goobersnuftda

Your web page has expired BTW. As of Jan 1st it has been off line. Not a good sign as it is a week past that date and you still have not fixed or noticed the problem. www.skydivingmaldives.com A 5 person jump ship would cause no end of headache for a boogie and people would not pay the $$$ to come to that. A Cessna Caravan is a different story as long as you can control the number of people attending. An African boogie with 400+ people showing up because of a dirt cheap boogie registration fee and a sub standard jumpship is a #1 route to failure. Its been tried BTW. Charge a good boogie registration price, limit the boogie to 100 jumpers MAXIMUM and give lots of prior notice so people can book time off work and plan for flights. Jan/Feb/Mar is winter time to travel. Summer time people stay home in the warm weather they have at home for free. Good Luck. I would go with the above conditions met so count me in.

I call BULL PUCKY on this. You can go to any Office Depot or Staples store and purchase a multitude of Lithium batteries for your laptop computer that are many, many times more powerful than the battery which is in an AAD. Then you can go to your local cell phone store and buy many Lithium batteries that are more powerful again. For some reason these Lithium batteries are shipped all over the place by magic pixie dust and yet Vigil can not figure out how every other company on the planet can ship batteries. This is a business decision to make extra $$$ and if everyone just lays down and takes it without question then nothing will change and they will win. PS. If someone gets a new battery from Vigil, where is it manufactured exactly? I'm guessing they found some way to ship it from the manufacturer to Vigil......

There is one major issue that has not been addressed here. Went to a boogie, landing on the beach and that was where you packed and waited for the bus ride to the plane. Plane loaded at the airport which was +500 ft. If you were on the 2nd otter load and had to sit to wait for the 1st, your digital alti reset to the airport altitude. So too was your AAD. Everyone was off 500ft except for those analog dial altimeters who were set a 0ft when they landed at the beach. Digital reset themselves, analog stayed put until you move them.

PM sent. Not that I'm ignoring everyone on this list but there are specific wording in Transport Canada's CARS that only applies to Canada.

A company that has held a STC for Cessna 182 jump ship mods has just gained approval to extend their STC further into the P, Q and R models. Our DZ purchased a 1975 Cessna 182P only to discover that the plane is too new and no "P" model STC's exist. Whenever Cessna makes the slightest change, they bump up the letter behind the model and previous STC’s no longer apply. This company has the all in one package STC that includes the door and step. Provisions in the design of where to reallocate the seat belts is there as well. Send them your door and they manufacture the new door mods and step and ship it out with instructions so your local AMO/AME and install the upward hinge and retaining latch. They even engraved the step with our company logo and name (silver on black). This has been a huge pain for us as it has been about 1.5 years since getting the plane that final approval has just come in. Paperwork flying around between Canada and US right now so both countries can play nice with each other :) When talking to SeaLand Aviation, ask for Paul Sidlick. Won’t post his private work email address here for obvious reasons but he has been most helpful in getting this task accomplished. .

I know we have this fabulous forum for "boogies" but may I suggest we create a new and different heading? The current rules are that only 3 months prior to the boogie can you list it here on this forum but real holiday boogies of years past (Thailand, Belize, Nicaragua, Africa, C-130 Herc boogies) means people really have to plan a long time ahead for work vacation time. It is not uncommon for people to be in October and be planning for a winter trip in March. In the real world today I believe there is a new type of "holiday tropical boogie" where it is: (1) outside North American and Europe (2) it is not just a twin otter for the weekend with beer and hotdogs at a place you jump every weekend anyways (3) it is professionally run with a guest list of over (x50) jumpers and lasts longer than 5 days. Fabulous boogies of the past (and present with Palau) means only those with the inside track are able to discover these boogies and sign up. By the time the 3 month mark comes around all slots are full. Example only: Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky

#1 rule, if you absolutely need a laptop to video edit do NOT be a cheap ass. Desktops rock and have unlimited power to draw from, portable laptops do not. There is need, then there is want. The $$$ separates the men from the boys. I bought my unit 2 years ago and it is so powerful that not only does it do video editing but way beyond that it has done some awesome Adobe After Effects projects while at the boogies. A real good AE project at home may take 5 hours to render but this machine can do it in 7 (overnight who cares). Clicky They key is to stay with true blue Intel. Get rid of that AMD optimized for power consumption CPU. I3 (garbage), I5 (still crap) go all out and get the I7. Next up get as much RAM as possible. Lastly get rid of those things that are power wasters namely spinning disks around (hard drive and DVD drive). That Toshiba Protege only has a SSD and man that puppy rocks. HDMI out and USB 3.0 for fast file transfers. The fingerprint lock is 100% accurate and works every single time. Tired of the students standing around watching the password being used. Also has a security port to lock it down with a cable. Adobe CS5 (Premiere Pro, After Effects etc.) and even with some rocking AE plugins (Element 3D, Trapcode, Knoll Light Factory...) I am amazed at what this small insanely light unit can do. Only draw back is that the battery is not removable. I use it to watch movies on for those stupidly long flights over seas. I now see they have come out with a Z930 with 8GB ram and a bigger SSD. Top end i7 business model still tops out at around $2,000. Wow, after all that I am real curious to see who really "needs" a laptop to render :)

Here is a web page link that might interest you for tracking down stolen cameras. This web site scans the cameras serial number written to the EXIF file in the JPG and scans the internet for posted pictures taken with that specifc camera. If your camera is ever stolen you can take any of the previous pictures you took with that camera from your hard drive (or manually enter the serial number) and go to this web site to see if the thief has posted any pictures on the interweb. www.stolencamerafinder.com This only applies to real cameras like Canon, Nikon, Pentax, etc. NOT the camera in your phone. Twits will inevitably post pictures of their stupid cat to their Facebook page then you've caught them :) Im not sure how far the digital image scan goes on the interweb but since it is free it is worth a try. They get their $$$ with a membership so if at some time in the future an image is discovered they will email you.

Damn it, now all we are going to see are more and more of those dumb ass, look-like-a-dork, square lego block mounted on a raised snag pole, drop by Costco and get another one cameras. Damn. Sky Systems has been having massive issues in trying to get their new Sky Shot helmet out. Guess the delays have saved them some $$$ then if they can cancel the product line now. Too bad because that sleek flush mount for the Contour and the PROPER CUT AWAY option which every camera helmet should have has little chance of mass production if the Contours are not being produced any more. They have mounting brackets for that Dork-Pro but even at that, any way you try to mount a square block on a round object it just ends up looking stupid. Guess this is like the old Sony DCR-1000 miniDV cameras. The best tape camera out there at the time but by the time everyone figured that out, the production line was long since closed down.

Oh Skymama Rich is right, you maybe need to come to one of these tropical events so you can see just how different it is from the local weekend turbine "boogie" :) You can go here to see some of Vern and Rich's events but please don't click on it with your play phone (looks like crap and doesn't load everything as it should). Use a real computer with the speakers on, the larger the computer screen the better. www.burk.ca

I know it would upset some to have a new heading called "REAL BOOGIES" but the previous poster is correct. Some boogies can only have 80 jumpers or so because the tropical islands do not have massive lift capacity and with the spouses attending as well, there have been boogies where we have completely owned the whole hotel with there being no other accommodations around at all :) These boogies are half jumping, half vacation (tours, safari or scuba diving). The do fill up fast and by the time 4 months comes along, they have been sold out 7 months prior. There are lots of special European boogies where they pop over to small countries for the week but they are exclusive because they are quiet. There are even mini C-130 Herc boogies that are only 3 days long but no one really hears about them. How about this for a suggestion. When the new 20 yr. old wonders want to search for a boogie call it a JUMP BOOGIE. For the rest of us who do not require (x14) jumps per day how about TROPICAL BOOGIE or VACATION BOOGIE? We are quite happy to jump one day, scuba day two, cave tube, volcano slide, jump more, snorkle for lobster etc. We are old now and have the time and $$$ to enjoy all the things in life we can now afford that back when you were 20 you don't care about because it is all about how many jumps you can do in a day :)

