JayhawkJumper

What video software you use depends on what type of video's you want to create. If you just want basic tandem vids with some transitions, get any of the $99 video editing cards/programs at Best Buy. If you want to do some more complex layered editing, look into Adobe Premiere. The Avids are also great editors, I think Premiere is a little more user friendly than Avid Express, but Avid 9000XL is awesome. Please note though that Avid's aren't just programs, they are editing suites, and aren't practical for most people. Apple Final Cut Pro is also a nice program and comparable to Premiere. If you want to get into Digital Effects, check out Adobe After Effects and Borix FX. If you want to REALLY get into special effects, look into 3D studio max and Maya (Star Wars type stuff). Any Video editing takes a lot of time, more than you could ever imagine, so be prepared to do some reading and A LOT of sitting in front of your computer playing with everything.

What did he do that caused them to make this illegal? Was it because he used a small FX?

I am soooo tempted right now. At my University (which has a med school), they are doing medical testing and you get $700.00. It's small pox medical test where they basically draw blood from you, then give you the vaccine, and draw blood afterward. Then you get another $100 for every person you refer. If I refer a few people, thats like a free canopy.... hmmm... but then again there's the whole small pox thing....

We had a club in high school called the breakfast club that would drink beer before school started. I never actually took part in this though, I didn't see the point of just being really tired in class or even buzzed for just an hour.

That was my point, that there are very minor differences, and thats why they don't fly completely identical, but this is not poor quality control.

Where were those pics taken? It looks like women are just walking around the street topless. It just sounds too good to be true.

Has anyone also seen the wings designed by some guy in Europe that were part rigid and part inflatable. I saw them on the internet a while back, but there were pictures of the guy in flight with them and they were huge, with what looked like a 6-8 foot wingspan. Do you think the reason nobody is really flying rigid wings around is because of the space on the plane/exit issue?

There is no way that seeing as each canopy has its own personality as poor quality control. I had a spectre demo, which flew different than the one I bought in the same size, and it was loaded at 1:1. I know a ton of people, especially in the smaller canopy range that say no one canopy flies EXACTLY like the rest. If the canopy's "personality" equates to it deflating at random times, ripping after 10 jumps, etc... thats poor quality control. As for rigs, there is a pretty clear line, either its made right and safe or its not. Now some people might really like the way X container fits them on X part of their body or the way X container has its riser coverage or maybe the custom one they ordered didn't fit them just the way their friends did around the chest/waist/hips, but they should all be safe, and if they aren't, then yes its poor quality control and needs to be fixed and steps taken to make sure it never happens again

Sounds like a stroboframe would definately be the choice for you. I have a 2k FF2, which is like an Optic. All I'd have to do to detach the camera if I used a thumbscrew would be pull the top pad out and unscrew it. The stroboframe is quicker, but kinda snagadelic when no camera is attached. Does anyone have their still attached with just a thumbscrew, if so how do you like it? Also, do you have any other securing devices on it besides the screw?

100 jumps in a week. I have two things to say. 1. How did you manage that? Work jumps, sponsored? 2. You suck.

Maybe like each canopy out there seems to have its own personality, so do containers.

0:0:0 Kansas just isn't much fun sometimes, but then again, there is beer here.........

I also hope rig quality doesn't go down due to volume, but I'm just trying to find an explanation as to why these rigs mentioned weren't made to specs like mine or other I've seen. That's really the only thing I can think of.

I recently mounted my still with a stroboframe and afterward, I thought, Why didn't I just use a thumbscew? The camera is still basically mounted by just a thumbscrew when you use a stroboframe, so why not go for the lower profile single screw and some cork or a little alluminum piece on top to keep your camera pointing in the right direction?

When I got my Javelin, my rigger showed it to me before he backed it up. He is an extremely picky rigger. He was pointing out a lot of areas of the rig that he said was some of the best assembly work he'd ever seen. He pointed out out a couple areas, for example the reserve pilot chute and showed me how precise and even the stiching was and that he didn't see that very often. I would imagine that every rig is different and it may even depend upon the volume they have.

I know quite a few guys who use them for camera helmets. Everyone I know who uses a gath also custom built their own mount onto it and they said the thin helmet made it easier to get the mount flush. Our two tandem camera flyers actually use them for tandems with stills set up on top. You can definately make it work if you want to, but there are definately better set-ups out there, and more comfortable, but they do cost more.

