johnmatrix

The P3 is fine - as long as it fits nicely. It's worth buying new for a perfect fit if you are really sure you're going to use the suit. A Phantom you can keep forever and if you do sell it it should hold its value well.

Looks fine. I don't see what's wrong with it.

I agree with the first part but I think unless you're particularly round or heavy a Phantom will be good for hundreds of jumps. I am 182cm, used to be 90kg and am now around 80kg, have been using my Phantom 2 since my FFC about 6 years ago and it's still my favourite suit. I've done around 300 jumps on it.

Aaaaand yes that's a big suit.

Any pics?

Australia: 6 months.

Yes but I did some camera for RW teams last weekend and it felt really weird jumping with people who didn't talk about their suits whatsoever.

You need to take it off to thread the legstraps into each side of the suit.

That will be a bit of an upgrade from your current suit.

I have about 500 jumps on my Sabre2 190 with a UPT semi-stowless bag and am happy with it.

Well - it sounds like it's time...

And develop a silently opening parachute?

OK - it read like "collapsing the wings / balling up will not help you recover from instability" - which I've never heard anyone say before about any suit.

Maybe the PC would avoid the burble at first but then it is dragging the bridle, bag and lines around your body as it extracts from the container, which will inevitably result in malfunction.

OK, so what method do you recommend for recovering stability in Freak?

I agree with that. I did my first 2 jumps at 16 and 17. Jump 1 was scary as fuck, jump 2 I had a lot more fun. Fast-forward to 13 years later and going back to complete AFF at age 29. Very scared again, maybe even more scared. I think that if it weren't for knowing I'd done it before, I'd have found it a lot harder. It just started with 1 jump to try it, but that post-landing buzz left me high for weeks afterwards, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. The thoughts that maybe the sport wasn't for me were persistent and hard to shake, but I was confident with the training I had that I'd survive and now here I am.

I remember the feeling. Nerves starting the night before, getting very little sleep, driving to the DZ with pupils like dinner plates... It's interesting how the fear comes and goes, in fact it's part of why I kept doing it. It made me realise how much it's all in my mind and as a previous person said - related to amount of sleep... caffeine... diet... etc. It's scary shit, but you've done AFF so you're trained to do it. Give it another 100 jumps and you'll feel a bit more comfortable.

Unfortunately I don't think so at this stage, but hopefully next year. :) At least I will save money on Norwegian burgers.

Yes I know sort of how you feel. I started at 29 with a similar idea in mind. I read a lot about how people were getting hurt and killed through downsizing too fast and biting off too much risk early in their jumping careers, so I picked up a good set of gear for my first set and am still using it now. If you stick with that attitude you will have a great time. However, with a family you will have heaps less time for it than some other jumpers so your progression will be a bit slower. Stay as current as you can and learn from others mistakes - if you're in the sport for long enough you will watch other 'fast progression' types come and go, often through injury. It's really a mind game - as you mention the beginner apprehension does fade away so it's almost like a different game at every stage. And I've only done around 700 jumps in 7 years, but time in the sport counts too. You can learn more than you'd think just by being at the DZ and watching and talking with people. And yes, I have become the sort of jumper I wanted to be, but mainly what I wanted to be was alive and without major injury.

Best news I've had all day. Thanks for posting.

It would vary with the body shape of the jumper. I am no expert but I feel like a tall muscular person would have a natural advantage in performance flying, with bulk around the shoulders and chest and comparitively less around the waist it would move the CG further to the front of the wing, allowing for more forward speed at a given AoA. Part of the reason I am trying to get fitter and eat less burgers.

My understanding is that it is kind of both. In a normal canopy the lines are attached to loaded ribs. To create a more efficient surface with less deformation between ribs you need to have more ribs. But adding ribs without loading some/most of them won't solve the problem, since there will be deformation anyway. So you have to increase the number of lines (cells), to load some of these new ribs, so the shape is better retained. But more lines mean more drag, so you kind of cancel out that benefit. With crossbraces from a single attachment point you are loading 1 rib and 2 crossbraces. The crossbraces allow therefore to eliminate 2 unloaded ribs. The shape is better retained, but without increasing the number of lines. Does it makes sense? That is my understanding of it.

Mad skills.

Yes. It is tough at the start. The learning curve is steep and the costs are immense. At the start I chose to jump less, once a month for around 8 months to sort out my own set of gear so I wouldn't have to pay more for rental gear. It took a long time and my financial situation wasn't great but I got there, and so will you if you stick with it.

My point was that some people complain about reports of RSLs contributing to reserve line twists - when without one, you may end up in line twists anyway, just lower. Agree it's great that people posts these videos, as we can learn from them.