dragon2

Thanks

I do like to photograph outside of skydiving, my thing is more macro though. In nature, not in a studio. And that has been nearly impossible this "summer" as well, due to the wind While a bit of rain doesn't hurt things, a teeny breeze looks like a storm through a macro lens ciel bleu, Saskia

While that hitchhiking is admittedly quite cool , I personally don't like the cheststrap being used as a "grip", same with "hangers" on a VRW jump. There's so much force onto the cheststrap, at angles it was not made for, plus it distorts the entire harness. I dunno if anyone ever had problems resulting from this, but like I said, it's something I personally am weary of doing... I would be interested to hear how others feel about this. ciel bleu, Saskia

So, I'm grounded ATM for coughing for 8 weeks (so what?) which apparently warrants thorax pics and inhalation powder (bleh). Meaning, I have this entire 3 day weekend with nothing to do. So far I'm mostly through day 1, been playing Farmville for way too long and made 12 chicken tortillas and ate only 1. Anybody hungry..? I *hate* this summer ciel bleu, Saskia

Whenever tandempassengers ask me that, I let them swim for the video Monkey-see-monkey-do: I swim, the tandempassenger responds, usually ciel bleu, Saskia

Ouch A hard opening on my normally soft opening vengeance landed me in the hospital once on suspicion of a broken back, turned out to be "just" a few bruised ribs. Hard openings can happen with tandems as well ciel bleu, Saskia

Student canopies are geared to land you safely, but they are not the slowest-opening canopies: to prevent students from thinking they have a malfunction because opening takes so long, and to give the canopy less time to develop problems stemming from less-than-optimal body position, student canopy openings are on the more "positive" side. Also, speed=lift so properly landing a somewhat smaller, faster canopy will let you land softer than even a modern type student canopy (and not all student canopies are that modern, or that brand new). So, if you have back problems, there are other canopies that would be more appropriate than the average student canopy. And remember, EVERY canopy can open hard even those renowned for their slow openings can open so hard that lines break, and you WILL land hard a couple of times regardlesss of which canopy you might jump. Hence over here we require a (simple) medical before you can jump (not for tandems). Not a bad thing to ask from a newbie skydiver, IMO, especially since they have no idea what might present them with medical problems when skydiving. When you have more jumps (C license) you are expected to make your own decisions regarding medical issues, unless you are a tandemmaster. ciel bleu, Saskia

Yeah, that would be my feeling as well. We have waaaay more students not progres after SL than after AFF. But that's firstly because most of them just go for the military wing and consider themselves done after 5 jumps. After that, they may have trouble getting off the rope and get frustrated by that and may quit. But again, if you really WANT to, you will just keep jumping until you get it. Once people progress to freefall, they usually have a quick progression and I doubt many of them at that stage quit because it's a whole new world again My gut feeling is that some AFFers for whom money isn't the issue treat AFF like a holiday thing (take a week and learn to skydive) and never see it as a sport they'd want to keep doing, these may never finish AFF. I believe, anyone who WANTS to jump will keep jumping for at least a year or 2, regardless of the method used. SL may require a bit more effort and stamina than AFF while AFF costs more money. By the time a jumper has a couple dozen jumps, he/she has shown the will to jump, but is now at the stage where there's a well-known "black hole" where if you don't put some effort into finding jump mates or are loked after very well in that way by the DZ, people may get fed up with doing solos or jumping aimlessly and quit. To help with this, we try to organise a couple of coach-slash-competiton events a year for newer jumps to introduce them to potential jump buddies and give them goals like forming a rookie FS team or trying out something new like FF or CRW. ciel bleu, Saskia

If your glasses won't fit under regular size z-flex or sky eyes goggles, I'd strongly recommend jumping smaller glasses (or lenses or a fullface helmet). Over-the-glasses goggles catch a lot of wind so they are not comfy and can get blown up by the wind, to the point of losing them + your glasses if you're unlucky. That's when just bellyflying. If you want to fly head-up, definitely don't use them. ciel bleu, Saskia

Last weekend, I asked a new solo jumper to open the door (just open it, no spotting) and he was reaal nervous about it, feeling he was going to fall out. He did NOT have a problem with sticking his head out the door for spotting which he'd done before, just opening the sliding door which he hadn't. Of course, after I "made" him do it he was like "that was no big deal and I didn't fall out" ciel bleu, Saskia

Thanks everyone, for settling my doubts

Who said that this jump was made in Russia or Eastern Europe? The guy asked how long before we see a TANDEM BASE. He didn't say anything about a specific place. + 1....Bob is cool He meant BASE with 2 passengers though, and even Bob hasn't done that (yet? ). ciel bleu, Saskia

