baronn

That's one bigass bunny. My rare Brazilian chicken could still take it.

I have seen this helmet and this forum does not do it justice. It is nothing short of incredible. The integrated sound system is just way too cool! The first time he wore it, everyone screamed when he turned around and looked back. It was shocking. If the students aren't scared enuff, they will be when they look back and see him outside the plane. Genius!

Hey Nick, Couldn't agree more about the layer of Dung. The USPA is and has been a selfish, self-serving organization that only exists to serve those in a position at the USPA. If it was a real business, it would have declared bankruptcy years ago and (thankfully) folded up. Time to bury this useless group and get a REAL bunch of business people involved and take the whole skydiving business to a level it should have been at years ago.

I have 32 out of an R44. smallest was about 5'6",120 to about 6'3" 240ish. No problem. I'm about 5'7" and 160. RR. door removed on opposite side of pilot. Instructor sits with rig against door behind pilot and foot on side of open door. Student sits in rr. seat next to open door. Everyone has belt. Student sits on instructors lap for hookup. Everyone's feet go towards outside of aircraft. Slide across seats and students feet go on skid, 1 instructor foot on skid(left) and right on door frame. 20mph forward speed and forward and turn into bird exit. No launch or kickoff from aircraft. Head down and trans to belly. Toss drogue and deploy normally. Too much fun. Repeat.

I just started using mine and I love it. Great angle of view and phenominal clarity. The step ring comes with it like the others have said. Be sure to check the tightness of the lens often as mine almost undid itself once. Enjoy!

Another good reason to own a Pre-paid membership. It wouldn't cost you a dime(other than the membership fees) to get some top-notch legal advice on how to pursue this matter. It sounds like a good case, but I'm not an attorney. I just have them on call when I need them. You can contact me for more info.

I hope you understand I meant I was ADD. The HDD is 500gig,should be OK I have a 1T remote storage. I'm going to take your advice and get the Vegas Pro.Thanx again for all your insight. A bit surprised that fine native American blood flowing thru your veins didn't have you up and jumping in a week. I'll do the nekked outside rain dance for you. Won't be pretty.

Now I'm really showing my ineptitude, what's HDD? I know what ADD is. Help the uninitiated. Sorry to hear 'bout the lack of progress in the healing dept. Wish there was more I could do 'bout that. I would really like to spend some time with you and get better at figuring out this stuff. I'll keep healing thoughts going your way.

I've scrolled thru the posts and it's probably me, but It doesn't seem there's a consensus on what editing software to buy. Not crazy about downloading anything illegally and don't want to buy more than I need. I would like to be able to shoot the vid., add a leader, throw some music to it, drop the trailer and get the whole thing rendered and burned ASAP. I just got a new HP laptop w/6g of RAM and a quad core in it. Radion graphics card should be able to let this fly thru it. Any suggestions? DSE, How's the heal goin'?

Does anyone know anything about this camcorder? Self-confessed dummy trying o get my video set up right. I would love to have this and replace my still camera. 8mp stills, sounds good. Maybe DSE can help.Heal fast bruzzzz.

Clearly Bill is just an incredible guy. I don't believe him when he says he doesn't have any new ideas. It simply means he hasn't found any pressing problems right now. He will continue to be looking and will find new challenges. A lesson for all of us in perseverance and focus. Problems don't exist to be problems, they exist to find solutions. Let the job dictate how it should be done. Bill did and we are all a lot better off because of it. Thanx again Bill from one of your many fans.

Sounds nasty. Definitely sucks to be you right now. Again, you'll heal. Did your nuts swell? Mine were fucking HUGE. Too bad my unit didn't match them.

Interesting how inconsistent the answers are here. All of us went thru a Tandem course and yet, very different answers. The reality is, if you're in an emergency situation below a safe exit altitude, your student will have a higher chance of survival if they don't have to lug an unconcious or even concious TI out with them. or , a TI will have a better chance of survival if they don't have to lug out a student. You should not be hooked up much before the belt is off. The lowers are not going to do that much for the student. If only those are hooked up, this will put all their weight on your lower back. If the opening shock doesn't injure you then dealing with an upside down frantic student should be piece of cake. Most of their weight should be supported by the uppers where their weight is put on the canopy where it belongs. In an emergency, it would be better to have them on and the lowers not even connected. As was stated earlier, you can always just wrap the legs and get out. This is something every instructor should consider on every ride to altitude. Put a plan together and be ready. There won't be time to think one up if the stuff goes sideways. Hopefully, you may never need it.++

Hey DSE, You'll learn to stop letting the quacks look @ ya', they'll just continue to find something to fix. I split my pelvis when my toggle line came undone(my fault, what a dummy). Believe it or not, an almost no pain free injury, just uncomfortable. The fix , however was pretty uncomfortable. But, I healed and have no ramifications from it. With that fine Indian blood flowing thru you, you'll probably heal faster than me. Best advice is to get up and going ASAP. keep the fine advice coming and get back up again. Thanx from all of us.

