JSE

There are some really creative points on there. hard to choose...but the artwork needs a bit of improvement

I hit a bird with my car on the way to the dz. Does that count?

I wished I had known that just because someone has high jump numbers doesn't mean that they have good advice to give. Look around and see who everyone goes to for help. Then ask that person who they go to for help. Also don't rely solely on any one opinion, especially dzos

That might have something to do with it. Marcel's advice is good. After you've been doing 270s for longer you will develop a better sense of the sight picture for the turn. It probably isn't hard for you to do 90s at a new dz or on a new canopy. But at one point it was challenging to do a good 90 on any canopy anywhere. A lot of times I will estimate how much to raise or lower my turn and then control the turn rate to compensate for being high or low as I come around. When in doubt (and even when there is no doubt) start high and air on the side of caution.

DSE, I seemed to remember reading on here that you use to jump a FX, do you find the voodoo to be better? just curious.

Snow Crash - its about a hacker who rides a motercycle, carries a katana sword, and works as a pizza delivery boy for the mafia. Its just cool. Magic Kingdom for Sale - its about a middle aged lawyer or something like that who ends up buying a magic kingdom from a magazine ad only to find out its real. He is now the king of a run-down magic kingdom with lots of problems. Its like a child fantasy come true, but not quite. enders game- already mentioned.

I've had a lot of success with wearing just a little bit of weight.

Care to elaborate? LOL She is an instructor, thus the I guess its to early in the morning. I missed the

[reply Fewer selfish instructors. Care to elaborate?

Not everyone is, or is trying to be, a professional cameraman. The OP is interested in freefly fun jump videos. I'm not convinced that a top mount is necessarily better for that.

Didn't I just read in parachutist that BigAir was cutting back on production?

thanks for the info DSE - i guess I'll hold off a little longer

Why do you say that? Why is it hard to show footage? Once you focus the camera does it not stay that way indefinitely? Why is it difficult to show in the plane? because of the way the box is set up? Does the camera feel somehow weak to you? I've never had the chance to see the camera or the box

Its funny that you mention My Cousin Vinny. I think we watched clips of that movie in at least two of my law school classes - although it was mostly for levity at the end of the semester. Seem to rememeber clips from A Civil Action also being shown at one point or another. The discovery prof loved to constantly remind us that in real life its not like LA Law. Nothing on TV or movies is every like real life. Not even reality TV. They did try a reality TV show about attorneys once. It was too boring to watch a bunch of associates with their heads in books all day so it got canceled almost immediately.

You'll have to excuse them, a lot of trolls or newbies come on here asking for permission to do things that are stupid or beyond their skill level. The fact that you are asking about it would imply that it might be for yourself, which is why I asked. If you really want some valuable information why don't you elaborate on your question and fill in your profile. People around here are particular about the profile thing, and sometimes it is for good reason.

Impossible to answer. lots of variables affect speed. Wingloading, canopy design, temp., alt., etc. A 175 pound jumper will be close to 200 out the door. that means wing loading will be close to 2:1 Bottom line: it will be very fast is it for you?

well, if you want to jump the 109s you will probably want a wide angle lens, i'm sure you could get that from b&h. If you are going to jump stills you could invest in a nice lens for that too. I would also look at quick release mounts as those tend to run about $100. $500 will go real fast.

I know people who swear by mudflap alti's. Two considerations: how are your landings? if you face plant it could hurt pretty bad. how do you lay your rig when you pack? I like to tie the rings together w/ the rig ontop of the shoulder straps. If you have an alti on your rig you might have to pack it slightly differently

Well, I just found out that I’m going to Costa Rica for my post bar exam trip. I leave in about two and a half weeks and I’ll be there for about two weeks. I am insanely busy between now and when I leave (studying for the bar, taking the bar, moving out of my apartment) so I don’t have to much time to plan stuff... So has anyone been there lately? Got any recommendations of things to do? Places to stay? Things I should know? I’m not a very experienced international traveler, but at least I know that my passport is still “in date.”

i got it too. could tell it was a scam because i wasn't even offering a "complete system"

How does the weight of the vapor narrow compare to the FTN? I found the FTN to be a little bit too heavy for my tastes.

Wouldn't it be great to make a small canon point and shoot (like the s600 that I have) jumpable? Well now I am fairly certain it is possible - and I will tell exactly how... Let me start by saying that these cameras will never be able to replace dSLRs. But, there are a couple situations where I have thought "gee, I would prefer not to have a big camera like my xti on my head" There are two parts to this puzzle, software and hardware. The software part has already been mostly taken care of by the CHDK project. The website for the project is http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page . You will need to download this software, which is a nondestructive firmware update. It is nondestructive because it lives on the camera’s memory card, not the camera itself. I won’t get into the details of everything chdk does, but it adds a ton of really cool and useful features such as the ability to shoot in raw, manual shutter speed (very important in skydiving) and a bunch of other stuff which you can read about on the website. Many, but not all powershot cameras are supported. If yours in not officially supported, you can check in the forums. My camera was not officially supported but I found a version that works there. The second part is building a remote shutter release. The key feature of chdk that makes these cameras potentially jumpable is the ability to activate the shutter remotely though the usb port. In order to do this you have to build (or buy) a powered remote shutter release. It doesn’t look very hard and there are diagrams available at http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/USB_Remote_Cable I’m not exactly a whiz kid at electronics, and I’ve been insanely busy, so I haven’t gotten around to building a switch yet. There is an entire thread running in their forum about building these things. I’m sure some enterprising dz.commer can find an easy cheap method for doing this and share it with the rest of us (hint hint) The best part of this whole thing is that it doesn’t require making any real modification to the camera itself, thus you will not void your warranty by doing this. Have fun and please share your experiences.

One thing i noticed immediately was how much excess brake line was flapping around. Thats a lot! Not stowing all that excess in some way (on the back of the risers, looping it around the stub of the toggle, something) is a problem waiting to happen.

I saw on the back of the new Parachutist that Mirage now has a new skyhookesque reserve deployment system. Anyone have any information on it?

I have an hc40 with a royal .3. It works great. I've put over 800 jumps on that combo. Not sure why you are having a problem. all the videos at myspace.com/jeffse were shoot with that camera and lens