DSE

Batch captures. Batch edits. Batch renders. Our systems are fast enough that we're editing one video while another is being captured, while yet another is rendering. Very common to have three things happening at once. It's a beautiful thing.

Still waiting......... it's in the hands of Scotty Burns and Justin Shorb to post the evidence.

No, I'm ragging on how you went down to a 150... Glad to hear you're back up to a 170. Update your jump numbers if you don't want folks making assumptions. Then why not trust those "who know you in person" to teach you to fly the exit from a Cessna? Like I mentioned earlier, you're gonna do whatever you want. With all but one post (from a low-number jumper) telling you you're making dangerous mistakes, you focus on defensive. It would be callous of me to point out other skydivers who have had the same attitude, who are now found only in the Blue Skies and Incidents forum. There are a LOT of them. No one wants to simply say "You can't do this." No one wants to prevent you from growing. But we do have a responsibility to ourselves, to the sport, and to the tandem students who you are endangering without them having any say in the matter. Enthusiasm is wonderful, Michael. It's terrific that you're motivated. But learn how to walk before trying to run. Running with scissors in the mall is no less irresponsible than flying with tandems at your skill and experience level. Learn to fly the exit WITHOUT the tandem there. Get to where you can exit facing forwards, backwards, sideways without the tandem in the door. Learn all of these exit methods while shooting friends doing relative work. Yeah..tough at a 182 dropzone. Sucks that you might have to travel, but there it is. Just because you jump at a small DZ doesn't mean you have the right to endanger the lives of others. Maybe, just maybe, folks have YOUR best interests at heart. In this particular case, we all have the best interests of the tandem students, tandem instructors, and the sport at heart. Any TI that is allowing you to jump with him is taking unnecessary risks that should not be taken with the life of a student. That's aside from the rules of both the CSPA and the tandem manufacturer. Look at how folks are chiding you in other forums. Is it that everyone else is stupid and you're not?

CX12, SD9

yes. That's a remix from my "Closer to Far Away" CD, available at Borders, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc. I'm playing everything heard in that particular cut.

Rather than putting my 580 on for some jumps, I've used the built-in flash. I did gaff a small bit of foam over the shoe so that the flash couldn't bounce down, just to add stability to the flash flanges. y'know...might be fun/funny to see Michael mount a 580 on the 20D hotshoe and jump it.

I don't disagree your PIM should be updated, I spent quite a little time reading it last night. Ancient and some of it quite silly in terms of recommendations. That doesn't change the value in the recommended experience levels. Recommended experience levels have their foundations in the blood of students, camera flyers, instructors, test pilots, designers, team members, competitors, and plain ole' fun jumpers. Those numbers aren't random. Tunnel time can help, yet it's only one small part of the learning process. For example, I know a tunnel rat who can fly like you wouldn't believe. He nearly killed a friend of mine under canopy. He doesn't hve canopy skills to match his freefly skills. Can't get canopy skills in a tunnel. He also has almost no heads-up skills. Doesn't recognize when things are going bad. I thought (like everyone else here probably did) that 100 jumps was enough to put a cam on my head, particularly after I didn't do the normal "OK, I'm off student status so I'm gonna f*** around learning to freefly." I started working in the tunnel with Ed Dickenson, getting personal training from Norman Kent, Ed, local camera guys, spent time with McGowan...so by the time I put a camera helmet on, if anyone was ready...it was me. And I wasn't ready. And they told me I wasn't ready, even though I'd been flying those slots for 90 jumps without a camera, only the helmet. My first paid tandem was nearly 100 jumps later. The PIM may need change from some of the specific silliness it currently has in it, but jump numbers and license requirements aren't much different than ours, and I feel ours are pretty spot-on. Michael has demonstrated in the past, that he'll do whatever, whenever. Visit the Gear/Rigging forum and follow his downsize progression went in spite of most everyone telling him not to do it. Or any number of threads where he's made authoritive statements in blank ignorance and argued with those more experienced. He'll probably be "all right." In skipping recommended steps, he's dumber and less experienced than others who experienced the process as it's been figured out over the past 50 years. Cutting corners always means you're missing part of the picture. Saying "I have been doing this for a year...." or whatever doesn't mean jack shit. You can probably run across the freeway blindfolded a few times without getting hit too. I often fly a 135 canopy when I go to Florida. At my skill level, it's no big deal. But flying that same canopy at my home DZ is stupid for me right now....because I don't have enough time on the next size up, and at 4500 feet MSL, it's a silly risk. I'll get there soon enough. Swooping isn't my primary objective, so not being super current in the discipline dulls my edge significantly. Why take the risk? When you've got a tandem in front of you, unless you're an INCREDIBLY heads-up person, 100 jumps isn't anywhere near enough to be that close to an innocent student, IMO. Learning to fly the slot...that's one thing. Learning to fly the slot with a student there? Quite another. Based on Michael's other posts I for one, would be concerned about being in the air with him. It's not a skills thing, it's an attitude thing. We have one guy at our DZ who consistently cuts people off at landing by doing a 90 across the landing area. He's been talked to, signed a paper saying he won't do it anymore, but he continues to do it. Two of us won't fly with him anymore. Eventually, he's gonna kill or hurt someone badly. He's one of the most skilled skydivers I've ever seen, anywhere. And I've been around the very best in this biz... Danny Page was damn good, so were many others you'll find in the Incidents forum or Fatality database. I watched a horses ass remove all his nylon and rig on a CASA the other day, re-rigging all the way up to 12k when the LO forced him to go to the front of the plane and stand down. The guy has over 2K jumps...very experienced, and is a complete moron. His attitude tells me he doesn't care about my safety nor yours. There is always another skydive, always another opportunity. There is plenty of time to learn, plenty of time to fully understand what is going on up there. At 100, 200 whatever jumps, to quote Scott Campos "you don't yet know what you don't know." The one realization I had at 1K jumps was "I now know what I don't know. Now it's time to learn." I learned to crawl, walk, and save my life without killing others in 1000 skydives. I hope to learn to fly in the next 1000. >rant off<

