DSE

Not sure how to comment, it's just a deck with a small monitor, you could use it for capture/Xfer, and yes...it looks great on the monitor. It's a quarter-way decent field monitor, but I prefer either my 17" production monitor or my laptop running Revolution or OnLocation. The deck would be good for a DZ to have as an Xfer station for the editors.

The prototype didn't have a cutaway, but I had talked to Doug Park about it at PIA. I got the impression they'd be designing a cutaway into the helmet. I stopped by the shop last month to look at the status of the helmet, but with Nationals going on plus a bunch of people in town for special events, we didn't get to spend much time. Hopefully someone will take delivery on one and can report first hand?

We had a prototype when working on Norman Kent's camera DVD; it was very nice looking, very comfortable to wear. I didn't get the opportunity to jump with it, however. the final product looks just a little different than the prototypes with a more sleek brow. I do wish the plate was slightly more wide, over hanging the sides. A custom cut fiber plate is only about 100.00. Am I missing information about colors or custom paint?

You mean like the excellent piece called "Kinesthesia" produced by Norman Kent? Real life skydives that turn into 3D animations and 3D animations that turn into real skydives, with body positions and everything? It may not be DZ specific, but it's a terrific resource for new (and not so new) skydivers, IMO.

Thanks for those. Hadn't heard of em' before.

ODSS #1 - PM me for your official ODSS No. Why would anyone want an "odious" number? The concept of putting up warning pages in various names of Skyride is a good one, our DZ has had one up for 3 years, and the DZs in our area have added their own Skyride warnings. Conceivably, if enough skydivers and DZs were to place pages of information about Skyride's practices, and it carried over into their ThrillPlanet, Spagoda, etc businesses as well, it won't stop Skyride, but does give the search engines more information to look at, and would generally provide more hits for the consumer to view.

How do you know the skyhook will work, every time? Malfunction Junction, Malfunction Motto, Emergency Procedures....whatever you call em' should be how you practice, and that's how you should implement.

A-fear of the unknown is logical, probably even a little healthy. B-it sounds like you're already on a terrific path of gathering knowledge. Tunnel time prior to and during AFF is a wonderful thing, so you're already getting the body flight part worked out. Canopy control is *very* much a part of your AFF experience, First Jump Course (FJC) and your instructors are there to answer any/all questions you may have. Asking lots of questions is a good thing, yet I'd recommend you ask your questions at the DZ, with answers coming from your instructors. Your instructor will not allow you to board the aircraft if he/she feels you're not ready, competent, and able to perform the tasks that they'll teach you to perform. Trust your instructors, but don't at all be afraid to ask for clarification. Spend some time looking around the community here, you'll find hundreds of posts like yours, people looking for answers and wondering about what's in store for them. Welcome to the sport!

Agreed, but also met a kid with 260 jumps, most of them wingsuit, who feels he's ready to become an AFFI. It'll be interesting to see if he passes the course. He's got the 6 hours... How would it be possible to measure/apply tunnel time towards freefall time with any real value?

Although I don't agree with the waiver, at the same time, wouldn't the candidate have to pass the evaluation dives? Hopefully the evaluator threw some heavy garbage at the candidate?

yes, it is "our problem." Dealing with a crying woman screwed over by Skyride for nearly a thousand bucks means his attentions are focused on matters not relevant to the PAYING customers. On a large DZ this might not matter, but on a small DZ with few resources, it's expensive, distracting, and embarassing to the sport and the DZ. As best we can, we try to help the customer who has just found out they've been screwed. We're not *all* from Bendovern' squeal, Alabama.

While that may be your opinion, there are hundreds of Goldmembers, Schumacher mounts, and other mounts that are in use that aren't suffering snags on every jump. The Goldmember is hardly a ghetto quick mount (I don't use one, but they're decent mounts, IMO).

yes, it HAS been researched, presented, and discussed. Check out the Skydiving Survival Series DVD and watch it for yourself. I see every reason that a baglock could seriously increase fall rate and little reason to believe it would slow the fall rate by any meaningful value.

A bunny with a name like "God of Death340?"

Sorry. Try again. That is not fraud. Utah State Law: 1. A person is guilty of deceptive business practices if, in the course of engaging in a business, occupation or profession, he intentionally: D. Sells, offers or exposes for sale any commodity which is adulterated or mislabelled; [1975, c. 499, § 1 (new).] G. Makes or causes to be made a false statement of material fact in any advertisement addressed to the public or to a substantial number of persons, in connection with the promotion of his business, occupation or profession or to increase the consumption of specified property or service; [1975, c. 499, § 1 (new).] B. "Mislabeled" means having a label or trademark varying from the standard of truth and disclosure in labeling prescribed by statute or lawfully promulgated administrative regulation, or if none, as set by established commercial usage. "Mislabeled" includes but is not limited to counterfeiting or the unauthorized reproducing of a trademark. [1999, c. 767, §1 (amd).] Skyride is guilty (IMO) of all of the above, and apparently the State of Utah agrees, as does the State of Georgia, or at least they're investigating to determine whether they're guilty or not. A sad aspect of all of this, if you have to defend a practice, it generally is fraudulent, or at the least, ethically flawed. Either way...one thing I wish is that the Skyride supporters would have the courage to post their real names, so I know who to never do business with.

