BMFin

I think it shows the reality, and thats how it should be. Theres no reason we try to make our sport look any safer than it is. Every time a tandem pax asks me is this safe, I reply no. I try to give him/her as realistic picture I possibly can.

Yes. Actually, earlier I was under the impression that the reason why the Finnish DZ´s use the word "student" is due to taxational reasons. All DZ´s in Finland have for the last 50 years been clubs and not businesses. I never gave this much thought, but now that we also operate the first fully commercial DZ in Finland, I begun to think why do we still insist calling the passangers students? After all this commercial DZ doesnt even offer any training program for students. Business is merely tandems and some licenced skydivers to fill the loads. I soon remembered however, that the term actually comes from the US. As far as Im concerned people are welcome to call these passangers what they want. It doesnt really make any difference to me. Im merely interested on learning the reasons behind it. It seems to me, there is a lot of this kind of camouflaging in the aviation industry. Some operators fly customers with museum airplanes. Obviously this wouldnt meet the requirements of modern airtraffic regulations. Therefore the operator is operating under A voluntary association and the customers will join this association before boarding the plane. Therefore some could try to argue, they are only flying their own members and not customers.

Ok, point taken. May I ask you. Would you consider someone who makes one tandem jump as a student who quit his career as a student? (a dropout?) Or would you consider the student graduated once he/she has landed safely ? And if so, what do you call a tandem passanger who wants to make a second tandem? Is he then a "graduated tandem passanger" or still a student?

First of all thanks for the answers. However Im not quite convinced on this logic makes sense. Having some control over the vehicle as a passanger doesnt make you a student. On top of my hat I can think of many vehicles or activities, where the passanger has some degree of control and in no other cases this makes the passanger a "student" (motorcycle, tandem paraglider, tandem bicycle) Co-pilot maby, but not a student. I agree that this criteria is determimative on classifying a student. Sure you get some training, but what is the objective of the training ? Answer: the objective of the training is to be able to make a safe tandem skydive. Therefore the student must graduate from the training before his jump. Therefore he/she would only be on student status during the ground training. We dont cosider someone who makes one tandem jump as as student who quit his training. We consider him/her as a customer who made a tandem and went home. If there was a training program that would continue after you make your first tandem jump, then I would understand the term student. (IAF program) A Little History: (I've told these stories before, but they bear repeating.) Great story, Thanks. BTW. Do you know who made the first tandem jumps, if not you ?

Ok. Thanks for the info. Makes sense.

A) Why wont you give me some arguments to support your statement ? Im more than willing to admit my assumptions were wrong if you give me some facts. B)Why wont you tell me about this theory of yours instead of getting all mysterious and imperious

Search Samyang 8mm here and you may read on my experiences with the lens. (Samyang 8mm is exactly the same lens with different name on it) In addition to my earlier reports I wrote here I have later on found it is the very front element of the lens that gets foggy. Wiping it with a soft cloth will make it go away for a while, but obviously will not prevent the problem. Earlier I wasnt sure if the fog was forming on the inside or the outside. Also Im afraid theres not much you can do to rescue foggy pictures on post processing.

The way I read the text on Strongs website is that tandems were invented so that people could take "their wifes or children" with them on a skydive. It doesnt give me the impression that tandems were inveted to train anyone towards a solo dive. Actually the fact that they use quotation marks around the word "student" on the text, leads me to believe it is used to indicate a different meaning of the word than the one typically associated with it and is used to express irony. According to this text the reason for inventing tandems came from the aspiration "to be able to share the thrill of freefall skydiving with someone else." Nowhere in this text it says "to train student skydivers"

Just to make sure I get you point right, Im assuming you are saying that if a tandem student was called a passanger, the legal liability issues were different? This would make sense obviously. Not that it would actually change the legal status of the activity, however I can see how people may think it does.

The way I have understood the history of tandem is that the first tandemjumps were invented by someone who wanted to take his disabled child with him on a skydive. Knowing he would never be able to make a jump on his own, he had to come up with a way to jump with him. Correct me if Im wrong. Therefore Im not convinced the initial goal with inventing tandem gear was to train students, nor it ever has been. (except for the fact it is one tool in the box on the IAF program) Students have been trained with solo gear before tandems and they are still trained with solo gear. Tandem never really changed the training towards a licence.