it's unfortunate that they cut out the best parts of some of those skydives. Baxter is amazingly talented, as is scotty burns and the others involved in shooting this piece.

Gut instinct tells me you're running antivirus...

you can tell in the vid where I ran out of gas on the flight home...it sort of abruptly loses the direction, but I needed to sleep. Either way, I'll have the HD version up later tonight on Vimeo. Scotty got a page to manifest, and had I known what was in the box, I'd have had my cam ready. It was like watching a 3 year old on Christmas morning. His face lit up like the little cherub we all know Scotty to be, and he wore that damn hat whenever he wasn't flying. he was trying to figure out how to wear it in freefall.... I'd say the gift was a success.

it's not a BSR, it's a manufacturer requirement. Per your PIM: Prior to filming a skydive, a jumper should have: • a “C” CoP • very good relative work skills • good diving and floater tracking skills • good canopy skills Perhaps I have this incorrect, but doesn't a C CoP require 200 jumps? Here's the thing, Michael...when a tandem skydive goes to shit, it goes to shit REALLY fast. Are you truly ready to risk an unsuspecting person's safety this early? Especially when you've obviously got some exiting issues? Tandems don't fly like solo skydivers. If you're gonna learn to fly with tandems; Exit with your back to the side, or back to the tail to get started. Leave early. Backfly it til they come down to you. Are you comfortable knowing you control all your axis so you don't float or backtrack into them? Maybe learn to follow them first, before learning to lead them? Based on your posts in other forums, you're gonna do whatever the hell you want, so at least be smart about it. It's not just your safety at risk, it's the safety of two others, too.

OK, this is too short, and in some cases the edits suck...and PM gets too much face time...but I ran out of gas on the plane, so here is an upload of a timeline I'll likely revisit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ijNWpyUakM Notice that there is one other approach as well. I was sleepy on the flight, an played with a different directino that didn't work so well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwMEQJniGoQ

I doubt any of the above had anything to do with a blown cell. Deploying in a track would be one potential, non-collapsed slider, slider not all the way up, body position...they did get a 4 way going, so they clearly were flying at "normal" speeds on their bellies. Still....it's very good to consider all potential links in the chain that led to a hard opening/chop.

I was on that same load; you got picked up by the guy who was out looking for me after my chop. I couldn't find my trash either, as it was too dark once we were on the ground, but I had followed my freebag as far as I could, it landed in a tree in the middle of the swamp across the street from the DZ. We went back the next morning to look again, and found my main on someone's back deck. It was MUCH further to the northwest than we'd expected, based on the winds. My mal was a baglock; yours floated more slowly down (I watched it for a moment when I was under reserve). I'd ask folks to look further northwest from where you thought you were. You might also ask Reid for a flyover in his 22 heli, or have the DZ overfly in the 182. Should be fairly easy to spot from the air. My freebag is stuck in a tree, it can't be retrieved with anything but a helicopter or potato gun with a hook on it. Lurch offered to try to climb the tree (he's an upright monkey), but the tree is too big around, too mossy, and in the middle of the swamp. Glad you made it down safely, it was dark when we exited the aircraft. and now you've got a nice story to tell. It surely was a fun boogie...

