DSE

Sometimes, the VHS tape is so hammered that the copy inhibit circuit gets a message that the VHS is copyprotected when it's actually not. You can run the tape through a TBC/Time Base Corrector, you can run it through an A2D (Analog to Digital converter) or you can try to adjust the tracking on the VHS to "fool" the copy inhibit funtion.

oops, my bad...I've got you confused with someone else. I "aged" you a few years, I guess. Your explanation is as good as mine, and I guess I find it hard to accept status quo based on my own limited experience. 30 skydives divided evenly between the two options outside of running it out or sticking it if the winds are up; I'll take the slide any/every time.

I'd read both those threads, and a few others as well, but still don't grasp why the PLF is the "first go-to" for a lot of people. I know you jumped rounds, but with a round, you typically have more vertical speed than horizontal speed, or at least that's been my very limited observation. On the other hand, with a smaller square, you've almost always got significantly more horizontal motion. My AFF instructor, old-school guy with 10K jumps, 40 years in the biz, drilled PLF into our brains. He still jumps a PC once in a while for fun, and at 60, can manage a gorgeous PLF. He was also the first experienced skydiver who answered "Because that's the way we've always done it, but it doesn't mean it's right," and then we had a lengthy discussion wherein he pulled math into the discussion and concurred with me that a side slide would be as a general rule, probably better. And believe me, we've got a *lot* of chuck holes and vole holes. One of our jumpmasters was surfing and caught one a couple weeks ago, and fractured his ankle. At the local dropzone, there isn't a blade of green grass, either. We have some buffalo grass and that's the extent of grass. It hurts when you PLF into it, but a slide works very well. Although a proper PLF shouldn't allow your spine to be compressed, it can (and has happened hundreds of times), and does. A side slide avoids this very nicely. The spine can flex, but not compress. For a while, I practiced PLFs under my PD 9cell, and then practiced side-slides. While a "proper" PLF (in my view anyway) includes pulling arms in, in practicality, it's not so easy because you're still trying to fly the canopy until the very end. On more than a few side slides, I was able to flare deeply enough to pop me back up to my feet. So FWIW, after my 15 jumps of each landing practice (and a thrashed pair of camo pants in the process) I've come to the conclusion that the side slide, at least in the condition under which I practiced both PLF and sideslide, is preferable. I guess at the end of the discussion, I'm still trying to figure out "why?" so many folks scream "PLF" vs talking about both as an alternative. Again, I don't know that I'm right, but haven't heard any compelling evidence or discussion that I'm wrong, either.

Referencing the "How not to land" thread, it makes me wonder a couple things... 1. how many people have been taught the real techniques and have attempted a PLF from a running jump off a platform. 2. Why would one PLF under *those* particular circumstances when the canopy has a fair amount of horizontal airspeed? If you're downwinding, or even just under a fast canopy from a poorly executed low turn, you could be moving say...20mph, which is 29 feet per second. A PLF isn't going to do much for you, as through the minimum of 6-7 revolutions your body is going to experience, chances are pretty good that even if you tuck into a ball (which is not part of PLF), you're going to have an extremity stick out and break, if not more than one. I've yet to hear any one advocate a sideslide, coming in on one thigh/calf/buttock so as to avoid both butt cheeks being on the ground, which will prevent compression of the spine and prevent the tail from breaking. Another way to look at this is to drop a mannequin from a truck moving 20mph, allowing the mannequin to strike the ground feet-first. The mannequin will go ass over teakettle. Now do the exact same thing, but drop the mannequin so that the heel and calf hit first, butt last. The mannequin *might* go ass over teakettle (ours didn't) but it doesn't have the violent flipping. If you don't have a mannequin, do the same thing with a 55 gallon barrel. Rim first, and then side first. We've done that, just for kicks. Am I up in the night with the thought process that a sideslide is much more current, practical, and safe than attempting to buck n' a quarter the landing, trying to roll to one side with the "impact + forward inertia not being considered in the process?

