tdog

Ok, you opened a can of worms asking me, as I am in the business of entertainment and have done a lot of professional productions... So I am pretty opinionated... I liked the video, but was not in love with it.... Here are my two cents, all opinion, so take it what it is worth... 1) The WindWorks Productions logo in the beginning... If it is in the real final cut - make it much shorter... 3 seconds is all it takes for us to read it. Also, it takes away from the "product" you are selling... Are you selling a production company or a wind tunnel? I would get rid of it entirely and just start with the "Have you flown in your dreams". Right now, 18% of the airtime is for something unrelated to the tunnel??? 2) The white text "Have you flown in your dreams?" I loved it... It is a cool thing that got my attention, but perhaps the text could get some animation... It looks like simple white letters on a black background... To do text animation well, we are talking lots of effort but minimalistic design, a powerpoint scroll simply will not do... Think the title sequence on hollywood blockbusters or 007... Tears, dissolves, blures, letters rearranging to new words, etc... Even a lens flare movement or something... 3) The text "Have you flown... In your dreams? Now you can fly... For REAL." I love the first half... The second half is a let down... You are selling the wonderful concept of making dreams come true... AWESOME IDEA... So, keep the dream theme solid... Perhaps: "Have you flown... In your dreams... Now your dreams... Come true..." And fade to black between "in your dreams..." and "Now your dreams"... So it adds drama and makes it two separate thoughts... 4) "No parachute required". Kill it... You are selling a wind tunnel, as you said... There is no need to even get the people thinking (distracted) about something like skydiving.... Keep their mind on flying... Keep them sold on flying their body and living their dreams... 5) "Bodyflight" "Sport and Life Stye" "Kids and Adults" over the video takes away from what is going on... Perhaps strobe that in between pictures or put it in the corner... BUT, I think... Why say it at all? The audience is not stupid... You have wonderful pictures of kids flying... If you want to sell the idea of family outings, a cut of a father and daughter getting ready on the ground, then flying, will tell the audience more than the text... Tell your story in the images, don't make the audience read a script... 6) If you are selling the wind tunnel website... You need to add emphasis to the site... It should have some solo time on the screen... The video needs an ending... A punctuation mark... Having the domain name on top of videos that match the same tempo of the rest of the commercial just does not end it or make me go "wow"... If you want the video to keep playing, burr it out and take its level down to 50%. 7) Video cuts... They were high energy... But, they were all the exact same length, tempo, etc... Perhaps you need to "spike the curve" and throw in something in the middle that punches out... Something that someone will remember when they walk away... I honestly don't remember any one image (other than the clouds in the opening sequence and the first still photo you zoom out on)... I guess what I am saying is, break up the beat... Do you have a 10 second awesome video of one person flying - doing some transitions... I think this might educate the wuffo better, so they can see that you are really flying, not just "striking a pose" and holding it... The carving videos I have seen of the Orlando rats from skydivingmovies comes to mind... Where someone is carving around another person or transitioning... 8) Bring the human element back at the end... Flying in the tunnel is so foreign to people they might not visualize they can do it... Seeing a few excited customers getting out and high-fiving eachother or jumping in exitement, or just even a slow-mo closeup of someone smiling, will let the audience know that humans (hence them) are able to do this. I hope I did not offend you by tearing it apart so much, but I really think you have a great start!!!

BTW... I have to say, Alti-2 really is helping me out!!! Knowing my predicament (week long training camp starting tomorrow), they hooked me up with a demo/loaner for the camp while mine is repaired... Now, that is great customer service!!! Bravo!

You admit you dropped it, and maybe banged it a couple of times, and you complain about possibly having to pay $50 for a repair? I said: "Have any of you experienced this kind of failure? If so, what was the cause???" I am not complaining... My post was "has anyone else experienced this kind of problem and what caused it"? I am just wondering how fragile these things really are! Could a short drop off the top of a duffel bag or a hit against the mockup during team practice cause it to fail??? I know a lot of the guys who jump as hard or harder than myself have had good luck with the digital altimeters because there are no moving parts to get stuck... I am thinking about this as an opportunity to "upgrade" to something that might work better for my style of jumping hard, as if indeed I broke it in 11 months of use, it is likely to break again... I have not abused it, thrown it, or let it take a big fall... From the outside it looks brand new... But I have jumped it hard... I am trying to learn the limits here, nothing more, nothing less.

You were very professional on the phone and the warranty program seems to be very good... I am sorry that I did not specify in my first post that it could be less expensive or free if you found it was a defect and not abuse. Thanks for everything...

