dragon2

For skydiving, on the whole you want to avoid anything with non-electronical image stabilisation in it. The Sony alpha cameras all have sensor stabilisation, for me a very big reason never to buy one. I wouldn't worry about AF, even the oldest Canon/Nikon DSLRs were fine with AF. I'd worry more about a good lens. If you buy the Nikon, you're stuck jumping the kitlens (not quite wide enough for most skydivers, quality not as good as a fixes lens, lens not as fast as a fixed lens) or if you want a good lens like the nikon 16mm, nikon 10.5mm, sigma 15mm you need to jump it MF (quite doable with these wide-angle lenses). This AF/MF thing is the biggest selling point of the cheaper Canon cameras, plus the ease of getting a remote for them. For the more expensive cameras (Nikon D90, Nikon D300, Canon D60 etc) this doesn't make a difference so then you base your choice of camera brand on other things, like which lenses you already have or want, flash system, etc. If you do not already own lenses you want to keep, for the cheapest cameras for skydiving, Canon is the best (easiest) choice. You might also want to look into the lens first, if you can buy a cheap good skydiving lens (usually a fixed f/2.8 15 or 16mm) with either a canon or nikon mount, base your camera choice on that. ciel bleu, Saskia

He was framing rather well, wasnt't he? ciel bleu, Saskia

is this because of the difficulty of kicking? it just seems like 2.5-3 twists, kinda standard for sport rigs sometimes. On student gear, usually linetwist are a non-issue. But on a lot of sports rigs, a few linetwists can cause you to have to cutaway: if the canopy is diving and/or the linetwists are uneven, they may not go out that easily. The smaller a canopy is and the more high performance it is, the more chance you have of problems like that (which can mostly be prevented by body position and packing). ciel bleu, Saskia

Agreed. Those linetwists were not coming out, plus the harddeck of a tandem is much higher than that of a sport skydiver, so bye-bye canopy. And I've been known to swear before/after cutaways too ciel bleu, Saskia

No, just the safire 1 and the omega were affected. ciel bleu, Saskia

4 - land on wrist/lower arm after half-ass PLF ciel bleu, Saskia

Huh? You've got that backwards. I have many jumps on the Sabre 2 and Pilot. The Pilot is far more responsive than the Sabre 2 at the equal sizing. I really don't think so. Especially for wingsuiting, my pilot behaves much better on/after opening than a fusion or sabre 2: less responsive on harness turns, less divey, feels more stable/solid all in all. The pilot 124 feels a bit "boring" compared to a fusion 120/sabre2 120, which I like sometimes ciel bleu, Saskia

On allof the safire 1s (and 2s) I've jumped, you should not roll the nose because it then takes 1000+ ft to open. YMMV, but I wouldn't start out rolling anything. Safire's are not known to slam people, rather they are known for soft openings. And even if yours does, rolling the nose only gives off-heading openings IMO, again, YMMV, but I wouldn't take this as standard advice. ciel bleu, Saskia

The fusion is okay-ish for a first canopy, but it's a good deal more responsive than a pilot, more like a sabre2. ciel bleu, Saskia

Now it's better:) That's what you get for typing on your phone in the bathroom ciel bleu, Saskia

Probably if your one of those people with a lot of remotes, you want to get a all-in-one (logitech harmony type) remote, which are IR. ciel bleu, Saskia

Should be a good canopy choice. A safire is a good choice after student gear. Size sounds right too. Semi-elliptical basically means the canopy is suitable for intermediate jumpers, some for novices. Elliptical means a canopy is suitable for more experienced jumpers (say 400+ jumps). ciel bleu, Saskia

Here ya go. ciel bleu, Saskia

And for the first jump course, Fandango ciel bleu, Saskia

Curious, because I'm a gadget freak Not sure if it's just a fad, I hope not, I like the few 3D movies I've seen and would love a 3D laptop. I think it's going to take a good while though before 3D will make it into many households, there isn't a good standard yet and even if there was, I for one do not have the cash to be buying a new bluray player, new big tv and stuff for a good while. ciel bleu, Saskia

We have a beginner competition twice a year: TRIP-UP (the coaching program here is called TRIP). The teams consist of one coach, one videoflyer, 2 newbies, lots of fun & learning going on! Video from last week's competition (plus some other stuff, watch the clip after the credits.....) here: http://www.paracentrumteuge.nl/index.php?view=weblink&catid=38%3Adagvideos&id=70%3A4-september-2010&option=com_weblinks&Itemid=97 This competition sometimes results in rookie FS treams, it certainly helps you find jumping buddies, you learn a lot, it's also a good way for new camera flyers to get some jumps in, and you generally see the level of jumping (points, confidence) rise after every jump

I've got: Blu-ray 5.1 home cinema set AC Ryan PLAYON HD media player/streamer (with an old 500 gb harddrive in it, for the occasional file that won't stream without hickups) 3x NAS wired 1000 mbit network All set

And that is also a good answer ciel bleu, Saskia

Ugh, not again? Take a look in the camera forum. There's a gazillion threads about why jumping camera with low jump numers is a bad idea, there's a good number of incidents listed about jumpers with small cameras getting themelves or (even worse) others into trouble, and the consensus from just about everybody except some with < 200 jumps is that the 200 jump limit is not outdated, in fact it is fairly low, and small format cameras do not change this as the danger is not so much in the size/weight of the equipment as in the distraction it provides. . ciel bleu, Saskia

I've had a Techno 230 and a Skymaster 230 fight themselves into a downplane, so even 2 canopies that should be totally compatible flying together may very well not. You have to land your reserve way more often by itself than you will have a 2out. Plan for the reserve by itself and forget about the 2 out, would be my advice (after 7 for real reserve rides, 2 intentionals and about 10 reserve-as-main jumps). ciel bleu, Saskia

Tailpocket is fine, CRW canopies have those too. One of the posts above made a valid point about which country you live in, some countries have rules about which mains you can jump. ciel bleu, Saskia

Totally different canopies. Of the 2 I very much prefer the spectre, and so I've heard from a number of jumpers, while others really love their storm. YMMV. ciel bleu, Saskia

Euh, yeah, then they can't jump half the year as jumpers here are obligated to wear gloves when the temp at exit is below freezing. ciel bleu, Saskia

With a good beer belly and decent track you may only be going 90 miles an hour vertically, although you're also going 90 miles an hour forwards for a 127mph air speed which is what the canopy sees when it deploys. I've never jumped a BASE canopy from terminal but I have a number of terminal (ZP) Lightning jumps. A WS jump with a Lightning is doable, a FS type jump, ouch. There is an awful lot of difference between the 2, at least for my body ciel bleu, Saskia

I'm not a student, however I am in the proces of becoming an instructor. Icon product info: I can't get very far ordering a student icon either, seems to be a bug in the website I get stuck on "Select main canopy size" ciel bleu, Saskia