Zlew

Once you do it and get good at it, I think you will really enjoy the confidence that it brings you. I used to be a static line JM, and have probably over 100 hop n pops from following students out at 3500. I know for a fact that I can easily get out and have an open canopy above my head in less than 200 feet below the airplane (remember your opening happens more horizontally if you get your deployment started in the first 2-3 seconds after exit). Knowing that is great for emergency procedures, and also for fun jumps. This was a nasty weather day, and we went up to see how much altitude we could get... looks like about 2200 feet. No big deal right? Canopy open and flying in less than 200 feet without even having to rush. Much better than riding the plane down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ2BQgApbnM It does crack me up that the hop-n-pops at my current home DZ are usually at like 4500-5500 and are usually more like 10 second delays than hop-n-pops. Either way, it's a really good skill to have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBRtnE05ILs

If you google around there are some sites that have ways of doing it. You enter the url, and it will download the video for you. Once upon a time, you could get the files directly from Safari if you used that browser. Other side of the coin: youtube lets folks define what level of permission/copyright they have on all of their videos. You can set your videos so that others can use them. Most people do not, and they do it for a reason.

Stability comes from being aware of your body (all parts) and making sure that the air is moving evenly around you. Being rigid, or trying to force things will usually cause problems. Not being aware of what all parts of your body are doing can cause problems (which is more compelx than it may sound). +1 on the video idea. By far the best way to see what the real problem is. Also, watch some skydive video on youtube. notice how smooth the people are who fly really well. Tunnel video can be great also. If you have a small area to fly in you have to be smooth and stable to keep from bouncing off the walls. Also, notice how small the inputs they give are whey they turn or move. Just being a little bit out of alignment with a foot...knee... hip.... shoulder can cause movement. It doesn't take much to do a lot. Relax, arch, don't try to force things.

And concerning the R-Max- Even their largest size (288) is labeled as 263lbs exit weight for Students.

Yes. They have a few that are at 300lbs and just over 300. PD has a non Optimum that is rated higher also. The key is finding a DZ that has them. In my experience, the majority of DZ's have similar size/ tso reserve canopies in their rental and student gear. Rigs are expensive, and most DZ's won't invest fully in huge gear that may only be used by, or needed by a small % of their students. I know they are out there, but i think the majority of DZ's won't have them available.

There are a few reasons for the weight limits, but most one of the most difficult to get around is the reserve parachute TSO (basically a federal certification required by law). There are not many things that we are regulated by federally in this sport, but this is one of them. Most reserves are under C23c, which is certified at 254 lbs. Add in the weight of all the gear, and you end up with limits being in the 220-230 ranges. Even the newer c23d canopies, most do not have real high limits on them- The PD Optimum, for example From their website : "The Optimums are rated for maximum exit weights ranging from 220 pound to as much as 290 pounds!" I see 3 ways to jump- 1. lose weight 2. find a DZ with c23d reserves, who also have higher weight limits. 3. find a bandit DZ willing to let you jump over the limit. :) Option 3 is somewhat tongue in cheek, and not advised.

A friend of mine used to park his truck in a field in west texas on windy days, and was able to get some serious altitude with a long climbing rope. The risk of doing this, or with a tow, is getting basically into a downplane. If your canopy turns off heading to the point of no return, you are pretty much fucked and in a 1 man downplane. I saw some footage of someone getting smashed into the water doing this on an old para commander. My buddy had a great 3 ring style relase setup (as i remember) to let him cut away quickly from the tow rope... but I think if you ended up in a downplane under 100 feet or so...you are going to break if you cutaway or not.

A tandem is a sitting duck in freefall. They can't do much to maneuver or protect themselves. Between the skytrash that is strapped in front of them, and the drogue, there isn't much they can do to protect themselves from someone else in freefall. Beyond that, priority number 1 for the TM is going to be the safety of the student (and their own safety). Some of the skills to even get to a tandem are not simple skills (exit, dive, approach, dock ect.). I've seen (and shot) plenty of video of people who thought they knew what they were doing and causing dangerous situations. Blasting past the tandem, getting in their burble, hitting the drogue, etc.). For this reason, you shouldn't even think about going out with a tandem until your skills are rock solid doing that type of approach. Even without the USPA rec's, many tandem TM's won't let someone swoop them unless they know them or know their skill level.

Does it have the same issue with the wide angle removed? Does anyone on here know if the CX115 has an aperture that physically changes to adjust exposure? This is a long shot I'm sure, but if for whatever reason the lens isn't able to actually get full crispness on your camera (bogus lens, wide angle lens setting isn't turned on, etc.)- the difference in crispness on the pics could be just due to the aperture closing down more in the bright outside light (pinhole camera effect). This is a well known effect in standard photography, and should also be the case for video. If this is what's happening, it would explain why in lower light conditions (open aperture) the image is more fuzzy, but in higher light settings, the image would be significantly more crisp via the smaller aperture. Like I said... it may be a long shot...just thinking out loud here.

