prost

You can make your lines 500 feet long and the cat eye still has to pass through the ring as it starts out above it to stow the brakes.

That is one hell of a swoop. I want to start going to comps to if nothing else see how far my swoops are. It is hard to get an accurate estimate without a course and someone standing by to measure. William

That and after he had already said that he didn't listen to the camera flyers at his dropzone. William

But does it hurt anything? William

You will wanto to pull it down. Many times it will come down by itself or at least one gromet will pass the slinks. William

Part of the problem is that there are not that many dropzones with a pond that will be acceptable to PPPB. They are very pickiy about the pond to be used for the course. William

Faster than me and I usually pack in about 5 minutes when I am in a hurry (have packed my fx in under 3 minutes before and it opened nice). William

I don't flat pack but I have seen people do it very fast. William

I can not tell you exactly which design aspect it is that causes them to respond better to one type of input than the other. As a tandem videographer I usually end up opening way up wind so I have a lot of chances to try out different techniques. I can't say I have any high speed measuring devices other than my Altimeter and my eyes. I look at where I open relative to the ground and what altitude I start at and what altitude I make it back to the DZ at (assuming I make it back). I also take the winds into account. If I am doing a back to back and the winds are the same it lets me get a good feel for the best technique. What I have observed is that when I am under any thing I have jumped by Pd (Sabre, Stilletto, Velocity) they seemed to respond better to slight rear risers with the brakes stowed. On the icarus canopies i have jumped (a lot of Crossfires, my two FXs and some other FXs I have borrowed) they seem to respond better to unstowing the brakes and using a little more rear risers. i get even better results pushing the rear risers out and down but this is very tiresome. William

It is harder to find the TRV 30 as cheap anymore because Sony is no longer distributing it. The cheapest sellers ship straight from Sony. However just a quick search on yahoo shoping turned up a price of $1149 and I am sure better could be done with a little work.

Yes but it doesn't give the whole story on video quality. The only real way to find out is to take both cameras, shoot video in all kinds of situations and lighting conditions, and then compare the videos. On Sony's new models they list the number of pixels for video, but once again this is not an absolute indication of picture quality. William

Think about this though. If you hit turbulance and drop 3 feet under a manta you might still stand up the landing. If you drop 3 feet under a VX loaded at 2.4 to one you are going to the hospitol. There is a time to not hook it and just land as safely as possible. learning when not to hook a canopy is the most important skill to learn for hook turners. William

So when did you first realize that you weren't in a good situation?

Assuming I am upwind, on Pd canopies I leave the brakes stowed and on Icarus canopies I unstow them. William

What I would like to see is a wing loading of all the competitors.

You can buy a TRV30 cheaper than a PC-110. They are on to newer models though. The resolutions you list are for stills not video. TRV30 will produce a better picture no matter what numbers you look at, but they are both so good it might not make a difference to you. William

Yes but I do have someone pack for me. I film every thing in the order that it will be played and I have a stock intro tape. I do show the freefall twice. Once with some slow motion and once in full speed. It makes about a 10-12 minute video and I can edit it in 15 minutes. William

I agree. If they are doing another tandem I would jump on the load at my cost. If not I would give them a refund. I would still feel bad but I don't think it warrants paying for another tandem. I am going to a two camera setup. If both cameras fail then I think it wasn't meant to be. William

I think I will just stick to William.

I am not even sure that would do it. Look at how under identical conditions a swoop competitor will have two runs that are very different in distance. Also one canopy might respond better to one style that the other. William

It is possible to go up on a lightly loaded canopy if you catch the right thermals. If I am long I look for areas that would produce thermals when I plan how to get back. William

Where were all of the guys that fly a Xaos? I think jason was the only one and he is new. You would think they would have had some 27's in the comp since they released it just now. William

Tell you a little secret. Sears will match any internet price. Find the lowest price out there, even if it is from one of those sellers that will only sell to you once you buy a lot of accessories and take it to Sears and they will match it. Depending on where you go you might have to wait while they talk it over with the manager, but it is in there policy. You will have to pay sales tax but you should still come out great and then you have a local store that will take it back if you have any problems. Another thing I would recommend. Go ahead and get their maintenance agreement. Sears will fix it no matter what with this. I broke the camera off my helmet. It ripped the mounting screw hole out and cracked the case. The eye piece was broken off. I took it in and they said they would fix it no problem because I had the maintenance agreement. When I went to pick it up they told me that the repairs were to expensive so they just gave me a brand new camera. No problems. William