So I did three jumps yesterday.... Jump 1... Hop-n-pop from 7K AGL (12K MSL)... Worked perfect. The next two jumps... They were coach eval jumps, meaning I was looking at my altimiter every few seconds to remind my student to do the same... 13K AGL, 18K MSL... The altimiter worked perfect until 1.5K where it got "stuck"... The first jump I thought I might have spun it by accident upon landing, so I reset it and told myself it was not trustworthy on the next jump and I needed to count on my eyes and audible as primary clues should I receive conflicting information... But it worked again perfectly until it got stuck at 1.5K again! I called the manufacture, and they are going to repair it... But I have to pay for shipping back, and $50 if they deem it not a manufacturer's defect. I have treated the unit very well, and it is only a year old... It might have taken a hit or two, I think I remember a while back it falling off a duffel bag and falling a foot or two... Have any of you experienced this kind of failure? If so, what was the cause??? The suck part... I am going to Eloy tomorrow for a 24 jump camp and a altimiter would have been nice...

Congrats! But I am surprised it took 4-6K worth of freefall for you to realize what you were holding on to. Normally I like to know what is in my hands at all times.

18 years! Me too! 1988 - > current... I have stuck with what I know, and that is Burton... I am sure there are other good companies, but... Actually, I rode my first Burton for 10 years (I rented or borrowed the first two years I rode)! And I rode mine hard for the first 5 years I was boarding... It's tail was rounded, but clearly not the same as the modern boards today. Back then, I was a flexible high school freshman who spent a lot of time on the moguls with my skiing friends... If the board can last 10 years, with a 200 pound guy, without a single maintenance concern... Well then, it was made well. Who knows if the current models are made that good, but I assume??? Why did I ride my first board for 10 years... Well, the first 5 it was a great board... But soon it became a novelty. I would have people yell up to me on the lift, "Hey that board is so old skool!" My friends and I still sometimes take it out for the fun of it. But finally I decided to buy a new board. God, my riding ability doubled on the first run with the new board... Things sure have changed!

Ah, time to go to bed... After 6 days of work/weather delays at the DZ, I finally got my coach rating and I am exhausted. I wanted a challenge, so I welcomed Don Yahrling as one of my evaluators (he was in town for an AFF I class)... Little did I know my "student" he played would be a smart talking know it all (who was right more than not) NY city taxi cab driver who seemed to have the whole ISP memorized and, even without a rig on, if he saw me point he would say, "Pull?" Well, the one jump I did with him - clouds caused us to exit at 5K, so we did not get much done and made it a fun jump. Don, if you are out there - I learned a lot from you and the taxi driver... Thanks for the jump! The funny part about this... One of the jumps I did with another evaluator - the winds were so strong above 800 feet (like 25-40 MPH) that they required a C licence or better to jump... I looked at my "student", who was flying a highly loaded elliptical, and said, "normally this means we would be grounded, but since you are flying that canopy I guess all rules are off. Mind if I give you a gear check before we jump, and please limit your hook turns to the non-student landing area! Anyway - if anyone who worked with me on the rating is reading, THANK YOU for all your teaching.

If the gust is from 5 to 20, I don't think I would be skydiving regardless of canopy... But, I think if I had already left the plane, I would prefer the larger canopy simply because if the stuff hit the fan it would be more forgiving... But I am a novice.

I think most skydivers would rather see you jump than buy beer if the $$$ is an issue, despite the fact they will verbally say otherwise.

Congrats... Now the real learning begins! (And the fun too!) If you want a lot of posts to a thread you start, there are a few key words that you must use... They are: Skyride RSL Cypres Sex Also, never start a thread on Saturday night because people are still working with their .

Jim, I am confused... Which thread am I supposed to post to, you started this one here, plus two in the bonfire, all on the same subject... I think I will post in one: "Jump, the medicine will work" In another: "No Way, Stay home or go to the DZ and just hang out" In another: "Have you seen the movie (insert favorite title here)" he he he he Seriously, I think you will know if you should jump... If you are all cleared out, you will know... If you are all stuffy, you will know... Do what your gut tells ya, and if your gut says you have to ask this question, you probably are in denial of what your gut is telling ya.

Money (and experience and sometimes foolishness) Ok, this is a good lesson in wing loading, ground speed vs. airspeed (determined by wind), penetration, glide slope, etc... I don't know what you know about these subjects, but once you have a handle on each one of them, you will be able to answer your own question... So, you can ask your instructors, read some good books (Brian Germain's "The Parachute and It's Pilot" comes to mind), or search these threads... Sorry to send you off on a search, but learning never comes easy, but you will learn more than if I gave you a quick run down... But, real quick... What do you think the wing loading of a tandem is? The Sigma canopy comes in 370 and 390 sqft. Lets say you have a TM that is 180 pounds and a 180 pound student. Add 60 pounds for gear. So what is the wing loading??? Landing backwards (no penetration). Being pulled across the ground after landing. Turbulence/rotors off of buildings/objects. The "delta" or "change" in wind (gusts) can collapse a canopy or cause it to be difficult to control Oh, and I personally have found I am much more concerned in the CHANGE in wind instead of the speed of the wind... Change can be either direction or speed... So in your post when you said "gust to 20", what was the baseline, 15 or 5???

