Chris-Ottawa

We all know L&B has proved to provide phenomenal service, but I recently had the opportunity to deal with an L&B competitor and had a very similar experience. The first altimeter I bought about 6 years ago was a Neptune2. It worked flawlessly for me up until a month ago when I was at the DZ and went to check the time. I was shocked to see that the Altimeter thought I was at 8700 feet, then 4200 feet, then -840 feet, then 210 feet then 6300 feet etc... It was all over the place every second. I pulled the battery (twice), and it seemed to level off. I jumped the rest of the day while being skeptical of it's function. One week later, I was jumping again, and at about 4500 feet, I looked at my altimeter to see "Error 42 - Return to service center for repair". Crap! It was working fine just a couple minutes earlier. Continued jumping as planned without the Alti. So, thinking I needed a new Alti...I reached out to Alti-2 to see what options I had for trade up/repair etc. Barbara replied to my web ticket and told me to send it in for FREE repair or use it to take $100 off an N3. I would have loved to upgrade, but the budget didn't permit, so I opted for repair. I got it back about 3 weeks later, but it was not repaired, it was exchanged with a brand new Neptune 2 (likely refurbished, but it looks brand new anyways). Alti-2 has a new fan... I love my L&B dytter, but Alti-2 has certainly stepped up their game and I like it! Happy customer, happy review. Thank you so much Alti-2 and Barbara! "When once you have tasted flight..."

Wow, such a strong opinion. Please, tell us you have some concrete evidence to support your very confident sounding claim, or are you just relying on the propaganda and internet articles to base your opinion too? PS: Don't drive/buy a Toyota because they had a recall once and therefore they're all bad and will always be bad. To the OP: I jump an Argus in each of my 2 rigs. Works perfectly fine each time, I just had them both serviced this spring (great support), and they've exibited no issues, much like 99% of the Cypres and Vigil units out there. My logic is this. There are very few reasons any AAD should fire, even fewer of those would be completely out of my control (unconscious). If I am unconscious, and I bust the AAD firing altitude, what are the odds that I'll also have a defective unit? Even then, there is so much speculation over these defective units. Each incident had "suspicious" reasons for it happening. I'm a rigger and see how some people take care of their gear...I'd be willing to be that 75% of thes incidents could be traced back to poor gear care which impacted the AAD. All of this could just as easily happen with a Vigil or a Cypres. Anyways, jump what YOU feel safe jumping. If you're not confident in the Argus, best not to jump it. Just don't avoid it because some guys from the interwebz said you shouldn't without providing any grounds aside from their opinion based on some articles they read that really didn't conclude anything. PS: The argument that it is banned in some rigs can just as easily be reversed to say: Some manufacturers found no issue/concern and continue to offer their approval for it. Some of those manufacturere originally revoked their certification, but after testing/further details, they reinststed it. "When once you have tasted flight..."

1) Don't ship by courier (UPS, FED-EX etc...) , use Canada Post. Only "some" packages get taxes due to the sheer volume. Couriers will catch every one, and they have a massive "fee" to "handle" your package through their automated system. 2) There is generally no duty on the gear, you pay taxes on the claimed amount. Less claimed = less taxes. 3) "Warranty" repair only charges taxes on the "repairs" not the full amount. This is great to ensure the full product is insured, but minimal taxes. 4) Drive it across if you're near by. 5) Anything under $60 is not taxable if claimed as gift. But, no insurance... 6) LOTS of Canadians head south at various times of the year. If they bring it across and ship it from with the states, that would cut the border out of the equation. Of course, this is all tax evasion and punishable by law so...YMMV. "When once you have tasted flight..."

Pulling at 6k? Why not top floor? I do many jumps every season whene I open at 13.5 and jump float around. No safety issues, as long as the pilot and other jumpers know and plan accordingly. If you're doing a group jump (ie: 4 way or whatever) and want to open higher than everyone else, I can see a lot of concern there because there are likely other people behind you still in freefall. That's not good. Maybe hit up a little bit of a slower operating DZ to get your top floor jumps in? I generally jump at single plane DZ's, but I did several high altitude H+P's when I came down to Zhills for the Christmas boogie. At times, they had 4 or 5 planes running and it wasn't generally an issue. "When once you have tasted flight..."

Hmmm, one of mine just came back a few weeks ago. I wonder if I was a bad boy... I was repacking them based on the "End of 4th year" requirement, but it looks like you may be getting another one shortly. Thanks for alerting us! "When once you have tasted flight..."

