dragon2

Eh, no. You might want to quit giving advise to students about their course, and going against a (Teuge) instructor? ciel bleu, Saskia

Ask any Teuge cameraflyer what to buy (that includes me BTW), and they'll all tell you the same: 1) Check the BVR to see if you qualify 2) Well, most will tell you this: buy a camera helmet with a cutaway system. Hint: most fullface helmets do not have a cutaway option. Relevant BVR: Translation: To jump camera in The Netherlands you need written permission of your instructor plus one of the following: -for freefall jumps: B-license + 200 formation jumps + beeper -for outside CF jumps: B-license + 10 CF jumps -for inside CF jumps: B-license + 100 CF jumps -for tandem handcam: 300 tandemjumps + beeper -for staticline round canopy: 25 round canopy jumps ciel bleu, Saskia

If money is an object, and you are going to jump at Teuge anyway, why not do staticline instead of AFF? At Teuge you only pay for the first jump course, after you are considered proficient at staticline (SL jumps are from 3.5000ft) you open your parachute yourself (at 5.000ft), after that you get to jump from 7.000 ft, 9.000ft and then 12.000 ft. All of these jumps you only have to pay your own slot + equipment rental, as here is no instructor juming with you/you have to pay for. So by the time you've spend as much as the AFF course costs you'll have many more jumps than 7 (25ish?) and are well on your way to your A license. ciel bleu, Saskia

Um, Texel is an island, it's not in the city of Amsterdam as such. It's a good 2- 2 1/2 hours to get to Texel from Amsterdam (including a ferry) , and almost all other dropzones in the Netherlands are closer (in travel time) to Amsterdam I think If you jump here, you'll get a Dutch AFF license. After AFF you can continue on towards your A license, that would be a FAI license and that would be good most everywhere. Between AFF and your A, your safest bet would be to do the remaining jumps in The Netherlands as well, doesn't have to be in Texel. A Dutch A license will make your llife easier/cheaper when jumping in other countries, as a lot of dropzones will want you to do a checkout jump which may consist of an AFF-type jump. The more experience you can prove, the cheaper jumping gets Beween AFF and A you mostly jump without an instructor, however here is a mandatory jumpmaster on board the plane for non-A-license jumpers and a couple of jumps are relative instruction jumps meaning you'll jump with a coach so you'll pay double price/a bit extra for those jumps. ciel bleu, Saskia

In the tail, should be no big problem. My rules of thumb (this may differ with your rigger's rules, so check there first before jumping it/marking it): if I can't stick my pink finger through the hole, I circle it with a ballpoint and keep an eye on it. If the hole gets any bigger, my rigger patches it. ciel bleu, Saskia

Because they are generally more experienced flyers and have dedicated camera setups? I would agree there. However assuming the same low number of jumps/camera setup for the everyone involved. I would think that dedicated video would be less safe. I'm interested to hear your reasoning on this. Mostly because dedicated camera flyers seem to THINK more about what they're doing, and take it more SERIOUSLY. They don't just slap on a gopro and going about their regular FS/FF/whatever jumps as if it's no big deal. Second because on the whole, dedicated camera people are a little bit removed from the action, so they have a much lower chance of opening low due to distraction (mainly when filming FS), and of getting their camerastuff entangled with other jumpers in the door/on exit/in freefall collisions as has happened a few times with gopros or even just their mounts (snagging reserve handles, FS grips and whatnot). Again especially when filming FS, the outside cameraflyer also has plenty of time to look at the ground for the spot and for altitude. When filming CF of course there is much less chance of the dedicated camera flyer getting involved in a canopy wrap/entanglement. And thirdly because filming the action is the outside cameraflyer's job, they are free to focus on that instead of turning points AND filming AND minding their cameragear all at the same time. Even if you COULD "forget" about the filming part, you cannot totally forget you have a camera mounted when flying in close contact with others. Also your emergency procedures have to take into account your camera(s). ciel bleu, Saskia

