Zlew

Hi there. I was the guy in the video. I agree with you on the text about not blaming the skyhook for line twists on your reserve. The text in quotes was from me, and the rest was from the Editor. I've had 3 spinning line twists cutaways, and that was my first with an skyhook (old school camera guy, never had an RSL/Mard before). My first one opened without line twist. The second one had a few minor twists, even after rolling over and taking a few seconds to slow the spin. I've seen many many skyhook spinner videos that had no lie twists, and a few that had several. It isn't a sure thing. Video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk0fSCtULxM I can say this. I never felt like I was back in freefall with the skyhook. I was under reserve line stretch so fast, I didn't feel like I ever had time to get back into flying/falling in freefall. Defiantly wasn't as violently flung spinning on my back as I was in the video link above.

When it first came out, people refereed to the Katana as the "stiletto 2". Wing shape looks almost identical and it has some improvements people were wanting (better bottom end/openings), but the dive characteristics made it more like a Velocity minus than a Stiletto Plus.

The characteristic that comes to mind that the rigid xbraced wings excel at (and from what I understand, the new planform does even better at) that would be desirable in most wings is bottom end/slow speed flight. When you think of the middle of the road wings, you don't probably want the long recovery, or even the super responsiveness. The most common complaint I hear on those wings, from people who otherwise love them- bottom end. Not sure it's possible, but think of how huge that market is, and if you could come out with the next wing anywhere in the Pulse/Safire/Sabre2/Xf2 range with significantly better bottom end...there would be tons of money to be made. Katana 2 comes to mind, but the lower level market is significantly bigger.

I really like having an indicator of some sort, but there are plenty of people who go without them. It also may depend on what you are shooting. For me shooting team stuff and maybe tandems...it is really important to be 100% sure the cameras are running. For fun jumps...doesn't necessarily matter as much. I am running hypeyes and Turned Ons now. For the sony handi cams- You may need to look at older cameras, as thew newest line is not compatible with the Hypeye indicator. That's why you still see a lot of cx 100/150s out there. The 430s you can still find, and are compatible. DSE- what about a sony handi cam with the IS on? Is that narrow enough of a field of view for what he's looking for? Could run 2 action cameras with the remotes if that was the case.

5 to 50 feet is a big range. Have you thought about 2 cameras? GoPro and similar are great for the 5 foot portion... then something with a longer focal length for the 50 footers? Beauty of the gopro/sony is they are so small it's almost like they aren't there. Wouldn't be hard to do something like DSE suggested plus an action cam. The BOSS sony cams have great quality, and can adjust the focal length to your desire.

And your vidiot loves the team that doesn't try to blame the "video bust" caused by the kittens in a dryer exit on round nine on them. *edit- the kittens were not possessive. Makn' 3rd grade teacher proud

The 540 is a sweet camera, and the BOSS stabilization is really nice. However it does not have, and will not ever have hypeye support. If that is a deal breaker, you might want to look at the older BOSS cameras. I believe the 430 works with the hypeye

Yours is the best answer. I've seen a full range of compensation. For people who are with the team for a full season as committed vidiots capable of at least judgable video (or bettER), I have seen a range from- just covering jumps- jumps plus packs, jumps plus packs plus jump/daily fee, jumps-packs-fee and travel. It depends on the area, the team, and the specific situation. It can also depend on how good (or bad) any dropzone support or team rates that the team may get. Depends on the market also. If you are in a place where you are asking someone to jump with the team instead of making $~50 a jump shooting tandems...you may need to offer more to get someone decent. IF there are more tandem video guys than there is work...you might not have to offer as much to get someone to do the job. I can't say there is a standard. Most seem to at least get jumps+packs.

He was one of the OG swoopers. Around that time, he was the kid with tons of jumps (at like 16 years old?) jumping a cross braced 69sq ft Icarus. When the "badasses" were jumping stilettos at 1.4 to 1, and 97's were considered crazy small wings..... the pics of him swooping the ditches under what I think was a white with blue crossbraced FX 69 at over 2:1 was the talk of may bonfires at DZs around the country.

