brentfinley

Funny... me too! www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

Here's one of me at the Eloy 300 way. Norman Kent took the photo. www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

My wife Mary and I were remembering Paul and the 4 Stack she did with him (her one and only CRW jump) She had 189 jumps and here is her logbook entry: Jump No: 190 Date: 8/5/95 Location: Eloy, AZ Aircraft: Beech 18 Equipment: Eclipse/Triathalon 135 (CRW team issue) Altitude: 10,500 Delay: 2 sec. Dive: 4- way Stack w/Paul, Loron, Ellie "Rode 1/4 Brakes. Paul Pinned me on top. I held front risers, then built the 4 stack w/me on the bottom. Yee ha!! Broke into 2 - 2 stacks. Released and held half brakes. Paul flew up behind me, but I did not grab his nose cell on time. Really enjoyed the jump. Landed in the peas. Next time, grab nylon and hook feet in the lines, climb down and do side by side w/Paul". She never got to do that next jump with Paul... but will forever have the 4 stack award and one of many memories of Paul. I've ridden the plane soooo many times with the CRW team on jump run. I loved the dramatic flair he always gave as he looked back, just before exiting, hair flying in the wind, wild eyed, and put his hand out to someone in the plane and said "Hey... Come Dance With Us!" Blue skies forever, Paul. www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

Copyright is implicit upon creating the work. Litigating for copyright infringement is made easier by having REGISTERED your copyright soon after publishing the work (when it hits the web). It make a difference between suing for lost revenue (license fees you would have charged) or being able to go straight to Statutory damages (up to 150,000 dollars) if the judge feels the infringement was purposeful. Skyride has recently told me that they bought the images on a Royalty Free CD from "harvester Graphics" that is now defunct. They also told me that they will NOT take the images down because it will cost them money to rework their web pages. AND they said they would not compensate me for the images either. Nice guys. www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

This is where you are VERY wrong. They do NOT bring new jumpers to our sport. They divert people looking to skydive FROM legitimate DZs in the state to a fake one. Then they send the buyer to someone that takes their certificate. To bring new jumpers to the sport, they must ADVERTISE! A web site is NOT advertizing, it is a place the consumer FINDS by searching for it. These people have already made a decision to buy a tandem.... These guys are equivalent to someone sitting in the DZ parking lot selling marked up tandem certificates! Thieves.... not only of my photos, but of legitimate DZ's business. www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

This is a tough one... I don't really have too much data on this. I know that Mike Skeffington shattered one in Monterey on a particularly cold day on high altitude jumps. On the other hand, Willy Boekins has had one of my sights in Belgium and probably jumps in some extreme cold there. I just saw him for the AZ challenge and everything seemed fine. The thing with any extreme temperature shock is you want to do it gradually. If you go from a well Heated plane to standing on the step, it could be disatrous. If you go from 80 degrees to -23 over 30 minutes, like I did on the 300 way in Eloy, you will have no issue. On some level, it's still a crap shoot. There could be an invisible flaw that will propagate more quickly under seemingly no temperature shock. I would have to assume that a lack of feedback on sights becoming destroyed would indicate that they hold up rather well, though. (but I cannot make any guarantees, you understand.) Hope I've reassured you somewhat. Thanks, Brent If you sit by the door www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

Does anyone have a phone number for Cary Quattrocci? AKA owner of Skyride.com. He is using over 100+ copies of my photographs online and will NOT return my phone calls. He gave his "home" phone number to Jan Meyer at a USPA DZ owner meeting over 6 months ago. It was her specific request so that he and I could talk about this issue. I want him to Take down my feature photos which I believe he stole right here off of DZ.com as well as my web site. I know he will claim that he bought them from some "company" who farms images off the internet, but the fact is that he is still responsible for copyright infringement, even if he didn't steal them himself. I have left messages at 1800 skyride. I have called his DZ where they claim to not even know WHO Cary Quattrocci is!!!! If anyone has a phone number for him... or know him personally... have him Call me! 602-550-6103 Thanks, Brent Finley www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

You are not allowed to view any tape before dubbing for the judges according to the rules. SO..... if you think you may have missed part of the exit for some reason and have doubts, then you dub from the extreme wide view. The judges will hate the rest of your video because everyone is so small... But... you'll save the bust. www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

Paul You forgot: Gear Up: Do you have a rig on? :) www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

lewmonst, do you still have the hardware I gave you? Brent www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

Sorry it took me so long to reply to this. Blemishes are like dust or defects in ME putting the polarizer on. These are minor. You can't see them when the sight is close to your eye. Other blems are surface pits due to a defective/poor crystal polish, or mishandling after polishing. You can see these if the sun shines in the sight and you see a small glare from them. The load I had when I wrote the post is GONE. New crystals are in better shape so I'll have less severe blems... just my assembly blems... though... I'm getting better. :) Brent www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

Thanks all for the kudos! The Video Editing Seminar was totally fun. I even learned a thing or two! Lewmonst! You're welcome! Next year I want to get a signup sheet for the .com boogie so everyone can get me to come along on their jump if they want. See ya next year! www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

All, I have looked at most of the sites on the list Jan has assembled and these Skyride people have shamelessly STOLEN many of my photographs to spruce up their sites. They are THIEVES who have no morals or scruples about what they are doing. In fact, they have stolen some pictures from the DROPZONE.com gallery. Brent Finley [email protected] www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

Paul is right, The newton cross has no calcite at all. The "interference" acts in the same manner as above, for the concentric sight. That is, at certain angles, the light is interfering with itself and cancelling out. The first order interference is the darkest, closes to the center fringe (or circle if concentric). The further, more rainbow like lines are interference at angles further from the axial "normal" line that is perpendicular to the glass. Theoretically, if you hold the sight still and move your head behind it, the pattern remains "aimed" at the same spot at infinity (or a spot far away). Unfortunately, the property that makes the cross sight work is not very uniform in the film that you make it with, so there can be some "dancing" of the lines as you view the pattern through different portions of the sight, but the CENTER defined by those fringes does remain constant, so there is no effect on the operation of the sight. There is no distortion with a concentric sight because the calcite crystal that causes the proper interference pattern is perfect. Speaking of calcite crystals... I recently got a shipment of crystals for concentric sights and there was a high number of "blems" in there. I have about 8 concentric sights that are of varying degree of "blemished" from $160 to $200 so if you've been wanting a concentric cheap, now is the time to get the factory seconds! Thanks, Brent www.brentfinley.com [email protected]

The articulating bracket used to mount a sight on a freefly helmet comes with Nylon screws. It's meant to come off in an emergency. If you're concerned about this type of scenario, I recommend using that to mount a sight as well as attaching something like a breakable string loop that also secures the articulating bracket to the helmet... this way, if someone kicks your mount and it's NOT an emergency, then you won't lose the sight in freefall. If you really do have something snagged, it will break the string too. Brent www.brentfinley.com [email protected]