DSE

As a producer, I've already voiced my opposition to SOPA/PIPA. That having been said; People will always find ways to access your house, car, and pocket. Does this mean we shouldn't have laws that allow society to prosecute and prevent those that would illegally access your house, car, and pocket? Curious that we have laws that allow for swift and severe punishment for those that would access an online bank account and steal funds via electronic transfer, yet the society that steals content from producers are perfectly fine with theft as long as it is intellectual property vs $$ from a bank account.

Where in LA are you moving? There are always people driving to Elsinore from the city, but it's easier to find you a ride if we know where in LA you'll be living.

No way, I do not believe it. Not even for non-USPA DZ You'd be wrong. I've collected two videos from Cat C jumps, where the student was WEARING the camera on the jump. It is being done in some places. Stupid, but it's not a USPA requirement to not wear a camera. No rules are being broken, just a lack of sensibility

Gently cleaning the contacts with a white pencil eraser, or swab with alcohol is a good thing to do from time to time. Coulda just been dirt or other poor contact. I feel dumb for not suggesting that.

I honestly didn't look at any of them. Beyond the Sony NEX and Canon cams, I wasn't looking out for anything. My apologies. I only had one day, plus the pre-CES stuff we did for our client.

Perhaps a more intelligent approach might be "Hi, I'm Simon and I fly a wingsuit. I'm heading to your DZ next week and wondered if there is anything I should know in advance?" It's no different than responsibly calling a DZ to find out if they require AADs, or where you might stay in the area. Perhaps you're right. Rather than converse "Let's be careful out there because there is a recent increase in tailstrikes," everyone should just keep their mouth shut. "Why is this happening" is so much more important than "I want to stay away from DZ ZYX" in my view. FWIW, in the past few day two of the DZ's have decideds to allow wingsuiting with butt-on-floor exits. Intelligent, non-reactive conversation can make a difference (as Jarno indicated).

All things being equal except the aperture being smaller, I can see the confusion. stopped down a half stop shouldn't be washing out the photos; they should have less exposure/darker even with the increased AV value. Have you tried clearing all settings?

Gus, someone that shoots without wide would certainly find the lower models useful, if you don't mind the very high compression ratio (I think most don't, based on the popularity of the really poor cameras out there), but for tandem, fourway, and general shooting of friends, I guess I didn't look at them as useful. Frames per second is nice, sure. But it only contributes marginally to smoothness of movement, so outside of slowing the footage, I'm not sure where the real value comes in.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/us/white-house-says-it-opposes-parts-of-2-antipiracy-bills.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

yes, but they're snap-in lens adapters. Sony has also changed how they're mounting lenses on the AVCHD lineup. In these small cams, I have no interest in them outside of skydiving. Nothing really new/exciting there that works for us, IMO. The CX190, I have worked with already.

Several examples

I prefer to be a part of the solution, not exacerbate relationships with DZ's. How long did it take for Skydive Santa Barbara's incident to hit the internet? Even after a letter was sent out to all SDSB jumpers? Why did it take so long? Wingsuits were banned until last weekend, and now wingsuits are restricted to a butt-on-floor exit. They're not the only one. One phone call to that DZO led to another unreported incident which led to yet another one. Call Dave Hughes, maybe he'll lead you to further info, and you can start from there. They're also not all in the US. Some of your US friends were present. Wonder why they have forbidden the release of the video, and why they haven't spoken about it on DZ.com? They post here fairly regularly. Hmmm...? You can "only think of three in the past five years?" There are three on DZ.com in 2011 alone. How about you focus on the "who, when, where." That's really important stuff. Others can do the real work and focus on the "Why/how/solutions." Trae, as Matt, Lurch, Jarno, and Macca have pointed out, the student needs to be head-up, looking at prop/door, elbows in/hands in front. An arch creates a cup. What some get away with in small suits leads to habits that likely won't serve so well in bigger suits. Additionally, students must be taught that no matter what happens at the door (losing stability, slipping, whatever) they must stay closed tight until they can see the aircraft. Two of the tailstrikes this year resulted from the jumper being unstable at the door and "reaching" for air. One broke his hand, the other broke his ankle.

the test models weren't all that impressive for what we do. The image block movement isn't noticeably any better than a single lens movement system. But heck, you can project your DZ logo on the forehead of a student during the jump (just kidding)

Two of the DZO's that haven't publically reported their tailstrikes indicated along the lines of "If I see anything about this posted on DZ.com, you'll never jump here." I'd prefer to keep the trust per agreement. Jarno pointed out the trend, relevant aircraft and wingsuit types. That's all that matters, IMO. More known tailstrikes in 2011 than known in 2000-2010 combined. You don't find that alarming?

