flyhy

problem no.1 : where do I get a garbage bin from..? (small town...), I've got it in the bath tub at the moment hope that's just as good. 2: what kind of soap do you recommend?

I'm in a small town so facilities are minimal.. But I've just it pH tested and it seems to be acid as the pH level was lower than the same source water.. No, I always landed on the landing area, and as far as I know, they never mow it as the grass's struggling growing.. However we had a few vehicles on the PLA the other day that are preparing the airfield for an airshow. But I'd assume even if they're leaking, the acid would sink into the ground straight away..?

Cypress batteries?? but wouldn't that show up on the bottom of the reserve container? And wouldn't it affect the cypres b attery voltage or anything? I turned my cypres on this morning and it didn't show me any error code.. Well, I haven't actually checked my reserve yet, could be a good idea.. but I was assuming it had happened while the canopy was unpacked as there's little spots and not one big 1.. ???

the rig is locked up over night, the plane is parked in the same hangar and we have a battery cart in as well. But we have looked for acid spots, there's nothing on the floor and the battery cart is sealed we've just checked that. Also there's lots of tandem jumping here and the tandems would be more likely to drag their canopies over the ground through stuff but there's never been any damage on those. cheers anyway for your advice!! We'll give it a bath first thing, any ideas what to use as detergent to neutralize the acid that's still in the fabric?

Our packer discovered a few brown spots on my canopy, near the tail edge, and by slightly pushing a thumb in it ripped holes into the fabric like it was paper.. Does anyone know how to treat this? Obviously I'll need some patches over the holes but how can we get the acid out first and make sure there's no more acid anywhere else on the canopy? I've got no idea how it got onto my canopy in the first place as the rig stays at the dz and only ever travels from the landing area to the packing mat. However it has happened before to another jumper at the dz. If anyone has an idea where it could come in contact with acid in a hangar I'd appreciate it very much!

My rig came in contact with car oil yesterday and now I've got a huge stain on my container, right on the reserve flap, 2 on the main flaps and one on a leg strap. Is there any way to get those out?

Anyone can deal with a malfunction! They're really not such a big deal (apart from the really nasty ones maybe..). I always wondered if I could handle the situation and when I had my first mal it was at a time where I least expected it ("confident phase" ~500 jumps). And how I felt about it is exactly the same as what other jumpers have been saying: have you ever been driving your car and doing spins on the highway after hitting a corner too fast in wet conditions? You don't panic and scream, you know what to do, you know if you don't stay on the road you're screwed, so stay on the damn road!. You look up to check your canopy and all you see is a whole bunch of crap above your head and you don't think 'Oh shit I'm gonna die help!!!', it's more a 'ok, this is a mal, there's my cut away handle there's my reserve handle, etc... - just as you've learned! And all that goes really fast, so 20ish seconds is quite some time to react by pulling two handles. Nature has equipped us with this wicked sense that give us the ability to totally focus on the situation that threatens our life and think&react rationally without any fear or panic. On my first mal (linetwists) I lost my whole camera helmet and even though I can now remember accidently hitting the quick release while trying to kick out I didn't realize at the time until being under reserve. It was like a fly on the shoulder while dealing with the real problem. My advice is: 1. get packing advice from experienced jumpers/packers, but don't take over everything they say (too many smart-asses out there), just pick out the bits that make sense and you find useful for yourself! 2. get a good set of gear. There's nothing worse than climbing out of the plane worrying about open flaps and lose pouches. 3. maintain your good set of gear, have spare parts (closingloops,etc) with you in your gear bag 4. do your gear checks! Pins, strap buckles, handles, etc. on the ground and before you exit the plane. Get used to a sequence of checking so you never forget any. If you do your part, you can avoid most nasty situations. But no matter how skilled you are shit happens sometimes and from your first day on you're being trained to deal with it when it comes and so you will, in order to survive. So yea, mal's are not a big deal, the ones I've had so far were actually all good fun, kind of a change and excitement (when you go adventuring through the countryside looking for your bits of equipment spread all over the show..) but you don't want them all the time that's for sure. trust your equipment and all the clever technology that's out there for us. (Listen to jumpers from the old days, stories about front mounted reserves and cut away buckles, now that's scary shit!)

Hi there, I've got a Lexar flashcard (1GB,80x) that is only a few months old but now it won't work properly anymore. My card reader won't even read the card anymore, and out of 5 other readers, only 2 will recognize the card. One of them will show no files on the card, but will tell a used disk space of 4 MB. The other reader showed some unknown files on the card that can't be deleted/ formated/ scanned or anything, they're 32 files all the same size (129KB). Trying to delete those files will result in "cannot delete files, read-only" something like that. Has anyone heard of this problem before and/or knows how to fix it?

I've never jumped a stiletto.. but I love my cf2 (129). The front riser pressure is light as - much lighter than anything else I've jumped. It is very responsive, got a great flare and lots of lift on a front riser landing as well as conservative (less speedy) approaches. Not sure about the packing volume but you can always find out from the manufacturers..

