marcin

I recently produced my first DVD's, using Ulead for editing and DVD production/(conversion fron AVI to MPEG). 1) The picture falls apart where motion is sped up or slowed down, or simply with fast movements. I normally deinterace the ready project, but was told that without deinterlacing I may get better results (even) on the TV. 2) Should I deinterlace, if the movie is viewed using an LCD projector and played from a mini DV tape? My fist experience is that w/out d/lace it appears better. Your opinions? Marcin

I just got my new computer, the Ulead MediaStudio Pro7 (which seems to be a great improvement to v.6), but for some reason it crashes on me all the time. Setup is a follows: ASUS P4P-E i845PE S478 DDR333 Intel Pentium 4 2660MHz/533MHz S478 (box) DDR 1,024 MB PC2700 333MHZ DDR333 ABIT GEFORCE4 MX440-8X 64MB AGP TV OUT Two MAXTOR 120 GB 6Y120P0 7200rpm 8Mb Cache, plus dedicated 30 GB HD in mobile rack with OS and Ulead only. Win XP Pro I've read some comments in this forum about incompatibility of 845 chipset and Adobe, but not Ulead. I've got like two minutes of fairly complex stuff in timeline (transitions, filters, 2-3 videos tracks, 3-4 audio tracks) and every 30 minutes or so Ulead just suddenly shuts down with no warning, or gives me the "Veditor caused error..." message and freezes. Usually when I am moving clips in the timeline. Any idea what can cause this? Marcin

Felix was at a freefly boogie I attended last year. He was not a popular person there and did not win my sympathy either (though I may not be liked by many who first meet me either). The event was sponsored by Red Bull, and that was the reason of his presence and his free jumps there, however he was one of the most self-oriented famous skydivers I got to know (Olav, Omar, Stefania etc were all there as well - what a difference), with apparently little socialising skills. He is a small guy sweating testosteron. He got real unpopular, when he caused a stop in jumps by "hijacking" the helicopter as a last jumper out and doing a jump into the center of the nearby city. Noone new what happened to him, he was missing for hours and the regulation in that country was no jumps in case of incident until cleared. With all that said, I think you can criticise his personality (if you think you are a better person) but his living and lifestyle depends on his self promotion, that is what the Red Bull pays him to do. That is what Tom Cruise and John Travolta does, and De Gayardon was doing (yes he seemed to be much nicer person). Endangering other people -agree, condemnable. although I havent heard of it. Side effect of his activity - increased popularity of air sports. M.

My girlfriend has a TD man'd in SA a year ago. When I first saw it the one think that I didnt like was the attachment of the PC handle to the PC, which seem very weak. She didnt put many jumps in on it, but we'll now be careful. Marcin

I was told by Atair to not take to terminal my Impulse on first 1-2 jumps (I dont think I complied), because of the lines.

Thanks, I've go it now. We are working on the new skydiving regulations in my country and there was a public debate on the use of Cypres. Australia was brought as an example of using/allowing PPKU (ancient Russian mechanical device opening the main parachute) for student jumps with apparent success. Some people here would rather support the mandatory use of modern devices like Cypres. I wanted to know the safety record and statistical significance of AFF jump numbers in Australia to assess if it can be used as a valid argument. In the process I learnt that routinely (on some DZ's) certain part/all of AFF jumps was reported as tandem jumps or larger groups of AFF students were registered under one name - all this for insurance purposes (cheaper for tandem). Therefore the statistics are largely unreliable for 2002 (now apparently the first 3 AFF jumps are offcially tandem). By the way the estimated 2.000-2.500 students per year, translating into max. 25.000 AFF jumps per year seem quite a lot to me. Obviously skydiving must be popular in Australia.

Did both, just need it quite urgently. M.

I need to know the total number of AFF jumps in Australia in 2001/2002 and AFF safety record in those years. Any idea where I can get this? Thanks Marcin

My jumps are probably 40% fs and 60% ff. I think proficient belly flying is essential. I jump on a 4way team and its easier to find 3 another formation skydivers than 3 another freeflyers to jump together on an average DZ. One-on-one ff is fun, but limited after a while. On a 4 way team, you can enjoy the fun of team work with people you like and doing something technically challenging. In ff this would require knowing some really strong freeflyers and significant experience. After certain amount of ff jumps I strongly desire an occasional belly (fun) jump. The more types of skydiving you do, the longer it stays interesting.

Thanks! So you actually have to wait for a few seconds before taking consecutive shots? For skydiving, do you recommend buying the cheaper Digisnap5000, or the 2000 model, which is bigger, but has some other functions (timelaps etc.) that are probably not useful for skydiving photography. marcin

Hey guys, thanks for the"encouragement". I don't mind pain (doing full contact fighting sports for 20 years) if it helps. What I am afraid most, is that I won't be 101% fit after the surgery. Can the bolts come off? Would it take so much time (few years) for the ligament to grow into the bone? I thought that with the bolts the ACL can break in half perhaps, but not come loose from the attachement. I should have the surgery within a week. Now I realize that climbing that 100+ steps to my apartament my not be fun after all.