To what benefit? If you're visiting a specific dropzone, pick up the phone and call them. Conversely, a list is published. Skydive ZYX doesn't allow wingsuiting. Typical DZ.commer response "F**k Skydive ZYX, they hate wingsuiters." It's somewhat already being said. What does Skydive XYZ get out of it? A bad rep when they're really just worried about preventing the compromise of their aircraft and their revenue, simply because a dumbass might hit their tail. In the meanwhile, perhaps someone(s) are having conversations and providing information to Skydive ZYX that might help them re-think their decision, and hopefully restore wingsuiting to their DZ. Skydive Santa Barbara is one case in point. They banned wingsuiting, a solution offered, and now the DZ has re-allowed wingsuiting (albeit restricted). DZO's all over the country are concerned about the proliferation of wingsuiters, smaller/low-tail aircraft, and the best response is "Who are they, I'd hate to be disappointed?" We're doing this to ourselves. If you want to be disappointed, look in the mirror. It's BASE in Yosemite all over again.

Debating unicorns, grids, stolen AADs, and glide ratio is more fun but... Godddamnit guys, please quit hitting the tail of the aircraft?! We now have a few DZ's that have banned WS and a number of DZ's that have restricted wingsuits and/or exits from their aircraft due to non-trained/badly trained WS dumbf**ks, most of em' low experience in high performance suits. Protect our discipline; train, brief, and work with the idiots. Please?

Mpeg 4/AVC. It's all streaming/file-based. The days of optical media are numbered. Like I said on Facebook approx a year ago, HD is dead, 2K is an "almost ran" format. Get ready for 4K (and then 8 k in a decade +)

http://www.slashgear.com/jvc-gy-hmq10-worlds-first-4k-handheld-camcorder-due-march-10208303/ This is about the only "new/cool/accessible thing" I found at CES this year that might interest skydivers.

A personal recording may carry some weight (I'm not an attorney), and many DZ's do videotape waivers. When you manifest for the first time at Skydive Elsinore, you are videotaped while reading aloud, the last paragraph of the waiver, and then videotaped as you sign the waiver.

Apologies, I didn't think the comparison would be lost on you. See the remainder of the post and maybe it will make sense. Nixon, Sony, Monster all sponsor skydiving teams/people/gear too. They also all sponsor planes, race cars, professional hunters, tennis players, mountain bikers, skiers, kayakers, and maybe even chess players. They really truly don't give a shit about the sport they're sponsoring any more than RedBull does. They get access to eyeballs and association. It's called "branding." It has nothing to do with whether they like skydiving or not. RedBull got sold on skydiving by a skydiving professional, just as skydivers are sold on RedBull by professional marketing. Same thing, different floor.

you'd lose that bet. GoPro is becoming another Red Bull. The Go Pro athletes not only give GoPro a large platoform to show their name, logo, product, but also allows them to have access to super exciting footage of activities they'd not be able to fund and source on their own, for purposes of marketing/advertising. Red Bull is the same. It's intangible marketing/branding. Indirectly selling a product by showing a "cool team" doing "cool and intense things" associated with their product may not scream "buy Red Bull" but it does suggest that if you drink Red Bull, you'll be cool like "those guys." In the end, it's entirely about marketing. They do it very well.

It's all part of the revenue stream. Tandems become skydivers, tandem factories employ skydivers. A successful tandem business may grow into more than just tandems. Without tandems, skydiving would all but dry up and blow away in many regions of the country.

once achieved, the rating can be allowed to expire, yet the knowledge basics remain.

most of em' are a Queen Short, which is a standard 60 x 75 size vs a regular queen being 60" x 80." I tried the Tempurpedic knockoff in the short vs full size, and I didn't care for it as much. I wish I had the extra 5" in the room, but since it's just "weekend quarters" I don't mind too much. I also bought several small plastic shelf items so that the deep cabinets now have some vertical storage as well.

No, they won't fail. But their rating card won't be signed off. My success rate is average 70% on the USPA Coach course, and about 50% on the Phoenix-Fly Coach course.