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CrazyL

Camera flyers: What is your procedure right after main deployment?

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Ha, what's up Larry...

let's see....

Look up, check canopy, harness turn towards dz
Turn video camera to standby
Loosen Chest Strap
Take wingloops off hands
Unclip wing shackles
Take off booties (if they were on)
Slip Leg pads down a little to sit in harness
Collapse slider, stow behind head
Take tape off focus ring on still camera, turn counterclockwise to infinity, shoot a test shot
Release brakes, hold in deep brakes till others are out of the way...
...
Land.
http://www.exitshot.com

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Ha, what's up Larry...

let's see....

Look up, check canopy, harness turn towards dz
Turn video camera to standby
Loosen Chest Strap
Take wingloops off hands
Unclip wing shackles
Take off booties (if they were on)
Slip Leg pads down a little to sit in harness
Collapse slider, stow behind head
Take tape off focus ring on still camera, turn counterclockwise to infinity, shoot a test shot
Release brakes, hold in deep brakes till others are out of the way...
...
Land.

Thanks Lew, your busy and well organized. would'nt you want your harness to be snug till after you release brakes and control check? in case you get a hung steering problem and you had to correct for a turn and decided to cutaway your little hot rod and did'nt want to build up g's or dive the canopy so would you cutaway holding onto toggle with light grip and cutaway or let go of toggle then cutaway while in heavy spiral, high g load, dropping out of the sky. if the chest strap is loose at that time and wings and booties a flop'n and your in freefall looking for this little terd shaped tie dyed fancy little pillow handle amongst the floppy wings oh ya and loose harness that just likes to be shifty in freefall and you gotta find the terd and pull it within 8-10 seconds could you do it without fail without an aad or rsl?

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The first thing I do turn off my cameras. I think it's first because I do it just as my slider is coming down, and my hands are already on my risers, right next to my cameras.

Next I work with my slider, and the loops around my hands. I have two suits, one where I can reach my slider with the loops on, and one where the loops are too short. Depending on what suit I have on, it goes - loops then slider, or slider then loops.

From there I move down to loosen my chest strap, and then on down to unhook my camera wings.

The last thing I do pop the brakes. This is because once they're off, it's time to fly, and not time to screw with other stuff.

I'm not concerned about a stuck brake because as I pull my slider over the toggles, I take a look at the toggles, and excess steering line. Additionally, I take another look at that area before I actually unstow them.

With the exception of inspecting the brakes on those two occasions, all of the above I do by feel, with my eyes scanning the area for traffic, and using my harness to keep myself headed the right direction and out of trouble.

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well :

canopy check
harness turn if needed
thumbs up for the camera
turn off the camera
release wings
stow slider
loosen chest strap
release brakes
fly ...
land ...
--------------------------------------------------
I never used 2 rocks to start a fire ... this is called evolution !

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For Tandems?

Quick canopy check.
Thumbs up to camera while congratulating tandem student.
Look up at canopy (white canopy for cross-fade to tandem passenger still) while I,...
Stow Slider, disconnect wings, release swoop cords (that order).
Release brakes, do up to a 360 until I am turned to the DZ. Look down from canopy to DZ just as it comes into view.
Turn Camera off.

Go find my buddy Keith at around 2k and fly around each other tight while videoing until we scare ourselves or one of us gets burbled bad.

At 500 feet, look at canopy while turning on camera (to avoid jump cut).
Video my landing.

Take off helmet, unstow slider, stow brakes, change to auto focus, (sometimes change AE comp too), and (if time), change film in the camera.

For big-ways?
Find everyone who may be around me. Thumbs up to camera, turn camera off, stow slider, release wings and swoop cords, release brakes. Go see if I can tag someone under canopy for stills.

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good question...

first i look around and i mean REALLY look...
i already have a general idea of where i am because i look at the ground just prior to deployment...
once open i do that visual scan, then i look at each of my 3 ring locking loops to be sure that they are solid, intact, and that the locking cable(s) are where they should be...
I lose the swoop cords which i wear across my palms , unclip my wing snaps at my legs,
look around for any camera worthy visuals, collapse my slider, pop my brakes, head for home...the video camera gets put into standby mode,, and may or may not be re set to record before landing, depending on whether i am doing a working jump or a fun jump..
it's sometimes nice to be in record mode if my flight path for 'final' coincides with the location of the sun, and therefore will allow for a good 'shadow shot' of my landing...;):)at touchdown,, i once again really look around, and consider that others are landing all around me, and take care to safely exit the landing area...

jmy
a 3914
d 12122

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Although I usually do the same things, I don't always do them in the same order every time for tandem videos this is my usual routine... for formation videos I sometimes won't turn off the cameras...

- Turn towards dz with harness or riser input,
- pull down my slider stow it behind my head,
- stop video camera from recording (lately I have been turning it off as well),
- loosten chest strap,
- remove booties,
- fire off a couple test shots on still (turn off still camera),
- unclip wings, unstow brakes (fly back to landing area)
Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

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- Riser/harness turn toward DZ
- Turn off Video
- Test fire Still and then shut it off
- Loosen Chest Strap
- Unclip wings
- Stow slider
- Move ringsight out of the way.
- Unstow brakes and fly/land.
God made firefighters so paramedics would have heroes...and someone can put out the trailer fires.