I know a few people who "specialize" in tracking dives... It takes a lot of skill to fly on your stomach/back relative to others and to lead a dive... I was just talking a few days ago to an AFF instructor who said, "before I could get my AFF rating I had to do 6 hours of tunnel to get the belly flying skills because I had nearly a thousand jumps, but they were all tracking and freefly." Notice how he put tracking first??? Maybe it is just our DZ, but the staff (Packers, AFFIs) seem to use tracking dives as the fun jump at the end of the day... I bet you will enjoy wing suits if you enjoy tracking... You speak of "extra fabric", but what is real cool is that modern wing suits are designed to use as little fabric as necessary to make a real efficient airfoil out of your body... So, you are not really just making a kite between your arms or something, you are making your body into a wing... I have some experience flying wing suits (ok, two jumps because I was demoing a suit/getting instruction at a boogie) - but I immediately felt as if the wingsuit was part of me, not some foreign object... All I am saying is, if you enjoy tracking, put the wingsuit as something to progress to on your to do list in skydiving as a goal... Once you fly the entire distance of the airport in a few thousand feet and then have to think, "Now where do I go?", you will fall in love.... Or at least I did.

I joked in an earlier post that I have fumbled a lot of the exits... Now a serious reply... It is true, we all have exits that go south... If you do what you are instructed, (arch comes to mind), even if the exit sucks you will recover quickly... Nerves are a tricky thing... Everyone has different ways of handling them... I can tell you, I have had every sensation in the doorway from complete, "why in the hell am I doing this (scared)", to "I am jumping with a world class champion, don't f*&^ this up (performance anxiety)" to "If I grab my ankles and twist my head to the left of my pelvis I bet I can get the most wicked 3 dimensional tumble (creativity and comfort)"... What will calm your nerves will be different than us... You should tell your instructor your concern so they can help you, they are trained professionals... Some techniques I use to calm down: *Close eyes and visualize the dive *Deep breaths *Talking to friends *Smiling at tandem students that are over the line freaked out and thinking, "now that is freaked". *Remembering the previous dive that went so well.

I think my last 200 exits were out of control, and I still love skydiving.

Ding, ding, ding... If we were all perfect people, we would not need air bags and seat belts in cars, and we all would be rich because our stock market investments would never suck, and there would be no insurance companies... But, I know I am NOT perfect and I am likely to screw up to some extent on a regular basis... I hope my screw ups NEVER lead to dramatic problems, like low pulls, but I can't rule out the possibility even with all the training I do and practice I get... I am happy I have a skyhook (Thanks Bill). If one day I was loaned a (modern airworthy) rig without an cypres or RSL, I would jump it if I was motivated to, but for my "normal" rig, I want all the help I can get in case I screw up real bad... I see a Skyhook as a great tool... To err is human, face it... In business I have a plan B for most of what I do in case I screw up... I want the same in skydiving, NOT to count on it, but to have it when I need it...

You know at first, I thought, "why not give it to someone who needs it in a foreign country where $$$ is a huge issue and without the gift, they probably would not have it... Is an expired cypres safer than some of the more "historic" systems, or no cypres at all??? This actually reminds me of a ethical problem I had with some of my friends who did medical mission trips to Mexico... One day I came home and found my former roommate stashed, on behalf of his employer, three pallet loads of expired saline IV bags in the basement... I asked why? He said they would be shipped to Mexico in 9 months for the medical trip, that it was expired so it could NOT be stored at the hospital, so it had to be stored off site... He also had millions of dollars of medical supplies from lenses for eyes to things for hearts, all expired. American doctors would use this stuff eventually on the mission trips. I asked him, "don't you have a problem giving this stuff to the people who need it, when it is expired. Aren't you just using it to make yourself feel better by doing record amounts of cases instead of actually providing top notch medical care to the locals of XXXXX Mexico?" His response was, "The American Medical system is very strict on expiration, and the doctors will be the ones determining if the supplies are still worthy of being used before they are used in Mexico. But, when a patient is on a table, completely blind, or suffering from something else, and the choice is to use expired products or not perform the surgery at all, the patients and doctors all agree that somewhat cured, by maybe using the wrong correction factor eye lens, is better than being completely blind. Sure there are more risks with expired products, but not so much that we have not been able to help thousands of people with similar complication rates to what we experience at home. The data has shown that the use of expired products has been worth while when the other option is nothing at all." So, I guess all I am saying is, to some, an expired cypres might be better than the alternative... But I would never sell an expired cypres, and if I gave it away, I would fully disclose it's condition....

