DSE

Buncha shots gathered as compilation pieces of the weekend. Be sure to watch beyond the credits. Purplie Mike had a speshul jump that deserved a last-second inclusion. T'was a lot of fun, guys....Thanks for letting me come play with you! Video

Who did or didn't "practically invent wingsuiting" doesn't bear any relationship to strong or weak customer service. Would you specifically explain where I've "caustically attacked Birdman" and where I've "exaggerated?" What do you know about my experience with the manufacturer, that I don't? Based on recent experiences with Phoenix Fly, Birdman, and Tony Suits, wouldn't you say I have a fairly current view of the customer service landscape, although our opinions differ?

Well said and so true!!!

What is your home DZ? I would echo what Peggs has said. Very much a newbie wingsuiter myself, I've flown: ~Prodigy ~Classic ~GTI ~Firebird ~Phantom (bought one) ~Raptor ~Blade (bought one) and just ordered an M1. Big wing, great power. (Besides, I heard that it has an 11fps climb rate ) Phoenix Fly has terrific customer service, IMO. So far...Tony has great customer service too. Both of them are manufactured or represented in the same area of Florida. Easy to get a suit there/back vs sending overseas like some manufacturers require. Birdman makes a good product in my experience, but I'd never wish a customer service nightmare like mine on almost anyone. It wasn't until Jussi got involved that my experience purchasing got better. At the various flocking events recently, seems like Tony Suits are incredibly visible. I'm not affiliated with Tony, Birdman, nor Phoenix Fly either. For a first suit, the Tony Intro sure seems to be very popular, as is the Phoenix Prodigy II. Bigger suit? Raptor, IMO. That suit is solid....We watched a person flying a Raptor for the 3-4th jump take a place in the distance competition. It *really* is worth the flight to ZHills or Lodi to check out someone that has a lot of suits to demo/choose from. Get some coaching and/or flocking training while you're there, it'll make the trip more valuable.

HF10 is a decent lil' camcorder. Records to SDHC cards, has a higher bitrate than the Sony. Cheaply made, IMO, and no possibility of any kind of remote control via cable ie; LANC or other controller...but if these issues don't bother you, go for it. There is a reason that the Sony products are favored for *all* action sports. They hold up.

Lots. We got up 5 times today. Actually, 6, but one load had to come back down in the aircraft due to cloud cover. One thing that was uncovered during the bad weather... The identity of the secret agent Kung Fu Panda was revealed to those in the know.... Got some very fun flocks in today. some of them can be seen here

Hard drive issue is gone w/the 4GB card, but it's still low bandwidth MP4, proprietary version, at extremely low resolution. For fun jump records...just fine. For tandems?

Century/Schneider has a good .5 lens. they have a KILLER .65 too, but it's not low profile. I had intended on publishing my lens tests by yesterday, but the editor has not given me feedback on the article yet, so it's likely sitting til mid week next week. Schneider's .55 wins the low profile hands down in HD, as does their Baby Death .3, but Raynox at half the price does quite well too. In SD, Royal slightly has the edge, followed by a couple off-brands, followed by the Kenko crap that a lot of guys like to use cuz they're cheap.

Those discs are 5.00 at Circuit City if you have a store in your area that has them available... Get rid of that crap authoring stuff!! Use Encore, Ulead, Sony DVDA for best results

Great, you now have a nice camera with a (for that camera) crap lens on it. Saskia, I've come to believe this is more the norm than the exception... I just had lunch with a reasonably well known skydiving photographer that tried to convince me that there isn't much of a difference between HD and SD. He shoots thru a Coke bottle, basically. Told him to back way up, pull off the Coke bottle, and see the difference a "real" lens can make.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=149808&c=1 Not all stores have em', but the price is right...

cuz the altitrack hasn't been around for 7 years? I could be wrong, but I believe it started shipping mid to late 2005? The Altitrack is my most used piece of equipment. It's held up well, and L&B customer service can't be beaten. Coupled with Jumptrack software, it's a valuable learning tool for me; I can see what I've done on a particular jump. I wish the Altitrack was more wingsuit friendly though.

I watched the guys in Frayed Knot as they jumped this canopy last week, Kevin was getting some sweet swoops out of the Storm, and it looked like it has terrific flare power. The guys on the team said it does have a great flare. Can't wait til PD has a few more of these shipping for demos.

I wonder if there is any relationship to how you are with students, how John is with students, and that you both had the same instructor a few decades apart? IMO, you're one of those tandem instructors that gives the student good information and a great experience, every time. It's always fun to jump w/you.

Photoshop?

Hey! This is great to know! Thank you very much.

C-ya there, John. We arrive on Friday morn.

Hope to see you and your dog this weekend, Sparky. Glad you're up and about.

Neptune is also LED capable, and the HypEye Pro D is attachable to the Optima. It has a flexible cable rather than a hard LED extension. It's roughly 4 times as bright as the Optima indicator. I use it with my camera gear and my Optima. I'm not deaf, but cannot hear my audible in many situations.

yup, already in that mode.

hadn't considered opening the DB file in Access, great idea! I'm trying to export, and getting an invalid field message when setting up the export. As far as the Altitrack, it won't read a wingsuit jump correctly, typically logging less than 10 seconds of the jump, where a borrowed Neptune is simply flawless. If there is something I'm missing on the Altitrack, I'm not finding it in the owners manual. I'd prefer to keep using my Altitrack, because I am very familiar and comfortable with the Altitrack/Jumptrack combination. Fast and easy....

I think it was hung in envy.... Envy of what? Glenn's mad pick up chick skillz? Or envious that it's a woman about to pop Glenn and not Monkeyboy? Nah...Monkeyboy has integrity, I've seen it up close. See ya Friday, Ed.

I pass the pantry line every Friday morning...for years, the vehicle line never extended past the church parking lot (it's not a church that gives out the food, it's just that they have a large lot for the distribution trucks to park) but nowadays...the line is always well out of the church and into the highway berm for a quarter mile or so. I see "regular" or "middle class" people going to the food bank, nicely if not in average clothing. It's not just the overweight, spandex-clad women in curlers waddling up to the trucks any more. Part of my significant other's work responsibility is assisting people in getting off food stamps and assistance. She tells me the median has significantly risen, and the state is going to be in trouble soon due to all the new applicants. Worse, our county is the largest in the state, one of the largest in the US, with a very small population. Most folks drive long distances to work as there is no longer sufficient employment since the military base closed its main mission. None of the candidates seem to be willing to address the reality of the economy head-on. My choice is Obama or McCain, and if McCain selects Romney as his running mate, he's left me no choice. I don't care about Obama's skin color, I care about his messaging, and it's too glib for me. I like some of what he says, but the lack of deep substance worries me. McCain has more substance, but doesn't go where I'd like to hear him go. They're both so filled with generalities...they could be completely interchangeable. Then there's Hillary....I'd just as soon vote for a real lame duck.

I'm exceptionally proud of Monkeyboy for hanging his head in shame as Vectorboy pretends to hang his....

I'm making the transition from an Altitrack and Jumptrack to Paralog with a Neptune, since the L&B products can't read more than 119 seconds of freefall. However, I can't get Jumptrack to properly export a CSV file that Paralog can import. Any suggestions, hints, or helps from folks that have done this in the past?