DSE

AFF in the US varies, depending on which program the DZ adheres to and how they run it and assuming each level is passed with one jump. An A license is 25 jumps, but one is passed from AFF (usually) before one receives their A license.

Abe's of Maine sells both grey market and white market products. The ad specifically says they have a US warranty, which would suggest a white market camera, which means it should come with a sealed box (all parts included)

Or maybe even longer. There is a video somewhere around here of a "tunnel god" that was nearly killed by another "tunnel god" when both of them had around 100 jumps, and were jumping with a tandem, one of the tunnel gods being in the camera slot. It's not jump numbers, and it's only flying skill to a degree by comparison, IMO. It's having the air-experience and the mental acuity to be able to 'think ahead' of problems and be able to see them coming before they happen. Bomb420 was directly above a premature, and got some incredible footage of it before it got to the point of nailing him, simply because he saw it coming before the PC was completely out of the BOC. Would you be able to recognize that? Had he not been mentally alert, it could easily have ended up with two injured (or worse) skydivers. Even the team members were stunned to see the premie. Those are just two small examples, neither of which terribly relate to skills or flying ability, but rather the experience that only comes with air-time. Making good decisions is part of being a safe skydiver, IMO, and one of those first decisions is how you manage whether you follow recommendations or not. It's not so much about what "you can get away with" as much as it is "When won't you get away with it."

Haven't seen "fighting" but have seen rotations where a DZO or DZM has "favorite" guys and will put them in front of more senior, experienced, or full-time camera flyers that he doesn't drink beers with on Saturday nights.... It's tough to keep people in the queue that have experience, and I suspect it's harder at small DZ's where you see a typical progression of: GOT MY A! (now I'm gonna freefly until I have 100 jumps 101 Jumps-Start to fly camera (but not with tandems (wink, wink) 500 Jumps-Now I'm gonna get my tandem rating, no more video with tandems for me! Somewhere in there, they might get their AFFI, too...but point is, some folks are always looking for a paid skydive, which is fine, but with out a fairly strict DZ policy of who gets to do what...I can see how it might become a political playground.

why disappointed? Because some people choose to not celebrate the holiday the way most people do?

you can remove the camera from the mounts, it's a thumbscrew that holds it to the sticky-stuff and relevant plastic

it is, more or less. Problem is, many people don't read the stickies at the top of the forum, even though they say "Read me before posting here."

Yes, Sandy chuckled pretty hard when I asked about this subject a few weeks back. Yes, he is the designer of the Voodoo and other RI products. [edit] posted this originally from my Blackberry, and typing isn't exactly the most accurate in a moving vehicle... It was specifically brought up to me in a PM that my new Voodoo rig may be dangerous. I spoke with one rig manufacturer while I happened to be in Florida at the time I got the PM, and while the person I spoke with wasn't a designer, he laughed a bit, and said it was nonsense. Then I called Sandy Reid on the phone and he mentioned this myth as coming from one specific person, and laughed pretty hard about it, with a lot of other comments I won't publish, just in case I got it wrong... but I'm very certain about him laughing and feeling it's a joke to be concerned about cut corners. I can tell you that my line twists are virtually non-existent with this new rig, and opening in a full track (which is somewhat common for me) is no problem at all. Additionally, I simply like how it feels coming off my back regardless of whether it's a freefly jump, wingsuit jump, or camera jump. I "feel" the release better. Packing...easy as pie with the Voodoo and open corners. It's a simple tuck in, and it looks nice, even with a canopy that is slightly too large (jumping a Sabre II 150 in a container made for a Storm 150). Like I said...I don't have the wherewithall to personally dispute what one manufacturer or rigger is purporting; I have absolute faith in Rigging Innovations and Sandy's designs, and I have absolute faith that the deployments I've experienced thus far will continue to be similar in the future. As RI offers this at no additional charge, there is no marketing dog in the hunt either, so far as I can see. They do charge a little extra for the 9' bridle, and Sandy recommended nothing longer than a 9' bridle to me (although they are available).

FWIW, I have been told by several packers (and emphatically so by Alex at Pepperell) that he *prefers* packing my Voodoo with the "dynamic corners" because it's easier vs more difficult. I too, find that I prefer packing it vs my Talon FX or FS. I'm not gonna get into the argument of cut corners being more or less dangerous. I only have around 100 jumps on this rig, and while I prefer how it feels both in wingsuit and normal freefall...I don't have enough experience, knowledge, or evidence in one direction or another. If Sandy Reid tells me that the cut-corner being more likely to cause an incident is a bullshit story, I'm going to accept his belief as fact, given that he's a pretty experienced rig designer who offers this mod at no extra cost.

I thought 7' is standard? 9' is "wingsuit" but I know a couple of guys with 10' bridles, measured from pin to larkshead.

Longer bridle clears the burble of a wingsuit more easily, and with the bigger suits of today, it's nice to have. I jumped a standard length bridle wth my Phantom and Blade, never needed anything longer. I noticed a significant increase in hesitation when I started jumping a Mach1 and SM1. Voodoo's "dynamic corners" (RI calls em' open tray or cut corners) are different than the others. I love em, won't ever go back to anything else. I'm having my Talon FX modded right now.

Sorry buddy...no time. Busy as hell over here. Wish you were around But...you might wanna check out Day Four of the blog... http://www.skydivernetwork.org/profiles/blogs/sebastianday-four-1

I'm laughing too hard to compete, Phil. Now, get your ass over to Sebastian with your paint gun and do it up for real. The plane was already hijacked once...we can do it again.

Nothing "supposed" about it, and Canon has already announced they'll release a firmware update. Additionally, there is already a Photoshop plug to fix it. Lots of chatter about the subject on the Sony software and camera sites.

The HDD shuts down according to Sony. I have a couple jumps with the card installed, no issues with the HDD afterwards

Contact Royal. they have a 40.5mm lens, made for panasonic that should fit your camera

not to mention you can now embed metadata directly into a stream using either voice or text.... Metadata is the future of archiving/logging. Timecode is always constant, so is what we tag with, but memory and paper fade. .mxf is great for this, as it allows up to four fields of data to be inserted from the cameras in addition to GPS info, date/time/framerate/aperture/shutter/gain/ and all other camera settings.

you can fix by sending to Sony. It's likely that either the mic ribbon connector is broken, or the audio processor got snarked. If it were head-related, your images would be bad as well. Does the AIC shoe work for recording?

If y'all have interest in what's happening in Sebastian... You can see Scotty B's very fun new toy in yesterday's blog. I edit out Chuck Blue's very white derriere from the footage.

:-) Cute. I actually do have excellent ground to air footage, but again...it was media-provided. It'll be posted soon, however.

both my laptops and my desktops have built-in MSPD readers. One laptop also has SD reader, and my desktop reads everything there is (so far). You can purchase a card reader bay for about 10-15.00 for any PC.

Norman Kent flies camera for wingsuit this way, but he uses a carabiner to attach the camera to his chest strap on deployment. He also has a very tight handgrip with wide Velcro strap to keep his hand in the grip

Inside your container, or inside your vagina? now that you mention it...both. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=105116;