alain

nowhere in france swoop comps are pretty much banned and not covered by the federal insurance. our federation believes for some reasons that swoop competition are too dangerous...

ok, thanks !

errr yeah, i got that i was just wondering if you were using the buttons at the end of the RC1000 cable or some sort of skydiving friendly switch (blow, bite, tongue, whatsoever...) thanks for input, i appreciate

about 4 feet, from a table to my bed gime a few weeks and i should improve slightly

good info, thanks ! and what kind of remote switch are you using ?

'just recieved mine yesterday I did not fly it yet, but i give you my thought about the design and manufacturing... the custom size is just perfect: my arms and legs end end up just at the end of the wings. it's realy well done, the fabric used is similar to paragliding stuff for the wings (quite stiff and thick), strong cordura where needed (booties...), and neoprene for flexibility arround knees, chest, and upper back. Neeling is top quality as well. the inflation on the arm wings is made all allong the leading edge (lower side of the your arm) through the cutaway system and for the legs through a small apperture some how similar to what you find on BM desings, I guess there's only one way to do it the zipers feel strong and very sleek. there are two zippers meant to insert the rig inside the suit: it took me five minutes to do it the first time, i reckon you can do it faster. the wings 'one handle' cutaway is a good design, you can use it with either left or right hand and it will cutaway both wings at the same time. Unlike BM disign, you don't have to remove the cables at any time unless for actualy cutting away. another good thing is that this cut away design will actualy free your arms as muh as the usual zipper. there's not LQRS equivalent available but the designs allows quite a lot of freedom for legs if you need to kick out some twist before unzipping. there's only one front zipper wich makes getting in a little bit more tricky than on BM designs. that's nothing to get worried about: the first attempt took me less than five minutes to get ready for boarding without external help. but eerrrr, there was no aircraft to board in... bummer what else... You get a 20 euro discount on a BMi jump at one of those scools: Gap, Empuria, or last but not least: Loic's scool at la Reuinion (indian ocean). there's a very good pdf manual (on cd) that inculdes some nice flying tips and pictures. right, i'll be in morroco within a couple of weeks: flocking time is getting close

Do you know if there is any way to cut the RC1000 cable in order to use a bite switch or blow switch ?

reason might be: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=335903;search_string=skymonkey%20saves%20himself;#335903

i'd say first buy the suit, get some serious instruction (not a lot but some seirous one), then put a lot of jumps on your suit, then make up your mind by for an eventual smaller canopy (if there's money left after point 1 and 2 ) I know winter is a time for many questions regarding downsizing (me first) but if you wana get into skyflying, it could be wise to start with a canopy you fully master. folks like skymonkey1 are flying sabre2's in the 1,6 range with a suit but my understanding is that their skills and experience are quit far away from your's and mine...

any one out there using one of those ? (or any of the same family as far as remote switch connection goes) 'got some advice on what sort of remote switch to use ? i've got a couple of them and a 24mm 1:2,8 waiting to taste some fresh air alain

2K has a few FFX shell in stock, they come slightly cheaper than the FF2. the 103 is not dv-in, which is a serious issue for what we're doing. the 105 has some gadget and not very usefull features such as the memorystick slot. the good news is that Sony is releasing the PC104 in europe, that's a Dv-in version of the PC103 or a memorystick-less version of the 105 (call it as you like, that's the same) the price stands inbetween the 103 and 105. a quick search on google will give you a lot of info about that one Alain

got a low profile 0.5 from Royal Lens 6 monthe ago: same size as the 0.3, the field width is pretty much the same as a sony 0.6: perfect anything you can shoot from 10-15ft away. (RW, TDM, FF formaion from the outside) it's way too narrow for 2 or 3 way FF jumps: when you dock you get only head, part of the arms and half of the chest. (i'm gona get a 0.3 at some point) probabely too narow as well for AFF JM but i'm never gona do that ;-) quality is perfect as long as you do manual focusing right :-) Alain

just like the PC101, not a problem, is it ? (well, not for me and my FFX anyway) true, this really sux. why do they always need to replace a perfectly good and fairly universal solution ? (as far as we're concerned at least) marketing is a f*#kin' mistery to me

one thing i've learned after years using windsurf sails is that they don't stay tranparens for very long... how not so cool would it be to have a sort of ugly grey canopy after 100 jumps for a couple of demo flights, just for the sake of having done it, that would be cool. useless aswell but no one can claim skydiving is fondamentaly usefull. it's just not the point

when i downsized to 1.3+ at 80ish jumps i felt sharp like any other '100jumpswonder' but i was truely overhelmed (that was not a smart move i reckon). Now that i've put 450 jumps on that same canopy, i feel sharper than ever but now I am the pilote of that thing I'll consider downsizing when I'll have all the items of the legendary billvon's tasklist mastered. let's be realistic. I don't wana be a whateverjumpswonder anymore i agree with the 'close call' point: definately keeps your mind in place...

