miller

First, I'm pro-sony. Sony is the only option, sony rules BUT Has anyone else noticed that almost all of the new models (except for 950 and vx2000 which aren't even new) are going to the touch screen controls? In other words, no more external fader buttons, etc. We are still editing tandem videos linearly, so 95% of my editing and effects are actually performed as I shoot. These new models make it impossible to use the fader once the camera is all buttoned up (ie in the door, under canopy, etc...) I still currently use a TRV-8 (what a little tough-ass workhorse) and a PC-1, but I've been involved with this whole video thing long enough to know that skydiving eventually takes its toll on little electronic things like camcorders (anybody need a few really taxed out hi-8 cameras or a sony hi-8 vcr?). Eventually I'll be faced to replace my cameras, and when I do, this whole touch screen thing upsets me. A few of these models actually require a stylus, not just a finger touch. A damn stylus, imagine whipping that thing out in the plane to switch shooting modes or using the fader. Bah! Maybe there's something I'm not getting here. That's my rant. Mike

what a night of upsets last night. Dallas falls to Edmonton at home Philly falls to Toronto at home Ottawa loses at home Should make for some awesome series. As a diehard wings fan (I actually work in the shadow of Joe Louis) there is NOTHING like living in Detroit during the playoffs. Best time of the whole year. Last year and this year will be the seasons that I'll tell my grandkids about. Yzerman, Federov, Hull, Robitaille, Shanahan, Chelios, Cujo, Hasek and the list goes on. It's funny though, the Wings' salary and the Detroit Tigers' salary were damn near the same last year (about 65 million). The Wings won the cup, the Tigers came in last by a whole bunch. The discrepancy between hockey and baseball salaries makes me sick. BTW - Tigers are currently 0-7 (baseball sucks, I just stated this for informational purposes) Regarless of rivalries, let's all revel in the fact that our common thread (other than jumping) is that hockey is religion, there's nothing better. mike

First, these helmets aren't much taller than a normal flat top pro with a d-box, it just looks like it because of the big flat space on the side. (Look where the back of the helmet flares out) Second, if I'm not mistaken, the camera actually sets on a plate which is in the exact same location as the plate on a normal flat top, and you can use a combination of padded shims on the top of the contraption, so that when it closes, it holds the camera all nice and secure. A friend of mine has one of these with an old hi-8 sony, which fits fine. Therefore, any of today's digital trv-series cameras would be okay. It just might need a little work to get it to close/secure properly. If you buy it, you can get a new "thermo-fit" liner from bonehead, bake it, and it should be good to go. my two cents Mike

I have a flat top pro with a sony trv-8 and a canon 35mm still camera both on the top. The video camera is in a d-box and the still is attached to a bogen low-profile quick release. They fit fine. I'll try to remember to take a picture or two and post them in the next day or so.

my suggestion would be to try Napoleon. It's about 45 minutes from E. Lansing, 25 minutes from Ann Arbor and about 1 hour from Northville. We'll have a Cessna Grand Caravan (or twin otter) again this year. Two of our four AFF instructors are also AFF evaluators. Anyway, the owner's name is Mike Pelzer, and you can reach him at Pegasus Parachuting Services (subsidiary of Napoleon Skydiving Center) at 248-375-5797. Evenings after 5:00pm are ususally best. We typically open around the first or second week of April, and the Caravan will be arriving the last weekend in April. If you have any further questions, feel free to send me a PM or e-mail. Hope this helps, Mike

the new talon, which is called the talon fs or the talon 3 can be seen in the 2002-2003 (#67) paragear catalog (not on their website yet), which includes an order form it's kind of like a tweaked voodoo, but it has the cut-in back pad, the profile of the rig is not as rounded as the voodoo, and the flap aesthetics are a little different. call RI for info. our dzo, an RI dealer, got all of the info on this rig last fall.

Consider a few different things---- what happens if you cutaway after stowing your slider? (is that bungie going to stretch enough to release from around the slider and let your trailing main go),,, this might be more of an issue if you use an RSL and you cut away after your slider is stowed and your main gets hung up by the stow, but your risers still release and fire your reserve is that bungie that goes around the top reserve flap going to interfere with anything like your RSL, pin, guide rings, etc...especially when it's under load and might shift around is there any possible way that part of the reserve system could get hung up on the small bungie and/ or ball in the event of a reserve deployment? is that little ball flapping around in freefall going to beat the hell out of the back of your helmet (probably not from the looks of the system, but if it was at all loose it would probably hurt real nice) my suggestion: rig that contraption up to your container and then stow a rolled up dish towel or something to simulate your slider being stowed, and then pull like hell and see if that thing comes undone. anyway, words for thought mike

I've got ULEAD 4.0 and 5.0., and 6.0 is currently out for about $90. They are nice programs to learn on, pretty easy to work with. 5.0 was a huge step up in ease of use from 4.0, and I'm sure 6.0 is much better than 5.0. They include dozens of modifiable transitions and special effects, and can take two music or audio tracks over the text and video tracks. Also, ULEAD currently has a 3-D graphics creation program for about $50. It's really cool, and you can incorporate anything you create into your video editing. Overall, nice beginner program, quite a few features, easy to use, and fairly inexpensive.

