dragon2

While that's a common answer, I wonder how common it is to actually do. . I do. Ditto. Landed out a few times without one (yeah I'm a slow learner), been left in the snow for 45 minutes waiting for the van that forgot half a load, a few jumps like that and you'll bring a cellphone along next time Now just don't forget to charge it every now and then... ciel bleu, Saskia

Like Wendy said, the Diablo is not for beginners. Over here you need 400 jumps to jump one, regardless of size. I had 800+ jumps when I bought a Diablo 120 (WL 1.25) I did 10-15 jumps on that Diablo and it scared me a few times on opening, so I quickly sold it again. It's hotter than a same-size Vengeance/Crossfire when it wants to be. A friend of mine had to chop his because he twisted it into linetwists after it was open, just by leaning in the harness. A low turn on toggles on a Diablo might just be your last. Be very careful with that canopy. ciel bleu, Saskia

I can't remember what color it was showing, but the one time my hype-eye didn't give me blue followed by red I quickly tried to trouble-shoot, and ejecting then pushing back in the memory card did the trick for me. YMMV We also have some problems with static electricity messing up CX-series cameras - moving over carpet in the plane followed by touching the metal bars. Not sure what color that one gives, but I think a on/off cycle helps there. Although not THAT much help as this typically happens when you're just climbing out of course ciel bleu, Saskia

Basically, you just deal with the bad spot. You can't just pull at 5 or 6 k unless you are very very certain there is no one above you (others in your group, THE CAMERAFLYER),no one left the plane after you and also pullling high is allowed at your DZ and at that time (could be other planes in the air, wingsuiters, etc). If it's just you and one other jumper you might point down to get the point across and wave off a little bit early (0,5 k or so, maybe 1k), been there done that with tandems. Other than that, best to stick to the original plan, unless in case of emergency. Generally, a bad spot is not an emergency (unless you got out above alligator swamps and then you shouldn't have gotten out should you ). Deviating from the original plan can lead to way more serious consequences than having to land out. Also, learn to spot better if this keeps happening to you ciel bleu, Saskia

WHY? Take a look around in the winsuit forum... I and a few other wingsuit instructors with me are less fond of people doing solos and/or tracking jumps than of people doing lots of group RW jumps. ciel bleu, Saskia

That's what I meant in my post but you said it much better

Skip the tracksuit, put your money in jumps jumps jumps. Preferably group belly dives at first, throw in some solo sitfly dives later on. The group belly flying will help you in numerous ways, also make sure you are very current (say 200 jumps in 1,5 years) and 500 jumps is better than 200 so don't focus all on that jumpnumber. It also helps to fly a forgiving canopy (up to sabre2/fusion) at a reasonably wingload and learn that canopy inside and out (vs. jumping a fairly new to you and/or a fairly high performance canopy on your wingsuit jumps). ciel bleu, Saskia

This vid contains an example of a safer way to do a Mr Bill. ciel bleu, Saskia

Spectre with 5 color ribs Funny how this looks with various brands, my first safire was white with yellow ribs and encells, but in flight it was quite yellow, the white was so translucent. My current fusion is yellow with purple ribs but the purple doesn't shine through at all, so again, yellow canopy. ciel bleu, Saskia

Video with some, eh, minimalistic shots in it ciel bleu, Saskia

This is very general advice since you don't specify anything besides "editing". What you want to buy mostly depends on your budget and on how fast you need your editing to be (having to make 20min calls on a tandemvid on a laptop is a challenge) and wether you want to store the videofiles on the laptop itself. For fast editing, get a core i7 laptop, 2 fast internal harddrives (might want to chage the first one out for a SSD), as much DDR3 RAM as they sell, a firewire port if you are using a tape camera, e-sata or usb3 for a fast external harddrive if you want to use that, a big screen to edit easily. A dvd burner if you edit to DVD. A laptop like that will make your editing life easier but is quite heavy to lug around and will be quite expensive, also have a short battery life. A good editing PC however (same specs) will cost you half and be much faster too. If you're NOT is a big rush when editing, you can just get a core i5 laptop and an external harddrive, include dvd burner and firewire as needed. Or the same specs for a pc (or a intel core2quad). In general, I'd stay away from laptops or PCs with AMD processors, laptops made by acer or packard bell, anything under USD 600 or so for an editing laptop. ciel bleu, Saskia

