Blis

One reason that comes to mind is that it's extremely easy to misroute the Collins lanyard, also with current way we have some redundancy because 2 different techniques are used to prevent main-reserve entanglements. Making cutaway cables even would eliminate this redundancy and increase the risk of partial cutaways due to misrouted Collins lanyards. Also it would lead to having different cutaway handles because not all rigs have MARD and/or Collins lanyard. KISS principle is at work here...

Should you be flying your parachute like a jerk at my DZ there is good chance you will either get a good talking or grounding... There is no excuse to not fly nicely below 1500 feet...

I think most in most countries you will need to do some kind of conversion to local rating but considering you are already rated it should not be a big deal. One thing to note is that different countries might have different ratings which do not directly compare to FAA ratings. For example in Finland we have 3 levels (A, B, C) of riggers with FAA senior rigger being closest to level 2 (B) rigger.

Indeed. I was on a low pass load yesterday with nine other people; five experienced jumpers, four doing a B license canopy course, and me in a wingsuit at the back. Red light goes on, door opens, red light goes off, and seven people jump out before I could ask the pilot why there's no green light. Everyone assumed that the light was broken. In reality, the pilot just didn't move the switch to the correct position. Only three people exited with the green light on. I fully expected to have a conversation about this with the pilot, DZM, and all jumpers on the load. To my surprise, no one said anything at all on the ground. It wasn't as if people didn't notice either. As I was zipping up my wingsuit, I heard those by the door saying that the green light was off, and then jumping out anyway. People seem perfectly happy interpreting the lack of a green light once the red goes out as a broken bulb or pilot error than as a command to stay in the plane. This was also the first load of the day, so I guess the lack of evidence that the bulb works was also a contributing factor. I would say it's classical conditioning of red-green-jump, red-green-jump, done over hundreds/thousands of skydives, but it seems to affect very experienced, as some on my load were, and newer jumpers alike. Furthermore, once the first person goes, the next one is less likely to stop and think. Mistakes were made, fortunately no real harm done, good lesson for the future not to fall prey to wishful thinking. This probaply doesnt apply to this particular jump but it's good idea to remember that DZ's might have differing rules to lights in general. For example some places I jump you are allowed to leave the plane with red off (before green comes on) if youre happy with the spot. In the same place it's also OK to leave after green has turned off if you're happy with the spot and red light is not on yet. Then again in some places you get yelled at if you start setting your group on the door before green comes on even if you're not planning to leave before green... The point being, rules and best practices vary between places...

Dbag is sized to container and your main should be sized according to container, if the combination is ok (no home rigging!) and you have problems getting everything to fit you need to improve your packing skills... If your previous experience has been with rentals and you're now packing something newish then 99% it's your packing skills that need brushing.

Something wrong with the PC, if you can close it without tools and it looks fine, you should not have such hesitation. Are you confident the PC was fully cocked and you had a good throw?

My experience is that after 2 deployments with reserve boost the larks head on the line was really worn (maybe 2/3 of line left), my speculation is that with this alternate attachment method the line is better protected during rsl deployment.

It's built better for sure. Haven't jumped a smart so can't comment on how they fly. Built better? How so? More redundancy in the structure, more support tapes and that kind of stuff... My personal opinion, not worth the extra few hundred bucks unless you're really, really heavy and chop often...

I'm not sure what sort of "friction" you are talking about. When checking your rings, the main thing to be looking at is whether the rings have become distorted or warped (out of shape), which may prevent them from releasing properly. Also you should be looking at the webbing, the closing loop, grommets, and the end of the housing, as well as the cutaway cable itself to make sure it has no burrs, dings, or bits of wire sticking out that might catch on the closing loop. Rotating the rings, by itself, does nothing. Also, its a good idea to disconnect the risers every now and again and flex the webbing around the rings to negate any "setting" that can occur after repeated opening shocks. Ask a rigger to show you how to check your gear, and the things to look out for. With modern gear the ring turning only serves to introduce dirt and grease to rings, causing more harm than good. Every time you touch the ring bare handed you introduce grease to it, which is good in trapping the dirt. When you rotate the ring you smear that dirt in to other rings and fabric of the riser, potentially accelerating the wear of risers. Obviously all this is highly theoretical and something that is hard to quantify but there is NO reason to turn the rings during your check.

That really doesn't make sense at all. You can easily get 1000 jumps out of spectra (depending on the size of course)....not broken and canopy flying just fine. The openings might suck a bit but if the jumper is happy as a clam...then the lines are fine. HMA?....will just not last that long and will break. Big difference. My reasoning behind this? Out of trim canopy is more likely to malfunction during the opening and/or high turbulence scenarios... I'd rather change my line set than risk a hard opening or collapsing canopy... Also I like my canopies to fly like intended, not out of trim.

Resist wear and UV light damage. It is far less likely to break when worn. Line choice is full of compromises. Some, especially larger lightly loaded canopies are less affected by being out of trim. What he said. Spectra is the strongest and longer lasting material. Big canopies fly just fine when out of trim. That's why you don't see spectra in smaller canopies, proper trim is key. In the middle range it is all a matter of preference. It is a trade off between durability and dimensional stability. If you are ok flying a wing that is not in its optimal shape, but you appreciate the peace of mind of the higher endurance of spectra, you use spectra. If you are diligent with maintenance and take care of your lines, and want your canopy to fly the the best it can, then you'd use HMA or Vectran. All the line materials last about the same, the difference is that spectra goes out of trim and others tend to break. Just because the line doesn't break does not mean it should not be replaced. NO line set is good for 500 jumps or more, reality is that around 400 jumps is the most you should do on a single line set...

Where I jump it is minimum of 32 jumps when doing SL/IAD... Personally I feel that 25 jumps for license is not nearly enough, I mean most of the AFF students that get licensed cant even exit properly...

I am curious how likely you are to break the thing when packing it. It's not as much that I care about breaking the GPS as much as if the battery were to fail and leak you would have to replace your whole main, container and even possibly your reserve. Curious how likely that is to happen. I know of two cases where the case has developed a crack, but both of them were installed in pouches inside the d-bag. In my method you just tuck the yepzon between the folds before putting the canopy in d-bag... My yepzon is still pristine...

It doesent. If you dont have cellular service the thing is a brick. You shouldent need LTE though. I checked with Ping and they said the device will work on 2G. Incase of yepzon you only need enough cellular service to send the gps-coordinates to your phone...

Here's how I've attached mine. Reserve slink between canopy top attachment and bridle, hook the yepzon on it... So far it has lasted two seasons without any problems... https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_0CVT0c-vl5cWNOMkR6XzVUR2s