Ditto. Scary to think a TI would be this cavalier with his life, his student's life, or Michael's life. Wait the jumps. If you can't fly without the camera, you sure as hell can't fly with one, and it's an added distraction. Does you DZO know you're flying with tandems? He's a very heads-up guy, I'd be extremely surprised if he condones you flying with tandems, let alone with a camera helmet.

for me, one of the MOST badass experiences was watching you deck Burble Mike. "huh huh, uhhhhhh that was cool" "Yeah, yeah, do it again!" Andreea, you indeed are a super girl. Was fun to flock, have dinner, etc with you.' Don't expect all flock events to be THIS good. Justin, Jeff, Rick, and the Pepperell gang really synched it up. I heard a rumor we put up more wingsuit slots and relative work formations than any of the other groups....hope that's so. Riccardo, Canopy found. Thanks to Justin and Danny. Lurch was gonna climb the tall trees to retrieve my freebag and PC, but the tree wouldn't cooperate. A helicopter at 400.00 per hour wasn't feasible. Rigging Innovations already sent me a new freebag/PC, should arrive tomorrow (That's one reason I fly RI container, BTW). But damn, expensive...

Riccardo, Grazie for the great dinner time last night. We sure had a blast. Nice to eat a "real meal" instead of that sushi sh**. Great companions, fun times in the air. Yeyo, thx for posting the Burble Mike piece. I think "Burble Mike" is more fitting than "purple, Pervple, or Pink" Mike. Perfect comment from Chris Gray. Was very much worth the trip east. Great flocks, great friends, fun times had by all there. Happy to report that Justin and Danny found my main on someone's back porch, several stoes broken, indicating it probably exploded on impact. Lesson: Don't let Danny pack for you even when the packers are really busy. He maybe can pack BASE canopies but.... Phil, a real pleasure to meet/fly with you. Tony....you lost out by going home to beat the hurricane. Jeff and Justin deserve a MONSTER thank you. Having organized loads myself, I know manifest appreciates having a single sheet already done, knowing that the group will be in the loading area on time, everyone being briefed on landing direction on EVERY jump, so no wingsuit loads were landing at 90 (and even saw a few 180 landings from RW groups), not to mention the terrific safety, wind, spotting, and all-around professionalism Jeff and Justin provided to the event. The vibe was very much one of camraderie and top spirit. Taya, I think I'm in love w/you. Sharing music with a beautiful woman on the ride to altitude was a new experience for me. Phil....wow. What a presence. Packers at Pepperell are a force to respect, too. OK, enough ass-kissing. It was one of the best events I've ever attended. Everyone except one guy in purple checked their egos at the door, didn't matter what your skill was...everyone was treated like they mattered by everyone that did matter. One small suggestion. Get a BIGGER BIRDHOUSE or make better arrangements for debrief. Squeezing 30 people into that hot, tiny room was miserable. But at least it was in high-def.

you missed a good cutaway in the near dark... Hope to find my main in the morning. Surprised some folks when I landed in their front yard. You also missed some SERIOUS burblage with Burble Mike, Scotty Burns nailed him with his XS wingsuit. Then I accidentally did the same thing. Attached is a photo of the 16 way as it begins to assemble. Can't post the final assembly...but it's pretty damn good. Was terrific finally putting some new faces to old names, making new friends, and learning a lot from some of the best the community has to offer. I need to post the video of you steam-rolling me. That to date, is one of the most fun events I've experienced. Pieing and silly-stringing Rick Hough was a highlight, grateful Rick had me on the dive. It was a stunner when Justin stood up in the aircraft and announced the jump was a gift from Rick.... Pepperell...what a rockin' great place!

i wouldn't/couldn't call it a 'complete formation" as that photo displays...note that one of the three that are far out is Scotty Burns, the one in the middle of the upper right side is Matt Hoover, but there aren't perfect straight lines, and there are two people way out of the formation. But that's not the final photo in the series, either.

Just put up a perfect 16 way that held for the entire jump. Photos at 6

Today didn't suck. We split into two groups. Was a blast to see the results of Phil's group and the larger group come together for a successful 40 way at the end of the day. Highlight of the day was the evening meal cooked by Jeff and Amy, the presentation of the "special" T-shirt from Scotty Burns to Justin Shorb. The entire video will be released soon unless Justin pays me a lot of money to keep it hushed. We'll also air the video of Purple Mike taking his rig and wingsuit on and off in the aircraft to fix a packing error that resulted in him riding the airplane back down. But...he smiled through the whole incident. See attached photo of today's end.

The CX12 will fit your cage, Mark. The tight boxes will require the front to be cut out for the focus/control knob. No big thing, only takes a second.

I got my pie'ngs just like everyone else at the required numbers, thank you very much. It's muchly appreciated to see the wishes and posts, pm's and etc for being such an old guy. Thank you for all the kind words (even if I am still tweaked at Skymama for posting private information. She needs to be reminded I have photos I can still upload )

56

As previously hinted, the folks at Pepperell have already set the "new world record." Expect photos soon from Scotty Burns as evidence of the Otter and other aircraft combined.