RMK

Regarding Pinnacle Studio 12. I've had Pinnacle versions 9, 10 & 11 Utlimate. Always had problems, and flogged my latest copy on eBay. Tell him life will be much easier with something like Sony Vegas Pro8. I have nothing but disdain for dealing with Pinnacle. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Similarly, I am in the process of doing the same (seeking more life cover due to new child) and at the same time I have left a large company and set up my own consultancy/advisory group. My example is for the UK, but for anyone looking at the same this is what I’ve found: My hobbies that concerned them were skydiving, offshore yacht racing and being a private helicopter pilot. In brief, unless I did a round-the-world race or any professional racing, the boating didn’t bother them. However, for flying and skydiving, this caused my premiums to triple or more. I had my advisor look into term life cover for increments of £500K, £1M and £2M cover. In brief, the “man on the street” pays around £65/month for £500K cover. For me, for 500K I’m to pay between £185-£220/month. I found they asked the most assinine queries about my skydiving, thus telling me they have no clear measure of the risk. All questions were only centred on prior and guesstimates of future jump numbers. I’m proceeding with a group for £500K cover, but want to look elsewhere for the remaining cover (I want 1-2 million GBP). I’m looking into policies in Switzerland, Netherlands or US (possibly offshore variants also). If anyone has gone through this process before or have any insight, I’d like to know your experiences. Outside of finding better priced alternatives, I’m going to split the cover with part having exclusions (i.e. half covers for skydiving/flying, half excludes it but has otherwise normal cover). Believe it or not, one idiotic group came back with a quote of £19,000/yr for cover. Oddly no one has ever asked what type of skydiving, what size of canopy etc… "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Here’s my setup: - TonFly CC1 - Sony CX6 - Royal Lens Diamond 0.3x - HypEye D Pro These ZKulls attachments are great as you can quickly clip on/off your camboxes. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I've had problems with my eustation tubes clogging for years in both skydiving and scubadiving. For one, do the Vesula tachnique which is pinching your nose and blowing sharply as soon as you land. But even better (if you can) do it after opening but before releasing your brakes (of course look around first) as this give a 3000ft head start w/ less pressure. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

You do have a point. None of the hairy stories really bother me, but it limits a website or magazine from being an ambassador or introduction to new people in the sport. Example, someone wants info so they go to a skydiving site or maybe one our magazines. What do they always see – at least one or more “obituary” pages. Fuck, there’s even a “death thread” on this forum. I know people love and miss these people, but in selling and growing our sport this is no help. Many times when they die of some other cause (illness, car accident) it’s never noted in the article, then the public just assumes more skydiving deaths. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Has anyone tried to sit-fly at heights aorund 30K? It went through my mind, but I thought better not as it might undo some of the hoses from the regulator on my chest strap. Photo attached (taken around 27K by I believe Ralph Stinson). "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Good chamber story. I did mine on a civilian day at Andrews AFB in US. They said in prior weeks, two smartasses had decided to have lots of cola and beans prior to the chamber day to have the best gas of their lives. Result was that both had to be taken to hospital. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Curious, what was the 26K w/o O2? Was that a big way w/ O2 on plane? "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

30,000 on HALO at Skydance in California. About 45 minutes to height in PAC750 and -37C out the door. Got 2mins 35secs of freefall. IF curious what this does for you alti & audibles. ALtimaster Galaxy pegged on exactly 18K and didn't come unstuck until falling back through that altitude (I had extra digital alti) and my L&B ProTrack got confused and logged the jump as two dives?? "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Not just the partial pressure of oxygen problems, but also a pressure suit is needed above around 60,000 feet. The “Armstrong Line” at around 63,000 feet is the point at which water (and your blood) will boil at normal body temperature. I’ve done a HALO from 30,000 and for that, we were on oxygen for one hour (in the plane on the ground) to flush the nitrogen from our tissue so we didn’t get the bends going up unpressurised. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

