Di0

yeah, but the hell does PD know about canopies anyway... I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Take it from a guy that doesn't have a huge experience but did have A HUGE anxiety initially. The obvious advice jump more and it'll go away is certainly true. But I'd also say to try cranking multiple jumps a day, maybe it's better to jump less days but with more jumps than more days with less jump/day if that makes sense. Even now I have 300 jumps and I'd say I conquered my anxiety fairly well, but on the first jump of the day I still have that feeling like "I forgot something". Once you've done enough jumps, the first jump of the day will go as well as the others, but initially that awkward feeling and extra anxiety might keep you from performing well, so it's good to "cheat" by doing 2 or 3 jumps in a day and focus on the feeling on the latter ones. Also, since the season is over, you can try reading "Transcending Fear" by B. Germain. It's a good book, it helped me quite a lot honestly. I didn't like the parts where it gets too "zen and Buddhist and shit", but the description of the psychological and physiological aspects of fear and stress, why we experience them and how to mentally deal with them are really really good and useful. If you need some help dealing with your "inertia" of not jumping at this point and extra motivation, an excellent book is "Above All Else" by Dan B.C. Reading this book was extremely rewarding to me and helped me figure out what I really want from the sport. Just throwing stuff out there... My 2c. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Eheh, I notice somebody changed the website to be more clear about the type of mounting that will be available. With that being said, I put some thought into it and I am pretty sure I'll buy an aero in the near future (as soon as I am less broke lol), it really seems to me like the most complete full-face helmet out there at the moment. Thank you for the review and the info, I wanted to read something more about this helmet since it was announced. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I'd say unplanned rather than unintentional. :) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I like my openings on Safire2. Out of 250 jumps, I've had only 2 hard openings. One was a fairly hard opening, got tunnel vision for a couple of seconds, hurt a bit but no bruises, so it wasn't even that bad. That was probably from packing. Another one was more like a weird-ish opening, quite hard to start with but seemed on heading for an instant, then 720 degrees while sniveling, tossed me into multiple line twists. Probably body position, though, as I was moving away from a student about to dump his reserve, so I pulled when it was safe to do so, rather than waiting to be in a nice attitude. And even so, it wasn't really that bad. The other 248 openings have been quite smooth, generally around 8-900ft snivels, with a 1200 ft snivel, the longest I've had. I like it a lot, overall. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

You said you have about 70 jumps, right? Maybe I am wrong, either way... http://www.skydivemag.com/article/20130828-c-is-for-camera-and-common-sense Since you keep writing how important the opinion of Dropzone Safety Officers should be on this matter, rather than just sheer numbers, let me introduce you to something written by Brian Burke, who is one of the most experienced DZ Safety Officers in the world. His opinion is quite clear. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Good for you, just make sure you're not on the same load as me or same DZ, because if I know, you wouldn't be jumping with it. C'mon, guys, it's 200 jumps: it takes two seasons without even jumping your asses off to reach them. 200 jumps on which you can focus on other skills and on improving your situation awareness. 200 jumps in which you can work on your post-deployment routine, for example, which a lot of people with hundreds of jumps still don't have. 200 jumps in which you can learn to actually have a dive that is worth filming, rather than 3 or 4 people waving at each other from 200 feet because they take 7 grand to get to a round and the only shots you can get is a bunch of crotches, legs and arms on exit and then maybe a good aerial view of your DZ. Over and over again. When you say you'll jump a camera before 200 jumps, it makes me think you want to do it just do go against the rules because "fuck the system!". How many jumps? 150? 170? You mean you really want to have an argument instead of waiting an extra month that it would take you to do the 30-40 jumps? Also, when you say that a DZO/STA should be in charge of making these decisions, let's say that in Ideal world it might be true but realistically it's impossible, because people travel, because DZO/STA often don't jump with many fun jumpers and are busy either being DZO/STAs or doing working jumps. They would need to take a decision based on pretty much what you and other people tell about yourself on the ground? To make it short, it would be no, with maybe some rare exceptions. Hence, the general rule/guideline, which by the way is NOT 200 jumps, but a C-license (which requires 200 jumps minimum, but also a couple of other things). I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Do you even work out, bro? I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I would totally do that if it was the reserve PC in tow and my last chance to save my life, sure thing, it's pretty much your only option at that point. But my main? F-that, there is another perfectly good parachute (hopefully) on my back, I would use it. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

