crazydiver

Hey Travis, I will agree with aggiedave. Imagine opening your parachute and having a line wrapped around an arm or helmet part... its gonna be extremely tedious to find a small hooknife. So you definetly want something large wtih a big handle...in the heat of the moment, you're bound to rip that knife out with so much energy you toss it out of your hand. So if you're only carrying one knife, make sure you can grip it will. The small two holed plastic hook knives are going to do you little or no good. Besides the fact that if you take that tiny little knife out and use it during the winter, it'll probably just snap in half from the cold. So....I would say either a jack the ripper or, even better, a happy hooker (the happy hooker because its got a very large exposure to the blade and a good solid metal handle. I would place it either on your chest strap, or if that isn't stylish enough, have a rigger sew you a pocket on the front of your thigh in your jumpsuit for it. Thats a perfect place for a jack the ripper, plus, your thigh doesn't bend so it wont hinder your movement at all. Hope that helps. I think i got a little wordy, but hopefully it makes sense. Cheers, Travis

Ya from what the DZO tells me, its a hell of a fast plane. Hopefully there'll be enough jumpers to fill it in idaho. Cheers, Travis

I took some pictures like that once. I managed to wind the camera and take about eight shots in freefall. I had about 100 jumps at the time so I could probably take more now. Anyway. I guess I took pictures of myself though. Cheers, Travis

I pack for myself for every jump except tandems on busy days. But when we're not hot turning, i'll pack for myself. Cheers, Travis

Supposedly Skydive Idaho has Titusville's king air based there in the summer. I'm just getting this info from the DZO. DZO's want people to come to their place of business so I was wanting a locals point of view to get the full perspective. Hopefully someone see this post. Do you know if they have bunches of loads going each weekend during the summer? Sounds like a couple places in idaho are kind of reservations only and people just call to open the place up. Who knows. Cheers, Travis

I'm moving to Idaho for the summer to work as a tandem instructor and videographer at Skydive Idaho. I was wondering if anyone on here is from up there and could tell me what the place is like and how much business they do each weekend. Any other info would be awesome too. Thanks. Cheers, Travis

It sure is. It works great for a profile pic, but its tiny otherwise because it was just taken from video. Great jumpin with ya though. THat was a fun saturday. Cheers, Travis

glide RATIO. THat was bothering me. Cheers, Travis

Are you sure its a cameye II? The older cameye's would have that problem for newer cameras, but the cameye II's fixed that problem. Try using someones cameye that is pretty new and see if the problem persists. Cheers, Travis

How much business do the dropzones out there do? How many loads do you suppose Skydive Idaho puts up each day with the king air they bring in during the summer? Is that thing there every weekend during the summer? Cheers, Travis

It could be from a lineover, but the damage you are describing seems much more severe than just a line burn. IF there is white residue it could be battery acid. There is also a chance, from you saying that the fibers are pulled apart, that it could have got caught on something and drug for a ways. I would definetly say your damage is not related due to hard openings or high opening speeds. Cheers, Travis

I know a large amount of folks taht freefly in fullfaces. They all seem to do about the same. A couple friends of mine dont like to sit in factory divers because of their closure systems. They've had them slip off before. The z-1's i've seen freeflown a lot...keep in mind that they dont have a chin strap. Oxygen's are very similar to the factory divers, but have flip up visors. They are great helmets. I would say though, that your best bet is the Z-1. Cheers, Travis

I had an airlocked 120 in an NJ also, which is sized one size smaller than the OJ. I have a friend with a samurai 136 and a PD 143 reserve (which has a huge pack volume) in an OJ. You will be fine. I guarantee it. Basically, an airlock packs up like a non airlocked of one size larger. So if a 150 fits, the 136 will. Cheers, Travis

THe play is actually IN the mechanism itself. THe plate doesn't rock back and forth in the bracket, the motion is in the closing mechanism. Cheers, Travis

My stroboframe rocks a little forward and backward. Its mounted flush and securely, its within the mechanism. Nothing major, but kind of a bad trait in a mounting system. I thought the gold member looked good, but I hate shelling out money to bonehead. THey sell their name, thier dboxes are ridiculous. The only product that I would ever buy from them again is a flat top since they are the best and the only ones who make them. Other than that, so much better products in other places. I bought the stroboframe for 45 bucks. 80 bucks for a gold member is ridiculous when there rae cheaper ways of doing things. Bone head is the starbucks of the helmet world. Cheers, Travis

What brand/model of quick release do you have on your still mount? I'm looking for a more stable system to replace my stroboframe. Cheers, Travis

Dolphins are ok. I used one for CRW for a legnth of time. They dont look as great as otehr rigs, but IMO, you would be better off spending a couple hundred more bucks and springing for a wings or infinity as Aggie Dave said. Belly fly with a dolphin, freefly with a dolphin(as long as you have the freefly mods) but in my opinion, dolpins are teh same level of technology as the vector two...top of the line up until 1990, then a huge container boom happened and Relative workshop finally came out with the Vector Three... a much better design. Dont pay your rent and spend a little more for a better container. Cheers, Travis

I just bought my suit about 9 months ago and it was a piece of crap. I highly recommend someting else that will last for years. ie. firefly, tonysuit, ouragan, merlin Cheers, Travis

That's obvious. Try connecting large rings on the riser to a mini harness ring...good luck. Impossible to do. Cheers, Travis

This thread is fun to watch. Cheers, Travis

Where do you jump at? I'm going to be working as a tandem instructor at Skydive Idaho this summer. It would be cool to meet up and I can help expose you to tandem video a little too, that was my job this past year. Cheers, Travis

Ya, those new illusions are great entry level/mid level helmets for video. I wouldn't recommend the bonehead d boxes though. In my opinion, you can get something more stable, better looking, and more accurate for the same price and even cheaper in other places. Bonehead tends to sell their name sometimes I think. Cheers, Travis

Here are my video helmets. The "old" helmet I used for about 500 jumps and worked great, It was custom made for me by a friend and has customizable liner adjustments for each jump. (its for sale too if you're interested) I just needed more space to mount so I just set up this flat top narrow. I haven't even got to jump it yet! But, hopefully it'll be beer this weekend! Cheers, Travis

You can use basically any freefly helmet (or fulface for that matter) without a chincup to mount a camera to...but, you aren't going to have a very stable video especially with the camera on the side catching air. Chin cups are also safer. Even if you dont have a cutway system on it, if a line gets caught on your video setup, the chin cup wont choke you to death, the strap will definetly cause more issues. Check out the cookie composites, they are more expensive, but worth it for their boxes anyway. Bonehead makes great helmets, I would recommend the optic illusion, even though its got a "chin cup" its a front entry helmet and very stable. Also two platforms for mounting. Cheers, Travis

Ok then...how many total freefall jumps do you have??? How many hours of tunnel time? Its all relative. I have 650 jumps. Which sounds like much more than you, but hardly any in the rest of the world of skydiving. So let us know..."a lot" of skydives can mean "a lot" of things. Tell us why we should trust you to do a linked exit or take your advice on video? I have 500 video jumps, VIDEO jumps, not just jumps where a camera is on my head. And thats not much in this world of skydiving either. I am a low timer. You are a low timer. I think you may just be a troll. And your friend sneaky...if he "feels like he doesn't need to reveal his jump numbers" he probably doesn't have too many either. Cheers, Travis