dragon2

That was so cool

The Raynox HD3032 is a bit narrower than the optika .3. The raynox + cx100 is slightly narrower than the 16mm on my Nikon, so with a Canon (presuming not a fullframe) @ 16mm it should match up nicely. ciel bleu, Saskia

We used to stick the IR receiver to the lens with a rubber band. It's not a perfectly reliable system, you have to set the IR mode every jump (though you can set it for 15 minutes or so), the battery of the IR needs replacing every now and then and still I didn't get pictures on every jump. So for paid jumps, not a very good idea. For fun, sure, it's cheap if you already had the camera for ground stuff. But if he jumps stills often I'll bet he'll be wanting another camera soon... ciel bleu, Saskia

Look cool or be able to see/keep your contacts. I just got my eyes lasered, problem solved. ciel bleu, Saskia

My previous alti (non-digital) had an elastic velcro double strap, to fit around my hand. Loved that strap. I don't like the rubber ring around my fingers and this strap avoided that. Don't know if that material was what you call velstretch but it was stretchy velcro, it came with the 2nd hand alti. It held on for ~300 jumps I did with it before I had to get the strap replaced but the replacement was elastic band only, made by another skydiver for me. Didn't fit as well as the first one did. And I really really liked that velcro strap. You could also double the strap and put it on your wrist/lower arm instead of your hand but since I usually wear either big camerawings or a wingsuit this to me is useless. Hmmm I now want a neptune strap like the one I used to have.... ciel bleu, Saskia

Yeah, which is why for low-end models Canon is a better choice for skydiving. The D5000 is fine though, the first low-end model with a wired remote, there is hope yet ciel bleu, Saskia

I know Canon is fine now, but that was when I sold all my Canon cameras + lenses lenses and made the switch to Nikon. Nikon is fine too, and I've got too much invested in lenses, flashes etc now to switch back. I must say though, yesterday we had 3 out of the 5 cameramen jumping Canon, of which 2 had lighting-related problems with their lower end cameras. One almost always needs to under-expose his shots, the other has a problems with half his pictures, where the exif says f/7.1 but the picture looks overexposed (like f/3.5). My Nikon D300 never does anything like that ciel bleu, Saskia

Did you check that on a PC or just on a TV? ciel bleu, Saskia

Nikon. I started out with a Canon 30D (great camera for its day, and the only one even remotely affordable). After 40k clicks or so I switched to a 300D because it was lighter and had a nice simple remote. What a piece of crap that camera was. Refused to work a bunch of times (WorldTeam 2004 had a lot of error99, ask Bruno..., Dutch 100 again out of a Herc and again the same err99.... ) The more expensive 10D and sometimes the 20D had the same problem although less often. Not having pictures time and time again due to an unexplainable error (err99 means "we don't know", and yes we tried every card, battery, had original Canon lenses etc) made me very annoyed So I sold the camera and lenses and switched to Nikon D70. After D70s, D80, D200, D2X (not for jumping though), and now D300 I'm still a very happy camper. For skydiving, Nikon cameras expose better: they usually work spot-on with matrix lighting, but with Canon I always had to use spot metering or similar and keep the subject in the center against a blue sky to get a decently exposed image. Nikon made this way way easier. Nikon has very good if not the best flash system on the market: the Creative Lighting System. If you use your camera on the ground with separate flashes, this is great. Also With Nikon you can use old lenses, Canon switched in 1987 (?) so for nice old glass (either cheap f2.8 stuff or more expotic type lenses) Nikon is the way to go. For newbie camera flyers who just want a low-end camera you are probably better off with a Canon, because of the simple remote and if you want to buy an "up" lens you always have autofocus. But if you're in the market for a more pro-sumer camera like the D50 and have not invested in lenses yet, the D300 is simply a better camera for about the same money (and the cheaper D90 is no slouch either) so Nikon here is often a better choice IMO. Once you have invested in lenses of any brand you're kinda stuck, as good lenses are more expensive than cameras. ciel bleu, Saskia

That is a window of a few seconds, I would rather the Argus, they have saved people. Agreed. ciel bleu, Saskia