As a new coach, I wouldn't want my student wearing booties with me, unless I get confirmation from an AFFI that he's been using them already and he is ok with them. Not because there is anything wrong with flying with booties since early in the game, but more because, if used improperly, they could put me to a "challenge" I am not up to. There are dives I wouldn't want you to start using them (i.e. wearing booties when trying a "swoop and dock" for the first time is probably a bad idea, but if the students wants to try them very badly, maybe I would be ok when doing forward/backward or level adjustment, that I am pretty sure it would be just fine, as long as he knows how to fly straight with them). So that being said, my advice would be: get your license without them, finish what you're doing and then switch to them, early if you want to. If anything, because it does take 3-4 jumps to "adapt" to them, it's not bad or sketchy (as other people said, it's not a big deal) but jumping while on student status is more "expensive" than doing it once you have your license, so priority wise, I would say get your license and then start playing with these things at your own pace and without having to worry about other stuff, don't change things while still progressing on learning new skills. My $0.02 of course. That being said, I find flying with booties extremely rewarding and, in a certain way, addictive. I wouldn't go back to do any sort of belly work, whether 4 ways, big ways or coaching, without them. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Please, don't give out wrong information. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Anything that is a solid chuncked piece. I particularly like to be point on a sidebody. I generally like to be point a lot. Or a launching a compressed, I only tried 2 and 3 way compressed but they are definitely a nice challenge and very rewarding when they work. But really, any exit that you can turn on the hill puts the biggest smile on my face, how could anyone not love it!? :D I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2010/02/01/head-gear/ I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Can you? Sure. Nothing or nobody will stop you, but you are going one size or even two below manufacturer's recommendations. The way I see it, the closing loop is only half the picture (although it's probably the most apparent one), but also how the thing will fit in the tray, how your canopy will stay in a overly large bag and how the bag will get unevenly compressed by the flaps when you close it with a super-short closing loop to make it tight, especially on Mirages, Vectors etc. where the closing loop starts from the top of the container. I am not a rigger, so maybe somebody else will chip in, but I expect this to be a good recipe for hard or weird openings, out of sequence deployments, increased chance of lineovers etc. Would it work? Yeah, "probably". I would do it if I was demoing a canopy for a weekend or trying it out a friend's canopy for a couple of days, sporadic hop and pops, etc... sure. But I honestly would not recommend to do it for my everyday rig, the one to jump all the times many times a day. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

My 200th was a bailout at 3.5k because we got caught by a thunderstorm. Talking about something unusual. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Personally, I think that the biggest motivation in skydiving is to have some goals and work toward achieving that. Skydiving for skydiving's sake, you get that done with your first couple of solos, when you get to do "backflips and shit". But then you realize how expensive, time consuming and energy draining skydiving is, not just the money aspect, but the long drive, entire weekends at the DZ, not hanging out with your "normal" friends, etc. You start asking yourself for what. You said it, it looks like you hit a wall. You need goals. Have a look at the sections of this forum to get a few ideas, talk to you instructors (which personally I still consider "my instructors" even after getting my license and coach ratings myself), ask experienced people at the DZ. Ask-ask-ask. Look at what people are doing and ask questions about what they are doing. Talk to the most "respected" skydivers around the bonfire. Ask them if they want to jump with you the day after. The license merely opened the door for you, but now you have to walk the path yourself. Whether you want to build an Relative Work (RW) 4 Way team, become one of those "Big Way Guys", fly a wingsuit, a videographer, become an instructor yourself, be a CRW Dog, or one of those swoopers that flies rocket-ship canopies. There are so many disciplines that add another dimension to skydiving. They all have their competitive aspect, if competition interests you. Personally, competition (at any level, from the dream of taking part at the USPA Nationals to the little friendly competitions, scrambles, etc. that the local DZs often organize) is what pushes me. Be honest, don't cut corners and do what you need to do to get there. Some people are happy doing gorilla exits and backflips and shit and big rounds that work once every blue moon for the rest of their skydiving days. And that's perfectly fine. Some people get bored of that and need some goals to keep working toward. That's great. Some other just decide that the payoff from skydiving is simply not worth overall. That's good too, be honest with yourself. If when you throw yourself out of that damned door, looking at your jump mates diving after you, moving to your slot, you don't find yourself thinking "right, that's why I do it", then don't do it. You're still one of the very few people in the world that had the balls to get a license and could do it if they want to. :) I was lucky, my instructors are big RW people so they showed this to me after my AFF level 2: http://youtu.be/67oOZ1LJ708 This is one of the best RW team in the world and that was the moment I decided, ok that's what I want to do. Some people with hundreds of jumps don't even know what competitive RW is because they never got "exposed" to it. I was once dirt-diving a 4 way jump on the creepers in the hangar, when this student approached asking "can I ask what are you guys doing?" - I briefly explained him that we were doing a Relative Work jump and we were "going to build" those figures in that sequence in the air, he got instantly interested, I told him to talk to the instructors about that. He is now going to create a collegiate team to compete at the collegiate nationals. How can it get better than that? 270 jumps later I am working toward that directions and to build those skills with almost every jump, looking for people about having our own team, organizing little 4 ways, and even if I now am 1% where I need to be, and probably 0.01% compared to a pro RW team, I know I didn't waste money and time because I build something working toward that and nobody can take it away from me. I went from being the guy that "screws up the jump" (and don't worry, we've all been through that, but if you show good attitude and desire to learn, most people will keep teaching you because the license is the bare minimum to skydive without killing yourself, there is more to it) to the guy that get asked to jump by people organizing big ways or days before doing 4 way with people with thousands of jump people will ask me to jump with them. The guy that had to be helped and "beaten" in a 4 way jump to stay in the slot, to the guy that is able to assist a less experienced guy flying another slot. I still have such a long way to go, but they - I feel like I am moving in the right direction so I keep going. That is in itself an accomplishment I am actually very proud of and I owe it to my curiosity and to the help I received at the DZ by tons and tons of people. People that used to give honest but often blunt feedback, I always respected it, accepted and worked to improve what I could, one thing at a time, are now the people that say "you did a fucking great job on that jump". Don't be afraid of feedback and keep asking what you can do to improve. Learn to stay away from bad advice and figure out the people you can trust (this is very hard to do but also VERY VERY VERY important). For any of the disciplines I mentioned (and probably many more I forgot), you can get good instructors, coaching, mentors and build relationships and friendship that will last years. You'll know people, you'll get to create your own "myths" and living legends in the sport. Then you'll randomly and casually meet them at the bar of a boogie, talk to them, jump with them. It's awesome, it is a sport where even the "super-stars" are often still relatively "accessible". It's a hard, long, at times frustrating and expensive journey, but I consider it totally worth it. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

