mathrick

Great job keeping it civil and asking around. I'd like to point out it's "separation" though :) "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

...or a GPU. Modern encoders are pretty much expected to make use of your GPU, which is usually far beefier at this kind of task than the CPU. If your encoder doesn't use the GPU, well, that might be one reason. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Well, for me the message of "new class of ultra high performance non-crossbraced wings" and "new class of ultra high performance [...] wings" is essentially the same. Ultra high performance is ultra high performance, independently of how you achieve it. That's like saying "a Superkart is not an ultra-high performance racing vehicle because it only goes 260 km/h, and F1 cars go 360 km/h, and ultra-high performance is independent of how you achieve that". But within the class of gokarts, which quite often are a stepping stone to Formula racing, Superkarts are ultra-high performance, and making that kind of construction go 260 km/h is definitely no feeble feat. For better or worse, "cross-braced" has come to be a term embodying certain qualities and expectations, and much like "elliptical", it's a shitty term when you want to define it precisely, but it's definitely used with a specific intent. You are right. But because they created this new class (), it is not clear where this canopy seats in terms of aggressiveness and performance. You can substitute "new breed" mentally, which is the more conventional marketing flair used for this kind of thing then :) "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Anyone who has flown Intrudair's wingsuits in and can comment on them? Specifically Piranha 2/3 and Barracuda 2 / FreeStyle, but opinions on their lineup in general are appreciated. I'm especially interested in hearing from folks who have flown other brands too and can compare them to similar offerings in Squirrel's and PF's lineup, but given the paucity of information on the net, I'll take anything :) Regarding Piranha 2/3: how does it compare to Swift or Phantom? Is it a small and easy suit like Phantom, or small-but-fast one like Swift 1? Is it a beginner-only suit, or something you find yourself going back to for acro, or flocking with non-huge suits, etc? How's the quality and convenience of the design? Does it backfly well? Regarding Barracuda 2 (and Barracuda FreeStyle, which is the acro-specific variant of Barracuda 2): is it a good step up from small suits for someone wanting to do acro / smaller suit flocking? What suits does it compare to in Squirrel / PF's lines? How well does it backfly? Are the manufacturing quality and features compared to the big names good? Given that Barracuda 2 standard and FreeStyle have a fairly different wing profile, is it fair to call them variants of one suit, or are they just two similarly sized but different suits? One comment I've heard about Intrudair's suits is that they're overbuilt, making them very hot in climates like Northern California, which is a concern for me. But that's just one person's passing familiarity with the brand, so I'd love to hear someone who actually used them for any significant length of time chip in. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Skyhook really likes disengaging for no obvious reason... Does anyone have any stats on that? I've heard anecdotal numbers that it disengages when it shouldn't more frequently than other MARDs, but nothing hard. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Then you haven't seen a 45 kg girl trying to steer and land a Navigator 260 :) There absolutely is such a thing as canopy that's too big, especially if there's any wind. Which of course in no way excuses randos trying to pass on internet advice to a friend rather than having her rely on qualified instructors. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

The danger of wrongly made toggles is not just structural failure (which'd be revealed by your strength testing step), but also jamming and creating unintended inputs during landing, which can be fatal. Some of these mistakes can be very subtle, yet still be dangerous. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I've got ~15 jumps on a single demo P7 168 Ultra LPV done the week they were unveiled, so take it for what you want, but I found the openings too hard on non-WS terminal jumps, regardless of how it was packed. Not cripplingly so, but it definitely made me look forward less to pitching. Otherwise, it's an excellent canopy to fly, and if you're dedicated to WS, it looks like a great match, with quick openings being a plus. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I tried a KISS on too, but wasn't too happy with the fit. It might've been an XL rather than XXL though, the dealer didn't have all sizes on the shelf. Aero has the same great fit as Rev2 (I tried it), and it's a more traditional fullface design (except it can be cut away). "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

They wouldn't need to if their sizing chart had any basis in reality. Again, I have a Bonehead helmet which uses the exact same chart and it fits me *perfectly*, with enough room for my long hair and cold weather clothing. My head is 63-63.5cm and when Bonehead tells me XXL will fit, it does. Cookie also says that and it doesn't. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I heard PN9 (which is also used for Epicene and supposedly Pulse's bottom skin). It definitely doesn't feel the same as the low porosity fabric commonly referred to as F-111 (which it generally isn't, as F-111 is a defunct trademark). But I don't have any real source on it being PN9. As an aside, PD similarly allows regular F-111 patches for Pulse's bottom skin. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

While the OP should've realised pushing it too hard would result in something like that eventually, the sizing of Cookie's products is very reminiscent of the women's clothing catalogues, where the thinnest person you've ever seen is placed in the "plus" section. I know I have a freakishly large noggin, but I still can't fit in their XXL models, at least not if I plan on breathing afterwards. I'm a firm believer in Bonehead's fit and comfort, they size them so that they actually fit the heads advertised (funnily enough, the claimed sizes are exactly the same as Cookie's!), and they throw so much extra padding foam at you that any fit you can possibly need is achievable, even if your parents liked experimenting with boards and vices when you were a kid. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

That's really fancy. A good online configuration tool is a worthy investment; we all know skydivers are a vain bunch :) While the colours were not the most important thing when I was choosing my custom rig, they were one of the factors that made me choose between the two remaining contenders (together with semi-exposed PC, MARD and wait time / price). "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Had my first cutaway on a Decelerator 150 after a wingsuit PC in tow turned baglock, and it's got exactly what you want from a reserve. The openings are positive: about as quick as they can be without being uncomfortable; you will have no doubt there's a canopy over your head slowing you down. The handling is very docile: even though a 150 gives me a WL of 1.3, I was reminded of my student canopies. It flies slowly and turns deliberately. There's plenty of flare, although if you fly a sport 9-cell as your main, you will need a couple tries to perfect the timing.

