dragon2

LOL I'm watching the British quiz show The Eggheads right now, was just out of the corner of my eye but I spotted a familiar face, and took a double look at the clothing of the competitiors today: 5 Red Devils, in red FS suits

We used Xtreme for a while for our tandemvids, had it printed on our tandem dvd inlays and everything, but we had a lot of problems with their software not working on Vista (no idea if they fixed that or not, and now it'd need to work on Win7, and with flash card cameras too) and Xtreme was down a lot of the time, so right now we're not doing anything like that anymore. With the tape cameras of the time, it just took us too long and was too much trouble: all the camera flyers were supposed to upload all the vids of the day in the evenening (except for the few who could do it on their own computer/laptop in between if they could find the time) but they weren't always complying - it took too long,the flyer didn't get any extra pay for the trouble, Xtreme had a lot of problems, the hangar closed before we were done, etc etc. All in all, a lot of workflow issues, technical issues, and not enough incentive, so it was not a big success. Now this was all a while ago, and I'd like to try again, providing the technical stuff is worked out so I'm not always the one having to fix everything But a dedicated someone to do the uploads, or some extra pay, might be needed to get it started again... ciel bleu, Saskia

I know plenty of jumpers with intermediate type 150-170 sized canopies at a WL of ~1:1, including 2 of my former teammates with ~ 600 jumps and I know a few other jumpers with more than 1000 jumps who "still" jump spectre, sabre, sabre2 etc 150s at ~ 1:1. BTW don't know how many jumps you have, but over here you can't go smaller than a 150 untill you have at least 400 jumps and are current too, this is regardless of how lightweight you are (you're not THAT light actually, we had a few jumpers at 0.9:1 on a 120). A 150 is already pretty HP, anything smaller definitely is. ciel bleu, Saskia

Yup. I've flown all of those, except for the silhouette, and that's the order I'd place them in. You may very well be happy with a sabre2 150 if you're used to something like a zp.exe 155 (at least I'm assuming you have a sabre1-like canopy right now) and have no need to downsize to a 135/140 to get a bit more responsiveness. ciel bleu, Saskia

It might work, but not many people jump with ski-type goggles because they're too bulky and not comfy for skydiving. You also seem to be stuck with the amber lens, although that might not be too bad a color (I don't want any color at all when on a sunset load). The image quality will likely be less than the other cameras. I'd go for a gopro HD or a contourHD, myself. ciel bleu, Saskia

A lot of freefliers these days are also moving to topmount so that's no excuse I'd reserve sidemount for when you really have to, ie AFF, student coach jumps. Topmount is better for you and your camera in just about any other situation

I've flown all 3, and I like all 3. The pulse and pilot (and silhouette) are more docile than the safire (and I'd place the storm here too), if you like the bit more spunk a safire has, you could try a fusion and sabre2 as well which are still intermediate canopies but at the most HP end. All of these canopies open, fly and flare fine at 1:1, if you want more response you could go smaller of course but you could also go a bit more HP (sabre2, fusion) and stay on the same size. ciel bleu, Saskia

I *thought* it wasn't possible but wasn't 100% sure. For me that's a total deal breaker in any case for paid jumps or team jumps. For coach jumps, wingsuit jumps, that'd be ok I guess, although I still much prefer my cx105 sidemount for that (and I really don't like sidemounting...) because of the hype-eye, the quality and because I already have it all set-up ciel bleu, Saskia

The CX100/105 does NOT have that problem 'cause it uses EIS, the CX6/7/11/12 and other models do have that problem since they use OIS. The problem seems to pop up mostly in head-up type jumps (backflying tandemvideos....) in fact head down didn't seem too bad. A box or condom won't help with that, best is to just not buy a camera which has OIS ciel bleu, Saskia

Is it possible to have a hype-eye equivalent (or even just an indicator light) on a gopro HD or contourHD? ciel bleu, Saskia

You can't just put the rings on top of a canopy, why not buy some old REAL crw gear (lightnings or hybrid triathlons or the older canopies like pursuit, ar-7, diamond, ruby etc), much safer! Or use student staticline canopies for CRW, as some jumpers here did a few times ciel bleu, Saskia

Not all 7cell canopies pack smaller than 9cell, not by far, and also the x-fun is a hybrid canopy (part F111) so it packs smaller than a full ZP 9cell. ciel bleu, Saskia

