Di0

Probably the *most* dangerous was the low turn that almost left me as permanent furniture of the DZ landing area. But it has more to do with landings than jumping, plus there really isn't a very interesting aspect to it, beside don't do it. So I'll go with *that* wingsuit jump. I couldn't find my PC handle on the plane before exit and I dumbly decided to go anyway, after all it's a PC, they don't have legs, where else would it be. I'll find it when I need it, right? To be totally honest, I knew it was in there and I wasn't dragging it, I could feel the PC still being in the BOC, just the handle was stuck being the back and the wing, and I was dealing with some depression so it's not like I wanted to die but I also, well, really didn't care that much. It was a very poor decision and, worst, I knew exactly how poor it was. Wingsuit flights is an uneventful flock, 4 or 5 way, until break-off, my best friend and I end up over each other rather than drifting apart. I take a dive and a hard bank, to at least give some vertical separation, on top of the horizontal one which puts me several hundreds feet lower than my usual at break off. When I go to initiate my pull sequence, surprise-surprise, I can't find the handle. I try again. I can't find it again. I go for it one last time, I knew I had altitude, but I start a spin. Shit. I decide I was done looking for my main handle, I knew I could stop the spin and decide to give my reserve a fair chance with a stable deployment. I stabilize the spin and go for silver, at what I knew was 1600 ft. My final alarm goes off as my reserve lines were stretching. Of course my left wing got stuck over my thick wintersweater and I am flying over an industrial area, with warehouses etc. I decide to harness steer the reserve into the clear while I try to unzip the arm a couple of times, then eventually decide to use the cutaway system. I gained full control of the reserve at 800 ft (but at that point I was over an open grassy area). Got control of the brakes, decided to pull a 90 downwinder because, eh, fuck it. At this point. Slided the landing, which luckily was the best thing of the whole jump. Moral of the story? If you know you're in a weird mental state, don't jump. Or force yourself to be extra precautions even if you don't feel like it is necessary. Luckily, I am in a much better place, mentally wise now, due to figuring out what was wrong at the time. All is well and nobody got hurt. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I tend to agree with them but for a different reason. Not so much because losing an helmet midflight is that big of a deal, since it wasn't that big of a safety device at that point anyway, But more because we are talking about full-faces here and what we call cutaways are really only different systems to quick-release a buckle, removing the actual helmet from the face is a whole different deal. From this point of view, simply removing the snag point might be an actual more effective solution. Not losing the helmet is a welcomed side-effect to me. If there were such mounts from the BH Aero (I know, I know, it doesn't have the chin holes so...), I'd buy one yesterday. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Maybe, maybe not. But at least it shows that often "preventing" a problem is doing something that might seem like "fixing a problem that doesn't exist". I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

You know what's funny? Last night I couldn't sleep, for a change, and I was randomly looking for info about the "speed" cypres. For no reason, really. Anyway, I landed on a thread here, from 2004 or 2005 when it was first announced. The reactions? Pretty much the same here. "AHAHA, SHAME on airtec for trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist" "AHAHA I swoop regurlarly, never had a problem! I don't get it" "AHAHA They are pushing on us new products that have no place in the market, maybe 100 people in the world could use this" "AHAHA it's statistically irrelevant, I NEVER heard of a reserve firing during a swoop, I don't think it can happen because [wall of text of explanation I didn't bother to read]". Etc. Etc. Etc. In the following years, we had several AAD activations mid-swoop because of this problem that doesn't exist. Every single time something changes, someone will stress out how useless the change is and how it makes everything worse. Then few years go by and we can't even imagine a time when it was different. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I agree with everything else you said, but don't even get me started here. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Dude, skydiving is occurring, is unnecessary and adds risk. Stop it. That being said: the fact that you seem to not understand (or rather, you're playing Devil’s Advocate for the pure sake of rhetoric at this point) why USPA and Manufacturers will treat a licensed member of a skydiving association differently than an "outside" paying customer with no affiliation, and thus assess different levels of acceptable risk as to what's allowed and what's not, became pedantic a while ago. Tandems are NOT regular skydives, get over it. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Also keep in mind that, unless you want to do solos for the rest of your sky-career, a jumpsuit appropriate for the discipline you're choosing is required for any middle-sized group that is even vaguely organized, skill-camp, etc. etc. So it really makes sense to invest in a jumpsuit that fits you well, if you want to jump with others. Ask to do RW with 40 jumps, without a jumpsuit with grippers, and you'll find that most groups are "sorry but we already have a dive plan", show up with a proper suit and willing to learn and... "yeah, sure, I'm sure we can adapt the dive flow to include you somewhere". I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Rotate it towards the inside so it sits where "your veins" are, I don't know how to explain it better. The other advantage of doing this, and to me the biggest one: it's also much easier to see under canopy. Also, as they said, put it on the "thicker" part of your forearm and it'll be in a much better spot. Finally, I see the rationale behind setting the audible past your break-off altitude, you're probably trying to force you not to rely on it... but really. All things considered, you have an audible, you might as well use it the way it's intended to be, i.e. properly go off at break-off altitude. But that's just me, you don't have to if you prefer to have it as a "you-fucked-up" acoustic device. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Yes, in fact swooping has bein heavy handed regulated recently too, see for example last year's pledge by DZOs to provide separate landing areas for swoopers doing big turns and forbidding turns greater than 180 degs when in the pattern with other jumpers. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