Think you are right. Looks like triple risers. You don't see them much anymore, and some packers freak out when they see them. Basically the keeper ring has it's own riser, instead of being attached to the rear. The pull on the tail is more directly down (similar to base setups that dont' go through the keeper) instead of in a triangle from your hands, to the rears then out to the tail. only pic i could find http://galleryplus.ebayimg.com/ws/web/321638926629_1_2_1.jpg

According to the order form, Dacron and 825 Spec will be your only options. I don't think they will make you a set out of Vectran or HMA (maybe you could find someone to make you a custom set...but PD typically will only make you what's on the form). *edit to add link http://www.performancedesigns.com/orderforms/Sabre2_Order_Form.pdf I asked about a Sabre2 for a teammate with Vectran a year or two ago, and was re-directed to the 2 lines listed above. The majority of sabre2's are 825 microline. The line is strong and thin, but shrinks with heat and will go out of trim over time. It also does not stretch (less than steel they say) and thus there is no shock absorption for harder openings. Dacron is thicker (lower cool factor), but it stretches a bit and can make opening shock softer.

As long as I've been in the sport, there have been low cost canopies from South Africa. The Tempo was about half of what PD reserves were. As I remember the Viper/Alphas were made there too and were 850 bucks for something similar to a Stiletto.

Is the altitude via GPS or barometric. If GPS...hack it to show speed instead of G's, and the canopy folks would be all over it.

nice shot!!!!

Thanks for the info. I really like the way my VE opens, and when I heard the VK opens even better... I was sold. As I remember, all of the non RDS VE sliders are the same size. Seems odd that canopies could be 40% bigger and have the same size slider.

What did you think of the openings compared to a velo?

Not at all surprised to see another awesome pic by Juan. Nice work (per usual!)

Agreed. 500 feet graduations for things like break off is pretty common

One thing to keep in mind- The PD RDS slider is smaller than the stock slider. Snaps or no snaps, they tend to open more briskly than the stock slider.

My experience is they don't slow down the opening in general. I have quite a few jumps (even back to back) with snaps on and snaps off, and the openings are pretty much the same. As I remember, the idea isn't to slow the opening, but to force the slider to stay in place and help reduce the risk of extremely hard openings due to the slider shifting out of it's ideal location before deployment. If it is something that will reduce the risk of a rogue opening...I'm all for it.

I shoot a Hero 3 black, and the stills are pretty good in the right conditions. They are 12 meg, and fine for printing or even publishing. You can set it up to take pictures continuously (i think max is 2/second), and you can also have it take video and also take a still every 5 seconds.

Dont know of others who use these settings, but last season I shot 1080-30 wide video, with a photo every 5 seconds. Worked well and gave me some cool 12MP pics to go with it.

Something to think about here- "camera helmets" are designed to have flat surfaces that easily allow you to put your helmet on with your eye on the same line as your cameras. What several of you are talking about are using sport *helmets and mounting action cams to them. Obviously this is now the majority of "camera" helmets we see, but that is also creating some of the problems you are discussing. A benny or a G3 weren't really designed to mount cameras to in the way that a FTP, or 4X was. How you guys figure out how to mount them and get them lined up will be up to you. However, I'd suggest working hard on it and trying to come up with a solution that is clean, but also naturally points the camera where you are looking as much as possible. IMO, the last thing someone with 200 jumps and a camera on their head needs to be thinking about is tilting their head for the shot. The beauty of the wide field of view of most action cams is that if you are close...you should still get everything in frame. I'd prefer to see you able to focus on flying safe and staying out of trouble, than to have you focus on keeping your chin up/down/left/right to get the shot with a poorly aligned camera.

Just got an e-mail from Canon for their current deal. I thought a few of you might be interested. It is their smallest DSLR, with kit lens. I'm not in the market, but figured a few of you guys might be. Going new for 550 on amazon right now. 450 without the kit lens. http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/02-01-15-save-200-dollars-instantly-when-you-buy-the-refurbished-eos-rebel-sl1-18-55-mm-stm-lens-kit?cm_mmc=EM-_-ES-_-150201-_-LEADIN&WT.mc_id=EM1502ES01045&RID=1-L92P0X&CON=1-3DS9-89&PRO=&CID=1-L7EB99

looks like you can still get boxes for the cx100-150 line. http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/rawa-cx100-105-camera-box-3409 http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/catalogsearch/result/?q=bonehead+cx http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/cookie-blackbox-cx100-130 Before getting my FTP, I had a CX150 side mounted with the cookie box. worked fine. Could you go with an action cam? I know some DZs do, and some don't, but the new sony with IS seems really appealing to me.