Miami

Using Schumacher Quickshoes for both video and stills on my top mount. The plate for the video has an alignment pin as well...keeps it lined up exactly the same when you have to pop the plate off to change tapes. Miami

Depends on the rig...I generally charge $45 for most rigs, but for racers I charge $35 since they are so much easier. Seriously. Gas prices have had no effect on the price I charge. Miami

If you're having trouble with your practice pulls as well I highly suggest you do a dive or two following the dive flow hookitt spelled out, preferably with video. Legs awareness is poor? Were you a static line student? A good exercise I have some of my student do is to lay on the floor (with cushion under the hips) in front of a sofa or recliner. Place yourself so that you can press the tops of your feet/toes on the sofa with you legs extended at about 45 degrees, then practice arching and pressing your feet against the couch (simulating pushing against wind resistance). Then do practice touches while assuming this position. Hope that helps... Miami

How are your practice pulls? I quite often see students able to do perfectly stable practice pulls but when they get to the real pull they tense up and it ends of not being as stable of a pull. My best advice is to go up on a jump and do plenty of practice pulls...even fly in the pull position for a bit, then when it gets to be time for your real pull think of it just like the practice touch...only throw the pc instead of only touching it. If you get a coach or vidiot to go up with you even better. Good luck! Miami

My wife and I both recently went to tracfones...got nice phones for free and we are paying a fraction of what we were paying. Coverage is decent and they have been fairly hassle free. Went from $95/month for our shared plan through Sprint to $200 for the entire year for both of us. Get someone as a referral and you and them both get a decent amount of bonus minutes. Miami

While I have much less mounted on my head monetary wise...I secure my 20D beyond the thumb screw by putting it on a Schumacher QuickShoe (attached to helmet via 4 screws) and then strap the camera to the quickshoe with a 1" wide piece of nylon. I add protection to the package by putting the camera in a neoprene sleeve...keeps the minor bumps from doing damage. I posted pictures a while back when it was on my FF2, but now that it is on an Azimuth I need to take more... Miami

Articulating sights, yes. Mounting posts, no. I actually grabbed the bridle that was wrapped around the post and pulled as hard as I could to try and break the sight free, but it stayed on tight. Thinking back I believe it was more like 7 or 8 seconds that it was entangled...I had happened to pull high on that jump and it took till 3k to get it off. Was pretty close to having to make it an even more of an interesting situation... Miami

Yep, bout a year and a half ago...no fun. Here is the post I made about it right after it happened. Managed to clear it but for the two or three seconds it was around my sight it was pretty interesting. I should dig up the video and post it to skydivingmovies... Miami

No one pays MSRP. Except for the cypres you can expect to get 20-25% off all of the rest, just call square1, para-gear, or some other gear store for the real prices. Without looking at it $4300 seems a bit on the high side for used gear. What is the DOM on the cypres? What are the DOM's of everything for that matter? Does the cypres need anything done to it or will it be up for anythng soon? What kind of condition is the container in? What kind of condition is the main in, has it ever been cutaway, any small holes or patches? How many times has the reserve been packed? A good reference is to check the classifieds here and look at what similar setups are selling for. Miami

With what I had in mind the left/right adjustment would be done by loosening the bolts and twisting the sight. The up/down would be adjusted by adding washers between the arm of the sight and the helmet to change it's angle from the helmet. Kind of a pain but really once it is correctly sighted and bolted in it shouldn't and need to be adjusted... Doing good...still jumping as much as I can. Not as much as I was in colorado, but still got 400 in last year. Sounds like things got interesting at mile-hi after I left... Miami

Finding the right kind of hardware is a lot harder than I thought! Ran all over town today but could not find anything that will work anywhere...so I've emailed Terry and hopefully he will have it! Having a pc wrap around a ringsight really makes me feel like it's worth the extra work to get a nice low profile sight though... Miami

So are those a couple of U clamps on the inside holding the post in place? That's kind of what I was imagining for this one but not sure what other options are available. U clamps on the inside definitely seem like the easiest way to go... Miami

Mounting a ringsight on my Azimuth and would like to mount it from the inside to expose as little of the post as possible. Does anyone who has done this have pictures of how it is setup/mounted? I would rather not re-invent the wheel if someone already has a good idea of how to do it. Thanks in advance! Miami

The card plugs directly into the burner and all of the contents go onto the disc. Miami

What about this one? Miami

Yep, I leave the IS on...not because it needs it for freefall though. It doesn't degrade the quality of the photos at all and that way it is on when I need it other times (when shooting at slower shutter speeds). And yep, those were taken at 17mm, but on a 20D that's more like 27mm because of the 1.6 crop factor. Miami

Ah, I forgot some of the higher end lens with IS have 2 settings for it. The 17-85 only has on and off for the IS. Agreed on noticing a difference. Only time I have noticed any is while hand holding at shutter speeds down around ~60 and lower. Miami

Don't know if they are priced differently for you guys over there, but I just went to Dell and built a system (12" XPS M1210) as near as identical to the 15" MacBook Pro ($2499) as I could and it came out to $2850. The MacBook Pro is high end stuff. If it's budget that's holding you back you should look at the MacBooks...half the price of the Pro's and still a very powerful machine! Miami

I keep the IS on and it works fine for me in freefall (17-85 IS USM on a 20D). I'm at work and don't have any of my pictures with me, but I posted a couple of pictures a few days ago in the tandem picture thread here. And not sure if I'm just missing something simple, but I have no idea what panning or tripod mode for the IS is; it's just on and off. Miami

Between ground and air shots (for tandems) with my 20D I'm putting about 140 pictures (at large/fine) on a cd and still have about 1/3 of the disc left open. Miami

A fair number of the stand alone burners support disc spanning...i.e. when the first disc is full it prompts you to put in another disc to continue burning from the same card. Miami

Here are some fun ones from earlier today... Miami

Is that the FT-40? If it is I have one that still works (I think) but has a busted lens...if your lens is still good you could try cannibalizing one to fix the other... Otherwise I'm not sure who to contact. There is an FT-50 now that is made in France, which I would assume is a newer version of the FT-40. You might have luck getting their contact info from square1... Hope that helps... Miami

I forget when I went to minidv (maybe '99 or '00 or so)...but anyone who requested a video from that point on would have no problem getting it. If I got my hands on a hi8 deck people who I filmed as far back as '96 or so could have their video redubbed...I save everything. Miami

Umm, no, of course not... But...if I ever did I would only pencil pack my own rig, and it would have had to have been in my possession the entire duration of the packjob. If it would have gotten wet/damp, or suffered anything abnormal I would open right away to air and inspect it. Oh, and if I were going to pencil pack my own gear I would do an actual repack every 365 days or so. Miami