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You can argue the semantics of it as much as you want (If you really want to do that, spend some time in Speaker's Corner... Or maybe not ). But if you've got what it takes to gear up, get on the plane, go up in the air and then leave the plane, you are a jumper.

You my friend are in my field. The standard chart does not apply to all people the same. The least to us big guys. The charts are considered as safe average, but don't take into consideration a lot of factors. A 1.3 WL on 190 for you is much less agressive than 1.3 for someone on a 150-135. Ask your dz instructors and riggers what they think about downsizing for you and your flying. And most importantly try a few jumps yourself and see how you react to it, learn to asses yourself. You will always have screamers against and the dz cool 65kilo dwarfs that ill shout "downsize man". If you can pretty much land in no wind, crosswind, downwind and be accurate while doing it I see no problem in downsizing If it is any help I'm making comparison video on Volts (185 vs 150), so you will get atleast some feeling how things react under a smaller wing. We jump pretty much the same height and weight.

Moderators. Ban.

Agreed - we need better options - Wait - would that be <Gasp> Climate change? <Shocked>

You missed a Princess Bride quote? For shame!

I can't answer your question about the canopies since I don't know them. I don't understand what the rush is to downsize that aggressively. You spent 700 jumps on a Pulse 170 and you suddenly want to jump down to a 125 even 110 and switch to a different planform at the same time. At my DZ this year we had 3 major injuries within 1 month of operation, 1 femur, 1 Fibula and another unknown broken bone. None of them downsized but got distracted during landing. If you spent that long on the 170, you must have like it. You should stick with the smaller version of your Pulse for a bunch of jumps and then either go smaller or switch planform. Parachute de France will limit you in term of downsizing according to this chart so the 110 is already out unless you have canopy ratings

I agree with you Wendy. This is how the supreme Supreme Court is supposed to work. IMO

This thread can hardly become anything but an exercise in people who know little of canopy design putting forward unsupportable opinions based on anecdotes. Most likely a ton of fanboys slagging brands they don't care for. Even Brian Germain, the author of the 2006 article you quoted would not or could not name a particular canopy. The fact is there is not problem with unstable collapsing canopies in today's market. In short, load your canopy appropriately, and don't fly in known turbulent conditions. The relevant sentence in the article is this one: "I have not experienced any kind of collapse on the parachutes I fly, ever." It is very unlikely you will either.

If your plan is to swoop, you don't want a Stiletto.

Crossfire2 wouldn’t be your best choice. Not recommended under 1.4 wing loading

Bill Von Novak downsizing checklist was always the recommended thing: Full disclosure: Despite having known about the checklist for many years, I have never attempted some of the things on it and I have downsized several times...

<< A couple were golfing one day on a very, very exclusive golf course, lined with million dollar houses. On the third tee the husband said, "Honey, be very careful when you drive the ball - don't knock out any windows. It'll cost us a fortune to fix." The wife teed up and shanked it right through the window of the biggest house on the course. The husband cringed and said, "I told you to watch out for the houses! All right, let's go up there, apologize and see how much this is going to cost." They walked up, knocked on the door, and heard a voice say, "Come on in." They opened the door and saw glass all over the floor and a broken bottle lying on its side in the foyer. A man on the couch said, "Are you the people that broke my window?" "Uh, yeah. Sorry about that." the husband replied. "No, actually I want to thank you - I'm a genie that was trapped for a thousand years in that bottle. You've released me. I'm allowed to grant three wishes - I'll give you each one wish, and I'll keep the last one for myself." "OK, great!" the husband said. "I want a million dollars a year for the rest of my life." "No problem - it's the least I could do. And you, what do you want?" the genie said, looking at the wife. "I want a house in every country of the world," she said. "Consider it done." the genie replied. "And what's your wish, genie?" the husband asked. "Well, since I've been trapped in that bottle, I haven't had sex with a woman in a thousand years. My wish is to sleep with your wife." The husband looks at the wife and said, "Well, we did get a lot of money and all those houses, honey. I guess I don't care." (And neither did the wife.) The genie took the wife upstairs and ravished her for two hours. After it was over, the genie rolled over, looked at the wife, and said, "How old is your husband, anyway?" "35." she replied. "And he still believes in genies? That's amazing..." >>

Ok, that's funny. However, I don't think you will remove yourself from existence by putting yourself on the ignore list. Putting other people on that list doesn't make them go away (which is something of a shame). It just hides their posts so you don't have to suffer them. I would think that putting yourself on your own ignore list would simply make your posts invisible to you. But they would still exist and other people would be able to see them. Functional equivalent of the three year old pulling a blanket over themselves and saying 'you can't see me!!!'