bogwarrior

Ally, Approximatley 50% of our business comes from referrals from people who are currently jumping on UK dropzones. Donkeyboy, I would suggest calling the DZ where you would like to jump when you are finished your course and asking them will they accept the qualification we offer you. Best Wishes, David

Hi, David here. I run the Freefall University and we are based in Skydive Lilo. You are welcome to call my UK office on 020 70 600 174 to have a chat with us about what we do and how we do it. AFF is more than eight jumps ! Alternatively you can request an information pack via our website which is The Freefall University - 45mins South of Madrid

Hi, David here, I run the Freefall University and saw the swoop. The pond is 430 feet. I would claim it to be an unnoficial world record. We measured the wind and it was well below 5mph. We are based in Skydive Lillo http://www.skydivelillo.com Also, my bandwith is going through the roof with the VID. Id ask that people link to the page its on and not hotlink to the video which will allow me to leave it there. http://www.pictures.freefalluniversity.co.uk/

Hi, Here is the text.ive heard nothing back from Florida :( Hello. My name is Gonzalo Riera . I own a growing dropzone in central spain called Skydive Lillo. We are affilliated to the United States Parachute Association. Recently we have dug the pit for a swoop pond that is 100m in lenght. Principally we are concerned with the following : Water stagnation is a concern as the drop zone is warm for 11 of 12 months of the year ,with temperatures ranging from 11 degrees in the Winter to 30 - 35 degrees in the summer. What type of water filtration or circulation devices do you use to avoid smells. Some poeple have suggest small amounts of chlorine in the water ? Is this not bad for gear ? Any advice that you or somebody on your DZ would have to share with us in Skydive Lillo would be appreciated very much.

Hello. My name is David Cowman . I work on growing dropzone in central spain called Skydive Lillo. We are affilliated to the United States Parachute Association. Recently we have dug the pit for a swoop pond that is 100m in lenght. We are however unsure how to proceed on a number of fronts. Principally we are concerned with the following two issues: 1. Water retention in the pond. We have to pay water rates. What are the different methods that DZ owners may have used to stop ground water leekage ? Is it as simple as plastic and silicon , or have you found a better more efficent method ? What are your experiences? 2. Water stagnation is a concern as the drop zone is warm for 11 of 12 months of the year ,with temperatures ranging from 11 degrees in the Winter to 30 - 35 degrees in the summer. What type of water filtration or circulation devices do you use to avoid smells. Some poeple have suggest small amounts of chlorine in the water ? Is this not bad for gear ? Any advice that you or somebody on your DZ would have to share with us in Skydive Lillo would be appreciated very much.

Hi, I am recently qualified as a AFF instructor and live in Ireland. There are perhaps one hundred skydivers here and its not a well publicised sport. I aim to make a living by operating a travelling school. I was hoping some cameramen might be willing to help by allowing me post some of their work on my site. I cant afford to pay for the photos at the moment , but will give credit and link to any site that you want. We all know the power of images and I have seen some of the work that guys in this forum have done and would like to bring it to my site and promote skydiving ( and my living) in Ireland. Please email me if you would like to help . My email address is irishaff@eircom.net Thanks and blue skies David Cowman USPA AFF .

According to the army guys it does , they use normal lights upon which you can put a filter on such that it only emits IR. They use them in tandem with their night vision kit.. Not sure how practical the whole thing is , if it all. If its not , ill shell out the $$$ for the Sony Stuff! David

Thanks, I will see about this , but i might see about getting some sort of traditional lighting system that can be used as both white light and then puta filter on it for conversion to IR/ David

I had not though of shooting IR stills, but i do believe I can lay my hands on some IR film as pics are taken at night by some units. I more reffered tp the video, is it as simple as flood the target with IR and film in night vision? Thats my guess anyhow. David

