mandm

Could I be #1901 ?

+1 ... My 2 GFXs malfunctioned continuously...

Hi, before we moved to Belgium last year, we lived in Vienna and tried some of the alternatives around Vienna: Czech Republic, Kunovice (@1.5h driving distance from Vienna): OK Boogie: http://www.okboogie.cz/en/ Nice plane, nice people, well organized, bunkhouses at the DZ, cheap. There are other DZs in the CZ/ SK Republic we heard good things about, but we have never been to them: E.g.: Pribram (close to Prague) or Slavnica (close to Vienna) http://en.skyboogie.sk In Austria, jumping is more expensive. DZs we have tried an liked: Paraclub (operating from Wr. Neustadt (very close to Vienna), sometimes also from Punitz): http://www.paraclub.at/html/cntKontakt.html Also nice is Union Linz http://www.unionlinz.com/kontakt/kontakt/ Then, of course, there are always the Pink Skyvans, based in Klatovy (CZ), but travelling all over Europe.... http://www.pinkskyvan.com/ Let me know if you need more info.... BS, Martin

Some other people have posted this before, but anyhow: There is a cheap chinese copy of the MC-30 called "Adidt M1" which connects directly to a tounge- or bite-switch, no cutting required, they have two versions, one for the D200, one for the D70s: http://www.adrenalens.com/d60remote.htm You can find these switches easily on ebay, my switches (4) all work fine, but since they are quite cheap, perhaps buy 2 just in case on doesn't work...

RE: So, how do you know your visual is accurate? People believe instruments waaaay to easily. Before you decide anything is accurate, you must define accurate. Then you have to figure out how to measure accuracy. __________________ The GFXs would te´ll me that I already landed when I wasn't even in the landing pattern yet. That's inaccurate enough for me...

If you are talking about the Skytronic GFX: I bought a Skytronic GFX and had serious problems with it: Mine read accurately on the climb to altitude, but was way off on the way "down", e.g. it told me I just landed at appr. 1000 ft, opening data etc. was also wrong by appr. 1000ft.. Funny thing is, that it only happened on 4 or 5 of the appr. 20 jumps I made, but still.... I then returned it to Paragear for a replacement- the new one had the same problem- Paragear then replaced this one for a Protrack. The Protrack, of course, is working fine. It's really a pity because the GFX was much nicer to program/ use, but that does not really help if it doesn't work properly... :-)

I used to worry about my contacts a lot, too, but in the end, all different goggles I tried worked OK (about 8, from cheap to expensive). Make sure that they are quite tight, though.... If money doesn't matter, perhaps Wiley X (prescription or regular with contacts) or else just some cheap clear ones... Carry glasses or replacement lenses with you in case you do loose on lense, so you don't have to quit jumping that day...

I am jumping a Spectre 170 with a big logo sewn onto the canopy. It does pack sgnificantly bigger than the regular Spectre 170 my wife is jumping and I also think it flies a bit more docile but flares better. Of course, spectres open slow, even without modifying them. But the canopy was really cheap, got it second hand from a 4way team...

Some other people have posted this before, but anyhow: There is a cheap chinese copy of the MC-30 calles "Adidt M1" which connects directly to a tounge- or bite-switch, no cutting required: http://www.adrenalens.com/d60remote.htm You can find these switches easily on ebay, my switches (4) all work fine, but since they are quite cheap, perhaps buy 2 just in case on doesn't work...

From the thread "Scary stories from the old days? " in "History and trivia" (great thread b.t.w....):

We jumped in the Austrian Alps this January at @ minus 10 Deg. C. Wasn't too different to other jumps. I started with a Thermo-Jumpsuit but after 1 jump just switched to ski underwear and a regular RW-Suit (The plane was heated, after all). Silk undergloves and warm winter gloves are usefull, though. And if you are jumping a full-face helmet, make sure it doesn't ice up all the time, ours did... The landing in over 1m of snow was a lot of fun- it get's quite hard to judge when you are going to land but it doesn't really matter if your flare is a bit off in deep snow... Have fun, :-)

Joey Jones (of DeLand Majik) did this with his team at the nationals. Don't know if there is video, though...

Sorry, the hand-mount was made by Para-Sport, of course, not Para-Gear.

I bought one, had to return it after about 30 jumps- it would work most of the time, but would then show wrong altitude readings (- 300 m (!)) close to landing and wrong opening altitudes (more than - 200 m compared to others opening at the same altitude). Again, not during all jumps, just sometimes. The GFX would also suddently show +/- 60 meters on the ground, even after beeing manually zeroed.... I returned this unit and Paragear (excellent service, BTW) sent me a new one which they even test-jumped, and it worked with them. Tried it again (on Para-Gear's hand-mount, maybe this was the problem), same results: 3 Jumps fine, 2 way off (+/- 300 meters, both landing alerts and opening data, compared to other people). It would also suddently switch to flight mode on the ground. Again, ParaGear agreed to replace it, this time I am going for a ProTrack, never heard that they show this kind of behaviour.. It's a pity, though, because I liked the GFX's options, but of course, what use is an audible if it only works sometimes?

Hi, I just bought a Skytronic GFX last week and had a similar problem: Mine reads accurately on the climb to altitude, but is way off on the way "down", e.g. it tells me I just landed at appr. 1000 ft, opening data etc. was also wrong by appr. 1000ft.. Funny thing is, that it only happened on 4 or 5 of the appr. 20 jumps I made, but still.... I just returned it to Paragear for a replacement- if the new one has the same problem, I will try a Protrack... I wear it on the left wrist, BTW, since I did not like the idea of all that Velcro coming too close to my hand deploy... Hope that helps... :-)

Hi, I still use film, (and Nikon), but this should be the same with digital-Canon. The easiest thing to do would be to set manual exposure (M-Mode) on the ground: Point the camera at someone, with the sun in your back, and with M-Mode your settings will remain fixed no matter where you point the camera afterwards. This might however lead to wrong exposures if the light changes a lot (clouds...). Also, you will get underexposed pics in the plane.... You could also use leave AE-Exposure and use a (powerful) flash to make the faces come out OK but the sky will be underexposed (i.e. dark blue, which looks nice, I think). Other options: 1) Use exposure-compensation (plus, i.e. longer exosure), but then all your pics from that jump will be over-exposed, not only those taken into the sun, so I wouldn't do that. 2) Switch to center-weighted metering, so that the sun, if it's in some edge of the frame, does not change exposure too much. But center-weighted exposure-systems might not be as good in other exposure-situations- you would have to experiment there... 3) While UV-Filters offer good protection in general(but might add flare) and while Polarizers give you nice blue skies (if shot at the right angle to the sun, but eating up a lot of light, i.e. cause longer exposure times), I dont see how they could improve your situation. Hope this helps, Martin

Hi from sunny Austria, sorry for one more stupid beginners question, I couldn't find it in this forum, but if you have talked about this already, just ignore me...

We just returned from Gryttjom- it's a great place. You may just want to come here because jump prices are really low(check their website- it's a club- if you join abd jump a lot, you will get extremely cheap tickets), but there's more: The place is only about an hour's drive from Stockholm Airport, in a nice, quiet area (the landing strip is only used for Skydiving and some (few) gliders)). They have two fast airplanes (Twin Otter, AN-28), full facilities (camping, kitchen, cheap bunkhouses, restaurant, packing hall &&&) a big landing area and last not least the people are extremely friendly, experienced, safety-oriented and helpful-what else could you want?