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Bob Wright, with 15,734 jumps, may be known to some of you out there from having been on a bunch of the World Record RW formations, through to the Thailand 400 way. (Listed formally as Robert Wright in the record.) He was also a pioneer in Canadian skydiving instruction, being one of the first here to start students on ram-air parachutes (in 1982), and one of the first to do PFF instruction (like the US AFF). I'm sorry I don't know the precise details! He ran a small DZ for 40 years, specializing in PFF, with no tandems at all, and I think was always on as many of the PFF instructional jumps he could. That continued right through this year, at age 73, before his unexpected passing. Bob was my own first jump instructor back in '88. From his obit online:

I find it interesting that USPA’s stance on wing loading is to only make recommendations and refuse to consider a requirement because “skydivers are grown-ups and capable of making adult decisions, and taking responsibility for those decisions.” But, when it comes to minimum opening altitudes everyone is in line with having a minimum requirement and understands the value of having those requirements.

The book is too thick to look it up right now, but I think it's a Skratch Garrison quote form Pat Works' United We Fall... "Ground rush is a gas, but it sure ain't practical."

not me, thanks

I’m with Chuck. Also, what will most likely happen is a bunch of people will go out and get BASE gear just so they can dump low. Low pulls, and low pull contests, were one of the things that minimum opening altitudes were designed to stop. Jumpers haven’t gotten smarter; those guys are still out there. Let’s not lower the bar Wendy P.

No matter how good the gear is for the application, the human factor gets in the way. There are already a lot of incidents and near incidents caused by jumpers who don't take action in a timely manner. Allowing people to deploy low just because the gear can handle it doesn't mean the jumper will.

I remember the ‘90s :)Now, I’m pretty consistently open by 3,500 ft in my wing suit. In terminal BASE, opening at 750’ is “In the stratosphere.” Why wouldn’t USPA consider allowing people jumping BASE canopies in dual harness rigs to open at whatever altitude they want?

I've pulled off a 4-way from a Cessna at 1800'; 3500 was the standard breakoff altitude for anything less than about 6-8 people. 4500 was just fine for a 20-way. But then in those days, people thought that vertical separation was as good as lateral separation, too. People died learning those lessons. The tracking contest was invented in part because of fatalities. Wendy P.

When I first started jumping in 1994, we’d regularly do hop and pops at 2.5k (or below) and would break off at 3.5k on height loads. These days I want 6k for hop and pops if I can get it and am breaking off at 5.5k from height. Times have definitely changed and for the better IMO.

Made my first 12 Tim-Stows To be cautious, I have kept my 4 locking stows as good old Keener rubber bands but the other 8 stows have been changed. I'll probably do a hop and pop, look for anything I notice either during the opening or inspection after the jump before I consider changing my locking stows. Much thanks! Ian

BMAC615, the condition warranting a waiver must be pretty special, I can only think of a few, but each S&TA has their own standard. I have seen it waived for an AFF-I rating course, for a special wingsuit flight, and for a pro demo team to open lower than normal. I am sure every S&TA has their own standards. The AAD would have little to no effect on my personal decision to waive or not waive the altitude restrictions.

Back when I started jumping in 1977, we mainly used small Cessnas or World War 2 surplus military transports, all with piston engines. They took forever to climb to 7,000 feet. The beater Cessna 172 that I flew for a summer would top out at 5,000 feet during the hot and hazy days of August. Ergo. we rarely jumped from above 7,200 feet. That meant only a 30 second delay and no one wanted to waste altitude by pulling above - the USPA mandated - 2,000 feet. Back then CSPA put minimum opening altitude at 2,200 or 2,500 feet ... I forget which. The DZ safety Officer would "have words" with you if you failed to show a pilot-chute above 2,000 feet. Also consider that we started the 1970s with mainly military-surplus round parachutes and ended with Strato-Clouds which opened similar to the early square reserves. Come the early 1980s and Precision introduced the Raven series as both mains and reserves. With popular main canopies opening similar to reserves, you knew by 1,800 feet whether it was opening properly or not. Come the 1990s and tandem overwhelming the sport - turning it into an "industry" - DZs started flying more reliable turboprops (Caravan, Porter, Skyvan, Twin Otter, etc.) and it suddenly became practical and time-effective to consistently jump from above 12,000 feet. Altitude on the bottom end lost importance. Also consider that second and third generation zero-P canopies opened much slower and softer and tossing a pilot-chute an extra few hundred feet higher - at the bottom end - made more and more sense. Finally, the introduction of the first electronic Automatic Activation Devices (e.g. Cypres 1) in 1991 also encouraged people to raise their minimum opening altitude. Plenty complained about electronic AADs miss-firing, but the majority of those "miss-fires" occurred within the published envelope. USPA "upped" minimum opening altitudes around 2012 and CSPA followed a year or two later.

Yep, I’m familiar :)

Just put some more lipstick on him, he'll be fine.

AP: Ohio GOP House candidate has misrepresented military service Campaigning for a northwestern Ohio congressional seat, Republican J.R. Majewski presents himself as an Air Force combat veteran who deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, once describing “tough” conditions including a lack of running water that forced him to go more than 40 days without a shower. Military documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request tell a different story. They indicate Majewski never deployed to Afghanistan but instead completed a six-month stint helping to load planes at an air base in Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally that is a safe distance from the fighting. Now to be fair, that does not prove he didn't go more than 40 days without a shower.

Every Republican who posts here needs to reflect on these easily provable facts. The smoke filled back room is now the fresh air of a chat room. No longer will your party of choice be able to pull off their anti-democratic, ideologically vacant, self serving power grabs that oppose the will of a clear majority of Americans all while hidden safely away from the light of day. That's over. Most importantly, you will never again be able to pretend you didn't know, that you couldn't know, either because they're all crooks and everybody does it, or owing to whatever other narcotic you are using to block out reality. That day is done. They are lying. It is provable. How they vote, and what they say in private, is available to everyone in real time online, where you obviously are if you are reading this, and if you continue to deny that truth it means you are lying, too. There it is, sport fans, and that is why many on the left are so pissed and impatient: the right thinks we are still somehow obligated to treat obvious bullshit as reasonable positions for discussion. Well, no thanks. The Republican party of today are thieves, liars, and charlatans. They care first about harming Democrats and a distant second about the people they represent. The mid-terms are coming; you'll never get a better chance to prove you aren't a pawn in their insidious larger game. Or just say it out loud: I don't give a fuck about America or other Americans if I get mine while I'm alive.

I love all the republicans who opposed the infrastructure bill and are now trying to take credit for it. Ashley Hinson claimed she “helped lead a bipartisan group” to “prioritize funding for these essential upgrades” after voting against it. Tony Gonzales bragged that he "secured $75 million" for a creek restoration project in his district. Before the bill passed he said it would “only make matters worse and hold our country back.” Rick Scott bragged that he helped Florida by “securing an unprecedented $1 billion for Everglades restoration, the largest single amount ever allocated by the federal government.” He voted against it as well. And there are at least a dozen others. I bet by next week FOX News will be reporting they all did, in fact, vote for it, but their votes were changed by unscrupulous democrats.

Well here I am, almost 2 years later, on a Sabre 3 107 at 2.0. It’s definitely faster and longer recovery than my S2 120, as to be expected. openings are marginally better than the 2’s. good flare power. Good canopy. I’ll be on this for a while.