AndyMan

That's a very aggresive recomendation. I usually think "ask your instructor" is good advice to someone seeking canopy advise, after all - they know you best. In this case though.... I think you might be wise to find someone else to ask advice from. It would be wise at least to see if Aerodyne can change your order from a 170 to 190. A 190 is not much larger, but will likely mean you'll only have minor injuries instead of major ones if you screw up. Granted you can kill yourself under any canopy, but a bit bigger margin of error is smart. I know when I was at your level I sure made a lot of mistakes - I'm glad I was under a canopy that let me walk away from them. If you do end up keeping that 170... Be sure to move very gradually to it. Always go down one size at a time, and do a few jumps on each canopy. Do a few jumps on a 260, a 240, a 220, 200, 190, then finally move to the 170. Once you get to about the 200-ish sizes, don't move smaller unless you hit all these points: 1) Stand up every landing. Always. 2) Be able to land uphill, and downhill 3) Be able to land crosswind, and downwind. 4) Be able to do a 90 degree flat turn at 200 feet. Ideally it should take you more than a few monthes of active jumping to make this progression. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The flipside is that generally, keeping quiet does not help the way people think it will. For example, people often complain about journalists writing innacurate information. There's no better way to guarantee that they will write innacurate information then by refusing to tell them actually what happened. They will dig until they think they found a grain, and they'll expand on that grain wether it's true or not. Likewise, people complain about dz.com posters speculating in the incidents thread. There is no better way to guarantee speculation then by refusing to post what actually happened. This is particularly harmfull because at some point, one of the curious reporters mentioned above will find the speculation and print it, then it'll get syndicated nationwide. Double Damage. One might be tempted to solve the second problem by banning speculation in the incidents forum, or getting rid of the forum entirely. This has two problems. 1), Sangiro owns this site, and he's on the record in the past as not supporting the idea. 2) If people can't speculate in the incidents forum, they'll speculate elsewhere. 3) Even if incorrect, those debates are often important because they make people think. By far, the easiest way to stop false information from getting printed online and in the press is quite simple: Tell people what happened. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The only time I've ever had problems with firewire, it's either been a problem with the cable or the camera. A common problem with Sony camcorders is related to the LANC port. If there's any tension on the LANC port when you plug in your cam-eye (due to a DBOX pushing against the plug), you can damage the internals of the camera. The most common symptom of this is an intermittent firewire signal. There are essentially no tools to help troubleshoot. First try a different cable, then try a different camera. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

A simple solution would be to just have the link displayed somewhere, then we could just right-click and 'copy link location'. There's no reason it needs to automatically copy to clipboard. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I haven't been able to get a good clean DVD out of Premiere. I've tried twice. In the first example, I just the Premiere Pro 1.5 "Export to DVD" with the default settings, and it created a basic DVD. Since I don't have a DVD player that plays DVD -+R I'm testing on a PC. I figure that shouldn't matter since when I buy a DVD in the store it plays on a PC without interlacing. The DVD appears interlaced, but with compresion artifacts ontop of the interlacing. It looks like the interlacing was compressed into the MPeg. Make sense? On another example, I used Premiere to Export an AVI and used ULEAD Movie Maker to build a DVD with menus. Again, I see interlacing underneath MPeg artifacting. Should I be de-interlacing before I make my DVD? What are recomended export settings from Premiere? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Nope. I clean mine as necessary. It seems to be about every 60 days. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

They're removed during most jumps, to allow more pasengers. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

