DSE

Mike published my first skydiving story, and helped us bring about the Norman Kent Aerial Cameraman training project. He was a terrific editor, and as honest as they come. I don't have jumping stories, only having met him at a couple events and talking about the magazine and educational endeavors, but he was a very encouraging man, filled with good ideas and suggestions.

The most recent incident fatality was less than a year ago. Someone else posted it upthread. It's also in the list of incidents you conveniently choose to ignore, Ted.

Faster? If I put it on an older machine, it'll run faster than 7? (Genuinely curious) Does a lot more - such as? All my machines are "older" but some of our partners asked us to investigate 8, simply because they're MS partners. Audio/video applications run faster on 8, simply because some of the mem allocations are more efficient and less bloated. 8 is more cloud-oriented, so if you use a smart phone, this'll be second nature once you're in it. Networking with other machines, or remote access from other machines to your personal machine is much easier/faster to set up with no network knowledge. There are several free apps in 8 that you'd be paying for or using freeware that isn't MS in look/feel. It has many things copied from Android, and a few things they obviously 'borrowed' from Apple in feel/function. It plays very nicely with Android devices. I dislike 8 on a laptop. The blue beta update is nice so far (only been a few days). If you're considering upgrading, wait til the end of the month, IMO.

He always had a few minutes to chat about most anything. Was a great guy that often walked over to the DZ from the racetrack, hanging with us, always had a fun story or two. You'll be missed, cowboy.

having done a fair bit of this, the only practical solution really is attached storage. Even over a dedicated, very fast pipeline, it just isn't efficient at all to be uploading. Even if it were, you'd still need to go to local storage to get it from a card to an HDD so it could upload in the background. Tell everyone to bring a stick. The masochist that takes on the project of storing all the video can spend the night chopping out the 5 minutes before the door opens and the 5 minutes of canopy flight, store those edited clips in a single folder, and then deal with the slow xfer times to everyone's HDD over a USB3 multiport. It'll still be painfully slow, but it will work. Or, have everyone kick in 20.00 for the same guy to edit together an event video.

You could be a bit more wrong, perhaps... Win 8 is faster, does a lot more, easier to network. It's just kludgy in the current form. Now, with the release of the update, people familiar with Win 7 get their Win7 look back if they want it, including the Start button. http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-microsoft-windows-8-start-button-20130530,0,6208420.story I've been beta-working 8.1 for a week now, and it's good enough that we're updating all our training machines to Win 8 for better interactivity between training nodes.

C'mon Robin...you made a statement of fact. Prove it. Demonstrate it. Show us where the USPA spent money. Otherwise, it's just more bullshit spewed from your supercilious piehole. Prove me wrong in saying USPA spent no money on the WSI. I dare you. In fact, I double-dog dare you.

IIRC, most of the USPA $$$ spent on wingsuiting relate directly to the preposterous proposal you tried to ram down everyone's throat, your advocacy of which was rife with, ahem... "nitpicking, arguing, twisting, prevaricating, or manipulating anything" said by anyone who disagreed with you. Fortunately, the BOD saw through all that to the preposterousness and that was the end of that except for all the $$ your actions caused USPA to blow. That aside, I agree with Simon that Bill can do whatever he wants -- it's his DZ. He did the same thing with swooping a while back too -- I think there's a 90-degree landing turn limit. IIRC, though, no swooping advocate got on the forums and started spouting sputum about the percentage of DZs in the past 5 years that have banned swooping. 44 Please support your preposterous claim that USPA spent a dime on the WSI proposal. If USPA spent a dime, it'll be shown in the financial report. Given that I personally paid for all handouts, DVDs, and for all my own travel, hotel...I'm curious how you'd make such a bullshit claim. Then again, prevarication *is* your stock in trade. USPA spent/lost more money on the now-known to be manipulated Chicago record that they had to rescind (first rescinding due to a cheater in the history of USPA, who buys the beer?) than spent on the WSI proposal. The financial records were reported at the meeting, they're published, a resourceful dude like yourself should be able to find backup for your specious claim. Since you toss the accusation, back it up. Otherwise, STFU, Robin. Or are you gonna call my employers and tattle and whine about me again?

The VASST system (windows based) that we've been putting into DZ's for years do exactly this, but without hitting a button. Once the card is inserted, it copies off, archives, populates a timeline, preps the edit automatically.

If you'd ever jumped a Curv, you'd know you get two for the price of one.

Optical Flow will smooth movement, but if you have rolling shutter, it makes the movement look like it's swimming through Jello. Use with caution.

Nope.. but I am betting you think 150 MPH in freefall is fast Oh my, this just got kinda fun.

FUCK that. my curve is the best thing thats ever happened to me since extenze. If you have a Curv, you don't need Extenze... Just sayin...