Thanks for the info. Regrettably cloud is a fairly common feature in Irish Skydiving and in particular the military will go through just about anything once the base is above 1500. I do appreciate that the filter in skydiving can be more of a hinderance , but I am employed only to shoot video , but supplied with film and a lab and techs. to develop the pics. The choice of film was not mine primarily , I have now secured stocks of 160ASA which I think will yield better results. I have noted , as I felt I would that the 400 despite being high quality is a little grainy and has made it difficult to see exacltly how well im doing on depth of field...is it a circle of confusion or a grain due to the film speed ? etc. Its a learning curve , for the moment .. I have a break as we are now concentrating on night time tactical stuff.... Im working on a chest mounted IR bulb .. They are afraid to let me shoot stills with Flash in freefall in case I kill the soldiers night vision...something I can understand. Do you have any experience here ? We move to Spain in three weeks then to Arizona so looking forward to getting the daytime stills going again at that point. David

I am in Ireland and a few pros I met whilst working in Empuria Brava Spain did mention that Irish conditions would generally require faster film or larger appertures. Also on some really sunny days I was using a polarzing filter in order to enhance the deep blue of the sky and bring up the clouds ( which I must say worked very well on a few shots ) ..I only did this on very bright days. I tried some asa 100 today without filters and on apperture priority. Thanks David

when I have done tandems , what I have done is ( given im down before the tandem pair is change to auto focus and automatic apperture and speed. otherwise , partic if im below cloud on the deck the pics dont work out so well. Check out the hyperfocal lenght article on the link on my other reply. While there is a certain amount of grain when you are outside the prime focus and its just DOF focus , I can not describe the results as " fuzzy". hope this helps. David

Thanks guys, i will try on one jump setting the f stop fo f 8 and let the speed float. I am using 400 asa film, which the pros who use this brand ALL swear buy it for superior grain , apparatley its about $10 a pop. Ill set the stop to f8 and let the speed float. On the other jump ill try the opposite and see what happens, i.e. set the shutter speed to 1/500th. I used a hyperfocal lenght calculator at http://www.outsight.com/hyperfocal.html in order to get the hyperfocal lenght for this f stop and it suggests focusing at about 4.9 feet...which is about right for what im shooting....which is militaty jumpers in full kit , including weapons and packs strapped between their legs..... a nice break from tandems I can tell you! Incidentally on exit shots we are using a CASA 235N and the run in speed is 160 kts... like a sledgehammer when you pop of the back! When I am still close enough to get a jumper coming out all of the plane , the whole plane wont fit in the frame and when it does the jumper has cut through the hill too much due to the amount of weight he is carrying. I went a little early on and did get a good shot though which will be ( i am told published ) on the cover of a mag that circulates to about 15000...ill scan it as soon as I can get my hands on it..another snag has been that the military brass keep robbing pictures for their wall collections before iI get to see them! Anyhow, ill try those today and let you know how I get on tmrw. thanks.. David

Hi, I use 1 19mm lens on a canon eos. I am jumping as a contractor with the Irish Army shooting video , but am shooting a roll of film on 35 mm each jump also. I have had mixed results primarily as I am setting the apperture and speed based on light readings on the ground. To complicate things there a few ' prof ' photographers ( whuffos) who give me different advice each time. I am aiming for depth of field and focus the cam at about three foot ahead of me. What is the slowest shutter speed you reccomend. 1/250 or 1/500 ? Would you reccomend shutter speed priority and letting the cam pick its speed or what . Its a canon Eos rebel 2000. Thanks for all your advice to this point , it has help me come a looooonngg way ! David

Hi, I used to video Tandems with my camera angled up by fifteen degrees but have since moved to a system where the camera is line of sight. I do not use a camera suit. My problem is that with the camera angled up I used to be able to get in low on the tandem and look up so that the passengers body filled the frame. This is proving difficult now that I have changed angles ( die to a complete equipment overhaul ) . My Question : Does anybody have any advice / EXPERIENCE filming belly to Earth with line of sight equipment ...what suit, cothing do you wear ? Blue Skies examples of the type of thing i did with the old camera and am aiming for again ( essentially I think its learning a new body position ) are on this website http://homepage.eircom.net/~mercurytechnologies/

