runnit

Cheers. I've been wearing my 201 on my upper arm in a mp3 pouch with a clear plastic window (more so for base) and been getting some funky results, but I don't think it likes the short freefalls. Some of my canopy data has been pretty weird or patchy as well though. Might try gaffer taping it to my helmet and seeing if that makes any difference.

So when you say properly oriented, which way is that for one of these units? On the side of the helmet (say like a dytter) or flat on top?

These 2 points hit the nail on the head for me. After how ever many hundred skydives flying outside video and stills, there are still base jumps where I will flat out not run my gopro just because it's an add on that I really don't want/need to deal with at the time. And despite any best intentions, if I've got a camera on my head there's always that subconscious thought that "if I just do this during the jump, the footage will look farkin cool." I've found it's almost an automatic reflex and I'm doing it before I've realised (base and skydive). 200 jumps may or may not be the magic number for someone being (un)experienced, but it at least gives a reference point to separate the people who'll charge in blindly from the people who'll take the time to stop and think about why that criteria's there in the 1st place.

I jumped with a bloke years ago who was flying an all white sabre. He got the shits with people always thinking he'd had a chop so he went out and got some sort of red silk dye/paint and put a big red anarchy A on the bottom skin. I think I remember him saying he'd done a bit of research to make sure the dye wouldn't affect the strength of the fabric, but don't know much more about it than that.

Don't worry, you're not the only one. I assumed it was some weird cable tie or something Can't complain about how the electrical tape's performing but.

The CI, in addition to the other groups affected by this pending decsion, are forming an action group to try an negotiate the terms of the decision with the council. As Andy9o8 correctly pointed out, one of the key issues is they want to lease the ENTIRE aerodrome, not just a plot within the grounds, which is what every other user currently does. The associated problem is that these guys aren't just your 'average' moderate church (if such a thing exists), from their website, they have some views that are verging on fundamentalist and the claims about how they plan to fund their venture are either ridiculous (in which case, the council should not approve a business decision to an organisation that has no actual business plan byeond waiting for god to do his thing) or an outright lie (ie they do have a large source of money coming in from somewhere, but deny it and claim that it's all been from divine intervention). So you've got a group with some fundamentalist ways of thinking and/or some very suspect financial claims that wants total control of the aerodrome, when just leasing a portion of it could equally achieve their aims... there's not really any shortage of land. So it's not just a business decision, it seems like there's some other agenda, under the guise of religion, going on here.

G'day Just wondering if anyone knows anything about the group Cannot Be Hidden International? They're trying to take over the lease for the entire aerodrome where our DZ is located to open up a missionary flying school. This acquisition will include the building we're currently renting as our club house so basically, we're about to get given the arse if this goes ahead. Here's the news paper article, but this has apparently been going on under the table with the local council for quite some time... http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2009/12/16/101145_news.html Have a look at their website, in particular http://cannotbehidden.mdz.com.au/main/page_miracles.html - WTF??? If they honestly don't believe in planning, how can they have come up with the money to afford a $25,000/yr lease AND cover the operating costs of a flying school? Seems pretty bloody dodgy and it makes you wonder what they're really up to. I don't want to go down the rabbit hole about bashing religion, beliefs, missionaries or anything like that (although being the internet I'm sure it'll happen) because if they were just going to lease a plot of land on the aerodrome like everyone else, then I'd have no dramas. The problem I have is that they're effectively going to have majority control over the entire aerodrome and their claims about where their money comes from don't seem to really gel with reality so to be honest, I doubt that their motives are what they claim to be and I dont think that they're on the level. Does anyone out there know who these guys are, how they operate, what facilities/activities/acquisitions they have been involved in previously or if there ever has been any case where they have been found to be not practising what they preach, so to speak? I don't want my DZ to be closed because of this group and there's another bunch of small, local businesses on the line as well. Any info would be appreciated. BJ

Is my bridle still tucked in? How bout now? How bout now? etc etc

I think you've pretty much worked out the the guts of the problem about how a bunch of little things added up throughout the the jump to make a potential big problem. As far as your decision making went once you realised there was a problem, personally i don't reckon words like "the" right choice apply to things like this because a chain of events was involved, rather than a one off instant you had to react to. It's too black and white to say you did the right thing or you completely stuffed it. But like a few people have said, you made a decision, didn't get hurt or mess up anyone else, so nice one

Cool, I think I know what you're talking about then. So is there a certain specification that would indicate whether the picture quality on one is better than the other or for a compact HD camera, are they likely to be pretty similar in the end?

