DSE

I for one, wouldn't recommend going from an original Phantom to an S-Bird either. Getting some jumps on an interim suit would be my recommendation. I'm sure some here would differ in opinion. I'm also reasonably sure that you could fumble your way around in the Sbird and probably be "OK" in a reasonably short time. Then again,

No one I've seen is panicking. What I do see are trees blowing over on top of cars (kinda hard to foresee), roofs being torn off (not terribly easy to foresee), and hard-baked soil due to drought that prevents the ground from absorbing an inordinate amount of rain. Saw a boat sink in the harbor at San Diego today too. Not sure how they could have foreseen that, exactly. Sure, folks can run away. It's not the "getting out" that is the issue. It's what they might come back to not find. Yeah, some folks in SoCal can't drive for shit. So what? That means they should enjoy property damage?

Gee...you should be a moderator. Then you'd have some real good un's. Congrats on your first!

Going straight from an original Phantom to an Xbird probably would not be a great move both in terms of learning to fly a larger suit correctly and in terms of safety. What is your want? Flocking, acrobatics, distance? What is it about your Phantom you wish was different? For example, you know the Phantom...maybe try the Phantom 2z. It's one of the most kick-ass recent-suit designs.

All of our internal eSATA drives are terrific. Several externals (cheapies from Costco/wherever) have shown issues with stability, bus accessibility. USB 2 drives have that issue as well, but in my own experience (using roughly 50-70 drives per year) eSATA hasn't been as reliable. Obviously it's faster and more stable if all things are consistent. Firewire was too, in *most* situations. In the question asked, "Is USB2 fast enough" for writing temp renders, the answer is "yes." Is eSATA fast enough? "Yes." Is 1394 fast enough? "Yes." The answer to that question, however, still remains based around system resources regardless of the port used.

Can you give me a quick walk-thru on "pointing temp renders"? FILE/PROPERTIES, in this dialog set the temp render location, file properties, and then choose the "Start all new projects with these settings" tick box.

Even if a USB drive is 'fast enough', you will be a lot happier with eSATA. It's three to six times the throughput of USB depending on SATA version. On a desktop computer with built in SATA, it's possible to buy an adapter and pipe the internal SATA ports to the outside of the machine at a very minimal cost. While this is true in theory, it's not necessarily true in "real life." USB does share the bus, and is assigned by the CPU, but so is eSATA as well. I have a new monster system that doesn't work well with any external eSata drives, but runs just fine with USB2 externals. YMMV. As a general rule, all things being correct and optimal, eSATA should kick tail on USB. However, it's also a question of whether the data can stream fast enough or not. If your USB 2 drive can't stream HDV or AVCHD fast enough for a couple streams simultaneously, then there is something not set up well with the system.

Big trees on the west side of the parking lot at S'nore...lotsa rain softening up soil, gale-force winds=broken and tipped over trees, doing minor damage to a couple of RV's in the parking lot. Lakeshore drive was closed for several hours due to big trees blowing onto the road, a couple of cars seriously damaged, floods across the road, T'was ugly out there today. And I spent most of my life in tornado alley.

I've no idea what that sentence means. Can you explain please? As far as I can see, anytime any standard is set, it requires participants to adjust their performance in accordance with those standards. That is true for RW records, head down records, swooping, marathon running, auto racing, Jarno's criterion, "the grid", ski jump, getting colleges accredited, testifying in court, etc. etc. Good question, thanks for asking. I feel the standard should not be a set distance, but rather a predeclared formation that has participant-defined distances. If, for instance, the formation agrees to fly head to toe, fist to fist, or 100' apart, then the judging of that formation should apply to the predeclaration. Being forced to fly 3 meters apart because "that's how the grid works" forces skydivers to adapt to the software rules, rather than adapting the software to function within the realm of skydiver creativity. Not to mention that the grid system encourages a lot of "slop." A significant part of any record event, IMO, needs to be a display of excellence and talent, not a display of "this guy has 8 wingsuit jumps, and we need another body in the formation." It also needs to demonstrate creativity, and difficulty. As the folks at Honda like to say "Difficult is worth doing." Mediocrity is not.

Again, untrue.... You don't know what was said to me by whom (which included a threat to have me thrown off the DZ), so I'd recommend you rethink what you think to be true or "untrue." You weren't present, plain and simple. Anything you'd have to say beyond that is hearsay at best. You weren't given the program because I was not given permission to give you the program. You said you'd like to try it, but think back; I did not offer, nor make any suggestion it would be given to you. Doesn't matter to me whether you were in a room full of a barrel of monkeys that knew about or had access to the software. No one, save it be Tom, Jarno, AND Costyn, have permission to give the application to anyone. I for one, couldn't agree more. Hence my participation in the movement to stop gridlock. "We" as a community, need to agree on how we'd like to see this accomplished as a "community" vs a limited group meeting in back rooms on a windy day.