I agree, 95% of your money will come back to you (maybe even more). It's like buying a house vs renting. Renting, you flush the money down the toilet, buying, you have an asset that you can sell when you need the cash. Put it on a credit card. You have 21 days without interest, and then you're only paying a few dollars a month whne you hold the balance. That gives you essentially 2 months for a "rental fee" of about $20. On the other hand, if you're on good terms with a DZ, it wouldn't hurt to ask them to borrow/rent some student gear or something. "When once you have tasted flight..."

Thanks? I actually thought it was a pretty lame story, but that wasn't the point of the post. Does anyone have the username "troll"? If not, can I have it? "When once you have tasted flight..."

This thread is absolutely brilliant. A bunch of jumpers (or should I say ex-jumpers as it seems) who have nothing better to do then be negative on the internet. No wonder why dropzone.com has so many trolls. It's like fish in a damn barrel...you hook one EVERY TIME. Really, be honest. He wants to make a phone call. Who the hell is he going to hurt if he puts an ounce of planning into it? I am much more afraid of some of the "old-timers" with thousands of jumps who can't fly their canopy worth shit, than this guy making a phone call on a hop and pop. Who cares about his motivation for doing it. I just have to shake my head and laugh at the nonsense in this thread. I took a camera my 34th jump and did a H+P at 10k. No one knew I had the camera, and I didn't ask for permission. I pulled my camera out of my jumpsuit, I took a bunch of pictures, did a selfie or two before it was called a selfie, and went on with my jump. Guess how many other jumpers I kiledl? I'll leave that question unanswered because you all know the answer. To the OP: Here's what you should do. Stop posting about this on dz.com. Go to your dropzone, tell them you'd like to try something and ask for their help to plan out some of the safety aspects of the jump. They'll either say no flat out, or they'll do like any real instructor would and help you do it safely. Done! Easy! "When once you have tasted flight..."

They use A-GPS. It's based off the towers using triangulation and a pseudo GPS to triangulate withing the cell tower triangulation. Doesn't work without multiple cell towers and being well above the towers. That's why it's inaccurate. This is also why cell phone GPS doesn't work without service. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS "When once you have tasted flight..."

I'm glad I was able to help you understand the risk. I've personally seen a jumper with over 2000 jumps, get in the plane without a rig. He was doing tandem video and was simply focused on getting his camera setup ready and totally omitted his rig. We all stared at him, not saying anything. The pilot even caught it and didn't start the engine as a result. Eventually he asked why we weren't moving, and one of the jumpers said "because you've forgotten something". The look on his face was priceless. The distraction is anything that takes away from the task at hand. In this case, a new jumper on a skydive. Move some of their focus to another priority and shit starts falling apart whether they realize it or not. Good luck man! "When once you have tasted flight..."

Hey man, I hate to say this as it drives me crazy too, but I'm not sure you're understanding what people are writing. They responded to your questions very clearly, and you're kind of blowing them off. It simply shows that you truly don't understand the risk. I'm going to explain it a little simpler here. "Forgot to turn on the camera" - Ok, there's no button to turn on your phone because it's generally always on. But what if you forgot to put your bluetooth earpiece in your pocket because it was uncomfortable for the plane ride up. This "distracts" you from the task at hand. Now you're thinking, shit, I have to pull higher to give me time to get that in before I can make a call. Then...bam...you've got a spinning mal that you weren't prepared for/expecting. Fact is, you can easily be caught off guard. Another form of distraction is the fact that you've gotta remember who you're going to call, what you're doing on the jump, what if they're not there, then who are you going to call. You're thinking about these things instead of thinking about the jump. You're distracted. I know you believe that you won't be distracted, but that's also why people die every day from distracted driving. The fact is you don't understand the risk and your posts show this. Here's another example. You go up, deploy at 10 grand to ensure you have enough time to make the call and whatnot. Awesome, you're talking to your best bud telling him how cool you are, then you hang up and guess what? You can't see the dropzone. Now your only option to land is in a busy downtown corridor because you talked until you were at 3000ft. now you've got 80 jumps and you're doing a demo into a busy downtown street landing with powerlines, cars, people etc. Distracted doesn't necessarily mean you're going to forget to pull or you're going to mess up, but the fact is, you will be focused on making sure you can make that call. I know you're already planning to do this, or have already and probably got some heat for it at the DZ, but you should read into the above posters a little more as the posts are helpful. If you want some genuine advice? Don't post this shit on dz.com as you'll just get flack. Talk to your instructor, and if they think you can pull it off reasonably safely, they'll give you some things to watch for, help you plan the jump and have at it. You probably came here looking for defence against your instructor that told you not to do it...they probably said that for a reason. One important detail...when I said to pull high...I didn't mean 3 or 4 thousand feet. I meant deploy right at exit. 15k, 13k whatever. That being said, these types of jumps have important considerations on their own, without the introduction of a phone call. You don't know what you don't know...Talk to your instructors. "When once you have tasted flight..."