What makes you think that it would be more reliable than a cutter? It would still fail, it would just have different failure modes. Not saying it's a bad idea in itself, simply that you wouldn't know until you stress test it. But it doesn't seem to be that it would be necessarily better. Now, if I understand your idea right... One problem I see, it's simplicity of installation: if you want your device to hold the pin, then it would need to be somehow locked to the bottom of the tray, either by sewing or other methods. This complicate the device installation and removal, and also it would require some work to be retrofitted in existing reserve trays. One of the nice things of current AAD+cutter design, is that they can be taken in and out in literally a matter of few minutes (beside the normal reserve repack time, of course, that's a different story), with no modification to the container except for the two sleeves for the cables and display and the little pouch for the control unit. I honestly can't think of a simpler and more effective design. On the other hand, the fact that I can't think of it, doesn't mean that it's not possible. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Yes, it is important to me because if you didn't tell me, I would have been waiting to buy this helmet with a "gopro sidemount" that would have never happened. I agree with the idea that there is no safe way to mount a camera in the end, that's why I am doing my homework and trying to figure out the safeish way to do it, or at least the less risky, and understand the risks that I am adding. As for compromising the shell, yes, I still believe that two holes drilled after the fact do compromise the shell, especially if it's made of carbon fiber. And especially if you then put a nice hard object ready to hammer that section of your helmet. I'm an engineer and I'm quite anal about this stuff. The idea of eventually using the sticky mount on the Aero is what I am considering at the moment. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Thank you for the detailed answer, that makes a lot of sense and I needed the extra explanation, I am a newer-ish jumper trying to figure out what camera setup would work best for me, I needed some info to think about and I didn't think about a few points you made. Good stuff! In that case, I'd recommend re-writing this section of the website: http://www.boneheadcomposites.com/m8/102--aero-full-face-helmet-new.html The way I read it, it specifically says that GoPro side mounting WILL BE possible. This is not true and confusing. It made me assume that go pro had the possiblity to flip the picture by 90 degs. I was wrong. As to why I would prefer a side mount to a top mount, my points are basically 2: a) I don't want to compromise the shell of the helmet. The way I understand it, side mounting can use the plates and not compromise the helmet structure. b) (not sure about this, but it's my feeling) I'd rather have something stuck in my risers, which means the canopy is probably at least partially inflated than in my lines, which means the canopy is probably not inflated. It should give me more times to deal with it although there is probably more force on your neck at that point. That's why I am, at this stage, partial to side mounts (although, in all honesty, I have been asking to many experienced camera fliers and they all seem to prefer the top mount, gopro or not gopro). Although at this point, since Countour is pretty much out of business (actually, just recently came back with new ownership, but no new models on the horizon etc), the next best bet for side mounting would be the Sony AS serie. But there aren't many mounting for Sony AS's out there, unless you build it yourself. So long story short, if you want an up-to-date camera on a full-face and you're lazy, like me, you're "forced" with gopro and top mounting. Nevertheless, I still think the aero is, on the paper, the best "low profile" full face out there at the moment and I was very happy to read your review. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

