jdhill

my guess is it is the "offended" party testing the waters to see if he is justified in his feeleings... but I could be wrong... still, you don't mess with someone's rig, it does not matter how mad you are at them. Its immature and irresponsible. I would feel completely justified in firing any packer who did that. But that is someone elses dicision in this case. Peace. Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

Hey Jason, How was it playing with the big boys? I couldn't make everything come together to get back out there... looks like there was some stiff comp this time... was that distance run in a downwind? Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

well you gave him a chance... I was looking at the results from the Pro meet earlier and was thinking that they ad to be going downwind to be getting distances like those... how fast were the winds? When I was out there for the intermediate event the winds would come up in the afternoon to about 10-15... a few brave souls made practice runs on the distance course and were getting way out there, but comming real close to getting hurt (in fact one did sprain an anckle that prevented participation the following day). http://www.aerialfusion.com

did he actualy mean less lift or that the canopy runs out of air speed to stay up while it still has a fair amount of ground speed, which may give the impression of having less lift? http://www.aerialfusion.com

I guess I'm kinda confussed... why do we teach students to land into the wind? a wing will stall (no longer provide lift) at a given airspeed with a given loading... that airspeed is the same upwind or downwind... say your canopy has 10mph fwd speed at full flight and stalls at 0mph airspeed and you are landing into a 10 mph head wind... the canopy will come straight down and when you flare it will go backwards up to 10mph(ground speed) before stalling... fly the same canopy down wind at 10 mph... you would have a ground speen of 20mph (10mph of airspeed 10mph of airmass movement - wind), you begin to flair you slow down to and hit the ground at 10mph gound speed because your airspeed went to 0mph while your ground speed was still 10mph (the speed of the "stable air mass"). Canopies may not dive more in a downwind swoop... but their ground track will change during the dive because they are pushed by the airmass, and your flare will be different due tue different airflow over the wing. http://www.aerialfusion.com

Many of my set-ups look like two stages... I was watching videos of my runs in the PPPB intermediate event last week and someone commented "you only did a 90?". In fact it was the end of a long carving 270... the last 90 was just more aggressive... I have had some fairly nice landings doing 270's that are 180 riser carve and a 90 harness turn at the end... lots of speed with a little kick at the end (plus control through the whole turn... can bail out any time)... this can be very effective. Peace Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

a loosened chest strap will let the canopy spread out more naturally (if you have brought the slider down the risers) which "lets the canopy fly"... IMO better performance... I loosen mine all the way to the end, but not undone (I just don't feel comfortable with it off)... some folks take it off all the way, but I think most just loosen it. Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

Here's Luigi on the 46... http://www.aerialfusion.com

According to the Icarus website, 3.5:1 http://www.aerialfusion.com

Luigi Cani - VX-46 http://www.aerialfusion.com

The events start in the morning @ 8:00 PDT... 3 rounds runs till about 11:00 or noon... today is carving accuracy (yesterday was spot accuracy)... tomorrow is distance in the morning and team speed in the afternoon... fun stuff! http://www.aerialfusion.com

Check out the PPPB Pro event on the web @ http://www.perriscam.com/index.htm http://www.aerialfusion.com

the safest way to come in is to fly a solid, pre-planned downwind/base/final approach, not using any control inputs to induce speed... now if you are talking about the safest way to do high performance landings... it has been argued may times... my personal opinion is front risers for many of the reasons you mentioned...but there is soooo much more to it... riser v.toggle; carve v. hook; harness inputs, yada, yada, yada... having said that, if you want to learn high performance landings, seek compotent one on one instruction that goes beyond grab this riser at this altitude... learn the aerodynamics behind the performance... you cannot master the art until you have at least learned the science. be safe; take it slow; and as I have said in another recent thread... live to swoop another day! Peace. Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

I put 800 jumps on on @ 1.4 (well 1.5 after I gained a little weight) before I downsized... you can learn a lot about how to fly a canopy at lower wingloadings... just be careful doing anything low... You can build as much (if not more) speed doing a 90 to double fronts as you can a 180 straight to the toggles, plus the beni of being able to see where you are going the whole time...it sounds like you have the right attitude about it (not being in a hurry)... live to swoop another day! It is some fun stuff... Peace. Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

the 205 is a bit low... but if I remember correctly, a stiletto @ ~1.3 took 4th in distance... learn all you can on it before downsizing... have fun, but be safe. Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