Thought I'd pipe in here as I have some "mostly relevant" experience, and an opinion. 1) When I used to paraglide, I would bring my phone, connected with my earphones to listen to music. I was up one day having one of my best flights ever. At over 4500ft, my phone started ringing. I initially thought it was the song, but realized that the song had cut out for the ringer. I answered...it was my lawyer telling me that my house sale was complete. It was funny. He asked me if I was busy....I giggled and told him "kind of". I explained a bit later in the call and he laughed and said it was certainly a first. 2) It's interesting to see all the opinions on this, yet the swooping skygods that have their music blaring isn't even a concern. Not to mention the other gadgets that people bring on jumps. Personally, I don't think there's an issue if you're not stupid about it. Don't do it at a boogie with 3 plane fulls landing at the same time. Plan a jump where you pull high, tell the pilot & other jumpers, and have at it. I've made at least one phone call when I was a newer jumper, and I also brought a camera on my 30 or 40th jump, hidden in my jumpsuit. I did a high hop&pop (10k) and took some pictures. Not being stupid about it also constitutes the following: Don't do it all the time. Don't do it with other people in the air around you. Don't do it in freefall. Do it once you've got a good canopy and have done your checks. Don't do it at a busy dropzone, or on a super busy day. Use a handsfree setup for all kinds of reasons. Plan the jump, let others know the plan. Don't chat all the way to the ground. Make s quick call, tell/show your friends how cool you are and hangup, refocusing on the task at hand. PS: There's never a "reason" to distract yourself in the air. You do it out of curiosity (like I did), or to show off to your friends/family. It's certainly not the brightest thing to do, and shouldn't be done until you have some experience to understand the risks. That being said, I'd be a hippocrite if I said I didn't do it. "When once you have tasted flight..."

Numbers are awesome, but there are tonnes of other reasons why someone (including myself) would buy something other than the top suit on paralog.net. If your only criteria is having the #1 suit...then that's a fantastic resource. I had my own criteria for my next suit, and making it to even the top #100 spot on paralog.net was not even a remote consideration. It's a fair point to display those numbers for people who might be developing their own requirements for a suit. Unfortunately, what I gathered from your post is probably the opposite of what you intended to prove. Sure, I can see that an Aura hasn't performed as well as an Apache (yet?). But I also see that a Phantom can beat a Vampire or an S-Bird and there's only one explanation for that. Pilot skill. This fact alone almost makes the data on that site pointless if you're using it to choose the next biggest baddest suit. Unfortunately, my post really didn't discuss performance for this exact reason. I wanted to avoid the banter. I instead focused my review on the things that mattered to me...customer service, responsiveness, quality, delivery times, desired suit performance etc.. To each their own... "When once you have tasted flight..."

Thanks SM1! I didn't even consider that. I figure it would get more visibility here for the same reason that I didn't even think of putting an actual review. That being said, I added one now. Thanks again! "When once you have tasted flight..."

I can see that I probably wasn't the only person to wonder what the correct measurement would be. I was told that I should simply measure to the base of the "boys". Years ago, I had ordered a Kurupee suit and measured it "snug". It was certainly snugger than I had anticipated and I didn't want that same mistake on a wingsuit. "When once you have tasted flight..."