I had a PC5 too, and you are right things have changed for the better. Today's gear is lighter, smaller, higher resolution, more reliable, and less expensive. There are several great cameras out there, and it really just depends on what you want to do with it. The GoPro, and Contour HD's are very popular for the casual inside camera footage crowd. They are in the $300 range, and output HD video at pretty good quality. Very few controls/options (no screens, menus, ports for cam-eye (hype-eye now) etc). They are great for one touch operation. The Sony CX cameras are also very popular an(cx110,115, 150). They are the modern decedents to your PC5. They are bigger than the GoPro/Contour, but not by much. My cx150 is more narrow than my old PC5, and weighs about half. They have great optics, lots of options (including IS), ports for LEDs/controls etc. They are usually 400-500 bucks. There are some things to watch for. Poke around here and you will read all about them. But most would advise you to avoid a camera with optical image stabilization, or one that records to a hard drive, or DVD.

DSE- Along those same lines: I use Home Studio 10 now, and have read a little bit about 11. The only thing that sounds like it might be worth it is the rendering differences. Have you seen the performance difference between Home Studio 10 and 11, and do you think it would be worth the $100 upgrade?

DSE has a ton of great stuff on youtube, and there are also several other folks who do some great tutorials for Vegas. If you get your search terms right, you should be able to find how to do just about anything.

FAA site says the owner is in Dallas. I know a guy who owns a blue and white 180 in the dallas area...but it's not the same guy. :( Looks like John B Dalton is the name of the current owner.

Looks like there is some info on the blue and white 180 in one of the pics. Could be a good starting point...looks like she is still flying http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/N2834A.html

+1 New jumpers often go through a period where all they ever want to talk about is jumping (with jumpers and non jumpers). The "Hi, I'm Joe and I skydive!" syndrome. Drives me a little crazy as an experienced jumper. That, with some jealousy, and fear of losing a friend to another group can make things tricky.

I remember that too! You knew it was a good swoop ("surf" back then) when the little fuckers were playing the drums on your jumpsuit as you hit them as they jumped up in front of you mid swoop.

This might not be total bullshit. A "swarm" seems unlikely, but I have seen lots of things up high that I didn't expect. We had a really bad grasshopper problem in TX in the late 90's. Every step in the landing area would make 20 of them jump..damn things were everywhere. Anyway, I opened on one jump, and looked around and saw hundreds of small "dots" all around me. As I started to fly around I passed several close enough to see what they were. I was in a virtual cloud of grasshoppers at over 2500ft up. That same year my friend hit one in freefall at about 7,000 FT. Had the guts and parts on her googgles when she landed, and a red face. She said it felt like getting hit in the face with a baseball at close range. Obviously they can't fly that high... But in the summer in TX we get all sorts of thermals and dust devils that can, and do, lift all sorts of things way the hell up into the sky. I've seen Wal-Mart bags at 7K feet, bugs, grass, and all sorts of other things that take the free ride up. If A grasshopper can make it up that high...I'm sure bees could too. We had a big slow dust devil roll through the landing area of skydive dallas weekend before last. It was probably 100 yards in diameter, and sucked up corn clippings from the fields they just plowed. From the ground, you could clearly see the clippings were in a "cloud" going up at least to 1K.

If you are worried about the being unconscious part... I think being under an elliptical wing and being out isn't a good place to be. Unless you just happen to be passed out square in the harness, it will tend to turn...and given enough time even a slight harness turn can become fatal.

Adding to DSE's note: It's free software that comes with most of the Sony CX cameras and allows you to take really clean screen grabs. Not DSLR or even high end point and shoot quality, but pretty damn good. These were all grabs from PMB http://www.flickr.com/photos/zlew/sets/72157624850949060/detail/

Have you tried using PMB to grab the frames?

these are all PMB frame grabs from a xc150 shooting in HD. http://www.flickr.com/photos/zlew/sets/72157624850949060/detail/

+1 These are not high res photos, but do pretty damn well. More than good enough for online use. I think the day isn't too far off before these cameras will capture point and shoot quality stills from the video. Not quite there yet, but getting close.

More info please: Are you a fun jumper, or a video guy for a DZ. How often will you be using it? What are you using now? What do you mean by "mid range?" You can get good Canon New SLR's for the $500 range with the kit lens. http://www.amazon.com/Canon-XS-Digital-18-55mm-Black/dp/B001CBKJGG By Canon SLR standards it is not "mid range" but in my experience it will take fantastic photos and the photographer will usually be the weakest link in that system (meaning spending more on a higher model will probably not get you any better photos). I bought that same camera for skydiving, and also use it as a 2ndary camera when I am doing paid shoots/events. If you do your part, and use decent glass... it takes pictures that are as good as the D cameras I have.

Looks to me mostly like the "step" from heavy front riser input on one side...and your arms in the photo would make that look like it would be the possible. Would also explain why you didn't feel it. My bet would be that if you had turbulence do that to your leading edge, you would notice it for sure.