Working with Viper and Dalsa at the moment... twin streams (Someone told me that they'd heard tell of Tom Sanders or someone else jumping with this rig to a Filmstream, but I highly doubt it. 35mm would be more sensible. You'd need a tandem canopy to land it) hence my comment of "up to" 1.2 GB. 4:4:4, not 4:2:2. Genocide/Genesis is 960Mbps using FilmStream, depending on the settin.s, Uncompressed luma HD@12bit, depending on the chroma sample, is around 740MBps, not including audio. Using a standard storage of 3GB per minute (HDCAM/3:1:1/8bit), you can easily shrink this. Your 4K images at 1/4 that file size/datarate wouldn't make a lot of sense if I understand your acquisition. UHDV uncompressed 22:11:11 (RAW, 12bit) is 194GB per minute (approx) ,or a value of 3.2GBps. Maybe I'm missing what you're doing with the Arri? [edit] screw my math, I always suck at it, and forgot to convert bits to bytes re; HD cam. 118MBps

Wouldn't it more likely be the grommet in the bottom of the bag, thru which the pilot chute and kill line attach/pass? Mine got pretty messed up over time due to the Rapidelink hitting it on deployment, til a rigger put a washer over the line after the Rapidelink, and replaced the grommet.

I can put up some footage if you want, but...: a: HDV isn't captured/created as avi. b: avi is a container, and can be many, many different codecs. Think of it as a box that can hold many different things. c: No one is gonna upload uncompressed HD footage; it's huge. 1.2GB per second, depending on the flavor. d: There isn't an "HD" codec per se. DVCProHD is merely DVCPro with larger pixel counts available. In other words, it's basically DV. HDV is always m2t format, based on MPEG 2 as a transport stream, hence "M2'T'" What is it you're looking for and I'll dig through some footage, and post it on an FTP somewhere? I'm on travel and have limited footage avail.

Personally, I *love* the Jose Gonzales track. One of my favorite pieces, and fits skydiving well. Nice piece, looking forward to seeing the whole project.

If you work for free, all you're doing is telling others what you think of your own value. You didn't get that camera helmet, gear, and skill without paying for it one way or another, why should anyone else? Nothing wrong with shooting for free because you want to do a favor for a friend or a group of friends, but there is also nothing wrong with telling them, I usually get XXX for this, pay my slot and I'll USB the files to you. But giving away CDs of pix not only costs money, but the time to dump em', etc. Support yourself, support the concept of value for services, and either charge a little, or explain why you're not charging. In my own case, I'm very expensive as a shooter on the ground. In the air, I did 40 free/my expense jumps as I began honing my skills as a cam flyer. I still charge very little, and probably will do so until I feel I'm at least really good. When/if I reach the point that I'm exceptionally good or have a style that's all my own, then I'll be expensive to hire. If/when I'm granted the aerial gifts and skills of Joe Jennings, Tom Sanders, Norm Kent...well hell, you'll have to pay just to look at me, cuz I'll go to 11

Its definately a personal preference thing. In reference to high performance canopies, though, dropping a toggle at any point during the process can prove to be fatal. So a large majority of swoopers put the toggle over their palm. Its been talked about quite a bit, so if you're still curious about it there's some threads you can find about it. I'm aware of the likely problems if one drops toggles during swoops; I had a good friend seriously hurt himself in that exact scenario. My sub-300 jump numbers are far too low for me to seriously consider swooping, additionally given that I'm still not flying HP canopies and lumbering along under a fat 210 main. Maybe if/when I begin swooping, I'll figure out a means of toggle that I'm comfortable putting my hands inside vs putting line between my fingers and having the keepers coming out from either side of my hands. There are other reasons I prefer this method as well. But heck...I listen to music on occasional solo skydives, so what do I know? Last out, pull high, rock on...Creed at sunset is a great feeling.