In order to give everyone the option of reading the lengthy post below, the paragraph directly below this sentence is a very condensed summary of the the rest of this post. There's a lot of hype around Squirrel wingsuits right now. People are saying that they're the highest performing suit, the best built suit etc. The point is, if you're in the market for a new wingsuit, DO NOT exclude Squirrel from your choices. Their customer service is matched by no one (except maybe L&B). The entire process was very easy and I cannot begin to recommend them enough. Simply put...Squirrel should be at the top of your list if you're in the market. Because the summary above does not fully complement the effort Mike/Matt and the rest of the Squirrel team put in, here's the detailed version. First of all, I want to assure you that I am just some random guy that recently ordered a Squirrel suit. I have absolutely no affiliation with Squirrel, I am not being paid or getting a discount from them for posting this, and I am doing this of my own free will. This is simply me expressing my genuine satisfaction for a company that has earned the recognition. Pre-Purchase/Exploratory Questions: Prior to considering sending my money over to Squirrel, I had a bunch of questions. I used Facebook as a medium since I find companies are pretty responsive to Facebook. To my surprise, the responses were coming directly from Mike Steen & Matt Gerdes and this was nice to see. They were responding to my many questions very quickly. Since they are a new company (publicly anyways), I wanted to know more about the suit's material and available (or hidden) options. I also asked about performance in specific disciplines of interest, why this, or why that etc. All of my questions were answered fully, quickly and to my complete satisfaction . During the Order process First of all, I wanted to say that their ordering process is quick and simple. Just a couple measurements, a couple clicks and your credit card company love you! Haha. During the measuring process, I once again had questions. Mike Steen was there again to respond. Simple questions like when measuring my crotch, do I lift my pants up to my dangly bits, do I push the dangly bits to the side, or do I measure it right from where my pants hang. It's these simple questions that can be the difference between getting a suit that fits, and having something that simply doesn't fit. So, the suit was now ordered and Christmas was fast approaching, along with new years...why do I mention this? Because it would delay my suit...or so I thought. Shipping & Delivery Suit was Ordered Dec 1, 2013 Suit was paid for Dec 2, 2013 Suit Arrived Jan 13, 2014, 1 week BEFORE the estimated date. That's 6 weeks...including Christmas and New Years. I was a bit angry at FedEx for leaving my suit alone, unattended and in the cold on my door step for 5 hours while I was at work, but I was thrilled to get the suit. Thankfully I live out in the country and it's nowhere near as bad as the time another courier left a restricted handgun at the front door of my condo in the city... Anyways, I ducked out of work early to get home and try the suit on. Opening the box, the suit was packed nicely in a bag, and a little bag of trinkets was included. I gently pulled the suit out and instantly noticed the VERY HIGH quality of the suit. These suits are built in the same factory as Ozone paraglider wings, and you can tell. The stitches are laser precise and ultra clean. The suit is incredibly well made and feels very durable. The little bag of trinkets included a couple stickers, some warranty/disclaimer type cards, a Squirrel club card (20% discount on follow up orders!) and a Squirrel pullup cord. Nice! It didn't fit!!! After trying on the suit with my rig all hooked up, I thought the arms were a bit long so I got in touch with Squirrel via Facebook again. Matt and Mike were both there again helping me out. They determined that the arms did look a little long after reviewing some pictures. The booties were also too small to fit around my feet. I'm fairly certain the arm length was my fault, and the shoe sizing was a simple mix up. Matt assured me it was no big deal to fix and asked me to send the suit back. I thought...damn...it's gonna cost me $100 to send this back insured; when I got an email from Mike. It was a pre-paid shipping label. This simple thing is what completely won me over. You simply don't see companies doing adjustments/repairs out of their pocket, along with paying return shipping. Just WOW! The suit was sent back on a Monday, and I had it was returned the following Tuesday. I though "Damn...FedEx messed up and returned the suit to me". Nope...it was adjusted and returned in under a week. Once again...I was stunned. The willingness to complete the repairs, along with the shipping is the type of customer service only paralleled by L&B. This is fantastic. The suit performance I'm not going to bother talking about the performance of the suit because you can't explain that to someone and I prefer to avoid the DZ.com banter if I did. The fact is, you've seen the videos...it's an incredible suit. From me...the suit flies great, has wicked pressurization, feels much more stable than an Apache, and a little less stable than a Vampire 4 (due to it being a much different suit). Fact is, I love it even though I only have 4 jumps on it now. I'm looking forward to many, many jumps in this suit. A huge thank you to Mike and Matt for all their help and putting up with my questions. You guys went way beyond the minimums and this has earned you the best review I could write up. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll dominate the industry (more than you already are). I've seen a HUGE spike in wingsuit interest and new wingsuiters up here in Canada. I've been wingsuiting for 5 or 6 years and I've never seen more than 3 jumpers in one place here in Canada. Now, I show up at the DZ and there's no less than 8 or 9 people with suits on any given day and new students graduating from the new wingsuit school at the DZ this year. There is no doubt that Squirrel has contributed to this with their marketing and awesome suits. Seriously...Squirrel is doing things that are rocking the skydiving/wingsuit/BASE worlds. They deserve your business and I cannot stress enough how pleasant and smooth the whole process was. Mike, Matt & Team....a HUGE thank you! PS: If it was in the budget...I'd happily take you up on the frequent flyer program. Unfortunately...the wife disagrees. That being said...when I'm ready for another suit, I won't mind paying full price for this top notch service. I should also mention that Squirrel wasn't the only company I spoke with and asked questions to. I was interested in 2 suits primarily, Squirrel and another well known company. I sent messages to the other company and replies were spotty at best. Eventually, they just stopped responding. That sealed their fate in my books. Squirrel was just getting better and better, so they got my business. Customer service means SO MUCH to many people. I won't just give my money to the first company that makes X or Y suit. That's all for now...

