BMFin

Wind ? May I ask you how exactly do you adjust your initiation altitude according to wind conditions ?

Not trying to put you down, but getting the visa for work will be a big project. AFIK, - 1st you need to get a place to work. This can be difficult if you dont have a visa. - then you need to hire an imigration lawyer. Expect to spend at least 3000 euros for this. -Then you wait at least one year for the bureucracy. Maby then you could expect to get the visa. Getting the visa is possible, but it requires a lot of work, money and patience. If learning english is your criteria, why not go to australia or NZ instead ? Work&holiday visa to Australia is as easy to get as stealing candy from a child..

Brazilian surf magazine published a series of my pictures. http://www.revistaparafina.com.br/ Somewhere around page 120. (you can also click "fotografia em queda livre" to go there directly) I love the layout in this magazine.

What makes you think so ?

To me it looks about 400 degree turn.. (even though he says 450) Loading is 2.7 like is said on the vid. He wasnt on the fronts very long. You can see him releasing the brakes in the very beginning of the video. I think Fred Fugen has also had a cypres fire in addition to those that were already mentioned. Good luck with the presentation, but dont expect to find too much info. I think Airtec doesnt want to give much info out on public since they regard some things as trade secrets. (like the exact minimum conditions for a cypres fire)

Very nice shots. Personally I would take down the saturation a bit, but other than that, very nice !

It's still a risk, and no one has the right to subject a student to an added risk. Adding a photographer is an added risk to the tandem, still we do it..

Hi ! We just changed our Otter to a brand new Grand caravan here in Finland. Our DZ decided to quit the IAD training since it wasnt considered safe enough. At another club here has been an incident where the IAD students PC actually went over the tail on caravan. (this incident had a happy ending however and no one was hurt.) I have personally also wiitnessed when a student jumps up from the door and almost hits the tail with his head. I think IAD from caravan is doable but risky. If everything is done correctly most likely nothing will happen. But IMO the method from caravan doesnt have enough room for errors. If just one of the factors involved is neglected the outcome might change dramatically. (plane climbing, not reducing speed or student jumping up.... some other factors) When doing IAD from an Otter you would need to have all 3 mentioned factors happen at once before you could even theoretically imagine hitting the tail. With Caravan you could end up in accident even if just one of the factors is present. So far I havent heard of a single DZ that has done IAD from a standing position from a caravan. If anyone knows such a DZ, please let me know.. I think IAD from sitting position would be more safe. SL maby even better.

Do you have some experience with IAD from caravan in standup postition or are you just assuming its safe ?

I think you might be right, but not because having more megapix it self makes the Image quality better. It could be that 21Mpix is benefitial in some situations. I dont know really. This is very complicated actually. The way how I have understood this is that actually there is no detail being lost when shooting sRAW1 since it utilizes the same amount of sensor photosites but it doesnt add any/as much Bayer Interpolation as the cameras prosessor would when shooting RAW. (in order to understand this you need to undestand what bayer interpolation is.) What makes it more complicated however is that does it anyhow yield a better result when resizing the RAW to the size of sRAW1 with smarter sharpening algorithms by using a separate darkroom program. Im not really motivated to look into this in detail since I dont have the camera my self.. There are some tests, facts/opinions on the net if anyone is interested. some links: http://photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00SfpK http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/5d-mk-ii.htm see under usage.

The 5dm2 can also shoot sRAW1 (10megapix) and sRAW2 (5megapix), so you dont necessarily have to work with the huge fullRAW filesizes.

This is a tough one. These are the best two wide angles for a cropped sensor IMO. I think you just need to google and read some reviews and make a decision. Remember though that 10mm is noticably wider than 11mm and the canon has a zoom range of 12mm and the tokina only has 5mm Its a tough decision, but on the other hand which ever you choose you cant go wrong..

Well basically hes right. They are made from plastic and the build quality isnt as good as it is with the better magnesium body models. On the other hand they are smaller and lighter which ofcourse is importand in skydiving. IMO skydivng isnt as hard on the equipment as you might think. Most likely you will damage your camera in the plane. Keep the lens cap on and dont leave the camera on the floor.

