jumps, but why not just set the shutter speed you want? I usually use a shutter speed of 1/800th to 1/1000th. I tend to get some motion/shake blur below that, but I once got some kinda cool shots at 1/40th (by accident, sport mode at sunset). Example attached. The one guy that isn't blurred at all got a print of that for his birthday.

Interesting idea. The key is that the canopy will turn INTO the wind (like you said) when disturbed, not away from it. Otherwise our canopies would naturally fly backwards or completely out of control. Dave

There are those that believe that the ends justify the means. If I told them that some DZ was funded by terrorism or drug smuggling (not that THATS ever happened

So why pick on Perris is the question. Because of all the dropzones out there in Skyride land, I've always considered Perris to be the big one. I've always considered Perris to be a top dropzone, up there with eloy, skydive chicago, deland, etc. Never been there... but I'd like to. Perris has the opportunity to be better than those other guys in their area. If Perris works with this company built on fraud, why shouldn't ANY OTHER dropzone in the country? At least thats how I bet a lot of dropzones would see it. I hold Perris to a higher standard. Is that fair? Maybe not. But they have a freaking jet. That puts them in a different category than anyone. They should be better. They should be a model for any other dropzone to follow. They should have the best student program, the best equipment, the best facilities, the best aircraft maintenance, the best staff, and the best business practices. Why? Because they can. Skyride is not a "business concern" for drop zone owners only. It's a national skydiving concern. I'm not out there telling people not to jump at Perris. I'm telling Perris to be better than them. If you can't afford the jet without relying on false advertising and theft, you can't afford the jet. Skyride is for dropzone owners that are too scared to perpetrate their own fraud. Yep, that's right, you can outsource your tech support to India and your fraud to Skyride. At least thats the way I see it. Why the cryptic messages on skydivingmovies.com? It got people talking, didn't it? Dave

I've never used a ringsight. Only times I really wish I had one is for 4-way video. I'll probably get one next year... my team is planning to go to nationals so I'd rather know for sure where my camera is pointing. But I haven't had any real problems with the mark on the goggles method. I never feel like I need one for tandems or most other videos I do. I'm pretty much always centered well enough that a little cropping here or there will fix it in the stills. But 4-way is a little different than most of the jumps I shoot... gotta be SO tight and right on. It's actually scary... I'm paying so much attention to where I am and where I'm looking that I rarely have any idea how good the jump was for the team. I'm like a goldfish... I only remember the last few seconds. If they nailed a block at the end, I'll think they had a great jump no matter what the rest of it looked like.

Not too hard to look around when you have it set up right. Virtual cockpit mode (3D), and a hat switch to look around. Then keyboard shortcuts to move the eye point left and right, up down, forward backward. Then you can move around more like real life to see around your own plane. FSX is really awesome if your computer is fast enough. FS2004 will run better with higher graphics settings on a slower computer. My computer is BARELY useable for FSX, but I still prefer it over any previous version. I just have a microsoft joystick that twists for rudder. A yoke and pedals would be more realistic, but too much stuff to deal with. Dave

The kit 18-55 lens will be just fine. Yes, you can spend as much money as you want to get better lenses, but you can get GREAT pictures with the kit lens. It'll blow you away compared to any pictures you get with a cheap point and shoot camera. Get a better/different lens later when you can figure out what you don't like about the kit lens. Dave

They might not read this site, but surely they know that skydive arizona is suing their partners in crime. They must know what skyride is all about. I used to put perris in the same category as eloy. Not anymore. Dave

I've seen a little pin lying around with that logo... but no patches except on old peoples' jumpsuits.

Well, I found it, but I still don't know what the story is. I've taken a lot of pictures in front of a sign really similar to the second picture you posted, so I'm pretty curious.

Another bug... The dropzone links point to the wrong dropzones. For example: http://www.dropzone.com/photos/Detailed/Exits/Just_like_the_dirt_dive_114826.html has a link to Connecticut Parachutists, but the link points to http://www.dropzone.com/dropzone/Detailed/52.shtml, British Parachute Schools, Langar. A link to Sebastian, FL points to the listing for Schaffen, Belgium. Dave

Just call 1-800-skyride to find out and manifest over the phone. Sorry, is that joke getting old? Dave

Believe it or not, you can subscribe to Skydiving Magazine on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006G8WSA?ie=UTF8&tag=skydivingcom-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B0006G8WSA Dave

You know I thought for a long time that Skyride had lost control of its hundreds of websites. They put them up, but it got so out of hand that they couldn't edit them if they wanted. But I just used http://www.archive.org to check see when they made a change to one of their fake DZ sites. At some point within the last year, they decided they better cover their asses. They added a Terms and Conditions link to the bottom of http://www.skydiveconnecticut.com/index.html. http://1800skyride.com/terms_for_all.html pretty much admits to their BS. They advertise things that might not be available even though they say it is. Refunds are available, but you have to pay a 25% administrative fee. And on and on. Same page, October 10, 2006: http://web.archive.org/web/20061010080134/http://www.skydiveconnecticut.com/index.html. Same lies, but now with fine print! Dave

Like 111 said, some brands are better than others. Companies like Maxell don't make the discs... the actual disc manufacturers are not labeled on the package... you'll have to look up what brands use which manufacturer's discs. There are websites with tables to look that up. Probably a quick google search. Dave