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Thanks. I was not sure how well this would work but if it works well then it would be much better than using usb2 for the second hard drive.

Do you have two firewire ports or do you have the camera and drive chained together?

Does anyone keep figures for what percentage of your tandems/AFF students return/finish?

I just demoed a Xaos-27, and I have jumped other peoples' Velocities. Just for some background info, I normally jump an pair of FXs. Onw has the X-mod, and one doesn't and I have jumped all the major US marketed cross-braced canopies except for the VX. I have not demoed the VX because of what I have heard about the openings. I am a full time skydiver and video is one of my jobs. The bigest thing that I liked about the Xaos over the velocity was that you can load it higher and still get great swoops. This, in my opinion, makes it more fun. The velocity seems to drop a lot of swoop distance if you load it over 2 to 1. I jumped the Xaos 27 at 2.2 and thought it performed great. It would plane out with very little input and floated well. The velocity will do this but only at a lower wing loading simular to the FXs I currently have. The openings were not the best on the Xaos. They were soft but the nose searches even more than with other cross braced canopies I have jumped. Once I had an opening where the nose seemed to fold under. A tug on the rear risers fixed this. After jumping the Xaos27 for a bit I got used to how to control the openings and they settled down. I think I will demo a VX just so that I can see about the openings for myself. If I can get one for next week I will post on here.

There is not a need for the 1.8 in skydiving. At least not that I have ever come across. If you set the Fstop to 1.8 it would have a very small field of view and would need to be focused very precisely. This would not be possible in freefall unless you used auto focus. Even then you might not get it to work. The lower number is a larger opening which lets in more light. This would be good for low light situations but you definitely would not get auto focus to work in low light. The 1.8 is much more expensive and heavier with no benefits to skydivng. Buy a 2.8.

Josh, are you coming to Moss Point for the 60 ways?

The digital rabel is the americam version of the 300D not the 10D.

When you bring up the capture video screen, click on the settings tab. Check to see if the encoding mode is set to default. If it is change it to "Encode after capturing". Try capturing again. If you try capturing in MPEG format you will usually need to do this with studio unless you are using a very fast machine.

Yes he was a very good student. Very prepared when he got there and very heads up. I had a lot of fun. I hope to see you both again next year.

Congrats, I am glad to see that you found a place that could work with you. Keep us updated. William

If I mess up and go skipping across the water sometime I will just tell everyone I was following your advice.

I use the rears right after opening and I know I could pull them down enough to flare but I would not if given a choice.

No i have not seen one get close to the stall point or gain altitude. That is not my point. Only that it will briefly fly at a glide angle that is less steep than normal before returning to the normal glide angle. I have seen this extreme enough that a canopy will briefly maintain its altitude.

Isn't the name of this thread "Positive recovery arc vs. negative recovery arc" Spanking new Stilettos will do this as well as older ones and so will lightly loaded crossfires and I expect other "high performance elipticals" will do this at very light loadings. It used to be a big thing to plain out without using any inputs after a front riser approach. I even remember an article showing a member of the Golden Knights just after plain out and the article points out that he is not using any brakes (rear risers were not common then).

There is a diffence in that some canopies will briefly go to a flatter than normal glide after recovering from a turn.

That isn't the issue at all. Eventually one of the the tandems will complain if they only get say 15 pics and their buddy gets 25. It doesn't matter that only ten of their buddies pics were good, they will feel cheated. Therefore I cannot use a camera that will not be able to take as many pics as the other cameras that are in use for tandem photos.

This is a term that has been debated a lot. Part of the confusion comes from the name "negative recovery arc" that implies that it somehow will keep diving after a turn. Part of the problem comes from the characteristics being explained poorly and some of the problem comes from just plain bad info. Let's examine the way the term has been used. Most people say that the current crossbraced canopies and high performance non-crossed braced canopies have a negative recovery arc. The canopy that comes to mind that is not said to have a negative recovery arc is the Stiletto. What is different about the way a Stiletto reovers from a dive than the way an FX recovers from a dive? First off the Stiletto has a shorter recovery arc. If that were the only difference then there would be no reason for the term 'negative recovery arc". We could all just say short recovery arc. I think everyone that is fairly well educated in canopy control will agree that all canopies will eventually return to their normal flight attitude after a turn of any kind if no more control input is given. If you turn with a FX it will dive and then slowly lesson the angle of dive untill it reaches its normal glide rate. A Stiletto however will recover slightly differently. After a turn the canopy will decrease the angle of dive and will actually move to a shallower descent rate than normal and eventually settle back to its normal descent rate. This is why it is possible to do a front riser approach on a Stiletto and then plane out without touching any controls. A canopies wing loading will also effect this characteristic. I think the name "negative recovery arc" comes from the fact that other canopies have a "positive recovery arc". A more descriptive term for a canopy that recovers like an FX would be a "neutral recovery arc" but that just doesn't have much of a ring to it.

Interesting. Thank you, I now know which lens I will buy when I buy my camera.

There is less distortion than I expected from a fisheye. Did you correct some of these? Does it have less distortion because of the cropping effect with the digital sensor being smaller than 35mm?

Nothing like getting a buzz job by a plane that is at the same time breaking the sound barrier. If you have ever had this experience then you know why breaking the sound barrier is illegal over the US.

I can't even imagine what the game would be about. Accuracy?

I have a copy of that book as well but no scanner here. If no one else can post them I will try to get them scanned at school or when I am back at the dropzone.

Finally good weather again tomorrow for the Boogie. I have a class from 12:20 to 1:10 but I will be out in the morning and return after class. With this bad wether monday though thursday the students will most likely be backed up enough that I will not be doing a lot of organizing but you never know. If I am free to organize, I will be putting together small ways.

Oh wait you are talking about the 15mm fisheye. I was thinking about the 14mm that runs $799. Anyone have any pics with the 15 fisheye?

Where do you buy the Sigma 15mm for that price?