kayenox

Well, what a cock-up! Did well on the ground school on the first day - great instructor. Cloud was too low and thick to jump, so planned for the AFF level 1 jump the following morning. All good gearing up, nervous but focused. Good exit from plane, then lost all sense of body position! Secondary instructor giving me signals to adapt position, but I had no idea where my legs were in the first place! Far too tense in the air, didn't get through the practise pulls so was dumped out at 5,500 ft. Good canopy ride with ground radio instruction until around 1500 ft when the radio died. Flew the plan we'd agreed but, being my first jump, didn't have the awareness of height coming in and flared way too high (25ft or so) and then crashed down. Ouch. Twisted ankle. Bugger. Very annoyed with myself, however didn't want to walk away having made such a crap jump, so took some painkillers, chilled out for a bit, then went through the whole thing with the instructor. Second jump - marvellous. Much more relaxed and therefore much better arch and position and stability. Thumbs up from both secondary and primary, three good practise pulls and then good deployment. Good canopy ride, radio working, flared at correct height and landed ok (even if it was on my arse...) However, as the adrenaline subsided I realised I'd twisted my ankle more than I thought on the first jump. Pain increasing alongside rapid swelling, so unfortunately decided that it would be too risky to carry on jumping, so had to curtail things at that point. Never mind - I think I need to lose some weight before I come back to try again - instructors did say that I dropped like a stone. Hope to post again in a few months when have got through all 8 levels.

I've just started training for my Cat A so can't comment on this in relation to skydive videos, but I work professionally as a cameraman in the UK. The example given above with getting waivers is because the shots were taken on what is essentially private space, hence direct permission needed. Legally though it's a tricky area. I'm not sure how this applies in the USA but in the UK I can happily film on the streets (as long as not causing an obstruction) getting general shots (GVs) and use these appropriately. However, if I then went on to get vox pops from people in the street each of these would need individual waivers. The other key thing is how the footage used - which comes into the area of libel and or contribution - ie if I had filmed people coming out of a bank and implied in voiceover that something illegal had been going on, then I'm on dodgy ground if the people coming out can be identified. If however, it's just used to illustrate how busy a bank is, that's pretty safe. I would guess the same kind of principles would apply to skydive videos - ie if the video was particularly focusing on one persons key contribution then you might have a case. At the end of the day, you can get tied up in legal speak - the best thing I've found on filming jobs in the UK and overseas is to talk to people! If people know what and why you are filming then it's far less likely to get into problems later. Courtesy is no bad thing. If you're being filmed and unhappy about it - chat to the cameraperson at the time. If you're a cameraperson - go and chat to those you've filmed. It's not rocket science really!

Hi all, Been reading through the threads - great board. I'm about to head off to Seville on Tuesday to do the AFF course - such a weird combination of fear and excitement! I've done a couple of tandem jumps which has given me the bug and have been waiting for a year or so to get round to doing the AFF. My wife has grown sick of me talking about it, so gave me the best Christmas present and called my bluff... Hopefully will post back here in a week's time, well on the way to getting cat A.