scottjaco

I did a skydive after seeing a fatality during the 2006 Christmas Boogie at Eloy. It was less than 5 minutes after Cliff died. They loaded us on the tram and drove us out to the DC-3. Cliff’s body was in plain view as we drove down the tarmac to get to the waiting aircraft. It was a bit fucked up for me, but I understand why we all decided to do the jump. We were all standing outside the hanger on a 5 minute call when the accident happened and most of us were already geared up waiting to get on the tram. The DC-3 was a specialty aircraft that was only doing a couple loads per day and we had already paid for our slots. The Eloy boogie is a major event with hundreds of skydivers. There was just too much going on to simply stop everything and stand down for 24 hours. We saw Cliff & Jay's accident because we were standing in front of the hanger waiting to get on a load. Hundreds of other people were either in the air, or mingling around other parts of the dropzone. These people didn’t witness the accident and predictably showed far less compassion. The same mixed reaction occurred the following day when Tom died. It really was a mixed bag of reactions. Some people sat there crying, others just acted like nothing happened. I stood there watching them do CPR, keeping a vigil while they tried to save him. I honestly don’t care what people do after a fatality. I do find it disappointing to read some of the harsh reactions to the proposition of a 24hr stand-down. I do think it is disrespectful to act like you don’t care. I think it is shameful to go on, smiling, laughing and talking it up when a fellow jumper is lying dead less than 300 yards from where you are standing. In the end, you are the one who has to live with yourself. I think the deceased deserve respect regardless of who is “at fault”

I’m happy to see you guys are enjoying our old plane! It came from a great drozpone and it’s nice to see it getting some use after Cal City shut down last year. As for me, I’ve recently sold all my equipment and am no longer active as a skydiver. I kinda gave up on the sport after that place closed down. I just couldn’t find the same vibe anywhere else. I’m happy though. Looking for some new adventures in life!

Wow! Best Buy is giving $50 lousy bucks back.

What was that comment?

After 5 years and close to 400 jumps, I'm walking away. I’m neither happy or sad about it. Basically it comes down to several reasons: A)Finances B)Lack of interest C)My home DZ closing down D)Politics Skydiving is a very tight-knit community of people. It is also extremely esoteric. I don’t have the connection and loyalty that one should feel to stay happy in this sport. Looking back on it, I wonder if the sense of community I felt in the beginning was based more on an endorphin rush than a true genuine connection with the people around me. Like the person who gets drunk and feels on top of the world, but then realizes how superficial and hallow those feelings are when sober. In the end, it was a worthwhile run, but it just doesn’t fit into my current lifestyle.

Was this the camera they were showcasing? Check out this link for the new SD-9 model. http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prModelDetail?storeId=11301&catalogId=13251&itemId=215166&modelNo=Content01052008070307494&surfModel=Content01052008070307494 It records 1080/24p and offers 17Mbps. I don't think they are offering the DVD burner with this model. (My SD-5 comes with a burner for archiving) but it should be an improvement. Also, if it records 1080 progressive instead of interlaced, I wonder if going from 13 to 17 Mbps will be enough if it's recording twice the info. Goes to show, there's always something better right around the corner.

Well, let me explain why I would go to a boogie in the first place. I would want to visit some place I've never been to before, that would offer new experiences that aren't available anywhere else. I went to a couple of the Eloy Holiday boogies because I wanted to see the worlds largest dropzone and jump out of the DC-3 and hot air balloons. I also wanted to see the new wind tunnel they had. I would love to go to Lost Prairie for it’s cool location and vibe. Boogies are suffering because the term is being thrown out too often. What exactly makes a boogie any different than any other day at the dropzone? It seems that most boogies are only good for organizing large RW & Canopy formations. If you aren’t into that, it’s just another day at the DZ. It also seems that boogies are more like family reunions than skydiving events. It’s all the old-school jumpers that haven’t been in the sport all year, getting back together to shoot the shit and do some RW. You need to keep the experiences fresh from year to year to keep the boogies going. Bring in some new aircraft and night time activities instead of perpetually raising the balloon jump prices every year. I guess the cost of helium is insane right now

The nice thing HD-DVD had going for it was that you could burn HD complient info to standard DVD which was supported in DVDSP 4.0 Now it seems that it's getting easier to burn Blu-Ray to standard blank DVD. I'm still waiting for Apple's support before upgrading. I've always liked Blu-ray better for it's capacity but they were really overpricing thier products for a while there.

It's the SD-5 which appears to be the one in the photos. Keep in mind, I haven't done any skydiving with this camera.

Mine's never displayed a message like that. It doesn't get blocky on pans either, even at the lowest bit setting (6Mbps) it holds up pretty good, although it's a bit more grainy than the high setting at 13Mbps. Earlier last year, I bought the Aiptek GO-HD 720/30p which I ended up returning due to it's crummy quality. The picture got blocky and it got waivy like an acid trip. The max bit rate was 4.5Mbps, and the encoder was crap which didn't help. It would seem the encoder plays a larger role than simple bit rate, since the Panasonic can do twice the frame rate at a higher resolution with only 6Mbps at the low quality setting, while maintaining a decent quality picture.

Skydiving is a really hard sport to partake in. It’s dangerous, expensive and you really need to find the right group of people to make it fun. I generally jump solo unless I know the other person and I feel safe jumping with them. I recently had my Home DZ close down so I’m not really thrilled about starting over somewhere new. If you don’t feel safe with the people you are with, you should feel nervous. These people are a liability until proven otherwise. I don’t know if I’m going to continue in the sport because I’m bored. I don’t have the money to jump all year and get really good. You’ve been in the sport 10 years so maybe you’ve just reached a point where you’ve had enough. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Glad to hear things went a lot smoother this year. I didn't go because of the carnage I witnessed last year. I just wanted to see if people got their shit together before going back. Anyway, how was the boogie this year? Were there a lot of people?

I was there. I held a symposium on why 720p is better than 1080i and how easy it is to manipulate the general public with a larger number. Sorry you missed it. Everything starts with the lens. A 10K lens allows the small 1/3" CCD's to output acceptable broadcast quality. Discovery initially denounced the HD100 but reconsidered after testing the HD200 with the aftermarket lens. Again, these HDV cameras are used for budget restrictions. Are you really going to bring a Varicam onto a fishing boat that is most likely going to end up drenched. Compromises were made throughout the entire production. Why do you think they have Bon Jovi singing the theme song?

Discovery hates all HDV cameras 720p & 1080i because of their heavy GOP compression and small chip size. They do however allow 25% of their footage to be non-hd content. That is why they allow your Sony V1U, HC3/5's. While these cameras are technically HD, they are not up to Discovery's rigid HD standards. Your V1U was needed because it was basically used as an underwater crash cam. They do however allow the JVC HD200 series with the aftermarket 10K lens to be used for certain studio applications. In this scenario, they are not confined to the 25% restriction because even Discovery realizes how great these low cost cameras are.

A few years ago up at Air Adventures West in Taft, they had a wealthy prince from the middle east come out to do an AFF course. He was a big fat dude that couldn't use traditional gear. He had to purchase his own Tandem container & a 400 sq ft canopy to do the jumps. It was basically a Tandem rig that had been modified to function like a sport rig. No drogue chute, and the handles were positioned like a normal rig. It was a lot of money to spend but I guess it worked