I lost my reserve handle of my reflex (made by fliteline) and been trying to contact trident who's making the viper but also selling parts for reflex rigs. Anyway, I'm not getting any reply on emails / phone calls. Does anyone know how to get hold of these guys?

DZ changing to DVD format for tandem videos. Can someone recommend any models/manufacturers, do you know of common problems (finalizing time, worldwide compatible format, etc.) cheers

yea well it's about docking first and then spinning the tandem. if the spin get's too fast (very unlikely tandems fall like rocks try to interfere as a silly single cameraperson) then just let go and the old cannon ball effect will throw you out in a safe distance to all spinning-tandem's limbs

The PC109 has a standard lens i think...? Then the .6 will be .6 and you shouldn't go any bigger. You'll need a ring sight and you won't catch everything in frame when you come really close. Everybody I know who used to jump .6 'downsized' to .42/.45 after a while because they'd lose the people out of frame.

It's all about the SAFTEY of the passenger. . Safety is the rule! Experience the challenge! It's all about not getting above the tandem, not on exit not on deployment, not when circling around them..! (stay away from the drogue...it's bad...drogue=demon...!) I think docks are safe, never had any trouble.. but if in doubt just grab the tandem masters hand, they don't freak out (?), they can help by putting the hand in the right place.. After a while you need to try new stuff just for your own skills as a flyer! Yea, get on your back underneath the tandem and let them grab your foot :)

I really don't see any problems! I've grabbed hands ever since swooping tandems, it does look good on videos (spinning background in slowmo!) and it's good fun for the people. And docking makes the filming easier cuz you can just hang off the tandem get right underneath them get the faces (esp on vector tandem rigs, bloody drogue attach!) Sure you're not gonna force it, if the situation is not right (freaking passenger, hands too far back, etc.) you just stay clear and do a standard video.. but that's just common sense aye. So what's so dangerous about it???

depends on how close you're gonna fly, the wider the lens the closer you have to be. So wider is good for tandems but harder for freefly unless you're shithot. I prefer .42 on standard sony camera (.45 on PC5 etc) If you have a stills camera make sure the lenses are compatible width (otherwise you'll have to fly back and forwards all the time.. :p get a fisheye, they rock!

Hey, my canon eos doesn't give me any information about the remaining battery power. The display always shows 'full' .. and then all of a sudden I run out of battery and don't get any stills -> refund for the tandem passenger! Is that normal for canon or should I get it checked?

Yea, it used to have a cypres but it only had 2 years lifetime left and I sold it to my mate who needs it. Kinda tricky, was gonna sell it for 5000 NZD which is about 3000 USD at the moment .. I thought a vector 3 with low jumps and relined canopy would put the value up..?

I'm selling my rig but I don't know how much I should ask for. It's a - Vector 3 , DOM 2001, 150 jumps, leather hackey, kill line, stainless steel, no velcro, etc., nice colors!! - 170 Sabre , DOM '94, approx. 550 jumps, relined 33 jumps ago!, nice colors! - Tempo 170 reserve, DOM '97 I thought about $3000... does that sound alright? I've never sold a rig before so maybe I'm totally wrong??

My PC105 (8 months old) f***ed up when I was rewinding my standard TDK tape. It wouldn't read any footage anymore as if the tape was a blank one. I checked the tape in a different camera and it worked but no other tapes would work in my 105! I was just about to get it fixed... but then I tried my friends tape (Sony Premium) because he told me they clean the heads inside the camera when you take them out. So I took one of his tapes and tried to play it... nothing... took it out, put it back in, took it out again, etc. about 10 times... and suddenly all my tapes including the TDK ones work fine again...! That's strange aye, I've never heard of such a big difference between tapes before, thought it's just brand names..?

QuoteThe 330 has a new style of A/V connection (does A/V and S-video all in one) so does the 105

Opinions please: I always thought "wow, jumping and gettin paid for it, that'll be IT!!" so I started packing for cheap jumps, did about 50 Solos just to get the numbers to jump camera (no funjumping round here.. I call it retirement tandem dz). But now I see all these 'experienced' jumpers with tandem ratings (or even just camera flyers) and they're all over it. They do their jobs and that's it - no funjumps at all! (We get a free staff load per month to 17000ft -and we still haven't done the one for January!!) I've never met a funjumper who was over skydiving... And then I watch these awesome freefly videos and I wish I'd be as good one day!! But all I'm doing here is swooping tandems ....! So maybe that's all just not worth it. If you make your hobby your profession you ruin your hobby..?! Or is it different in other dropzones? Do you guys do heaps of funjumps even though you do it as a job..? Maybe it just depends on the mentality of the guys you're working with??

You need 1000 jumps in NZ (or an overseas rating and 750 jumps.. or something like that..) But PLEASE don't kill your funjumping just to get numbers! It's good to have a job you like but after a while any job is just a job! Where abouts in NZ do you jump??

anyone tried a violet filter? Does it look good? Any idea where to get them from for a PC 105 ?

Hi ya's . Tandem malfunction (Jyro), canopy looked like butterfly but no line over. Could've been the dbag going through the lines while canopy's inflating and the drogue pulling it tight? How to prevent this, is that a packing mistake? Or is it bad luck and can happen anytime?