lifewithoutanet

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Posts posted by lifewithoutanet

  1. ryoder


    The court case is on appeal;
    The city officials are still falling over themselves trying to placate the head case instead of being firm with her;
    The new airport manager has sent out a notice to pilots telling them to avoid flying over "sensitive areas", i.e. Kimmy's neighborhood.

    I would hardly call it "halted".



    Not just the new airport manager at KLMO. Neighboring airports have sent out similar messages. No one likes a pain in the ass and it appears her pain in the assness is spreading.
    http://files.ctctcdn.com/da41ffa3101/703e71bc-6188-4477-ad4d-ad2299c1bbe9.pdf

  2. Just called the congressman's office and spoke to a very nice woman who answered the phone. I informed her of my displeasure in his alignment with this group and my commitment to donate considerable sums of money to any opponent who challenges him in the next election.

    I cited interference with general aviation and interstate commerce among other things.

    Here's his number.

    Jared Polis
    (202) 225-2161

  6. Quote

    Coming entirely from an uninformed perspective;
    Other than the lack of teaching zero wind exits (and I understand the importance of that critical component), what part of the course is considered "wrong/inappropriate/lacking?"



    Canopy skills: Excellent. I feel Sonic is fully qualified to teach those where skydiving is concerned.

    Object avoidance drills out of a plane...incomplete. There's a method to determining whether or not you actually got it turned around in time that you can't cover without reference-able objects. It's habit-forming/muscle memory, so that's a good foundation, but it's not complete.

    Site evaluation: What can you really know about site evaluation from 11 jumps off 2 objects? This is part of the reason you ground crew with local jumpers. In my mind, this should be left to a true BASE FJC or the *qualified* local jumpers that are willing to mentor. Lack of experience in this respect makes me worry that it will also be quite simplistic in the lessons.

    Packing: Well, he certainly knows how to pack. How well can he answer questions about various packing methods? Why one jumper wraps the tail and another buries the tail in the center of the packjob with A/B (sometimes even C) reduction folds on top of the centercell of the tail? Is he going to teach multiple methods of packing? Can he answer why some jumpers use one over another?

    Anything beyond a basic packjob and what I wrote above is suspect to me. In my conversation with Sonic, I heard far too many "it's not that hard" statements. You know what, a PCA in and of itself probably isn't. But BASE is complex. The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

    Sonic says he places an importance on getting a mentor after his course. I asked that he place an importance on getting a *QUALIFIED* mentor after the course. That is, now that you have "BASE gear", don't go running off to that other new jumper on the DZ with 11 jumps and ask him to take you off a local object. Oh...wait, why not go to the guy with 11 jumps if you were just taught by someone with 11 jumps? :S Beyond that request, he had little concern over whether or not they do. And yeah, you can't protect stupid people from themselves. He's' got Miles and he'll guide them to him, but he should really be clear with his students that he's giving them an incomplete BASE gear course in a skydiving environment and that his course does not make them ready for a BASE jump.

    DSE, in your interview, he thought Twin and Moab had only been legal for a few years. Not picking on Sonic, here, but how much else does he not know? How many and what questions will he take a stab at, thinking he knows the answer, when a student asks? And again, his repeated "it's not that hard" statements leave me to believe he has a very simplistic approach to BASE jumping.

    Look, the root of this for me keeps coming back to 11 jumps. Bill, you started teaching when you had 100 skydives. 9 times the amount of BASE jumps Sonic has. I don't know what arbitrary number would make him seem a bit more prepared to teach anything about BASE, but it sure as shit isn't 11 jumps. The fact that anyone can defend that as a good idea is fucking ridiculous. But, Sonic owns a gear shop, is the BMOC at The Ranch, so he must know what he's doing. :S

    In closing once more, "Why would you want to learn about BASE from someone with 11 BASE jumps?" There are far better, more qualified options.

    -C.

  9. Quote

    >In the meantime, what's the big deal of gear being more accessible? To me,
    >the problem is that it's marketed to any A-licensed dickhead, whether the
    >marketing is that explicit or not.

    True, but that's also an issue with elliptical canopies, AAD's, audible altimeters, booties, RDSes etc etc. Any piece of gear out there might be used by someone you consider unworthy/unqualified.



    Well, I talked to Sonic last night and actually, that [25 jump wonders] won't be the case...or at least he's requiring 100 skydives before you can purchase gear or take his course. (...Funny how the numbers seem to be coming lower and lower. I remember when it was 200, then 150...now a new standard is 100.)

    Quote

    >Budgets are more important than your ass? It would seem so.

    That's true of every single part of skydiving and BASE jumping. We all trade off safety for convenience and expense. Heck, sometimes I put thousands of jumps on a skydiving canopy without replacing it, and my first 10 or so BASE jumps were on a ragged out Pursuit 215 with a homemade tail pocket because that's all I could afford.