What this BSR means is very clear, people trying to split hair are doing a piss poor job at finding possible loopholes for the pure fun of it. The BSR says: don't fly your wingsuit close to Tandems and other students. We all know what a wingsuit is, it's defined elsewhere, and no: it doesn't affect camera jackets, in the same way the section of the SIM about wingsuit FJC does not apply to camera jackets. There is no need to define what a wingsuit is in this specific BSR. This specific BSR says to not buzz students with your wingsuit. If anything, I would rephrase it to not even mention wingsuits and include any sort of "fly-by", whether with a wingsuit, a tracking suit or a skin angle diver. Unless you leave the plane with the Tandem, for whatever reason, do not go intentionally near the tandem, end of story. If it happens, and yes, it might happen, whether by accident or genuine mistake, treat it accordingly. This most often will probably mean a talk between the TI and the other jumper to understand what happened, if one of the two felt that it was too close. Really, it's not the end of the world. Claming that this rule is stupid, or unenforceable, because it would imply that wingsuiters are not allowed near students in the plane or on the ground is as a moot point as a moot point can get. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

As a person that is learning/reading about swooping and only relatively recently decided that's what I want to do in the sport, please accept my "Fuck Yeah" by looking at those numbers. Now, as an aerospace engineer intuitively I see how on less performing wings the benefit of bigger turns are limited, since drag increases roughly like speed squared, any wing that is not very efficient (an I mean aerodynamically efficient, as in L/D) will hit its terminal speed fairly soon. I am surprised to see, though, that you seem to hit this terminal speed on a very highly loaded Petra, which is marketed as benefiting from very large turns. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

At first, I was thinking that making this a BSR rather than a recommendation/guideline was a bit excessive. But after reading the people defending their God Given Right to buzz tandems like this is the reason they joined the sport in the first place, is more than enough reasons to why it needs to be a BSR. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

There, I fixed it for you. To the OP, Welcome to the skies. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

A number must be chosen. No, you won't get your ass chewed for deploying at 2499 feet either. Yes, you probably do if you deploy at 1300 ft. Yet, everybody seems ok with a "number" given for the deployment altitude by our BSRs, and not because it makes any more or any less sense, but simply because it's been that way for long enough that people simply accept it. Leave this new BSR in place for long enough and people will accept it too, after whining and bitching just the right amount. :D I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

