danielcroft

Voss Ventus should definitely be on there. You should also add whether the tunnel is recirculating or not and it might be interesting to see if it's an iFly or other design. Another point that could be useful is whether the tunnel shuts down between sessions or not (Voss Ventus doesn't have to, nor do iFly Dallas or Austin).

Nice one, Marc. Hopefully I'll see you up at the tunnel again at some point. :-)

I have an Ambit 2 that is ok for getting a basic idea of your altitude but it's not something I'd recommend people use for their primary altimeter. I find that it's delayed but also can be 10-50ft off which is certainly enough to break yourself if you're swooping. I tried it on my other wrist when I was wearing my regular altimeter to see how it'd work. I've also found that it'll re-zero in odd ways and I needed to pay attention. I wouldn't feel comfortable relying on it but I can certainly land safely without an altimeter so up to you. With the Ambit series of watches, you can create your own applications which allow you to have something that shows your altitude in a readable way rather than the graph. I've done that as well. The apps will also log your freefall which is pretty fun to look at. I haven't used any of the older Suunto watches but I know a lot of people do. If I had nothing else, I'd wear my Ambit 2 but I wouldn't expect any accuracy from it. YMMV.

I've found that if you have "too many"* files on the card, the camera will only record about 20 seconds before it just stops. That's even with 40GB of free space and full battery. * I have no idea what "too many" means but after emptying the card, everything was fine.

Mine turned off randomly in freefall the other day. Battery backpack, 64GB card and latest firmware. *sigh*

What a champ.

1. Everyone's different, some people learn faster than others. Took me a while but I had a bad attitude at the time. That makes a huge difference. 2. Can't answer this one but I've seen external coaches at all the other tunnels I've flown at (Utah, New Hampshire, Colorado, Eloy) with the exception of Seattle but I only did 5 mins so not sure. 3. IMO the best thing you can do to be ready for learning head down in the tunnel (or anything anywhere for that matter) is to get your head straight. Learn to relax and enjoy the experience of learning. If you're fixated on something it's really easy to get tense which makes flying a lot harder. It's a head game. I personally have a great time in the tunnel regardless of whether I'm hitting my goals. Remember, the expectations we place on ourselves can be our greatest limitations. Have fun, listen to your instructor and keep trying with an open mind. Don't forget to have fun.

Yeah, I saw that after I had done the update. *shrug*

The 3.03 update just came out (according to an email I got from GoPro). Remember to reset your settings...

Personally, I think that if you want to get into real swooping, like swoop meets and the like, then you're better off waiting a bit longer (a few hundred jumps, plus increasing your currency while you're at it) and then going to a KA. I love my Crossfire 2 109 but it's really easy to hit speeds where the recovery arc is very positive - to the point where you have to fly the front risers through the recovery. That's not a good way to get good experience for proper swooping IMO. Having said that, the rears on the Crossfire 2 are totally awesome, super easy to land on with a lot of range. The XF2 is just generally an excellent, all around canopy IMO but the KA is still going to be a better bet for swoop progression. For the record, I load my XF2109 at around 1.7 which is not trivial by any means but am still able to get it going fast enough on 90ºs where the recovery arc is really positive. I'm no swoop expert either, clearly. YMMV.

Time to call the whaambulance.

The update utility needs to interact with hardware, there aren't a whole lot of web development platforms that allow that. The fact is, you can pretty much take anything else off the list entirely. So, what GoPro did was to take the time to make life easier for people who are able to run this app and still provide a simple method to update their cameras by downloading. The debacle that is Java (it *should* be disabled everywhere) had certainly not hit in full force while they were developing the H3 and you could only assume the app development. The alternative is to develop desktop applications for any platform they want to support which is expensive. Java is a good option for supporting platform, unfortunately, it's also good for security holes and hence the problem with Java.

I didn't have any issues with mine until I started skydiving with it... the firmware update seems to have resolved the issues I was seeing (randomly stopped recordings, incomplete videos, etc.) but still waiting to see if it bombs out when I jump with it again.

I updated mine to the non-beta version (I think it was only one version number different) but had no issues on the beta version recording video at the tunnel (which had been a big problem). Hopefully they've got the major issues sorted and will be pushing another update for the features that aren't working or don't exist. Every company has limited development resources, I'm happy that they have sorted the major issues. Seems like they rushed the release out a bit based on this instability which is a business decision.

The link had a TTL and a key so I'm pretty sure they'd shut it down. Aside form that, who knows if it'll actually work?

My H3 bombed and didn't record more than a couple of mins (of nothing) at the tunnel tonight so I sent them an email. They responded super quick with a link to a beta firmware (v HD3.03.02.36 beta) that I've installed on my GPH3B, hope it's an improvement because this is getting old.

Speak for yourself.

Don't deny us all the chance to see some awesome video.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sofpidarf/

I hope they don't fix my H3, I enjoy the suspense and anticipation.

1. Power 2. Control 3. Safety - Never give up the gates - Always trust your rears https://www.facebook.com/groups/sofpidarf/

No thanks mate, you're way more hard core than me.

cut price reserve canopy = cut price landing

Next time you're jumping with people, set a base for the jump. You can have a quick chat about who falls at what speed and figure out a plan should something like this happen again. Main point of this is to keep your group together. Exit separation is something you can ask other people on the plane about too if you're not sure but you guys didn't leave enough room as has already been mentioned. Glad you're ok and so are the two people who you floated over.

Interesting that you'd say that the KA openings were bad, I've found all the KA openings on the different sizes that I've flown to be pretty good. I guess the Storm spoiled you.