cphelan

Having troubles getting a bite switch to work with the Lumix GX8. It acts like a microphone when plugged in. Any suggestions?

Good read. Thanks for the article!

Im sure this has been discussed but i cant find any current info through search or digging back a bit. Ive been out of the field for awhile (2011) and was jumping a CX-100. Seems things have changed a lot since then. What are the opinions these days for a camcorder vs Action cam. Im specifically looking at the CX-675 VS the Sony FDR3000. I know this questions varies alot on what type of flying you will be doing. Starting back out most of my jumps will be small belly formations (2 way/4 way type stuff), the occasional attempt at Free Flying work, but the ultimate goal is filming tandems again. Lastly, thoughts on lenses for either. It looks like the action cameras dont need anything and the CX-675 maybe? I had a .3x on my CX100 and would should stills at 14-16mm and this seemed to pair up decent.

I heard good things from my latest update.

Not sure if i skimmed over it but the topic of currency hasnt come up at all. Someone with 200 jumps in one year is gonna be alot more qualified than someone that has 500 jumps spread out in a period of say 3 or 5 years.

Get used and have them buy you a new one later down the road when you have some experience with all types of gear, know what canopy your gonna be flying, and dont take as many crash landings

I think this is a great idea! If you have the opportunity to go to the DZ and observe what goes on then thats the best route! Maybe pop in and just observe for an hour or two before talking to anyone to see whats going on.

All depends on your camera but I have a Rebel XS and 500 shutter speed and ISO between 200-400 is my most used setting. Get a notebook and log your different setting on each jump and what the lighting conditions were then compare them to your photos. Worked pretty good for me.

This is a good method but I mounted a laser pointer that lines up with my camera. During the cooling process i would periodical check to make sure the dot and the ring sight matched up. What i like about the laser pointer method is that you can check your alignment anytime you want.

Remember that the flat top pro is for Professional Camera work so you want that helmet to be super tight for multiple reasons. Slogo pretty much hit the nail on the head with the expanding at altitude and what not. I keep my helmet unfastened untill jump run and then i click down the fastener. Its tight as hell but its supposed to be. If its uncomfortable you can undo the fastner under canopy. I have a cx-100 mounted on my with just a cookie screw and a connector strap from hobby lobby. Cost me less than 10$ to make the mount. I have my cannon mounted with a gold member. This setup works perfect for and was relatively cheap. Remember the simpler the better and I think the safer! I never take off the cx-100 because the way i have it setup all the wires and battery recharge can be accessed without taking it off. If you doing tandem camera this can save you some time during the edit process. I only ever take of the canon camera to change or charge the battery. If you want to spend some extra cash, cookie has a pretty cool protective box for the cx-100. DONT jump into mounting things. Plan it all out and mark everything precisely. Also think about your bite switch and hype eye placement. Think about your ringsite placement. Thinking about accessing everything outside and inside of the helment. Check snag points. If your smart about it it most likely will turn out right. Good luck and post a pic of the completed setup.

Your on the ground not broken and alive! I say you you made the right decision!

Thanks I completely forgot about that. I just figured it was a camera setting issue. I havent tried it out yet but it makes sense for sure. Appreciate the help and ill let you know if it works or not.

I would try and contact someone currently at the course. Most people that took the course over a year or plus more are probably gonna have good things to say because the course was great then. The past year they went through a pretty rocky stage and unfortunately I was on one of the courses during this time period. Howevor, I have talked to a few friends that are still jumping at the DZ and see the course every weekend and they say its starting to turn around with the new instructors and direction there taking. Every business has a rocky stage at some point, especially when there trying to get larger. I think most of the criticism about the school has just derived from the past year or so and I strongly believe its because the school is trying to grow larger as it becomes more popular. I think every business is gonna go through this at some point or another, howevor, I do hear that they are starting to pull through. Contact me through PM and I will see if there are some people that are currently involved that can give you the low down on whats CURRENTLY going on.

Cant seem to find this under the 1 million threads about the cx-100 but has anyone had any problems with recording sound when you have the hypeye plugged in? Not sure if there a setting in the camera or what the deal is but whenever i have the hypeye plugged in there is no sound recorded. Any thoughts or ideas?

Dont really care about the political aspect of whats going on over in NZ but I think this is a major score for NZ school. Congrats!!!

Also keep in mind that the manufactures are recommending 500 jumps to jump with a tandem pair now. Not sure how many dz's are following this but the few that I have talked to are following this recommendation.