good point: that's one of the reasons that drove me towards skydiving. you'll find a DZ pretty much anywhere in the western world. good point for paragliding is so many awesome places to ride far from the crowd and so close to the nature (i like the smell of jetfull like any adrenaline junky but, well...) i've tried both and to date i've done only a few days paragliding and 500+ skydives. anyway, canopy ride is what stokes me on every single skydive while the dive itself is not always that good. duno if you can figure out anything out of that there's something very special in skydiving vs paragliding: diving 140mph with your buddies a arm legnth away, or flocking together for over 2 minutes in a wingsuit. nothing on our little planet can beat that paragliding is more of a solo trip. i'd say go for skydiving if you've got a good dz close to the place you live right now. time will come for paragliding, eventually. if some time i came to live closer to a good gliding place, i'll go into it. no doubt.

end of story as far as i'm concerned

close enough to hear the first plane climbing up when i'm lazy

I duno about climb power but I can tell you about noise: We can hear the difference very often down here with some porters flying with 3 and many other flying with 4 (talking of porters running PT6/A27 turbines here) edit: we have barely no more conflict with neybourhood since our porter has been upgraded to A34 4 blades... regarding the A34 mod on the porter: as far as I know it requires a 4 blade prop http://www.icarius-aerotechnics.com/anglaisstcpt6a34.html but i could not tell if that's true for the otter or king air too... (Mike Mullin's one has 4 blades thou) alain

you've got a very valid point here I love that sound I would add that, for me, the feel of speed under canopy comes also from noise wind makes. I realised that when i started to jump a quiter helmet (FFX) instead of my old gath: quite distrubing at first. Sure deaf people are doing fine without it but they do that all the time are definatly better at it than I could ever be...

i'm jumping a 2K FFX: can't think about any snag possibility with that piece of gear... (there's a cutaway on it though, for regulatation compliance only) alain

what I do: pull-up (for front riser input and release fine control) push up, dips (shoulder reinforcement) abs (upper/lower body control) loads of stretching. 15 minutes warm-up in the morning before the first jump (neck, shoulders, hips, legs) getting into jujitsu this winter, 'hope to improve general coordination, body awareness, strength... I'll see what comes out of that in 6 months, or maybe 5 years ;-)

http://mypage.bluewin.ch/aviationworld/pc6/history/714.htm# no comment

pc330 = 59 x 119 x 113 mm pc105 = 51 x 104 x 97mm just got to check the actual size of you PC5 and figure out... edit: i'd go for the 105 coz it's lighter and the 3.3mpix ccd of the PC330 won't do any better video: the miniDV format is limited at less than 500,000pix anyway... i reckon this 330 hype is nothing more than matketing. if you need a photo camera, get one with the price difference between the 105 and the 330: you'll be able to shoot video AND stills at the same time.

very sad news for the sport on this side of the pound EGR is a new DZ and was undergoing a steady developement since early 03 at a very nice location, 200m away from the sea in a beautifull area of France (Normandie, remember june 1944 ?) People living arround the airfield got upset with the aircrafts noises (how stupid is that: if you buy a house near by an airfield 'coz it's cheap, you can't complain about the noise) During the night last thursday: some criminals, somehow related to that neighbourhood conspiration, got into the DZ hangar and burned the Pilatus Porter PC-6 ! Criminal investigation is underway, I hope the guilty people get cought and severely punished. more info here (in french, sorry) http://www.saint-lo.maville.com/actu/detail.asp?idDoc=105719&IdCla=10 http://www.dropzone.com/dropzone/Detailed/627.html http://mypage.bluewin.ch/aviationworld/pc6/history/714.htm (that porter was on sale) feel free to email the DZ staff (any language appreciated) [email protected] they need our support ! Alain