In order to give everyone the option of reading the lengthy post below, the paragraph directly below this sentence is a very condensed summary of the the rest of this post. There's a lot of hype around Squirrel wingsuits right now. People are saying that they're the highest performing suit, the best built suit etc. The point is, if you're in the market for a new wingsuit, DO NOT exclude Squirrel from your choices. Their customer service is matched by no one (except maybe L&B). The entire process was very easy and I cannot begin to recommend them enough. Simply put...Squirrel should be at the top of your list if you're in the market. Because the summary above does not fully complement the effort Mike/Matt and the rest of the Squirrel team put in, here's the detailed version. First of all, I want to assure you that I am just some random guy that recently ordered a Squirrel suit. I have absolutely no affiliation with Squirrel, I am not being paid or getting a discount from them for posting this, and I am doing this of my own free will. This is simply me expressing my genuine satisfaction for a company that has earned the recognition. Pre-Purchase/Exploratory Questions: Prior to considering sending my money over to Squirrel, I had a bunch of questions. I used Facebook as a medium since I find companies are pretty responsive to Facebook. To my surprise, the responses were coming directly from Mike Steen & Matt Gerdes and this was nice to see. They were responding to my many questions very quickly. Since they are a new company (publicly anyways), I wanted to know more about the suit's material and available (or hidden) options. I also asked about performance in specific disciplines of interest, why this, or why that etc. All of my questions were answered fully, quickly and to my complete satisfaction . During the Order process First of all, I wanted to say that their ordering process is quick and simple. Just a couple measurements, a couple clicks and your credit card company love you! Haha. During the measuring process, I once again had questions. Mike Steen was there again to respond. Simple questions like when measuring my crotch, do I lift my pants up to my dangly bits, do I push the dangly bits to the side, or do I measure it right from where my pants hang. It's these simple questions that can be the difference between getting a suit that fits, and having something that simply doesn't fit. So, the suit was now ordered and Christmas was fast approaching, along with new years...why do I mention this? Because it would delay my suit...or so I thought. Shipping & Delivery Suit was Ordered Dec 1, 2013 Suit was paid for Dec 2, 2013 Suit Arrived Jan 13, 2014, 1 week BEFORE the estimated date. That's 6 weeks...including Christmas and New Years. I was a bit angry at FedEx for leaving my suit alone, unattended and in the cold on my door step for 5 hours while I was at work, but I was thrilled to get the suit. Thankfully I live out in the country and it's nowhere near as bad as the time another courier left a restricted handgun at the front door of my condo in the city... Anyways, I ducked out of work early to get home and try the suit on. Opening the box, the suit was packed nicely in a bag, and a little bag of trinkets was included. I gently pulled the suit out and instantly noticed the VERY HIGH quality of the suit. These suits are built in the same factory as Ozone paraglider wings, and you can tell. The stitches are laser precise and ultra clean. The suit is incredibly well made and feels very durable. The little bag of trinkets included a couple stickers, some warranty/disclaimer type cards, a Squirrel club card (20% discount on follow up orders!) and a Squirrel pullup cord. Nice! It didn't fit!!! After trying on the suit with my rig all hooked up, I thought the arms were a bit long so I got in touch with Squirrel via Facebook again. Matt and Mike were both there again helping me out. They determined that the arms did look a little long after reviewing some pictures. The booties were also too small to fit around my feet. I'm fairly certain the arm length was my fault, and the shoe sizing was a simple mix up. Matt assured me it was no big deal to fix and asked me to send the suit back. I thought...damn...it's gonna cost me $100 to send this back insured; when I got an email from Mike. It was a pre-paid shipping label. This simple thing is what completely won me over. You simply don't see companies doing adjustments/repairs out of their pocket, along with paying return shipping. Just WOW! The suit was sent back on a Monday, and I had it was returned the following Tuesday. I though "Damn...FedEx messed up and returned the suit to me". Nope...it was adjusted and returned in under a week. Once again...I was stunned. The willingness to complete the repairs, along with the shipping is the type of customer service only paralleled by L&B. This is fantastic. The suit performance I'm not going to bother talking about the performance of the suit because you can't explain that to someone and I prefer to avoid the DZ.com banter if I did. The fact is, you've seen the videos...it's an incredible suit. From me...the suit flies great, has wicked pressurization, feels much more stable than an Apache, and a little less stable than a Vampire 4 (due to it being a much different suit). Fact is, I love it even though I only have 4 jumps on it now. I'm looking forward to many, many jumps in this suit. A huge thank you to Mike and Matt for all their help and putting up with my questions. You guys went way beyond the minimums and this has earned you the best review I could write up. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll dominate the industry (more than you already are). I've seen a HUGE spike in wingsuit interest and new wingsuiters up here in Canada. I've been wingsuiting for 5 or 6 years and I've never seen more than 3 jumpers in one place here in Canada. Now, I show up at the DZ and there's no less than 8 or 9 people with suits on any given day and new students graduating from the new wingsuit school at the DZ this year. There is no doubt that Squirrel has contributed to this with their marketing and awesome suits. Seriously...Squirrel is doing things that are rocking the skydiving/wingsuit/BASE worlds. They deserve your business and I cannot stress enough how pleasant and smooth the whole process was. Mike, Matt & Team....a HUGE thank you! PS: If it was in the budget...I'd happily take you up on the frequent flyer program. Unfortunately...the wife disagrees. That being said...when I'm ready for another suit, I won't mind paying full price for this top notch service. I should also mention that Squirrel wasn't the only company I spoke with and asked questions to. I was interested in 2 suits primarily, Squirrel and another well known company. I sent messages to the other company and replies were spotty at best. Eventually, they just stopped responding. That sealed their fate in my books. Squirrel was just getting better and better, so they got my business. Customer service means SO MUCH to many people. I won't just give my money to the first company that makes X or Y suit. That's all for now... "When once you have tasted flight..."

