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I am curious to know what people think is the optimal wing loading with ultra high (ex. VX, velo, Xaos-27) performance canopies for distance and speed in swoop competitions.

Would anyone care to make a stab at the reason why a Velocity will out swoop a FX?

Hey John, This is William. Did you order one?

Congrats.

18 * 1.6 = 28.8 or is the focal length multiplier different for the 300d

Watch the video posted above.

That is a good video of a rear riser stall mid swoop. They are manageable there. I have done it. The first time was by accident. I did not know what happened at first because you go up as the stall begins. After that I played around with it to the point where I can control them. I am not really sure what purpose this would serve, but it is knowledge learned.

AS said before I would not recommend turning your head. The best defense is to insure that the riser will slid off cleanly when it strikes the camera. Then it is only irritating.

They both have advantages and disadvantages. Since you have a PC type camera, I would go with the side mount. As far as the angle goes with topmount, I would never shim a camera up. If you do this it is no longer going to be aimed in your field of view. How can you aim the camera where you are not looking. Learn to fly correctly before you start shooting paid videos instead of trying to cheat the system. As far as the sight goes, I do not recommend them for tandem videos. They are a snag hazard and you do not have to have perfect aim when flying 2-3 feet away with a wide angle lense. As far as the "paper asshole"(paper hole reinforcer) goes, they can be a good tool when you are learning. Here is how it works. You put everything on your head like you are ready to jump. Have someone look through your goggles and tell you where the center of the camera is pointing(easier when slightly zoomed in), and the you place a paper rig so that its center matches the center of the camera. People will say that your goggles can move. This is true but only a little and remember that your aim does not have to be exact when filming tandems. You might say why wear one at all. The reason is to train you to move your entire head to your subject instead of just moving your eyes. Your eyes should always stay at the same angle and this way your camera will always point where you look. After you get used to this you can remove the paper ring. As far as the side vs. top thing: The main advantages for both in shooting tandems are: Top: less likely to have your risers hit the camera. Easier to get still and video on same angle. Side: less likely to hit it climbing out the door. Easier to get extreme close up with tandem because camera is closer to line of sight. William

I would like to know how it works. I like the camera but I am not interested in taking that kind of a gamble.

Are you refering to other 3ccd canons? There are a couple of 1 ccd canons around my drop zone and they have not complained about a flutter problem.

The last I heard they will still make you a Crossfire 1 if you want it.

I use my altimeter to help me get set up correctly for the swoop. I want to start my turn at about 900 feet. Looking at my altimeter helps me get to the point over the ground I want to be at 900 ft. The turn is still an eyeball judgement just to make sure. The real trick to getting your swoops at the right height is not at the top of the dive anyway. No on e can judge within a few feet at 900. You need to be fairly close at 900 and adjust as you dive. There is obviously no time to look at an altimeter mid dive and all of these corrections must be done by eyeball.

No. I am refering to vectran. Several years ago we went through this same debate with vectran on FX's.

We are getting off subject here but vectran is known for not showing wear before it breaks. That was one of the major complaints about it. The were also several people that had steering lines break with vectran that stated there was no apparent wear before they broke. That is why it became a general practice to replace vectran at an earlier stage than spectra. I am not arguing that HMA will show wear better (I have no idea), only that it can not be worse than vectran at showing wear.

I just got my FX back from getting an X-mod done on it from precision. It is a 99 sq.ft. model and I am jumping it along side my other FX99 without the mod. As I am splitting time between two rigs I only put about 10 jumps on the X-mod this weekend. The first thing that I noticed is that the opennings are far better. I had gotten my FX openings to a point where they are ok, but could be better, especially when jumping a camera. The openings on the X-mod canopy have been some of the best I have ever had on any canopy. I have even deployed just coming out of a track to see how it would effect the openings and it was still fantastic. The front riser pressure is lighter now. As far as swooping goes it will be a long time before I can tell you if it is any better or worse as I have to get used to the canopy again. It seems to dive less during the turn but take longer to come out of the dive after the turn. The major reason I got the mod done was the increased number of jumps between relines. I will take me a good while to report back on the wear. I will give more of a review once I have had time to test the mod out farther. William

I believe there is an issue with using brass on vectran lines. You might want to check on this.

I just sent one of my FX99s off for an xmod. I still have a standard fx. When I get it back I will be able to do a head to head comparison. If any one is interested I will post what I find out. I will soon be back at Moss Point and will have the canopies there. William

And after you pay the 1400- 1500 dollars for the 10d you still have to shell out money for a lense.

I tested out a Dimage 7i at a local retail store. I did not think its film advance was fast enough. They have a faster model called a 7hi but I have only seen it online.

I have not flown it but I have looked at it. Seems to be the best semi professional camera out there for skydiving. The only thing I worry about is the optical image stabilization. Sony cameras with optical image stabilization have had a lot of problems, i.e. trv900. The camera has a great picture, easy to use functions, smaller than a vx2000, lanc port, and unlike the vx2000, its progressive scan actually works for video.

The issue is with their optical image stabilization. The VX2000 does not have this problem. There are a lot of jumpers that use the vx2000. William

What percentage of the people ask for the DVD option?

It is still like this. The current equivalant focal length multiplier is 1.6.

If you are sold on going with a pc101 I would go with something like the optik. You can make two sets of holes for the pc side mount. One set will be the correct angle for freeflying and the other for tandems. You can put a still camera on the top when you need one.