dragon2

I jumped with a ruptured eardrum for a few jumps (not a smart move). I don't recall being bothered by noise or having trouble clearing my ears. The thing bothering me most was the tickling of the wind, that was real annoying and distracting, like someone sticking a feather in your ear and twirling it around. 2 days after the rupturing I visited my doctor for a checkup, and my ear had healed already. My doc did diagnose me as having sinusitis though so couldn't jump because of that for a while. If your ear was ruptured a few days back and still hasn't healed, I'd be consulting my doc for sure. And if you're going to jump, likewise. I'm not sure you should be plugging anything in a ruptured ear, but again, please consult your doc. ciel bleu, Saskia

If you're a tandem vidiot and you pull close (horizontally I mean) to a tandem, you better make sure the opening looks good. If I'm not sure, I'll backslide away from the tandem some more before pulling. Don't be fooled a tandem vidiot "just" pulls straight after and close to the tandem pair. Or if they are, they should get talking to ciel bleu, Saskia

The problem is you're degrading the image, whether you're shooting/editing/burning to HD or not. The single element lenses especially are a bit crappy these days: there were already not excellent quality with the old SD cameras, but now, they're degrading the image much more. The quality of an image you shoot (video of photo) is always degraded by a lens. Putting a less than decent lens in front of your camera is doing a disservice to any paying clients, IMO. If you really need a small formfactor lens, because you're doing AFF, coach jumps or other inside video, sure by all means use one. But for everything else, why not use a suitable lens, I really do not get that. Plus a raynox pro series lens is (way) cheaper than the single element lenses, so you could sell yours and not lose any or much money buying a HD lens

Um, yeah, you really need to buy another lens. This one won't fit as you found out, and you cannot screw on a smaller lens than your camera is, your video would look like it was shot through a roll of toilet paper (really, lol). Also, for the CX you really want a HD lens which the cookie is not. There's plenty of threads about which HD lens to get for which purpose. F.i. the Opteka .3, rainox hd pro 30 and 50 series are good skydiving HD lenses. On another note, just a tip: the camera you bought has OIS, so don't do any back/head-up flying with it (your profile doesn't list your disciplines). ciel bleu, Saskia

You're right, a pilot is a bit less HP than a safire. I've owned both and liked both. Both make excellent intermediate/wingsuit/cameraflyer canopies

Last week I was spotting a tandemload. There were plenty of clouds so we were trying to miss those On jumprun, we were right above a cloud. I stuck my head out the door, trying to see when the cloud ended and if we would jump with the tandems or not. Turned out, the cloud ended on time so we jumped. Lovely view, between the towering clouds in the distance. Would've been better if I HADN'T stuck my head + cameras out of the door though, as my lenses now had heavy condensation on them for the first few seconds of freefall, left from the spotting ciel bleu, Saskia

Well, new camera's don't come in the shape that'll fit a snug pc109 box. The only replacement that would fit then is a pc109 or other model with same formfactor (pc106 etc). Newer cameras (any camera without tape) don't use a cameye anymore. You have 2 options here: buy a hype-eye instead, or keep using your cameye and buy a convertor cable for it. ciel bleu, Saskia

Yup, that's IAD. It's a way of training new jumpers, like staticline but without the need for static line gear. ciel bleu, Saskia

It's EIS, so electronic. With older cameras, better turn it off. Although you also want to take a good look at the helmet (does it fit snuggly also in freefall and is the camera mounted in a way it cannot move) and if you're maybe moving your head too much. ciel bleu, Saskia

I've used a stomper, have it in a drawer here somewhere. But all the CDs I used to make with music mixes on them now do not play anymore. I've used various brands of discs and labels over the years, that probably has something to do with it to, but these days, why even bother. I switched first to lightscribe and then to self-printed discs when that became affordable, never looked back

Get rid of the lenses I got Lasik after some problems with contact lenses in freefall, one of the best decisions of my life

agreed, i think i was the only one stable. you have to know how to exit in case you get out low. the guy that went out first has over a 100 jumps and i told him he might want to unhook his rsl, he had to have help I still think the guy that wenbt out first (blue/yellow jumsuit) did the best hop n pop exit. Yours is okish, but too head-low. Check out the exits in this CRWcoaching vid (not the first green/white guy though LOL) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJLX6In7PWg ciel bleu, Saskia

