lyosha

Get someone to videotape your opening. Get a packer to pack your rig - does it still open hard?

IMO good advice. I would also advise them to try to land that 'reserve as main' with the brakes still set and no input from the jumper. I seriously doubt that anyone flying a reserve at 1:1 or higher will walk away from the landing unscathed. I've been fortunate to have done a number of drop tests with square reserves ( not a lot, but some ) and have watched that 170 lb dummy bounce across the ground. He does not just land, he bounces. Just a thought, JerryBaumchen Click on drop test video in link below ;) http://www.paratec.de/en/products-parachutes/57-2/

Actually yeah, it does, this is perfect thanks! Puts my mind to ease a bit. Do you think G3/PhantomX would have done as well? Better? Worse?

Nothing is absolute. You can still get hurt. But it's a game of averages. The helmet that provides the best protection gives you the best chance.

I'm not asking which helmet will stop a bullet... Let me try to rephrase my original question (and lets pretend cost is immaterial) - if you were to recommend a skydiving helmet to a friend based on its qualities as a HELMET and not as an attractive piece of shiny plastic, is there any you would recommend above the rest? Any that should be avoided?

What about in the realm of skydiving helmets? There's gotta be someone out there that offers more than cotton balls attached to cardboard... or at least someone that offers thicker/harder cardboard than the rest...

Anyone have any constructive opinions on the matter? Any that tend to be better? Any that should be avoided? Just to clarify, I'm talking about about "kicked midair" or "PLF-ed downwind landing and hit head on something" type scenarios where a better helmet is the difference between grades of concussion.

Do you disagree with flying a canopy in all flight modes before downsizing? The commonly heard advice is to get to know everything about your wing before downsizing - would you say that does not include becoming comfortable with front riser use? [This is a genuine question - not a trap or a disagreement with your statement] If that were the case we'd all be eternally stuck flying NAV-280s. Have fun with any kind of front riser turns on that beast... There is clearly some kind of additional qualification missing from that statement - you should not have to learn to swoop a 1:1 loaded Sabre2 to go down to 1.1:1...

Get someone to suspend you by your big rings so that you are hanging from them like you would be under canopy a foot or so off the ground. Cut away. (disconnect the rsl...)

A lot of knowledge in this sport is subjective. I don't know how you could answer this question objectively. My aim was to see if there's someone here who has had the experience of flying a variety of wings in a DZ prone to turbulence that would be able to share their experiences. Well, yes, don't fly in poor conditions, but some DZs are near forests and winds do pick up and switch direction while you're climbing to altitude. It's happened to me a couple of times already. I'm not trying to find out how I can cheat air gremlins here, I'm trying to see what decisions made prior to jumping could have positive outcomes should conditions change. If I was jumping in Eloy I wouldn't care as much, but I'm in a place with ample trees...

Does anyone have any canopy recommendations as to which canopies are more/less resistant in turbulent flight? A search didn't return much...

Had a cypres. Sent it in for servicing. Decided I wanted to jump my own gear. Did some math, sold the cypres, bought a Vigil. The cost of having a vigil is half that of a cypres, but the primary reason I chose Vigil is because when i stopped by my rigger he had a Vigil on him, and no cypres units.

... or doesn't work at all! :P

My guess - they increased firing altitude from 850 to 1000 ft

What about for Canopy Piloting? Some of the more HP canopies are able to exceed the firing speeds of Speed Cyprus.... What cypres/vigil/whoever REALLY needs to do is to make the activation speed completely custom - configurable at startup. It's not THAT difficult.

Bah, just when it'll be too late for me to get any use out of it! :P

CAPTCHA is there, however at this point it's no longer effective against spambots. I can write a pretty simple machine learning algorithm that will crack it. Different forms of captcha and human/machine testing are needed.

If you're worried about the openings, you may want to consider a different canopy. I may be a beginner skydiver, but I've been warned to stay far, far away from triathlons by multiple people, some of whom have gotten seriously injured by those openings. Safire2s and Pilots are supposed to have good openings. I've heard good things about the Spectre too. Demo them and see if you like one of them.

It's being overrun by spam bots and that's painful to see... maybe I can help?

Is there any way I can avoid paying the VAT, being in America and all... ?

How much does a speed reserve cost?

Anyone?

You mean cubic inches? Do any US retailers even carry paratec speed reserves?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/mounteverest/10664395/Daredevil-to-jump-off-summit-of-Mount-Everest.html Didn't Valery Rozov already wingsuit down everest?

You dont know anything about the professional reputation of the Master Rigger involved in the inspection of that rig. http://www.silverparachutes.com/about-us/ You might want to educate yourself. That is all fantastic, and I had no doubt that the lawyer would purchase the opinion of someone with a lengthy resume. It's just the way personal injury cases work.