BMFin

Actually it doesnt matter what Airtec says.. Or do you think they should let you take a gun as a carry on if you have a card from airtec that says its ok ? What matters here is that the "Chapter Section 17.2 of Version 4.0 of the Screening Checkpoint Standard Operating Procedure." allows rigs as a carry on. And as it says in the USPA website: "Skydivers encountering unsatisfactory treatment should contact USPA at 540-604-9743 or e-mail us. Be ready to provide the airport, date and time of flight, airline and flight number, and names of TSA officials involved." I have gone thru screening at dozen airports and most of the time they wont pay much attention to the gear bag. Sometimes they try to deny it, but politely referring to the above SOP has always helped.. But remember, there are no rules abroad conserning rigs as carry ons.. So when you are coming back from where ever abroad they dont have to let you take your rig as a carry on. These occasions I always ask the screeners to point out in black and white that would deny rigs as carry on and normally it helps.. (unless you are in frrance or something..) Sure the airtec card and a good attitude might help most of the times too. USPA has done good work on this matter, I wish the Finnish organization had done the same.. (maby I just have to do it myself)

personally I didnt like the hornet at all.. I made about 300 jumps on a 120 and the more jumped it the more I hated it.. Slammer openings and short recovery arc... I would much rather get a sabre2, Safire2 or a Spectre instead.. It was easy to pack though, becouse of the gelvenor ZP..

Its not the 2mm (wich actually does make a difference with such a wide lens), but when referring to a Sigma 10-22 you cant tell wich lens the person actually refers to. Is it the 10-22 (by canon) or is it the 10-20 (by sigma) Those two lenses are not different just by the 2mm difference in focal length but also in numeros other ways.. back to the topic: if you like the fisheye effect, tokina 10-17mm might be worth checking out.. Though I have no experience on the lens what so ever..

Im sorry but how could anyone answer this questin over the internet ? In case you are asking about the gear itself but not how it fits your friend I suggest you do a search ..

fist of all I have to say I dont have experience yet with either one. Howerver I was just asking help to a same kinda situation here (see thread) You can compare some sample pictures there and decide if the 15mm would be wide enough.. For the record, I decided to go with the 10-20 sigma because: -it has got fairly good reviews (very sharp) -its more versatile due to the zoom (it also can be zoomed @15mm) .I think 15mm is not going to be wide enough for some shots

Heres one from early august around the arctic circle in Finland..

I also tried psycho packing my hornet when I had one.. I feel it did slow down the opening quite a bit. I tried psycho packing only a bit before moving on to a vengeance ( wich has nice openings already) so I never really started packing psycho regularilly. So ofcourse my experience is kinda limited.. But I would be suprised if all the people who tell me they psycho pack because of the openings, were wrong... EDIT: cant spell engilish...

By the way... Do you think psycho packing slows down the opening ?

(Sorry offtopic..) Hey jeff ! Im also intrested about the lens. Your pics look nice.. How would you compare the tokina 10-17 to the canon 10-22 you are also jumping ? (in case you dont want to highjack this thread please PM me...)

Im sure you have a PRO rating and a lot of jumps, but I do think that you being a guy who jumps a stiletto might not be so trained to see "nailed" recovery arc from a JVX I think the first 2 guys were in the corner.. both.. The guy with the JVX a bit more than the guy with the VX.So I wouldnt say they nailed it.. Overall I would say the demo went nice... Nothing happend.. Crowd loved it.. The first two guys just were in the corner, but they saw it coming and could plane it out just right...

Cannot say much about dacron lines to pilot, but the first thing that comes to my mind is: Isnt pilot pretty much a copy of the old hornet ? (short recovery arc and fast openings) I must admit that I dont know this by a fact at all, so please correct me if im mistaken.. Also it sounds wierd that you would want to PIMP your Pilot in way that it would serve you better as a camera wing.. Easier soluiton might be just to buy a spectre. Dont you think ?

Seems that perris is offering quite nice environment for team training if they go and buy the plane ( a new one) that is going to be used in the next world meet just so that the teams may train the porter exits...

Im no pro, but what I have found easy and effective is to exit headdown to the relative wind with the tandem (launch your self to the side so you wont end up crashing the tandem..) and as soon as the drogue goes you just flip to your belly and there it is. Some TM´s take more time before they release the drogue, so this is a good way to keep the tandem close all the time even if theres a delay with the drogue.. I posted you a small sample video here on the DZ.com vids, but cant post the link yet becouse it has not been validated yet... Anyway it will be under the tandems..

Thanks for the help so far... But isnt there anyone with a 10-20 sigma ? It seems to be a bit slower than the canon 10-22 and slower than the 15mm .. What I would like to hear is how it performes on in low light weather and sunsets etc...

But dont you think you would have covered that cleavage much better with a 10mm ? It is a difficult decision... Most of those who have 15mm seem to say its the way to go, but Jeff who has a 10-22 and a canon 15mm says he dont use the 15mm on Freefall at all... I think that is a big issue here. My point being that most honest opinions you get from those who have the opportunity to choose and have used them both... Now anyone who has both would prefer the 15mm ?

That is sigma 10-20 not 10-22 Hope I dont sound like a smartass, but I just want to be sure were talking about the right lens. With such a wide lens 2mm makes a difference..

Ok thanks ! I tried googling this 10-22mm sigma but it seems theres no info about it.. Is this somekind of prototype ?

I think you should reconsider your ways of setup. It sounds you trust your altimiter too much if you are afraid of coming in becouse of 10m difference in your altimiter. Also I think more important is the consistency of the information that your altimiter keeps telling you not so much the actual truth distance. The way I see it ( 270 for example) is that the first 180 I initiate moreless by the altimeter but I while turning I evaluate the hight (and ajust the rate of turn according to the height) and before the last 90 I already know if Im gonna end ep too low or high and can react to this by readjusting the turnrate of the last 90 to hit the spot... (my experience is that the VISO is pretty consistant)

Thanks ! Is this Sigma 10-20 or Canon 10-22 ? I have never heard about Sigma 10-22..

Thanks for the info and pictures so far.. Keep ´em coming !

Im about to buy a new DSLR camera setup. Im already pretty confident that the body will be 400D (XTi) What I dont know yet is what lens should I buy ? I would mostly be shooting freeflying (mostly outside) and tandems maby 50/50 So far the best two choices I have come up with are Sigma 15mm and Sigma 10-20. I have also thought about canon 10-22, but unless its significantly better than the sigma Im not gonna pay the extra. I like the fish eye effect of the 15mm personally, but Im afraid it might not be wide enough for freefly Im also a bit confused weather it is good if the lens is fixed or not. As I understand the fixed lens makes your life is a bit easier but a zoom lens is more versatile ? Is this correct ? The prices for these two lenses seem to be the same so that is not really an issue here.. What do you think ? Wich one would you go for ? I would really appreciate some example photos with these lenses using a 1.6x censor. Thanks !

Others allready answered most of your questions so I wont have to repeat those.. However I recommend you ask a rigger make you a psycho bridle extension if you are psycho packing.

Thanks for the info guys !! Seems I have to pay them a visit..

How would you compare these two canopies in terms of rigidity ? Im also flying a XF2 109 and found it the most rigid 9cell out of the ones that I have flown.. And like murps was prehaps implying, the XF2 has very nice bottom end lift. I would be suprised to hear that the safire2 has even more.

Hello ! Im visiting Malaysia this winter and would be interested to visit the tunnel. The big question is, can you freefly there ? How comfortable ? And will they let you freefly there ? I did a search and some said you can, some said you cant.. The prices seemed good.. If its freeflyable, I think I must visit them.