gmac324

The HC7 has a new opticial image stabiliser, might not work in freefall?! I guess someone will just have to buy one to find out. The HC5 has a very similar spec to the HC3, the HC7 is a higher spec camera altogether. I wish I could afford either right now!

The build quality is bound to be good, I am very impressed with my azimuth camera helmet. It's really up to you to decide if you can cope with looking like an android?

I found this on cisma's web site, looks very much like a picture of a neos to me http://www.cimsa.com/engineering_eras.aspx

The best risers you can buy are the ones that you like best Seems kinda silly but in terms of function all risers are almost identical, it's just a bit of webbing to connect your lines to your harness. The things that make them different are: The length, 20"-24" is the kinda normal range. The Toggles, easy grip, line stowing etc. The front riser appendages, blocks, loops easy grip loops etc. I decided a couple of months ago that there was nothing on the market that actually did exactly what I wanted so I ordered some custom risers from point zero in the UK. 24" with no fancy toggles and a clean set of dive blocks on the front risers. And to top it off they were only £90 including shipping, took abut 3 weeks. Sunpath is ~£120 all in and takes almost 2 months to deliver custom risers. Most manufacturers are similar. I would definitely have a look at custom risers, give point zero a call and see what they'll do for you. Graeme

Maybe you line stows are just a little small. 1 inch seems awfull short. I could see how that might shift about a little when you close the container.

I have a TJN witha PD126 reserve and a crossfire 109 in it. I have paked a sabre2 135 in there too with no problems. A pd143 reserve must be pretty tight in that? Graeme

It totally depends on how much cash you've got to spend. Most of the cameras you listed are discontinued new. You can pick up a new PC 1000 for under £600 from ebuyer.com An hc 19 is also a good choice only £228 from dixons or amazon. I'd personally go new if you can, saves any hassle with unreliable cameras out of warranty. Graeme

decisions, decisions, decisions.... I've basically looked at firefly, flitesuit and tony. I have no idea which one to choose! Gary, what are the cuffs on the legs and arms like on the tony 2 piece you have? Graeme

I'm in the market for a new camera suit, currently got a merlin freefly camera suit# and do a lot of front and sit flying in it. I'm really not sure what to get, but it won't be a merlin because the suit's beginning to fall apart after only 200 jumps. I'm kinda thinking of a tony suit with freefly bloused arms and legs, any other ideas? How do the wings attach at the bottom on a tony suit with c wings? I'd quite like something with rsl shackles and no velcro! Graeme

No it's not on the list :-) The actual recommended wingloading is up to 2.1. I find it actually flies very well at 2 and could be loaded much heavier. I have a sabre2 120 as well and have loaded that up to 1.94 with excellent results, still plenty of stopping power left. I guess it really depends on the design. Graeme

I actually just got new brake lines on my crossfire, a very good alternative to vectran is 550lb Dacron. It works very well for the lower brake lines and it wears much better than vectran. The breaking strain of the original brake lines is 1000lbs I think, but since the lower control lines aren't loaded on opening it doesn't really matter that it's less. Cost me £10 for a new set. Graeme

I did my first couple of jumps on an original crossfire 109 @ 2.0 at the weekend and noticed than when I was flying on rears from deep spot the tail of the canopy seemed to flutter a little. It didn't really concern me, the canopy felt pretty solid except that. Is this completely normal for a crossfire? The rears seem very light compared to my sabre2 and stiletto. The crossfire is 5 years old but only has 150 jumps on it because the owner stopped jumping 4 years ago. Was never on the service bulletin list. Any input is appreciated, Cheers, Graeme :-) (edited to add it was an original crossfire)

I got a 0.3x just last week, seems very well made and they are very good with prompt shipping and easy to contact. He even threw in a couple of pairs of free goggles. Graeme

I currently jump a sabre2 120 loaded at 1.93 ish. I think it flies very well at that wing loading, I previously had a 135 loaded from about 1.6 to 1.7. It has a nice long dive for swooping, but equally will completely shut down on a nil wind day with a straight in approach. It did take a bit of getting used to the flare though! I have jumped a spectre 120 at 1.9 as well, I would have to say it took a bit of effort to get a nice soft landing out of that, and I'm not sure I have the skill to land it safely on a nil wind day.