Contacting Mirage is the most useful thing you can do, they will be able to tell you exactly because they know their serial numbers. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Right-o, I meant it as "not a fatality where Skyhook could reasonably be blamed". I do believe it was likely a Skyhook deployment, your analysis is pretty convincing. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

There was a recent Russian fatality where the proximate cause was reserve twists, however it was not a Skyhook fatality. It was caused by a series of jumper's utter failures to plan and act, and happened despite, not because of a MARD. I personally am glad to trade the very low risk of reserve line twists for everything that a MARD gives me. I'll also pick a standard RSL over nothing. A reserve with twists is infinitely better than no reserve at all. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

To Bill's credit, I've never seen him claim anything other than "Skyhook removes the reasons I was against RSLs", which I've always seen communicated consistently. There are disagreements from other people as to whether that is actually true and whether Skyhook can cause you to have reserve line twists, but from UPT's side the line has always been "our tests show Skyhook is less likely to have line twists than anything else, therefore Skyhook is a form of RSL we can recommend". Or at least I've never seen them claim otherwise. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I have about 15 jumps on a demo Pilot7 167 LPV, and personally I wouldn't get it if you're planning on doing anything other than WS. They fly great, but terminal openings I found unpleasant -- hard enough to make me dread them when I pitched. That was plain old belly, don't even want to consider anything where higher speed openings are a risk. OTOH, if you're going for a WS-specific rig, LPV easily lets you pack 2 sizes up compared to a ZP 9-cell. My Storm 150 is a fine WS canopy in my very limited experience, but I have to agree that getting back from a long spot gets harder. Storms also have an attitude right after opening -- I've seen it on two different 150s that they will often roll to one side or oscillate until given a couple seconds of strong rears. Gets a bit annoying when you need to unzip first. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Parachute System does too, at least on the Vortexes that come with a Skyhook. Ripcord choice is not included on the order form, and I haven't tried requesting it, though I assume you could still get a steel one. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Heed the wise people's words. I bought a brand new 168ZPX to put in my brand new 150 container, and ended up simply not being able to bag it. After about 40 jumps with 38 or so paid packjobs, I gave up and went back to my Sabre2 170, which was still easier to stuff in the d-bag than the Pilot. Brand new ZPX is insanely slippery, probably more so than the ZP material PD uses. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I always burp after landing. It's so consistent it's evolved into something of a ritual. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

That counts as "skydiving accident" now? "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

That's not true. Sife rigs (www.sife.at) and SWS rigs (http://sws.aero/) both have collins lanyard and pin-based MARDs (RAX and DRD respectively). Admittedly, I don't know if they are simply ignoring licensing issues. Right, I considered mentioning that, because I think the licensing policy of UPT is completely idiotic ("Why can't I license Collins Lanyard without the Skyhook?" "Because they go together". Actual answer I got from a Vector rep), and I'm thankful that people out there ignore stupid politics if the idea is sound. Also Paratec Next has a variant of the Collins scheme in a more traditional guide ring arrangement. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I was following suit, since the question, as formulated, was specifically about "dual RSL", and it's a fairly typical usage when talking about the Racer setup. The Jump Shack themselves use both "double-sided RSL" and "cross-connector" when referring to it in their various materials. It was not related to my grasp of the English language. I fully agree that precision is important though. Conversely, I wouldn't agree that Collins Lanyard is a variant of LOR2. It uses different principles that result in different observable behaviour in various scenarios. Most importantly, in the case of a broken riser (which is what all of these 3 systems seek to address), a Collins Lanyard system will release the other riser and activate the reserve if it was the RSL riser that broke, and do nothing otherwise requiring manual cutaway, whereas a LOR2 system will do nothing regardless of which riser breaks (because both risers are "RSL risers"). Similarly, Collins Lanyard can (and in a couple very rare cases, did) release the main unintentionally, although luckily no fatalities resulted from that to my knowledge. LOR2 has no potential for that. Collins Lanyard can also be integrated into a MARD (albeit only Skyhook, due to licensing, not due to physics), whereas LOR2 doesn't seem compatible with any such system. Lastly, they're both patented I believe, so clearly they must be distinct ;) I have personally changed stance on the safety of the Racer cross-connector setup. I used to think it was manageable and only really applicable in scenarios where the jumper has already messed up by pulling after AAD has fired, thus having a minimal impact on the safety of a responsible jumper. However, the video I linked made me realise that a variety of other scenarios result in exactly equivalent deployment order, and it's not necessarily obvious or easy to think them through in the split-second decisions needed when dealing with emergencies. Consequently, I no longer consider a cross-connector equipped Racer safe to jump and would not jump one myself. My preferred method of dealing with riser breakage is primarily better engineering and materials which made riser breakages a thing of the past on sports rig (tandems are a different beast, due to the flipped rings being way more common), and RSL rings being attached below the break point, so that RSL will not activate even if the riser breaks. This seems to have most upsides and least potentially deadly upsides, although my current rig is equipped with a Skyhook, and consequently also Collins Lanyard. P.S. I prefer my nickname to be spelt all-lowercase, ie. "mathrick", rather than "Mathrick". Thanks :) "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."