dragon2

I'm going to have to strongly disagree with that. It works fine, it's only limitation is the frame rate, which is more than adequate for skydiving. The frame rate is faster than my film SLR. If I was buying a camera today I would probably spend the few extra dollars to get the 350D (Rebel XT), but if I was on a budget a used 300D would be just fine. It has proven to me to be a very reliable camera. I've put close to 400 jumps on mine. _Am Maybe for regular tandem/FS4 etc it's fine, but it doesn't have spot metering (IMO a must for any Canon camera), it's slower than the other dslr's (although still fast enough for most freefall stuff of course), and the biggest problem, it hangs all the time. Different 300D's gave nothing but error99 when jumping from C130's, at 22000 ft but also as low as exits from 16000ft. Both in Thailand and in The Netherlands, different climates too. I've seen 10D's and 20D's do the same BTW but much more rarely. Both Nikon's and the other Canon's lightmetering is way better. The body is cheap plastic (although an advantage when it comes to the weight). It's slow. It hangs a lot during skydiving, this probably has to do with the cheap plastic body. Pictures from D10's and D20's are simply better. I was always a Canon fan, but I cannot in honesty recommend this camera to anyone for skydiving purposes. Nor can any of the "pro" cameraguys I've talked to about this camera. Mabe I hang with fussy cameraguys too much and it's rubbing off But hey, it's your money. ciel bleu, Saskia

Do a search on this forum, there are several problems with it. It's a toy camera compared to the rest of the DSLR's. I don't know any top cameramen who (still) use it. For instance, a week of error99's during a world record is not funny. Don't know about the 350D yet, haven't heard much about it. But the 300D like I said is rubbish. It's not reliable, mainly. I couldn't get rid of mine fast enough, even though I got a full page print in Parachutist with it last year... ciel bleu, Saskia

My first three jumps were SL, I remembered sitting in the plane, then, canopy. The fourth jump that day was a tandem jump-in, I woke up right after exit and never had the problem again. OK so I'm slow ciel bleu, Saskia

Don't get fixated on megapixels. If you buy a digital slr even 3 megapixel is better than way more mp on a small digi camera, because the sensor is way bigger (as is the lens). IE you're better off quality wise with a second hand EOS D30 or D60 than with a new small camera. A 300D is rubbish really. ciel bleu, Saskia

I keep hearing that but I personally think that's nonsense. Not necessarily that your reserve should be of similar size, but the reasoning behind it. I HAD a downplane once, with a manta 288 and a pd 256 (253? whatever) reserve. Close enough in size, and they still downplaned after flying in a biplane for 1000ft. You're telling me a PD 126 will play nice with a Vengeance 120? I very much doubt it. I personally choose my reserve canopies based on what I'd want to land in a difficult situation, because I think that there is WAY more change of me being under "just" my reserve (so far, 1 downplane vs 3 malfunctions), and because I doubt that if I HAVE a 2-out the canopies are going to play nice anyway. I just want a reserve I'm comfy with. That isn't even limited to size, I got rid of my Micron 175 (ChuteShop) reserve because I pounded in (WL .8), I like my Transfair 128 (WL 1.2) much better. Don't want to try a Tempo 120 but wouldn't mind a PD113 or Techno 115 at all. Untill I see some stable 2 outs with newer canopies instead of the large old F111 canopies they tested with, I'm sticking to this ciel bleu, Saskia

Why? If a student is very small (and also very lightweight) and therefore in danger of falling out of regular (280/220) student rigs, a sabre 170 or 190 might not be a bad idea, IMO. It´s been done here before. However a Sabre2 is more hp and wouldn´t be allowed here. Putting a 100 lbs girl in a one-size-fits-most rig can also be described as `attempted murder` since falling out of such a rig is easily possible. That said, I have no clue about this particular girl, and I agree with the no-dating rule.... ciel bleu, Saskia

Some of the pics on phoenixfly.com are taken with a nikon D70, namely mine The infrared remote is not perfect, but it works... Of course the D70s is better in that regard, but if you already have a D70 or can get one cheap....

And even if English isn't our first language, we never ask for our own regional forum 'cause we don't need it Wij kunnen prima engels..... ciel bleu, Saskia

I don't have a PD manual handy but I doubt that's really the way they tell you to do it It's supposed to be: upper steering line with fingertrapped loop at the lower end, connects to lower steering line which has fingertrapped loops at both ends, the lowest loop connects your toggle to your steering line. The lower steering line comes out of the toggle at the top (where your loose end is). There are other setups but this is most common. A knot instead of the lowest fingertrap can help determining optimal brake settings but I'd rather redo a few fingertraps myself, don't like the possibility of a knot coming loose. Or NEVER coming loose if I want to change settings ciel bleu, Saskia

I usually use a 28-135 or 35-200 for shooting landings, plenty long enough. And even 28 or 35 is too long if people know you're there and come close to you. ciel bleu, Saskia

Be very careful with just downloading codecs, and definately NEVER install any codec packs. You can totally screw up your pc that way. You shouldn't need 35 codecs, or you're viewing some real obscure stuff Generally, the standard quicktime, realplayer, windows media, divx and xvid codecs should work for just about anything and will not get you into trouble. ciel bleu, Saskia

