jumpnaked69

I've got a .45x Way Cool lens with UV filter and it works great. The only thing is that it doesnt seem nearly as wide as some other .45x lenses that I've seen. My roommate is buying a new Sony wide angle lens and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with them. If I was going to get one, should I expect the Sony .6x to be equally as wide as my way-cool .45? Thanks a lot! alan

You all should see RJ$$'s latest haircut. He wishes he was bald.

tdog, come on. everyone knows you've landed in a tree more than a few times. just show them the real videos.

well, this is a huge help. at least your post had a little smiley face thingy. Fousts, as tdog mentioned i kind of like the idea of putting together a FJC PPT presentation. the idea, in my mind, is using it to cover a lot of the basics as a visual aid and provide more format for the course. Slides to provide visual representation of malfunctions, hand signal presentation, the landing area, an ideal Level 1, etc. Still the students should leave the classroom and actually see and touch the parts of a rig with lots of repetition and quizzing like the grandmaster of instruction, tdog, likes to have them do.

I'm thinking of getting a new camera helmet and i want to get a custom-fitted ff2. i was thinking of something HD...so the HV10 came up. Sounds like it's terrible for skydiving! Does anyone know of any other HD cameras that would support a sidemount system? Thanks! Alan

There are still some slots available for this weekend! Contact me via PM if you have any questions or want to save a slot for yourself!

Interested in Wingsuit Flying? Skydive Santa Barbara will be hosting a Phoenix-Fly First Flight Weekend on March 2-4. If you’d like to learn how to fly a wingsuit and demo one of the easiest suits to use, contact RJMoney or myself via PM. Give us a heads-up and let us know you’re coming!

Skydive Santa Barbara is going to have some demo PRODIGY suits available in the next few weeks courtesy of RJ$$ and myself borrowing them from Voodew1 (very gracious of him). But the ONLY way to test-jump or demo a performance suit is to find one that already belongs to someone else. And you're going to run into trouble finding someone who wants you jumping their high-performance wingsuit, especially if you have few jumps (like your profile says) and if you have little wingsuit experience (also like your profile says). But beyond that, even if you find someone to lend you a suit, it's not going to be made for you--all of these suits are specially measured and fit to people. You wont really get a feel for which suit offers you the performance and flight characteristics you want until you've got some intro- and mid-level suit jumps under your belt.

it's tdog's 25th birthday today. everyone wish him a happy birthday. and travis...since you own the IRM...why not just scan it in yourself?

JP makes a good point and I guess that's part of the argument for AADs in general--you DONT know the skill level (or undisclosed medical conditions) of some of the people you'll jump with--especially as an instructor. To me, that's only more reason to get an AAD. But hey, that's me. I won't jump without an AAD--with or without epileptic jumpers around. Not everyone is as big of a chicken as I am. I am curious to hear what the original poster decided to do.... ~alan

TRUE!

I'm with tdog on this one. I'd even go so far as to say that maybe the meds arent necessary for her if she doesnt want to take them--but these are all things that the original poster needs to talk to the person about in great detail. People get kicked in the head ALL THE TIME--and most of the time, it's NOT by someone with epilepsy. We generally dont kick them out of the sport for having epilepsy and we generally dont throw a fit and sell our gear over the incident (it sounds to me like your friend quit because he realized just how dangerous the sport could be in light of what he was leaving on the ground every time he went up and i don't fault him for that in the least). If this jumper really poses a threat to themself or others then its up to the S&TA or the DZO to decide and it's the original posters obligation (IMHO) to breach the subject and do so with the knowledge of the jumper in question. Personally, I would at the very least ask them to keep me updated on their seizures and ensure that they jump with an AAD and avoid stuff like...swooping? Five seconds of blackout at exit or mid-jump is not a big deal, right? But it's a huge deal at pull time, a malfunction, a canopy collision, etc. Talk with the jumper some more and learn about their specific kind of epilepsy. Like tdog said, there are a nubmer of jumpers out there who have epilepsy but are able to control it with and without medication. If your conscious is really eating you up about it then take it to a senior jumper around the dz who you respect and trust and get their input on this specific situation. I know that's kind of what you're doing now but there's always specifics that make a solution ideal for that particular situation. If that person doesnt exist, talk to your S&TA. just my two cents ~alan

My apologies to whoever is in this photo. But it's funny. enjoy

I'm not just talking about skydiving. I'm talking about LIVING IN MOAB. So I want all of the information you can get me that is not related to skydiving. So if you live in area...the basic sorts of things, you know? Cost of living, population size, etc. thanks alan

To anyone who is familiar with Moab.... I'm considering moving there and I wanted to get a feel for the size of the town in both the winter and the summer. From the Moab boogie the last two years it looks fairly small with a very young crowd. How is it in the winter? Does the town really swell in the summer? Any major downsides or benefits that arent immediately visible (i.e. extreme state income tax or a local federal penitentiary)? Is Moab expected to have a large population boom any time soon? What are house prices like? Thanks a lot for your help! Alan

Right on, Flatspin. Me and the Ghost will cover ourselves with glowsticks that wont come off in the plane and make a sick video. peas the Darkness

I wish people were charged per post on here because someone should be making money off of this type of crap. I can't believe you're asking a bunch of people whom you've never met on the internet what to write in YOUR logbook. It was a skydive...it was freakflying...say you turned 42 points...WHO CARES?! it's YOUR freaking log book. Do you ever come out of the stall and ask people what direction to wipe? It's your life, learn to make your own decisions. peas p.s.--make sure you write down date, delay, equipment, distance to target, location, color of jumpsuit, type of aircraft, and altitude.

