dragon2

At this point, you should only listen to your own instructors, not to random people on the 'net. However, do NOT flare behind you if you like your wrists to stay un-broken Keep your hands in front of you. Think also about how you'd do a last-second PLF with your hands behind your back I must admit though I'm finding it kinda hard to believe you're not powerful enough to do a flare, I'm a WIMP and I have no difficulty at all flaring any kind of canopy (except for tandemcanopies). Not being able to frontriser a canopy, sure, but just a flare? On a typical student canopy (with sufficiently long steering lines) you should be able to move your hands from your ears to your crotch in a smooth motion no problem. If I were you I'd get video of my landings and have your instructor debrief you, you may get technique pointers there, and I'd flare a lot of times in the air too to practice, on every jump. Also, make sure you WANT it, don't give up "I can't" type thing, don't hesitate. I found when I couldn't do something it was mostly just between my ears so to speak, like letting myself getting blown away in the door on a sitting exit, get positive not re-active and just DO it worked for me a treat. But like I said, your instructors should be the ones to help you with this. ciel bleu, Saskia

If you buy a real 2piece suit (and not a freefly pants + shirt combo), the chances of the top coming up in freefall are slim to none depending on which brand you choose: some have snaps or other attachent methods for securing the top to the pants while others rely on you tucking the top in good. For tunnel flying you want a one piece suit though. All in all, a 2piece IMO is basically for changing out different tops or pants, so if you just get the one suit I don't see the need for the extra cost and hassle, I tend to leave the top somewhere so when I'm in a rush to make a load I'm having to go find it again and get it.... Personally I much prefer to knot the sleeves around my waist so my suit is there when I need it and this way there's also no need to half undress to tuck the top in again ciel bleu, Saskia

I got fogged video a few times with the raynox .3 but this was mostly in conditions my nikon lens fogged up too, ie, wet clouds - eh haze, so not really the raynox' fault. I am thinking about glueing a filter to the raynox though to help prevent the fogging up in one of our airplanes in the summer (this one doesn't have airco) that happened a few times last season, quite annoying ciel bleu, Saskia

I haven't got the catalogus handy but I think what you're seeing are not Dbags but kill-cones. Usually CRW canopies are jumped without a Dbag, and with non-collapsible pilotchutes. The pilotchute then gets "reeled in" by the retractable bridle system, so in flight it sits on top of the canopy, towards the tail. Often people use a piece of fabric that will slide up against and a bit around the pilotchute preventing it from grabbing as much air so it's not bouncing around on the top of the canopy as much. ciel bleu, Saskia

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3775260;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread ciel bleu, Saskia

WHAT avi? Avi is just a container, it can be a whole lot of different codecs. Is it something you downloaded of the 'net? Try installing divx and xvid codecs. ciel bleu, Saskia

Freeflying an sich isn't the point, it's sitfly and backfly that'll act up the most with OIS. Not sure the video shown is head-up flying. Also, not convinced the OIS parts a;though shut off will not start moving later on as the camera gets used a lot for skydiving. I'll stick with the cx105 and equivalents for now, as these work 100% and are cheaper. Tandems and teams are not going to care about slightly warmer colors anyway... I'l let others do the test-jumping then ciel bleu, Saskia

Be aware though that a helmet like that isn't allowed in lots of countries/dzs, as you cannot install a single point cutaway (or any cutaway at all) for it. Besides it not being allowed everywhere, it's also not very smart to not have a cutaway on your camerahelmet. For a beginner cameraflyer this would be doubly so IMO. That opteka is a prime snatchpoint. Right tool for the right job: if you want to fly camera, get a camera helmet is what I say. ciel bleu, Saskia

What velocityphoto said. Also, no. Lens isn't quite wide enough (although you might be able to make it work), it suffers from vignetting / lens shading in the top left and right corners of the frame when shooting in wide-angle (which you will do) and this of course shows mostly against sky, so not very good for skydiving in that respect plus it reviews as not very good quality for a 3mp/6mp camera (so I'd never buy it for selling photos) but most importantly it doesn't seem to have a wired remote So no, not suitable for skydiving. Get an entry level Canon EOS DSLR. ciel bleu, Saskia

Said it all, you don't want a camera with OIS for skydiving, and there are perfectly good alternatives available in the CX100/CX105 or it's successor CX110/CX115/CX116. ciel bleu, Saskia

