TheCaptain

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Everything posted by TheCaptain

  1. TheCaptain
    My first car was a 1970 Barracuda. It started out as a slant 6, 3 speed manual. I eventually upgraded that to 360 V8 with a Hurst pistol grip 4 speed with ralley wheels, ralley dash and dual scooped hood. I got the car in 1985 and sold it in 2005. When I originally bought it I paid $250.00 for it and did all the body work/paint myself as it was totally trashed when I bought it. At the time I sold it, it was in need of major work on body,paint, motor and interior but I still got $7500 for it. I put the for sale sign on the car where it sat in next to my driveway on a Friday the following Monday the guy who bought it shows up with a trailer and money in hand. Kirk He's dead Jim
  2. TheCaptain
    I had the same thing happen to me with a gopro 1 and it turned out to be a bad gopro. I had to send it back to them and they sent me another unit. Hopefully yours is something else. Kirk He's dead Jim
  3. TheCaptain
    Personally, I have never had an RSL on my personal rig until 2 years ago. I have had severval cutaways on tandems and have always had the RSL connected. I had around 2500 total jumps before my first personal rig cutaway. It was with a wingsuit and I was jumping a VX109 loaded 2.3 to 1. Once under canopy I started to spin and I knew I had to get rid of it so cutaway and pulled the reserve. My opinion for not having a RSL is I wanted to get stable before puling the reserve: however in pratice I did not wait to get stable. The more I thought about it the more an RSL made sense for me since my own emergency proceedures I did not include time for getting stable after cutting away then I might as well have an RSL. For me it is not a must have just something I can not argue against having. Kirk He's dead Jim
  4. TheCaptain
    That is a much better version of forklift training video than the 1960's version I was shown years ago Kirk He's dead Jim
  5. TheCaptain
    I believe it is better to exit having control of the fabric. Early on in my wingsuit career I had the choice of exiting the aircraft at 3500 agl or ride the plane down. I exited zipped in tracked off and pulled no problem. A friend just a while later was presented with the same choice he left unzipped. Once off the plane he began to pull but one of his arm wings inflated and his pilot chute bridle wraped around his arm. He pulled his reserve and luckly it cleared the horseshoe mal. I explain this to any beginning wingsuiter Kirk He's dead Jim
  6. TheCaptain
    The d-bag, pilot chute and bridle, risers with toggles go with the container. When you disconnect the canopy lines from the riser it helps to have a card board card to attach the lines to with like a zip tie. Keep all the groups together and mark them on the card. Kirk He's dead Jim
  7. TheCaptain
    On any tandem you do without video, stick your left hand out(like wearing the handicam) and learn to fly from exit through opening that way without the handicam. This is a great way to pratice. I probably did about 50 jumps like that just working out exits while my handicam stuff was on order. You will need to adjust angle when you get it but that is very minor thing to fix. Kirk He's dead Jim
  8. TheCaptain
    Hmmm, like to see how that is supposed to really work. I have never chopped line twist yet, but I have come down very tired from fighting my way out of them. So since you seem to think you have some magic technique please explain how it is. Suppose to work. So you justt stand straight up and the canopy magicaly fixes itself. In my experiience the canopy stays in ine twist pointing down wind, but hey I only have 2700 tandems so what the hell do I. Know Kirk He's dead Jim
  9. TheCaptain
    If you want to know why some people you have talked too have a less than stellar opinion of Skydive Oregon.,how about you ask them directly. Coming on here and making the statment that you have been is a great way to make a first bad impression at what you are saying will be your new dz. SDO has the highest expectations of it staff and the finest equipment and planes. SDO is a great dz with incredible views and the finest planes with the finest staff around. Kirk He's dead Jim
  10. TheCaptain
    There are chicken handles attached to the upper part of the student harness. This most likely is a staged picture with an exerianced skydiver on front Kirk He's dead Jim
  11. TheCaptain
    When I look at that video, several things come to mind. One why are you continuing to film when you have line twist? Did you try any other way of untwisting the canopy other than kicking and having the student kick. Canopies that open in full flight are very difficult to get out of but I know of 3 methods to untwist and I will/ have tried all 3 and have had success with them. First is Kick, second is bring the line twist down into the risers by twisting them together(once down in the risers you just generally unspin like a top). Last one probably would not work in your situation but if you are able to and pull the "right" toggle sometimes the canopy will just unspin above you. I have had that exact kind of openning on the same canopy with handicam. First shut the camera off or just get to work fixing the problem and get my hands on the risers. Hell I have even used combos of twisting it into the risers and kicking too. Kirk He's dead Jim
  12. TheCaptain
    What about setting up a second canopy? Get Pilot chute, d-bag, canopy and risers set up and it only takes about 10 minutes or less to switch between canopies. I personally a couple years back did that total cost was $650 for everything(that was alot of bargain hunting too) now I have a Sabre 1 135 that only has 300 jumps on it ready to swap out when I want to seriously fly wingsuits. Kirk He's dead Jim
