RossDagley

As above - I'm presuming you're using a wide lens on it, so it the shutter sticks closed, you could glue it open - however, I don't know if this would "tell" the camera it's now OK to record or not - it's clearly being told NOT to record when the shutter sticks closed as you say it wont record. Might be worth trying just holding it open with a pencil or something whilst you turn it off and on a few times to see if that frees it up at all...?

As far as I am aware, they must shut down the tunnel to change the amount of "opening" of the vents. IE, to change from 10% open to 20% open (or close etc) requires a shutdown. Kindof. Do you fly in tunnels with the tunnel on maximum power (or close to it) a lot? In my (limited - 15-20ish hours) experience of a skyventure recirculating tunnel, opening the vents much beyond 20% hinders power considerably, but this is obviously offset against power hindered through heat. Too much heat causes a loss in "lift" whilst opening the vents a lot (to cool all this hot air down) also affects lift. The nicest lift comes from closed vents on a cold day, and being in the first session of the day Yes - I'm aware of how it works - its a good system to solve this problem

Eh? Maybe where you live and fly I wouldn't call >25% a "tiny amount" of required venting - and we've not even got into summer yet here

I've clearly been spoilt I've only ever flown in either Bodyflight (1500Kw of cooling), AirKix (recirc with vents to use outside air to cool it down, Orlando and Spain (both non-recirc but use outside air). It was over 100 in Spain just using the outside air - I'd hate to have a recirc in that climate. Sure it's been hot (seen 100+ degrees in Bedford on monster hot, monster long days, where we've used maximum power most of the day) but never unbearable. That would truly suck instructing in that heat. Good job to you guys I say.

Thanks for the link Laszlo - I've been looking through the "post your helmet camera" thread at helmets i liked - yours was one of them. Any reason you elected not to front mount the stills? Was it just the size of the 5D?

Thats a work of art. I love it, and is exactly what I'm looking for right now... How did you find / fabricate that flash bracket?

I'm finding myself to be wanting to jump with my 580EX more and more - so I've been looking at ways to get more gear on my head safely. Other than a FTP, what are my options? I'm not against the FTP at all - in fact, i'm seriously considering one so I can top mount a CX7 (or some other HD camera I'm probably going to get this year) and keep my stills camera. I'm just shooting pool hoping for some other examples that work - I'm presuming the CCM is way to expensive. Edit: the vapor looks like a good helmet, but on further reading seems its hard(er?) to front mount stills. Thoughts? I guess a comparison of the FTP Vs. Vapor Vs. something else would be perfect for me

Or white - further to the film crews request it was... white

Go for the large - they stretch/flex a little and if you're planning to jump camera, rather it a tiny bit snug than a tiny bit loose.

Why do you ask that? Several tunnels I know of prefer total non-jumpers for new instructors over established skydivers...

Super nice work Kirk

I'm after comfort really over protection i guess - it's generally accepted I think that a protec will protect you better than pretty much anything else, but I have to use this fella for up to 8 or 9 hours a day (as most instructors do). I'd like something that wicks sweat away, and maintains comfort. I might try making something outta that memory foam stuff - I can get a sheet of that from ebay for about $15.

ah perfect - I couldn't find those buggers no matter how hard i looked. Thanks!

My pro-tec's got somewhere round the "500 hours of tunnel time" mark on it, and the liners pretty trashed. So I started looking around for replacements as the shell is still fine, and even though the helmets only $50, I'd like to not throw it away if I dont have to. I'd be interested if anyone has ever used this replacement liner - it's pretty expensive, but looks like it should last a lot longer than the standard foam liner. Anyone even ever seen this before? Opinions? http://www.oregonaero.com/p77_2001.html#protec