Actually, it's only in skydiving you'd be on the front line for widescreen. *most* of the production world has been there for a long time. FWIW, I have a couple tutorials on matching 4:3 to widescreen.

With all the questions about HD, this entry-level primer might help clear some confusion.

Search the forum; you'll find the answer to this and many other relevant questions. You can't fly with a hard drive cam. Many feel sidemount is better for freeflying with friends. No HD cam is narrow profile, but there are several threads about helmets being made for HD cams. The PC109 is a slim camcorder (amongst others) that work well as a side mount. We'll forego the standard comment about not wearing a camera with your jump #s.

Press release arrived today: 16x9 Inc introduces Wide Converter for Sony HVR-V1U Introducing I6x9 Inc.'s EX 0.7X Wide Converter for the Sony HVR-V1U and other compact HD camcorders. This professional optic easily attaches to the 62mm threads on the front of the camcorder's 3.9-78mm lens for 30% more wide-angle coverage than the lens alone affords. Weighing only 13.75 oz. (390 grams) the EX 0.7X Wide Converter has been elegantly engineered and crafted with no sacrifice in quality. The sleek 3-element design utilizes state-of-the-art coated glass for clean high definition pictures. When installed, the EX 0.7X modifies the camera's original 3.9-78mm lens to a wider 2.73-54.6mm focal length. Or using the 35mm SLR equivalent, the original 37.4-748mm lens broadens to 26-523mm with the 0.7X attached. The lens retains its full zoom capability and there is no light loss or vignetting. The Wide Converter features an 82mm front thread that permits users to directly mount glass filters and other accessories in front of the optic. Plus the EX 0.7X is fully compatible with popular mattebox systems such as those from Alfred Chrosziel. For a neat shading solution, 16x9 offers an optional lightweight Rubber Lens Shade. Like the rest of the 16x9 Inc. EX Collection of specialty lenses, the EX 0.7X Wide Converter is manufactured in Japan. Suggested U.S. price for the EX 0.7X Wide Converter is $495 with an introductory special of $440. The Rubber Lens Shade lists at $125 with a promo of $110 while supplies last. For more information on the EX 0.7X Wide Converter and the rest of 16x9 Inc.'s EX Collection of HD-quality lens add-ons, contact: www.16x9inc.com. ### I believe BandPro and B&H also have this available.

Logically, it seems that a baglock would increase fall rate, not slow it down. Feet to earth with a small PC would (in my mind) be faster than belly to earth with same PC, no?

Writing for Babylon 5 and doing an interview about writing for Babylon 5 are two different endeavors. Looking at it differently, Norman Kent shot the CRW event this weekend. He gets paid for the photos. If I hire him to do an interview about how he shot the photos, he gets paid twice for the same event, but not for the same end-product. It might work out that I'd give Norman some royalty in exchange for his interview fees (which is fairly common), and something like that may well be the case with this interview. At the end of the day though...if you're feeling like you're a professional videographer/camera man, then act like one, and expect to be treated like one. As a terrific example, look to Laszlo. He might give some pix away, that's his business. But he watermarks every shot that goes up online, and demands payment for use of his work regardless of where it goes. And his rep precedes him. Same with others, but he's a convenient example.

Different industries, but the same concept as what many of us to for friends, general public, or "publicity." Someone asked me in a PM recently how I felt about getting paid for skydiving photography. I sent them this link. it's a great rant, and although I don't advocate quite the same position he takes, even skydivers might benefit from leaning a bit more in his direction.

you're right. I was confusing public funding with public land access.

If thinking "outside the box" should indicate embracing deceit, fraud, theft, and unethical business practice... the majority of the world needs to change the meaning of the phrase. Good marketing has nothing to do with deceit. At least the late night cable shows offer disclaimers when they claim their product will take 50lbs from your belly. Everyone in the sport of skydiving has a right (and responsibility) to comment on Skyride's practices, just as NASCAR took after Skyride for the benefit of their membership. Skyride and their lack of ethics in our industry affect how we're viewed from a broad public perspective. Additionally, if their business practices are not fair (and given what I heard first-hand at PIA last Feb, the majority of DZ's feel Skyride is unfair/unethical), it makes it difficult for a DZ to market themselves fairly. Competition is a good thing. Skyride pits a DZ against themselves. Perhaps you're not a skydiver, as if you were, it would be hard to accept that you're OK with "extra altitude", "turbine/big airplane", "pilot chute" "weather insurance" and other spurious fees. Why not add a "good looking TI" fee, or "guaranteed opening" fee? How about a "beautiful sunset" fee? "Comfortable harness" fee? "Stand up landing" fee? "15 minutes to altitude guarantee" fee? "Tip the TI/Videographer in advance" fee? Better still a "guaranteed to be within 2 hour drive" fee? You've seen the list; for example, there are eight Skyride websites for New Mexico and Utah. Yet there are no DZ's in either state that accept Skyride coupons. I guess they wouldn't sell the "2 hour drive" fee in those states.

I agree with your first sentence, the *concept* of what they're doing isn't a bad concept. If they'd stop the practice of falsifying dropzones, misleading the public, charging for normal practices as though they were "extras," strong-arming DZ's, stealing/rerouting phone numbers, illegally using photographs, and began to present an integrous and honest face, I can see a national booking service in the skydiving industry working very well. I suspect most rational people would agree with that concept.