Which of the tonysuits did you fly? They have nine different suits available to demo. I didnt get to fly one but a buddy of mine did. How did the suit compare to your other wingsuit experiences?

I would love to hear it. I want to hear exactly who is easy and who is "hard" to pass a course with. And to address an issue from up above...Someone made a post and said, I didnt get an AFF rating because my skills werent good enough. I only got a tandem rating. Then another poster replied with, just go ahead and get the rating, it's easy. As tdog has pointed out, it's all about the people that can make or break a system. If there's a ton of easy course directors but you, as an experienced AFF-I, encourage someone who at the very best lacks the confidence level to be an AFF-I and at the very worst lacks the flying and teaching skills to be an AFF-I to take an easy course, you've made the system that much worse. Any time that you encourage an underdeveloped skydiver to buy a smaller, faster, canopy for which they are not ready or to "buy" a rating for which they are not qualified you have just diminished the quality of our sport and contributed to endangering people on DZs everywhere. Sound a bit dramatic to you? Maybe so but think about what you're doing--I agree that it is the job of a course director to run a very fair but challenging course designed to test whether a candidate has the skills with which to fly but it is also your job, as a skydiver and especially as an instructor, to encourage qualified candidates and discourage those who are not yet ready. just my two cents and i'm looking forward to that list of easy course directors.

I had a friend tell me that the only way he could get his Vengeance to open decently was to deploy in a slight track instead of a neutral body position. That being said I think going from a 190 Pilot to a 170 Sabre to a highly-loaded elliptical airlocked canopy might be a bit aggressive and just downright silly for use as a wingsuit main. With my wingsuit I fly a Spectre loaded at about 1.4. In addition to Spectres and Sabre2s at similar wingloadings, you'll also come across some Pilots, often loaded quite a bit higher. They seem to perform just fine at those higher wingloadings even when deployed in a wingsuit. As far as the initial question in this thread, it seems like finding a multi-jump used pd-reserve to use as a main canopy for WSing would be a good idea, maybe just change out the slider. You can find it for cheap, it's F-111 and will open great and very fast and its damn good construction. The only downside I really see is (besides possible pain from the fast opening), might be getting back from a long spot. In my very limited experience ZP canopies will have a better glide ratio and so when flying your wingsuit, make sure you dont enjoy the flight so much that you land way off the airport. A ZP canopy will do a better job of getting you back if you manage to get out away from the landing area. If you can handle that (i.e. pull high enough to get back, stay aware of your location, etc), then sweet, go for it, and let us all know how it works out. just my two cents Alan

Some close friends and I attended MOAB last year and it was fantastic. Because we had to drive from Colorado Springs we only got to stay for about a day and a half. But in that day and a half we had two great nights of camping, beer drinking, bbq, 10+ jumps from FULL altitude of all different types and a huge landing area. I would recommend the boogie to anyone who's looking for a great time. We made a video that's posted on skydivingmovies.com here's the link. alan http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=guestpass&id=3f85r

I'm definitely gonna be there and flying my wingsuit. I'm definitely interested in doing a PFI course and I think RJ$$ is as well. If everyone could pre-register that'd be great..... That way they'll bring lots of planes. Only downside to last year was there were times when you had to wait for a load or two before you could get up. I know, I know, I'm spoiled.

if anyone wants some sweet video of RJ Money eating total shit after I cut his break lines, just let me know. I'll have it for sale at the boogie. RJ$$$ also has some personal image issues. He's ugly.

Dont plan on walking into the course with a great handle on everything. That's what I tried to do and I realized, then why the hell am i taking the course? I learned so much in my course that I would love to sit through some more courses in the future. If you've been doing some tunnel slot-flying, practice jumps with evaluators, and have good belly skills, then confidence is all you'll need to put it all together. Good luck with your course, I am sure you'll do great. Who is the course director? Alan oh, and dont listen to anything tdog has to say. he's just trying to get his post numbers up.

No, I was looking for posts like the ones that Chuck and Derek made. And I thank them for it. I needed more reasons than just "It's not a student canopy", I wanted some reasons based on the sensitivity of openings, the speed during the dives, the limitations of even an AFP style program, etc. Now I got those responses! And while the responses from people who have never flown Stilettos, never worked with students, and spend their time writing sarcastic songs are appreciated, I think its posts like the ones from Chuck and Derek that make the issue clearer for everyone. Thanks again for posting...now lets all be friends.