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Interesting post, Larry.

My sequence after deployment and good canopy check is:

--Check for traffic and locate DZ.
--Harness or riser turn to face DZ if traffic allows.
--Clap for student (if filming a tandem or AFF)
--Turn off camera (hands are already up on my risers for deployment anyway).
--Collapse slider
--Remove loops
--Release toggles

For the first time I'm really glad to not have releasable wings. I'm light enough not to need them. My wings end at my waist and have no clips. I can reach my slider, toggles, and camera just fine. I remove my loops to fly the canopy, however.

I also don't loosen my chest straps, adjust my leg straps, nor remove my booties. My boat of a canopy flies just fine the way it is, without harness loosening. It's a Spectre-135 loaded about 1.4 on light days and 1.5 when I video and wear weights with fast teams (and heavy students).

If I ever discover a hung toggle my rig is still in place, and nothing is flapping around to obscure my visual of my handles.

One question for those of you who wear 2-piece camera suits. I believe there are attachment points between jacket and pants, so your jacket doesn't ride up over your handles. Correct? Do you always use them? And if you chose to wear shorts instead, how do you secure your jacket? :^(

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

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Gotta put "stash swoop cords" in there somewhere. I had my left one snag on the swedged end of the reserve cable and sinch(?) down on it.....twice. Very freaky since my left hand was now locked to the reserve cable. Now it's routine to shove them up my sleeve.
my pics & stuff!

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Gotta put "stash swoop cords" in there somewhere. I had my left one snag on the swedged end of the reserve cable and sinch(?) down on it.....twice. Very freaky since my left hand was now locked to the reserve cable. Now it's routine to shove them up my sleeve.



:o Eeek, now -that- is scary. Yes, stash your swoop cords. I guess another thank you to the person who taught me to stitch my cord loop open to my hand size is in order. Although it could still catch something at least it wouldn't cinch down on anything.

Stash cord loops up sleeve....Check.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

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One question for those of you who wear 2-piece camera suits. I believe there are attachment points between jacket and pants, so your jacket doesn't ride up over your handles. Correct? Do you always use them? And if you chose to wear shorts instead, how do you secure your jacket? :^(



I wear a Tony Suits 2-piece, and yes, I have snaps and I always secure the pants to the jacket. But I have both ff pants, and swoop pants that I wear anytime the weather is warm or I'm jumping with heavyweights (both made by Tony, so it's really a 3-piece suit...), so I can always attach either. BTW, I believe most of these snaps are located on the side. Never made sense to me, as the harness is covering the top on the sides, and it is the front that will get blown up over your handles. I specifically requested mine be moved more forward on my set-up. The snaps are about 6-7 inches apart in front.

Interesting comment about stashing the swoop cords. Once when I undid mine, they got tied in a knot together (effectively hand-cuffing me). Took me a little while to get them undone, and I'm glad nothing else important was happening at the time. Since then I am careful to take them off one at a time, but once they're off they disappear into my sleeves. I can actually fly my canopy with swoop cords and wings still attached, but it is more comfortable to undo them.

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you guys are great! My procedure is/has been very similar to each of yours at times. what is cosistent is we release brakes lastly , fly and land. I learned something here, thanks. swoop cords, i've jumped them too mine have all been 'fixed loop' in position for me, and have a habit of tucking them in the cuffs. The kind that can 'cinch' can cinch onto the reserve ripcord swedge area, wow. oops. swoop cords can tie hands together essentially 'hand cuffing me' ,woe. and keeping the chest strap tight and with no need to release wings for the entire jump would keep my handles in better position and my wings from covering my handles so in case I cutaway due to a steering problem my handles may be in a decent place to see and/or get to fairly easily which would increase my chances of pulling the reserve in time. Sweet.

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- After deployment
- Turn back towards DZ with riser or harness
- turn off video camera
- unclip wings at my hips (i leave my swoop cords on my hands)
- pull my slider down
- loosen my chest strap
- pop the brakes
- set up for landing

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

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mine begins before deployment
-6000ft beep goes off: check where we are, remember DZ heading
-after track (tandem) or break-off (RW), throw PC while facing DZ heading
-when I am sat upright by the canopy being out of the bag and the snivel is starting normally, I look up and also grip my risers just below the links(front and rear together in each hand with my thumbs pointing down)
- I hold my risers about shoulder width apart, keeping my feet and knees together and keeping track of my heading while watching my slider make its way down the lines. During this I may correct for heading deviation if it seems appropriate.
-When my slider reaches my links, I complete the turn towads the DZ if needed, I let go of my risers and grip my slider ASAP to stop the grommets banging my lines at the links and pull the slider down over the toggles.
-turn off video
-collapse slider and roll slider
-loosen chest strap
-release brakes

I am tall and light enough to not wear any wings, so swoop cords, wingclips etc, are things I do not have to worry about.