I'm assuming you're talking about a video camera, not stills? Get a Sony. Nothing else. If you want to copy video to your camera you need DV-in, here in Europe there are a lot of models that have DV-in disabled, not sure if the same goes for the USA. For the rest, you need to decide if you want a topmount or sidemount, most models work better for one or the other. Most Sony models will work, but don't get one that writes to DVD or uses microMV tapes, you want a mini DV camera. There are models which have docking station where most of the ports are located, I don't like docking statons myself, it makes the camera smaller though. ciel bleu, Saskia

I use the same cleaning stuff that I use for my PDA and laptop screen, from a computerstore. ciel bleu, Saskia

I've got an old vector for sale that fits your base canopy (currently holds a foil 282) and is real cheap, see classifieds ciel bleu, Saskia

I'm not entirely sure what you're doing... The safe margins are for TV. You need to make a video that's full screen, so beyond the safe margins in Premiere. If there's a possibility prople will watch your vid on TV, any titles and stuff need to be inside the safe margins, and the footage will get cut off a bit around the edges. But for watching on a pc, you need to fill the entire frame. ciel bleu, Saskia

Not required per se, but in a 2 out situation that you have to chop because it's downplaning, disconnecting the rsl first prevents the rsl from snagging anything. I didn't disconnect mine when I found myself in that situation, because I didn't know to. But next time I would, if I had the time. Then again, not many people have 2 outs at +2k that also downplane later on I'd use an rsl for sure, if I didn't jump camera and wingsuit so much. And I know how to find my handles too ciel bleu, Saskia

I would have to agree with you on that. I mean, I can't see myself getting severe line twists with a wing loading of .96 Pity I wasn't wearing my camera when I had to chop my Spectre (yes a Spectre) at WL 1.1 because it was spinning so hard it was straight in front of me. No visible malfunction other than "just linetwists". ciel bleu, Saskia

I think that's a better example of how up-jumpers can be amped up idiots and lose their cool. Depends, if they thought the guy was going to jump out too. One time I saw a JM physically restrain a guy from jumping, the guy was really mad and complained later that he'd been hit. Well I saw what happened, the guy was told to WAIT after the CRW formation got out, but he didn't because one of our TM's smiled at him and nodded him to go. I presume that was a joke, because the jumper should've known better IMO. But he tried to get out past a JM's arm (he didn't need a JM anymore, however apperantly he DID since we were over the city, 1.5 miles before the DZ, and he must've had 150 or more jumps), then he tried again more forcibly to get past the JM who was half blocking the door, then got knocked back a bit for his troubles because he tried AGAIN, the JM telling him to STAY PUT. And then he complained about violence. Riiiight ciel bleu, Saskia

I think in the UK it's 500 jumps, however if you're very current (100 jumps in the last 1 to 1 1/2 yrs) and have at least 200 jumps, most wingsuit instructors from other countries will teach you. I think you need to have those jumps recorded very well (logbook, video) to be able to jumps a wingsuit in the UK after doing the course, probably also depends on which DZ you are. ciel bleu, Saskia

You have got to be kidding. You realise HOW FAST you're going when a cypres fires, right? Do you really think you have any chance at all to survive spiraling in at that speed? And you're way too low to do anything about it if your cypres is getting scared. More fabric = good, at this point. No way are you going to fix the situation you're in if you're spiraling down that fast, if you haven't before. A potential etanglement is way better than certain death, in my book. I see absolutely no safety reasons (money though...) to not use a non-snaggable, modern AAD in crew, if you're not taking downplanes below 1000ft. That my crw rig currently doesn't have one is purely money related, which is a fairly stupid reason I think but that's how it is. The rig's for sale now, too. ciel bleu, Saskia

The first thing a lot of canopy coaches do (at least the ones that've been to our dz) is freeze-frame video of everyone's swoop and look at the tail. Turns out most brake lines are too short! Velo's and Xaos's too ciel bleu, Saskia

They will fly a bit different, you may like one better than the other, but if I were you I'd go for either a pilot or safire 1/2. I've seen a few sabre2's that have unpredictable (or even predictable ) hard and/or off heading openings. The safire2 I'm jumping now has rediculously slow openings, ditto for the safire1 I have 80 jumps on, and the pilot I jumped a few times opened nice and slow. Any canopy CAN open hard but I'd put my faith in these rather than in a sabre2. ciel bleu, Saskia

Act like they knew everything in the FJC. There was one student at our DZ who came in, skydive t-shirt, Teva's and all, and apperantly kept telling the FJC instructor "But that's not what it says in the Skydiving Handbook!" Also his landing in a low turn, or the landing on the runway weren't his fault in any way. I was amazed to see another SL student perform continuous stall turns on his Manta, all the way down to 100 ft or so, with a rig with FXC. Think it was his third or fourth jump. ciel bleu, Saskia

The last Herc Boogie video had some footage of SL rounds openings, high speed (duh) and low. ciel bleu, Saskia

I think this advice is insane. Others may or may not share my opinion. Well I got this advice a couple hunderd jumps ago, when I didn't have any hp experience whatsoever (my own main still is a spectre 135), and an unexpected velo 84 (then the smallest he had) might be a bit much. Like I said, now I might try flying it first... I of course check the rig real good so I can avoid this situation in the first place ciel bleu, Saskia