Deimian

I am not an expert, but as far as I know this is only valid for carbon fiber helmets. First read carefully the manual from the Bonehead helmets. "The liner is made up of a thermo-formable foam covered in neoprene and fabric, which when heated, will soften and can be molded during the cooling process." Cheers I stand corrected then. I assumed it was the same procedure as for crener http://crener.com/en/content/7-maintenance:

Cristal clear now, thank you!

Reverse risers have a higher cutaway force, so no, I won't get them, neither I'll get type 8 risers, in case somebody suggest it. I am just asking about how to check for reinforcement on type 17 risers, and if the lack of it can be considered a defect.

I've been taking a closer look to my risers. I was expecting to see an extra piece of type 17 webbing in the grommet area, as reinforcement, but I couldn't see anything. The only extra piece of webbing that I see looks like binding tape, and goes as well around the medium ring. I have a couple of questions regarding that: -Is this binding tape the reinforcement? I was under the impression that binding tape is not designed for bearing large loads. -If not: would it be that the reinforcement is not visible (i.e.: pushed into the inside part of the risers and not visible in the edge)? -If not: what am I supposed to do? Can this be considered a defect in the manufacturing process? I'll be jumping a Sabre 1 next season, so the stress on the risers might be higher than before (I'm currently jumping a Sabre 2, with soft openings), and I'm wondering if this can be an issue, particularly given that I use an RSL with a MARD. So far, the risers have a little bit under 170 jumps, without any issue.

I am not an expert, but as far as I know this is only valid for carbon fiber helmets. At high temperatures the resin that keeps the fibers together becomes malleable again and thus you adjust the helmet fitting. The Phantom X is an ABS helmet, and I don't think "refitting" the helmet is possible in this case.

I am not sure about that. In the snatch the apex of the "top skin" might reach the apex of the mesh before being fully collapsed. Actually, because of being preshaped, I am not sure you can fully collapse it. It doesn't matter how much you pull down the apex, the edge of the "top skin" will always protrude a little bit.

I don't live in Münich, but as a fellow spaniard living in Germany I have a couple of things that might be useful for you: -Skydiving all year round is unlikely. Here winter can be cold. In Münich, close to the alps I guess it can be worse than in the west part of Germany. But it might be possible to do it a couple of times during winter. -I would assume any DZ close to Münich has a turboprop. -To skydive in Germany you need to have the German license. As far as I know nothing else is accepted here. So probably skydiving directly here, without getting the german license, which requires an exam, won't be possible. I don't know for sure, since I jump in Belgium normally, not Germany. -Most of the Germans I've met skydiving are pretty cool, so no worries there.

I don't think so. In my helmet, it is impossible to have the mouth pointing anywhere else than the opening, unless I pull down the helmet with my hands. In freefall and normal use of the helmet my nose is touching the top of the padding around the opening. I think there is no way to see my mouth from any angle. But the shape of my melon can be different than the shape of yours, so YMMV.

Yes, but not on anything related to skydiving. Not me at least. If you intend to submit your article to a peer-reviewed journal, well, you need to have some novel idea or experiment. The work done by others is necessary to cover the state-of-the-art and related work, but to find out related work first you have to have a work of your own. Unless your "research paper" is just a work for college summarizing the work done by others. But I wouldn't call that research, and I doubt that it would be accepted in any peer-reviewed process.

Team Alter Ego published the video on their facebook page. I wrote this: "Looks like the same system as Wings, very similar to the one designed by Eric Fradet and the RAX". This was their reply: "actually this is totally different, nothing like any other MARD system on the market." I guess we will have to wait a little bit for the details.

This is not necessary true. My Viso got stuck at 580 meters (around to 2000 feet) climbing to altitude some months ago. Then it reset itself and started counting again from zero, being already midway to 4000 meters (13000 feet). Then it died for the jump, but reset on the ground. The next jump died completely. I was having an analog as backup, as well as an audible. BTW: The batteries were perfectly fine, they were new, and later I tried with another set, and it still didn't work. In another jump, later this summer, I saw the Optima II of one guy on my load, through the window on his helmet. He had a similar problem, I don't remember exactly, but the reading was completely off. I told him to don't wait for the alarm to go off, that it was not working properly. He checked and acknowledged. The batteries were almost empty (the battery icon was flashing). Failure modes on digital devices are not that predictable, so careful with your assumptions.

First thing you have to do with a full face is practice to open the visor with gloves on the ground, IMO. With gloves I open the visor without problem, even though I must admit that the first few jumps it was tricky, precisely because I didn't practice enough on the ground. Also, I think your helmet is way too big. Your mouth is completely exposed. In the phantom the mouth is supposed to be hidden by the mouth piece. You are breathing directly into the visor. I suspect your fogging problems come from there. My phantom fits me comfortably, and my mouth is nowhere visible. It looks to me like your problems with the helmet arise from your own actions.

I actually like it more than, let's say, vector risers. The excess of the brake line in those is stowed very loose. With wings you just have to use the method described above and it becomes very easy to do.