I very much prefer the pilot to all the canopies I've owned and flown so far, and that included a few spectres, vengeance, sabre 1 and 2, pulse, storm and stiletto, so most of the PD lineup. Not saying PD isn't any good, but your arguments don't make much sense: of COURSE a pilot recovers from a dive almost instantly, you shouldn't be comparing it to a sabre2 but rather to a silhouette or pulse (which BTW are also not 100% ZP). I LIKE the pilot coming out of a dive so fast, makes for stress-free camera work and wingsuiting, and I HATED some of the sabre2 openings - hard and off-heading or soft as butter and on heading, this depending on which sabre2 you happen to fly. Same with vengeance BTW, not a consistent canopy either. At least all pilots I've flown so far are consistent And they land fine, they sell like hotcakes here and I've never actually heard anyone complain they had trouble landing one before, hmmmm... If you want to swoop, sure get a sabre 2 or a fusion, it sounds that's what YOU want. I for one like my openings stress free and so far the pilot seems to manage that just fine

Not on the gear I jumped, twice. Because most if not all intentionals I've seen done overe here at least are done with your own gear (or other rig which can accomodate the D rings) plus an extra harness with the belly reserve. Ie, 2 un-cuttawayable canopies, not something a beginner should use IMO. If intentionals are done over here it's usual to get the required cutaway before you can become a TM, which here at 1000 jumps means you're not that inexperienced anymore ciel bleu, Saskia

Royal on all those canopies. ciel bleu, Saskia

YES. ciel bleu, Saskia

I'd say you'd have to settle for blue stars on a white background, as there's no way inner cells or crossbraces are visible if they're a lighter color. White with blue crossbraces looks quite nice, maybe blue with red crossbraces or black crossbraces would work too, but white crossbraces would be pointless I think as you wouldn't see it except for a slight bit of white on the nose. Even applied artwork would have a problem with white as the applied color as it needs to be non-translucent so really really thick. ciel bleu, Saskia

Not quite sure what you mean, line attachment points? Crossbraces? ciel bleu, Saskia

What canopy is this? http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=119557; ParaFoil ciel bleu, Saskia

Try a search, this has been debated a few times here before. Intentional cutaways are dangerous because of the added gear (2 reserves are dangerous in that you cannot cut either of them away should you want or need to, you get more handles too) and change in procedures, so these should only be done by experienced skydivers IMO. I did 2 myself, but after having performed 2 "real" cutaways for the first one. A much better option is to demo the reserve you have as a main since it flies and flares quite differently from modern sports mains, and if you have any doubt whatsoever in your reserve procedures do not jump until you cleared those doubts with your instructor. Try to get in a hanging harness and practice that, a lot. Leave the intentionals for (much) later, if you still want to by then and can find the required gear. ciel bleu, Saskia

For some reason we seem to have a lot of red/white/blue canopies around here ciel bleu, Saskia

For good-to-high quality pictures, just about any Canon EOS DSLR will do, some of the Nikon DSLRs work too (not the entry level ones). For a DSLR I wouldn't get a brand other than Canon or Nikon for jumping. Most people jump entry level Canon EOS DSLRs for tandems and the like. For point-and-shoot cameras your options are very limited, apparently the canon g10 or g11 (2 threads down from this thread...) will work. ciel bleu, Saskia

From Davelepka: i'd add that with a 2 piece the danger is there of your top (t-shirt, sweater, whatever) flying over your handles, been there, done that, scared the %^& out of me. A real 2piece suit will prevent that (ie, the top is usually attached to the pants or tucked in way way far) but just freefly pants and say a t-shirt can be quite dangerous. Also, on some dzs/some countries you're not allowed a 2piece suit until you're more experienced, for that reason. Usually a 2piece suit is more expensive than a 1piece, and a full suit can be worn in a windtunnel too. Can't really go wrong with a good full suit IMO Although all this is for freeflying, if you want to do RW (like on your avatar), get a rw suit with booties, better forget the freefly suit for that. ciel bleu, Saskia

Better ask this in the camera forum. Not really, and no. ciel bleu, Saskia

When (if) you peel you don't pull yet, and when you pull you PULL so you'd not have the change to recognize a fixed canopy at all. So, doubt very much you'd ever find yourself in a situation like you mentioned... ciel bleu, Saskia

Sure. They'll likely be set at the factory setting, which may be ok for you or not, or set at the length of your previous steering lines. Jump the canopy. If you don't like the length, just undo the bartack, adjust (with a knot), when sure, I'd have them bartacked again. Least that's how I always do it I much prefer the bartack over the knot as mine always seems to catch on the guide ring (especially with triple risers this annoyed the heck out of me). But of course a knot works fine for a lot of people too... ciel bleu, Saskia

It seems to have sensor shift stabilization, which doesn't bode well for it's uses in freefall... ciel bleu, Saskia