Cacophony

I love that you asked that. Its a company that is being created to produce some killer skydiving videos. I just happened to be looking through the forum and I thought that I'd throw down a post since I am long overdue. And I'm also trying to get some feedback into what people want to see and what bothers them about already existing videos. Take it easy.

Was the DVD promised for a certain time and then not delivered? If that is the case then that is horrible business practice if you ask me. The DVD is cool as hell, but what could possibly hold up the process for that long? Just a heads up. Vertical Axis Entertainment is going to change that. Stay tuned.....

Last year, mine was 30 minutes. This year is shaping up to be 45. I think that people will be willing to sit for any length of time as long as the video is good. Now if you are just editing raw clips together to some music, 45 might be a bit long. However, if you are making a true video that has segments and skits in it, then more power to ya!

You guys are a bunch of lightweights. I take a 4 month break every year called winter!! J/K. I'm in the same boat in the fact that I destroyed my femur and cracked my pelvis 2 months ago. Have no fear. You will return probably better than when you left because you will be operating mentally, not physically. Skydiving is not a physical sport in the sense that you have to be strong, or tall to do it. I find that my best jumps of the year are the first ones after a long break.

The key thing with that is exit order. If everyone agrees on a set order to exit that will allow for maximum horizontal separation, then you shouldn't have to worry about a premature in your face. Nor can you count on horizontal separation when people leave early after you to start tracking for the DZ.

That person should have also been conscious of their airspace above and below them. Low man has the right of way. How do you know if the group behind you has given adequate separation? Assuming that you pulled at your normal altitude, what if you had pulled slightly higher to avoid landing off? The situation could have been much worse. Pulling high isn't a good thing to do. It changes the dive flow and endangers the people after you. Same goes with people who track back to the DZ. All of that should be taken care of with the spot and exit order. If you suspect that you aren't going to land on the DZ then you shouldn't get out. Its your life and you have control over it.

It seems to me that giving some left brake input wouldn't be the best way to fix the situation. When flying in turbulence you want to fly in full glide because it keeps pressurization in the cells the highest. However, when you are trying to inflate closed end cells, you want to pump your brakes. Maybe a little rear riser might have worked better. Not sure that I know the exact answer to that one. Also be careful not to fixate on your landing spot. Keep an eye out for other traffic. You were very lucky. Try and keep it to skill and not luck. I've been there before though and I know what its like. Take care!

I'm still getting over my smashed femur and cracked pelvis from when I set up my approach too far over a bunch of cars and tractors. When I did my 120 degree turn I really whipped it with my left front riser. I was diving straight at a van and I froze. Instead of toggling out of it I proceeded to tuck my legs behind me and watch my knees pass about a foot over the top of the van. Thats all I remember before I hit the ground knee first then face. I guess I stabbed my breaks and it flung me back up in the air. Had I been under a slightly smaller canopy, or had I been about 1 foot lower I would certainly not be here right now. I posted my POV on ftp.skydivingmovies.com The file is alex_o_bad_landing.wmv in case anyone is interested in checking it out.

Bonehead makes a "Z Bracket" which does exactly the same thing for $45. You can check it out at Para Gear.www.paragear.com I have an optik with a D-Box. Its a very clean comfortable helmet. Nicely balanced. I don't have a Z Bracket for it yet, but that will come in the near future.

I jumped while my head was congested once. It was hardly noticeable of a congestion, but when I hit 5000 ft. I literally thought my head was going to explode! The pressure was so bad. It was some of the worst pain ever. I had a severe headache for a week after that. Its not worth the risk. I'm sure it has different effects on different people, but you are better off waiting.

Almost more importantly than knowing what to do when things go correctly is knowing what to do when things don't. I'm trying to get over my broken femur and pelvis from an accident 3 weeks ago because I simply didn't flare! I set up my landing in a bad area and instead of fixing the situation I just rode it out and hoped that it would work out. I froze and didn't see the ground screaming at me at 40 mph. Its really easy to make tiny errors, but getting over them can take a long time. Get as much coaching as possible! I wish that I had a canopy coach. I'm definately going to find one now though.

Haven't had one yet! (Knock on wood!) I've got 503 jumps. I had a lineover once but it cleared. I've also had two PC in tow due to un-cocked PCs and they both cleared. Had my hand on the cutaway handle for those babies. Thats it!

I have an Optik with a d-box on top. I have/had a TRV 17. Its very clean and easy to take the camera on and off. You know they make a Z Bracket which is designed to fit between your camera lense and your eyes so that you can mount a still camera on the front of your Optik. I think its only $40 or so. Check ParaGear. If you mount your still in the front then your head will still be balanced. I don't have my helmet set up like that yet, but I plan on doing it in the near future. Its not much, but I posted a picture of me jumping the balloon at the freefall convention. You can get an idea as to what my helmet setup looks like from it. Its not a very close up picture, but its all I can find on short notice.