    That's not true for all of us. Given your desires for a BSR around canopy downsizing, I'm kind of surprised you'd make this defense. "Making that many jumps on this big canopy before I can jump this small canopy is gonna be expensive" Can you actually defend that?

    Quote

    >I view it as an outside-BASE entity taking money out of the pockets of
    >those who have earned our business through years of innovation and toiling over
    >sewing machines . . .

    Again, that's true of every company out there. When I started out in BASE, most of the companies you mention didn't exist. They all came into being and started "taking money out of the pockets" of people like Mo and Marta, who were two people (out of many) who spent years hunched over sewing machines cranking out the first BASE rigs.

    But overall, is that a bad thing?



    How many of them started BASE businesses--especially teaching--when they had 11 BASE jumps?

    Look, I finally talked to Sonic last night. And as I said to him then and in a final Email this morning, my apologies for not talking to him first. I should've done that and when I realized it, I gave him a call. Still, the areas where I speculated and was wrong were not my major concerns. My core opinions on the matter remain unchanged in their foundation.

    I won't belabor the point and carry on with any more drivel. The fact of the matter is BASE remains unregulated, so I can just fuck-off with my opinions and you're free to do that which you want.

    The only thing I'll ask of any new, aspiring BASE jumper is this: Do you really want to learn about BASE from someone with 11 BASE jumps from 2 objects?

    -C.

  12. I posted the following over on basejumper.com and on BLiNC in response to an interview w/ Sonic. Figured I might as well add to this thread:

    Links:
    http://blincmagazine.com/forum/original-base-board/33235-baser-discussion.html
    http://www.basejumper.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2902322#2902322

    Post:
    Quote

    Here's my response to the interview and the subject in general. Note, the following are my personal opinions on the matter. I have never met Sonic, never spoken to Sonic, nor do I have a personal war-waging vendetta against him. He seems a likable enough guy, but my personal opinion is that he is not suited, nor has he earned the privilege to manufacture or market BASE gear.

    For all intensive purposes, he has a rather brilliant business model. He's essentially an order-taker with a direct line to JumpShack who manufactures the rig using a TSO'd wonderhog harness beneath an otherwise 'anything-goes' container and slaps a TSO'd reserve on the front. The only thing stopping me from personally ripping apart one of my skydiving rigs and doing the same is that I lack an FAA Master Rigger's ticket. I could get someone governmentally qualified to do this for me, and for far cheaper than one of his rigs.

    Why cheaper? [I'll get to why that's important in a moment...] Because he's using a skydiving gear manufacturer and I'm not. I saw the same thing a few years ago with the reverse-engineering of a $250 (retail) speed-flying harness that turned into a laughable $600-800 ground-launching harness. The difference? The former was made in South Korea (designed by a Korean paragliding company) and the latter by an FAA-certified parachute manufacturer. Not hard to guess who has the higher labor costs or why.

    Many people keep asking or pointing out that Morpheus, Apex, Asylum have not TSO'd a rig or have not sought this 'innovation'. First, a TSO rating runs at least $40k and upwards of $60k. Granted, Sonic didn't have to TSO the gear, he essentially licensed an existing TSO. Thus, the reality for any of the long-standing BASE gear manufacturers is that their [presumed] already slim margins get even slimmer when they're licensing an existing TSO rating or are at least paying some royalty for the use of it. May not even be that simple... They'd probably have to directly order a manufactured harness to incorporate into their rigs. Beyond that--I can only speculate on the liability--I'll bet someone goes in on an FAA-certified rig and the manufacturer is looking at a legal shitstorm. Someone goes in on a BaseR, JumpShack looks fucked to me. They've got a legal, certified standing from the FAA in the square of their lower back. Might as well be a bulls-eye. Any of our long-standing BASE manufacturers are pleasantly uninsured, pleasantly unregulated.

    Beyond that--and I've only talked to a couple of people on this--I'll wager the decision to not seek a TSO rating is largely philosophical in nature. BASE gear has always been somewhat difficult to come by, or if not difficult...at least qualified. For good reason. I won't say that Sonic doesn't use discretion--because I don't know--but he does market his course as an FJC. An FJC for what? It's the same term Apex, Morpheus, Nitro, Snake River, Johnny Utah, Miles, Splatula and Asylum use. But is it the same syllabus? I'll wager 'no' given that Sonic's course is designed for skydiving in preparation for BASE, not actual BASE, so not a BASE FJC. Leave that to Miles, at least.

    In the meantime, what's the big deal of gear being more accessible? To me, the problem is that it's marketed to any A-licensed dickhead, whether the marketing is that explicit or not. Face it, "you can take a BASE rig out of a plane" is what this is designed for. All too often, we see "how do I get into BASE? 150 skydives and gear is so expensive!" where we should hear "how do I get into BASE and not kill myself in the process?" Budgets are more important than your ass? It would seem so. I worry about the jumpers this rig may attract, or if not attract, the jumpers that will too easily put themselves in a position to fuck themselves up, die, or more selfishly, make it more difficult for me to jump. Yes, I said it. I'm that selfish. You have to earn the ability to fuck shit up for me. I do not care about your life if you don't put forth the effort to save yourself.