Has anybody experimented with black and white 35mm ? What film , suggestions , experience to share ? Blue Skies. David

www.jessops.com without a doubt! For anybody buying within the EU but outside the UK , if you can supply them a VAT registered number of your company within the country to which you are importing you dont have to pay UK VAT. The export guys are quite flexible on price also and may even ship for free if you are nice to them.

pretty much echo that , adobe is the dogs. There are also some excellent plug ins available for it such as EZ cleaner which allow you to make mpegs and realplayer videos for streaming over the web. etc. David

Hi, I have done a bit of research on this subject. Whilst some NTSC cameras have a PAL playback feature and visa versa this does not mean that they convert but rather will play back a DV tape shot in the ' other format ' ...i.e it has to be shot using a PAL DV Cam etc. To buy a converter is a bit of a risk , ok if you work on a DX with a lot of visiting jumpers you might turn a small profit. For anybody thats interested here is the link to an equipment site >http://www.threedoubleyou.com/converters.htm Otherwise as the suggestions go , pop it into a high street vendor . Blue Skies, David Cowman email dcowman@eircom.net tel +353 86 3822297 See my pics at http://homepage.eircom.net/~mercurytechnologies/

Thanks very much , I understand most of that , I think. That being said I am going to put a .42 odd on the PC100 , which will be beside a 15mm lens on the stills. Will let you know how I get on.. blue skies David http://homepage.eircom.net/~mercurytechnologies/ www.skydive.ie

Hi, Does anybody have experience of using Tokina lenses . in particular at wider angles. Im considering the Tokina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5 IF (CANON AF) . Do I need a hood for this ( im ignorant here , at 19mm i thought if I put a hood on the lens it would mean that I get the hood around the edge of the picture .) I am gleaning from the web that I may get ' flaring otherwise ' ) Does anybody use filters on a stills lenses ? Im told that you can get a parallell polarizing filter which means that you can reduce overexposure and colours become more sharp. ??

Thanks a million for the advice on both fronts. Ill have a look around for both. Any ideas , reccomendations as to where ? I guess with a .45 id be better with a 24mm lens on the canon. I heard something about multiypling the focal lenght of the main lens on the sony by the conversion factor of the lens and matching it with the focal lenght of the stills lens. ??

Hi, Has has anybody got suggestions based on experience on how I could mount a EOS rebel on top of a flat top . Also I see that you can get non branded batteries for this camera . has anunbody used them ? Are the any good. Does anybody have expeince of Raynox wide angle lenses for DVCam. I am willing to spend about $200 getting a decent .45 / 5 for a PC100 Thanks everybody for your help as i bring my self up to speed. Nearly there ... See my website at http://homepage.eircom.net/~mercurytechnologies/ blue skies. David

Hi, I leave a spilt second before the tandem with belly to wind. What communication you use for this is up to you. An earlier suggestion of placing your hand on the tandem pair was quite good. You may notice that if you fly on your back you drop below the tandem ( litterally I have found it right over me ,, and im low on it ) . If you stay on your belly , as you say you get blown back . So.... I put my hands together and make a fist ( that being said I dont use wings as im Very light ) and roll onto my side.. if the tandem is sinking on me I continue the roll to 90 .. ie my shoulder is facing the ground. The amount of roll from vertical will determine how much " head down like " the exit is. I roll such that I face to my left hand side so that I am facing the tandem. It becomes a matter of getting to know each tandem master and their exit style ,habits etc. For the tandem masters that I know I can usually put a hand on them any time during the exit and am there ready to dock the passenger after the deployment. Im not blowing my trumpet, this exit has come about from chasing too many tandems through the hill arched like a son of a b*** . with sometimes poor results. Think , you want your body to cut the hill , like head down just as the tandem cuts the hill. hope this has been of some help. BLue skies David photos at http://homepage.eircom.net/~mercurytechnologies/