dragon2

Well at least it's mucho better than if you landed at the same time as your OWN canopy My advice: everybody is out to get you! ciel bleu, Saskia

Hah hah yeah, we got probs in Thailand this year too, on the way back though, mainly because of the fact that we were "slightly overweight" LOL. Our special 60 kg/person allowance didn't quite fit the bill . And we all had the portable stuff too... "But the Queen of Thailand invited us" didn't get us very far in Germany unfortunately. We could get on the plane eventually but turned out they left some of our baggage behind in Germany. Expensive stuff, of course The Thai though were very accomodating, no complaints there. But we didn't ship stuff in. Heard stories that other stuff people had shipped was usually late because of customs, and sometimes people had to pay large amounts of import duties to get stuff in... What was funny when we came back there was the bird flue thing, but since we came in through Germany we didn't have to de-contaminate in Holland like everybody else because we didn't come from Thailand!? Whatever... ciel bleu, Saskia

I´ve always felt music to be too much of a distraction, esp. with low jumpnumbers. I know people who´ve done it a couple times, for the heck of it. If I were to do it today (don´t see any reason to though) I´d do solo a hopnpop from 12k and fly around. This way I could LISTEN to the music, and the least amount of stuff can go wrong (just pay attention where you´re going). Of course you should ask permission from your instructors. They may not let you do it at all (I wouldn´t but I´m no instructor) or maybe they have some tips. Like how to make sure you secure the player properly so you won´t drop it on somebody´s head. If the player´s memory isn´t solid state you can forget it anyway since it´ll break. Anyway, don´t try this without approval of your instructor! ciel bleu, Saskia

I know a guy that lost his very first rig at a DZ in Spain (I think, or maybe it was France) without having put 1 jump on it.... And the insurance company said he left it alone, even though everybody leaves his/her gear in the hangar. No coverage so he was out the money! This was during a jump-day, BTW... ciel bleu, Saskia

The things that get lost at our DZ are things like Barigo altimeters, pro-tracks, black gloves, goggles. Stuff that everybody has, stuff that looks the same, so mostly I tthink it's a case of mistaken identity... Though a pro-track might be different A lot of this stuff turn up again too. I did lose a go-Fast longsleeve T once, and lost a pair of FF pantz for like half a year... And I try not to leave my camera's and stuff in plain view of the tandem crowd but then again, I leave my laptop at the bar ciel bleu, Saskia

I'll take the floor too please! Don't need benches... ciel bleu, Saskia

OK thanx, and thanx for the apology

LOL guess you're right, guess I'm thinking "BirdMan" and "CRW" too much Although I suppose even then it might work, for a part of the circuit, anyway... Rats, something else on my wanna-have list ciel bleu, Saskia

Well aren't we friendly... I DID ask my BMI, like I said. He said to tighten the cheststrap te prevent flying out when opening. Apparantly HE thinks this IS a risk. The result of his advise, like I said, is that my MLW isn't entirely straight (on my own rig, when I'm wearing his, it's way worse like I said). Apperantly this is a risk, also. I wasn't fishing for an answer, just explaining why I tighten up so much, like you asked. ciel bleu, Saskia

No SLR/DSLR camera I know of has a built-in uv filter, but, personally I use uv filters only for lens-protection so I'd get one anyway. I have one on all my lenses, some nice B+W ones, some cheapo... Tiffen is good, or Hoya (esp the multi-coated ones). B+W is great but $$$$ I've never noticed a diff between clear and UV, but I've used skylight filters that I did notice. With a DSLR you can set your own whitebalance anyway, esp if you're shooting RAW. A circ polarizer is great but only on the ground, or maybe a lucky shot in freefall, since you have to rotate it just right in relation to the sunlight. If you do get it right, well I've seen some beautiful freefall shots somewhere, WOW As for a list of filters, I know Hoya has one, but I can't find it at the moment. Found this for a bit of info: http://www.camerastore.com/cat_003_hoya/003-hoyacats.html Cokin's list of filters may also interest you (don't buy them though, at least not the square ones, for jumping): http://www.geocities.com/cokinfiltersystem/theguide.htm ciel bleu, Saskia