This is my bane with jumping in the UK – no packers. Sure I can pack myself, but I skydive for fun. Packing is NOT fun. I have no problems with paying someone 5 GBP/EUR/USD (whatever country I’m in) for me not to roll around on the floor for 15 minutes each jump. Do 8 jumps and that’s 2 hours of pissing around with your rig when you could be having coffee, chatting with your mates or just generally fucking around. Support your local packers and have a more enjoyable day. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I agree with the prior post; Empuriabrava is the best DZ in Europe. Well worth the trip. Flights into either Girona or Peripignan and then less than hour drive from either. Another good spot is Gap-Tallard in southern France www.skydiveempuriabrava.com www.parachutisme-gap.com "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Yes, agreed that 1.15 can provide more lively landings than needed and possibly outright unsafe for some people. Also, I live and nearly always jump at sea level, so I didn’t consider altitude – good note. I intended and left out the word “maximum” as my non-expert opinion believes this should be the most for a new jumper not the recommended. I agree that 1.0 would be far friendlier, but would also be outgrown sooner. This worked for me and I was extremely happy. However, your rantings on health care?? In the UK, in addition to income tax we pay 11% National Insurance tax. If you’re piss poor you’ll be making out like a champ, however if you have a considerable income it’s the most expensive health insurance in the world. Neither system really works: US: best stuff, but too expensive, UK: lower cost but quality not worth having. We should all move to Switzerland – they’re sorted and they’ve got some good dropzones. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

For the best deals and quality, find the guys/girls with money burning a hole in the pocket that just have to have the newest and fanciest of gear (admittedly, I’m one of these gadget/gear geeks). For example L&B came out with a load of new gadgets over the past year so you can get “like new” quality ProTracks or Neptunes from people who just have to have the newest of toys. Most would give you a really good price just to help out another new jumper Don’t buy from the guy who uses something till its knackered and then just wants to offload it on an unsuspecting newcomer. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

If possible, I would buy new; I did when I was a newbie. If you plan ahead and choose a sensible size that would give you say a 1.15 wing load and take a canopy course, you can grow into your rig and get a lot of use out of it. I started jumping my first rig on my 35th jump. It is also good forward planning to have a container that would accommodate a canopy one size smaller (i.e. the Javelin that holds a 190 can also hold a 170). I would definitely agree with all other postings on here as to having both used or new rigs fully checked by a rigger. My story is that on about my 90th jump (55th on my shiny new rig) just as I was beginning to flare I felt the right brake line pop loose. Fortunately, I had just enough experience to instantly know to fully release my left toggle and grab rear risers. I ended in a “tuck and roll” student style landing. I went to the rigging shop and they saw that the toggle had not been properly tied when initially put together (they also showed how easily the left would come undone). The shop that put my new gear together had incorrectly tied both steering toggles! They said they had seen this before and the last person had broken their back. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Does anyone know of any upcoming balloon jumps in the UK? "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

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Instead of drilling 6 holes and having more external cabling, attached is a cleaner solution with only drilling two holes. Also, as Sony made the CX6/CX7 with a non-removable strap, some people are cutting it off rendering the camera difficult to use outside of the cambox for everyday use (not to mention fucking up the resale value). Fold the strap under the camera and it is exactly the thickness of two layers of the supplied adhesive-backed foam. (Photos attached below) You’ve spent the better part £1500 on this setup, may as well take a few minutes more to make it look good as opposed to the usual jumping out the plane with a half roll of gaffer tape on your head. Blue Skies "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

