dragon2

As a rule of thumb, low profile = lowish quality lens. Not entirely true as there are a couple of good low profile lenses, but those cost $$$$. Why the need for low profile? I use a Raynox pro hd30-series lens on my CX105 for both tandem and FS4, very good lens for both and for a very good price too. There's a list somewhere of good skydiving lenses, should be in theis forum somewhere... BTW the numbers on lenses from different manufacturers do not match, ie I used to have a sony .6 that was wider than the raynox .3 on the same camera. If you have to add a conversion ring the angle changes a bit too. If you use different cameras the difference can be quite big. ciel bleu, Saskia

And 30%(4) of them have died BASE Jumping, three in wingsuits and one tracking... I would suggest adding the BFL to your prerequisite reading...http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/wiki/BASE_Fatality_List Brrrr... When I was wingsuiting a lot, had about 350 wingsuit jumps in less than 2 years (and 0 base), I was sortof planning to go wingsuit basejumping... Especially after a heli and a balloon wingsuit jump went smoothly. Was talking to James Boole about the how and when. I chickened out wised up though, as wingsuit base jumpers were dieing left and right it seemed. And that was even before proximity flying became so hot as it is these days. ciel bleu, Saskia

That would be a Flight Concepts Esprit? You could ask the manufacturer... Some things I can google: - oP zanopy - might open hard/hard-ish (?) - was a predecessor to the pro series - was a high performance canopy in it's day, not sure if that means sabre1 or stiletto type canopy, I'm leaning towards sabre1 at this point - PIA lists the volume as follows: Manufacturer Model DOM Volume Area FLIGHT CONCEPTS ESPRIT 170 94/12 496 192 ciel bleu, Saskia

The rest of my tanks. I also have a rent-a-horse ciel bleu, Saskia

Yo! 3 cuddly pets here in a tiny apartment: 2 Norwegian Forest cats and a Maine Coon, plus Tanganyika cichlids, Malawi cichlids, some West-African predators and some young snakeheads in a Harry Potter tank ciel bleu, Saskia

Meh, a couple years ago we had a small tree that ended up on fire during a party at the DZ. One of our skydivers came running with a bucket "I'll put it out!". Said bucket contained jet-A. There used to be a picture at the bar of him staring at the tree/fireball in the background, empty bucket in hand That tree grew back looking quite nice the next season! Unfortunately a couple years later the picture was thrown away and the tree had to go too ciel bleu, Saskia

You're welcome Just a tip, since you're in europe, don't buy thermal clothing, just buy a thermo/warm suit from these guys: http://www.rainbowsuits.com/d7/en/kombis/airtherm-suit that one. Or 2nd hand, like here: http://www.parachutecase.nl/theshop/artikel/overalls/index.html#warm They may not look like much but I can't say enough good about these suits: they're nice and warm even for jumping in Dutch/Belgian/German/... winters, they end up being cheaper than layers of good quality thermal clothing, the suits last for-ev-er (we have them at our DZ up to 15-20 years old with heavy use, still good) and moving in them is a breeze even under a tight fitting suit. ciel bleu, Saskia

There are no 'European rules' as such, you need to abide by your own country's jumping permit plus the rules of the DZ you're visiting. IE, if Belgian rules do not forbid you to jump a certain specific canopy and Dutch rules do and you have a Dutch license, you still cannot jump that canopy even when in Belgium... If you are allowed a specific canopy under Dutch rules but Belgium says you're not, they may or may not allow you to jump it there, their prerogative. In your case, you still haven't mentioned, is your license Flemisch or not? Spa is, so the BVR I linked to would apply (in short, a lvl4 jump for recurrency and a 15jump course before jumping with others on your belly). If your license is Italian and you do not want to convert it to a Flemisch one, look up the Italian version of the BVR as you will need to abide by their rules even when visiting abroad. ciel bleu, Saskia

Are you Vlaams/Flemisch? in that case, see 5.1.3.2 and 5.2.3.2 of the Belgian BVR: http://www.valschermsport.be/bvr ciel bleu, Saskia

Perche VIP is a quite old design, I've only ever seen one and that was years ago and then it was ancient already too . It flies very very flat; it was modeled after the paragliders of the time. Might be fun to swoop one in a competition for distance: slooooow but won't sink ciel bleu, Saskia

Have a look at the Dutch canopy regulations, we've put a lot of sports canopies (ie, not tandem) in categories already. http://www.parachute.nl/fileadmin/knvvlpa_upload/pdf/BVR_bijlage_B_versie_2013_april.pdf this list the type of canopy you are allowed to jump, in each category. The categories are as follows, incuding my own labels for each category: I : less than 25 jumps, wingload max 1,1; minimum size 170 sqft (student) II : 25 - 100 jumps, at least 10 jumps in the last 12 months, wingload max 1,1; minimum size 170 sqft (beginner) III : 100 - 400 jumps; at least 25 jumps in the last 12 months, wingload max 1,3; minimum size 150 sqft (intermediate/beginner) IV : 400 - 700 jumps; at least 50 jumps in the last 12 months, wingload max 1,5; minimum size 135 sqft (intermediate/advanced) V : 700 - 1000 jumps; at least 100 jumps in the last 12 months, wingload max 1,7, minimum size 120 sqft (advanced) VI : more than 1000 jumps, no limits (expert) ciel bleu, Saskia

