DZDale

Quote

i think he was referring to a 10D :)

There is a Black version of the 300d, check the link

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0404/04040801eos300dblack.asp

Blue Skies
D.

B !

Brilliant Work Ian, come a long way since the Grahamstown Days. Let me know when you have a DVD Copy, Id love to get my hands on a copy !

Blue Skies
Dale

Wish I could make it Dude, maybe next year !

Quit Numerous times 3mnths, 6mnths etc. and started again, Its been 6 weeks now and Ive managed to go out drinking with all my freinds who are smokers, so hopefully I'll quit fot good.

I agree - Chute Shop After Sales is NON EXISTENT !
Pisa on the other hand are Great, 3 weeks to get my canopy, Chute shop promised me 10 weeks, Well I ended up waiting 5 months !

Cheers
DZD

I Fly a Hornet 190 loaded at 1.38, Very Smooth, Soft Landings, Slow openings (if packed properly) Mine has about 80 Jumps Colours Kelly Green, Purple, Turquoise, Im wanting to buy a 170 now cause Id like some more performance.... Anyone want a 190 ?

Cheers
Dale

Hey Will

Yep, Mine was pretty bad took it to my Rigger, who raised the subject at the Annual riggers meeting.

Cheers
Dale

Hi Everyone

For those of you who have Vortex II Containers or planning to Vortex II Containers, just something I suggest you be aware of and have checked out by a rigger. After 5 months of having my Vortex, I noticed that the loop on the Riser, was starting to fray. I took it to a rigger (who is very well respected in the U.K. ) for inspection. The eye of the steel housings was so badly manufactured that it had sharp edges which caused the riser loop to fray. We also found that the eyes were not correctly sized for the housing and were threatening to come loose. The first thing I did was check out a rig which came from the same batch. It had the exact same problem, apparently there have been quite a few complaints about this. The manufacturers have changed their housings, as they are aware of the problem. I suggest that if you do have a Vortex II container to check this out, as it is not very easily noticible without inspection.

Please send replys and let me know if you have had the same problem.

Blue Skies

Dale

Very Nice, Professional looking site, could be a little faster on loading !

Good Luck
Dale

Jump with an experienced Jumper or a coach !

Cheers
Dale

Ducky

How about buying some South African Gear, prices are great and you would probably end up paying the same for second hand gear as you would for brand new South African Gear. Check out the gear section for the Hornet Main, and Tempo Reserve. A very Good South African Container is the Vortex II made by a company called chute shop, I own one and the quality is great and the rig also looks great.
Check out http://www.icarus.co.za for prices. Note that prices are quoted in South African Rands.

Blue Skies
Dale

Well whoever told you that talks nonsense. I bought my Hornet about 3 months ago and since have put about 55 jumps on it. Great Canopy flys great, lands even better. Performance is also good. I jump a 190 at a loading of 1.33 and find it to perform better than a 170 Square canopy.

Blue Skies
Dale

Just over a week ago I was taking part in the British Army Championships when on my first jump of the day, my canopy opened and began turning to the left, as this was happening the canopy also decided to throw me into a series of line twists, which caused the canopy to start spinning and when I say spinning I mean outa control. I was not very wise in my decision as I did not chop when I should have, intead I really battled to get out of the twists and then yanked on the back risers to try and stabilse the canopy, by this time my arms were knackered from trying to prevent things from going badly wrong, and I barely had enough strength to get my toggles and begin flying.

Lesson learned here was 1) I should have cut away and next time this happens will not hesitate, reason being that once I manged complete control of the canopy I found that I was at a nice height of about 600 ft (Very Bad)

2) Be very thorough when packing, I know sometimes we tend to be hurried along and take some things for granted, but please be thorough and if youre not sure ask a rigger or someone in the know. The cause of my cnopy misbehaving was that I did not Stow the brake toggles correcly, but I have learned from this mistake and will make sure that it never happens again.

Luckily for me this mistake did not turn out to injure me, but could quite easily have done so very badly.
The Moral of the Story - Always know what to do in any situation and try to antivpate the various different malfunctions and what you would do in the given situation. I think too many people dont think carefully enough about safety !

Blue Skies

Dale

I wear soft contacts and fortunately have never lost any while skydiving, I somehow think that if you had to squint really tightly you probably wouldnt lose a lens, however Id rather not try it until forced into that situation. I swim with my contacts in and also open my eyes under water which has never been a problem.