This was during 2006. However, I left the company at the end of the year so don't have the influence to assist as I did then. However, this was an organisation that can and does do large scale insurance for activities such as skydiving. I'm certain this was due to other people at that time, but do have your staff alert to members that can help, We're not all skint twentysomethings on the membership roll. Good job that you noticed and replied to this post, however in the past I made a several calls over about three days and gave up. Like a lot of people, I'm very much pro skydiving but not necessarily pro British skydiving. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

you said...."radio didn't work so I was on my own the whole ride down". That's how all your future skydives will be after student level. I view the radios as an uneeded crutch. Pretend it's not there and think about what YOU would do. I did AFF in 2002 in South Africa where there were no radios and you only got assistance on your very first jump (via some guy holding ping pong paddles to tell you what toggle to pull on finals). After that you were on your own. Crude yes, but it made me pay particular attention to the landing sequence training as I knew it was all up to me. have fun learning "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I agree and 2008 may be the last year I pay the BPA membership also. Which is sad as there are some very good drop zones in the UK, It is just that I’m used to paying double for everything in the UK but quadruple is taking the piss? Two notes: 1. I can agree w/ the BPA requiring jumpers to be insured, but why not individually. I annually pay £400 for global travel insurance that covers skydiving and nearly everything sans strapping a rocket to my back “Wile E. Coyote style”. I call the BPA and ask if I can decline the insurance on proof of existing cover – answer was NO 2. By coincidence, I was previously a director for a division of a global banking/insurance group and personally knew someone on the insurance side who could have helped the BPA out. I call the BPA office to make an introduction or get a direct contact and am treated as if I’m wasting their time. Which is shit as this was taking my own time to do them favour, I was responsible for an entirely different area of the company. No disrespect to anyone on this forum who works for the Lloyds Syndicate or Underwriting, but this is the sole and last bastion of ineptitude in the UK financial industry. This “take what the brokers give us” followed by the BPA is ruinous. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

CX7 or European equivalent CX6 is great. I'm told by a Sony guy that these will replaced by a CX12, but in Europe this won't happen till 2009 sometime. Sony does this same thing with DVD players and other products - discontinue something everyone likes and make you wait a year for the new model. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Thanks guys. I was going to put the button on the helmet (drill larger hole in ZKull to box) and the AV/D connector would live under the black plastic cap from TonFly when the cambox was removed. However, the pics of putting the button on the box and just fishing the LED cable in/out when needed seems better and I don’t have to drill my helmet. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Fly with it as checked baggage in a suitcase of its own. Trying to go as carry-on is going to cause you problems on the flights you mentioned. I don’t have the highest jump numbers on this post, but I have taken my rig to differing countries on six continents. Of course carry on your logbook and licenses as insurance cannot replace those. The X-ray card from Airtec GmbH (Cypres) and the safety letter from the US DOT may prove helpful, but in the past six years no one has ever asked to see either of mine. Also if the rig is on its own in a separate bag, most airlines will class it as sports equipment which is usually a fixed amount as opposed to paying by weight if you have a lot of luggage. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

In short, I skydive for fun. I assume this applies to most people on this forum. I regard my time as valuable and if I take the time to get in my car and drive to the dropzone, I want to make as many jumps as possible that day. Small Cessna clubs can be charming int the right locations, but I like many others, are there to jump, not sit around chin wagging the majoritiy of the day. Your post even mentioned people joining in and helping with plumbing and such?? I don’t even do this for my own home, I certainly would not incorporate it into my hobby. On equipment purchases, if I’m spending money, I have no problem with doing so while in a clean and air conditioned shop as opposed to the back of a van in parking lot handing over cash to some kid named “Dave”. Our sport needs to grow by increasing the numbers and diversity of people. Yes every effort should be made to keep costs affordable, but I’m OK with paying reasonable amounts for a good setup and services. To contrast your experience, I’ve found some large 3-4 plane DZs far friendly to myself as a visitor, than some of the small local 206 clubs I’ve visited. In recent years, I’ve been on loads with surgeons, physicists, even royalty. This view that the typical skydiver is (or should) be someone with barely two nickels to rub together and a wardrobe of only boogie t-shirts is outdated. I think the mix of people is great. How many other sports could you possibly see people of such varying ages and occupations having fun together. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"