What exactly is macro blocking? I've been looking around for a comparison of the Contour and Gopro HDs. http://pointofviewcameras.com/blog/pov/article/compare-the-vholdr-contour-hd-against-the-competition says that the Gopro uses mp4 while the Contour uses H.264. Would that reduce (eliminate?) the problem? H264 is a proper HD format isn't it?

I'd guess that balancing your weights so the centre of gravity is in the right spot WRT to the centre of pressure might be something to consider too. Think of a light aircraft, rather than a canopy. There's an idea, maybe try find some pilots and ask what happens to their glide performance with a higher loading?

I kind of skimmed through the 1st page and then jumped to the end so admitted I might've missed something, but I take it that the general idea is that AFF doesn't allow enough time between the instructor and student to pass on all the knowlege that doesn't directly relate to their next AFF stage. Is that about right? Well I reckon that seeing you learn at least half your skydiving knowledge after the bar's open, then it's really a simple solution... students must log at least 30 hrs around the fire before they can qualify for their A licence! And this way it doesn't discriminate between AFF or S/L students. Problem solved forever BTW, I really agree with Nick that there's something to be said for leaving the student wanting more. I did 6 S/L jumps in 1998 as a stand-alone package (not the actual course) at Toogoolawah and that left me absolutely gagging to actually go and freefall (ie start my AFF). BJ

That seems to be the advice I've got from a couple people now so I'm pretty convinced. Cheers.

Cheers for the info. I wasn't aware that there was an option of barometric readings as well. I'm interested in getting some altitude and vertical speed profiles for swooping and glide angles and altitude loss through turns for base. Do you have any names of different units that I could research/compare? I've only just become interested in this so I'm trying to find a good starting point.

Is this for all 3D fixes or mainly just in freefall? I'm after some data on canopy flight so the more accurate the better.

I agree. And you can extend that arguement even further by saying what's the difference between a reserve and a BASE canopy which will be used on hundreds of jumps over its life, be exposed to large opening shocks, landed in water/trees, packed in the grass/dirt... I assume that a reserve probably won't have as much reinforcing as a BASE canopy in some areas, but overall, is there really that much difference between the two?

That does seem kind of strange eh. I woulda thought that if you're going to design a suit with airlocks that's also deliberately designed with back flying in mind, then it'd be natural to airlock all the intakes. Has anyone experienced anything more definite or actually know how PF constructed it?

Another advantage of this that someone explained to me is that by having each leg take the same amount of time, it helps you get into a rhythm during your set up, rather than a random mix of timings between turns

Hey Fergs, good to see you haven't changed since I last ran into you dude. I've been real slack with my wing suiting lately eh, been running on my head too much and getting used to my new Crossy Having said that, I'm looking to upgrade from my GTi in the near future so, at the risk of dragging this thread back into a big pissing contest, is anyone out there able to give an objective comparison between the high performance suits? Eg - suit A had an awesome top end, but struggled, when flying dirty in a flock; suit B had good lift, but kind of lacked the forward speed in suit C; D and E were pretty similar etc. Something useful like that . . . BJ

In short, this is the sort of helmet you forget that you're wearing. It's lightweight carbon fibre, low profile and really well made. The padding is great and extends the length of the chinstrap. To top it off, the customer service is awesome and Cookie replied to my emails the same day. Normally if I was doing a wingsuit jump or a hop n pop I'd go without a helmet, just because it was easier/more comfortable than wearing my camera helmet but I don't think twice about running my M1. Note - the picture on this site is the old style, Cookie's now making them with a lower profile, sqaure audible recess

So how does the ghost fly compared to a V2? Does it stay well pressurised on your back? Is there anything that would make it less/unsuitable for BASE?

Well everyone else has given them a good review already, but I might as well throw in mine too. A few people run Deepseed gear where I jump and they're a real nice, well built looking suit. To top that off, my mate won a free suit off them in a raffle and wasn't sure if that included postage so she sent the money just in case. They got back to her as soon as they received the order to let her know that the postage wasn't necessary. Good on 'em

The other weekend we did a hoop jump we made a one out of 3 pool noodles taped together so we could fold it and get it out of the door of a 182. In this case we definitely needed a 2nd person holding it down when it came time to dump, but for a stiff hoop it shouldn't be that necessary. Still, nothing too wrong with a bit of extra safety if you have the height to play with. Another thing to consider is how the person will climb out (hoop in the hand/looped over the shoulder etc) and like I mentioned before, whether it will actually fit through the door. Enjoy your lob, make sure you have cameras on!!