Does your broken alti mean your main doesn't work either? Going for reserve just to not risk maybe getting a mal and no time to cut away Guys please dont bring my experience or whatever into the answers. I just want an answer of what you will do. No way would you want to go straight to reserve, unless you're in AAD-territory low (ie, serious groundrush I wanna stop this skydive NOW). Leave that option for when your main doesn't work right. Immediately pulling your main when you're still plenty high is for students only: when you're further along there might be a cameraman or other member of your group above you. Even if there isn't, just pulling high is not expected and might get you into conflict with a group before or behind you or even with the next load if there are multiple plains flying. Like others said, use other skydivers as a reference, and/or look down. 3-2 k is easily recognizable and should be no problem for a non-student. If it IS or you think/are afraid it is, please do something about your reliability on an altimeter. Now. Most cameraflyers never even look at their altis in freefall, I wouldn't know mine was busted until under canopy, probably. An alti is not a prerequisite to stay alive You've got 2 built-in altis, your eyes, use those and train them, they'll come in handy someday ciel bleu, Saskia

A Triathlon 220 sounds like it could be a fine first rig for you, provided you're comfy with the in-between sizes. Like I said, talk to your instructors (!) and make very sure the reserve in that rig is at a wingload of 1:1 tops, so it needs to be at least 220 sqft. ciel bleu, Saskia

If it's too huge a jump depends on your skills and weight. And of course you should ask your own instructors what they think. Basically, you still want to be at a wingload of 1:1 max at this point in your jumping career, so if you weigh 190 lbs max and can land your current canopy upwind, downwind, where you want it and do so confidently every time, the downsize might not be unreasonable. BTW be sure to take the reserve into account as well, if you're buying a rig. ciel bleu, Saskia

Got a few here, should have a good deal more, will look later. ciel bleu, Saskia

Ooof there's gotta be a gazillion threads about Empuria, it's about the hottest DZ this side of the pond. Try a search it'll net you loads of tips ciel bleu, Saskia

Can't you put it on 3 ring risers and pack it into a (old) tandem rig? We have a few older canopies in rigs like that, with some controversy regarding the AAD setting (sport vs tandem) and the tandem reserve itself of course, but other than that, seems like a great idea to me: it provides the oppertunity for newer jumpers like me too to jump these old canopies

The regular Storm is there now, but not the CF Storm. ciel bleu, Saskia

A lot of the faster sandisk memory cards come with a recovery program included. If anyone at your dz has that, you can try that program as well. ciel bleu, Saskia

I can't select PD Storm/PD CF Storm in the classifieds. ciel bleu, Saskia

That depends on where you are. Over here, it's 3 SLs + 2 PRCPs, minimum, so 5. ciel bleu, Saskia

My first 3 jumps were SL, I remember being in the plane, then being under canopy. No clue they could've tossed me out headdown who knows That same day I did a tandemjump (jump-in at a party) and then the problem went away, so my other SLs I at least had some recall. Not that I was that great at them yet ciel bleu, Saskia

2 more stories on the negative side: The one I jumped (borrowed) had weird ideas about altitude also: in the plane it was already 800ft off so I decided to forget about it in freefall. Under canopy when I was just entering my circuit, the thing read 4k. Yeah, right Another jumper ended up under cypres because his altitron read plenty of altitude still, not that that is much of an excuse... Especially since he too noticed the thing being a bit off in the plane. Hmz.... ciel bleu, Saskia

Not stupid, but maybe not the smartest thing to focus on. If you're wanting to use the tracksuit for BASE later on, go right ahead. If however you're wanting it as a go-between for wingsuit, I wouldn't buy a tracksuit. Kind of a waste of money (you will not jump it after you start wingsuiting) and more importantly a waste of jumps in that you'll learn much more doing group belly or freefly skydives than tracking jumps with or without tracksuit, in preparation for wingsuit. Now if you can borrow one, sure have fun with it for a few jumps. But for wingsuit preparation, there are better jumps to do. ciel bleu, Saskia

With a hype-eye. ciel bleu, Saskia