I wear a fullface helmet when doing RW, about a week ago I exited the plane and reaslised that my Visor was not down, all I did was pop it closed (Z1), no problem, although at that stage of the skydive I probably wasnt moving fast enough to lose a lens.



Blue Skies
Dale

Hi Jessica

What position are you, I presume outside center ?

Blue Skies
Dale

I tend to disagree with you on that one, especially if Gale at any stage decides to start doing relative work. My reasoning is that if she is presented to the relative wind she should be able to exit in a nuetral position and still work while on the hill, why be face to earth before work begins ? I think it would be good to learn that earlier rather than later.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

blue skies
Dale

Hey Bikerbabe

Yip you have hit the nail on the head, Myself, Christy and Rick. It was a great weekend, lots of jumping, something we dont get much of in the U.K. cause of the shitty weather.

Blue Skies
Dale

Yeah it was a fantastic weekend, Our team of which we are still looking for a 4th, went to Lapalisse in France for training as well as coaching and fun Jumping, A great DZ for any of those who have not been there yet, the weather was great, Good FS, Freefly etc. For any of you in the UK, Try Lapalisse, you wont be sorry. I managed 30 jumps in 4 days, not bad hey ! certainly more than what I could ever dream of doing in the U.K. in a weekend.

Blue Skies
Dale

I would probably go for the mirage, only thing is its FU..N expensive. Very nice though.

Blue Skies
Dale

I didnt mention that I am loading ine @ 1.38:1 and find it pretty docile, that is why I say dont buy something expensive if you are only going to be loading it @ 0.9:1, Rather buy something cheaper and when you can put a decent load on it and be gaurenteed with good performance, then buy something more expensive. Whatever choice you make good Luck !

O.K. Heres my opinion, Ill try and give you the best advise to my knowlege, Im not a skydive photographer yet since my experience level is not quite there, but I do take up photography as a hobby. First of all I dont have a preferance to either Kodak or FujiFilm, I have used both and found Fuji Velvia to be excellent and Kodak Ektachrome Extra color is also brilliant, Very bright and punchy colours.
I would generally say that print film would be better for skydiving as its more practical around the DZ, but if you want to use it for publishing, slide film will be the better option as the quality and contrast is far better. The film lattitude on slide film is much smaller which means that it is easier to make mistakes with your exposure settings, these mistakes can usually be corrected when using print film as the exposures can be tweaked during the printing process. As far as Film speed is concerned always remember that slower film ISO 100 will give you more colour definition and finer grain, however light conditions need to be pretty good. Faster film speeds will probably be better since you will be experiencing alot of movement and therefore will need to use higher shutter speeds to freeze the action, thus allowing less light into the camera.
I found that if using print Film Fuji Superia 400 is pretty good as the grain is finer than most other 400 films and the colour definition is excellent since Fuji uses a fourth layer colour technology in their film

I hope this will help answer your question
Blue Skies
Dale

Id Say the sabre2 would be fine for your needs, but as a first canopy loaded at 0.9 I think its an expensive option, Id rather go used for about 50-100 jumps and then go for a sabre2 at a higher loading, The cost would then be more justified. Another good option would be the Hornet from PISA, It is almost exactly the same as the sabre2, in fact it was on the market before the sabre2. I jump one and let me tell you that it is Shweeet, and its also alot cheaper than the Sabre2.

Good luck with your choiceBlue Skies
Dale

O.K. Well since my name has been mentioned, Yip I do jump at Hinton and I bought South African gear for a pretty decent price, but I went to collect it in S.A. I jump a Hornet Main by PISA, which is a great canopy, nice and fast it is a semi elliptical which means the rear is tapered slightly to give it a cleaner air flow. I also bought a Vortex II Container from Chute Shop which is a really nice container, similar to the wings. Send me a PM if you need to know more.
(Will you got my login wrong there mate !)
Blue Skies
Dale
A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.
- Zadok Rabinwitz

Excellent article, I agree 100% what you are saying. Id just like to add that if you look at some of the best skydivers out there they are all primarily concerned about safety, what bugs me about this sport is people who are subject to DZ peer pressure, I almost lost a freind because he wanted to be COOL, wanted to look cool etc. Id rather enjoy the ride and progress slowly, because being dead is not cool.
Blues !
A man's dreams are an index to his greatness.
- Zadok Rabinwitz