I went out there to work as an instructor and so my reason for being there is different from a fun jumpers perspective. I was told that they had more students than staff to handle them and that there was a desire to build up the business to a higher level. Right now the place is being funded by the DZO. A great guy named Rex who has a lot of energy and gets help from a dedicated staff. They all have full time jobs and hence the weekend only hrs. of operation. The place has fantastic potential but I got the impression that there isn't a lot of desire to increase the student numbers. With the business where it is, it would be difficult for an instructor to make enough to live on for the summer, let alone survive the year. The place has fantastic potential and it's too bad it isn't being operated to it's capacity. I certainly wish them the very best and hope they find a way to keep the place going so it can continue in the future.

Well there's an enabling attitude. Don't know the details of this deal, but clearly there seems to be an issue. Seems to me to be a good idea to air it out and see about helping others avoid a similar fate. To tell this person that"That's just the way it is." is a terrible idea. Since when should we accept that it's OK to be ripped off and if we accidently leave something out in the open and a thief comes along and steals it is, is that so acceptable? Stealing is never acceptable and never should be. Have this other person air his version of the story and come to a conclusion.

So would I. These are estimated speeds. The REAL speed of a Paragrine falcon has been clocked over 300 mph. if you look closely at the Norm Kent video footage, you will see Fearful had no problem keeping up and spent a large portion of the dive throwing out the boards to slow down. you will be completely SMOKED!

Double amputee wants to learn how to skydive? Bring it on! Give them an opportunity to be like they were, right on. I'll be @ Spaceland this summer. Anyone interested can come there and we'll take care of them.

I've got a few w/ amputees, paraplegics and quads. Some present some unique challenges, but nothing that can't be overcome. Of course,harness adjustment is important. A little help in the plane is appreciated. The roll outta' bed exit is usually the easiest for everyone. Be sure the legs if they are there are out of the plane.Nice thing about the double amputee is, you don't have to ask them to pickup their feet. Have fun!

Ya' gotta want it and that means finding the time, money and right place to get it done. I've had students that bring the right attitude(and everything else) on a Thurs. nite and had them jumping on their own by Sun. It's an ambitious schedule and yeah, you'll want to make sure you've got a full bowl of Wheaties in you, but it can be done. Spaceland looks like they do a good job and won't dink you around. It's definitely worth it. Good Luck!

Here,here TK Good job. This was a tragedy anyway you look at it.The instructor has to be living in their on Hell. The Butcher's certainly didn't deserve this and of course, neither did Ted. Had to be have been a long series of mistakes that occured and allowed this. Goes to show, we all have to be looking out for each other. If someone had spoke up when they saw something weird, this might have been avoided. Seems that sometimes in our sport, we get real offended if someone ever says something about how anything is done. Might've made difference this time. Something to consider.

This is what I've been looking for! I don't know how to edit and get it down so fast, any way someone could walk my dumb-ass thru it? Many appreciates.

I worked at a DZ where it started out with myself and another seasoned instructor. We handled all the AFF til the DZO decided he wanted to be an AFF instructor. So, he and another person go thru AFF and decide it's a good idea to start taking all the students up and leave us on the ground. After failing a bunch of really good students and then getting scared when they had a difficult one, he puts the newbie instructor in charge of the AFF @ his DZ. This asshole continued to make more of these types of brilliant decisions again and again. it finally got to be too much and I left. There are some really good places out there, but a few of these ruin it for the others. The sad thing is, the students don't know till it's too late.

Just another example of how our sport works. This is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed. I favor a national ins. program. Till we get that, we're on our own. Why not get a major injury coverage group rate thru USPA? Perhaps the new "leadership" will look into doing something. It wouldn't have to cover teeth cleaning or visits for a cold, just keep one out of bankruptcy in the event of a mishap. Seems the only focus has been to find a new ways to get funding for a skydive museum and not find a way to sustain our sport and provide some basics so you could make a living in it. Another example of how the biggest threat to our future is not others, but ourselves.

I'm w/you. If this organization( I use the term loosely here ) really ran like a business, they wouldn't be getting involved in lawsuits they can't win, they would have an effective mktg. campaign for sustainability and they wouldn't be making it so difficult to be part of the sport. It's about to take on a whole new level of " Eletism " the likes that has not been seen b4. The new leaders are about to make sure all the "little people" pay for their involvement. Ass,gas,or grass you're going to have it rammed down your throat and will like it or be blacklisted and have every rating you have worked so hard for yanked out from underneath you. God help us all!