Tandem Student shooting hand-cam ???

[stayhigh 2]

I've changed my point of view after real experiences with student shooting the go pro.

Ti should wear it.

You don't wanna deal with student's arm swinging around wildy on exit, trust me on that one.

And they don't really shoot usable footage. If you don't aim for them during free fall, 30 to 50 percent would shoot some random thing for the entire free fall.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[DougH 270]

After having done both I would rather jump the camera, but why should their arms be swinging around wildly on exit? Why should any students arms be swinging wildly around on exit? Just think about the skydive, use some planning, and actually train them!!!

Have them reach across their chest with the un-gloved hand and grab the harness. Have them reach across with the gloved hand, turn their wrist, and put their thumb in the crook of their elbow, with their thumbs wrapped around their forearm and elbow.

If you practice this their hands are contained, and they are aiming the camera perfectly to get their facial reaction of the exit.

I think more of my students without cameras let go of their harness on exit despite being thoroughly trained, than the students that jumped a camera. The camera students had extra incentive, they wanted to get the shot, so they tried harder to remember the training.

And yes I aimed for most of them, but for 95% of them it was easy because I got them on a creeper after they were all geared up including the glove, and I actually showed them an arch and where the hand should be to film. For these people it only took minimal effort to push their arm one way or the other.

The other 5% were yoked up block head guys, or terrified women, or some combination of the two, that locked up like a piece of steel and would need an acetylene torch to move even a fraction of an inch!

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[diablopilot 2]

Seems many people in this thread have missed the point that high quality video, no matter if it's outside or handicam is one of the single best advertising points for a DZ and not only is it FREE advertising, but you get PAID for it.

Let the professionals do the camera work, and treat the student like what they are. A student. Who might just come back and learn how to skydive. Heck if you set their habits right from day one, then you won't have to retrain their asses when they become a tandem instructor.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[1001001sos 0]

nigel99

Putting a camera on a tandem passenger, gives them the motivation to capture a shot of the plane they are about to go in, increasing the potential for a prop strike to occur.

What are you doing? Loading them through the pilot's door on an Otter?

If a tandem student is close enough to stick their hand in the prop there's a problem bigger than a camera strapped to their hand.

[DougH 270]

diablopilot

Seems many people in this thread have missed the point that high quality video, no matter if it's outside or handicam is one of the single best advertising points for a DZ and not only is it FREE advertising, but you get PAID for it.

Let the professionals do the camera work, and treat the student like what they are. A student. Who might just come back and learn how to skydive. Heck if you set their habits right from day one, then you won't have to retrain their asses when they become a tandem instructor.

No I get that.

206 and up I would grumble and bitch if my only video work was handy cam.

182, I would rather fly handy-cam, than stick it on my students. I like shooting video, even if it has to been inside and on my hand. I like the extra $$$. I like having my ugly mug on still pictures and videos.

I think there are equal proportions of individuals that think the turbine business model fits all drop zones. You have a turbine, I am a bit jealous, but I also like my 182 vibe. Outside video doesn't work well with a 182 business model.

I am only giving my actual experience having worked at a DZ for two seasons where the passengers were given the handy-cams. I don't support it over the professional rated instructor flying the camera, but some of the negative noise is just unfounded.

I wouldn't chose to do that again if given the choice, but my experience was that it was manageable.

The students performed just as well compared to the 182 students where I now using handy-cam (all things being otherwise equal, I actually train my students!! shocker!!). They didn't do stupid things because of the camera, they didn't ignore my training, and drop the harness of exit to play Norm Kent.

The video product was pretty decent most of the time. Often the video product was profound, because the students chose what they wanted to share, what they wanted to record for their video. Thank god I wasn't the video editor!

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[steveorino 7]

I tend to get very good pics from students. If they need help I hold their arm. Not much different than shooting the handcam myself. Plus I like flying with my hand up in clean air like YOU suggested I do back in 2006 when I was a newb.


Quality was greatly reduced to get them to upload ...

steveOrino

[Pablo.Moreno 0]

Quote

Riggerrob's tip for handles checks was to roll the hand when doing them so it looks like you are getting a shot of the trailing drogue. In all of the hand-cams I've done you will see a complete handles check because I'd get fired if I didn't! The loss of shot to do a handles check is pretty small compared to the amount of overall footage.

I might not have near as many tandems as rigerrob, but I have close to 100 tandems with handcam and I always do my handles check.
I do a total of 4 handles check,
One before putting the rig on
Second when I adjust and tighten the side straps and top connectors
Third right before the door opens.
Fourth after I throw the drouge (I got into the habit of checking the drouge) touch my cuttaway handle and the right main release handle and I do a visual check on the reserve handle.
I have had two cutaways under tandem and on either of them I never had a problem with the camera.
On one I had a line over and the camera record everything and on the other one I had turn the camera off already and the right toggle was locked, after I cuttaway the camera never turn back on and I gave the video to the student for free.
I wouldn't give the camera to the student, first I don't think is safe, second I want them to be as relax as possible and not having to worry about a camera ( hence, 200 jumps for a person before they even wear a camera), and third, even thou sometimes you might get the odd good picture the overall quality of the video is going to be poor in comparison to the different angles I can do in a skydive when I am recording.