The landing area is quite big. Outs are available. Obstacles include the airport itself, glider + their runway, houses/farms, trees, lots of fields have corn and stuff, sometimes cows , barbed wire, ditches. No power lines or woods or big bodies of water really close. We use 2x Grand Caravan. Sometimes the spot is long also for students, but most seem to find their way home. I see more problems with students dropped perfectly but fooling around until too late to make it back than with students coming back from long spots. We have people in the trees just about every year but not all of those are students But all in all our DZ isn't the most difficult to land in so it may not be very comparable to yours. See pic for our DZ, google maps is behind though with it's pictures the runway is way longer, extra water, trees and a lot of extra buildings have been added since the photo was taken. ciel bleu, Saskia

The problem with a fullface Z1 type helmet is that you cannot get a cutaway system for it. Which means it is a bad idea to jump one as a camerahelmet especially for a camera newbie, and camera helmets without single point releases are not even allowed in various countries/at various DZs around the world, for good reason. If you want to jump camera, buy equipment that is suitable for it. Much better/safer for both you and the equipment. ciel bleu, Saskia

It's not the "only way", as has been proven by thousands of students already Skydiving isn't something you can do while someone is holding your hand like it sounds you'd like it to be, and you need to be prepared for radio failure on every jump. Radio coaching may be nice, but it isn't a necessity, and not a given so you should be prepared to make your own fightplan on all jumps, just in case. ciel bleu, Saskia

You're right, it's just that a bellymounted terts/tersh is sometimes used in CRW and although that is not a proper reserve (it's more of a big drogue to slow you down than a real, big enough round reserve), that is what most people would think of as a "tertiary canopy", I think. As a sidenote and not aimed at you, all this discussion just reinforces my belief that intentional cutaways should NOT be done by newbies ciel bleu, Saskia

What instructor? If you want to do an intentional cutaway, you're gonna have to do it all on your lonesome. 1) if you're even THINKING about packing a mal intentionally, IMO you shouldn't be in the air. Because that is just plain stupid and dangerous. 2) if you even THINK you "might panic and not cutaway" you REALLY have no business being in the air and you should find another hobby pronto. This is no game, a timely cutaway might be required ON YOUR NEXT JUMP to keep your name out of the incidents forum. So better be ready for a cutaway, each and every jump. ciel bleu, Saskia

I agree. I did 2 intentional cutaways myself with an extra harness + round reserve (which I luckily didn't have to use). The first one was after a FXC fire and 1/2 year after a real cutaway (time for repack), and it didn't feel anything like the real thing. The point of the first intentional was flying that exact reserve (after a small problem with it the previous cutaway), so another rig etc wouldn't have helped. In one way it WAS the real thing though and that is the chance you could have a problem with your reserve and you now have to deal with it, a situation you just brought on yourself, for no real good reason. If you want to practice a cutaway, use a hanging harness. You can also pull your own handles on the ground when it's time for a repack. If you want to fly a reserve (and everyone should demo their reserve, same model and size if possible IMO) demo it as a main. I think intentional cutaways should be reserved for special jumps (for tandem instructors to be or manufacturers etc), or do them when you got a few hundred jumps for any other reason, but there are risks involved (the exact risks depend on the system you use but may include different handles, more handles, a round reserve, a reserve you cannot cutaway should you want to, extra harness, plastic-bagged canopies etc), that I personally don't think a newbie should face when not necessary (ie, not a real emergency). If you don't believe you'll pull your handles you shouldn't be skydiving ciel bleu, Saskia

No way right now to get there though ciel bleu, Saskia

Um, did you look at the thread right below yours? click ciel bleu, Saskia

what is the status of VFR and skydiving operations ? Netherlands: Dutch airspace is closed until at least 0600 saturday morning. Belgium looks like no skydiving until at least 1200 saturday. I thought in Germany VFR flight are allowed at least in some parts, don't know up to which altitude though and this is from Dutch news not German. Could very well mean no skydiving here tomorrow. ciel bleu, Saskia