Yes, IMO in many ways the dedicated videoflyer is safer. ciel bleu, Saskia

Now aren't you glad you asked this question here ciel bleu, Saskia

If you're jumping a heatwave like your profile says, I wouldn't try warping it. A spectre, triathlon, lightning etc are fine though. ciel bleu, Saskia

I wonder how can you get experience videoing tandems without doing it. Try filming rookie FS teams for a season or 2 I started out with filming CReW/CF, after that wingsuiting and a rookie FS team plus filling in for other rookie/A/AA teams. I then did my first tandem video at jump number 850 or so. Piece. Of. Cake. The first video was a freebee for a friend, 2nd one was paid. I've seen jumpers trying to learn to video learning it on tandems, I've seen 1000+ jump freeflyers f* up the tandem exits or even freefall, I've had accompanying belly flyers do all kinds of stupid stuff (and some did ok), and accompanying freeflyers seem to do even more stupid stuff. My take, if you can consistently handle yourself bellyflying in non-planned situations while multitasking (like keeping a rookie RW jump that's gone to hell in perfect frame, or doing AFF ) then you might be ready to jump with tandems. ciel bleu, Saskia

I once got into an argument of sorts with a guy who said all skydivers fall at 78 km/h max and he could prove it. I just went and did a 200 km/h skydive after that ciel bleu, Saskia

I had a Neptune reset to zero while doing a go around at 13K one day. LOL yeah forgot about that failure mode. I was groundcrewing for a demo where the plane (C172 or similar) had to pass over Schiphol Airport at 1000 ft. Now the pilot did exactly that, meaning all 3 aboard had their neptunes reset to 0 right before doing a demo jump. ciel bleu, Saskia

I've had digital alti's a couple thousand feet off (reading >4K when I was in my landing pattern, or reading -4K while in the plane), multiple occasions where the digital alti showed me its serial number in freefall (thanks...), multiple times where the battery/charge died (have to buy good quality batteries and keep an eye out when the weather turns colder - charges die much sooner), and one analog with a broken/missing needle (ok, now that's clear). Buying an analog alti is never a bad move: you are definitely allowed to jump one, they are (much) cheaper than digital, no batteries needed, they can last a lifetime and they can be resold without losing much money should you want a digital alti later in your jumping career. The only right answer if you're wanting to buy digital is to check with your instructor. Some DZs may not even allow students up to a certain level to jump digital. ciel bleu, Saskia

I've seen lightnings jumped with ws, have never tried mine. You don't mention which size and which material lightning. If it is a larger lightning (143+) and F111 or F111/ZP mix, put on a regular slider and a bag and go for it. ciel bleu, Saskia

I remember having to answer a question about a demo jump, where the demo jumper would be dressed up as a witch, with broom and hat, plus the demo jump was to be at night and close to water. Question was, what to prepare and how to handle this. A number of people started writing like a full page how-to. The correct answer was: Don't ciel bleu, Saskia

Hmmm I might have some in my closet somewhere, I used to jump them a lot. Although I think these are *reversed* triple risers (for my pdf atom). Would those do too? ciel bleu, Saskia

I've jumped a D70, D70s, D80, D200, D300 and now a D3200. I know a D3100 is also being jumped at my DZ. All have wired remotes except for the first one the D70. If you want a remote for canon or nikon other than the standard canon entry level remote, you have to know where to order them, but f.i. Laszlo on here sells wired remotes for D3000-series that work just fine