As for a toggle hang-up or a brakeline tension knot after brake release, I have had one which I managed to clear and two which I landed, so I do not consider loosening my chest strap before brake release as potentially dangerous.

One brake hang-up I landed was on a Nitro 120 @ 1.6 which I stood up as there was a nice amount of wind and the other was on a Xaos27-86 @ 2.2, which I slid in, as I did not have the height to make the DZ and turn into the wind, so I opted for the smooth grass and a downwinder.

For me personally as a camera flyer if I don't feel I can safely land a hung-up toggle, I should reconsider my canopy choice.

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One question for those of you who wear 2-piece camera suits. I believe there are attachment points between jacket and pants, so your jacket doesn't ride up over your handles. Correct? Do you always use them? And if you chose to wear shorts instead, how do you secure your jacket? :^(

ltdiver



I'm flying a 2 pieces since the beginning of the season.
the jacket is done quite long with spandex (from waist to mid butt) and goes under my pants. No risk for it to get out from there.

Wings are connected with a kind of RSL device to my rig hip rings. really fast and easy to disconnect !

cheers.
--------------------------------------------------
I never used 2 rocks to start a fire ... this is called evolution !

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Same here, i wear a local South African brand camera jacket, the area that goes around my waist is heavily elasticated and stays put. Wings attach to hip rings with clips, or i tie a piece of cord above the leg strap buckles and attach them there.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

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I have a firefly 2 piece that is long enough i tuck it down deep inside my pants and cinch up the belt. I had a spinning malfunction about 3 yrs ago.I could not cutaway because the lift webs had drawn up tight together do to line twists,and ripped the zipper on the jacket apart and pulled it out of my pants. Jacket was wrapped around the handles on both cutaway and reserve handles . Your worst nightmare come true!
By the time i could fish my hands under the jacket and had both handles in hand i was at about 11 or 1200 feet ,by the grace of god the line twists undid there self just as i peeled the cutaway handle. had a 135 vengence main. My next jump the next morning with my other rig 135 sabre 2 had a toggle unstowed.I had to chop that one.


A friend will bail you out of jail , a REAL friend will be sitting next to you in the cell slapping your hand saying "DUDE THAT WAS AWSUM " ................

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Film tandem deployment
Make sure they have a good canopy
Roll back belly to earth
Deploy
Canopy check
Traffic check
Locate dz and riser turn towards dz
Test fire still camera
Video on standby
Stow slider
Release brakes
Smile because I had fun
Fly
Video back on
Have fun under canopy
Film the nice view for the student's video
Land

I leave my swoop cords on as they are under my gloves, which I wear summer and winter. I also leave the wings attached as I don't want anything flapping around, and I can reach everything with them still attached. I also leave the still on because you never know what you just might see. I leave the booties on because they have never caused an issue, so why mess with them?

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Film tandem deployment
Make sure they have a good canopy
Roll back belly to earth
Deploy
Canopy check
Traffic check
Locate dz and riser turn towards dz
Test fire still camera
Video on standby
Stow slider
Release brakes
Smile because I had fun
Fly
Video back on
Have fun under canopy
Film the nice view for the student's video
Land

I leave my swoop cords on as they are under my gloves, which I wear summer and winter. I also leave the wings attached as I don't want anything flapping around, and I can reach everything with them still attached. I also leave the still on because you never know what you just might see. I leave the booties on because they have never caused an issue, so why mess with them?

Good performance imo. So you do not loosen chest strap, do not release wings, nor swoopcords, nor booties. To me that gives you more focus on the more important stuff. Canopy and traffic checks, fly to dz and land without causing serious injury or death to you or anyone else, and for a bonus, you have fun with your cameras while having fun flying your parachute and enjoy enhancing the tandem student and possibly the TI's skydiving experience. All the while being on ready alert for canopy collision among other things. Your harness is still snug under canopy, not loose, which in turn puts your cutaway and reserve handles in a easier position to see and get to just in case you decide at or above your decision altitude that you want to use them while under canopy for whatever reason. Glad to hear you have a good time while shooting, me too. Do you have an RSL or AAD ?

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I have a question for you more experienced camera flyers....

I have just started doing video (did my beer tandem video this past weekend, after lots of practice jumps!:)
My procedure:

Turn cameras off (turn video back on at 1000ft or so)
Stow Slider
Unhook camera wings ( I can reach all inputs without unhooking the wings)
Pop Breaks
And last, always, loosen my chest strap

So the question is...why wouldn't the chest strap be the last thing for most of you? I find that I can pop my breaks and then loosen the chest strap with ease. It seems logical to me that adjusting the harness should only be done when you are 100% comfortable with the canopy.

Losers make excuses, Winners make it happen
God is Good
Beer is Great
Swoopers are crazy.

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I do my chest strap before my brakes because it is mildly annoying to keep my brakes symmetrical while I am reaching for the friction adapter on my chest strap.

I am giving this some reconsideration after the incident in Elsinore.

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