Not while flying, but the opening is the issue. Esp if I'm still flying forward a lot (for instance after getting rid of a pilotchute in my burble) I feel much happier if everything is snug round my shoulders because that's where the opening shock is going to be, with my canopy opening all the way while still behind me. You also get the cleanest deployments while still flying more then breaking, but you also get the nicest bruises on your shoulders that way Anyway my BMI always says to tighten your cheststrap more than usual for BM. But usually I already have mine tight ciel bleu, Saskia

If you are having a spinning mal and you chop at 700-800 ft with an RSL your reserve will likely open into line twists (or worse) which you will have the rest of your life to try and kick out of... the trick is to not get into that kind of situation to begin with. A cutaway from a spinning mal + RSL = NOT necessarily line twists on your reserve! Since you'll be flung away form the canopy with your feet into the relative wind you're stable and not spinning anymore. My own 2 spinners gave me zero linetwists with or without RSL... Personally I think you're way better of at >1000 ft with an RSL then without if you are low with something unlandable. You're only option if low is to pull your reserve without cutaway, with no guarantees that you're going fast enough for it to open and that is has the time to open. Of course like you said, the best remedy is to not get there at all, but if you're canopy gets clipped by somebody else or something, and you're low, good luck! ciel bleu, Saskia

I use a 1GB microdrive (for ground shots only, obviously) and 3 512 MB fast CF cards. I don't run out of space quickly, but it has been known to happen... For the large amount of money those data dump thingies cost, no thanx. I just keep my laptop handy. And should the 4 cards not be enough, I might consider just getting a couple more. I'm not really a fan of the really big cards at the moment, because A) they're much pricier, and mostly B) if I lose one, I'd rather not lose a very large amount of pictures at once... edited to add: I use a 6 MP Nikon D70. When shooting RAW with the 14 MP Kodak pro earlier this year, I came to appreciate 1 GB and over cards way more! ciel bleu, Saskia

-1- read the Camera Flyer FAQ at the top of this forum -2- do a forum search -3- get to at least twice your jumpnumber -4- search some more -5- get a Sony -6- have fun

Another nice one: borrowing a too-big birdman suit of a type I'd never jumped before (GTi, jumped Classic1/2, Skyflyer1, MTR-1 before), out of a plane I had 6 jumps out of (door was on the wrong side!), on a DZ I had 6 jumps on, in hilly terrain when I only jump on flat stuff usually, with a borrowed rig with a for me new type of canopy (Super7, suitable for BM and a 150 when I jumped a 135/126). Oh yeah, also put on my camera helmet for my second freefall camera jump ever of which this was the first BM jump (I did have like 50 CRW camera jumps). Dove out of the airplane (C207, the tail looked low to me), STABLE I might add :-) flew a decent if a little bit wobbly circuit (hmm that suit is biggish, and turning my head with that topmount is interesting...), opened a little high to be safe, no prob, unstowed brakelines - WOW these are WAY TOO SHORT. Like, flaring ended at shoulder hight! OK, the DZ is on that hill over there, I can make that. Eh, I'm not going forward (winds had picked up and turned 180 and this canopy sank like hell) Ok, uphill? No, not gonna make that either, downhill? Shit where were those powerlines again? Landed downhill for the first time in my life, between 2 sets of powerlines, in the middle of a corn field... Took me a looong walk to get back! Again, nothing went wrong, but... Whaddayamean, not so smart?! ciel bleu, Saskia