  13. TheCaptain
    I have 3 of these Sony I have a net gear wirless router and they all work great for hooking up to Netflix in fact there is even a netflx button on the remote. The only problem I have come across is if for some reason you internet goes down they loss the abilty to play blu ray disks, they will play DVD's fine but not blu ray without the internet Kirk He's dead Jim
  14. TheCaptain
    Hopefully you have life insurance if not get it enough to cover all debt plus if something happens to you. Make sure it would cover a one time thing like skydiving. You may have to pay more for a policy that covers it. You have a say in your marriage too, so after making sure you are covered financially. Just explain to your wife this is important to you and you will be doing it. Your wife does not need to agree with it but she should respect you enough to not stop you. Kirk He's dead Jim
  15. TheCaptain
    Yes, if the Y strap is snug or even close to snug, the student will have problems getting their legs up. When adjusting a Strong harness with the Y mod by the book atleast half of my students had issues getting their legs up. IMHO, the Y mod is a bandaid fix for instructors that have either become complacent or that should just not have a tandem rating. Kirk He's dead Jim
  16. TheCaptain
    It is luck and that the fact that the back strap got hooked at the neck line that kept her for falling out. I really do not understand how this video made it out of the DZ. Kirk He's dead Jim
  17. TheCaptain
    air is thicker when it is cold so yes Kirk He's dead Jim
  18. TheCaptain
    For me I would always want to control the fabric so if I am leaving the plane I will be zipped in always. Way back in 2003 a friend and I had gotten into wingsuiting. we both at different time left the aircraft low (around 3500 AGL ) due to clouds. I left zipped in tracked a way and pulled, no problem. My friend decided to leave unzipped, as he was pulling one of the arm wings caught some air and he ended up with the pilot chute bridal warped around his wing. He pulled the reserve and landed. Kirk He's dead Jim
  19. TheCaptain
    You can either fax. It to them or e mail it. If memory serves they will not process the payment. Until right before itt ships. It has been a few. Years since I ordered from Sheri but I usually. Have had no problems getting a hold of her during normal buisness hours Kirk He's dead Jim
  20. TheCaptain
    I am not sure if my experience would apply here but here it is. Last year I partially tore my Quadriceps tendon at the knee cap. It was barely visible on the x-ray. I was told not to do anything stupid and it should heal by itself( to the best of my abilty I tried to not do anything stupid during that time frame). Three months later it still had not healed and I had continual pain especially when trying to sleep at night. They then took an MRI and found it needed surgery to repair it. When the surgery was done they found the part of the tendon that was torn was 1/2" away from where it should have been. The lesson I learned always get an MRI early on (and if possible request a 3T MRI machine too for better resolution of image). If I would have demanded the MRI at the beginning I would have saved myself going through 3 months of pain and would have been recovered from the surgery 3 month earlier too. Kirk He's dead Jim
  21. TheCaptain
    your right so I deleted it Kirk He's dead Jim
  22. TheCaptain
    Ummmm that is to me very scary, you are having trouble deciding betweeen a safe skydive and dropping the shot or videoing the skydive and hope nothing goes too bad. You are a tandem instructor first and foremost, always drop the shot and skydive saftely. Kirk He's dead Jim
  23. TheCaptain
    IMHO, I think that is a bad idea in general. If you can not shoot good video yourself then you just should not offer it. Every instructor is not meant to do everything. I know some incredibly gifted female instructors and one is 5'8", she shoots the best handicam I have personally seen. Kirk He's dead Jim
  24. TheCaptain
    My wife and I use to edit video's and she has never skydived before. After watching hundreds of both my wife told me if she was going to go skydiving she would want handicam. Her reason is it give more of the exact personal experience from the students perspective. I think both outside video and handicam can be done extremely well and can be done extremely horrible too. It depends on if the video person cares about the product they are putting out or the money they are receiving for it more. If I am shooting handicam, I take alot of things into consideration. If they have friends that are jumping too I try and possition myself so I can get good in flight video of them not just the back of their heads. I also try and pick which side of the plane to site on to give better cuts between sceens. If you end one sceen on looking out the window and start the next sceen there it seems (atleast to me) to be more seemless. Kirk He's dead Jim
  25. TheCaptain
    I am not sure how short you are but one of the best handicam instructors I know is 5'8" tall. I know that a lot of skydivers feel handicam is horrible and there are a lot of examples that prove that statement; however handicam can look realy good and is a true art form to do well. As another has stated stretch your arm and extend your shoulder too. Also a really good lens helps if you are useing a sony camcorder, I found the Century Mark II .3 is extremely clear and great clariity Kirk He's dead Jim