AXIS Flight School’s Swiss Alps Vacation

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MGBlog_2After competing at the 2017 World Cup in Germany, Brianne Thompson and Niklas Daniel of AXIS Flight School attended the Mountain Gravity event to fly their parachutes in the Swiss Alps. Jumping out of the legendary Pink Skyvan, participants came from all over the world to take in the fantastic scenery at the Ambri Airport, which is situated in the steep sided alpine valley of the Ticino river.

 

Over the course of three days, Nik and Brianne did several jumps swooping down the mountain, doing some MFS, and canopy flocking.

There are two major routes down the mountain: The tree-line (left), or the canyon (right).

Don’t forget to check out the Mountain Gravity Vimeo channel.

Skydive Radio Photo of the Week Show #192!

I would like to thank Dave at Skydive Radio for making my image below their pic of the week! Skydive Radio is the world’s leading internet radio show dedicated to the sport of skydiving.  Weekly episodes include commentary, feature interviews with industry insiders, listener-contributed photos, and e-mails from an audience that spans the globe.

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Antelope Canyon


Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. It is located on Navajo land near PageArizona. Antelope Canyon includes two separate, photogenic slot canyon sections, referred to individually as Upper Antelope Canyon or The Crack; and Lower Antelope Canyon or The Corkscrew. Entry to Antelope Canyon is restricted to guided tours led by authorized guidesThe Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tsé bighánílíní, which means “the place where water runs through rocks.” Lower Antelope Canyon is Hazdistazí (advertised as “Hasdestwazi” by the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department), or “spiral rock arches.” Both are located within the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation. Antelope Canyon was formed by erosion of Navajo Sandstone, primarily due to flash flooding and secondarily due to other sub-aerial processes. Rainwater, especially during monsoon season, runs into the extensive basin above the slot canyon sections, picking up speed and sand as it rushes into the narrow passageways. Over time the passageways are eroded away, making the corridors deeper and smoothing hard edges in such a way as to form characteristic ‘flowing’ shapes in the rock. Flooding in the canyon still occurs. A flood occurred on October 30, 2006 that lasted 36 hours, and caused the Tribal Park Authorities to close Lower Antelope Canyon for five months.” – wikipedia

Here are some of my selects from the trip, which also include Horseshoe BendSunset Crater, and Wupatki National Monument:

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Photographing Rainbows

Most of the time I am not lucky enough to have a camera on hand when rainbows appear.
To the left you will find a picture I took of the Skyventure Arizona tunnel yesterday afternoon, after a rainstrom passed thorough the area. In order to track my progress in shooting this phenomena, I have added another image to this post which I took back in March of 2009 at Skydive Elsinore.

I shot the image of airplane with a Canon Rebel XTi set on RAW, focal length 25, FNumber 11, exposure time 1/800. Whereas the photo of the tunnel was shot with my Canon 7d set on L, focal length 21, FNumber 22, exposure time 1/80. Both images received some post work in Adobe Photoshop Elements.