I'm not a gear manufacturer, but I think Kelly is right. You can't really ask someone to tell you about the flaws of their product. If they knew there was a flaw, there wouldn't be one. So to each person, their canopy/container etc. is the best one out there. Also, what one person might consider the biggest flaw of a product might be the biggest selling point of it to another person. To my knowledge, most gear manufacturers are ready to listen to suggestions, so if you think something could be improved, let them know and it might happen.

The Jayhawks, ya I've heard of them. GO KU!! It was crazy here tonight. I know for Monday nights championship, they are locking down campus and bringing in riot police in case we win. It will probably be the craziest night of my 4 years here if we win. AND HERE THE FUN PART: I have a test on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday....... oh well...

I just mounted my still on top of my helmet with a stroboframe and I'm getting ready to install the tongue switch and I wanted to get some opinions on something. I have a rebel G and the tongue switch has the plug in it already. Should I drill a big hole next to the stroboframe and put the whole plug through it or cut the wire in half and drill a small hole and then re-wire it inside the helmet? I'd rather not cut the wire, but I don't want to drill a huge hole in the top of the helmet either. Also, I was going to just use a thumb screw at first to mount the still, but one of my friends said he lost a still camera b/c he just used a thumb screw. So I decided to use the stroboframe, but really, its still only held on there by a thumb screw, so why do people use the stroboframe, b/c its only held on by the screw and it would be almost as quick to mount it flush w/ a thumb screw and make the camera a little lower too.

I had a Spectre, now I have a safire. Mine open equally as soft, the safire maybe even softer. You can feel the inscreased performance of the safire though, it has a better glide and turn, but it won't oversteer. Demo them to find out more.

Basically that even though the North won the war and slavery was technically abolished, the South ideology lived on stronger than ever. For example, in the film Birth of a Nation, the KKK is seen as the savior of the United States by keeping all of the evil blacks in line. It shows all the black people living in the South taking over congress and making conditions so scary for whites that they were too scared to leave their homes and whites also weren't allowed to vote. Then along comes the KKK, lynching and killing the "evil" blacks and everything is wonderful again and they have a parade. What's wrong with this? EVERYTHING is wrong with it. It is exactly the opposite of how things really happened. It is also important to note that people in the North and South praised the film for its documentary and truthful account of the war. Even the president called it "History written in lightning". To get back to what I was saying, this type of attitude was common all over the US and the result was the death of a lot of black people and the segregationist, discriminitory ideology of the South winning out all over the US with Jim Crow laws. Things have obviously changed since then, but this one widely held theory about the civil war. I can't disagree that there were several factors causing civil war and I can't honestly say I have a difinitive answer. No one does without having actually experienced the entire thing, and even then truth is very hard to find, as we are seeing in our current situation. Nobody can really say "X" is the cause of our current conflict, but this theory about the civil war is one of the many that exist.

I have "single item insurance" which guarantees they will pay for it no matter what happens to it. There is also no deductible (sp), just don't tell them its a money maker if it is, and I doubt they would ever find out you make money doing tandems or something with it.

The north threatened the South's way of life, that's why they wanted to secede. What did the South see as its way of life? The plantation system, which depended on slaves. The reason slavery isn't brought up more often is history classes and books is because a segregationist memory largely won out after the war versus the abolitionist memory. This is why some scholars hold the theory that even though the North defeated the South, the South won the war in the ideology that America held for a long time. To get a good idea of how the war was remembered right after it was fought, watch "Birth of a Nation".

Ok, actually, since Jill is coming to KS to jump next weekend, Beer, Nudity, Steak, and Sex day is hereby moved to a week from this Saturday. This way the weather will hopefully be better and we can jump too. So that means this Saturday, other topics are permitted other than those named above.

As far as lenses for the ground, I can tell you what most pros take on shoots with them when they can only take 3 lenses. A 17-35, a fixed 50, and a 70-200. As for skydiving, these lenses plus maybe a fixed 20mm would be the ideal gear pack. If your not buying lenses with 2.8 aperatures, which your probably not since their around $1500 each, you can get a 70-300. I wouldn't recomend anything longer though, as the arpeture would be pretty small (around 6.3). Also, if you got a 70-200 2.8 lense (expensive, yes), but you could get a teleconverter and make it into a pretty cheap 340mm 3.4 lense. I personally don't like off-brand lenses, I've put my canon lenses through hell and they stood up to anything. I hate sigma and a quantaray which broke (the focusing rings became stuck at various points) in 1-2 years of use. Whatever you get, throw a filter in front of it, especially for skydiving, replacing a filter is cheaper than the whole lense, and unless your making 16x20's you won't see a reduction in quality or clarity, and even then it is too small to really notice.