Going to be going out to skydive arizona next week (15th November) for about 2 weeks. Was looking at possibly staying in the bunkhouse. Anyone stayed there recently, what's it like? Cheers, Graeme

http://www.fabrica.it/flipbook/flipbook_player.php?id=1121344465-192252211 I'm bored too

I've done about 150 jumps on my sabre2 120 now loaded at 1.75ish. I think that it's a great all round canopy and can go very quick if I want it to. Previous to that I had a sabre2 135 for about 200 jumps. I have done about 30 jumps on a stilleto 135 and found its recovery arc to be shorter than the same size sabre2 but was of course much more sensitive to control inputs. I did a few jumps on a katana 120 at the herc boogie this summer and found it to be more like a sabre2 in terms of dive an recovery arc than a stilleto, but equally sensitive to harness inputs as the stilleto. My next choice of canopy from your current sabre2 150 would either be a stilleto 135 or a sabre2 135. Personally I'd go for the sabre2 because it has a slightly longer recovery arc like most modern canopies. I will buy a katana 120 as my next canopy, but would definitely not recommend such a huge jump in performance and downsizing at the same time. Graeme

[email protected] obviously delete the NOSPAM

I've jumped both a sabre120 and a spectre 120 with dacron lines that a a rigger at my dz owns. They both opened excellently and will continue to do so for many many jumps due to the dimensional stability of dacron line. The lineset should last much longer than a microline set, wears about the same but won't go out of trim. It does add almost 1 size to pack volume, so if your container's ok for a spectre 150 you should be just fine on that front. PD are very wary of selling you a dacron lineset, they seem to think it's a bit odd Good luck with whatever choice you make, a relined canopy will fly like new whether it has dacron or microline. Graeme PS Forgot to mention that all of his canopies use standard slinks, the fir just fine on mini risers

I've got the same setup on my pc8. You need a stereo 3.5mm jack actually, it's just slightly bigger than a cameye :-) You can buy the 3 way plug from maplin electronics, but the stereo plug works fine. The only problem is that when you get it wired up, you can't use the existing sony download lead. You just use a stero phone lead with the red plug as video and the white as mono audio. PM me if eyu need more help. Graeme

The keyframes thing is the most annoying, there are now no rubberbands for opacity either. It is actually more user friendly when you get used to it, took me about few hours. The main advantage of pro is that is actually lets you preview all effects and transitions without rendering, which saves a huge amount of time. Graeme

4007 on my second go

Standard PD stainless steel grommets. Heavier than brass. I'll leave it for 10-20 moe jumps, see if it changes as the canopy wears in a bit

I have recently purchased a new sabre 2 120 (Loading 1.7) , done 10 jumps on it so far. My canopy before that was a sabre2 135 (Loading 1.55) , also new, did about 250 jumps on that. The 120 takes forever to open, I'm not too concerned about altitude loss, it just takes an incredibly long time to fully inflate. It opens beautifully on heading and doesn't snivel too long, then it takes forever ( 30 seconds ) for the slider to come all the way down to the risers. It kinda sits about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up for a while. Even then, it almost always has closed end cells which I can pump out with a gentle tug on the back risers. I am also having trouble reaching the slider, it sits a few inches above the top of my risers, and I have to shake it down to grab it, collapse it and stow it behind my head. Anyone else have this problem? I've tried to speed up the opening by spreading out the nose and not really rolling the tail. The slider just hangs in the middle, not really pulled in any direction. Thanks, Graeme

I've bought my last 2 mains through them and have had excellent customer sevice, just call them after 5pm UK time and they'll be open. Graeme