There is no link or picture in your post

It looks like I am the exception. My phantom never had fogging problems during freefall. I've never used any product on the visor. In cold weather, under canopy, I open it to prevent the visor from getting foggy, but on freefall I never had any problem.

I have a close to 150 jumps on a Sabre 2. It opens way slower than the pilots on my DZ. It makes me uncomfortable. I am actually thinking in changing to Sabre 1. If it opens like an Optimum I was demoing the opening speed would be just fine.

I never talked about hard openings. I've just said that with freebags and stowless bags the lines are kept nice and tight in their pouch, that's all. Therefore saying that using loose rubber bands is ok because freebags and stowless bags don't have rubber bands is simply a bad argument.

No they are not. The lines are being held neat and orderly (if put into the system that way) but there normally isn't any tension on any of the line except for the locking stows on a semi-stowless bag. I think line dump is like the boogie man, sounds scary but doesn't exist in practice. Bag strip is a different story, that can happen, but it has nothing to do with your stows down line of the locking stows. Well, I disagree. Of course they will be as nice as you put them, but that is why normally people fold the lines in "8", instead of just push them inside. Regarding tension on the lines: No, there is no tension on the lines, but the pouches can be tight, and hold the lines neatly in place. For freebags I really doubt that the lines have enough mass to create inertia big enough to work their way out of the velcro pouch completely, right after the freebag leaves the container. For stowless or semi-stowless it depends on the pouch, if it holds in place or not. If the pouch comes open easily, due to loose tabs or weak magnets, then of course it might open during the chaos of the opening and let the lines loose before reaching line stretch. But a properly maintained and designed stowless system should hold the pouch closed until that point, with the lines coming out as they are being pulled. I think "should" is the keyword here, and I am open to admit that in some cases the pouch can come open before line stretch.

Because in these cases the lines are being hold nice and tight, but not by rubber bands.

That's a messed up philosophy and anyone who does this likely doesn't have many real friends. Be friendly to anyone, 0 jumps or 10000 jumps. No reason anyone is better or worse than anyone else. We're all just there to smile and have fun, right? It's sad to know that this stereotype exists I think you didn't understand my point. I agree completely with "be friendly to anyone" regardless of jump numbers. But if you are new in a group of well integrated people, and put yourself in a corner facing the wall, well, not many people will go and push you into being part of the group. That is not skydivers behavior, is standard behavior in many situations. If you move to a new city, and don't look to make new friends, almost nobody is going to go to your apartment and ask you to hang around with them. It has nothing to do with jump numbers, it has to do with being unknown to a well established group. Very DZ dependent. At my DZ we have no corners to stand in. You will be forced to explain yourself, drink with us and tell your life story and then possibly get naked. It sounds like I should visit your DZ. Or import the getting naked tradition to mine. Here we just throw people into the pond in underwear. So boring.......

That's a messed up philosophy and anyone who does this likely doesn't have many real friends. Be friendly to anyone, 0 jumps or 10000 jumps. No reason anyone is better or worse than anyone else. We're all just there to smile and have fun, right? It's sad to know that this stereotype exists I think you didn't understand my point. I agree completely with "be friendly to anyone" regardless of jump numbers. But if you are new in a group of well integrated people, and put yourself in a corner facing the wall, well, not many people will go and push you into being part of the group. That is not skydivers behavior, is standard behavior in many situations. If you move to a new city, and don't look to make new friends, almost nobody is going to go to your apartment and ask you to hang around with them. It has nothing to do with jump numbers, it has to do with being unknown to a well established group.

You have a two options: 1) Put up with it. 2) Look for another DZ. If you stick to option #1 you can try to be neutral. Most probably in any group there would be some people that will respect you for not taking part in their beefs. Some other will not want you around unless you take sides with them. I would try to stick around the first kind of people, regardless of which group they belong to. Also, as a student, there is no reason for anybody to approach you, except those that are naturally open and nice (I like this kind of people, but not everyone is like that). Be aware that it is your "task" to be open and approach people, not the other way around. You might consider also option #2. Every DZ has its own "microclimate". Explore, have fun, and stick to whatever place you like more.

I guess it depends on the canopy. The change in trim affects the opening characteristics, for different canopies it might have different effects. But I hope my Sabre 2 will open faster with new lines. It flies awesome, but after ~400 jumps on the line set it takes forever to open. It pisses me off especially after demoing an optimum, which opened soft but fast (maybe not fast enough for being a reserve, but that is a different discussion).

I am not sure the hard deck even matters here. I mean, your hard deck is there to cut away your main and have enough altitude to deploy your reserve safely. In this case the reserve is already deployed, so I am not sure if the hard deck is really relevant. Keeping in mind that obviously the highest the better.

I jump a Sabre 2 170 loaded at 1.15. Even for the (relatively) low wingload, I have noticed some small differences, particularly flaring. But maybe it is more my feeling than reality. Besides this, I think it is a good idea to do that (pull down your slider and open the chest strap), just to have the habit and muscle memory for when you downsize (if you do it) and can benefit more from it. When done properly (clear of traffic with plenty of altitude, in this order: collapse slider, pull it down, secure it, release toggles, open chest strap) it doesn't do any harm.