dragon2

Sjeesh how hard is it for a skydiver to look up another skydiver? It's a VERY small world. I'm betting I've met skydivers you've met, and definitely I've met and know some skydivers you know ABOUT. Try contacting the buyer's/seller's dropzone or maybe even just someone from the same country if you can't find out any info about them. I tracked down quite a few skydivers that way. The point I'm making is that here in say Europe we are quite used to selling across borders, while Americans tend to think (grossly generalizing here but I run into this quite often) that there should be a big fence or something surrounding America to prevent contact with the big bad outside world Of course if you can sell something locally for a good price I'd go for that too, but I don't see much difference in selling across state borders or to Canada and selling overseas. ciel bleu, Saskia

Are you paranoid about non-Americans or what? Seriously, there is no reason for that attitude, most non-Americans are pretty decent people Just watch out for any red flags like always, whereever/whomeever you are selling too, but blanket statements like that, well you're missing out on a lot of potential customers especially with the dollar so weak. ciel bleu, Saskia

I can land a lightning at 1.0-1.4 even without front-riser input anyday. As I've seen a lot of CRW puppies do too (we need 5 CRW jumps here for C license so a lot of newbies each year). A lightning lands fine, regardless of wingload, just different from your run-of-the-mill 9cell. If you do not tell people a lightning lands "difficult" they usually do fine, however if you DO, ciel bleu, Saskia

ciel bleu, Saskia

The big problem with hackeys and other big-ish handles with wriggle room (= not stuck to the PC on 2 sides without slack in the attachmenttape) is that they flop around a lot while deploying (and of course a burble or PC in tow exacerbates this) thereby creating much more opportunity for knots. Pullout is a no-no for wingsuit jumps of course. ciel bleu, Saskia

I'd like to know where you got this information. I'd also like to know how you pack your PC if you have experienced a wrap of the bridle with the handle. Not so much packing as burble. Search around there are a few pictures floating around on this forum of knots-in-pilotchute/bridle, most are with standard hackeys. Should be a few in the wingsuit forum for sure. Ever see a BASE jumper put anything like a hackey on his/her pilotchute? ciel bleu, Saskia

You won't suceed bwahaa Even our most I'm-not-interested-in-photography cameraflyer has admitted his new 350d + 18-55 is nowhere near as good as his previous (borrowed) D70s + sigma 15mm and his before-that eos 500 series + canon 24mm after using his new "hey it came with this lens so I'm using it" eos 350d for only a week or two. It's impossible to shoot good autofocus with the 18-55 (we tend to not have very good/bright weather a lot of the time which makes this worse) and the pics are just not as sharp as the sigma 15mm of his girlfriend/my 16mm/everyone elses 15mm canon/... Trust me, if even HE can see the difference ciel bleu, Saskia

I guess the autofocus works better or worse depending on who you shoot And on how close you are. Shooting 90o to the course up close with people like the PD boys shooting by, I'd rather have a better lens. With stilettos, shooting from a distance and at a smaller angle, sure. But that was not what I was picturing when I think about a swoop course. ciel bleu, Saskia

Insert cork then gaffer tape it up. Or stop inserting finger LOL. It's still a safer deployment handle than a hackey; easier to get interesting mals from a hackey or other "big" handle that can knot up the pilotchute/bridle esp. when wingsuiting but also on regular jumps. ciel bleu, Saskia

I'd use more tele lens (easier to get fullframe pics, easier to get blur, even at 55mm you have to be pretty close to the course, autofocus is no use esp with a slow lens like that), go stand further back, much easier to get good pics and it's safer too, use manual focus, set it to infinity, if lens has OS turn it off, shoot at shutter-speed priority, at least 1/the lens in mm or quicker, depending on how much blur you want, how much stoppping power you want (water drops? sense of speed?) and what f-stop you want to end up with, pan with subject (this takes practice) if you suck use a very fast shutter speed (1/400 or faster) for now, click Of course there are tons of ways to get good shots, good shots are also subjective, you can also try to get unusual shots like just the face, or whatever. But this'll get you started. ciel bleu, Saskia

I thought I was the only one that happened to ciel bleu, Saskia

I don't think anything is missing, safety-wise. Most accidents are caused by pilot error. Are you fishing? ciel bleu, Saskia

