dragon2

The old Aerodyne fabric was very easy to pack, but it can pack close to a size bigger than the new fabric. If you have a old hybrid triathon, ie with the rings and extra fabric on top and dacron lines, that's about a whole size difference compared to a new fabric non-hybrid Tri. An sabre with some jumps on it won't pack very big, especially compared to a old fabric Tri. ciel bleu, Saskia

Really? I perceived the opposite. Although I'll give you that Vigil has had more opportunities to make public announcements about it's products shortcomings. If you have only been in the sport 6 years that may seem to be the case, but airtec has a history of denying problems. Of course before the widespread use of internet, problems could be kept more contained so not as many people know about them as now. But even in recent years people have been told they pulled too low, their unit has no problem, etc, while there was proof to the contrary, and in one case they sent a letter that the unit was fine after checking so the skydiver must have pulled too low WHEN THEY HADN'T EVEN CHECKED THAT CYPRES YET BECAUSE IT WAS STILL IN THE RIG AT THE DZ. OK vigil may have its share of problems, but at least they admit it and don't seem to blatantly LIE about it. ciel bleu, Saskia

Latest episode of Numb3rs (S06E10) is about DB Cooper ciel bleu, Saskia

And even that has killed a competition swooper (Nadine, Germany 2005) when she was on a familiar DZ (and hence presumably pre-qualified) but tried to prove herself anyway in very windy conditions when other jumpers (including PD team members if I recall correctly) were standing down or advising against jumping. ciel bleu, Saskia

Whichever one of those you can find 2nd hand; those cameras haven't been made for a few years. ciel bleu, Saskia

Hmm looks from this pic the camera did choose the wrong focus point, that can happen as this is a hard shot for the camera. To try and solve this I would set the camera to high speed (highest fps) and shoot a few pics more on exit, see if that helps, see if the focus shifts. Also make sure the camera continuously focusses instead of focus-per-shot. My remote (for Nikon D300) is wired so the camera keeps focussing and metering when it's turned on, with a Canon D30 the battery life is good enough that you could do the same IMO, if you're not already. Other things to check are settings that can lock focus, that's camera-specific and sometimes remote-specific. For example the AE-lock that happened to me when I first got my nikon D80, I set the lens to manual focus and stupid me I turned on AE lock since that's a helpful setting on the ground to re-compose a shot, I also had a remote for it that again was wired to keep metering and focussing when camera is on, this together caused it to get stuck on f2.8 for the entire jump after turning the camera on in a dark-ish plane, oops... If the wrong focus happens consistently though, and it's consistently to the rear (can't really see how it could be otherwise in skydiving but you never know), you may have a backfocus problem, try a focus chart to be sure (click). ciel bleu, Saskia

pictures..? ciel bleu, Saskia

Can you give us your recommendations for keeping subjects in focus with the DSLR? I've switched back and forth with manual / auto focus. I've used a single AF point (center one), and I've used all nine AF points. Sometimes the images are sharp as a tack, sometimes they're soft and slightly out of focus. I'm ready to go buy a 7D just because they (supposedly) have improved the AF system. Got any more affordable suggestions? What camera and what lens? And next question, what settings, and what conditions? Ie, if you're using just about any Canon eos or Nikon DSLR with a f/2.8 fixed lens like the sigma 15mm or canon 15mm, shoot at 1/500s on a clear day, ISO 200 or so, with AIservo turned on your pics should come out sharp, if not, make sure the helmet is steady and most of all keep your head still But most likely your problem is in the setting and/or your lens, something a more expensive camera won't help with, in fact a more expensive camera generally requires MORE knowledge of settings plus a good-quality lens. Although if that's the excuse you're using to buy a very nice camera, ciel bleu, Saskia

PC106/107/108/109 will all fit, nothing else. ciel bleu, Saskia

I sold my diablo 120 (which scared me a bit on opening just about every jump I made on it, didn't make that many...) to a very lightweight guy with 300 jumps or so, he came with good references and he test-jumped it on my DZ, but a few weeks later I saw the same canopy up for sale again... ciel bleu, Saskia

This works for two element lenses, but not for single element. It has worked well for me using both types of lenses Are you sure? With a single element lense like a liquid, cookie or similar 'flat' lens, or the century .3 and it's clones,it's impossible to get the inifinity symbol, AFAIK. ciel bleu, Saskia