Then we might as well tie it into the GoPro wifi since everyone is checking the red light on the GoPro. One vote for RFID chest and legstraps

FWIW, I do believe that many people with proper instruction and demonstration of skill, should be capable of managing a camera at 100 skydives. This runs counter to USPA philosophy, but I do believe it's possible. Where it's not likely possible, and probably unreasonable, is to expect the person that is foolish enough to start sit-flying on jump 26, will be able/capable of any sort of flying skill by 100 jumps that could accommodate flying a camera or adding a cutaway sequence to his EP's.

No more unrealistic than believing you can gain from POV footage with no outside reference.

In _your_ mind, perhaps they're minor. In the four related fatalities, the several femur, and the smattering of other situations, they were life-altering to the person that experienced them. That aside, every major incident is a chain of minor incidents. Questioning authority is a good thing to do from time to time. Defying it when you have zero knowledgebase or experiential base falls into a category of "stupid." Are you next going to argue that it's not stupid to jump with a camera and no cutaway system on the helmet?

Several years ago, you mentioned of the front riser/rear toggle opportunity, along with really stalling the canopy. I mentioned the front riser/rear toggle exercise to someone who had been one of my AFF instructors. He thought the concept was insane, and would be of no benefit. Based on your advice, I learned how to manage a few maneuvers with my canopy, learned how to manage it in a deep stall, and learned a few other techniques from advice Twardo and a few others put on this forum 'back in the day.' I wish USPA would take the advice some of the better canopy pilots have to offer, and make them part of this "which canopy is suited for who" conversation. FWIW, the Dutch system works pretty well at keeping people off of canopies they likely shouldn't be on. It may not be perfect; few things are.

thanks for sharing both albums. Incredible.

Already done, but USPA wasn't interested. In today's environment where every new skydiver is of the "video myself for Facebook," I'd expect even more resistance.

Or, you could call your RD and say "Hey, I was told that USPA dollars relating to wingsuiting were spent. Can you share that information with me? Simon, you've long set a precedent of nitpicking, arguing, twisting, prevaricating, or manipulating anything I share regarding wingsuiting and wingsuit safety. As a result, I chose to not post it, yet have provided you the opportunity to dig into it if you genuinely want information vs having something more to steal, piss about, or create FUD over.j Who knows...in the process, you might learn more about how USPA operates. You're welcome.

Still waiting for the kangaroo-loving mates down under to send me my helmet that's on order... at least you can find peace in knowing that during the lead time for the Cookie Fuel I'll get a lot more jumps under my belt before attempting to strap on the fatality-inducing deathtrap known as the Contour. While the wait time may reduce the risk you pose to others, the wait time likely won't impact your attitude. I once knew a guy like you that was "me, me, me" and "I'm pretty good at other sports, quit worrying about me and worry about yourself." That conversation took place perhaps 6 weeks before he killed someone else in a canopy collision.

Financials are not part of the "USPA decision" I am referring to the financial report as presented by Tony Thacker at the plenary session.

It's in the minutes. Call your RD. Contact USPA. Call the Chair of S&T Send an email. Occasionally, finding answers is a bit more work than copy/pasting/regurgitating someone else' efforts.

Flight Data Recorders don't make your airline flight safer, either. It's only upon review that the lessons are learned. It's amazing that the anti-camera people argue that there's no value in a POV shot of a skydive, but point to every POV shot of a skydiving mistake to argue against cameras. Wow, just take the camera out of the equation and no one makes mistakes anymore, brilliant! It's an asinine argument! ? Taking your thread of thought, sure...put a Flysight (a Flight Data Recorder) in the newer skydiver's pocket or audible slot in the helmet. Flight Data Recorders don't cause aircraft to bend a prop, run out of fuel, or affect the aircraft's performance in any way, regardless of the skill (or lack) of the pilot. A Flysight will allow the user to plug the data into Google Earth and the accompanying track looks remarkably like freefall and the canopy right, right down to seeing the stows releasing on the Dbag during deployment. Cameras do provide cause for distraction, they do provide cause for snags, and they do encourage stupid behavior. Not just in our world, but the world of aviation, period. AOPA recently published an advisory about small format cameras. In reading many of your posts, it seems you like to be contrary. There are good things found in that. However, whether it's a GoPro or a big-ass RED camera, the one thing that hasn't changed over the course of the many years that film/video has been part of skydiving. People flying with cameras too early on create/inspire/contribute to challenges that their experience simply cannot handle. Some have been fatal. Some have been permanently crippling. Some have been temporary pains, and the majority have been "No shit, there I was." At the end of the day, each DZO has to decide what they will and won't accept at their DZ, but the upshot is, the DZ has to manage the incidents and the rap that comes with them. The USPA makes a recommendation to the DZO's that ascribe to the safety standards the USPA sets forth. USPA sets those recommendations based on hundreds of thousands of jumps and hundreds of years of collective experiences of its leaders and membership. Statistics, empirical data, common knowledge, and common sense defy the position you're taking in this argument, and at the end of the day, your position still won't change anything. If you show up on my DZ without the requisite number of jumps or a cutaway on your helmet, you're going to either lose the camera for the day, or lose the opportunity to jump. As a side note, how many dead skydivers have you been up close and personal with after a bounce?