NSEMN8R

Yeah, I'm not really worried about it breaking either. It does look kind of weird though. I think it's more likely that the edges shrunk than the middle stretched out. One thought I had was maybe the edges of the webbing rub on the inside edge of the hardware and the friction from the being tightened and loosed a couple thousand times caused it?

Could be? But why would being looped in a circle make just the edges shrink? Also, my Eclipse has had it's leg straps looped in a circle for almost as long and the webbing is still flat. I've been looking at a lot of old gear and haven't come across another one that's doing this.

I have this weird thing going on with the legstraps on my '91 Javelin. It's like the outside edges are shrinking so it's kind of "cupped" now. On one leg it's only happening on one edge so the leg strap is now curved like a banana. Anybody seen this before or know what causes it?

Dude, you are ONE SICK FUCK!!!!!! I love it!!!!!!

No shit??? I was at all 3 of those events and I didn't see anything that scared me at any of them. At those big ways at 3.0 I was really surprised at how smoothly everything went. There were a lot of lower experience flyers at those events that did just fine. I think the "elitist" mentality sucks, but I guess it will be necessary if you want to see a tight, diciplined,slot specific etc... big way. It doesn't make me feel alienated at all though. Even if I was qualified to be on these record attempts, I probably wouldn't put myself in a position where I might "fuck up the jump" for 70 other people anyways. I'll probably show up at some of the skills camps just for fun and if there ever is a "World Record Zoo flock" I'll definitely be there for that. I really wish everyone that participates next November the best of luck though.

Any of you flockers going to this boogie? I think a few of us from MI are going to go. Free beer and a Skyvan, I heard.

Congrats on your first flights. Welcome to the flock! Just keep pulling high for a while and you probably won't die.

What resolution are the frame grabs you get from this camera?

Why? Would it be hard on the gear?

Thanks for the input guys. We were just daydreaming about it really. Our dzo would never let me try anything like that.

This came up while talking about tandem re-currency jumps next spring and we were wondering if it would be in violation of the FARs. If one had an experienced jumper on the front wearing the student harness backwards (so you're hooked up face to face) and a single harness-single parachute system on his back, could the "student" legally unhook and jump from the TM since he did exit the plane in compliance with the FARs? Or would the jump from the open parachute count as a separate jump requiring a reserve on the student? Also, could this count as a re-currency jump even though you didn't land the "student"? Anybody done this before with either base or skydiving gear? Seems like an easy way to do a Mr. Bill.

We had this smoking hot little 19 year old blonde chick show up with her dad. I took her up first and on the way up she tells me that she was diagnosed with some inoperable stomach cancer and has 6 months left to live. Her dad quit his job and cashed in his 401K and they were travelling around doing all the things she wanted to do and enjoying there last bit of time together. It was so sad, but the girl had this amazing attitude. She was so much stronger than I think I would be in her postion. The really fucked up part was hearing the story from her dad on the way up with him. As a parent it just broke my heart to hear what this family was going through. Absolutely amazing people. Definitely my most memorable tandems.

My Garmin Foretrex 201 has come in very handy. It works in the plane (C-182) and under canopy.

Nope. I just tie it to their wrist with a pull up cord and they keep it up thier sleeve until we open. The only problem I can see with it is that, if they know they can do that beforehand, they are less likely to get stills from the vidiots.

I haven't had anyone do it in freefall yet, but I like to let people take a small camera if they want to take pictures under canopy. Sometimes they get some cool pictures.

Yeah, that's what we need. Another reason for the USPA to get in our pockets for another $40. Would you have a USPA freefly instructor rating too? And one for CRW and one for swooping? If it's not broken, don't fix it. Not that many people are dying from wingsuits.

this wasn't a "blanket rule" applied because of a knee jerk reaction. These are established guidelines based on years of experience from those that came (and went) before us. Right. It's a guideline. And I think it's a good guideline. It's where I would start if I was ever going to work with someone I don't already know very well. All I'm saying is that working outside of the guidelines doesn't automatically make you irresponsible and I'd hate to see it get "cast in stone" as a rule because of this. It's not like we have low jump number guys bouncing all over the place.

I guess in SA you'd be screwed in court, but over here the USPA recommendations aren't "cast in stone" and the suits I use don't have a 200 jump minimum requirement from the manufacturer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we should go around talking everyone with 100 jumps into flying a wingsuit. I just think some people should be able to decide for themselves what they can handle and what level of risk is acceptable to them.

200 can be a lot to a guy at a single 182 dz. I would agree that it's not ALWAYS clever, but I still say it's not ALWAYS irresponsible. I definitely don't agree with that. I would feel responsible if something happened based on me giving them some bad information or if I left out something I should have told them that would have changed the outcome, but in no way do I feel responsible for their performance in the air. The credit or the blame is solely theirs and I'm up front about that before we even start. And if they're light on jumps, I also tell them up front that many more experienced and more qualified wingsuit pilots and instructors would not consider them ready for wingsuits based on their skydiving experience. It depends on what you call inexperienced. But yes, I'd rather be able to pick who I train based on more than just jump numbers than have some blanket rule applied to everyone because of some knee jerk reation to an unfortunate incident.

That's the USPA's "recommendation". I agree that in most cases it's a pretty reasonable number but not following it doesn't automatically make him irresponsible. It's not like he was an AFF student. Is there something about this incident that suggests it wouldn't have happened if the guy had 200 jumps or if he wasn't wearing a wingsuit?

Ok. Even if he's not blaming him, I don't think it's fair to say the guy was "very irresponsible". I've trained guys with 100 or so jumps and I know of more than one manufacturer that has trained people with jump numbers similar to the jumper in the incident. I'm not saying everyone with 100 jumps should fly a wingsuit, but there are some people who can even when things don't go as planned.

I don't think it's fair to blame the instructor.

Just wondering what other people have let students jump with. I got to jump with a girl who brought an Emmy Award with her earlier this summer. That was a really fun jump. We got our picture in parachutist for that one. Then, this weekend some people showed up from a Dutch Reality TV show where they were travelling from NY to Vegas doing fear factor type stuff. In this one, one contestant from each team had to pull their best 5 cards out of a half deck in freefall. It was funny as hell. Both of them did pretty good. We got great video of it. Anybody else ever let their students carry any props?

I love jumping without a helmet too, but I think I'm going to start wearing one. Never had a problem before, but the last two weekends in a row I've had an ear bloodied by the risers. It sucks.

If his set up is like mine, he's probably looking at the altimeter which is attached to the glove, not at the camera.