freeflyn

Great Article Melissa, the Harpers are a great Skydiving family and have always produced an awesome vibe at their dz. Their son keep on the family tradition and rounds out their dz very nicely. This is a great dz, with strong entrepreneurs at the helm.

There are two types of experience in skydiving, number of jumps and time in sport. The number of jumps is not always an indicator of skill or knowledge but time in sport gives you a potential insite into the amount of scenarios one has experienced, witnessed, and/or discussed. This time can allow someone greater insight into situations and thus allowing them to provide more thorough advice to younger and/or less experienced pilots. As for Dave's advice I agree with it. This is a sport that when you stop listening and learning you start getting injured or die.

Not sure if this is relevant to you but worth looking into; http://www.pia.com/piapubs/ServiceBulletins/SB111214.pdf

The GLS is a non-cross braced wing and is relatively docile. I have flown one and did not care for but it is not a difficult wing for beginners. Your wing selection should be based on terrain type, launch type (foot Vs ski), experience, and frequency of flying. Go to a school, there are more and more out there; it is a small price to pay for life saving information

You can purchase scuba weight, that is pre-packed mesh bags. The nice thing about using it is scuba weight belts are TSA-approved for carry on. It is usually available in 1, 2.5, 3, and 5lb bags.

flying a pattern that facilitated me in reaching my initiation point at a consistant altitude in a variety of wind conditions

It goes to the legal funds, Stu keeps on suing USPA for allowing Ian to sexual harass him

flat turn

I think if you want to increase the entertainment aspect then you need to have instantaneous penalties ie. if you miss a gate or pop up too high, there is a judge (or a group of judges) to shoot at you with a paintball gun.

At no time is using high performance landing techniques "conservative"

I do not completely agree with this statement, paragliding instruction will help fill in the gaps of knowledge that are needed. However, most of the speedflying schools are teaching this information to their students, as many of them are paragliding schools also. North America has fallen behind in this sport largely due to the huge number of paragliders in Europe. The most important thing when looking for a school is to ask for their curriculum and student progression. Speedflying is not skydiving nor is paragliding, tools and knowledge can be extracted from each sport, but it has its own unique set of risks/ rewards. External courses I would recommend if you don't have it would be an Avalanche Safety Training (At least an AST-1), and a first aid course. Mountaineering is a big part of this sport, and the environment you are in should not be taken lightly for you can end up some very remote locations.

Well if you are Poland there are several other schools that are closer and more relavent to terrain you would be flying. I know that the Polish speed-flying championship just finished check out speed-flying.com. But there are 2 schools in SoCal either should suit you fine. Personally I now prefer to speed-fly over skydive but I enjoy the entire mountain experience. It is a sport that should not be taken lightly and you should try to get in with a good local crew.

balls deep ;)

Each wing has its pro and cons, and it depends on your terrain and how you like to interact with the terrain. If you fly a GLX like a PGing platform the glide ratio is low but I have achieved glide ratios on my 120 close to a nano 12m. At the end of the day knowing what your wing is capable of and how to utilize it is the most important as this will allow you to make safe decisions when attempting new terrain.

Sounds like a Leprechaun to me