That should be some student thing. Why would not putting hands inside toggle loops be "some student thing?" Offhand, I can think of at least six guys, none of whom are sub 10k jumps, who also don't put their hands thru their toggle loops. Maybe I have different toggles than you do. Or, perhaps there could be a physical reason for not doing so. Or, maybe I'm "toggle-phobic" or... any other one of myriad reasons. One of the reasons I skydive is because it's not a "just like you" sport. I guess maybe it is.

Hhhhhmmmmmm....... yup....hhhhmmmmmm.......

There are still (AFAIK) smaller companies manufacturing lubed tape. But, the big "names" don't. Sony, TDK, BASF (manufacturer of most tape) etc don't use lube. Best bet is still to buy one brand and stick with it unless you have reason to change.

I let go of my right toggle to reach across my jumpsuit. I don't need to reach inside, because I can feel the buttons on the iPod and know which is which, from the outside of the jumpsuit. I manage my iPod in the same manner as when riding my bike (I'm familiar enough where everything is that I don't need to look or fumble around). I don't put my hands inside the toggles, so it's not as though I have to worry about fighting to get my fingers back inside the toggle loop at 1K. Yes, I fly a straight line when I do this. It gets shut off before I enter the pattern. [edited to clarify original post] I turn off my iPod as I'm going into my downwind leg. I'm not messing with it on base or final.

Taken out of context, those studies are accurate. Most of them are contracted by automotive manufacturers. Listening to an aircraft engine drone on for 20 mins is potentially more hazardous to reaction times than listening to music, according to most of the studies. You can test this yourself, but there are dozens of studies ranging from the Russians to the US Dept of Health. Music with a droning sound creates faster reaction times than reaction times while the drone-only occurs. Additionally, fast-tempo music significantly speeds up reaction/response time to visual and audible stimuli. Music at tempos of 130 and faster consistently demonstrates this. See link below. Google "music +reaction time." You'll find lots of data from an exceptionally wide pool of testers. HIP (Hearing Is Priceless) did a very interesting study on this a few years ago. The louder the music, the slower the response time, but still faster reaction times than those merely listening to a motor. Once music reaches the 100dB level resultant differences were negligible compared to much louder levels. Except...when the music became more loud than the motor, reaction times became significantly slower. You can also test yourself... Sight vs sound. Most people are slower at sight than sound. http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspDetail&ResourceID=43 Test yourself/your reaction times to both visual and audible stimuli. http://www.drdriving.org/misc/music_strick_report.html http://www.irishscientist.ie/2003/contents.asp?contentxml=03p149b.xml&contentxsl=is03pages.xsl http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/courses/1230jbasey/abstracts%202005/24.htm This subject comes up a lot and given that the last time it came up, one guy consistently reamed my ass, so I spent a little time researching and found out that all this talk of "distracting," "slowed reaction time," etc is all just a bunch of BS. Or maybe the military, Dept of Health, NIST, and other testing agencies are all wrong. I jump with in-ear custom cans at least once a month (solo jumps only), and can carry on a conversation in the aircraft with them in and music enabled. Yes, you can hear music in freefall quite well if you have sealed cans and a helmet. Etymotic makes the ER4; great for skydiving. Cables are inside my jumpsuit, and the only wire exposure is about 2" worth on the back of my neck. My hair is longer than that. My iPod is easily accessed in my front pocket. I turn off the iPod as I'm on final, so I can hear yells, or hear the slider flap of someone coming up behind me after I've landed. Different folks are going to have different reactions, but I consider myself an adult, capable of making adult choices. Just be sure you have a good grip on your skydives before doing this, and your jump numbers suggest that maybe you might wait a while. I waited til jump 100. I see nothing hazardous about a solo skydive wearing cans, so long as they're off during final so you can hear others in the air and on the ground, and after you've landed. Music is my life, and I enjoy having a soundtrack to my most exciting moments from time to time. YMMV. [edited to repair clicky]

Beginning freeflyers that don't leave enough time before exiting, and they end up in my airspace as a result. Getting past the first 1K is somewhat worrisome as well.