Dark Tower 5 is finished, all 900 pages of it. It's called "The Wolves of the Calla" I don't think there's a release set, but it will probably be within a year.

Lisa, that was a good link, but a bit dated in one respect,....I think. There was a line in cliff's page that said something along the lines of "it's a good idea to replace the battery if they're going to expire within the next repack cycle." It's very foggy in my mind but i think that the AAD is now considered part of the reserve system (for rigs that have them installed), and you can't repack a rig if the batteries are going to expire within the repack cycle or if the AAD doesn't meet the manufacturer's required maintenance schedule. I vaguely remember a ruling against a rigger that kind of set the precedent for this a while back. If I'm really bored I'll get out the old issues of skydiving and look it up. BTW, Lisa, thanks for calling me a nice guy on my other post regarding replacing my customer's cypres with mine so he could go on vacation today. What's funny (and sad) is that he FREAKED when I suggested that he just not take his cypres. Yeah they're great and all, and I have a couple, but come on, the idea of jumping w/o one just freaks some people out. Oh well. Mike

I had a guy bring me a rig the night before he was leaving for vacation. I specifically asked if he needed cypres batteries before he brought it over. Nope, of course not. Well, it turned out that once I checked his cypres he did need batteries. Here's my question, I didn't have any new ones on hand, but I did have a set in my cypres that was still good for another seven months. Before I go any further, let me say that I DID NOT swap my used batteries out to his cypres. BUT, what do you other riggers think of this, and would this have been "legal." FYI I just ended up putting my cypres in his rig, and I'm holding his cypres captive until he returns from his trip. Thanks, Mike

Congratulations! Cool subject matter, too. Attached is a photo of my most recent tattoo. It's from a 14th century woodcut by Albrect Durer...St. Michael battling the Dragon from the Book of Revelations. Be careful, tattoos can be addicting.

Not that I'm the end all greatest video guy in the world,and in fact I'm just a nobody, but I've got over 1000 camer jumps and I have actually filmed for newscasts, commercials, local newspapers, and even once for CBS's show "48 hours", but they didn't really seem to care....those bastards

no, it was just an audition, the thing doesn't actually shoot for another few days "no money will exchange hands, but on your death bed you will receive total consciousness," so I got that going for me, which is nice

So I got a call from a casting agent to audition for a commercial featuring "skydiving." Let me say that I'm not an actor, so this lady got my name from someone who got it from someone. They wanted a real skydiver because the actual filming requires some work in a suspended harness about 20 feet off of the ground and they figured a real skydiver wouldn't be scared of heights. Well, she also informed me that it paid $500, which wouldn't be a bad deal for hanging in harness for a few hours pretending to "skydive." Well, I showed up and there's like 20 union actors trying out for that part and the part of the pilot (lots of navy blue pants, white shirts, and red ties...I've never seen too many jump pilots look like that...I tried to describe Truman Sparks, but the reference was lost on them). It was hilarious because a few of the guys trying out for the skydiving part were walking around in mechanics jumpsuits and motorcycle helmets. I put my jumpsuit and rig on, and one guy actually said "wow, cool, that's one of those cool bungie jumping set ups, isn't it?" Nooooo.... As could be expected, these people had no clue about skydiving or how to even come close to representing it even somewhat realistically. I was told over the phone that they were interested in help from a techincal standpoint, but that also turned out to be pretty untrue. They wanted my name, my height, and they taped me running around a room with my arms out to the side laughing, like a little kind playing airplane. I did this under protest. When the lady told me to pretend that I was jumping out of the plane and skydiving, of course I gave a door count, jumped, and arched. "NO, NO, NO, do it like a real skydiver, with your arms out to your sides, flying around the sky." They also want a bunch of shots, like a round canopy opening from above and landing in a giant pile of money, but they don't want to film any actual jumping. I'm still shaking my head. Anyway, just wanted to share a kind of funny story. I hope I don't hear back, and I see their horrible representation of our sport air in a few months, and just laugh. "you know, like a real skydiver..." Mike

I had no idea. so do you think you can get me that astronaut pen? haha Actually, I think the astronaut pen was from Jerry's parent's friend from their condo complex in Florida. I'm pretty sure his name was Sid Farcas. Uncle Leo lived in New York with his mother (Jerry's grandmother). I'm a loser, I know. Mike

Two boxer dogs...see attached. Orbit (cropped ears) Echo (floppy ears)

I've been really happy with my Voodoo. It's a V1, made for a PD126 and 120ish main. I put a PD113 reserve in it with a 107 main. I'd rather have a rig that's a little bit bigger, but softer, than the tiniest possible rig for my canopies that feels like a brick. It doesn't look bad with the slightly undersized canopies. I even put a 135 main in there just to see if I could. It was tight, and looked a little different, but was otherwise okay. BTW I'm a rigger and I've never had a problem with closing the reserve. It would be my first choice if I were to buy another rig.

molar straps left around canopies, now that's a scary one... seriously, one of the scariest things I find on a consistent basis is worn or frayed closing loops. I personally replace the reserve closing loop on every rig (except racers) every time I repack it, even if I was the previous rigger. maybe overkill, but that's how I approach the seriousness of rigging. another mistake I found a lot was the misrouting of the cutaway cables through the reserve container on the older javelins with soft housings. also very common: nasty nasty black cut away cables that haven't been cleaned forever. pull these things out, clean them up, wipe them down, flex the three ring system.. rant rant rant i recently found some lead shot pellets from the previoius rigger's leaky shot bag. misrouted bridals, flaps closed in the wrong order, lots of little things that probably wouldn't have affected deployment, but weren't according to the mfr's directions. mike

As described above, it's just like the TRV10, but no memory stick. I bought mine on the close-out rack in the spring of 2000 for about $900. I have since used it for three full seasons, which for me was about 600 tandem videos. I've used the camera to playback and dub every one of those videos, and I've never had any problems. It's been mounted in a D-box, and been exposed to rain, and lately here in Michigan VERY COLD weather. Another nice advantage is that it takes the Sony M-series batteries which are very common and easy to find. It's not like with the PC-7 and the PC-10 and the PC-1 etc... where it seemed like Sony introduced a new battery with every new camera model. I should note that I'm still using the original battery (3-hour duration), and it acts just fine. I would personally buy another one if I found one in a box somewhere or a good used one for a reasonble price. I don't care about bluetooth technology or a memory stick or any of that stuff. The TRV8 can firewire into my digital edit suite, and that's all that really matters to me. I don't like paying for a bunch of features that I'll hardly ever use.

The watermelon drop was pretty impressive. The watermelon was about 60 lbs. (I'm not exagerating, many agreed it was the biggest watermelon that they had ever seen). It was dropped from about 500 feet. The video from the door of the plane actually shows the watermelon all the way until impact. That's how big this thing was. Following impact there was very very little evidence left, except for the giant divot in the grass. Every part of that watermelon was basically vaporized, rind and all. Upon impact a cloud of mist spread out about thirty feet horizontally, and about six or eight feet high. However, there was very little sound. The pumpkins tended to make more noise, but didn't offer as impressive visuals. However, we did find chunks of pumpkin up to 80 feet from the impact point.

On September 14, 2002 the Napoleon Skydiving Center hosted a "Jump for Charity" to raise money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which raises money to fight degenerative eye diseases, etc. Money was raised through a 50/50 raffle, a very successful silent auction, and the DZO donated $1 from every jump made that day and knocked $20 off of all first time tandems. Although we had touch and go weather throughout the day we were able to fly 16 grand caravan loads and around 40 tandems. All said and done, we raised just over $3,000 for the charity. Thank you to all of the gear manufacturers (too many to list, but you know who you are) that donated all sorts of good stuff. I know a couple of you lurk around these forums. Attached are a few photos that I took of an 18 year old who has suffered from "Tunnel Vision" since birth. The average person has a 180 degree field of vision in the vertical and horizontal plane. John has a 5 degree field of vision. Basically he sees the world through a little distorted circle. He and his mother are involved with the FFB, so she surprised him with his first tandem jump that day. Needless to say, you can see how he reacted. Sorry about the crappy scans. These are real photos, not frame grabs. Thanks again to everyone who was part of our day. Mike

Actually drogue assisted freefall for solo students was sometimes used during training. If I remember correctly, some manufacturer's student (not tandem) gear used to be available with a drogue assist option. I'm sure whoever created the model was basing it from a tandem photo, but I just thought that I would pipe in with otherwise worthless and unsolicited trivia. Mike

I originally had a bit switch, and without much effort I bit through it, it filled up with saliva and shorted, thus acting like it was always depressed. This also happened to two other people at our DZ. Maybe it's just a midwestern problem, though. Maybe we have really sharp teeth or strong jaws. Anyway... The folks at conceptus were great. They replaced it with a tongue switch, which did end up sticking after a while. You could actually tell the button wasn't "popping" back out. I could actually un-stick it, though, once I was on the ground, but I've since gotten rid of that particular switch. Since they were so good to me the first time, I just forked over the $40 and bought a new tongue switch, which I have had no problems with. Mike

It's never happened to me, but I will admit it's been close a time or two. It really depends on where you want to be on openening. I've seen some video guys that like to be above the tandem at pull time so the effect of the video guy freefalling past the snivelling tandem pair is dramatic, but IMHO that's about the very worst place you can be. I am no authority, but personally I like to be about two or three feet below the tandem, and at pull time I usually slide slightly to my left, so that I'm just offset from in front of them. This does two things: it allows a good shot of the student pulling (if they actually do), and if their feet do swing out they should miss you to your right. Mike PS.. Deuce, I still owe you some videos, I haven't forgotten. I've just gotten busy, you know...work, nationals, 20 jumps a weekend....