Why not? As for the rest, I'm really confused. I thought we were talking about creating, improving, and determining a wingsuit judging system vis the FAI. Seems like it's all about Raise The Sky. I'm not a member nor supporter of Raise The Sky. I _am_ however, a member of USPA. Therefore, I'm more interested in discussing what USPA and FAI are doing, rather than discussing what Raise The Sky has done.

Assuming that the USB bus is reasonably free on your system, yes. A USB hard drive is usually just fine.

T'was a very nice surprise as there are some very nice photos submitted!, and thanks to those that liked the photo taken at San Juan Capistrano. Thanks to those that voted for the lilies. Most of all, thank you Boinky, for running the contest!

The grid presented a needed starting point. Does everyone recall the closing words of the 2008 record event? "Fuck the grid" is what is on my videotape. Yet the USPA were told that "all wingsuiters support it." Is the software the complete answer? Nope. No one said it is. At least it's being put out there for a year as a discussion point, with the current effort in place to avoid gridlock. It can be improved. And no one who suggests an improvement will be told to "fuck off" by those that began what is eventually going to become a community property. An attempt was made to share the software with the general skydiving community during the bigway, but the organizers had different ideas. I'm sorry the opportunity for everyone to see the software (as it was then) was taken away. There are precedents to proprietary software being used for competition in skydiving. What is different here, is the software was written to comply with existing rules, rules that don't require skydivers to fly in a means that satisfies the software, but rather applying the software to the skydive and existing standards, ie; "skydiver rules" vs what the software requires. Software isn't subjective. It's objective. Shouldn't records be objective? Shouldn't the playing field be fair for everyone?

gopro packages the files as mpeg 4 files. Similar to AVCHD.

you can also help the process by pointing temp renders to a different drive location (assuming you have a secondary drive).

You must first convert the footage to an MPEG 2 file format. I don't use Nero any longer, haven't for a couple of years, but I'm not sure it's capable of re-encoding. Maybe someone else can chime in. Any editing software of recent build can convert it and typically burn a DVD for you, too.

What is your end goal? To be able to track further? To use it as a BASE suit? Working towards wingsuiting? Cuz it's cheap and you have money to burn? Wanna spice up balloon jumps? Phoenixfly tracking suits are great for getting a feel for body positioning prior to getting into wingsuiting. I've seen two very skilled (and tall/thin) guys keep up with moderate wingsuits in their tracking suits. There are guys in tracking suits not able to track as well as a good tracker in a freefly suit. Tracking suits are a tool, like anything else. What is it you wish to achieve with it?

information about the type of computer, software that you're using would help. Getting GPHero footage to DVD is actually VERY easy. If you have the tools.

You clearly have an "untrained ear" because they are very serious about their music. "Community Property" lyrics are different on the CD than on the video. I think they couldn't get "cock" on the radio, so "dong" had to suffice. Between "Eatin' ain't Cheatin' (Sucking ain't Fuckin')" and "Fat Girls," my culture quotient has been fulfilled for a while.

Link was broke Hmmm.... working on this end. here's another link to a different song, live performance so it's not as good as the studio versions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Jd5tndpJ4

Never liked Crue much at all after Shout At The Devil, but they gave birth to Monster Circus and Steel Panther, so kudos are owed there. (Warning, the Steel Panther video is NSFW. Lyrics are raunchy).

I've posted videos of the Opteka in action. It's the perfect tool for what it is supposed to do. It's the same as a Baby Death in every way. The Baby Death is very popular too. As has been said dozens of times here...for most tandem work/outside video, a .5 is generally preferable. For inside video, a .3 is generally preferable. A general exception might be for the tandem videographer shooting from a narrow door aircraft where a .5 might not be wide enough to capture the student and instructor.

There are two presentations. One is the USPA (as advertised in the OP). The other is from the Dutch/Netherlands. It doesn't affect the USPA (unless the FAI accepts it as a method, which they likely won't). In the face of an FAI presentation of the grid, an actual "alternative" must be presented if for no other reason than to counter the grid system as it now stands.

I thought it started Tuesday. The "welcome" dinner/mixer is on Monday evening, starting at 7.