RossDagley

Ouch - actually it's 1,225USD per hour, before any discounts. Bulk rates are 1,050USD per hour. Do you have any indication of your bulk rates or structure yet? And more to the point, how's the opening date looking?

Hi Kirk Any idea on bulk time rate pricing yet? (IE, 5+ hours)? And I'm guessing $1100 p/h seems expensive to you guys (cost of living etc) - with the exchange rate as it is at the moment, that rate isn't so bad from my perspective

Use the Extreme IV cards - you'll solve the problem. I went from the III to the IV on my 1dNmk2 and saw dramatic improvements in this area.

Depends on what you're planning to shoot with it. Fun jumps, pro footage, tandems? Cookie Composites MXV with a BB1000 for the PC1000 would be my first choice as an all-rounder. Awesome helmets and sidemounts. The camera can be anything - where you want to mount it? Side mount generally you want as thin as possible (pc1000) - top mount is better for larger cameras. Theres a few ideas for you anyway.

What he said. There's very little "more tunnel time" can't fix

Downsized from a 288 (student gear) to a 188 (my gear at the time) with no transition jumps - at jump #20ish. Nil winds. Scary landing.

can you clarify? I was under the impression that a cypres wouldn't fire until you'd exceeded the activation height of 1500ft - emergency exit at 1200ft would therefore not have any impact on the cypres? I think i'm a bit confused by a couple of differing posts in this thread. Cheers

Thank you tdog for a collected and cool opinion. The only intent was to better understand what person x could have done differently (person x being any one of us flyers in that group). Yes. This is the thing I can see now, that I simply ignored at the start. Instead of saying "hey man, lets skip this one" to my friend when the TI told us the b/f was going to lurk, we chose to come along anyway, whilst not knowing anything about the guys we were jumping with. This was a bad decision, and one that in hindsight is easy to spot. As I understand it, this incident was discussed after I left for the day (DZO, TI etc). The TI did go home after this jump, but I'd be speculating as to whether that was related to this jump or not. I'd rather learn something than not, obviously. I have learnt several things already from this discussion, safety wise, and for that I'm grateful. Most of these have come via PM from people with a genuine intrest in passing on knowledge however. On a side note, I've also learned that the place for discussion of this type of video isn't on DZ.com, but in private with the people concerned. It would appear .commers are far more interested in belittling the jumpers than giving constructive advice and guidance. I came knowing I was in the wrong, but looking for advice from those with more experience - I went away knowing I was wrong, and save for a selected few posts with genuine constructive guidance (such as yours) the bulk of the text has not been like this. Perhaps we should encourage future posters that rather than try and ask for guidance from some of the most experienced jumpers in the world, and from such a wide, useful cross-section of jumpers, they should in fact bury the video in the archives, and their head in the sand.

Initially I think we (my friend and I) thought it was that someone had floated high on the tandem at pull time, but since looking at it over and pver again, I'm leaning towards it just being the optics and the angle of view. I'm pretty sure most people are aware of the implications of being above the tandem at pull time. (I'm actually trawling through the original Crossman and Yasuda incident thread oddly enough in a seperate bit of reading). Thank you for your genuine desire to discuss the learning aspect of this

Whilst I would generally agree, blanket rules don't always cover every person. There a a whole bunch of people out there with low jumps and exceptional freefall ability (I'm not saying I'm one of them, mearly making an observation). That blanket statement wouldn't cover them. On this specific jump, belly-flying was done by all once on level with the TM. Unless I've missed something, there was nothing unsafe in my approach or ability. I'm (genuinely) interested if you believe something other than lack of situational awareness was a major issue. The bigger problem for me to deal with was that we probably should have elected not to jump with jumpers of unknown ability in such a "high pressure" situation (high pressure for the b/f of the pax).

