Westerly

It really depends on what main you use for wing suiting if its worth it or not.How does the main have anything to do with it? The WS Cypress, as I understand it, basically operates in 'student mode' (45 MPH) until it detects a parachute activation, then it switches over to Pro or CP mode depending on how you set it so you dont have an AAD fire if you swoop your canopy in. I dont really see the market for it personally. If your suit is so large that you're truly worried that an AAD in pro mode wont activate, then very likely you're also running a low WL on a wingsuit specific 7-cell which means you're not likely to swoop that in anyway.

Ignore Chris2.0. He has a long history of trying to BS people. While 4-way is demanding, to imply that doing FF or RW at the same competitive level is less demanding is false. In 4-way if you mess up the dive flow, you miss the point. In WS if you mess up the dive flow, you (potentially) run into another person with a 50+ MPH speed differential and die. Same can happen with FF in some cases if you're not careful. Anyway, 4-way is still a quite common discipline and belly in general. It really depends on your DZ. Most DZs (and areas in general) tend to favor one type of discipline. I have been to a few DZs where 4-way is very common and I've seen three different 4-way teams on one load. Regarding students leaving after getting licensed and people only showing up once and awhile, that's common with most activities in general. Most people only get into a sport very informally. It takes dedication to show up to the DZ every Sat and Sun from first load to sunset. Many people just are not committed to skydiving at that level, they just like to do it on occasion.

Come on, that's silly, especially coming from an instructor. People have had decompression sickness from ascending only 2000'. There is a guy in this thread who even posted his own example. If 2000' can make you sick, what do you think 15k' would do?

Said no skydiver ever.

I seem to recall it was an Otter, but it might have been a Skyvan. It's the only photo I've seen of someone riding on the nose of an airplane. Not exactly the safest thing to do.

Anyone know where I can find a copy of the photo of a women riding on the outside of a Twin Otter, on the nose? I seem to recall it was on one of the Sharks at Perris. It was published in Parachutist mag a few episodes back this year. The pilot did an engine cut and then the jumper dove off the nose, head down. I cant seem to find it.

At the same time though, if the RPC is unable to break the 10 lb thread seal, then it also is unlikely to produce enough force to deploy the reserve. Remember, the RPC needs to lift its own weight, the bridle, the weight of the reserve parachute, the freebag and then on top of that, the added weight of releasing the locking stows. That easily exceeds 10 lbs. Where is the evidence of someone descending at 45 MPH until impact? I would be interested in seeing it.

Against what? Businesses in America are not required to do business with anyone as long as the reason does not involve race, color, religion or national origin. Go on?

I was looking at an email the USPA sent out this week. It had a tidbit about revoked memberships and mentioned that someone named Luke Frazier had a revoked USPA membership and tried to sign up again. Anyway, this is the first time I've seen the USPA actually revoke an entire membership. I've seen revoked ratings, but not sport memberships. This got me curious, what would you have to do for the USPA to revoke your membership entirely?

I think SD Chicago offers a pass. If I recall right they charge by the month, not year, and different months cost different amounts. Check with them as I’m not 100% sure.

While everyone likes the idea of 'lower taxes' in general that only goes so far. Take the idea to the extreme - NO TAXES FOR EVERYONE!!! Hooray! It's a giant win for the public until society collapses... Taxes have to exist and they have to be realistic to do the job they're intended for. That isn't liking taxes, it's just not burying my head in the sand and hoping the next dam to fail or bridge to to collapse doesn't affect me. I choose to pay for a resource that I use every day to a level that will keep it in good repair. My wife and I have bent a wheel each in the last few years because of potholes... that's the cost of underfunded roads. At nearly a grand a piece to repair these taxes will take a long time to rack up to that personal cost. Infrastructure repair across the US is criminally underfunded and it's never pushed as a big deal because it's not as sexy an issue as opening a hospital or school with a politicians name on it. No one debates the necessitates of taxes. It's about how efficient the government is with taxes. To some people, the solution to a financial problem is "How can we get more for our money?" to others the answer to the same problem is "how can we get more money?" California has a long history of being abysmally inefficient with their cash. The tax rate is through the roof, but overall the state is in a pretty shitty state, as it always has been. Just about every other state charges less in taxes per resident and has a higher living quality (relating to things directly effected by government spending anyway). Blue states in general seem to have the general process that the solution to any problem is to just charge more in taxes.

