VideoFly

For me, a Tony suit, C wing, and mega-booties work great.

It depends on what the stakes are. If you will need a high score to enter a program or job, you might want to take the course. Oftentimes, it is not only what you know, but it is also your test-taking strategies that bring in the very high scores. Quality test courses teach you what to expect and how to approach problems. Many times, with the right strategies, you can deduce a correct answer that you might have missed without proper test preparation. While $1200.00 is a lot of money just to take a test, it is a small investment if a rewarding future depends on the score. In any case, you might want to shop around and make sure you are taking the best course for the best price. There are a lot of expensive but weak courses on the market.

My son started packing for me at seven years old. Now, eight years later, he has 5,000 pack jobs, almost 1,000 of them on my rig. He is one of the best I've seen on all kinds of rigs and canopies.

I’ve got two rides on two different Tempo 150’s. Great openings, great seven-cell ride, and great landings with the brake lines wrapped once around my hands to shorten them a bit. I now have another Tempo 150 in my rig and have total confidence in it.

Learn to identify how air moves around you and your subjects and learn how to use those currents, instead of letting the air move you and others into dangerous areas. Your subjects, especially students, are a primary safety factor on your jumps.

Maybe instead of ratings, video awards for having done so many tandem/AFF videos with stills and perhaps, also having other ratings should be offered. Then the DZOs and instructors can decide whom they want to jump with.

I would like to see a video rating, however, I don’t believe it should be a requirement to shoot tandems and AFF jumps. This might hurt business for smaller dropzones or dropzones operating between videographers leaving, and others beginning with cameras to replace those leaving. Advantages of a video rating include, but are not limited to: 1- Allowing others at visited drozones to know that you are experienced if you want to film there. 2- Allowing new or visiting instructors to be more confident that you know what you are doing. 3- Students will have more confidence in your safety record and not be distracted by the thought of you injuring or killing them. 4- Allowing for discounted jump rates at dropzones that give discounts to employees with two or more ratings (if you’ve only got one other rating). 5- Ratings would help motivate new camera jumpers to become certified as proficient. 6- It would just make me feel cool to have the rating.

During my entanglement, I knew I had a problem. I had no idea I was just about to clear my cutaway cable from one riser’s three-ring assembly. A sudden disconnection might have broken my neck and/or created more problems. My helmet was pinned down so hard that my helmet’s chin area bruised my chest and my hand was trapped in the mess A helmet cutaway was not an option as the back plate was held closed by tightly twisted risers. I know this was a bad situation and I was lucky. This is one reason that camera flyers get so concerned when inexperienced jumpers throw cameras into their routines without considering or preparing for potential consequences. While being a truly wonderful experience, flying with cameras adds distractions and potential hazards to skydiving. Experienced flyers know that. In the future, in addition to my standard EPs, I will be more conscious of my cutaway cables when clearing twists. I have no argument for others using RSLs or Skyhooks. As I said, without cameras, I would use them. I was hoping to inform others of the possibilities involved when clearing riser twists, with or without cameras involved.

I recently deployed my main on a camera jump only to have my head pinned to my chest because my risers were twisted behind and around my top mount video camera. Fortunately, I wear a wrist mount altimeter and a chest mount, which was directly in front of my eyes. Unable to see the direction of the twists, I grabbed the risers behind my helmet and felt my way to kicking out of the twists and pulling my risers from around my camera. I bruised my fingers in the process as my left hand was trapped between my helmet and risers. Once out of the line twist, I looked for other canopies to my right and left and saw that my cutaway cable was about one-quarter inch from pulling through the retaining loop of my three-ring assembly on the left riser. I carefully pulled the cable back up through the loop and continued my decent uneventfully. While grabbing and untwisting my risers, I must have gotten a finger caught between the cutaway cable and loop and pulled the cable out. A little more pulling and I could have cut one side of my main only with the risers still caught on my camera. I would be concerned if I had an RSL or Skyhook attached if that had happened. In the event of a partial cutaway, I could have released my helmet and main and then deployed my reserve into clear air. Reserve deployment systems are a personal matter and if I weren’t flying with cameras, I would use an RSL or Skyhook.

I am a bit hard of hearing and I find that I read lips on the plane. It is sometimes difficult to understand other jumpers when their helmets cover their mouths. Also, some helmets restrict ground vision when looking at the horizon at flare time. In some weather conditions, a fogged or frozen lens might make jumping difficult and/or dangerous for a new jumper. As far as whether you should wear one, ask your instructors.

I’ve got hundreds of jumps out of our PAC 750 XL at Skydive Suffolk. It’s fast with enough room (not as roomy as an Otter) and a good size door. It’s a great plane!

About six of us had our batteries die early last year. Within a month, we all got 8988 codes. We haven't had problems since changing the batteries. We figured that we got a bad bunch of batteries. One good thing though...at least the units let us know the batteries were bad before we jumped with them.

Headhunter made the Vortex with a face shield if you can find one. Typically, it is difficult to find camera helmets with face shields that can be opened, due to cameras being in the way. With a non-opening face shield, I would be concerned about potential fogging and icing in cold weather.

I like the Canon 28mm for my 35mm Rebel.

