Preparing to camera fly

[davelepka 4]

Quote

MAYBE there are exceptions... there usually are to any situation. The problem is that once you've made one exception, everyone thinks that they're one.

No, the problem is that you don't know who is an exception, and who is not, until after you have strapped a camera to their head to 'see what happens', and that's the furthest thing from making a prudent and informed decision about who should be allowed to jump a camera.

The simple facts are thus - we do know of several ways, proven by real world examples, that a camera can be a distraction to a jumper in the plane, in freefall, under canopy, and can also present a distraction to other jumpers in the air with the camera flyer. We also know that there is no penalty to limiting newer jumpers from jumping a camera until they have built up a body or experience thus that the odds are in their favor that they are able to deal with the known distractions.

Given the above, the only prudent, informed decision is to have a limitation in place. The only harm it could do is to the egos of those jumpers who do not yet meet the qualifications, and quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

I see it like this, I have 'invested' 17 years, and countless hours, dollars, blood, sweat and tears in skydiving, and as such, my 'share' of the sport is worth more than a kid with 90 jumps who thinks they know their ass from a hole in the ground (they don't). So when issues like this come down to what would make me happy, that being a given number of jumps required before jumping a camera, and what would make the 'new guy' happy, that being just doing whatever they want, my 'vote' holds far more water than the new guy.

If someone wants to buy my shares from me for $50k, then we can talk about new guys doing what they think is right. Until such time, I'll stick with my 'shares' giving me the voting power to have the upper hand, and get what makes me happy (which, in the end, is simply that we make safe, prudent and informed decisions about how we 'shape' the sport).

[billvon 2,404]

>What do you find about jumping with a camera that is so complicated?

It takes away attention from an activity than can spare almost none. Walk around with a video camera and you're just going to trip or walk into people; the results of that level of loss of attention in skydiving is a lot worse.