Huh? Why do you ask? ciel bleu, Saskia

Ouch, that's a recipe for broken discs and broken dvd players. For a CD, it's marginally OK to stick on a label. Or was, until printed DVD's became so much cheaper. Now, I wouldn't accept it anymore (we stopped using those years ago). For a DVD, please don't stick anything at all on the discs If the sticker is put on wrong or later on let's loose a bit you get an unbalanced disc, which isn't good for disc + player. Plus the glue will damage the disc in a couple years time. Stick with pre-printed DVD's, or print your own using white discs or lightscribe. Please get rid of stickers ciel bleu, Saskia

Agreed, and they weren't even hop n pops ciel bleu, Saskia

Hmm if I were you I'd buy a container fist, one with a min 190sqft reserve, then see what main to fit in that. Personally I think a safire 2 230 might be great for you to borrow for a bit but unless you have special needs (are older, want to take thing real slow), you'll probably want a ~190 sqft canopy in the near future. A WL of ~.8 for a lighter/regular weight jumper's own rig is fine safety wise, but I don't see it very often ciel bleu, Saskia

While your instructors should be the ones to tell you which canopy is OK to jump, I'll take a stab at this: Yes a safire 2 makes a good canopy for someone with 40 jumps, provided your wingloading on the safire is between .8 and 1.0, the canopy it is at least a 150/170 sqft, and you got to the desired safire 2 size by safely downsizing. ciel bleu, Saskia

149 - 135 != 9 I've been known to push too much canopy into a slightly too-small rig. Aside form issues with packing, I've ruined a rig because of that (split seams and damaged fabric on main container and bag) and my current rig doesn't stay closed very well (riser covers). Also the reserve in a TJNK is going to be smaller, and if this is for a newer jumper, packing isn't going to be fun. So, all in all, I wouldn't advise it, even if it is possible. ciel bleu, Saskia

You're correct that the slider helps slowing down the opening. These jumpers remove the slider AFTER opening It's called an RDS (removable deployment system). This makes for less drag, which again helps (really small) canopies fly a bit better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPaARFEqlIU ciel bleu, Saskia

If you liked the wingsuit quiz, try the regular skydiving quiz ciel bleu, Saskia

Most if not all student gear has regular, non-collapsible sliders. When you start to downsize, you'll run into gear that has drawstrings (or some velcro) on the slider: a collapsible slider. You can then choose to collapse the slider to prevent the flapping noise. Some setups also allow you to lower the slider behind your head after collapsing, this besides less noise also helps with allowing the canopy to spread a bit further, making it fly better. Some people choose to completely remove the slider (and sometimes the bag+pilotchute as well) and stow it in their jumpsuit, this is more swoop-specific although a few other jumpers do this as well. ciel bleu, Saskia

Speak for yourself ciel bleu, Saskia

From what I've jumped and seen: Soft openings: pilot, spectre, pulse, safire. Hard openings: a lot of sabres, some sabre 2's. The triathlon I'd place in the middle here, with reliable not soft not hard openings. Same for the fusion. Any canopy can open hard, for a variety of reasons. Spectres in general open smooth as butter but some have broken lines from opening hard. I've seen a safire torn in 2. A lot depends on your body positioning, on packing and on the canopy itself (how old is the lineset etc). My vengeance generally opens smooth but once landed me in hospital with a suspected broken back which turned out to be "just" a couple bruised ribs. YMMV ciel bleu, Saskia

The fusion is similar to a sabre2. It's a bit more high performance than an original sabre and spectre, ie it will turn faster, dive more, and be more responsive to (bad) body positioning (and packing). Over here you need 100 jumps to jump a fusion or sabre2, in your case a bit sooner would probably be fine but 12 jumps may be pushing it. It's not totally out there IMO, but you'd be smart to wait until all your instructors give you the thumbs up ciel bleu, Saskia

10 during a competition, once (entire FS4 competition in one day...) 11 during training (2 tandemvideos + 2x back-to-back-to-backs). Done by 16:00, could've gone for a couple more