Took 2 guys with 100 jumps each for a loose exit/ horny gorilla/sitfly jump. I had all of like 350 jumps. One guy messed up the exit by grabbing me for stability, then lost stability anyway, then staying up for a looong time on his belly before trying to come down. He didn't make it of course. We made it a 2way sitfly jump while keeping track of him.... Nobody got hurt, but it wasn't the brightest idea I ever had... BTW one of those 2 (the one that did follow the plan) now has >1000 jumps and is a newby freefly coach ciel bleu, Saskia

For BM jumps I tighten my chest-strap a lot, so the MLW is not straight anymore. Also when I borrow my friends rig, which is slightly too large, I tighten the chest strap as far as it will go. This is a narrow chest strap. It leaves me with like only a fingers length of chest strap... How easy is it to load it up or over 500 pounds? Am I taking a large risk in jumping my friends rig like that? ciel bleu, Saskia

The newb's I've flown with go anywhere from 99 mph to

I can flock with just about anything in my Classic2, from newb's going 99 mph in Classics to triple (!) rodeo dives to regular tracking dives no prob. Not much fun either as far as flying goes, but no prob... Haven't tried any of this in my S3 yet, should be fun "how to fold up a wingsuit"... If you can call any of that flocking... ciel bleu, Saskia

Search for threads about lenses for 10D/20D, these are okay for the rebel too. My fav on the D30 and the 300D for the short time I had it was an old Canon 35-135. Right now I'd buy the IS version for ground shots (depends on what YOU want, if you need a bigger angle maybe get a 19-35 or something) ciel bleu, Saskia

Well done

So far, I've bought a wingsuit and 2 canopies through dropzone.com. Also sold some stuff. So far, no problemo :knocks on wood:. Only surprise was when the triathlon 120 I bought turned out to be a hybrid triathlon 120, which I think should've been mentioned in the ad but was exactly the canopy I had been looking for so I didn't complain

Well if you jump a bungee, you prolly shouldn't be doing 2k hopnpops, at nighttime or otherwise... For me, that was the reason to get a killline pc when my bungee needed replacing and the F111 was getting old anyway. My spectre 150 took 1000ft to open from a hopnpop, wasn't real happy with that. My current spectre 135 still doesn't go fast enough to re-inflate the pc. Don't know what the "limit" is for canopy size or WL, personally on anything 150 or smaller (WL 1 for me) I want a collapsible or retractable PC, of whatever type, but no idea when the bungee will stop working should I pull a hookturn (which I don't anyway). If I jumped a stiletto 135 it would still be alright with a bungee though. It's not the canopy type per se, it's the airspeed you can get. A reinflating pc all of a sudden would be bad, esp close to the ground. But there are thousands bungee pc's still around, the system is not that bad. At least you cannot forget to cock it! And there is a mod you can do to fix the re-inflating problem I think. You still need the airspeed, which at terminal should not be a problem (if you dropped a shoulder to look, well, why did you?), but with a bungee don't immediately throw the pc on a hopnpop but wait a couple secs untill you've gained some speed. At least that was what I was told. Didn't like that (if I had to get out at or below 2k I would've pulled silver with that canopy and that pc) so I switched... ciel bleu, Saskia

Hah hah yeah, but then you've got the better camera The 300D is much slower after 4 pics than the D70 is... Listen to this: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1376582;search_string=mp3%20d70;#1376582 ciel bleu, Saskia

Have you read the stuff the Babylon boys from Empuria Brave have on their website? They make you start out in a ball at first and you have to complete a bunch of excercises each time before you can move on. Here in Holland we're not that strict, hoewver if you get your B license doing freefly (you have to pick a discipline and prove you can do the basic requirements for a competition) you'll learn a lot and are automatically cleared for HD with others. You are technically not allowed to do HD with other people who are not coaches otherwise, but people do, anyway. For head-up, you may be stopped if an instructor realizes you're planning a 4way sitfly with 200 jumps between you, but most of the time you can go ahead. Which sometimes leads to problems (separation, heading control, gear choices - what, should I have asked if I could freefly this Invader?!) so probably some new rules will be implemented at some point..... We tend to love rules here ciel bleu, Saskia