lyosha

You mean cubic inches? Do any US retailers even carry paratec speed reserves?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/mounteverest/10664395/Daredevil-to-jump-off-summit-of-Mount-Everest.html Didn't Valery Rozov already wingsuit down everest?

You dont know anything about the professional reputation of the Master Rigger involved in the inspection of that rig. http://www.silverparachutes.com/about-us/ You might want to educate yourself. That is all fantastic, and I had no doubt that the lawyer would purchase the opinion of someone with a lengthy resume. It's just the way personal injury cases work.

I've had that happen to me before while putting a student rig on... not unreasonable that it would come off from a hard landing.

My $0.02: The rig was fine. The "FAA report" about it being "not serviceable" looked like a lawyer-bought hack job and shouldn't be taken as unbiased or even credible. For those that have never been in an accident that ended up in a lawsuit (I was unfortunate enough to be passenger in a back seat of a Taxi that got hit by a van that ran a red light), whatever evidence gets presented by two experts - one from one side that claimed that I am irreparably damaged with massive modifications to my lifestyle stemming from the accident, and the other that claimed that I didn't have a single scrape on me. The same is likely true in this case. So let me call it like I see it: 1. The equipment was fine. Premature openings happen. Yes, he was wearing well used student equipment, but (given my highly limited expertise) there was nothing in that FAA report of the wear that I saw that could cause specifically a premature opening. 2. Barrel rolls are fine. I had to do a few during AFF as a requirement to get an A license somewhere around jump #6. Using student gear. If I'm supposed to do it during AFF, I see no reason why someone with an A license should not be allowed to perform the maneuver using student gear after they have their A license, if they are current (which does not appear to be an issue in this case as this does not appear to be a currency jump). So the DZO claiming that Flores wasn't cleared to do barrel rolls goes in the bucket of stereotypical legal propaganda as that FAA report. 3. The GoPro is incidental. Yeah, people do stupid crap on camera. But from that video it seems that this wasn't the issue. This isn't the incident you're looking for to demonize GoPro use by novice skydivers. I'm sure there are much better ones out there, and by screaming "GOPRO" at this one I feel you are doing your cause a disservice. Novices will look at the lot of you, look at the video, see that it wasn't an issue, and dismiss your further, more logical arguments. 4. Flores is a nut. He had a panic attack, undid only one brake line and fainted. His own damn fault as far as I'm concerned. Even if skydiving wasn't a "everything is your own damn fault" sport, it would still be his own damn fault. 5. I find it hard to believe that his nuttiness was unapparent in his prior 30 jumps. Whoever the DZO is needs to vet the people he lets jump a lot better. It's not his fault that the guy fainted mid-air, but it is his fault for letting him jump at his DZ. Crappy that this happened to him, but I do field questions from friends and co-workers with regards to this incident and wish the DZO did more to prevent the individual in question from going up on that load. Feel free to crucify.

Thanks! Yeah, I've seen the soulflyers vid, which is what popped the question in my mind - anyone else doing similar with other tracking suits? Masai looks cool, but it seems to have less vents than the others. Wondering if that'll be an issue...

Which tracking suit do you guys think is the most versatile for a skydiving environment? Namely, one that you could do some backflying and acro in, and not just fly straight. I'm guessing it'll be either cruise of tube4 because they seem to be the only two with backfly inlets. Anyone have any experience with both and could share an opinion? Thanks in advance! :)

Got one of these used for $150. Updated firmware (VirtualBox + Windows XP 32 bit from piratebay + Polar ir sensor off ebay worked well). Alti-2 sent me a new battery cover to replace the chipped one for free. Great service. If I ever need to replace this thing I'll get another Neptune. Basically got me an almost N3 for less than half the cost. Customer service took a couple of days to reply, but were very caring and accomodative.

If you are a somewhat standard body shape, go used. Save $$ and use it on lift tickets.

Some people are true fanboys. Get a used rig in decent shape man. For the first container brand will likely make zero difference. Just make sure you get a rigger who knows his stuff to look at it to make sure there's nothing wrong with it. I will say this much though - as someone that recently went through the process you're going through, I eliminated the three containers you mentioned for being substantially more expensive than their competition for the same options, and thus, in my opinion, not as wise first-container investment as perhaps some other containers out there.

There are a lot of containers out there. Why zero in on those three out of the herd in the first place?

I almost bought a misrepresented used rig from chutingstar. Good thing I emailed UPT with the serial number, would have ended up spending four grand on something that would not fit me at all... Always do your due diligence. Even reputable vendors can get sloppy with information.

Based only upon my one balloon jump, why would you want to pack for a quicker opening? I would suggest just getting out at an altitude that after ~ 10 sec delay, you would be at the altitude that you want to deploy at. Just my $0.02, JerryBaumchen I'm not necessarily saying I would want to. I'm just curious as to what that would entail.