When I first got my motorcycle, my riding mentor (my roommate at the time) gave me the most important advice of my riding career, much more important than braking techniques... So, I think I know the roots to your perception problem... You are around people who are putting on their jump suit too soon, way before putting on the rig and getting on the plane. But in all seriousness, colorful (but not necessarily clown costumes) do make better videos and pictures... I have looked at my favorite movies from www.skydivingmovies.com and I find that I am attracted to the videos that have vibrant jumpsuits. Well, have you noticed that freefliers have more colorful suits than RW guys... I guess that says a lot about the quality of Acid the different disciplines buy.

The slink idea is cool... But one more failure point??? My d-bag is attached with zero hardware.... My rigger followed the RWS instructions: In other words, my canopy end of my dbag bridal assembly has a 3" long loop. That loop was inserted into the loop on the canopy, and the pilot chute, bridal, and dbag was inserted/passed thru the loop on bridal. Zero hardware, zero tools to switch it out... Why do others not do it this way???

I think he meant that's the total that the student pays...including two slots, gear rental, the coach's fee (if any), and the dz's cut (if any). $70 ain't quite so far-fetched under those terms. I do know one dz that charges $107 for such a package, and I do think that's ridiculous. Blues, Dave At "Home" $23 Student Slot $23 Coach Slot $10 Cash to Coach $25 Gear Rental ------ $81

I am just finishing my coach rating eval jumps now... Our DZ rate is coach slot plus $10 cash for the required coaching to get your "A". Some of the college students who are coaches use the money as income, so I am going to be careful not to "under cut" the market rate... I have been encouraged to at least always get my slot paid for, to establish market rates, for these jumps.... However, I know if someone comes up to me and shows a lot of interest and asks a lot of great questions, I would spend a day jumping with them and not expect them to buy all my slots... If they hand me their yellow proficiency card and expect me to do all the work, and don't think beyond the signature lines, well, I am either not going to jump with them, or charge the full market rates. I have only been in this sport a year, but I have a handful of hours of tunnel and over 120 coached (that I had to pay the coach for) 4way jumps, so I know I have little tidbits in RW already I can pass down... PLUS, I learn A LOT while coaching, following the "learn once, do once, teach once" school of thought... I have SO MUCH to learn, and being a coach is a tool to learn too. I have jumped with many, many newly minted "A" jumpers... A few weeks ago I got a great compliment... A guy was doing a solo for his 1st "licenced" jump... I made it a two way. We jumped again... Then on the third jump, he said, "Can I buy your slot so we can jump again because I am learning a lot and appreciate all the info you have given me." I said, "Absolutely not, I will pay my own slot for the rest of the day... Lets manifest." Just seeing someone appreciate and offer to buy was enough payment for me... (and the fact we went from struggling with back sliding all the way to turning points was fun too.

Our 4 way team spent 30 minutes to a hour warming up and stretching every morning... Our coach came from the Airspeed/Dan B.C. school of thought, and he would not let us jump until we did... I am going to an airspeed camp next week, and this is what their website says: But when I am fun jumping, I do about 10 minutes, if that, of stretching... I probably should do more... I think in the team, it was a good tool... At least for me, it was a good "get focus" routine... It takes some time for you to put away your "life" and put focus back on the team.... This is a good team bonding time...

I did your very same "head down" video move last night before I saw your video... If my chest strap was tight, no flip-flop, I simply could not get my shoulder straps over both arms at the same time... (I have wider shoulders than you, but I think my rig fits about the same). I did your "sitfly" move with the same easy out results (WITH THE CANOPY IN)... Less than 30 seconds from putting the rig on to having it on the floor with the straps just where I jump with them... Now I am a slightly bigger guy so I had to get my knees in my face to do it... Second attempt took me 12 seconds... But, with a little more practice, I think I can get out in less than 10... And, my rig was custom made for me and fits snug... Scary, scary, scary... But, I have looked at my body position and wondered, if there was actually weight/tension on the straps and main lift web, I don't think I could do it...

Ya, but if you ever got seriously hurt or worse, the FAA will take your rig to inspect... They find the cypres out of date, the pilot will get reprimanded and the DZ will have issues... The odds are real low, but that would not be the Christmas present you would want to leave behind...