Unparagoned

I think the key issue is what you consider as safe, and what is an acceptable risk. You could be killed in a car accident does that make driving a car not safe? Most people would say driving is quite safe. They are saying even though there are risks, that these risks are not that great, using this view skydiving is "safe" to them. The limit between something being safe and not is completely arbitrary and varies from person to person.

I would agree, although I`m not sure how valid my opinion is with my limited experience. Next time I'm at langer I`ll let you pack for me so you can see for yourself

It is best for the writer to put in a little more effort so the reader can be lazy because lots of people read the post compared to just one writing it. Basic rules such as using capital letters, sentences, and paragraphs are very important because it allows the reader to read naturally, few words at a time, etc. People who don't put capital letters at the beginning of a sentance confuse the brain and makes reading much more of a task, and makes skim reading near impossible.

One reason not to jump in high winds is that a downwind landing is going to be fast. My friend who has a similar number of jumps as you had a long spot made it back but didn't have the hight to turn into wind and had to land downwind. So if you tend to biff it on no wind, I guess downwind would be even worse.

For us in the UK, www.multimap.com is good and has a pretty good resolution

You mean a little like this http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2235

The analogy doesn't work because driving 5mph may be more dangerous than 10mph. A better analogy would be that you are driving away from maniacs trying to kill you. You are about to drive over a bridge which is opening up(like in movies), so driving 5mph over means you are less likely to clear the jump, but driving 10mph over the speed limit means you are more likely to make the jump and survive the landing as you do have airbags. You could risk going 5mph over. Lets assume that you are right and we should not change our cut-away limit. What safety benefit does the skyhook provide you? From what I can tell is the skyhooks only safety benefit from a low cut-away.... (Ok the skyhook would give you an extra 150ft under canopy but you should have enough hight under your reserve anyway). To put it in more prospective with made up numbers, say at 500ft someone goes through your canopy, you have a 75% chance of surviving by cutting-away with your skyhook. You have 60% chance of surviving by just pulling your reserve. What many of you seem to be arguing is that if the skyhook doesn't work or whatever it may cause you to die whereas by just pulling the reserve you would have lived- this would happen to 15% of people. Yep so 15% of people who rely on their skyhook instead of just pulling their reserve will die. But if you get some overall perspective then you will see it is safer to use the skyhook in this situation.

but the non-reversed riser did not malfunction in this way, That article is 7 years old, does anyone know if the reversed risers pdf now uses has the same problems and the ones tested?

I did it and liked it because it was cheap & had that unstable exit, which everyone loves. The unstable exit is amazing because the exit is fun and it is the first time you have some real free fall time.

Is it possible people had the main before this jumper and put hundreds of jumps on the canopy?

Wow that looks very fun.

Lines stretching will reduce the opening shock as force is required to stretch the lines, & the lines stretching would spread the impulse over a longer time reducing force.

It may be a valid argument that music distracts you, but I think the extent is important. The argument is true with cars as well, listening to music makes a you a worse driver, but most people still listen to music in their cars. How many people do you know will not listen to music/radio while driving because it is a distraction? An article in new scientist showed that dyslexic people have slower reactions than normal people, on par with someone moderately drunk. Should we ban them because they pose a risk to us and themselves? Your allowed to drive after one dink or so, even though it will make you a bad driver. There are many things in life which increases risk, but it is important to try and gauge the magnitude of the risk and see if it is worth it. I don't have enough experience to know if music would be much of a distraction.

I was about to post on how cold it was today. My hands and nose are still sore from the cold, and my last jump was over 5 hours ago

I hate you. We have only got about 10 people to do a jump I'm from the University of Nottingham skydive club, anyway see you at valentines meet.

I know I have asked about it but that is a good point to bring up but my situating is unique.

The money is probably to cover the cost of design, testing, etc, I don't think the actual manufacturing of the product would be that great.

There is no expiration date on them so they will be good for years to come :) If for some reason they don't get used it will be not a real problem in my unique situation. Well you need to buy 50 tickets minimum to get the most heavily discounted price.

Hi, my local drop zone is offering a special low price discount this time of the year. So if you buy the tickets in bulk they work out £3 cheaper than buying them individually. I think it would be worthwhile buying as many tickets as I can afford now to save money in the long run. The only real disadvantage I can see is if I lose the tickets... are there any other disadvantages I have not thought of? And am I right in trying to buy as many tickets as I can?

Sounds interesting. I would love to come but the damn banks won't increase my overdraft and my credit card companies won't do give me a reasonable limit either. So being a poor student with no money to fly over to the US, would you be able to record(audio or video) the lecture and stick it on a website for me to download?

They are mandatory for people with an A licence

I'm the treasurer of the University of Nottingham skydive club.(UK) The club is quite good, we got about £2500 so far and hope to get another £1000 or so for ticket subsidies, reserve repacks etc. We have 4 rigs, although 1 is a 190 CREW rig which is too big to do CREW with, and it not suppose to open that nicely from terminal, although I can't see how it can be any worse than our merit.... But I'm not going to complain, beggars can't be choosers.

Well I find the opening of the PD210-15years old, very soft, although when it takes over 1000ft to open it is a little anoying.

Well the PD210 I jump atm, is a soft and usually long opening-depending on how you pack it. I wouldn't say it is fast at all. But it might be because it is 15 years old...

What about the odds of getting killed on your way to work(car accident, or so...) The odds of losing your life in this example is pretty low. So low that if you replace the example with just say you have "p" chance of dying for $100 million. Then consider you have 'p' chance of dying going to walmart to get your shopping. Everyone takes risks doing trivial stuff, but because the risk is so low it is not worth thinking about. Well some people do think about it but they don't go outside. Note I pulled these probabilities out of my ass but I believe they are both so low you can consider them the same. I just don't see how the odds of dying in this example is going to be anything other than tiny. I would do it as long as there was enough clear ground for me to land.