I watched another jumper open with a bag lock. Considering his life was over, he chose not to complete emergency procedures. He was pulled upright, spun around with tight 360s throughout the descent, and appeared to accelerate slightly. His Cypres fired and after his reserve opened at about 450 feet, the locked bag dropped to his side. As the reserve carried him across the landing area, his main slowly dropped from the D-bag and then deployed into his reserve. At about 300 feet, the two canopies began to twist up and he went into a rapid spin while traveling across the runway at 25 feet and smashed into the ground. I ran to him to find him laying still and face down. Upon speaking to him, he stood up, brushed himself off, and walked back to the packing area.

Many times video flyers get camera shake because they shake. You might need to loosen your neck so that the camera remains stationary on your subject while your body moves with the subject and absorbs the shaking caused by wind, body movement, and maneuvering. Also, if you are shooting stills with a bite switch and a helmet with an integral chin cup, you might be causing your helmet to jump up and down with each bite. Smaller smooth bites, a tongue switch, or a blow switch might help that issue. Furthermore, your helmet should be tight all around to minimize shake between your head and helmet. Usually, slow motion minimizes the appearance of shake seen in regular motion, so I’m not sure about that. Also, check other angle widths for your lens. That may help too.

I love my Voodoo. I bought another one used last year and I am currently modifying it to use later. However, the Flat Top Pros seem to be great helmets too.

I have about 900 tandem and AFF videos without a wide angle. The other video guys at my DZ use wide angle lenses. Personally, I prefer the shots without a wide angle. I have no problem keeping subjects centered, I like the up-close and personal shots, and the exits look great when you leave with the instructors.

It was my dad's favorite plane during the war. As rare as they are, it will most likely be bid on heavily and be rebuilt to new condition.

I've had two reserve rides on two different Tempo 150s. They flew like dogs compared to my smaller elliptical nine cells, but just fine for a reserve. I wrapped the longer brake lines on my second ride to get a little more flair. They landed like F111 seven cell canopies because that's what they are. I have another Tempo 150 in my rig now and I have total confidence in it.

After student status, I jumped a square 170 for a bunch of jumps and thought I did pretty well with it. I moved to a square 150 and did well with that too for a bunch more jumps. When I got a square 135, I got some comments about being careful from people at the DZ, but I did pretty well with it. After that, I got an elliptical 129 and did O.K., although I didn’t push it to high performance limits. After a while, I downsized to an elliptical 120, I was pushed into doing high performance maneuvers weather I like it or not. With an exit weight of about 260 pounds and cameras on my head, I survived a couple of hundred jumps and some perilous off landings. Many of my landings were so fast, that the world was a blur and survival became my only goal. Also, I found that I was having a lot of line twists on opening. I got used to people "talking to me" about safety. With my last cutaway on one of those twisted openings, I got rid of that canopy. At fifty years old, I lost 30 pounds and upsized to an elliptical 150. With about 500 jumps on the 150, I am learning the art of flying the canopy. I am conservative and safe and I am enjoying jumping more than ever. I can also master cool maneuvers in the air better than I did on the small canopies. Had I stayed with the higher wing loading, I truly believe I would have been injured. I am also considering upsizing again within the next five years or so. For me, when appropriate, upsizing is really cool, and ambulances aren’t.

You might want to let someone at the DZ know and possibly distribute some simple pamphlets on aspergers/autism. That way, instead of people wondering what’s wrong with you or why you don’t like them, they will enjoy your company at a slight distance. If not pressured into eye contact and close-quarter communication, you might find being at the DZ more enjoyable. Also, this might sound crazy, but if eye contact is a problem, a full-face helmet or shaded goggles may help you to jump with others. In my job, I work with a lot of individuals with various forms of autism and there are specific skills I have developed to encourage communication. If the autism is or might be severe at times, you might want to discuss this with medical professionals who might advise you on possible safety concerns. I have some friends with aspergers and we get along very well.

I took all of the statistics courses before calculators and computers. Although it took several legal pads to work through ANOVA’s, MANOVA’s, factor analyses and meta-analyses, I think that working through problems by hand helped keep me aware of exactly what was happening throughout the process. You might want to try T tests and other analyses by hand before moving to calculators. It is time consuming, but you might understand the processes better. It’s kind of like learning to become altitude aware and judge fall rates before using dytters and protracks. If not, just get real familiar with keystroke processes on your calculator. There are great tutorials on line. Check the web sites of your calculator manufacturer and/or computer programs. If those don’t work, check web sites of high school geeks. They really have it down and they love to share information. As far as 78% of statistics being made up…you tell me the results you want and I can derive a research design and formula to prove it. Mark Twain popularized a summary hierarchy of lies attributed to Benjamin Disraeli: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Adorable! You should be very proud. I feel for all of the broken hearts years from now. Just too cute.

I was a special needs child in public school. Later, I was a special needs teacher in a residential school and in several public schools. I have been an elementary and high school principal and am now a middle school principal charged with designing and maintaining regular education and special needs environments. We use many assessments and models of classrooms vary widely. I could probably provide some of the information you are looking for and get you in touch with some special education teachers for your survey.