I've seen people try to collapse all the wings entirely and fall like a rock. That was taught to me prior to my FFC (which was then corrected in my FFC). In fact, the SIM even still says to collapse everything even though Squirrel says otherwise and most people know that's not very feasible on large suits. The SIM also says to click your heals together to signal deployment and that the signal is mandatory. However, I have never once seen anyone do that. Regardless of how someone waves off, everyone should wave off before deployment. Yes, putting your feet together doesn't help your stability. I have seen some very entertaining wave offs. This is interesting because wave-offs are something that I've asked several WS LOs and WS coaches (like legit ones who actually coach on a regular basis at a major DZ). The answer that I've universally received is that outside of your FFC, there is no waving off in WS. You just never fly behind someone around deployment altitude. I'm still new myself, but I've never seen someone wave off in a WS, ever. I've always done it myself by rolling my wrists back and fourth and shaking my hands, but I've repeatedly been told it's unnecessary outside of an FFC, and I am the only person I've know that does it.

Now that I've started reading through the diver manual and understand what's involved, I actually don't think I will have a problem with the mask off part; then again I didn't think I would have any problem just breathing normal a foot below water, but I did. I won't know until I try, but I am definitely going to try. It just might take me a little longer than most, just like skydiving.

I've seen people try to collapse all the wings entirely and fall like a rock. That was taught to me prior to my FFC (which was then corrected in my FFC). In fact, the SIM even still says to collapse everything even though Squirrel says otherwise and most people know that's not very feasible on large suits. The SIM also says to click your heals together to signal deployment and that the signal is mandatory. However, I have never once seen anyone do that.

On a side note, I've always wondered what the point in flying a tracking suit was. It just seems like a lower performance version of a wingsuit. Granted, I've only done a few tracking suit jumps and they were done with the intent of getting ready for wingsuiting, but I've always wondered, if you like tracking suits enough to buy one, why not just get a wingsuit?

?? Not all BSR's apply to all jumpers. The wingsuit BSR's, for example, don't apply to people doing RW. ***As others have pointed out, plenty of DZs have already been using modified student programs, whether that includes tunnel time, tandems, etc. Have these DZs already been violating BSRs? Not at all. You can always add stuff. The SIM calls out the minimums of training, not the maximums. What wingsuit BSRs? The only thing about wingsuits in the BSRs is that you need 200 jumps. https://uspa.org/Portals/0/Files/Man_SIM_Section2.pdf

Just about everyone and their mother says that they want to try 'squirrel suiting,' but of course most of them dont follow through. So I am curious, what percentage of licensed jumpers fly a wingsuit or would consider wingsuiting their main disciple? I am not talking about 'I once flew a suit way back when'. I'm talking about someone who owns a suit and flies it regularly enough that they at least have a very basic wingsuiting skillset. My guess, 20%.

You can split up your time in as many blocks as you want. It's common to do 1, 1.5 or 2 min at a time, then stop to debrief. You only pay for the time you're in the tunnel using it at most places. If you're just planning on belly flying, the tunnel staff will probably let you do as you want. They might watch you for the first min and possibly be in the tunnel until you can prove you know what you're doing, but after that you should be fine.

I have no problem maintaining a level technically in the tunnel. The problem is that that I start to panic when I get above head height. I am also able to fly in different wind speeds without problem. In the tunnels I have been in, the wind is very constant up to 5-ish meters. I think I need to do some VR therapy or CBT or something. Maybe try to increase your height slowly overtime. For example, one one day spend a bit of time working at 6'. Then the next day spend a bit of time at 7' and so on and so on. Or you could try forcing yourself to spend a bit of time higher than you feel comfortable every time you fly. Say ok I am going to spend 30 seconds at 10' no matter what today. If you do that enough eventually it will become the norm and you'll probably lose your fear. Most fears in most sports universally come down to the same thing. People are afraid of the unknown.They like to be in situations they can control, or at least have enough experience that they can accurately predict the outcome. If you do something that is unfamiliar often enough, eventually it becomes familiar and then the fear goes away.

Go skydiving for real? Do a tandem.

Hahahaha, yea until it happens for real. That's like saying you only need to practice EPs in the ground harness and after that you never have to do it again. I got my mask caught on something when I was 60' down once and lost it. You think clearing the mask sucks. That was a party compared to losing my mask 60' down. Also, I've had my mask flood while inside of a confined space 100' down. If you dont like practicing clearing it in a pool, you're really not going to like doing it on the ocean floor.