Forget about taping stuff to you. If you insist on jumping this camera, either get the camera modded for a wired switch, or do a search on this forum about how we used to make the switches for a Nikon D70 using a bite/blow/tongue/pro-switch of your choice taped to the wireless remote which you taped to your lens. Such a home-made switch is still wireless so still a bit of pain to use, and I wouldn't recommend this for paid jumps like tandemvideos. For funjumps, if it doesn't matter if you miss a jump every now and then, it's ok. Ish. ciel bleu, Saskia

Feed that kid some more Oh yeah, that must be the same kid who helped pack our tandem canopy after my first freefall, he was about ye high back then ciel bleu, Saskia

You can use a D90 for skydiving, but most people start with just a video camera for the first few (hundred) jumps, as a videocamera is better for viewing what YOU are doing, is more useful for most people as video is used for debriefing, and a videocamera is much less of a distraction (less settings to set and only have to to turn it on/off instead of having to take the shot every time with a stills camera). You COULD use it for jumping even at first though, just don't jump a videocamera at first too, stick with one or the other. A nice DSLR and a good jumping lens cost way more than a video setup so make sure you don't damage your camera in the process (bump it against the plane, land on it etc) It's not a small camera but any (D)SLR is a bigger snag hazard than most video cameras, so make sure you mount it safely. You'll need a good camera helmet with a release system. Buy a good quick release for the camera. Buy a Nikon remote for the D90 and wire it yourself to a switch of your choice (or have someone like Laszlo make you a switch), as switches for a D90 are not sold ready to go for skydiving. What lens did you get with it? If you got the 18-55 kitlens you could use that at first for jumping, if not best buy the sigma 15mm f/2.8 for a good (and affordable) jumping lens. ciel bleu, Saskia

We don't use radios on my DZ, and I think it made me a better skydiver: it made me PAY ATTENTION in class and under canopy as I'm a girl who always needs a navigation system to figure out where I am/am going in my car, I certainly didn't want to screw this up! My first outlanding was around jump 30 (ok I did a bunch of SL jumps...) when my "jumpmaster" jumped out before me on a CRW jump leaving me last jumper in the plane and told me to wait 7 seconds before exiting... I had no clue CRW jumpers can get out way way before the DZ, after that jump I asked how that spotting thing worked, exactly About radios, I hear plenty of stories about "the wrong students" (worst case: what if you tell "your" student to cutaway but another one does), radios failing, students not even hearing/reacting to the radio in the first place, etc. We can have a caravanload of students in the air, you'd need a lot of instructors to talk to all those, and all these years these students mostly seem to land in the right field, mostly in the right direction, and very seldom get hurt, so no radio seems to work just fine here

About 1.3-1.4 WL for lightweight team training, world record, funjumps. About 2.0 for serious rotation teams ... Newbie coaching jumps can of course be done on lighter wingloadings, however if you want to do bigger formations you'll have to conform to the rest of the group. ciel bleu, Saskia

I don't see how, at least for bellyflying. You can learn basic bellyfly skills in the tunnel sure, but you should have those by 200 jumps anyway. These basic skills mean you can sideslide and such without thinking about it. But you still have to do the exit, be wherever the shot needs you to be, react to the subject you're shooting all the time, keep altitude aware at all times, keep aware of your surroundings (ie, other jumpers that are out of your immediate shot like jumpers gone low, accompanying jumpers on a tandem video and whatnot), the time under canopy. All this means you need to have a lot of "space" in your head something you can only get with experience (and 200 jumps I think often is not enough, as a previous poster just said). You need to be free enough with regular skydiving (from gear-up to landing or even later you now have extra stuff to handle) to be ready for something extra, don't see how the tunnel would be any help here. For freeflying later on I think the tunnel would help, just because the solid freefly skills needed for camera flying are harder to acquire than the belly skills, so if you can get those skills in the tunnel that'll shorten your progression to camera flying on freefly jumps (but still not sooner than 200 jumps). You may or may not be allowed in the tunnel with a camera wing suit, that may help with skills with that suit but that is not something I'd consider crucial, flying with wings you can practice solo and soon on 2ways, 4ways etc, and for instance our local tunels will not allow you in there with wings anyway. Basically, for me, the tunnel is kinda boring - no camera wings, no wingsuit, no crw ciel bleu, Saskia