They're not. The only affected Canon digital still cameras are the PowerShot A60, PowerShot A70, PowerShot A75, PowerShot A300, PowerShot A310, Digital IXUS V3, Digital IXUS II, Digital IXUS IIs. Read about the Canon recall here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0510/05100602canon_ccdproblem.asp Sony: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0510/05100701sony_ccds.asp Konika Minolta: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0510/05101101km_ccdalert.asp Fuji: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0510/05100403fuji_advisory.asp _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yes, it is defending the DZ. You're making excuses for a DZ who isn't obeing FARs and BSR's. You're suggesting students and customers volunteer their time to help a DZ obey the rules? Quite frankly, that's astounding. If the USPA isn't going to take a hard line on basic safety issues, how the hell is a low-time jumper supposed to?!?!? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Underwear? __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That can go both ways. When Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati tested positive for Marijuana after winning the olympic gold in 1998, the first move was to pull his medal. What gives the story an odd turn is that he quickly became a Canadian national hero. His personal worth as a corporate sponsor actually went up, and he raked in millions being spokesman for the Roots clothing outfit. After a TON of publicity, he ended up getting his medal back. I'm not entirely sure why he got it back, but I think it came down to the fact that marijana isn't a performance enhancing drug (if anything, it's a performance weakening one....) and there wasn't any accusation that he was under the influence while competing. Now there's some big differences here. 1, Skydiving has a historical problem with drugs. 2, The US certainly isn't Canada, and marijuana use can be more troublesome here. I really can't see the media and population standing up for a drug user. It is an interesting debate. I certainly wouldn't want to be the guy that sets the precadent. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The Neptune does a very poor job of measuring peak airspeed. It simply isn't accurate enough to bet your life on, especially if it was a jump from full altitude. See here: http://www.alti-2.com/Neptune_Owners_Pages/swoopers.htm. Secondly, it's entirely unfair to chastise someone for ignorance when it's effectively impossible to measure your vertical airspeed. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The problem is that the second half is impossible to quantity. Ever since Airtec went to field replaceable cutters, we simply don't know how many people get saved by AAD's. It's much easier to see how many people die without one. For example, a small Milwaukee area DZ has had 3 fatalities recently all that involved low-pulls or no-pulls. It's clear that if they had a mandatory AAD rule (that included it being activated), they'd have 3 friends still be alive today. It's clear that there are pockets of DZ's around the country where no-pulls are still common. These seem to be the same DZ's that are considering making them manditory. These discussions rarely come up when everyone is using one anyways. I don't particularly care for excessive rules, I'd prefer that using one just be part of the DZ culture. That seems to be the case at most DZ's these days. I wish the lone holdouts would quite holding out, this discussion woudlnt' even be relevant. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Chicagoland has been 100% digital this year. I use the digital Rebel, but I don't do many tandems - I work mostly with sport jumpers. I would recomend the Rebel XT, it doesn't have the buffer issues of the plain Rebel. 20D seems overkill for tandem operations. I shoot most of my stuff with the Sigma 15, which I find is a bit too wide (1.6 conversion makes it 24mm). I dislike the barrel distortion as well. I have an 18mm or 20mm on this winters shopping list. We hand the student a CDR in a plastic case with their DVD. They usually get their CDs within about 10-15 minutes of walking back to the hangar. We use a PC equiped with a reader and burner to create the disks. I've recomended they switch to a standalone burner, but so far they haven't listened. We do not preview or edit the images in any way. The DZ didn't charge any extra for digital. The standard rate is $99 which includes video and "free" stills. I can't speak to how much sales have increased (if any), since I'm not that close to the operation. I can only say that the customers I've delt with tell me they prefer digital. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The problem with AirNav is that it gives retail prices. Many DZ's buy their fuel wholesale, which can be be quite a bit cheaper. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You may wish to send a PM to HooknSwoop. I believe he left a certain Texas dropzone out of frustration with their lack of attention to rules. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

This simply isn't a problem. Any of the current "prosumer" digital cameras like the Digital Rebel have more than enough resosultion to print a near poster-size. As for CDROMs, well - people who are computer savy archive their pics on their home computers. People who are not computer savy archive their prints by printing them and adding them to photo albums. I am not particularly concerned about the lifespan of CDROMs. My personal belief is to give the customer what they want. When we gave our customersthe option of Digital stills they overwelmingly chose it. As a business, that really is the end of the story. Give them what they want. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That's an interesting theory. Unfortunately helmet entaglements are real problems for camera flyers. History has shown quite clearly that photographers do need time to clear an entanglement. History has also shown quite clearly that entanglements do not tend to break necks. Yes, I am a photographer and videographer. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Thats interesting. One technique people use to make identify an unairworthy canopy is to remove the warning label at the end of its lifespan. I wonder if this has happened to this one, and somebody has tried to sew on a replacement label so they could sell it. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Chicagoland has bee all digital this year. It seems to work well. 10 minutes after landing we hand the student a DVD and a CDROM in a custom printed glossy DVD-style plastic box. Students seem to prefer both DVD and CDROM over VHS and film. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Chicagoland has an interesting mix. 280, 240, 220, and 200 navigators. Lastly, 188 and 168 Pilots. Also tossed into the mix (and being phazed out) is a Triathlon 170 and a Chute Shop ZP 235. What is good? A good mix. You want enough different sizes to support a wide range of students. You want ones big enough for a first-jump, and smaller ones so that they can approach a 1:1 wingloading in their later jumps. You also want a range of container sizes to fit everyone from the 230 pound guys to the 100 pound girls. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

How often do you do it? Do you do it yourself, or take it to a service? Has anyone damaged their camera doing it themselves? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Fogging at the end of the skydive on humid days is normal with pretty much any lens. The fog should go away as the lens readjusts to the new warm ground temperature. This fog is caused by warm humid air condensing on the outside of the cold glass. It sounds like you're describing something else. It sounds like your fog isn't going away at all, that it's always there. This indicates that something else is happening - my guess is that you've gotten some humidity inside the lens somehow. Lenses are suposed to be sealed, so that shouldn't be happening. One trick I learned a few years ago is to periodically place your lenses into a vacuum to suck out any moisture from where it shouldn't be. The rigger I learned this trick from used a FXC test chamber that used to be quite common on dropzones. He'd leave his lenses in the chamber for about 10 minutes. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

As you get smaller and smaller, the same difference in size has a more pronounced affect. For example, I don't notice much difference between a 230 and a 210, but I do notice a big difference between a 150 and a 135. Remember that we don't pick our canopy size for when everything goes right, we pick our canopy size for when everything goes wrong. It seems like you've gotten some good advice from people suggesting you jump a 150. Also, I'm surprised that you're sticking with the Spectre. Generally people who are looking for fast sporty landings don't stick with a 7 cell. If you're trying to get into high performance landings you'd probably do better to switch to a 9 cell. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Isnt' a lower stall speed a bad thing? I was under the impression that aft-CG played a big role in takeoff stalls, especially with Caravans? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.