Dan1

wow, that's horrible....do you have a link telling more about this story?

This actually made me laugh out loud

I don't have mine right in front of me, but I think I may know what the issue is. When you hold the 2 buttons to turn it on and the screen starts flashing and it starts beeping, make sure you hold onto both buttons through this process until the normal screen comes up displaying 0 for your altitude. If you hold the 2 buttons to turn it on and as soon as the screen starts flashing and making beeping sounds you let go of the buttons then when the normal display comes up it'll only be there for a second or two. So just hold both buttons for the whole 5 seconds or so that it's starting up. Hopefully that's the issue. If not, L&B have the best customer service in the world and they'll replace yours for free.

Very nice looking!

My display messed up awhile back and I contacted L&B, they told me to send it in. About 2 weeks later they sent me a brand new Viso. They have the best customer service I've ever dealt with, just contact them and they'll help you out.

The original video was a skit on Saturday Night Live, song isn't serious, was supposed to be funny and ridiculous.

Thanks for the story, I enjoyed reading it.

I use both, analog for freefall and digital while I'm under canopy I've seen a lot of people say the bad thing about digital is that "you have to read the display and process the numbers"....but it really isn't too complicated, I have a viso, and under 1,000 feet if it says "870", it doesn't take too much brain power to figure out what altitude that is, it would take me longer looking at the needle on an analog to figure out what altitude I'm at

I bought a Silhouette for my first canopy and I love it. Only have about 30 jumps on it and I bought it brand new. Never once have I gotten frustrated packing it because it's so easy to pack. I don't have much to go on as far as comparing the flare to another canopy...but I have noticed that the flare doesn't last very long, so it took me a couple jumps to get the timing down. Anyway I'm sure more qualified and experienced people can give you better feedback than me, but just wanted to agree with the other people here that it's a great canopy. Will probably get another one when I downsize later down the road.

I'm flying a Silhouette 210 and I love it. Was told and read that it was a great beginner canopy and hadn't heard anything negative about it, so I bought one, I couldn't be happier. I bought mine new and it's extremely easy to pack since it's a hybrid canopy. So if you are going to demo a few different canopies try out the silhouette. But I also haven't really flown anything besides student canopies and my Silhouette...so you probably shouldn't listen to me since I don't know how my canopy compares to any other canopy

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with this, I doubt there's ever a point in skydiving where you "stop learning stuff"

As far as the thighs hurting, it's just on student gear. Once you get your own gear with padded legstraps it's much more comfortable. I used to get bruises on the insides of my legs from the student gear. Also cross your legs under canopy, it makes it much more comfortable and makes the harness more like a seat...just remember to uncross them and prepare to PLF before you land.

I bought all brand new gear (a lot of people will say that's dumb considering my jump numbers, but I have my own reasons for doing it) and since it costs the same amount of money to get stock colors versus custom colors, why not get what you like? It's a personal choice and it's your money. Everything I have matches and I'll probably always be that way even when I start downsizing and getting different gear later down the road. My favorite colors are neon yellow and black. So it looks good to me, plus I'm the brightest person in the sky so nobody can ever use the excuse "I didn't see you"

I'm still new at this too and don't know many people. I just moved to Tampa last week and this weekend I started jumping at my new home dz (z-hills) and out of 5 jumps only 1 was solo. Just go around and ask other people that have that "I'm-new-at-skydiving-so-I-look-kind-of-lost" look on their face and you'll find people to jump with. Just don't expect other new jumpers to come ask you if you want to jump with them, because they're thinking the same things you are. Just be pro-active about finding people to jump with, if you sit back and don't even attempt to ask other people if they want to jump, you'll probably always do solos and won't get any better at skydiving.

I bought all brand new gear and had my rigger assemble everything. He charged $50 for reserve pack, $25 for inspecting and assembling and $5 for packing the main. So $80 and I gave him $100. He let me watch the whole process and I recommend you do the same, you'll learn a lot about your gear and feel much more confident in it. Just drink a few energy drinks before and during the process...cause it's long and can get pretty boring when you're just watching, but it's worth it.