Just a warning to those who haven't thought of this. I certainly didn't think of it and it ended up ruining all my videos for the MOAB boogie. I am using a cx-100 and a Raynox 3030 lens. I had the 37-30 mm PLASTIC adapter ring that the Raynox 3030 lens provides with it. The first jump of the Boogie we were getting geared up and I happened to bump my knee on the side of lens breaking it from the camera. When I looked at it closer the PLASTIC adapter ring was the piece that broke. Luckily the nothing happened to the lens... PPHHEWW! So my advice is to get a METAL adapter ring. Another one of the jumpers at the boogie has the same setup but uses the Metal adapter ring provided with his the century lens.

Everything done at the course meet the requirements of the NZPIA and done under the supervision and consent of the instructors. You also need to take into consideration that the students are more current than your average weekend warrior with 200 jumps strapping on a camera.

Im sorry I gave you partial information. My apologies. They have "Official" beer night every thursday at a place called the Lodge. All the other nights your just practicing for thursday...

I realized after posting that I was pretty biased in sharing my option so here is a list of some of the positive things about the school. They teach you how to pack tandems They let you video tandems that dont have payed video after 150 jumps They let you jump camera at 100 jumps They brought in Stephan Lipp for some coaching They have a beer night every thursday night They have student gear, not enough for everybody so you will have to share. Not sure if they have gotten more They help you find gear however most of the time Mark would say here is your equipment and people would buy it. You have allot of fun. The facilities are nice. They just bought a Caravan ... if I think of anything else ill try to post it. I also want to mention that you dont walk away from the course holding any ratings... except your NZ B License, but no "professional rating" such as a coaching license. aff Also I need to mention that I took the course with 90 jumps over a period of two years so I had some experience, not much, but some before I went where most people in the course were either starting AFF or had 10 or so jumps.

Hello I recently did the January 09 Course and if your a coming from anywhere but NZ and Australia I highly recommend saving your money and not doing the course. Nothing personal against the staff there great people and pretty knowledgeable but If i could do it again I would just go spend 2 months in eloy arizona or skydive chicago and put down the money on fun jumps. You will probably become a better flyer this way anyhow and you will get more bang for the buck. The biggest problem with the course that I have is that the jumps are not structured. By this I mean they pretty much are all "fun jumps" with another student. You can do this at any dropzone in the world... Also the coaching is pretty much a joke. I think I got the most coaching and I had had to nag at the instructors to do coach jumps and walked out with about 6... about half of those actually got "Debriefed." However they did bring in Stephan Lipp who used to work at Eloy and he did 5 coach jumps with all of us. I learned more from him than anything at the school. As far as your specific questions go. Methven is fairly cheap however it is a super small boring town and the locals dont like the skydivers very much. You get an opportunity to do a work placement program. So far most of the people I did my course are working at the drop zone as a packer and a few even as flying camera, However if your looking at doing your work placement in the U.S. good luck getting on camera with only 200 jumps. I don't care how good you are.. I would definitely find a better spot for weather. The weather is probably the biggest downside to the school. Less time and more focus is the way to go if your serious about getting a job. Probably more than half the time spent at the school was playing ping pong and waiting for the weather to clear. As far as i have experienced, in the U.S., the Diploma does not matter. In fact most people just laugh when you tell them what it is. From my experience if you have the jump numbers, your safe, and can hold your head still while biting on a switch, able to use basic PC skills or an editing bored, then its not to hard to find a job. Might have to be at a smaller drop zone at first... Also, While I was there they had 2 instructors for about 30 total students there. I think 12 in my class and 18 in the other. You can already see the problem here. These instructors also have to do tandems as well. At the end of my course the Head Instructor Mark Horning left to run his own drop zone in the north island. At the end of my course the were integrating a new instructor to take over for mark Wade Challenor. I have not heard any recent updates if the course has changed with Wade in charge or if they have gotten any more instructors. If you have any other questions feel free to PM me or ask on this forum.

Has anyone had any problems with this port breaking? My has broken and I'm trying to make a solution so it doesn't happen again. Im thinking about building a bracket that holds my tongue switch in the port keeping it from moving. Any Ideas?

Will you send me a picture of how you make the support. Ive come up with a few different ideas but would like to see how someone else does it to.

Has anyone had any problems with the GPS port failing? Mine recently broke and im thinking about building a mount that holds the tongue switch wire in pace so it doesnt move around from the air blowing over it. Anyone done anything similiar to this?

Open faced helmets will fit around one of the top corners of many rigs inside an airline-legal carry-on. Hhhmm never thought of doing that.. I like that idea best ill try that out and see if it works thanks