Mr17Hz

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Everything posted by Mr17Hz

  1. Yes. Campground is scenic, bunkhouse is fine, freeflying is world class, if you want a break you can go swimming, fishing, canoeing or horseback riding right there. Easy access to town, shops, restaurants, motels, freeway. Weather in Sept. is lovely, fast Otters, great bar and other facilities, and if you want a change of scene Hinckley is a 30 minute drive and they have a fast Otter too. No kangaroos or camels. Big swoop pond well away from main landing area, lots of grass, no desert dirt so your stuff doesn't get filthy. Not to mention the brand new Pitts S2C fully acrobatic bi-plane. http://www.skydivechicago.com/facilities/aircraft.php I just saw the thing fly for the first time 30 minutes ago. It's so new I can see my reflection perfectly on any surface of the airplane. WOW! I can't wait for a ride. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  2. I developed a solution for Skydive Chicago that solves some of what you're interested in. They run JumpRun but have some minor problems with it as well, for instance communicating who is on what load (for tandems and instructors) and which instructor is paired with which students. They use my application in tandem (haha, a pun) with JumpRun and seem to like it very much. One major problem with what you're looking for is it doesn't save the information for more than a day (it's really just for display purposes) however I could extend upon it. When I developed this for Skydive Chicago, I charged developer rates and so they own the product and rights to resell it, if you would be interested in learning more about the product, email me at [email protected] and I can answer any questions you have as well as put you in contact with SDC, who I am sure would love to resell the product to recover some of the investment they made in it. Matt Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  3. Steve, I appologize, I was reading two quickly and was disturbed by AndyMan's post: It was my intention to reply to him, not you. When it came time to scroll back and look to who I would be replying to, I made a mistake. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  4. I'm new to the sport, but it sounds like you're letting the need to make more loads sacrifice your saftey. Whether it's your job or not, you don't *NEED* to make the next load. You listed yourself two choices, and mentioned that you chose wrong - implying that you should have gone with the canopy that was smaller than what you were used to. You had a third choice, and that was to repack and jump your own rig on the next load. If your job requires you to make back to backs, maybe you should think about saving for another rig. How much did you make durring that single jump that it was worth raising your risk of injury? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  5. I want to disclaim this by saying that I'm just fresh out of student status myself with 54 jumps, but what was the rush on the pull? When I did my first hop and pop, my instructor made it a point to tell me "at 4,000 feet, you have 15 seconds before you need to get your main out." You're not traveling at terminal until after 8 seconds of freefall. He told me I should pull at 5 seconds, but ONLY if i was stable, and that if i wasn't, to take a breath and ARCH HARD... My hop and pop went great, but I attribute it to how calm and prepaired (through education) i was for the jump. Do you feel that your instructor made sure you knew that you had a little more time than most students think, and how important being stable while deploying was? My instructors drilled and drilled and drilled these things into my head while on the ground, and I'm glad they did; because I have yet to have any bad experiences. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  6. I have a very popular health care company / plan offered by my employer, and I called to make sure that my plan does cover injury due to high risk activities such as skydiving. I also know of some plans that will not. It is best to check out the plan that you have. Life insurance is the same way, a lot of older plans will not cover death due to skydiving, but most (not all) newer plans will. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  7. You should introduce your friend to dropzone.com, as well as some of the malfunction videos on skydivingmovies.com. There is a transition between the mindset of somebody after tandem jumps, and someone off of student status. I only have 46 jumps, I graduated AFP last month. I definatly had fantacies about doing a lot of things while I was planning my training in my head. I even thought about how cool it would be to jump to music. Although I didn't act on these ideas, and the small amount of training I've had already has put more realistic goals in my head. What i'm trying to say is that it sounds like your friend just has a more extreme case of the excitement that we've all experienced. I'm sure the process of training will humble him, like it does to all of us. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  8. Why do you want to remove the identity of the DZ, I would personally be VERY interested to find out if my home DZ is responsible for this so that I can give somebody greif about it. I doubt it is, but i'm sure there are a lot of people thinking "man, i'm glad shit like that doesn't happen at my DZ" even though it actually did. I think it's a good learning experience not to hide faults, but to acknowledge them. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  9. Thanks for all of the feedback. I've put thought into tracking software as well - I've made some inquires to Matrox to see how real-time their real-time processing techniques work with video. I've used their Imaging library to analyze still images before and it's an impressive suite. I do want to mention that the core GPS chipset that would be used to collect gps information runs for under $30 when purchasing singles, cheaper in groups... a complete package that gathered gps and altitude could probably be produced for around $200... This would give the device an idea of which object to be pointing at - and tracking software could further smooth, center, and focus the shot - making the operation completely hands-off. Using an IR laser would be bad news - although the human eye can't detect IR light - it can still be damaged by it. A very bright floodlight might work - if it would still be noticeable at 10,000 and reflected back another 10,000 feet... but I think you'd see an awful lot of dispersion at that altitude. You would also need reflectors on just about every side of the skydiver’s body – as you can’t predict what position he’ll be in. I imagine that heat imaging might be a solution too; but I’ve never worked with this technology before so I can’t come up with any estimates or project drafts. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.
  10. I'm curious if anybody's ever heard of a product that allows tracking and video photography from the ground. I was thinking about different technology offered today and determined that it's becoming reasonable to develop a product that might allow this. A GPS/Altimeter device that a skydiver could strap to his belt or harness could send real-time location information to a telescope on the ground. That telescope could use this information, as well as real-time imaging software to track skydivers from the second they leave the plane to when they land – keeping the telescope focused and centered on them the whole way down. This could offer a very unique point of view for photography. A quick estimate would put development and research between $10-18K, production costs could be around $2-2.5k per setup… Does this sound like a product that could be marketable at ~$4K for a complete package that could provide a ground perspective video from before a diver jumps to when he lands? I’ve done video processing software before although not quite this real-time; I’m seriously thinking about asking some friends in various industries what it would take to put a product like this together to determine if my cost estimates are accurate. Any comments? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.