I wouldn't throw something out there that I couldn't back, because then I would look like an idiot. I'll even compare Matt's shitty exit (Let's be honest, that's what it is, not that my shitty exit is any better - we all make mistakes) with mine to show why he doesn't understand what caused the "roll" as he called it. That being said, for such an experienced wingsuiter exiting with his back/side to the wind like that...it doesn't lend him as much credibility as you give him. His exit was on a smaller suit, exiting on his back/side and because he recovered quicker, he's better and I'm terrible. That's the best part and proves that he doesn't understand that our exits weren't "nearly identical" as he put it, and my exit certainly wasn't a "roll". So, if I go put on my P2 and recover quicker than him, does that make me better now? If Matt was in my identical scenario (and of course didn't expect it), I'd bet that his recovery would be just as long, or longer than mine. That being said, the "time" it took is irrelevant unless we're comparing the size of our packages. "When once you have tasted flight..."

You know, it's funny. People that know me in person don't think I'm an asshole either (well, as far as I can tell anyways). The problem with the first few posters was that they were either repeating what I had already said, like it was some sort of revelation, or their advice was moronic, considering that I'm jumping an Aura. If I was on a P2...totally different. If we were at the DZ tomorrow and you asked me (pretend I'm your coach for a second), "how do I swoop", and I told you this: "So, to swoop, you need to steer the canopy. To steer the canopy, you need to use those yellow handle like thingies. The left one makes you turn left, and the right one makes you turn right". Considering you have 300 some odd jumps, would you be a little insulted that this person is trying to teach you how to do something you learnt in your first few jumps? Every piece of advice posted early on in the thread was like this. If they didn't post dumb advice, I would have given them more respect, but telling me to present into the wind more. Yeah, I NEVER would have figured that one out. Experiment for you: Go walk up to Jay Moledski next time you see him. In a very serious conversation, explain to him that he needs to work on his front riser technique because it's inadequate. If he doesn't get defensive or snap back at you (or laugh and walk away)...then maybe I was wrong for doing so earlier to the others. Fact is, don't insult someone and think that they're going to respond politely. Respect works both ways. Also, Just in case you didn't notice the tidbit I added at the bottom of my last post, I wanted to draw your attention to it in case you're curious to know more. "When once you have tasted flight..."