Meh, triple tandems have been done before ciel bleu, Saskia

So, earlier today I was sitting in the plane for a tandemvideo with a to me unknown solo jumper sitting in front of me. He was wearing a camera helmet. Said helmet was a skate-type helmet with soft ears, no single-point cutaway system on it (not even possible on a helmet like that, AFAIK), and on top was mounted a contour HD that was also connected home-rigging-style with a steel cable to the helmet. Since I had a couple minutes to talk to him about it, I did. He said he had never had heard any remarks about the helmet the way it was, and that he'd had the helmet looked over by another camera flyer and that it had been declared safe. I said it was not and that if I were him I'd get it fixed real soon, and I told him why. I didn't see the jumper again after finishing the tandemvideo, which was what I was kinda afraid of and why I talked to him on the way up as I though his was a fairly dangerous setup. However another instructor scolded me later in the day for talking to him right before a jump, making him nervous (which I didn't even see but the other instructor said the solo jumper was trying to remove the steel cable on the way up for a bit). Now I'm a pretty new instructor but have been a cameraflyer and camera go-to gal for a number of years. So my point was made more with that in mind than as an instructor, but then again this was not a newer jumper (he has a couple hundred jumps and had been jumping that setup for a while) and I thought the situation demanded action on my part. What would other instructors/camera flyers have done in this situation? ciel bleu, Saskia

The original wingsuits is my guess... The boy has a 1 track mind... Sorry, Yorkshire Birdman pic on my wall above my desk. I didn't know there was a canopy by that name. A bit before your time... Though you may have heard it referred to as "Splatwing" Was a cool-looking canopy for sure, I want me a canopy of that purple-camo-whatever fabric ciel bleu, Saskia

This, plus the odds of finding yourself under a reserve by itself are much higher than finding yourself under both canopies at the same time. Totally correct. I forgot to add that ciel bleu, Saskia

While your general post is correct, what do your brakelines and a reserve being a 7cell have anything to do with this issue? I've never heard of anyone re-setting the brake length on a reserve, and 7cells are quite common as main canopies too (spectre, triathlon etc) and are really not that much harder to land than a 9cell - in fact a lot of people think they are easier to land. ciel bleu, Saskia

You choice might not fly together in any other configuration than down-plane in case of two-out. I really don't buy the 2out argument for getting same-size canopies. I HAVE had a 2out with a student main & reserve and they still downplaned all by themselves. And no way is my vengeance 135 going to play nice with any size reserve anyway. So, my advice always is to get a reserve you can land safely in a challenging situation, ie, not smaller than the smallest main you are comfortable jumping and preferably bigger. ciel bleu, Saskia

I doubt it. ciel bleu, Saskia

Dunno, but I have a few rides on my previous Transfair (128sqft, at ~1.2 WL) and it opened fairly soft especially compared to the newer Techno, in fact I had closed endcells on 2 of the rides ciel bleu, Saskia

N/A

You want to find yourself low, landing out, with adrenaline up to your ears after your first cutaway, having to land the tiniest canopy you ever jumped at probably a pro - to expert level wingloading, go right ahead and buy that combo. ciel bleu, Saskia

Uh, first off, I'm hoping your posted jump numbers are waaay off. Second, the basic stuff: for freefall cameraflying, only jump slow opening canopies that open on heading too (off-heading brisk-ish openings are way worse IMO for your neck than simply harder openings). Also do NOT look up at your openings. Third, start with just the video camera on top. Get used to flying that, get used to flying camera, get the shots and get used to the weight. When you have video flying dialed in, only THEN add the stills. Your neck will by then be used to flying camera more and it won't be such a shock to your neck. It will still be tough on your neck though, not the healthiest thing you could be doing to your body. But getting the right muscles to develop does help a LOT. Then again, your helmet isn't THAT heavy, I started with a much heavier video camera myself as did any cameraflyer that has been at it for 5+ years, and the still camera was way heavier too. And yeah, I had some cramped muscles along the way, and a few people I know have REALLY gotten hurt (neck/back) jumping camera. No-one ever said serious camera flying is easy ciel bleu, Saskia

Tandem passenger under canopy: I want to try something, is that OK? TM: sure. ... Me on the ground filming them: WTF, am I seeing that right? ciel bleu, Saskia

If you do that and consequently hurt your ankle or leg, I'm actually going to laugh at you for being so dumb. Feet TOGETHER can take a good bit of force, flare time perfect or otherwise. Feet APART is what gets you hurt, this is even possible with good flare timing and with a big canopy to boot. ciel bleu, Saskia