When I contacted UPT for information they told me their harnesses could not be resized. Replacement cost is $450

How would one pack for a quicker opening? I thought that usually people pack for slower openings...

Based on what I know about RFIDs, they're not the right tool for the job. Some sort of radio tracking would work better, and at least the transmitter should cost very little. The receiver... a little pricier. But maybe a DZ could own that. I don't know if this is enough of an issue for me to actively look into it though...

Wow, that's exactly the thing I was looking for...

When I was a student, there was a 16-17 year old who was finishing up his A license before me. I don't think he did AFF in USA, went to New Zealand for that, and just had to knock out some solos to get his jumps in for his A license. He did fine... had a couple of crappy landings in the process but we all did. He showed up to the DZ with his AP Chemistry textbook in hand :P In my opinion, since the risk of damage to other people in skydiving is relatively low, it should be up to an individual and/or his guardian to decide on an appropriate age. That having been said, I like my cars equipped with seatbelts and parachute containers equipped with reserves, so living in a "nanny state" isn't all that bad if you ask me.

Well, your choice of words was unfortunate. I didn't mean to come off as rude, and I certainly don't expect you to know anything. Lord knows I knew jack when I went on my first tandem... still probably do :P

Be careful with that kind of logic in this sport. How could you gauge dangerous vs. non-dangerous behavior within its confines without any knowledge of it? This sport has tail risk on a magnitude you cannot yet fathom. That means that adverse events in it are often highly lethal. Your parachute (and reserve) doesn't open? Game over. The only thing that keeps it somewhat safe to be a participant in, especially at a relatively low rate of information such as yourself, is that you are void of decision-making on your first skydive and there is someone highly experienced that does everything for you. I may only be a beginner in it, but through my own research, I can tell you that you don't want to be wearing a helmet when doing a tandem dive, and should opt for a frap hat (made of hard leather) instead. Hard helmets have a nasty habit of incapacitating that highly experienced ticket to a soft landing you are attached to. And cameras? Snag hazard. It is my understanding that you have to be ready to rip the camera off of your helmet in case parachute lines become tangled with it. Plus, they have a strong tendency to bring out unsafe behavior due to the "look at me!" factor. In general, any time you try anything new in this sport you have to give very serious pause to all the things that could go wrong, and what you would do in each of those scenarios. You have much, much to learn before you are ready to consider what kinds of behaviors are and are not safe, and what could go wrong. Simply put, you just don't know what you don't know. That having been said, find the exact person you will be jumping with (contact the dropzone months in advance, ask if they can set you up with a particular tandem instructor), and ask him if he would allow you to do ____ (whatever it is that you want to do). Be very careful not to pressure the individual. He is going to have to save your life in a couple of months - do you really want to pressure him into making decisions against his judgement? If he hesitates, tell him its okay to say "no, I won't do that". And if he says "no" without an explanation don't ask why. But maybe it will work. What do I know. But my gut is pretty adamant about telling you not to do it.

There we go, this is very helpful, thank you.

Perhaps. But at the same time, I would disagree with that statement. I'm not trying to rationalize anything away. I'm first and foremost trying to understand the amount of risk I am taking, and if I am not comfortable with that amount of risk I take action to mitigate it. Some decisions are black and white and easy to understand - i.e. the use of an RSL by inexperienced jumpers (such as myself). Others are less granular such as reserve size, and making the proper decision becomes a more personal issue often with a similarly valid decision one size smaller or greater that would not substantially impact an outcome. But you don't honestly think that I would be safer with a 109 sq ft reserve in my container than a 193? Or that I would pick a 193 just to make myself feel better about myself and not to mitigate substantial unnecessary risks? This sport carries an inherent risk, but not all behaviors within it carry the same amount of risk. That's why a disproportionate percentage of incidents a year are due to swooping.

Well, the reason why the relationship between square footage and weight and performance characteristics not being linear like everyone in this sport pretends it is is probably closely tied to us living in a 3-D world, but trying to correlate performance to a 2-D metric. But bypassing the "wrong answer to wrong question" philosophical conundrum, it would be nice to have some sort of data to make a decision based on, without having the opportunity to demo 6 different canopies. I can tell you my reasoning - that I'm shooting for much closer to the 200sf range than the 100sf, and if someone with a smaller parachute did okay at that wing loading, I'm in reasonable shape with the same wingloading at a bigger sf wing. ... and by "that wingloading" I don't mean 1.7...

Last year, this jumper landed unconscious under a PDR 113 loaded at 1.7:1. He sustained additional injuries on landing and the consensus seems to be that he was very lucky (landed in a field). According to his post, he is upsizing his reserve. ... damn. But it sounds like he was extremely fortunate to avoid serious health complications and had some extended time where he wasn't very life-useful... :-/

so you're comfortable with the idea of landing under your reserve with the brakes stowed at 1.16?