short answer, yes. Seriously, the chances of you missing 'that one thing' are just too high. But also, as a coach, I'd feel *extremely* uncomfortable taking you up until an AFF-I cleared you. Even if you'd technically qualify for a "coach only recurrency", and you don't, I would probably pass and for good reasons. I have had all sort of recurrency jumps, that go all the way to "do nothing, watch how pretty the student is" to - fuckfuckfuck, he's completely balled up and taking me for a spin on the back. Do you want to take a guess on which ones where the "technically still coach recurrency but only 3 or 4 jumps in the last 4 or 5 years" ones? If you really remember and retained a lot, you might be able to skip some of the coach jumps later or combine most of them together, sure, but I wouldn't skip on AFF material and jumps, because that's the life saving stuff. So IMHO, once you "prove" yourself during AFF you might have better luck talking yourself into skipping some coach jumps, but there is no way you can talk yourself out of AFF. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Same reason why CRW is OK if planned in general, but it's still forbidden at any degree with Tandems? Certain things are just better left alone when there are tandems involved. IMHO it's not a stupid rule, considering that Wingsuiters are usually left half a mile, to a mile out, and dropped several seconds after the tandems left, even when navigation brings you above some deployed tandems, most of the times you hare a good 1000 ft vertical above them. I fly a P3 certainly in not the most efficient way, and when for some reason we end up close to tandems (which I don't like in the first place, but yes, sometime it happens), I am always able to clear tandems several thousand feets above them with no need to do flybys. Although, of course then there is an increased risk of being between tandem under canopy in the pattern, but at that point that's a whole different discussion (and we are lucky enough to have separate patterns and landing areas for this very reason strictly enforced for WS vs Tandems, where I jump, which is again a very good rule if you ask me) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Hi, let me introduce myself, my name is Container Lock, pleased to meet you. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Depending on the lens that was used to take the picture, he might not be as close as it appears. Also, that's how most angle dives end up going anyway. LoL I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Mh.. I guess I'll make a mental note to try again next weekend then. It's good to have extra control options at all phases of flight. I'll try to see if lifting the knees makes any difference: it actually should! Thanks, guys! I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

For small framed people, the risk, or even just the feeling, of the legstraps slipping off toward the knee is totally worth the tradeoff IMHO. Considering she's a badass well known tracker and freeflier I'd say it's configuring your gear properly for what your specialty is, by decreasing a bigger risk and accepting a small increase in another department. Of course, if such a trade off is worth or not, that is a very personal choice that should be done by each and everyone of us, ideally after putting some thoughts into it. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Or chutingstar sells some similarly designed ones for about the same price: http://www.chutingstar.com/gorilla-skydiving-gear-hanger They are VERY thick plastic, I have two of them and they work alright, no way a normal sport right would bent them a hair. I don't use them much because I am lazy, I live alone so I end up tossing the rig on the couch at the end of the day more often than not, but hey, don't judge. LoL I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

The real problem is: a) there have been many people try to ask for money to do aff etc and while we are generally a very helpful community, most skydivers are broke, and we all rather use the money we have left, when we're not broke, to either found our own jumps, buy our own gear or help our own actual real friends that might have got hurt, need money etc. While some of these might be flat out scams, some others may not, but still it's kind of a big-bad-world out there. b) even if you find someone willing to do it with a "contract", personally I'd think that the reward VS risk of helping "random nice guy on the internet" would make the interest rate huge, as in for me to even think of giving away my money like that, the return would be much more of what I'd get otherwise, to make it appealing to me. So the hypothetical interest rate would be much higher than you'd otherwise get from an established institution giving you a short term loan, i.e. a bank, even without going the credit card route. But most important: c) Jumping season is about to start. Need all the extra money to jump. Now I don't need to sound selfish, but that's just how the reality it is for most of us and I'm sure you'll understand. That being said, good luck if you somehow find the founds for your AFF, it's totally worth it! Consider, that, if you have the money, you could go through AFF in two days, potentially and if everything goes right, so if you have some time around xmas and you can go somewhere west (California, Arizona) with big DZ and a little luck, you might be able to pull that off. Not guaranteed but not unheard of either. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I find the part about reaching for the riser very tricky. I only fly a small P3 yet there is no way in hell for me to do anything good with the risers unless I unzip the wings completely, maybe because I'm short already. Which is a good thing I remembered when I found myself under a reserve... at 800ft... over a warehouse... with a stuck zipper. I didn't even try, and Thank God for those quick cutaway attachments! I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Sure,hold on, let me sign you a $1000 check right away, random guy on the internet. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Considering the OP extensive experience and very reasonable request, can we refrain from the usual "Noob-Swoop-Save-Yourself" preaches for once? I don't think it's one of *those* topics. As for suggestions, I know a few jumpers that, coming from Sabre2s, enjoyed the idea of a xfire2 of similar size. It's a nice relatively elliptical canopy, it should be trimmed a little flatter than a Sabre2 and has slightly superior performances, at least it's advertised as such. It is a fun canopy to throw in there if you're in the market for something like that. I demoed 129 and 119, and they are really nice and fun to land, without being too crazy (they are responsive given the size but manageable), in fact I remember them giving me some of the best openings I've had, yeah, the openings are great. I've even had a toggle fire in a 129 and it was easily recoverable (I believe I am at about your same WL). Just to prove that I put my money where my mouth is, I am attaching a xfire to my rig tonight. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.