dragon2

For the world top swoopers (and only those) an AAD actually creates a hazard. As demonstrated in the swoop competition in France, where all the swoopers were required to have an AAD and turn it on. Protesting didn't help, they had to. Voila, 2 out. And after that, the fatal accident at Texel, of course. Here in The Netherlands it's mandatory to have an AAD untill your C license (min 200 jumps and a bunch of other stuff). After that, most people still jump with an AAD anyway. I've jumped without for a couple jumps because having 2 rigs and 2 cypresses was getting to be too expensive, and eventually I sold the 2nd rig too. Even experience jumpers can hit the tail on exit on solo jumps, I've seen it happen, so... It comes down to personal responsibility. I don't mind jumping without AAD but I'd rather have one in my rig. I think I've got enough jumps and enough cutaways to make that decision. But if a dz or a country wants to impose an AAD I don't think it's that bad, provided they make allowances for say top swoopers, pond swoopers, planned water jumps and crw jumpers that plan to do low downplanes. ciel bleu, Saskia

One is the Spanish spelling, one is the Catalan spelling. Can't ever remember which is which but if you mess it up the locals get mad ciel bleu, Saskia

Pics... (Als posted in the other Empuria thread) ciel bleu, Saskia

Why don't you ask this in the camera forum? ciel bleu, Saskia

No clue about Toast but I've had a lot of problems doing slideshows in Nero and in Windows Movie Maker as well. Crashing, freezing, stuff like that. This was on a decent computer too. The answer for me was to do only a couple (20-30) pics at a time, make an avi out of that than stitch those together in Premiere than render for use on dvd. Lots of work ciel bleu, Saskia

Why not email PdF and ask them for the manuals? The English part of the site seems unreachable at the moment, I can only find the french manuals. There's a contact page on the website: http://www.parachutes-de-france.com/sources/html/clients/fr/contact/contact.htm Email: infopdf@zodiac.com ciel bleu, Saskia

Huh dpreview says it does have infrared remote, I really thought it didn't. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond50/page19.asp ciel bleu, Saskia

The D50 is no use for skydiving as it hasn't got remote capabilities at all. Unless Harbotronics has a mod for it. The D70 can be used, wireless or with a Harbotronics mod, and the D70s has a cable release (or wireless if you want...) ciel bleu, Saskia

I tried it with my camera suit, since the wings are such I can't fully wave off. Went head down a bit on opening like Billvon said, and had a much-harder-than-usual opening, luckily on my spectre). If you compensate for the headdown you can pull like this, we even have prospective birdmen pull like this from a delta, without a ws. But i didn't like the headdown opening at all esp with my cameras ciel bleu, Saskia

Why? I love my Spectre. Why? Nothing wrong with a Triathlon, excellent canopy for a lot of purposes, esp for a beginner. Some people like 9 cells, some like 7 cells. Some are better off on 7 cells (camera, birdman, accuracy, crw, people wanting to get into BASE, people who want to take things slow, ...), some on 9 cells (generally more speed, glide and flare). ciel bleu, Saskia

We have a lot of rigs at our dz that have a "CRW flap", mine included. It's an extra piece of fabric (triangle) that goes over your reserve flap, not a real tuck-in but it keeps the wind and lines (hence the name) out from underneath your reserve flap. Had my rigger do it, was a pretty cheap mod. ciel bleu, Saskia

10 kg (22 lbs), I needed to weigh it last week for hand luggage allowance Pilot 124, Transfair 128, Atom34 00, Cypres, BirdMan S3S wingsuit, the backpack it was in, some candy and my travel docs. Minus the hookknives of course ciel bleu, Saskia

Exit pic from that jump also explains a lot ciel bleu, Saskia

My Tri from about a decade old actually WAS 30% or so bigger than a new same-sized Tri That Tri 135 was as wide as a Stiletto 150 and was ~1 1/2 cell wider than a new Tri 135 It didn't fit in my rig. Flew fine though. ciel bleu, Saskia