Bodyflight staff pay increases with "tunnel time" (as part of our contracts), at 500 hour, 1000 hour, 1500 hour, 2000 hour etc etc intervals. Getting those hours (or more importantly logging them) is the hard part - how do you define the tunnel time? Flying with flyers? Coaching? Spotting? Walking on the net? Standing in the door? How would you possibly log that for any member of staff... We simply take the hours an instructor works, and divide it by 4 which gives a very rough "tunnel time" calculation (we tend to do 30 minutes in the tunnel, 30 out, 30 driving, 30 out, so this works out at a quarter of the day spent actually in the tunnel with a helmet on...) Over and above that is personal flying of course. I've no idea how much time I've got - including the spotting and based on the "calculation" above, I've got just shy of 1000 hours of tunnel time, but that's a BS figure really, as a great deal of it is spotting, and not flying. I do know I've bought and paid for 4 hours in Orlando, 20+ in AirKix plus what i've done at Bodyflight for fun on staff nights. It all adds up

We've already got some pretty big names in again this year, but there are still team slots available for teams looking to enter.

have you tried shooting in manual exposure to see if thats it?

You will do well to fill out your profile. A great deal of people will not give you a reply with missing profile info - people like to know who they're recommending things to. Jumps, Time in sport, etc. Good luck.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3060605;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread I read that as inspect and assess. Perhaps some clarity is in order?

Since I started umping I've been a member of both the BPA and the USPA. The BPA membership is currently £160 ($300) annually, whilst the USPA membership is still $55 (£30). Last year i half joked I'd not renew my BPA membership because of the increasing costs and less than frequent jumps I make here. Several people I know did the same thing last year. It's just not cost effective for me. I'm guessing the BPA membership will go up again this year (it's already £160, or to put it another way, $300, or 4 return trips to Spain...). Ths cost of jumping in the UK (on average, £20 a jump, compaired to 20 euros a jump in Spain), the weather (need I say more), and the price of the BPA membership are conspiring against me. Hell - two years worth of BPA membership gets me a lifetime USPA membership. A minimum of 4 trips a year to Spain, where in one weekend I can get in the same number of jumps that would take me a month to do in the UK, pretty much perfect weather year round in Spain... Maybe I don't have the mindset. Maybe I'm not looking at it from the right perspective. Perhaps I *should* pay through the nose to do a few shitty jumps a year in the UK to be "part of the sport" - personally I'd rather spend the money jumping. In the sun. /Ross gets off his soapbox. Whinge over.

Thats an interesting viewpoint. You'd really perform in air rigging (and and $$ cost too to be repaired) rather than simply cut away? I'm not "bashing" but generally interested. I'd just chop the fucker.

I go once a month (return) to Madrid from Luton - perhaps 6 times so far (next time is next week, last was 3 weeks ago) - I've seen my rig get "reversed" back into the x-ray machine a few times (it's in a kit bag) but they soon figure out what it is. The only mistakes I've ever made were leaving my allen keys in the same kit bag (for my camera helmet) - they didn't like that, and when questioned once on the return in Madrid: "Whats this for?" "Its a parachute. You know for jumping from an airplane. No NO. Not YOUR airplane, AN airplane... Erm..." It's fine. I'd always take it as carry-on, never in the hold. Not since I saw that documentary on how baggage handlers treat checked baggage...

Hi chris. Check the paragear catalogue for the difference. You'll find some cameras (300D, 350D, 400D) use the 2.5mm jack plug, whilst others (generally the higher end cameras) - the 20D, 30D, 40D, 5D, 1D etc) use a 3 pin custom connector. You'll simply need to get the one most appropiate for your camera. The name of the port is simply the remote shutter release socket. Its' the same socket as used for a cable shutter release used by "regular" photographers.

Thanks DSE The friend is in fact a girl, and nothing to do with my past exploits If by "these parts" you mean the Photo&video section of these forums, well hey - i actually only check a few sections here on DZ.com now - this is one of them. Full of useful info, and strangly, a calmer place than the usual basing in other forum areas Re the camera - someone on here has PM'd me regarding a camera they've got available - I'll check this evening with my friend to see if she's interested. Hopefully it'll all come out in the wash.

Thanks guys - I guess we're stuck with the older PC range. I've setup a ebay thingie to email me when someone lists a PC350 or a PC1000 so hopefully I'll not have to wait that long... Top mount really isn't an option which is a pity. Thanks very much for the advice so far.