Yes fallrate might be interesting to know, also bodyposition on opening (the video starts too late). As said before,any canopy can open hard and bruise someribs or worse - my vengeance always opened sloooow but on my first jump during my first nationals I ended up in the hospital like you for xrays and stuff, couple bruised ribs (OUCH). Never found out why, canopy never did that to me again either in the following hundreds of jumps. BTW what are your hands doing on the risers/3 rings? That's good way to get them hurt. Only after the canopy has opened and the slider has come down should you reach up. Otherwise you can hurt your fingers or even get trapped by a linetwist (happened to me once.... both hands!). So, hands out to the side until you have done your visual canopy check and are at the point where you need to grab brakes or need to kick out of linetwist, but *look* before you grab. Grabbing the 3 rings like you do in this video serves no purpose other than you 'wanting to hold on to something', better train yourself not to do that. Of course always be ready to grab rear risers to steer away in an emergency. ciel bleu, Saskia

Huh? Which ones? ciel bleu, Saskia

It depends on where you'll be jumping if you even *get* a radio. For instance on my dz we don't use radios. Now we have a huge landing site and lots of outs, plus we train students to be self-reliant under canopy. Only time I've ever seen radios used at my DZ was when a student + instructor came over (from France?) plus occasionally for some advanced canopy relative work course. You don't *need* a radio for your student jumps perse (unless you have a small landing area with lots of obstacles around or something). As an instructor, I would be more concerned with communication in the airplane, under canopy and on the ground, but otherhearing-impaired/deaf skydivers seem to do OK. ciel bleu, Saskia

Ring. Although I like the loop type too. All I ever do is climb around on camera steps, no reason at all to change to a pillow IMO ciel bleu, Saskia

I've seen more scary video from freeflyers than from RW flyers. Including from 1000+ jump (exceptionally) talented jumpers. I've seen 200+ jumpers learning to video fly using tandems (that was soon put a stop to though). Generally I'd trust the bellyflyer with 1000 jumps and no (outside) camera experience more than the freeflyer with 1000 jumps and plenty of video flying. ciel bleu, Saskia

Like the others said, present your belly/chest/hips into the wind on exit. Wind on exit comes from the propellor(s) so front of the plane. Look at this 4-way team, all 4 of them are presenting the front of their bodies to the relative wind in this picture: [inline 40302_104821042908942_2011345_n.jpg] Now compare this with yours, where you are presenting the SIDE of your body to the relative wind/front of the airplane: [inline notpresenting.jpg] Solution: Don't look down/out when you exit. Keep looking at the plane/propeller when you exit. KEEP looking at the airplane for as long as possible (5 seonds or something) while in freefall. Seen from inside the plane an exit into the relative wind looks like this: [inline 1379932_591769507547424_658881027_n.jpg ] While yours looks more like this: [inline 1376313_591769500880758_1656375600_n.jpg ] ciel bleu, Saskia

Gazillions of static line jumpers had linetwists on average 3 out of every 5 SL jumps (depending on the deployment method used), they lived, so the occasion linetwist you might get during AFF is no problem whatsoever. Really. I ge tthe occasional SL student who says: if I get a twister () I'll stop jumping. Might as well stop right there then; if you do not get a linetwists in your first 3 SL jumps, ask for you money back Seriously, linetwists on a student canopy are not a big deal whatsoever. Landing downwind is in every way preferable to turning too low to avoid said downwind landing. Heck some people do downwinders for fun. Just make sure to plf (=roll) on a landing like that, never try to run it out, and you'll be fine. Landing into the wind is a nice-to-have, it is not mandatory for your safety. Breaking of legs tend to happen when people try to run out landings they shouldn't, or (more frequently) turn too low and hit the ground while still in that turn. Relax, stop reading these forums and watching youtube, wait for your course.

Like I said before in this hread, sticking your legs down is a move that gets the tandem down to the video flyer's level quickly, which was needed on that jump in the video that was posted. It's not that common, but nothing unsafe or illegal (huh? there are laws about which freefall position to be in?). It's also not sitflying, it is still belly-to-earth. I *have* seen two sit flying tandems, in that case picture 2 regular sitflyers but stuck to each other. That *is* freeflying a tandem, and this is frowned upon in most places yes. ciel bleu, Saskia