Why is it OTT? I like jumping my D200 for tandems too, sure it's heavy but ... it's a nice camera Anyway, the more pro a camera gets the easier it'll show lens faults. The 5D is really bad for this (as is the nikon D3) because fullframe uses the whole lens and the best part of the lens is the centre, so the same lens might be reasonably to very sharp on say a 40D. Or not, in which case the lens may have a backfocus problem or something like that, you can probably send it in to canon to get it checked out. Some lenses are just no good on the better DSLR's though, I had a 28-105 2.8-4.0 lens that was perfectly fine on a D70/D70s but sucks on my current D80/D200, no idea why I just got rid of it. ciel bleu, Saskia

First time I was jumping a tongueswitch I kept biting on it so only 2 pics from that one jump, of course that one jump was the mega World Team demo into Bangkok airport ciel bleu, Saskia

any more details on this ? Same ones a Paragear sells, or get them straight from Laszlo (then you can get nikon switches too) ciel bleu, Saskia

I've had all 4. Biteswitch: went through 4 of them in 50 jumps, I bite too hard or have too sharp teeth or something, not a success. When new it's not hard to take a picture while holding the helmet in hand, when the button starts to move around it gets harder. Easy to break wires. Next: tongueswitch: besides having te remember to quit biting it worked fine, untill it got a wire broken. Very easy to take a shot while holding helmet in hand. All in all, i liked this switch much better than the biteswitch. Next: aquired a 2nd hand (but new) blowswitch for cheap: a blowswitch works practically forever, not as easy to break the wires, however i have to put on my helmet to make pics and I have to keep my mouth SHUT in freefall which apparently I don't always do Depending on your setup this switch may require more work (soldering a plug to it and it's bulky so needs to go inside a helmet (FTN, FTP style helmets no problem) or you get a big ducktape blob on the outside). It'll last you a loooong time though this switch, good buy. Right now: I'm jumping Laszlo's pro mouth switch, it probably has the same potential problem with wires breaking but so far it has held up fine, it's very easy to take shots with my fingers operating the switch while holding the helmet in hand. I have to remember not to bite the wire just hold it in place with my tongue, this works great for me I can smile etc in freefall all I want. I'm sticking with this one. ciel bleu, Saskia

And it's my decision to not jump with you if you do. With all the canopy collisions these days, I'd not want to be in the same sky as someone with an extra (useless) distraction. ciel bleu, Saskia

Why not, if you turn up the volume loud enough, might be bad for your hearing though ciel bleu, Saskia

Don't. It's a safety concern - I don't want anyone with me in freefall or under canopy who's distracted let alone by something as stupid as an mp3 player. If you feel you need the music while skydiving, maybe you need to find another sport... In the plane, while less of a problem IMO, with your jump number, again, don't. As a sidenote, if it's an ipod with a harddrive it can't take flying very well let alone jumping. ciel bleu, Saskia

I jump camera, for wingsuiting, FS4 and tandems. I tend to pull at about 3.5k. ciel bleu, Saskia

Why use all manual? Shooting at 1/400 sec at iso 100 usually gives me f8-f12 which is great, i have auto-iso turned on and set to max iso 400 for in the plane and for grey overcast days, so the camera can handle everything from bright-sun-on-white-clouds to shooting below (or even in ) grey dark clouds, without me having to change a setting,where it would be impossible to manually get good lighting if you have both conditions in the same jump. If you only ever jump on sunny clear days this is much less of a problem of course as long as you remember to change setting for sunset jumps ciel bleu, Saskia

Sigh ciel bleu, Saskia

Sports mode? Why? All tandem videographers at my DZ with Canon use the 15mm canon fisheye lens, all except one who still has the kit lens and he's looking for another lens now - he compared his pics with those with fixed lenses. If you think the kit lens pics are sharp, wait till you use a good quality lens you'll never look back. Like DSE says the 15/16mm fisheye lenses aren't that fishy on a APSc camera. The major advantages of the fisheye lenses over the straight fixed lenses are size, weight and price, not many people want to jump a usd 2000 kilo of glass. And the slight curve that remains on the edges makes for a nice horizon/backdrop, all in all I much prefer that to the barrel distortion you get at 18mm with a kitlens ciel bleu, Saskia

I cannot imagine any instructor not welcoming you back

The stock 18-55 isn't really suited to shooting in autofocus it isn't quick enough so either shoot manual focus or use a better lens (like the canon 15mm 2.8 fisheye for instance). ciel bleu, Saskia