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Well, at 35 seconds, where he zooms under the student, he was being dangerous. His inability to control his fall rate or position in the sky relative to the student is dangerous. The video is of a single jumpmaster, harness hold exit, student jump. That's an AFF Level 4 type jump. His skills were not even close to being up to the task of helping or saving the student. That is dangerous.

I doubt it's ALWAYS riser covers causing hard openings, rather that they can be the explanation for more or less frequent hard openings (you can obviously easily cause a hard opening on any riser covers by leaving the slider down on packing). Here's the Bill Booth briefly talking a bit about this (35m17s to 37m17s):

I have to work on my speed reading skills - I originally saw that as flatulence.

Maybe that hole in the ozone layer was supposed to be there.

Couple more good ones about the RNC

What troubles me is canopy opening distances today are hundreds of feet longer than in the past and some are killing people. The shape of the deceleration is important. At Para-Flite we had firm but consistent openings. I don't believe any reserve currently manufactured really meet the opening requirement of the TSO! I believe every manufacturer fudges the numbers. The reason most likely is the canopy cannot with stand the openings without destruction on the high speed test thus slowing deployments on cutaways the most common type of malfunction. Some of the requirements for militaries of various countries mandated documented drop tests with openings from 400' with zero airspeed. I don't think there are many current canopies if any that can meet that spec. Also we drop tested and TSO'd every size canopy in a family as opening characteristics are different and I'll guarentee most manufacturers only test one size and claim it is a minor modification (it is not) some even are using a TSO from an earlier canopy and saying it is a small modification. If the FAA ever looked into it most reserves would be grounded (it was a dirty little secret)! We made zero P canopies and didn't have a problem. There quite a number of proprietary design concepts to control the openings that I can tell a lot of manufacturers have no Idea what is going on. Let me throw this out there. A major manufacturer swore that the nose angle is what made hard opening canopies. The nose angle has very little to do with it. At Para-Flite we did so much R&D work to understand what happens.

You're welcome and, as for relying on yourself, you're right. With AFF, yes, we're trained to pull at our hard decks no matter. That said, there shouldn't be any no matter moments. You should be there teaching and acting as a safety back up. Period. The sport needs more people like you who look for deeper understanding. Thanks for asking.

Not sure if maybe different "classes" of hard openings should be considered when talking about this? Sudden inflation (either due to slider getting down/being down, small or ripped slider, "act of God"...) Rubber bands breaking early, canopy starts inflating before lines are stretched (line dump) Riser covers too stiff, canopy starts inflating before they release so when they finally do it hits you (similar to line dump, just at the risers) High speed opening (failing to slow down sufficiently after FF for example) ... I guess noone has any statistics (don't know how would one get it) on how often which cause happens?

Technique wise I can't help you. However, just stick with it and listen to your instructors, follow their advice and try to relax in the air. I was 59 when I did my AFF with an almost non existent arch and 60 when I got my A licence. I find that doing pull-ups really helps my neck, back and shoulders. I've just done my 760th jump aged 69. I'll never be a great skydiver but I like to think I'm very very safety aware. I love the sport and 99% of the people involved with it. Good luck.

This part of your post makes me think you might be jumping Ravens (or Super Raven). Although any canopy design is theoretically capable of painfully hard openings, the Ravens have a reputation of also being practically capable for it. If you have actual experience with painful openings on one of those canopies, I would suggest you first look into switching to another canopy type that is known for softer openings, before walking the difficult and laborious path of building a drogue system on a sport rig, or the slightly less difficult path of messing around with slider sizes.

I completely agree. Ron is an interesting poster. He’s very consistent, polite and certainly not a troll. The fact that I don’t understand his belief system is something I like about speakers corner - we are less of an echo chamber as we get exposed to diverse views

All of you are missing the point. The jury (for me anyway) is still out on whether Ron is actually delusional enough to be a True Believer. There is however NO doubt whatsoever that he is an expert button pusher whose glee at getting everyone riled up on here informs every single one of his posts.

He had a reserve handle, right? Why didn't he pull that? The AAD fire had nothing to do with the instructor, unless that instructor trained him and neglected to talk about that. By level 3, a student should be able pull their own reserve if they can't find the main handle, and they should know what to do if an instructor isn't there at pull time. Shit happens, I signed the waiver, it's on me to save my own life.

No, he was claiming to be holding a tandem rating. I totally believe him. I once held a tandem rating myself..... when checking the TI's paperwork when working manifest

I don't know what your talking about. The micro raven 150 was a perfectly good canopy for a 95 lb girl. I did every thing with my Maverick. I loved it. I don't know why people diss F111 canopies. I think they have a lot to offer. It's only a problem if you ask them to be some thing they are not. I beleve you can fly any thing, history has proven this, You just have to respect it and fly it appropriately. Lee