murrays

The aircraft that was the biggest blast to jump out of in my skydiving career: The C-130 Hercules! It's worth a trip to Sweden for the Hercules Boogie. Murray - Herc Boogie 1985

I think that Snyder and Hilliard did the first baton pass in Abbotsford, BC. in 1958. The 300-way.com website shows "First Baton Pass 1958 Vancouver, BC". Can't remember my source but I think it is in the CSPA Parachutist Information Manual somewhere...or at least used to be. Perhaps Hutch or Skypuppy has a copy handy. http://www.300-way.com/history/wrhistory.html -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Very interesting to read all the positive comments about L&B. I bought my first Dytter in 1981 and they have replaced several units when its predecessor quit working. Excellent service. This thread has me feeling guilty about all the free units they've given me over the years...might have to buy a new unit come springtime. Buying from L & B will likely be a purchase you'll never regret.

This is very interesting... I just bought Skies Call and Skies Call 2 from a used bookseller through Amazon.com. Do a search for Skies Call and you will find several hits of varying levels of condition. I think that Amazon has new copies of one of them as well. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Hi Johnny, I use Macs for everything...accounting, Excel, Word, video, photography, internet surfing, mail, etc, etc. They really aren't very different to use. I use both pcs and Macs daily but like my Macs better. I bought my first Mac three years ago specifically to edit video of my kids. The iMac DV Special Edition had just been released and it looked like it was ready to go out of the box...Firewire and iMovie. I just wanted an easy solution and this looked like the best option. So, I ordered one by mail order...there were no Mac dealers where I was living at the time. It arrived, I unpacked it, set it up, plugged my Digital8 camcorder into the firewire port. iMovie told me that the camcorder was connected, I used the onscreen controls to rewind the tape and then clicked on the import button. It really was that easy! For the first while, I found some of the differences between Windows and the Mac a bit frustrating but as time went on I got used to the differences and slowly really came to like my Mac. It takes a while but it's not that different than upgrading from one version of Windows to another. If you are inclined to check them out, go to a Mac dealer, not a big box store, as they will be able to show you how the included software works...the staff in the other stores likely won't be able to tell you much about them. Feel free to e-mail me or PM me if you have more questions. Blue skies, Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I think that I have heard somewhere that you can export the MicroMV camera output to Sony computers, but only Sony computers. I called the local Sony Store and was advised these cameras export using Mpeg2 rather than DV format. I think this makes it pretty difficult to edit in any of the common software programs, pc or Mac. Mpeg2 is what is used on DVDs, I believe, so if you can get the MP2 output onto your hard drive I am sure that it would be possible to use the DVD ripping tools out there to get it converted to a usable format. Sounds like too much work to me ! Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

If you want more storage for an iMac/eMac, the easiest way is to buy an external Firewire drive. My Mac dealer has offered to replace my 60gb drive with a 120gb drive...but I know I'd just fill it up and have to look at an external drive anyway. When I bought my iMac I thought that 60gb would be tons of space...HA! It was filled within a couple of weeks. It requires that I finish an editing project, burn it to DVD and then get the files off my hard drive. I've also seen external Firewire enclosures that allow you to mount as many IDE drives as you want in brackets that can be swapped out of the enclosure. If you want to store lots of video, something like that might work quite nicely. I have been burning videos...mostly family stuff... to DVD after editing it. The latest versionof iDVD (Apple's free DVD authoring program) also allows you to place data files on the DVD. So, I have been keeping the video fairly short and using the excess space for jpegs and my favourite video in DV file format so that I can re-edit it if need be or it can be exported to another format at some point in the future. (Like when the current DVD format becomes obsolete) I also make straight DVD backups of video/still files and keep them in a safe place away from home. Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Burning to DVD - Once again, Macs equipped with a "Superdrive" allow burning to DVD and come with the necessary software for creating your DVD Menus, etc. Easy to use. The Superdrive equipped eMac or the 17" flat panel iMac will do everything you want out of the box. Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