If you're not the last out, generally don't pull higher. Don't leave your toggles stowed, or at least get them un-stowed before your decision altitude, people have had problems with stuck toggles at low altitudes before... If you're running with the wind, some brakes or rear risers (depending on your canopy) will help keep you in the air longer so you'll fly further. Get-back-itis will hurt you more than landing downwind in a field somewhere, so if you can't make it back or are not sure, just do what you did and pick a field by 1500 ft or so. You don't need a wind indicator per se, you should know the wind direction before you go up, and if you know jumprun and where the airport is you should have a good idea of the wind, if not you can do windchecks. Try to stick together as a group when landing out, and maybe one of the others does know the wind. But if you still don't know, or the wind changed or something, landing downwind is way preferable over a low turn. And maybe not getting out is preferable over landing out in the firstplace ciel bleu, Saskia

Who says we don't party on in the bedroom? You're just not invited I think you need to know others and have small scale parties, at least that was what we did. Empuria is a summer town, most clubs are closed. Then again, I'm no party animal so I go for jumping and hanging round the dz anyway. The Orange Kiwi was fun, the other more high-class restaurant we went to on wednesday didn't seem to appreciate our festive mood very much, Captains Cabin and Surf In should also be good but we didn't go there this time. ciel bleu, Saskia

Hey Sarah, did you guys get winded out yesterday too? When we left wednesday morning it was picking up pretty bad, looked like a starting tramontana I had a really great time, even though I bit through my biteswitch so not many pics And even though our appartment was COLD ciel bleu, Saskia

I know a couple jumpers that have bigger lightnings (I think 173 and up) that can also be used for regular freefall jumps. You have to put a bag and big slider (with pockets maybe) on 'em for freefall jumps, but they work fine. I think you want the hybrid F111/ZP or all-F111 version of these lightnings, not the all-ZP ones, and not the smaller lightnings (143 and lower). So maybe that lightning 193 could work for you, if you modify it slightly. It'll be harder finding a used hybrid Triathlon in that size... ciel bleu, Saskia

My cables asren´t too long, they´re slightly too short really. I did 2 jumps with the s3s today, love the suit but hate the handles. In the plane they work themselves loose, and that´s sitting still on a bench in a twinotter. I´m not gonna like our more ¨active¨ grand caravan... I saw another guy with an s3s he just put a bit of velcro on his. ciel bleu, Saskia

I think the European (Spanish) Safire 1's are great canopies, but I've heard different about American made Safire's. Anyway my Safire 1 135 was a great canopy, it still is, the girl who bought it off me a year or so ago now wants to buy another one for her 2nd rig. ciel bleu, Saskia

Now it looks like this. I started out that way but the loop seems too long or the keeper should be lower... Is this how it's supposed to look? ciel bleu, Saskia

I totally agree.. and even if you dont have a DSLR it is worth it. The cards are not only faster in your camera, but they will also allow you to download your pictures faster.. I hate waiting on the slow cards to finally be all on my harddrive, the UltraII cards are lightning fast.. Iwan I agree too, I bought a Digital Rebel XT and used a regular Lexar card at first. I kept on getting errors and when we put that card into other cameras, it would lock up the other cameras too. Since then I have been using Sandisk Extreme and have not had a single problem since then. A faster card is no guarantee it won't break, we've had an Ultra and an Ultra2 break down (not possible to use in camera or pc, unable to format etc). But these cards have a pretty long warranty so they get replaced for free. ciel bleu, Saskia

I just got a demo S3S, but not sure how to attach the cables. Forgot to take a photo, hangar is closed right now, but I drew a picture. It seems to me I'm missing a keeper to secure the bottom end of the cutaway tab? But there doesn't appear to be room for any because of the zipper. Does this look correct or what? I'm afraid it'll slip... ciel bleu, Saskia

The camera's on the market now don't allow for stills AND video at the same time, it's one or the other. You can make "stills" from screengrabs from the video later but that's even lower quality. ciel bleu, Saskia

You can use a memory card for overlaying a logo or frame etc too, I've seen that done when firewiring tape to others so the copyright thing was quite clear. Not sure if the HC 32 can do that, my camera can but I've never used it. ciel bleu, Saskia