Im interested on learning the historical background on calling tandem passengers a student rather than a customer. I understand the term student, when someone wants to learn to skydive via IAF program. However, it seems strange we call tandem passengers students, when someone simply wants to have a once in a lifetime experience. What am I missing here?

Actually a friend of mine has both and he was happy to let me take a look and compare. Basically it seems to me the tunnel suit is perhaps a bit more durable and has less spandex. However, there are no major differences in my opinion. For example the back of the V2.0 suit is made out of spandex completely. In the tunnel this would wear out pretty quick when rubbed against the net, so its made of more durable material. Obviously there is no digital alti pouch on the tunnel suit either and maby some other minor details. I have the V2.0 my self now, but having seen both suits side by side I actually consider the tunnel suit better value for money.

BTW. Mac is also a PC

Intresting. This is the first full frame camera from canon that is a good choice for sports photographers also. I wonder how the pro sport photographers take this ? At least its going to affect their FOV now. I would assume most would still prefer the APS-H, at least for shooting at larger focal lengths ?

Im not sure I understand your question? Are you asking wether we edit the footge before we give it to the customer, or do we just give raw footage ? In that case, yes we edit our videos. Not the photos.

I would have to ask the DZO to be sure, but would I suppose they are somewhere around 3$ Im not sure about the minimum either, but its not really much. I dont think we bought more than 500. Im sure Google knows better.

It is very different. In skydiving majority will consider a person who never got injured as someone who has always done everything right. In motocross for example majority will consider a person with no injuries as someone who isnt really a true motocross rider.

At our DZ we give the customer a USB stick with our DZ logo branded on it. It may even work as a small promotional item if the customer wishes to continue using the stick for other purposes. Personally I could see my self using only two ways of delivering data: -USB stick -uploading to the net

The same would apply on reducing any snagpoints on your helmet.

I have no experience on this, but I have thought about trying it. I would assume there might be some problems with 60fps ->twixtor -> 1000fps footage since fast movements like clothes or hair flapping in the wind cannot be interpolated to look natural. Therefore I would assume shooting with a real High speed camera would be the way to go.

Yes, each has its advantages and disadvantages. The D-ring is more prone to a snag, but easier to locate and pull. The Pillow is less prone to a snag like this but maybe harder to locate and pull. IMO pillow with an AAD or RSL minimizes both disadvantages, and leaves us with the advantages. However this topic may be more suited for the Gear and rigging section. Now lets ban all go pros and put 1000 jump limit to all camera jumps ! Amen !

Or more importantly the dangers of a D-ring reserve handle..

PM me if you wish to use this and lets talk about it.

For sharpest resolution and fastest autofocus for APS-C body I would recommend a quality zoom WA with a good focus motor starting from 10mm-> Examples: Canon 10-22mm Tamron 10-24mm Tokina 10-17mm or 11-16mm Canon 8-15mm My experience is that Sigma autofocus isnt the best and there are some quality control issues with the brand also, so I wouldnt recommend sigma.

In freefall there is not much use for automatic features such as ETTL etc. Option A. (cheap) If you only use your flash in low light conditions, or you want to underexpose the ambient, then pretty much any old (large) flash will do just fine. You will want to use it on manual and within the cameras sync speeds so there wont be any benefit on spending money on an expensive flashgun. Old Vivitars are very popular among strobists since they are cheap. Option B (Medium) However, if you want to use your flash also during the day time in sunlight as a fill flash I recommend you get a flashgun with High speed sync (HSS) (If you are using Nikon, they call it FP) Option C (more expensive) If you have more money and want to get serious get a flashgun that accepts an external battery pack. This will reduce the recycle times of the flashgun and you will be able to use it more during one jump. High speed sync for example will use a lot of power and it takes a lot of time to recycle the flash. Option A: Any larger used flash, even old ones. Look for them at Ebay for example. Option B: EX 420, EX 430 Option C EX 550, EX 580 plus the battery pack.