My flat-top has a fairly low angle, but I think it is a little more than a bat-rak... it works well for over the top RW stuff, but needs to be shimmed if you fly under a formation or tandem (not sitting). Mine is shimmed about .25-.5" in the front and seems to work well for my flying style. Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

slinks!!! http://www.aerialfusion.com

Just wanted to post a few thoughts about the Para-Performance Pro Blade Intermediate Games held last weekend @ Perris... 1) It was a great event. Jim and his crew did a great job organizing it, and I think most (if not all) that participated had a great time... oh yeah, great party too. 2) The skill level in the event leaned toward advanced rather than intermediate, but I think everyone leaned a lot. There were a few folks that had done events before, but for many it was their first competition. 3) Canopies and wing loadings... there was a wide variety of canopies in the event... Stiletto, Jedei, Crossfire, Xaos, FX, VX , and Velocity were all in play... wing loadings ranged from around a low of around 1.3 to a high of about 2.4 with a variety of results. 4) Carve v. Hook... the carving turn seemed to be preferred over the hard hook (I say seemed because I only got to see half of the other jumpers as I was at the end of the first load in each round)... the pro's also did more carving during practice on the course... the 270 seemed to be the turn of choice, although there were some 180s and a few 90s... I did not see anyone doing 360's on the course although there were some folks on the DZ doing them. 5) The people... Everyone had a great attitude through the whole event... it was great meeting folks from all over the place...East Coast, West Coast, down south, overseas... lots of sharing of info and ideas... very cool. 6) Safety... as we all know low turns and HP canopies are one of the leading causes of injury or worse in the sport... throughout the competition errors tended to the conservative side... a few folks got a little wet, even fewer got real wet, more folks, when they missed the gates, it was on the high side, not the low. There was only one participant injured (sprained ankle I think) and that was in a practice jump (down wind). I look forward to going to a Pro comp, unfortunately it won't be the one that starts tomorrow (work sucks! and so does last minute airfare!)... Have fun and safe swoops! Peace Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

Camera screw-ups, while they shouldn't, do happen regularly enough that any video consession owner or DZO should have a plan for how to handle them... at the DZ I shoot for it works like this... first we find out if they plan to do another tandem, if so we offer to shoot that video for "free" (that is the video guy that jumped the first time would go on the second jump at no charge to the student and would not be paid for the second jump). If the video guy/girl has any pride in their work this should not be an issue to them. If they do not plan to do another jump it gets a little sticky... if it was a true malfunction of the equipment then the student is offered a partial refund and they get to keep the stills... if it is a error on the camera flyer's part it's a call made by the consession owner/DZO (but the camera flyer's "liability" is generaly limited to what they are paid) In either case, it is generaly the camera flyer, who lost the video for what ever reason, to talk to the student about it. Also, use screw ups as a learning/teaching opportunities... good camera flyers learn from their mistakes, great ones learn from the mistakes of others too. Peace Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

Also try Chapter 2 page 137 of the Premier 6 user's guide (the printed one that comes w/ the program). http://www.aerialfusion.com

Importing is how you get video or audio files that are already on your HD into a project...You should "open" projects and "import" video into them... that can be done either by capturing it or by the "Import" option under the file menu... this should also work for the MP3s... when you open the import dialog box (File>Import>File or Folder) make sure the you select the type of file you plan to import... you can also select "all available file types" (or something like that). Hope this helps... Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

Hey Jason, great meeting you out there... My times were 2.5 (fastest run of the event), 2.96, and 2.73. (Velocity 96 @ 2.25:1) The margin between 1st and 2nd (By Jeff Lahey on a VX 88) was .29 sec over 3 rounds. My distances were 226, 232, and 199 (oops!) (Velocity 103 @ 2.1:1) The 1st place distances (by Jeff Lahey on his VX) were 200, 247 (the longest in the event), and 246 (a 36 foot margin over 3 rounds). Like you said, the competition was tight. I too, was impressed by the field. I would call it more advanced v. intermediate. Lots of great people in this sport! It was cool to see what different techniques, wing loadings, and canopies will do. Seeing a fairly lightly loaded Stiletto take 4th in distance was a surprise. Jim put on a great event. Thanks to him and Perris for the great time! I'm trying to get back out there on Thursday, but time from work and the $600+ airfare may not allow it, but maybe. Rest assured though, I will make it to a Pro event this season. I got to do the Pro Spot Accuracy course on Monday (almost missed my plane for it)... should be cool stuff... 240' on the water and stop on the target will test folks for sure. If I don't get out there good luck! Have fun and be safe. Peace, Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

What version of premier? http://www.aerialfusion.com

your best bet is the "top mount" from Bonehead... getting it all to line up just takes a little time since you should be able to see through the viewfinders on both the still and video. Josh http://www.aerialfusion.com

I have heard that it has an issue with the time it takes to clear the buffer to the CF card... the E-20 has the same issue when shooting at full resolution... You may be able to get 8 shots in the bufffer but then you are done for 30-40 seconds. Don't know for sure that this is the case w/ the D-60 but have read a few reviews on it that indicated such. Still looks like a great camera w/ some potential. http://www.aerialfusion.com