    On the final point where money is concerned, no, I don't think Sonic is doing this for the cash. Not so much in that he's going to get rich off this, at least. I believe in his ability to support his family, but ultimately, I view it as an outside-BASE entity taking money out of the pockets of those who have earned our business through years of innovation and toiling over sewing machines, not just one leap that makes it easier for us to skydive with BASE gear.

    Nothing personal,
    -C.

  13. Does Final Cut Express succinctly address the quality issues I'm encountering? Is it better w/ HD formats than iMovie? I don't believe that is the answer. Final Cut Express--as it has been explained to me by Apple--is more feature-rich and closer to the more professional tools. So, unless you can say that Final Cut Express will solve the problem and why, I'll stick w/ iMovie for now.
    -C.

  15. Thanks for the suggestion. However...I'm not so sure that's a factor, unless you changed your camera settings...

    1920x1080 = 16:9 aspect ratio
    1440x1080 = 4:3 aspect ratio

    Is it possible your camera was set on 4:3 instead of widescreen 16:9?

    I appreciate the suggestion, though. Gonna work with Apple tomorrow and show them what I'm running into. Will let you know how it turns out.

    -C.

  16. Hey, everyone. I've searched (possibly not well enough) and found numerous threads on HD, AVCHD, CX-7 questions/issues, but haven't really found what I'm looking for. So, sorry if this seems like a repost, but I don't think it is.

    I've imported a ton of HD footage from my CX-7 at 1920x1080 resolution. I was checking the quality of the clips before I send it out to other people who were on this trip with me and am just seeing horrible quality from the produced files. It looked great when previewed in iMovie viewer, but not as a finished format.

    For the purposes of trying to figure this out, I'm just using a short 30 second selection from the longer clip I imported from the camera. With that 30 seconds added to my iMovie project, I can preview it in the iMovie "viewer" pane and it looks STELLAR. I mean super clear...awesome. Then I export it to .mov, .mp4, .avi...any other format and the quality goes to absolute shit. It's interlaced, pixelated, choppy. It looks the way a 640x480 video looks when maximized to 1600x1200. The only way I can get it to come out looking good is if I publish to media browser, import to iDVD and burn a DVD. Then, it looks great on a TV. But I'm not trying to get a finished product right now. I'm trying to get processed AVCHD footage to the other people on the trip so they've got raw footage to work with, too.

    I don't get it...footage quality is GREAT going in, garbage coming out. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks.

    -C.

  17. Reminds me of our two...
    Porter is the chocolate. Now 106 lbs (and could stand to lose 1 --yes ONE-- according to the vet).
    Baxter is the yellow. 2 weeks older with a lot more energy (and thankfully 30 lbs lighter).

    Great looking pups you have there.

    -C.

  18. Goddamn. Keith is one of a kind. Always helpful and motivated. Got to know him well while I was jumping at Perris for a few years and despite living pretty close together in Orange County, only really hung out w/ him on the DZ or up in Lake Isabella until right before I left a little over a year ago.

    Even after I moved to CO, I'd hear from Keith often. I was always on the list for GL sessions he was organizing and he was always trying to get me to come back out. "As a side note, I've organized a session for the weekend of..." Seems that's how all the Emails or phone calls would end. He always seemed to refer to people as "Mr. ", "Miss ". Maybe just when he was talking to one person, maybe even when he'd refer to someone who wasn't around...I can't remember for sure, but it's one thing that stuck out. Every Email, phone call or Vmail started "Miiis-ter Collin".

    He stayed w/ us last year when he came out for the CPC comp in Longmont and just Emailed last Wed, letting me know when he'd be in town. He was going to stay w/ us this year, too, and I was really looking forward to seeing him again. One of the most genuine people I ever met.

    Took this pic a few years back. He loved it. Andrea seemed to act like she "tollerated" it, but I swear she loved it, too.

    All our best to Andrea, the kids and anyone lucky enough to know him. I'll miss ya, Keith.

    -C.

  20. Quote

    armor will come handy in case of a PLF
    Sure, but properly performing a good PLF should help
    you more than the padding. Practice them often.
    The movement should be smooth and fluid.



    I've got a 40' PLF from a collapse--with bodyarmor--that says otherwise. I got my feet back under me and PLF'd, severely bruising both heels and breaking a big toe, but then took an enormous hit of impact on my back before bouncing, flipping forward and sitting up wondering why I wasn't in more pain. No matter how good that PLF was, I'd have been fucked royally without a spine protector and proper boots.

    Body armor is not a substitute for skill, but in certain circumstances, it adds a level of protection for when you still do things right and end up fucked.

    -C.