yoink

I'd quite like to jump your rig next time, would you mine jumping mine? It'd be rude for you not to jump it, right?... don't worry about the crossbraced 105 that's in there. I'm not. Solid logic, right? You jumped a Go-Pro because you wanted to. That's all there is to it. You pushed the limit a little but that doesn't really bug me that much - we've all done it a time or two. Coming back and bragging about it, while stating that the arguments on here are what were distracting you rather than the camera still shows that you've got a juvenile outlook to the whole thing though. Let me ask you this. If someone with 80 jumps came up to you at your DZ and said they wanted and were ready to jump a camera, what would you say? Why?

Still trolling I see... Good job jumping a camera a little ahead of the recommendations. I'm sure you got a hard-on by what you see as proving everyone wrong. Congrats. Don't feed the troll, folks.

quality reporting from the Daily Mail, as always...

I agree with you, I have no idea why he came for advice if he knows whats good for him. It's not just the downsizing that's the issue. Honestly, it's a dumb move, but someone with the right attitude might be able to get away with it... The problem is that the OP has displayed an extremely juvenile and dangerous attitude - 'fuck you all, I'm right' is not someone you want to be in the air with, regardless of what they're flying. Regarding dz.com never advocating aggressive downsizing - you're right. In an environment where you have no idea about the skills or attitude of the person posting would you really suggest a course of action that seriously increases their chance of an accident? If so, that's a problem with you, not with this board. The only thing we can go on is what a poster puts up here. From this thread we have arrogant, argumentative and with questionable judgement. All of those are huge red flags for someone who is asking to buck the normal method of canopy progression. This thread ran its course a long time ago, but this 'don't ask on DZ.com if you want to downsize' thing that's been mentioned a few times really bugs me. It's like saying 'don't mention that you're planning on getting loaded and doing some 1/4 miles on the way home while you're at work...' Just because you'd get called a jerk for that doesn't mean they're wrong.

Absolutely! How dare she change her mind over the course of 5 years! Anyone who changes their mind about stuff in so short a span of time obviously has questionable morals!! Far better to make a decision and stick with it. Even if it's the wrong one! Sorry. I can't lay the sarcasm on any thicker than that. Maybe someone else could try.

Sweden tends to be more... thorough, lets say () about some aspects of skydiving. The mandatory downsizing gates are another example of more applied rules than many other countries have. I don't think it's a bad thing, but I don't think hanging harness drills are necessary for students, or even for re-currency. Great if you can get it though.

The hypocrisy and irony of her actually typing this after being shown in court that one of the CQS members had set up an automated complaint call which was responsible for 90% of the complaints the airport received is epic.

That's just bullshit. You know as well as I do that what prompts reactions like this are when people are making stupid decisions but are displaying arrogance when justifiying them. The 'I'm exceptional', or 'I understand the risks' argument just doesn't hold water. You've made some pretty questionable decisions about your canopy choices in the past if I remember correctly, and weren't exactly receptive to those comments at the time - even though you'd just been giving Sangi the exact same advice. Maybe that's colouring your perspective about the feedback possible on the board. I can think of several threads in the last month about people wanting to downsize inappropriately which didn't end up like this one. Again - it's the attitude which brings on the shitstorm. That's a learning point.

Your experience sounds normal to me. I certainly didn't go through hanging harness cutaways as a student, and only got the most basic orientation to the gear. Look at it this way - most people can only absorb so much information in a certain amount of time so they teach you what you need to know. If you want to know more, ask. If they start refusing to explain stuff to you, that's when I'll doubt the quality of instruction.

Just so you know, I met my wife through online dating. She was my 2nd date and I was her first and we dated for 4 years before getting married a year and a half ago. It can work. What we both realised is that it greatly depends on which dating service you go with. Friends who go with free services generally have much less luck than those who use a paid service. Equally, not all paid services tend to cater to equal demographics. You might have much better luck in one than another. As you've also figured out it's important to keep control of yourself. Don't be more of an asshole just because it's online, or super-picky because you've got several contacts in a day.

You just wish you had the mad skillz. I'm surprised it took him that long.

*Puts hand up I had to google it, and I have A-levels in Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience. Acronyms are a bitch.

You do have to admit however that times have changed slightly. Whether we like it or not we live in a period which is much more aware / paranoid about the possibility of deliberate terrorism, and instructions are much easier to come by on the internet than it used to be. I can certainly see that if ANY student brought in a bunch of electronics with a counter attached to it and then refused to talk about it with a teacher then that would set alarm bells ringing. Was the response over the top? Maybe. But what if it HAD been a bomb and some kid had just blown up a school after showing the device around and nobody said anything - the outcry would be a hundred times worse than it is now. At best the kid made a dumb error in judgement. I did similar when I was his age. I'm also not discounting the possibility that he deliberately wanted a prank or attention - again, because I did the same when I was younger.

I remember this coming up at the time of 9/11 and being discussed in detail by some experienced BASE jumpers... the consensus at the time that I remember was that there was virtually zero chance of the system saving people due to air currents, packing requirements, landing areas etc etc. In theory I have no problem with the concept, after all a cat-in-hells chance is better than no chance at all. That said, the biggest issue I have is that none of the people selling these solutions sate just how remote a chance it is, or at least they didn't last time I looked. The marketing was capitalizing on the fear of 9-11 and touting an expensive and unreliable system to gullible punters.

And as a massive generalization, between a DZO and a tandem instructor who do you think probably has the deeper pockets?

I agree. This thread is worthless and only exists to mock those with faith. It's pretty pathetic - doubly so off the back of an accident that's killed 107 people. It should be locked.

They prove to be wrong too often if you do that. Gotta give yourself some wriggle-room for doomsday prophecies, man! Otherwise you'll never be able to shift the goalposts...

Operator error is my bet as well. Either the crane was in use when it shouldn't have been, or the supporting structure wasn't engineered properly. From memory isn't there a 50kph limit on tower crane operation unless otherwise specified by the manufacturer? From what I've seen on the interwebs (so it must be true!) Mecca was getting sustained winds of around 40kph that day. It's not hard to believe they got some big gusts...

The only additional advice I'd give is don't buy gear assuming you're going to have lost weight over the winter. What if you don't? Do you really think you wouldn't jump that 190?? I don't... and that'd put you up somewhere near a 1.3 wingloading - pretty dumb. Lose weight then buy gear, or buy gear that's suitable for you now. If you're planning on not jumping much over winter it makes a lot more sense to focus on the weight loss, then take a some rental jumps while you pick back up in spring. Going in cold onto a newer, much smaller canopy is a really bad idea.

Yes. In fact they're more different than they are similar. To my mind, PD kept the Sabre badge just as a marketing gimmick. Here are some threads to get you started: www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=502962 www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3814780 www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2812372 www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1863902 www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2367170 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2852970 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1928549 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3723108 ...

Your limited understanding of the technical challenges is showing. It's not all about the rig, not is the placard all there is to gear testing.

Getting out of bed. Sit up. Pull something in my back. Lie back down. 'boss, I'm not coming in today...' Getting old sucks.

That's unusually lazy of Skydive Mag... they've just reprinted the article wholesale without any editorial about applying it to skydiving.