I got quite a lot of flack for not landing my fusion 120 with 2 broken A lines earlier this year... This from 4 different all very experienced jumpers, who all had landed broken lines before, but on older-style canopies (ie, big squares), just one line each and I think crappy landing each... But then I remembered once seeing Kees Tops (CRW world record holder and one of if not our topmost rigger) land a Lightning 143 (or 160 maybe) with one broken A-line, ' cause he didn't feel like packing his reserve, but afterward he was like ' ouch, don't do what I just did!' ciel bleu, Saskia

We take kids up over here, youngest was 5 I think (dropzone kid), most are 8-9yrs or older. We do have one special kids harness we use for these, not sure of the specifics but that harness seems to have less back stuff. Somewhat older kids like these or this or this one can go into a regular harness. This one looks like the kid harness. ciel bleu, Saskia

You don't have to render the timeline. I wouldn't use HD video if I were you, you're just going to burn to dvd right, not bluray? Then capture in SD if it's a tape camera or record in MPEG if it's a flash camera. You don't need to set all the buttons, end-actions and stuff, you can burn to dvd regardless ("ignore errors") for a simple tandem dvd. Now if you're doing a dvd with more timelines, you may want to do a nice menu with all the buttons and actions set. ciel bleu, Saskia

You want to make templates, ie get the standard stuff (any intro, extro, credits and the like) already done, and the music too (I have a few different styles ready-made and can drop in other music here and there if I feel like it and have a bit of extra time). Then all you need to do is drop the footage into the timeline, do any slo-mos you may want, drag the music fades tot the appropriate locations, fix the audio. With these templates, some practice and with fairly predictable video shooting, editing can be brought back to just a minute or so, so the most time I lose is in copying the footage to the pc and importing it into premiere (this can be automated to a point but I haven't), this time I use to start burning the photo cd, the most time goes into sending the timeline to encore and the subsequent rendering/burning to DVD, but by then you can start packing or start the next vid. So, make those templates, shoot video to edit, practice editing a LOT and get your workflow sorted out. A tip: create a project with all the templates, the music files and any intro's, titles and stuff and save it for backup: when a premiere project gets big (say after 20 tandemvids) it takes a while to start up so I tend to copy a fresh project at least once a week. ciel bleu, Saskia

No idea, it looks the same but you'd think they'd mention the brandname, but you could just ask Rawa? And please stop shouting (= posting in all CAPS). ciel bleu, Saskia

solo manual ciel bleu, Saskia

Well I had to wait 7 months for a safire lineset and 3 weeks for a spectre lineset ciel bleu, Saskia

Gotta be a story behind that one..? ciel bleu, Saskia

1) ~1740 2) 7, or 9 if you count 2 intentionals (3 canopies) 3) - fxc fire @ 2500ft on student gear, resulting in 2 out resulting in downplane - spun up safire 135 - intentional cutaway - line-over (multiple lines) on sabre 135 - diving/spun up spectre 135 - intentional cutaway - total (on wingsuit jump) - half open/spinning vengeance 135 - 2 broken A-lines on fusion 120 For my first 700 jumps, including the 2 intentionals, I was going for 1 per 100 jumps.... Now it's one per year ciel bleu, Saskia

Fullface type helmets of the Z1 type are hard to make a cutaway system for, so they're dangerous in that respect. I've seen a few FTP type custom helmets with face shields (down to your nose), like an attached goggle only much better. ciel bleu, Saskia

not that I know of Yes there was, a RIP stone for expired cypri was a few years back though. ciel bleu, Saskia

I'd go for a silhouette tandem canopy in one color, makes more sense to people than the eight limbs thing. ciel bleu, Saskia

My very old EOS 50E had a metal thingy you had to push when rotating the program dial, to prevent it from accidental movement. I loved that, would love it on present day cameras Of course on my Nikon D300 I don't need it on the program dial (it doesn't have one, as such), and in fact it does have a pushbutton for the big dial. The problem areas here are the 2 dials back and front, the back is protected by my helmet the front is not, but I check the camera twice every jump which prevents most setting problems (like leaving the camera at ISO400 from yesterday's sunset load). On climbout, the C206 did give me some problems with my Nikon D80's remote. Haven't jumped my D300 from a C206 yet, and like to keep it that way ciel bleu, Saskia

10 jumps on a classic1, 10 on a MTR1, 60-70 on a classic2, then on to a S3 with no trouble, followed by a S1 (scaaary suit), my own S3, then a S3S and last a Blade. I like the S3S the best I think as it's easier to fly with beginners than the blade, flying shut-down al the time is not much fun. I know I'm a lazy flyer, mostly because of that I'm not much of a (bigway) flocker, so don't know what suit is best these days for that, but if I had to buy a new wingsuit now for what I do with it, I think it might be a phantom. Not sure I want the biggest wings anymore ciel bleu, Saskia