Seeing as how I am the one who had the accident I'm going to throw in a point here. This point is going out to the lesser experienced canopy pilots out there. There is a very good reason as to why I am only jumping a Stiletto 150 loaded at 1.13. I feel that having a great swoop has nothing to do with a higher WL. Sure, in the end, the higher your WL the longer and faster your swoops can be. But I have seen and heard of entirely too many people who feel that they need a higher WL to have cooler swoops. Or they feel that having a higher WL is OK because they DON'T swoop, so therefore they have less potential to hurt themselves with the canopy, just because they don't plan on doing low turns. Well, you are wrong. I've done some sweet landings with my Stiletto 150, and I have seen some very good canopy pilots landing much larger canopies than their swoop speaks for. I just hope that a few people out there can come to realise this so that they don't make the mistake of jumping a canopy that is too small for them reguardless of what they plan to use it for. WL BSR or not, in some ways it would really help and in others, it would hold some people back. It would keep the people who don't know what the h*ll they are talking about from endangering their lives or others lives, and if all you have to do is get an S&TA recommendation or take a canopy course (my info might be a little out of date, sorry), then I don't see what the big deal would be. Hopefully our S&TAs out there have enough sense and canopy piloting skill to realize the trouble people. Its obviously not an easy solution. I'm just glad that I was taught the right way early on, and thats why I only broke my femur and pelvis. Some people who were there thought I was dead from the impact. I got off very lucky. To all of you out there who are unsure if you can handle your canopy %100 no matter what the circumstances. Are you sure that you will get as lucky as me if your time comes?

"I re-posted this in the incidents forum. Sorry guys!" Last Saturday I was very lucky. I intended to do a 180 degree left front riser hook turn in our main landing area. I made the mistake of setting up over top of a van and I slammed on the afterburners in my front risers. My Stiletto 150 dove like a motha. More than it ever has before. I quickly realised that I might hit the top of the van and I bent my legs at the knees. I proceeded to watch my legs nearly miss the van and that was the last thought that went through my head for a while. I hit the ground left knee first and then transfered all of my weight to my face. My ring sight on my camera popped the lense out of my goggles and the lense and goggles cut up my face pretty bad. Because I had the nylon screwed for my ringsight it snapped right off. 15 minutes later I woke up as I was being put on a backboard to be taken to the hospital. I was in more pain than ever. I snapped my femur in half, cracked my pelvies in two places, and had 6 stitches on my face. Ouch! I know what I did wrong. I fixated on the van and didn't flare. No-one saw it directly. but some people thought that due to my speed and angle of impact that I was dead. Not so. I feel very lucky that I got off with only these few injuries. Let me know what you think.

http://www.skydivegreensburg.com/images.htm Most of these pictures I took from my camera, but some others are taken by other people. There are some good Rantoul pics in the August section.

Wow. Talk about pressure to keep the correct body position. If he had a slip and slide he could have landed that thing.

It might just be an old DVD drive that might not be able to read DVD-R discs.

I do it all of the time. Its definately not the best route to go. Here is a link to some of the pictures that I have taken off of video. They are not the best quality, but for a web page, you get the idea. http://www.skydivegreensburg.com/0703experience.htm Feel free to post any comments. Note that a few of those 9 way hybrid pictures are actually scanned in.

Atleast, you have a good excuse for that accident. I've messed up a few videos. Some of them were stupid mistakes and others were due to weird equipment stuff. At our DZ we offer them a full refund or I wouldn't mind doing another jump for them for free. Either/Or I guess. What kind of suit do you fly?

Have you tried making the camera the last in the firewire chain and just running through the hard drive? I can't imagine your firewire hard drive to not be set up with 2 firewire ports. Just plug the camera into the hard drive and then the hard drive into the computer. I don't understand why you would need to use USB at all. Maybe I am just missing something here. By the way, firewire is IEEE 1394, not 1334. Not sure what that is. Are you sure you read it correctly?

Thanks guys. I'm actually using a PC not a MAC. Thats all I needed to know. Rock on!

Anyone know what the native AVID video file is? Premiere uses avi and Final Cut Pro uses quicktime, but what does AVID use? I'm curious because I am going to be getting AVID in the near future but I have a bunch of video to capture now. I wouldn't see a problem with capturing them as an avi unless AVID wouldn't support them. I am assuming that AVID does though. Am I correct? Thats all for now. Thanks.

Not sure. I haven't actually seen it but a friend of mine told me that. Its no big deal. Just the fact that I have a shot in the video is cool enough for me. I'll work on getting some better ones this year!

Allen O'Connor = Alex O'Connor from Skydive Greensburg. I guess Martini Shots didn't listen to my waiver video very closely because I said it pretty clearly.