I've actually explained why I felt the jump numbers were irrelevant in previous posts, but now that my jump numbers are posted, there was no value added as I suspected. No one wanted it for the value of the thread or the incident, they wanted it to crucify me if I wasn't up to their requirements in jump experience. As for the question everyone missed. I'm pretty sure a couple people saw it at the least, and rest assured that if there was ANYTHING in there that they had on me, you can bet your ass that I would have heard about it. There's not a chance in hell that something that easy would go unresponded to if it was able to take a jab at me, the noob. So, sure...maybe The111 didn't see it, but someone did. Still, no one has addressed the question. Coincidence...I think not. Oh, and just to ensure you understand, Matt (The111) doesn't actually understand what caused the spin and I can prove that. Just because he's a friend, doesn't mean that he knows what he's talking about. "When once you have tasted flight..."

Honestly, I don't have enough jumps on the suit to tell you anything you probably don't already know if you've had a chance to read Squirrel's marketing material. I'm just too new with it. That being said, I'd recommend asking Bludhow or JBag. They have fewer jumps than I do on wingsuits as a whole, as well as fewer on Auras, but they are much more skilled pilots according to their posts in this thread. They can certainly help you out. (Note: This was not by any means a snarky response to you. I am taking digs at Bludhow and JBag from earlier posts in this thread) "When once you have tasted flight..."

Interesting...I have to respond to his post, but he doesn't have to respond to the question I posed to him first? You don't see a flaw in that logic? Is this the way you normally talk to people too? Ignore their questions, but demand answers to your own? "When once you have tasted flight..."

Haha, nicely said. I think the thing that drives me so crazy about this whole thing and why I'm persisting is that the focus was on me. Not for the jump, but for the fact that I refused to share my jump numbers. The sad part is that newer jumps DO come here looking for advice, and when they see things like the utter shit in this thread, put there by seemingly highly experienced jumpers, they think that there getting good information. Unfortunately, what they don't realize is that this whole thread is nothing more that a dick comparison contest between other inexperienced wingsuiters (not necessarily everyone for those that dwell on minor details). This is why I'm frustrated and keep trying to instill some common sense into these "experienced jumpers". I still love that I took the facts in this thread, put them in a single post, and not a single person in the thread will take the bait and prove me wrong. It's absolutely great to know that I'm right. "When once you have tasted flight..."

Sorry man, I didn't catch the sarcasm and I am certainly on the defensive because the nonsense in this thread is actually upsetting that these people believe what they're saying. Your post sounded just like the other posts in the thread that make no sense. Knowing now that it was sarcasm...makes complete sense. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this whole thing is ridiculous though. It looks like 3 people now have some common sense in this thread. I made a mistake, I admitted it and shared the video. Now people are telling me that I'm ignoring their advice to "exit into to wind" or "exit upright because it changes the relative wind". Really? Do you even hear yourself? I even took DSE's relative wind thought offline with him. He responded with the same info as in the thread, which I unfortunately cannot make sense of. Then he flips out and refuses to try and explain it to me. So, the one piece of advice given early on in this thread that might have some merit, I try to further understand and DSE can't explain it in one attempt, so he freaks out and refuses to try any more. If it was really that good of advice, I am interested in hearing it, and it's unfortunate that he's not able to explain it in a way someone can understand. Anyways, thanks again for seeing the reality in this thread. As for your jump numbers, I got them from the thread we chatted through in December (with Bludhow and JBag who were trying to pretend to be one of the big kids in this thread). When you strapped on the Apache (same difference as the Aura), you had 212 jumps according to your post. "When once you have tasted flight..."

And then the guy with 212 wingsuit jumps jumping a mattress comes in to show everyone how big his balls are too. This gets even more hilarious. Please be quite and allow hjumper33 to share his wisdom... Go on hjumper33, the floor is yours. "When once you have tasted flight..."