The other guy probably Laid low after the case. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Excellent review, the helmet looks sick. I have a couple of questions, maybe some folks from BH will be able to answer. First, I have seen on the website that in the future they will offer the option to mount the gopro on the side too (right now they only offer the side mount for the countour). I would be interested in this option, if that doesn't mean cutting 2 holes in the helmet shell, but using the metal plate instead? Any idea on how this will happen. Second, what is the material used for the padding? Overall, it's such a badass helmet. BH does great products and I am trying to decide between this and the REV2 based on what uses I will do the most. But this seems better suited for me, I'll buy as soon as there is a way to mount a gopro on the side without altering the shell. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Generally speaking, I find very despicable when people try to involve students in DZ drama and arguments. Seriously, I hate that. For a bunch of good reasons, first because nobody really cares about your drama, really: it's not as important as you think it is. But more important, when different groups are involved and maybe instructors are divided, you are going to force the student to take parts, whether you're doing it consciously or not. That sucks, because a student will have to jump with several instructors and don't get much of a choice, but by playing that game you'll weaken the trusting bond that you need, either on one side or the other, you'll create awkward situations. As an experienced jumper, it's different because you can choose who to jump with and who to like, but students should not be dragged into these petty things because they'll have to work with everybody at some point. And even as an experience jumper, I found DZ clashes of egos extremely boring. So as long as people don't do anything wrong to me (and it hasn't happened yet), I want to stay away from these things. You have nothing to gain from these things, unless you dig these dramas and you want to be part of it (again, depends on personalities, some people love drama and simply can't stay away from it). I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Uh? Say what? I've been to several DZs (not many, I admit, but almost every DZ in New England and a couple outside of it) and I've never been refused a go around when asked to. Even though I am relatively low experienced and relatively low jump number, nobody ever made me feel bad about asking a go around. Doing only RW I am often in the first group leaving the plane and if I am spotting for my group, sure as hell I am spotting. If I can't see the spot or I don't like the one I see, my group is not leaving the plane, easy as that. A couple of times, people later asked me why I didn't leave or had the plane do a go-around, but it was more out of curiosity than blame. "Because we were completely off" - "Fair enough, good job". Yeah, people get impatient, some my start yelling you to go, but it's more because they think that you did not see the green light, when I yell back "I can't see fucking shit, but you're welcome to leave before us", they generally stop. It's not the responsibility of the LO to check the spot for every group, as far as I know. Theoretically every jumper should check the spot, now when you leave in a medium to big way it's impossible to check for the divers, but I expect the people in my group to check. And people actually do it, also because nobody really likes to land off in New England. I have 250 some jumps, not many ok, I landed off only twice and in both case it was totally my fault/mistake and not a bad spot. But I've seen many go arounds. So if people are too lazy to check their spot, they shouldn't blame the DZ or the pilot that occasionally will make a mistake and he's relying on the jumpers to double-check with their eyes to help each other. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Oh. And I forgot to mention. Customer service goes out of your way to help you. Just to clarify, I am very happy with my N3, it's an extreme complete unit that does, well, everything. Being an engineer myself, I know that this always mean extra complexity and so it's harder to diagnose. But the fact that you can theoretically use it in its basic form without ever pressing a button on it, it's quite priceless to me. I'll shoot you an email tomorrow with more details, but in the meanwhile thank you for your offer to help! It is extremely appreciated and I love the fact that you stand by your (great) product. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

So, by your method, if every time you jump you have a 1% chance of dying, then the probability of dying in 100 jumps is 1% x 100 = 100%? To illustrate why that's wrong: What are the odds, when you flip a coin, that you get heads? 50%, right? So if you flip a coin twice, what are the odds that you get heads at least once? (Hint, it's not 2 x 50% = 100%.) Good example, in this case it's easy to show, all the possible scenarios are: HH TT HT TH So the chances of getting at least one Head are, of course, 75% *. It's still true the intuitive concept that "the more you jump, the more you risk", i.e. the chances of getting at least ONE HEAD (mmhhh. LoL?) for a high number of toss will quickly approach 100%. * As a generalization, if I remember statistics correctly, this are masochistically ** independent process, so if you have "remove" the chance that they both happen at the same time, which is what you do wrong when you sum them, in this case the 3/4 comes from: H(1)+H(2)-H(1)*H(2) = 1/2+1/2-1/2*1/2 = 3/4. Something along those lines. Hover this doesn't really apply to skydiving, where you only need to die once to stop the winning streak. *** EDIT: That's self-correction but I am going to leave it that way because it's awesome. I meant to say "stochastic" I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.