That. A smaller canopy will help a little bit with wind penetration but will not make *that* much of a difference. More experience will help you more, even very small wings may back up or at least have no forward ground speed at times, it's how you deal with this that matters. Heck, the one and only backwards landing I ever had was on a 1.75-ish WL canopy (!!). Probably just shouldn't have done that jump I was a lightweight student at 150lbs exit weight (58kg bodyweight) and I spent 50 jumps on the occasional 230 but mostly 288 sqft canopies, so I learned to deal with backing up. Just avoid jumping in winds that'll make you back up on landing, the rest is mostly practice a one or two size canopy will not magically propell you forward quite *that* much. Watch the small canopies and tandems, if they start coming in down straight down, sit it out ciel bleu, Saskia

Please don't make this the one thing you take away from this thread. People including a dealer and the manuf. say not to put 2 full fitting canopies in one rig, the 160 reserve would still be very small for you, and the 170 main may be as well. ciel bleu, Saskia

I know what the vector website says, a full fitting means it'll fit in there but is a b**** to pack pardon my language. You are not advised to put 2 full-fitting canopies in one rig as that is even worse to pack, will potentially damage the rig (I've damaged main bags, closing flaps etc this way myself), and the whole thing will most likely feel like a brick on your back as well. Hence my comment that you will likely not be happy packing the pulse 170 in there yourself, at least not until you're a proficient packer. Also you are not advised to put a full-fitting reserve in it too so it's a 140ish reserve max, which seems too small for you ATM. If i were you, I'd figure out what size reserve you need, then what size main, and after that, a rig that's fits both these canopies. This one seems at least a size too small, IMO. ciel bleu, Saskia

A grand? For a 2011 rig, and reserve i presume? Sounds quite cheap. BTW what IS the reserve you're looking at? I think this rig is too small for you if you're looking for a 170 main as a v310 will hold a 150 main as FULL you will not be happy packing a pulse 170 in that as a beginner packer (I presume). More importantly the reserve will have to be much smaller than your main to be able to pack it at all: a regular fit would be a 140 sqft at its biggest, that is 1 1/2 size smaller than the main. ciel bleu, Saskia

Why on earth not? I packed my own canopy for my third jump, only because the canopy for the first was already packed and for the 2nd I was quite shaky with adrenaline from my first jump so I just paid the packer ciel bleu, Saskia

We've got a few dropzone kids at my DZ, most of them did a tandem or two but YvonneWiggers is jumping hard (and recently, officially not a kid anymore LOL) Although she was in no way the youngest to do a tandem here in the Netherlands, I think she still might hold the 'record' for the youngest tandem night jump ciel bleu, Saskia

I made a video like that a couple of years ago, no vfs/tunnel/BASE but it has SL, AFF, FS4/bigway, FF, CRW, swooping, accuracy, wingsuit, style and speed (!). I'll have a look-see if I can find it... ciel bleu, Saskia

The safest camera mount is on the head (not wrist) of a suitably experienced/aware skydiver, topmounted flush on a camera helmet with cutaway system. A select few cameras are very suitable for flush sidemounting, notably the sony action cameras, that would be a good camera setup as well. Most important are the aware skydiver part, and the cutaway part. ciel bleu, Saskia

Only jump camera with stuff you can afford to lose. ciel bleu, Saskia

Between Amsterdam and Bottrop you'll pass by DZ Teuge. Plenty of other dz's in the Netherlands, of which Teuge (1 supervan and 1 caravan) and Texel (island DZ) are the biggest. There also is a tunnel in Roosendaal. ciel bleu, Saskia

Wait, whut? You cannot make a general statement like that. Some countries have life limits (Germany i believe has a 15yr life limit on rig and canopies), some manufacturers have limits (or want you to send it to them for checkup/recertification), some riggers have limits of their own. For instance over here you can basically jump anything you want, as long as the H/C and reserve pass the repack checkup and your rigger is comfy packing it

Yes that was good fun. I was going for a hang-glider tandem but they all were busy with the competitions, and I only had a couple of hours before having to take the ferry. So I got myself a PG tandem. We were *supposed* to fly a brand new canopy but ended up with one that didn't look quite so HP and the thing had a *zipper*. So you could make the wingload higher by zipping a couple of cells together How's that for a feature? Maybe we could use it on big student canopies for the featherweights: just lose 2 cells on demand I didn't have all that much faith in my PG TM, as first he made me leave all my stuff below then found out I didn't bring my wallet for the ski-lift, and also didn't bring anything warmer than a t-shirt because he didn't tell me to when i still had access to my stuff plus my helmet was way too big too so during the helicopter I had to use one hand to keep my helmet (and with it my sunglasses) on... When he told me to run off that mountain and to keep running until no more mountain was left, I did, which seemed to surprise him . Hmz, maybe I should have asked some kind of credentials other than him knowing our local skydiving PG instructor. It all seemed kinda wish-washy in hindsight, but the ride was good fun

Paraglider Helicopter manouver Hah, I did a paraglider tandem during Ekstremsportveko in Voss Norway, and we did that maneuver. Awesome Back on the ground, other TMs came questioning, they thougt I had a good number of previous paraglider tandems already. No man, this was her first... Wow, dude, ... But she's a skydiver! That seemed to explain everything ciel bleu, Saskia

I'd like that. A couple of times a year I get requests for another copy of the video and/or photos, which can be a pain because I'm not at the DZ every day or even every weekend, and usually the customer's in a hurry But we have to edit our own videos, and are responsible for our own storage. Which means I for one have my harddrives full, and others may just recycle their memory card when it's full. No consistency there. I do like editing my own videos, as I try to tailor them to my specific customer as much as I can, for an editor it would have to be more cookie-cutter work (most if not all other vidiots here do that anyway). ciel bleu, Saskia