Skymama- I see you get frustrated with people who wish to post a real boogie beyond the 4 month rule but I believe that you should look at the fact that skydiving has changed over the years not only to the point that when I stared there were no wingsuits or free fly disciplines but so too are these so called “boogies”. “I'm going to lock this for a few months since we have a 4 month rule, but I do understand people needing to make plans for a boogie such as this.” Back in the day, a boogie was a real BOOGIE. Unique planes for a unique event. Now every 2nd drop zone in the US has a turbine ..... “come to our boogie this weekend, turbine aircraft with pizza and beer afterwards....”, that is not the real use of the word Boogie in my books. You need to understand that people cannot pull $5,000 out of the behinds on less than 4 months notice. I don’t know how privileged you are in your employment but for most of us to travel across the world with great expense and manipulation of ones work schedule means a lot of time is required to pull this off. Case in point. So locked down for notification that people just don’t bother with DZ.com and bypass it all together. Talked to many of the European jumpers and they just do their own thing. These boogies don't even bother on DZ.com anymore because it is a real BOOGIE and with the $$$ involved and scheduling, people need more than 4 months to make plans and arrangements. www.bushmanskydivingadventures.com www.exoticskyadventures.com The downside of making DZ.com irrelevant is that the conversations or updates are only available to a select few (like the issues for the C-130 Herc African Safari boogie). Now don’t think that I am just complaining here but I have a suggestion for you as well. Open a new forum for REAL BOOGIES. Let the people with their Twin Otter Saturday boogies and beer after jumping do their thing but for a real boogie event, I want to know ASAP so I can plan vacation time and take the whole family there before hand. The Palau boogie is an expense as well but to take the whole family and research jellyfish lake, it’s worth having as much time as possible to plan and make arrangements. Please don’t take my comments as being too harsh or snarky. Real boogies are dying off and to find one-off boogies that are once in a lifetime (like Nicaragua where we slid down an active volcano on a toboggan) are once in a lifetime opportunities that will never be done again. It is really disappointing that in an age of communication and the instant transfer of information that DZ.com is pushing people away and towards stupid Facebook and private email lists.

Thanks for the picture. Can you give me the STC# so I can look up more information? Clicky Also noticed that you left an open gap on the corner instead of the usual cutting it at 45 degrees and putting the corner piece in the door. Never really thought of that but I know up here during the summer to altitude even the breeze that gets through the door crack can get a bit cold. What have you found with that?

Thank you for the information but the issue is that our plane is a 182P. I know the STC is available for the A thru N model but with each new model number, it must be specifically listed on the STC. The problem I had was the model listed on the STC stopped at an N and did not include the newer 1975 Cessna P model. A STC from the 1960's doesn't cut it nor automatically include the new body design models from 1975 (15 years in the future from the old STC).

The key was the wing tip extensions (more wing to climb with) and the bigger engine. Separate both parts are OK but together they are awesome. Our 182B served our club very well. That old girl was our #1 workhorse for 15 years and we ran her hard. With that bigger engine and wing extensions we made it our fast climber for our tandems to altitude. Our P206 is our kiddie minivan that takes lots of IAD jumpers to dispatch altitude. Not fast but it carries more people. The bigger the engine the better. For a normal person having a182 it gets insane in fuel burn but for DZ operations, a 300hp engine climbs fast to altitude and your turn around times are much, much faster.

To be honest, disappointing at first but that is to be expected. We had a 182B that was souped up to jumpship standards. STOL kit, X-wing extensions and the regular 230hp engine was replaced with a 260hp Norland Conversion one. Awesome plane but then the 1958 aircraft began to show her age and began nickel and diming us to death (in the aircraft world, nickel and diming means $5,000 to $10,000 to repair :) So we upgraded the aircraft to a 182P. The big change was not only is this a widebody but the landing gear is not sprung steel but tubular which handles much more stress and weight. The disappointing part is that the plane as 170hrs on the new engine and it is the normal 230 hp one. Waaay under powered for skydiving up and down operations. The X-wing extentions will be the first thing to upgrade because they can be installed in a couple of days and the cost will be about $6,000 parts, $3,000 or so to install. Once the big $$$ comes rolling in we will sell the engine and prop for what we can and go to a 300hp engine. After much research the P. Ponk is the one we will be going after with the 3 blade prop. Initially many people go after the Texas Skyways 300hp engine because of the 2,500 TBO but once you look into it you have to completely redo your fuel system, lines, pump, carb work and injectors I believe. Oh yea, and you have to take out your fuel tanks and install completely new ones .... yea way too much $$$ so P. Ponk it is. Clicky Here for more information

Ohh too bad. Just got done my months work and I saw your post. I too have been searching for an open face helmet I can use (love my G3 for PFF with the Contour) and after searching all winter I finally found this, SkyShot Attached are some pictures but the real bonus I love is that this is a smooth design. No looking like a dork with that Dork-Pro massive snag point square block system like a post on the top of your head. This helmet also has a proper cut away system like EVERY camera helmet should.

The problem is that the model some times means a body style change. You know how the bed of a F-150 truck changes from year to year? The same truck cap from a 2005 will not fit on a 2009? Same thing. New body styling means new type of door, latch system etc. and I can only guess that the STC requirements means there has to be some sort of testing to show that the function still works the same on a different shape.