This incident was not due to any fault with Strong but rather a fault with the Intstructor. How I interpreted AndyBoyd´s post was that he ment that basically strong should have predicted a lawsuit in general is a high possibility in the industry and not being prepared for this was the "bad decision". I could have interpreted his post wrong though...

So gear manufacturers choose to be on their own if someone sues ?

I dont know if anyone here can answer this but I was wondering why doesnt strong have any liability insurance ?

Yes, Like I said. Staying below is not good, sliding under isnt that big of a deal IMO. No real effect on the speed of the tandem (BTW. the DZ´s I have visited, premature deployments with tandem are uncommon indeed)

Quote The question I still have, "are you certain you can always get out of the way of a deploying tandem main when you're in that position?" I'm not sure I could. Quote I agree with you that it is safer to stay on level at deployment time.

May I ask what exactly makes it so dangerous to go under the tandem ? Premature deployment is very very small risk with modern freefly friendly gear. I agree that staying directly below the tandem is not a good thing since you steal air from them and this increases the speed. However, sliding under for a brief moment IMO is not such a big of a deal. Some TM´s prefer the videographer backflying the hill since the possibility to get tangled with the drogue is almost non existant this way. This argument supports it being safer on one way. Also one of the most valuable moments, the students face during exit, can be filmed this way. It is not possible if you rear float. This is a huge benefit also. The videos I randomly picked from youtube were to demonstrate that you dont need wings in order to film from the angle Lewmonst provided. They were not picked to represent the perfect example of tandem video that couldnt be critizized by others in any way. Im glad have a real discussion about cameraflying going on rather than just posting specs for new camera gear (which ocfourse is important also) Hopefully we all learn something from each other as we discuss these things.

When I had 600 jumps, that's how I did it too. Ditto. You can do tandem videos without them. How high do you set your standards? Your video can be better if you learn to use wings. If you just lay still in front of them, on level, and that's your standard, then no, you don't need wings. If you want to get better angles for better photos, especially getting very low and looking up at their face, get wings. Here's a few of my shots: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31358&id=545871412&l=0271f5541b I think you are right. Wings will help you to shoot this angle you provided, unless you can backfly that angle. (which ofcourse is quite demanding) IMO its a good angle to include in the set, but it also has its downsides. What I have learned is that wuffos really cannot understand what is going on unless there is ground in the pic also. I dont think there is one good perfect angle that is better than anything else, but if I needed to choose just one it would propably be 8mm (on cropped sensor) from docking distance to the student from slightly above. This angle would include the student in the center, the TM , the drogue and the ground also. I dont have an 8mm, so I cannot exactly do it, but I included one where I have tried to get the same angle at 11mm. My picture doesnt get the drogue at the same time if I want to get the ground. 10mm isnt wide enough. I agree that not all people can take the "below" angle without wings. For those wings are a good help. Here are a couple of random videos from empuria without wings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgDOm71Vj3Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4R_wDpy8tw&feature=related If you can backfly you dont necessarily need wings.

When I film a tandem that goes slow I just wear something baggier to adjust my fallrate. I know pretty well how fast each TM at our DZ is and you just add the passanger to this equation and there you go. If its a little girl it might actually go faster than tall and skinny guy. Its all about the surface/weight. I admit that wings gives you the possibility to float, but wearing baggy suit does the same. I have nothing against wearing wings. I think they can be a good help. To me its more of an issue about the right "feel". Same issue IMO as wearing full face helmet. I dont like to wear it, but I have nothing against to those that wear one. In fact I think it is safer in most cases than open helmet. Still I choose to fly open face helmet. Matter of taste.

Booty-Licious Freeflying

An advanced 4way competitor ?

I will send 50 bucks for a fund that will drive towards making the justice system better in the US. I have said it before and say it again. Its not the lawyers that are crooked, its the system. There will always be someone abusing the system if the system reconizes such abusement.

You have some of your video online ? Would love to see how it looks.