One way: If you can borrow a Digital 8 camcorder you should be able to plug in your HI-8 tape and export directly to a Firewire port on a computer. The D8 camcorder will digitize your footage. Macs are the easiest as they all come with firewire andiMovie editing software. PCs - You need a firewire port and some editing software of which there are many flavours. Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Digital 8 Camcorders use Hi-8 tapes but record digitally. They are useful if you have a lot of old 8mm tapes that you still want to play and perhaps digitize. Mini-DV camcorders record digitally but with a much smaller tape. My advice is to get a mini-DV camcorder. Smaller form factor. If you buy a Sony, I'd say you want one with Super Steady Shot, which provides optical image stabilization. In any event, don't get one with Digital image stabilization. Firewire or iLink (Sony's term) is a must as well. I now have one of each. I'll keep the old Digital 8 to digitize old tapes...I just pop them in and transfer them to my Mac via firewire where I edit and burn to DVD. have fun looking, Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Thanks to everybody for the links and reminders of other Boenish films. I may get those PAL tapes from Germany. If I could get the PAL converted to DV-NTSC I'd burn them onto a DVD or two. I spent hours and hours and hours watching his videos at a friend's place back in the mid-80's. it was pretty mind-blowing stuff. The original El Cap footage blew me away...with the backwards facing camera on one jumper...just spectacular! Skypuppy - Do you know if Jean Boenish might have any of these videos and/or where she can be contacted? I wonder what happened to his original film. It would be a tragedy if it has gotten lost or damaged. Blue skies, Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Can anybody tell me where, if anywhere, I could get hold of Carl Boenish's films....such as "Skydive", "Wings", "Playground in the Sky" and anything else that Carl produced? Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Our little skydiving club has been in operation since 1976. Prairie Skymasters Parachute Club Inc. of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

This is a situation where there is no easy answer. Taking pictures of people zooming past at high speeds is difficult even with the most up-to-date cameras. I have a few thoughts, most of which involve using manual settings. If you are taking shots of people who will be swooping past a certain point..i.e. - through a course, I would figure out by, perhaps by watching a few landings, where to be to get the vantage point that you want. Have a friend stand in the middle of the course and focus on him/her. At the same time, you could walk up to them and take a meter reading of their face/body or get an 18% grey card and meter off of it and use that reading to determine your combination of shutter and aperture settings. What you do next depends on several variables, such as focal length of lens, whether the movement is going to be straight towards you or you will be a bit further back and shooting from the side. If you use a smaller aperture (larger number) you will have more depth of field and shots taken closer to and further from your focus point will have reasonable sharpness. If you have a longer lens, you will always have less depth of field at a given aperture than with a wider angle lens. You will need a higher shutter speed to stop the movement of an object moving across the field of view than something moving straight towards you. You can also use panning to great effect to blur the background, as previously mentioned by another poster. Blurred backgrounds will give the impression of speed. You will have to plan out your shots using manual settings but if you know where people are going to land you should be able to get good results. Hope this helps in some situations, Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Scotty Carbone! On one of my first trips to Zephyr Hills, a bunch of us were hanging out after dark and this guy came up and started telling us stories that had us nearly rolling on the ground laughing....jumping into a nudist colony, his time in jail for the infamous wet t-shirt contest, low-pulling...etc,etc. Still hear stories about Scotty, it's good to know he's still out there. Blue skies, Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Tommy, Thanks for that link. I have a PC-1 that I bought used and this will be very helpful. Thanks! Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I use an iMac to edit video. If you are using anything digital with a Firewire/DV Out jack it will import directly. iMovie2 is easy to use with plugins available and Quicktime Pro ($29.95 US) enables a lot of other capabilities. I bought my first iMac three years ago expressly to edit digital video of my kids. It worked flawlessly from the outset and never gave me a minute's grief. I just bought a new flatpanel iMac with a Superdrive in it and think it is great value for the money. Take a look at a Mac...they all have Firewire ports and iMovie2 and are ready to edit video out of the box. If you want highend editing capabilities, the Final Cut Pro software is very well regarded....but expensive. I use Macs and PCs daily at work and home and find the macs to be less trouble and more fun. Good luck, Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey