Zlew

I"m not sure I agree. THe pics they show having it take up the inside of the entire front riser all the way from the 3 rings to the dive loop. Not sure how that would work for things like swooping when folks bend those risers in half. The subscription will probably be the killer as well. I pay an extra 50 bucks on my home owners insurance, and all of my gear is covered. Maybe if the subscription also included insurance more folks would go for it (track your shit with our product, and if you can't find it we'll insure it and get you a new one). It's a good idea, and moving in the right direction. but for now it looks way too big/bulky and too expensive to buy and then pay for with the subscription. I hope they raise the funds they want...but 200K seems steep.

I bought the 540 a year or two ago, got the adapter...plugged it in and nothing. I actually sent the camera to Hypoxic for them to have a look, and the reply was that Sony totally changed the itnerface, and the hypeye won't work with the new setup. Further, it does not look like they will be making a new heypeye for the new cx size cameras. That's why i'm so interested in this thread. The only things that work with the visual indicator right now are older cameras and a gopro with a Turned On. Interested to see what direction everyone will be going as the older cameras are getting long in the tooth.

Have you confirmed that? As far as I know the Hypeye (even with converter) stopped working about 2 generations back with the Sony cams.

I may end up going that direction one day. I'm just so used to the indicator and the comfort knowing in freefall that my cameras are running. Before I got my TurnedOn, my backup gopro was turning off about 20 seconds after starting to record for most of the day, and I had no idea until I checked the card after training. that's why a gopro with IS and a more narrow field of view is appealing to me.

I'm in a real similar boat and will be interested to see the feedback on here. I also want Hypeye support and wide (but not gopro wide) primary camera angle. As far as I know, the most modern CX style camera that will support a Hypeye is the CX430. That is a several year old camera...and you may not be able to find a new one. But it has BOSS, and works with the hypeye. What I really want- Gopro to come out with the next camera that has image stabilization that will give a clean picture at a medium filed of view...slap a TurnedOn on the back, and be good to go. My current setup is a CX150 with a .5x, and a GoPro/Turned On as backup.

I was at a boogie recently and our contact (for team/ sponsor stufff) was there from PD. I tried to see what info they would share about the new wing - when it is out, where it will be positioned etc.... and I got nowhere. My guess is KA2 ish...but the $$$$ would be something in the SA2 range. They sell so many of those, and can be flown by students to extremely experienced jumpers...the market is huge.

The dive is what really sets the Katana apart. Fully elliptical has it's own set of risk/reward...but I've never jumped anything non xbraced that dives as easily, as hard, and recovers the way a Katana does. I still think learning the dive/recovery of something that behaves much more like a velo than a SA2 or XF2 on a wing that can be much bigger than a 120 is a benefit. It is absolutely the pilot, but even this weekend at a boogie I heard people saying "it's just katana, and I already jump a velo" when talking about demo canopies. The Katana in the hands of someone who knows how to fly is a hell of a tool.

The Katana is a machine. IMO the key piece is you can start jumping it in the larger sizes and lighter wingloadings and learn the way modern swooping canopies dive/recover. (biggest velo is a 120). The Katana doesn't tend to porpoise out of a dive like a XF2 will at some wing loadings. IMO, if you learn to fly and swoop a Katana well, you are very well positioned to then move to a Velo. Then you can choose to start pushing the wingloadings. For what it is worth- there is a guy at my DZ who jumps a Katana that outswoops most xbraced pilots.

I can think of a few folks who might be interested. What point average are you guys shooting for? How often are you training? Is your team name cool?

You know...it is hard to say. Disclaimer- I'm not a competitive swooper, I load on the lighter side of the chart, and my "big turn" is a 270. So feedback from the heavy hitters might be different. When I first got the wing I would have said yes, the recovery is shorter. Now... I'm not so sure. The issue for me was I do pretty slow carving turns from higher altitudes than most do at my wing loading. I found the velo was really easy for me to tune the dive by slowing the rotation to keep it diving if I was a little high. When I got on the VK, it took me until this weekend (maybe 40 jumps?) to start to figure out the technique to do the same on the VK. Otherwise I was having trouble slowing the rotation...thus starting the recovery sooner...thus it felt like it had a shorter arc. I'm not sure if any of that makes sense...... but for now I'd say the recovery is really similar, but the VE can be "tuned" a little more easily than the VK. Once you get them dialed in...things are similar. At least... for the way I fly.

I have a VE and VK of the same size. Some things are really familiar, but the significant changes I've found- Openings- Very different. Less shake, more on heading, shorter snivle, less of the mushy transition between the slider being up and coming down. Turns- More sensitive to all turn inputs. Very "rolly" into the turns. Landing- Way way way more power on the rears. You can stay on them much longer than on the velo, and then still have more power to shut it down on toggles. Speed- On bigger turns it is noticeable on on how much more speed it will generate. on smaller ones, and general flight, seems similar.

I saw another one yesterday from Eloy. Man...it's a cool concept but they make me motion sick to watch (and i don't really get motion sick).

I'm sure the grommets being on the outside vs inside is a big part of it. I remember when I put my RDS slider on top of my standard slider...i was very surprised and had a "well, there's your problem" moment when thinking about the faster openings. The amount of fabric is significantly different. As I remember it is 2 inches on one side, and one on the other?

If it is a PD RDS- It is recommended for only sub terminal. I thought I knew better, and jumped one terminal anyway and had significantly more brisk openings. The reason- The PD RDS Slider is SMALLER than the standard slider by several inches. Put the old slider back on and it will fix your problem. Some others make RDS sliders that are larger, but the PD made RDS slider is in fact significantly smaller than the standard slider.

I don't load it up too much. About 2:1 without lead.

I only have bout 10 jumps on mine, but only had the slider issue once. And to be honest that one time may have been the first jump where I was anticipating a wild slider due to this thread... The rest of the time it comes down, flaps just for a second and then ends up with the back grommets down, and the front grommets up and very stable. Video below. http://youtu.be/glUQtrc8XOI

From what i've seen, they start to lighten pretty quickly.

ASTRA had that. correct, and I have seen first hand video of those misfiring (long ago). Two 360 degree turns under a 120 sq ft canopy at 1500 feet...2 out. One of the problems with the Astrsa was batteries dying when people forgot to turn them off at the end of the weekend.

One of the AADs had an error causing it to lock up, but look like everything was working correctly on the display. Caused a huge recall recently. Another one had a manufacturing issue where the cutters didn't have the blades installed. Several other examples I can think of.

You have probably been bashed on here enough, and you are going to do what you are going to do. But I will say this- The Katana is no joke. It is the most aggressive non-cross braced canopy I have flown. I've never jumped anything that dives more readily than a KA, and recovery is similar to a velo (with much less power to dig out). It's fully elliptical with all of the good and bad that goes along with that (including not being forgiving of mistakes on opening). Go easy man. That wing, wingloading, and your jump numbers add up to very high risk.

I haven't used it for dropzone work yet, but I just finished building a PC for photo/video editing, and I'm getting just about 1 min render time per 1 min of footage (so far using 1080P GoPro and Sony CX footage). Rendering to 1080 mp4 I use the $100 vegas (home studio plat. 13?). I put the 5820K (6core) intel chip in there, along with really fast storage, and a strong graphics card. I was very surprised to find in my testing that renders were faster with CPU only, compared to using GPU as well. On my last rig, same software was much faster with GPU. Guessing with better software able to use GPU and the 6 cores you might be able to get even better times. Not to get too geeky, with the right gear you can render HD pretty quickly now. specs- 5820k (overclocked just a touch to 4ghz), 32 gigs of ddr4, gtx970 graphics card, SSD scratch disk, intel 750 primary HD (fast enough render times were just as fast reading and writing to the 750, and reading from the other ssd and writing to the 750...or vice versa). Big ass RAID 1 array for long term storage. w

I'm too lazy to go find it right now, but there is a recent thread about the next generation AAD (by the guy who says he is going to make it). Cliff's notes- many more sensors with the idea of being able to detect when you leave an aircraft, when you open, when you chop etc. Much more advanced than an altitude/speed firing criteria. Who knows if/when it will come to pass, but it was an interesting read.

It depends on what you are doing. For me it is the right answer, but if you are doing close up footage with really wide angle cameras... it may not matter so much. Outside video being anywhere from 5-10 feet (4 way) to 50-100 feet (big way) above the formation, you need to know exactly where you are pointing. You may not realize how much you look with your eyes without moving your head. Also, you can use a ring site for range finding. I know based on the cross pattern and my lens where my team needs to be in the circle for me to be at the ideal distance for framing. I can get instant feedback if that distance changes just by where the team lines up in the cross pattern. No need to guess where the filed of view is on a bigway etc. But if I was just shooting tandems up really close...using wide glass... i'd consider not using one.

http://performancedesigns.com/docs/linetrims/VC-071-111-Line-Trim-Chart.pdf http://performancedesigns.com/docs/linetrims/VK_LTC.pdf The slider for the VC103 and VK96 are the same according to their respective line trim charts. This may have changed, but as of a year ago all of the velo sliders were the same size, but PD RDS sliders were several inches smaller than the non RDS slider. For me, it made a significant change in the opening characteristics at terminal (on a velo).

In the old days they did it down low, and broke a lot of femurs.