Wouldnt the USPA have a copy of your application as you FAXed or mailed it in? They'd definitely have a record of your "b" license being issued. That doesn't help with the other 24 jumps, but it should rate acceptance of your license. Seems to me the worst you'd have to do is pay for a recurrency jump, no? My logbook was stolen from a locker in Hawaii, so now I keep my electronic logbook both in my laptop and as a backup file on the web in an FTP location.

Today, it's not an issue. If it's old tape, perhaps 2 years old or older, it's difficult to know unless you've got original packaging.

A brand new tape, video or otherwise, is a "packed" tape. Tape is wound on the spools so fast and with so much tension that sometimes it sticks, so most broadcast houses, recording shops, etc, fast-forward/rewind brand new tape so that it becomes "unstuck" prior to use. Some tape manufacturers use a dry lube to help avoid this issue, but you don't want to mix lubed and non-lubed tape in your recording/playback device. Anyway, "de-packing" simply means fastforwarding and rewinding before use. There are lots of other terms for the practice. This used to be managed by *blacking" the tape, or writing timecode to a fresh tape before use. With today's technology, no one blacks tape anymore, but the forward/rewind is still pretty important for important shoots. HTH?

If you‘re going to shelve tapes for a long period, it is a good idea to rewind them completely before putting them away. Also, every now and then ff and rewind them, to keep the plastic ribbon supple, and prevent the tape from getting sticky (once a year or every two years will do). And if you need an old tape, don’t put it immediately from the basement in your camera or vtr, give it an hour or so to take on the environment temperature. yup, all good advice. How I miss the days of baking old analog tape... not.

How can you say such a thing? Bill Gates at least has a modicum of intelligence, and has contributed a lot to the world, even if he is responsible for the most bug-ridden OS's we'll ever see. But Benny Hinn, like most Christian evangelists, has brought the art of lying, thieving, and preying on the weak-minded to a new level. One to be despised and admired at the same time. But remember, the higher he flies, the farther he'll fall. Just like Bakker and those who have gone before him. Pisses my family off because I'll occasionally watch Benny Hinn just for the giggles. He's often better than Benny Hill, except he doesn't realize that some of us find humor in his stupid antics. I just feel sorry for those he suckers in. No one deserves to be taken, no matter how ignorant they are.

Just as an update: I sent the canopy back to PD since there was such a huge discrepancy between another 210 of identical color and time period, and they too, are baffled as to why it packs up so huge. I was told that there have been periods in fabric manufacturing where there is simply a "bulk mystery" and no one knows why particular pieces bulk up the way they do. New 210, even with Dacron lines, fits inside the Talon FS with no challenge at all. In fact, I had to shorten the closing loop.

I have Jason's lens, and no, it's not HD. It *does* resolve better than most SD lenses do though. Center image is pretty clean. If you seriously want to play and test: http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/ISO_12233-reschart.pdf has a printable rez chart. Only a Kinkos or similar can print it for you though, as it's 16" x 9" and needs to be printed crisp/clear, and hard. You'll want to spray mount it to foam core or something. Shoot it, and you'll see how it works. Instructions for how to measure the lens resolution, check out http://www.normankoren.com/Tutorials/MTF5.html Since it's winter, maybe you have a little free time to play with your cam and the lens.

Neither can I. Kim is so enthusiastic about "how did you like the demo" and "You might wanna try..." etc. Very friendly and obviously looking out for the best interests of everyone. I sent in my old 9 cell for some repairs, and even though I'd specificied one area for repair, they went through the entire canopy and cleaned it up, and even removed a poorly done patch job and replaced it with a very clean, almost invisible patch job. I wish the rig manufacturers were as responsive...

The Raynox or the Century Optics are both good choices, neither is a "full HD" resolution at full wide, but at nearly 550 lines of resolution, it's much better than the SD counterparts that resolve around 400 lines. The edge distortion that most of these lenses create masks the res loss anyway. Definitely switch out the plastic for metal, as the torque will pop em' right off the cam. Found that out the hard way.