dragon2

Yes. I wouldn't get a sabre 1 for camerajumping however if you're looking for a cheaper intermediate canopy or for a wingsuit canopy, they're great. Sabre 1's have a reputation for opening brisk but not all do, so first off you want to jump any sabre 1 you're thinking of buying. If it does open too hard for your taste there are ways to slow it down using packing methods and/or a different slider. ciel bleu, Saskia

KiKa Kinderen Kankervrij = Children Cancerfree. The shirt says "Help KiKa jump ahead". These shirts were sold at various skydiving competitions and there's a yearly (?) day of tandemjumping where I participated in a couple years back, doing a day of freebee tandemvideos for KiKa. Glad to do it

By "strong", do you mean tight? Ie, the newer rubberbands are smaller than your old ones? What type of lines do you have on your main canopy? Dacron, microline, vectran or HMA? If you have dacron lines you use bigger bands than for the other linetypes. Better get bands that fit your lines, so you don't have to double stow at all. All bands on your bag should be the same type and size, although some people use a different (tighter) type for the locking stows. ciel bleu, Saskia

Then, as mentioned before, you may want to get another instructor. A Nitron over here is a category 4 canopy, meaning you need 400 jumps minimum to jump one. While these are not USPA rules, it might be a hint as to the type of canopy you're jumping. ciel bleu, Saskia

Sure, buy a good lens and put a crappy piece of plastic/glass in front. Like the post above yours says, get a high-end multi coated filter, not a cheap ass one otherwise there's not much point in upgrading your lens. I never use a filter for that reason: a good filter costs $$$ (and if scratched would also need replacing) and a cheap filter is useless, so I just go without and buy a new lens every now and then and try to avoid any scratching. ciel bleu, Saskia

Get one of the cx models with EIS. Look on Ebay etc for one if you cant find any new. ciel bleu, Saskia

CX150 = HDR-CX150 yes. The harddrive models are called SR not CX, so don't get a HDR-SR... camera for skydiving purposes. For skydiving you want a CX model that has EIS, like the CX100, CX105, CX110, CX115,CX116, CX150. You may have to buy one 2nd hand as all the newer models of CX camera have OIS (=optical image stabilisation, which is not so good for skydiving). ciel bleu, Saskia

Prices depend on where you are among other things. If it has 600 jumps in the lineset it'll need new lines, either now or real soon so budget that in. ciel bleu, Saskia

It sounds like a good choice wingload-wise, you might go smaller than a 210 IMO. The sabre2 is a bit more HP though than your average just-off-student-type-canopy. It is quite suitable for swooping. Over here, you actually need 100 jumps to fly one (at any size), which I think is a few jumps over the top but to give you an indication. The sabre2 will be more reactive to your body position, on opening and in flight. You will need to flare it evenly as well. If it's a sabre 1 it's a good choice for you, if it's a sabre 2 (which is a totally different canopy) you'll need to pay more attention. I'd think something like a sabre 1/spectre 190 or pilot 188 might be a good canopy for you as well. Again, ask your own instructors ciel bleu, Saskia

Typical skydiver. Jump with a broken heelbone, jump with a broken upper arm, jump with a broken nose, jump with a couple broken metatarsals, jump with a broken tailbone, jump with a broken ankle, seen it all. ciel bleu, Saskia

It depends on both the rules in your country (which you don't list) and the DZ you're going to. Dutch rules say you can go 3 months without jumping before having to do at least a shortened ground course refresher. In your case there would be no doubt that over here you'd have to do the entire ground course again after just 2 jumps and ~1 yr. I think in the USA you can't even go 3 months without jumping it's much less, so I would totally count on having to do the entire ground course again. ciel bleu, Saskia

As a videoflyer I didn't like the A2 all that much; they were always the last to land (with a large margin) they just don't seem to want to come down ciel bleu, Saskia

As Dragon2 once pointed out to me: Remember that you'll be loading your reserve that much heavier too. Sound advice. Ah, yeah. . As I should have remembered when loading up on lead thereby loading my Techno 115 @ 1.7 last year, and coming in hot. ciel bleu, Saskia

Why not? I've looked up the BPA rules when some British jumpers wanted a FJC whgen I was in Empuria, and 1 of them I declined to teach as he didn't comply with his home rules but the others did. While it is also their responsibility (they should know their own rules and follow them) I will not put my name under a FJC knowing I'm breaking someone else's rule, and would feel very bad and partly responsible if something were to happen with said jumper in a wingsuit. So no, I bowed out of that one. ciel bleu, Saskia

Why on earth would you change the worldwide wave-off for something that is not readily recognized as such and may (WILL) cause confusion on other DZs/with other jumpers? IMO that isn't much better than no wave off at all PS I'm with "if a wingsuit student can't wave off (with their LEGS) without losing stability then 1) maybe they shouldn't BE in a wingsuit and 2) they definitely shouldn't be jumping with non-wingsuit coaches" ciel bleu, Saskia

A lot of the CRW jumpers here (and other jumpers, me included), have a warmsuit from Rainbow Suits (Germany). They last pretty well forever even when doing CRW and it is a warm and comfortable suit. Might be the best skydiving purchase I ever made

