20kN

FARs dont apply outside of the USA. BSRs do, but FARs do not. The FAA has no legal authority outside of the country.

Yes you are correct. There are people who do BASE jumps from tethered balloons. Last year there was boogie of sorts for BASE jumping from one. But as you indicated, tethered balloons are not aircraft and do not follow under the realm of skydiving. Plus they only go up like 300' at most so they are pretty low anyway.

Yes, the BSRs apply everywhere. I clarified this with the director of safety and training at the USPA. BSRs apply on all jumps from all aircraft at all DZs at all locations under all circumstances worldwide. But they are not legal requirements. They are requirements to be a USPA member. That said, you have to know the wording of the rules. For example, the BSRs say "For skydives made within the U.S. and its territories and possessions, no skydive may be made in violation of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations" which means that you canot jump a BASE rig out of a plane or fly through a cloud as those are FAA regulation violations. However, the FAA regulations do not apply outside of the USA as as the FAA has no authority in another country. There is no BSR that actually says you cannot jump a BASE rig or you cant fly through clouds. Those rules are caught under the BSR of "follow the FAA regs". Since the FAA regs dont apply in another country, the rules about flying through clouds or jumping a BASE rig would not apply either. There is a BSR that is specific about minimum opening altitudes though. The minimum is 2000' with S&TA approval, so even if you can jump a BASE rig, you cant pull low enough to truly need one without a waiver from the BOD regardless of what country you are in. I can tell you though that a lot of people jump BASE rigs out of helicopters in Europe and pull super low. It's one of those things like just keep it on the DL and no one is going to say anything. I can pretty much guarantee you any serious wingsuiter who has flown in Europe has done it.

Who knows. The only way to know 100% is to test it in court. However, unless you can afford an absurdly expensive lawyer I think the judge would be more likely to side with the FAA. It's not a strong argument that you present.

It's a legal assumption, which is a real thing. When the FAA states what an approved parachute system is, then legally anything else is assumed as unapproved if it doesent meet the definition. Rather than saying what is not approved, it's a shorter list to just say what is.

In general if a legal authority specifically lists out the requirements of an approved standard, then it's legally implied that everything else is unapproved. I dont think that argument would hold up in court very well if you tried to test it. Maybe if you had a very expensive lawyer, but otherwise not likely.

Here we go: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/105.43 § 105.43 Use of single-harness, dual-parachute systems. No person may conduct a parachute operation using a single-harness, dual-parachute system, and no pilot in command of an aircraft may allow any person to conduct a parachute operation from that aircraft using a single-harness, dual-parachute system, unless that system has at least one main parachute, one approved reserve parachute, and one approved single person harness and container that are packed as follows: (a) The main parachute must have been packed within 180 days before the date of its use by a certificated parachute rigger, the person making the next jump with that parachute, or a non-certificated person under the direct supervision of a certificated parachute rigger. (b) The reserve parachute must have been packed by a certificated parachute rigger - (1) Within 180 days before the date of its use, if its canopy, shroud, and harness are composed exclusively of nylon, rayon, or similar synthetic fiber or material that is substantially resistant to damage from mold, mildew, and other fungi, and other rotting agents propagated in a moist environment; or (2) Within 60 days before the date of its use, if it is composed of any amount of silk, pongee, or other natural fiber, or material not specified in paragraph (b)(1) of this section. (c) If installed, the automatic activation device must be maintained in accordance with manufacturer instructions for that automatic activation device.

One of them (not sure about the other) went over to Intrudair.

Yea, you can do that. Another option is to cut the head off of the zipper and run cord through the zipper head. All WS manufacturers use locking zippers and the zipper locks and unlocks based on the position of the pull in the zipper head. If you cut the pull off, the zipper will lock solid and it shouldent move unless you pull on the cord that you thread through the head. Squirrel does this on their race suits and it works very well. Honestly, I think it should be standard on all advanced suits.

If I recall right, the ZPX canopy is a different brand of ZP that just packs slightly smaller. It still packs similar to ZP, just a tad smaller. The ULPV is a ZPX top skin with what I 'think' is probably the Smart LPV material (0-3 CFM low prosperity fabric line PN-9) on the bottom skin and on the ribs. Aerodyne could probably provide further details. Both options will likely hold up for a long time. There are a few canopies on the market that are 100% 0-3 CFM material like the Epicene and Horizon and those canopies are still fine after 1000 jumps. The ULPV canopy will be easier to pack due to less slippery ZP.

In general those types of jumps are done by freepacking a BASE canopy into a skydiving container, if they are done in the USA that is. It's actually not that uncommon of a technique as serious CReW guys do it all the time because they dont want a D bag hanging off their canopy. Also, I think many of those videos you're talking about are filmed in Europe and Asia where jumping out of aircraft with a BASE rig is legal. Just becasue someone is proxy flying or pulling super low doesn't mean they automatically have a BASE container. Minimum deployment altitudes are a USPA BSR, not a FAA rule. As far as the FAA is concerned, you can pull at 500' on every jump, they don't care. I dont know about the whole single canopy vs dual canopy thing, but I do know any container that is jumped from an airplane must be TSOed and BASE containers do not have TSOed harnesses. So even if you had two parachutes, it would still be illegal because it's not a TSOed harness. There is one exception. The BASER container is a BASE container with a TSOed harness and a front mounted reserve which is legal to jump out of an airplane.

She was 60 living alone at home. It's not clear how she got infected as she never, ever went out. However, she did have a few people bring her supplies and she had a CNA who visited her weekly. The best guess is one of the persons who visited her may have given it to her. She was a great person who gave everything to ensure I had the best possible life. It's painful to think thousands more mothers, wives, fathers and children are going to die largely in the name of misinformation, politics and general stupidity toward science and medicine.

As the guy above hinted, this is a pretty stupid idea. I have 1200 WS jumps and I wouldent do that. The problem is when you have that many people that close doing intentionally unstable exits, there is a high probability of a collision and collisions in wingsuits, even from close distances, can result in neck breaking forces very easily. The guy in the link above was doing a 4-way exit (normal exit, not backflips like these guys) and he died from a collision on the exit. In general you should not launch more than two wingsuiters at a time in a Skyvan and both should be solid fliers. If someone is new or they are going to do an erratic exit, they should exit first (in the WS group) and alone. As far as WHY they did it. My guess, show off for the video. There is no performance-related reason to do an exit like that during a race. If you want to exit head down, you can do that from any aircraft without doing a backflip. A head down exit is not actually that hard.

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.