Instillation done and just short of some W&B paperwork, it is ready to go. Sealand Aviation owns the full blown STC. They put out the $$$, did the T/C issues so it is theirs to sell. The STC applies to the Cessna 182 A-R models. The STC issue is much one of a rubber stamp for the US and Canada. Yes every country waves their flag but since Cessna is mfg. in the USA and Canada is so very close on the flight standards (yea, those in the know REALLY know what I'm talking about between the US system and Canada), I have never ever heard of a STC being denied if approved in the USA or Canada. The make shift FAA 337 forms are a different story but a STC is a STC. Want an extra 12v DC cigarette lighter power point in your Cessna 206 so the pilots can have their play toys? Buy the US STC, apply it in Canada and away you go. A STC is the highest you can go, L-STC the next version down and the field office FAA 337 form the bottom. Anyways, wow does this door ROCK !!! The handle is heavy and solid. Polished steel and SOLID !!! I just wish we could convert the putzy handle we have on our 206 to this one. On the outside it is spring loaded so the half moon handle retracts when let go. It only moves 1/4 turn to open and close and feels so very solid when it closes. Internal release system doesn't have any metal tubes or snag points (unless you have one of those dorky Go Pros mounted like a peg on the top of your helmet). I'm most impressed with the door. The step for the P-R model is about 2 months away but I am a happy camper none the less. Thought this 1972 Cessna 182P would be the death of me with no STC to open the door to jump :) SeaLand Aviation

Just got the approval paperwork today so the AME's can now get to work on the plane installing the door and the external latch system. Will post pictures when the work is done. Will also let you know the price when I get the bill in the mail.... yea really looking forward to that letter :) As far as I know, a STC is a STC by North American standards. The Canadian standards are very harsh so you are right, the moment a Twin Otter comes up for sale up here it is immediately snatched up and gone down to the US even before the props have stopped spinning from its last shut down.

Jump Ship modifications on a Cessna 182 can only be performed with the proper approval paperwork. The standard “king of the hill” approval is a STC (Supplement Type Certificate). One step down from that is a L-STC (limited) or in the US the 337 field office form (which they are cracking down on). The jump ship mods were only for a 182A to a 182N model and that is where the STC stopped. Our club had unknowingly purchased a replacement 182P thinking that was an awesome replacement for our old plane but we found out there was no way to modify the door or step on a P model. Sealand Aviation in British Columbia has the STC up to the N and over the past 6 months they have been working us to extend that to include the P model. Just this morning the approval came back with a full blown STC going past the P and up to the R model. Waaa hooo !!! Up to now there was only a single mechanic in Texas that could install the jump door on a 182P. You had to fly the plane to him and over the week (with the help of the pilot) he would get the door done on your plane. His specific STC states that he is the only mechanic certified to do the instillation. We took off our 182P door and shipped it to Sealand Aviation and they did what they had to at their end to use our door as the blueprint for the STC addition. They shipped the door with the modifications back to us with the small parts that our wrench monkeys will install for the external latch system. So if you want the jump step and door modification for your Cessna 182 and require the full STC, give these guys a call.

I have purchased my 2nd Contour camera (Contour+2) and got back last month from a boogie after using it for the first time. On one exit I got a good kick to the head on my G3 and the back cover of the Contour+2 went bye bye. Contacted the camera company when I got back inquiring of how to buy a new back cover and low and behold I just got an envelope in the mail with the exact cover I was asking about. Let's hope there are more Larsen & Brusgaard type companies out here that treat their gear like they are #1 :)

and when all else fails, you can use your GoPro as a mounting peg to pull your buddies reserve handle on what should be a normal exit. Clicky Don't get me wrong. GoPro's are a wonderful camera to mount on your surf board, mountain bike or even your skate board to get a shot of you doing your flippty-doo. I just think there was absolutely no thought put into it for the use of skydiving and I'm surprised that more people have not spoken out about it. Anyways, get as much information about it as you can and with that make your own informed decision. I've decided to go with something that helps eliminates snags and has a helmet cut away handle (Vapor Wes Pro, Sky-Shot).

If you don't happen to have the full face G3 with the contour mount, here is a new open face helmet just out on the market that has a top mount, sleek mount for the Contour camera. Sky Shot They do have a dork Pro mount as well but to me, it still looks stupid :)

More pictures but from the inside view. Funny thing is that it looks like everyone has a dork Pro from every angle :)