There is really no way to sell that gear in todays market. The gear is simply too old to sell as jumpable. It is also nowhere near intersting/old enough to be of interest to "vintage collectors/jumpers". A rigger may not want to pack gear over 20/25ys old (depends on which country and which rigger). Both canopies are non-current models, in fact a newer jumper would not like how the pegasus opens (too hard), flies (too slow) and flares (not enough). Also the gear is likely not AAD ready, pretty much a must for a rig these days you will not find that many people anymore who will jump without a AAD. The best you could do is sell the main and reserve canopies as a car cover/shade, or give them away. If you get a few beers for them, more power to you. Your best bet would be ebay I think, if I were you I'd sell both canopies separate and list them as non-jumpable/decoration, bin the vector. ciel bleu, Saskia

I wear between 0 and 15 pounds of lead depending on who I'm jumping with and what the event involves. Just makes life easier. Wearing lead while also wearing a larger wingsuit (S-Bird) instead of a smaller wingsuit (R-Bird or T-Bird) ... How many people do you know doing relative work in balloon suits with lead? I fly big camerawings for tandem/FS, often with lead. This flies differently than just using smaller wings. I like the way it flies it gives me more range - big wings if I need 'em, lead for the speed if I need it. Canopy pilots also do this, a bigger wing with lead flies differently from a smaller wing without, given the same WL. I've never tried it with wingsuits, but I can imagine it works similarly. So there's your other disciplines. ciel bleu, Saskia

Me too ciel bleu, Saskia

Not in our setup, since you are jumping a RESERVE they're not generally made to cutaway, no. Also, I would not really like to be hanging from that harness especially just from that harness, as it is just a bunch of straps without padding and you'd be hanging backdown so to speak, so you'd have to "swim" through the lines to straighten up. BTW a belly round reserve is not a POS reserve, it's a functional reserve used by round jumpers all over the world. ciel bleu, Saskia

I prefer jumping with an AAD, but one of my 3 rigs doesn't have one (accuracy rig) and I've done jumps without before, too. It would suck, I'd rather have an AAD, but if not, so be it. But then again, the only things I will not jump without are my rig and my camera ciel bleu, Saskia

Another option: my rigger has a harness (well, a bunch of straps + D-rings) you put on under your regular rig. Attached is a belly round - without pilotchute (!). You open your main then cutaway and pull your own reserve, the round is backup. You get a briefing on when and how to use that round (basically, don't, and if you have to, you toss it in the same direction you are spinning, not against). Jumping a belly reserve is not to be taken lightly if you are of the piggyback generation like most jumpers nowadays, and you also cannot cutaway your own reserve so you could end up with 2out. I also had to change my cutaway procedure from 2hands on each handle to 1 hand, since I couldn't reach around the bellymount. PLFing with that thing in the way was also harder for me. This setup has been jumped a couple times at our DZ, mostly by people in the same boat as you - wanting to become a TM but not having had a cutaway yet. Over here you need 1000 jumps + a cutaway, I think most jumpers have had one by then but otherwise, we have this setup. I jumped it twice, but for other reasons. I needed to do a jump on my own reserve because the first time I had a reserve ride on that particular reserve it opened with closed endcells and I broke my nose landing it. So when it was due for another repack, rigger suggested I jump it again, on purpose this time. Opened fine that time. The second time I jumped the bellymount harness was when I had a unknown brand (to me) reserve (a micron 175) and it was due for a repack that day, and since someone else had already taken care of the repack for the belly reserve I was like "why not". Didn't like the total absence of any flare whatsoever one bit so I traded that micron that same day for a PdF mayday 156, much better

Anything high performance basically sucks for filming CRW. The most HP canopy I could film CRW with was my fusion 120, and only filming lower WL sequential and just for fun - the canopy opens too slow to film "for real". Anything faster (like my vengeance) and you fly way too fast and sticking the canopy into the burble won't help you loose enough speed (plus the burble does "interesting" things to HP canopies...). If you want to film CRW for judgeable video, get a CRW canopy (or a PDR that worked for me in a pinch). For fun, a freefall 7cell like a spectre, regular storm or regular or hybrid triathlon is OK too. You basically want a canopy you can do just about anything to and it will still keep flying: full brakes burble flying and flying cross-connect to stay put behind the formation are 2 things your crossfire will NOT like You want to fly behind the formation comfortably, in the burble, instead of the see-sawing you do now to bleed off speed. Try flying cross/warped, that's 1 brake and the opposite FR to get the canopy to stop flying so fast (try that at your own risk with a xfire LOL) Get a canopy with ~ the same wingload as your group, or a little bit lower. For big diamonds a lower wl is helpful. If you're filming 4way rotation however, better not have too low a wingload edit: ow that off-heading+linetwist you had is fairly dangerous when doing crw, I'd work on that Do the exact same exit the CRW jumpers are doing, and I'd wait longer for more distance with that canopy. ciel bleu, Saskia

The Netherlands ciel bleu, Saskia

My cat > your dog ciel bleu, Saskia