Background: My friend (the cam flyer) and I had been flying/lurking with tandems all morning. TM and cam flyer both very experienced and current jumpers (TM 4000+ jumps, videot 1300+, mostly tandem video + TM jumps). I'm the lowest experience jumper, not especially current (average 10 jumps a month). I've a lot of tunnel time FWIW. 3rd jump of the day the TM says the pax is a wuffo, but her b/f is a jumper, circa 150 jumps, wants to lurk with HIS friend, circa 200 jumps, neither have lurked a tandem before. TM briefs fully and in depth (effectively turn and track for everything - cant get there, go low, go high, close to wave off, etc). TM then says it's gonna be effectively a 3 way, as he doubts these two will even get close in freefall. Exit order is discussed. I'm 2nd from last, with videot last (remember his filming priority is me, not the tandem!). The problem: First part of jump goes according to plan - I briefly go head down to reach the tandem and as I pull out, I see one guy already tracking off - smart move as he's a good distance off (circa 400ft). The other guy (the b/f of the pax) is maybe 200ft off, and just "floating" there, not doing much. I presume (wrongly) that he'll turn and burn, as he's little chance of making it to us realistically. I was wrong. Outcome: Luck. The TM eyeballed the guy incoming just before impact, and managed to avoid injury. I never saw him coming (and neither did the videot). I was simply lucky I moved when I did (for no particular reason). On the ground we didn't kick the shit out of the guy for doing this, but he seemed to know how much he'd fucked up. He packed and left the DZ for the day after the TM tore him a new asshole. Apparently he was so focused on getting to his g/f in freefall he went unstable. I've learned a great deal from this - it's easy to get complacent and presume everyone can fly well once they get a few hundred jumps (especially since I mostly jump with very good flyers), and I really need to pay more attention in freefall. I remember now "keep your head on a swivel" was said for a reason. I've edited the video a little bit as I don't want anyone specific (or the location) being blamed. I've learned a lot here - maybe someone else will too. http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=6052 edit to remove unnecessary swear word, and add clarification.

I'd be interested to know if anyone is using lightscribe to burn a freefall photo or something directly onto the disk, perhaps with some text - that might look both very personal, and a nice touch.

If it's still usable, you could always get one of those cheap flip down covers from ebay or somesuch. Would stop it getting worse at least.

Cant remember if I posted this before or not, so here it is just in case.

most newer graphics cards have a (physical) TV out option (usually either a normal S-video connector, or a custom cable supplied with the video card that works like an s-video cable) - this will allow you to treat the TV as a seperate display under windows. (right click desktop, properties, and you'll have more than one "screen" there to enable/disable, tweak etc) - you can then either mirror your desktop, or use the second screen as an extension to your current desktop. The setup you're talking about could either be used in "mirrored" mode (mimicing the desktop you're looking at when looking at the PC) or in "extended mode" - you simply move VLC off the side of the PC screen until it appears on the TV screen. The downside to the latter is that if it's in another room, you might not be able to control it so good as you can't see whats going on. I hope that helps a little

Doug - get the cookie. The difference is like chalk and cheese. I've not seen a specific BH 350 box, but I have seen a BH and a CC box side by side - they're both good boxes, but the CC one blows every other box away - its the tightest box (ew eh missus ) you'll ever see, and with so few snag hazards.

Night shots great for checking out hot 4-way chicks in white jumpsuits... Other than that, I've never wanted/needed it. PC1000 all the way.

A canon service centre should be able to replace that for you for about $175.

The stock lens is fine for most shooting requirements you're going to need starting out. Forget the negative comments about build quality - personally I'd rather knock my kit lens about on exit whilst learning and getting a feel for the camera than my L glass any day. Its light, cheap, and easily replaceable. Unlike the 10-22 for example, or the 16-35L. Image quality wise, shot indoors, wide open, at ISO 100, can result in some nice images - for example : http://www.tunneltutor.com/gallery/content/2007%20Tunnel%20Photography/Fabian%20Raidel/IMG_4491%20(Custom).JPG Outdoors, stopped down, I've seen some amazing shots (cover worthy). http://www.tunneltutor.com/gallery

[replyCare to share your unreliable sources? Or do your sources know more about crime than the FBI? Are you implying the FBI know something about crime?

Badly - That'd be in American units then

A bear with a drink problem. now THAT would suck...

ZP suits give amazing lift and power and can be worn much "tighter" than traditional suits, and therefore dont drag you round the tunnel like a more traditional baggy suit might. Boogieman, Tonysuit, and Ouragan all make ZP suits (there may be others) but they do have their downsides - mainly that the material is delicate and can tear easily on a snag on the net for example, and can't be patched easily. For an experienced freeflyer, they're super nice. I'd certainly not recommend one for someone learning... anything.

I call it "dives i'd rather not be on" Or "whoopsie I went low and tracked the fuck away "

ROFL. Just had to comment about that - thats the first time I've heard that expression - "combat RW". really made me chuckle