20kN

I put about 350 jumps on one. As far as the flying goes, it's kind of like a Sabre 2. Okay to fly, good glide and good flare. The airlocks are a major PIA on the ground to deal with if the winds are high which is why I ultimately sold mine, but if you have some serious concerns about turbulence they may help alleviate some of those. I have seen crossbrassed canopies collapse. Crossbracing is used in paragliders and paragliding wings collapse very easily under some conditions. An airlocked canopy will still provide superior collapse resistance compared to any crossbraased canopy will, assuming similar WL of course. Wingsuits use airlocks extensively, although that is more for maintaining internal pressure to improve performance.

Ok, now that I tried looking at it on a computer the issue is clear. I dont know what exactly started the linetwists. Probably dipped a shoulder low through the deployment. But the more important part is that X Fire started diving on you because you have uneven risers. Whenever you get linetwists the FIRST thing you do, especially on an elliptical canopy, is to get the risers even. Look at the slinks to see if they are even or not. If the slinks are are uneven the lines are uneven which will put the canopy into a spin. Even a reserve can dive on you if the risers are uneven enough. If you would have evened up the risers that canopy would have stopped spinning right away and you would have been fine.

You need to work on your video editing skills. That showed us literately nothing. That is a 360 camera so you can show us the canopy in every frame. There are an infinite number of things that can cause linetwists and every one of them that can cause it on a main can cause it on a reserve too. Reserve linetwists are common. Cutaways often involve poor body position which substantially increases the chances of twists on your reserve.

Looks like nylon and jet fuel get a C rating which is not fantastic for life saving gear at first thought. https://www.coleparmer.com/chemical-resistance However, JP1 is mostly gasoline with 30% kerosene and they give an A rating for nylon and gas as well as an A rating for nylon and kerosene which implies it might be okay. In the world of rock climbing, it's know that gasoline in general is not actually harmful to nylon. Usually things made from oil dont hurt other things made from oil, but there are some exceptions. The main things to look out for are acids and strong caustic agents. There is a way to find out for sure quite easily. Buy a nylon climbing sling, expose it to the chemical in question and then send it back to the manufacturer for destructive testing. They will probably do it for free. Then you can know with firm certainty how much, if any, it degrades nylon and you can do the whole test for like $20.

Keeping things neat and straight can help, but only to a degree. Anyone who has watched even one single rear facing camera view of a parachute opening knows that once it hits the relative wind, shit goes flying everywhere and that nice art of perfectly executed folds turns into a ball of crap in a nanosecond anyway.

I am curious what you consider is 'done optimally'. I am fairly sure the way I pack my PC wouldn't match what you consider optimal (I follow Brian Germain's PC folding technique), but I've never once had a PC hesitation, not even on race suits in 1050 WS jumps. WS BASE is another story and I pack my PC very specifically for that type of jump. I do agree about the gear though. Having a really good PC (e.g. SkySnatch) is important. That said, I've also jumped my Freak 3 with a Katana and Zulu on several occasions--I do ensure I use my SkySnatch at the minimum and my WS container though.

Virtually all skydivers would benefit a bit from waiting more than 200 jumps to fly a WS. It's similar to downsizing. There are few scenarios where waiting and mastering your current wing a little more wont be beneficial prior to downsizing. That said, I dont know you or your skillset and some people do take a course at 201 and do fine. I would recommend talking to a rated WS instructor about your goals. Dont just pick some rando off the DZ who flys suits. Find someone who actually holds a legitimate WS instructional rating. Squirrel and Phoenix Fly publish their instructors on their websites.

I think you overestimate the engineering in a parachute. Parachutes arnt exactly modern marvels of scientific genus. There are a few fun jumpers in the USA who actually make and jump their own canopies which they have made in the basement of their houses. Yes, manufacturers have tested their canopies many times; however, the exact values presented to any portion of a canopy are infinitely variable and change continuously across the entire inflation process. You could do 20,000 jumps on a canopy and every opening would be different from a physics standpoint. Parachute design is more of a 'that's close enough' process rather than an exact science. The fact that hard openings continue to cause deaths every year across a wide range of canopies with completely unexplained circumstances attests to the fact that we havent exactly dialed in the science in proper design yet.

I'm just pointing out that no matter how hard anyone tries, it's not hard to determine how much spread there is with Covid. If it was an illness that dident cause death or ER visits, then it might be hard to track. But since it fairly universally affects people regardless of location the deaths and hospitalizations dont lie. We could say hey, we're only seeing 20 new infections per day in the whole USA, but the deaths and hospitalizations will prove that claim valid or invalid very quickly. Even if the powers at be were to mandate that states no longer count covid related deaths and hospitalizations, we'll still know based solely on hospitalization utilization rates and excess deaths. Put simply, it's not possible to falsify the numbers to the point that no one can figure it out. Anyone with half a brain and basic research inclination will still be able to determine if we have this under control or not. Also, people will say that regardless. As you said people believe what they want to believe. Until it kills their wife or puts them in the hospital, there will always be people who will discount it as fake news.

It doesn't really matter. We could stop testing entirely. It wouldn't have any effect on people going to the ER with symptoms and so the best source of reliable info on Covid is hospitalizations and deaths. Specifically, excess deaths. We could start classifying all Covid deaths as accidents, it wouldent change the excess deaths data which cannot be falsified. We know how many Americans die on average each year from all causes, so anything in excess of the norm could reasonably be assumed to be a Covid-related death. That is assuming that the whole of America dident suddenly find interest in chain smoking, drag racing and BASE jumping.

The C4 is great. It's fast. Faster than the Freak 3 by a bit. Has a ton of flare power. I can actually out flare my CR+ in my C4.

In general, age waivers for tandems dont exist (anymore, they did in the past). Those who are doing tandem jumps under the age of 18 are non-affiliated DZs. However, even then the Ti is breaking BSRs because the BSRs apply to all skydives regardless of where they are conducted. The USPA made this clear in something they published on their website awhile back that basically said that working as a Ti at a non-group member DZ does not permit you to take those under the age of 18 on tandem jumps. Even if you surrender your USPA TI rating and only hold a manufacturer rating, the FAA requires all Tis to hold a master parachutist license, and since the USPA is the only organization in the USA that grants them, all Tis are legally required to be USPA members in order to comply with the requirement of holding a valid master parachutist license. If you surrender your USPA membership, under USPA bylaws you are not a member in good standing and members who are not in good standing are not authorized to execute the privileges of their license (i.e. you dont have a license anymore). Getting an age waiver for AFF is different. That is easier because the manufacturers dont come into play. https://uspa.org/downloads/minimum-age-to-skydive#:~:text=For all U.S. tandem makers,18 strictly the minimum age.

In general you can modify the main portion of the system as you see fit. If you modify the harness, that's another matter.

Another possible point is they may increase your chance of a tension knot mal. The amount of friction a line produces has an effect on the likeness of tension knots. New, slippery material is less likely to cause a knot than older, worn material.

Lines are responsible for a lot of drag which has a negative effect on how the canopy flies. This is why crossbrassed canopies use HMA 325 and such. The faster the canopy, the more it matters.