This is it, thanks. I also bought the Coolpix 5000 recently and are experimenting with it. What size and quality do you set it to for skydiving photography? I find the camera very slow with higher resolution. Do you have wide angle adapter, or use the original lense? Marcin

Thanks people, this is very useful, although doesn't paint a bright picture. I'am 33, but in a pretty good shape and will keep exercising until the surgery. It will be my own hamstring tendon, an the surgeon is a sports med. Sport is very important to me, and wearing braces isn't always an option (eg. contact martial arts). Anyway, I'll make sure to do the rehab as hard as possible and perhaps consult several specialists. Fortunately, the injury was very isolated and nothing else was damaged. I can still bike, run or even do squats with 170 pounds on my back, but I do feel that something is wrong with the knee, so I need to have the surgery done.

I still need to have it done, its 8 weeks since the injury . Ligament will be harvested from my hamstring. I do sports 5-6 times a week, so I will rehab as hard as they let me. 9 weeks sounds incredible! I was kinda preparing myself to not skydive this season and hoping to ski from November.

Thanks, that really does not sound very well. I do a lot of other sports, including skiing and was hoping to "be better than new" after surgery and recovery period. I also currently fly @1.9 loading approx., so landing is an issue. My friend tore his ACL skiing but he skis again and says his repared knee is stronger than the other. How many month after surgery did your friend re-injured her?

I remember reading an article in either Parachutist or Skydiving regarding bypassing the lack of plug for remote shutter release in digital cameras- there was reference to some small device, plugged into the USB port. Also there was a good review of Nikon digital cameras, including Coolpix 5000 in the same article, I think. I cant find this issue of the magazine. Does somebody remember which issue was it, or/and what is the website/name of the company producing this small device for remote shutter release? Thanks Marcin

Has anyone have experience with ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) reconstructive surgery and recovery time? I recently tore my ACL completely and was told 6-8 months before safe to skydive. Any suggestions re rehabilitation? Thanks Marcin

Thanks. Finland: why such an "unround" number 1.34:1 until 250 jumps? (Based on kilograms, rather than pounds?) Norway: isn't 350 jumps too low for a 1.6:1? For a 80 kg (or 176 pound) jumper this would result in a 126 sqf. canopy (with equipment on). Seems bit low at 350 jumps. M.

What is the Australian system? M.

Is wingloading regulated in any country (I read about the Dutch rules below)? If yes, how? The skydiving regulations are currently rewritten in our country and we would like to see some benchmark. Thanks M.

Could you give some examples how Premiere differs from Ulead Media Pro (in what respect is it better) ? I use Ulead and have found that the most time consuming part is going through hours of footage and selecting the best few seconds you wanna insert, plus editing to the music. Boris FX and Cool 3D have usually more than enough effects and options, and anyway you dont see much of fx in norman kent's film either (apart from slow mo' and fade in/outs). Nevertheless I would be interested in using a program more efficient than Ulead, so if you have any thoughts, please share. marcin

I did about 20-30 jumps on an 105 X-Wing, and have been to the factory in Germany. Also there was one or two at the DZ for a year or so, soi I watched a lot of landings. Openings are generally OK, but has to be packed like an X-brace (no tail rolling, slider well esposed to relative wind etc.). It is not crossbraced, but has some triangle reinforcement at the mouth, with nose inlets slightly closed. The manufacturer called it the best flying parachute and claimed that even with the small size you will make it form long spots. In brakes it flew reasonably well, but otherwise sunk. Really crap toggle turns, and to make it turn a bit faster you need to use back risers. Feels much bigger than its size and is very stable, but feels very awkward in flight, like riding a ferry instead of a motor boat. Couldn't dial the landings in at all, even after few jumps. Seems to have little bottom end lift. One very experienced guy was loading it really heavily and was coming in like a bomb, with reasonably long swoop, but again little botom end lift. Also had to cut away a line twist. Overall, I can't see a single reason to buy this canopy. M.

There's been threads on 0.3 diamond in this forum before. Generally, IMO its great, manual focus works great, I usually set it to 6-10 feet (use for freeflying mainly). Plus the manual says dont use any program settings (like sports etc.), also no problem with that. Low profile, light great picture quality, very little distortion. Marcin

If you are able to unhook your RSL, its probably unnecessary to cut away in the first place. I've had numerous line twists and spins, and was able to kick out all of them except one (@1.8). Then I felt after the first rotation I had difficulties lifting my arm, spinning on my back so it was time to go, no time to play around with anything like RSL. From my experience, If you spin without line twists, rear riser input and shifting body weight will always help. Once your are stabilised you can check if anything is wrong with the breakes/canopy etc. If you have line twists, then grab above twist if the twist is low enough and help untwist with your hands. Otherwise start kicking out like hell. Actually, on more than one ocasion I started kicking out in the wrong direction. Thats possible eg. if twist is so severe and low that risers push your head down and you cant look up. Opening sufficently high an altitude awareness is crucial though. I spent once 1,500 feet untwisting borrowed canopy (one side of the slider got hooked on the Y lines junction somehow) that I was reluctant to chop. I opened very high so I new I had altitude, but even though I was surprised how much altitude the canopy ate in a moderately agressive spin (@1.7). marcin

Folyékonyan magyarul; plynnie w jezyku polskim; dovolno taki horosho po russki; reasonable English; am bischen Deutch. M.