Ehm, have trouble reading..? ciel bleu, Saskia

And what is better if you are selling your videos (tandem videos) on DVD, old PC or new GoPro ? Old pc. ciel bleu, Saskia

Did you try asking the manufacturer yet? ciel bleu, Saskia

I did some jumps without AAD, mostly filming CRW jumps using a loaner rig, and that was fine. But I did do some FS4 camera jumps once on a borrowed rig without AAD, of course the first jump I got "wrapped" on exit by the entire team, someone hit me so my battery flew off the back of my top-mounted videocamera. Although I will jump without AAD I'd really rather not especially when jumping (freefall) camera, because I'd feel mighty stupid going in when shit happens and I really could've used that damn piece of electronics... ciel bleu, Saskia

A lot of the shorter people @ Teuge have or have had Atoms for a first (or 2nd...) rig. An Atom 00 L1 or L2 (or shortened L3) is quite popular as it will hold a hybrid 170 (or very old sabre 1 , spectre etc) down to a ZP 120. Only problem there is the 126/128 sqft reserve. Of course we do see Atoms 00 with bigger reserves like Mayday 156 sqft, Techno 158, PD-R143 stuffed in there sometimes, but that seems to me an all around bad idea (also Kees says it is, so there!). I'd think a Mirage in general would work quite well for smaller people because the rig is fatter rather than longer, but not many of those around 2nd hand and brand new they are quite expensive. ciel bleu, Saskia

If it packs larger (which it does), then a sabre2 or safire will have to be BIGGER to pack the same size ciel bleu, Saskia

We bought one of those to try out for WT, unfortunately it does NOT have slowmo which makes it useless for our purpose. Henny then tried the AC Ryan player which should work a lot better (and unfortunately is a bit more expensive). There's plenty of media players like this on the market, so far I've tried 4, however finding one that a) plays both the mpg and the avchd files, b) has slo-mo and c) is cheap is proving problematic. 2 out of 3 What's cool though is that most if not all players that have a usb slot will read from a usb cardreader, at least the usb plug-in type specifically for sony memorystick one we tried. Not sure if that's always the case. So for straight debriefing you may want to add: d) has a usb slot that'll accept a cardreader. ciel bleu, Saskia

That depends on a lot of things: what is your exitweight? For a heavier person, loading a bit higher is less of a problem than for a lighter person, while a featherweight shouldn't even be at 1:1 (ie, no smaller than a 150 for your first canopy at whatever wingload, and a 170 is preferred). Also take in mind the type of canopy (a spectre at 1:1.15 is a very different animal from a sabre 2 at 1:1.15 never mind something more high performance or a F111 canopy), and you didn't mention the reserve, which you really want to load at or under 1:1.0. Also keep in mind the altitude you jump at, if at sea level you're more likely to be ok loading higher than at higher altitudes. But of course, the only ones who can say for sure if a particular rig is ok for you are your instructors, so go ask THEM instead of unknown persons on the internet Also, I wouldn't buy a rig just yet: you won't be able to do the AFF jumps with it and depending on size of canopy and local rules you won't be able to jump it straight after either. There'll be deals around always ciel bleu, Saskia

Yeah that one was a hard act to follow

The retractable bridle has malfunction oppertunities all of it's own, I wouldn't recommend it for casual jumping if you jump it a lot. A bag + retractable bridle = holes in your canopy if you're not real careful (and/or have fabric on top of the center cell, that helps a lot), again, not a combo I'd advise jumping a lot unless you're real careful packing, getting the tail fabric out from between the rings every time. I used to jump a lightning 126 and a hybrid triathlon 120, both with retractable bridle and bags, but can't for the life of me remember what grommets were on the bags. The lightning soon had a few pinky-sized holes in it, the tri didn't (had the fabric panel on topcell). ciel bleu, Saskia

Top is generally better than side. Do make sure the door can't open when you jump: use either a box/rollcage, camera condom, velcro strap, bungee cord, or just some good quality gaffer tape (never use ducktape on your camera). ciel bleu, Saskia

Yes they do, if only to tell them not to spiral below 2k (with a student type AAD or FXC). ciel bleu, Saskia

The gopro is something you could use for coach/aff type jumps, just for debriefing. If you want to make a nice dvd or are in any way selling your video, cx100 is the way to go. ciel bleu, Saskia