That's debatable. You cant just divide out the lifespan across the initial purchase value. That's not how use value works. For one, used value is based on market demand and supply. But more over, there is no way in hell I would pay 30 pounds under MSRP for a year old Cypress. You're buying a used product from someone you dont know. That by itself automatically knocks 20% off. I dont care if it was only used on one jump and you rode the plane down. I'm still taking the risk of buying something used from someone I dont know and it would make zero sense to take that risk just for a micro discount that you could get from many dealers just by asking anyway.

I actually think that so much flexibility in an AAD is a horrible idea. If that was possible you'll have all sorts of misconfigured AADs and a spike in misfires. People don't know how to turn off their VISOs, why should we play with AADs settings that freely and dangerously? Multimode AADs and user selectable altitude are already a possibility. And despite that simplicity there were misfires. Well if they offer a wingsuit AAD, then most of the demands for AAD modes will be met. But to date, aside from the really overpriced and quite strange Cypress WS AAD, there are no WS AAD modes. Set your AAD to pro and you risk no fire on a WS. Set it to student and you risk a two-out if you swoop. Why not have an AAD mode that activates at 60 MPH instead? It will allow canopy work that is within the realm of what most WS fliers would be doing, but not so low that it would risk a two out. You mentioned price and I see it this way.. It comes down to the value proposition.. This AAD will not be cheep, but it will be within range of the current WS AAD, only it will offer a lot of advanced functionality for that price. Sure, but what does that even mean? AADs only have one function: to save your life if you dont pull. That's pretty much it. As such, I just buy whatever AAD is the cheapest (which is the Mars unit) because they all do the same thing. It's like choosing between brands of seat belts. No one really cares as long as they keep your ass in the seat during a crash. That said, if you made an AAD that had student, pro, CP, tandem AND wingsuit modes, that might make it a bit more valuable. But even so, I dont think people would shell out $500 extra when you consider that current AADs are still quite reliable for most applications.

I agree. But lacking any better public forum for discussion of skydiving and USPA issues, I will at least give it a shot here. I actually learn a lot here. When I ask skydivers why they don't come here they usually say something like, "Dropzone forums are all bullshit" or something like that. I usually suggest that if they would participate in discussions, then there will be that much less bullshit! (FYI, the only thing that really bothers me about some discussions is that people change topics in the middle of a discussion and try to "pile on". This makes it difficult to complete a discussion.) I hear that a lot. Not just about skydiving either. In any sport, it's often that I hear 'forums are shit', ect, ect. Well, there is a lot of crap talking for sure. That's easily promoted when you're anonomous. But there is lots of crap talking in person around the bonfire too. It's not much different sitting at the LZ waiting for the plane to pick up. People complaining about how the DZ is too expensive, the USPA sucks, whatever, whatever. You can ignore the BS if you want to and only focus on the educational portions. There is tons of info that can be learned from the Internet. You can get a much more broad range of consensus, opinions and options from the Internet than you can at just your DZ (which may have just one or two riggers who have always been doing it 'that certain way.')

You were not there, not knowing me, but you're pretty sure that I have exhibited bad judgement in the past. WOW!I can guarantee you've exhibited bad judgement before. You are coming here to solicit support against the person/persons who have disciplined you at your home DZ. That speaks volumes about your judgement. You have a lot to learn about getting along in the culture; this one and/or any other. I think that's a bit rough. You dont know him or what he has or has not done before. You may be right, but you dont know for sure. I've nearly been unfairly grounded before. I had my new B license and I was visiting a new DZ. I had only jumped at my home DZ prior so this was my first jump at new DZ. Anyway, the rule was first down sets the pattern at the new DZ I was visiting (which is not the rule at my home DZ). I ended up doing a high pull so I landed way, way last. I looked at the pattern of the last person who landed a few min before me and I copied their pattern. Well, they landed in the wrong direction apparently and the GSO chewed me out for copying her. In reality, I was the last person (by far) to land, so there was no risk of jousting anyway. He threatened to ground me, even though it was my first time jumping at that location, I followed the pattern of the last person I saw land, and there was no one around so it dident really truly matter what direction I landed. He ended up letting me go, but I would have been pissed (and taken my business to another DZ), if I got grounded for that considering there was no safety risk and I did what I was told to do in the briefing. My point is sometimes people make legitimate mistakes and the punishment should fit the situation. If he was in trouble lots before, then grounding is appropriate. But in some cases it's not.