Martini

I have also had the Oxygen lens open, break and try to shred my face freeflying. I jump open face for all jumps anymore. I also have issues with fullface lenses while swooping, my oxygen distorts visuals enough that I think it it's dangerous. The only reason for me to use fullface at this point is if it is aerodynamically better for wingsuit maxed out flight. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Every jump I ever made with Flyingfishman. Especially a night two-way a few years ago, unbelievable holding a dock going full blast in the dark. A night jump at midnight new years eve from a DC-3 at Eloy. Every jump with the local birds. What a great flock. Wingsuit balloon jump in the desert on an S-3 that I only had 6 jumps on. My first wingsuit jump (GTI). I had never even seen a wingsuit much less seen one jumped. Totally clueless I exited a 182 at 11 K and instantly lost it in a high speed backspin. I recovered and had the time of my life. Later I ran into Francis the pilot, she thought it was hysterical. Welcome to the wingsuit world. My first GTI jump, S-3 jump (I passed the guy wearing my GTI like he was anchored in the sky), V-1 jump and V-2 jump. Watching the pilot watch me fly along with him. My several wingsuit choppers, cutaways tend to get your attention. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

IMHO: If you're gonna crash and burn ground launching then do it in the snow. Also no running involved and you get to slide out the landings. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I bought a used Racer in perfect shape that fits me great for $100. Then I tied down all the flaps and other useless stuff with pullup cords and attatched an old worthless daypack with pullup cords for a stuffsack. I still have the Racer reserve stuff and d-bag if I ever wanted to use the rig for skydiving again. Pretty? Not. Functional? You bet. And my invesment is still $100 and about an hour of work. I might add padding to the backpad for back protection but since I've only launched in the snow that can wait. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Do you have a rigger? Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Why use an inflatable tube which isn't pressure stable when a foam noodle would seem to work just as well without changing shape at altitude? Also a foam insert could be carved to a complex shape easily. I'm impressed that a seemingly small change in leading edge shape gives such dramatic results. I've been considering adding a triangular trailing edge to the arm wings to slightly increase surface area particularly near the body where it won't cause much arm strain and where the airflow is already dirty. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

QuoteYou could be stable head high with open arm and closed leg wings Yep you could. But getting stable on a wingsuit after being shot out feet first on your back from a spinning mal takes time and altitude (that's after you figure out which way is up). If you chopped nice and high then go for it. Getting a reserve out fast is my priority and has worked fine for me so far wingsuit or not. You're welcome to your method, I'm sticking with mine. And when asked I'll always recommend altitude over stability on a reserve deployment. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

One more item: Getting stable after cutting away a spinner while wearing a wingsuit is gonna be tough. Personally I don't even try. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I'd prefer reserve line twists over a reserve pc hesitation in general. Stable reserve deployments are overrated. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Because swooping your reserve is cool. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Please don't take this as an attack as that's not my intent but shouldn't you know what to expect before changing canopies? Why change if you don't have a goal in mind? Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Better chance of finding your reserve freebag/pc down low, no particular advantage of dumping high (outside of dealing with a reserve mal). Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I'm still curious, what's wrong with the streamlined stealth, they were recommended to me by a very respected jumper. I'm considering getting them so some comments would be useful. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

My mistake about the pressure at altidude, the website I looked at was incorrect and a further look verified your numbers, 1/8 atm did seem pretty low. I agree that time at reduced pressure promotes offgassing as long as bubble formation does not occur but bubble size, location and effect can vary widely. How did you arrive at a safe altitude of somewhat less than 8k? My use of 8k is based partly on looking at data and equally on intuition/experience. Not very scientific but we're talking about uncharted waters (pardon the pun). BTW this discussion is not just useful but as funny as anything I've heard recently; "why would anyone want to jump out of a perfectly good boat?"Thanks Tim. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Not to argue your points, clearly added decompression after diving is an added risk. But time at altitude is a factor. Riding in a commercial aircraft, even pressuruzed to 8000' msl, is a prolonged event. Riding a jump plane to 13k might be 20 minutes. BTW at 13k atmospheric pressure is around 1/8th atm. That is a pretty significant drop. Again lots of stuff to factor. My take has been to do a single dive to no more than 60' for an hour or so (most of my dives are deeper, longer and get into deco) followed by about a three hour delay before jumping.and keeping my jumps below 8k (shorter altitude exposure and a relatively low altitude). Of the many times I have done this I have had absolutely no apparent negative effect. I certainly don't reccomend that anyone follow my unconservative methods. Once again I have to state that doing this might prove fatal to someone else. Also I led up to doing this gradually, don't do it often and am aware that there could be hidden consequences. I'm mentioning this to illustrate the point that there aren't absolutes here and you aren't bound by all the naysaying advice. It is all very consertaive and that is as it should be. Very few studies have been done regarding flying after diving, none have been done about skydiving after diving. Learn what you can, make informed decisions and decide what level of risk you can accept. No you don't have to jump after diving but you might want to. No one will tell you that it's ok but that doesn't mean that it isn't. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Why not the streamlined stealth? Sometimes you eat the bear..............

My shitty swoops are less than 300' at 2/1. Not hooking so low and learning to use rears might help. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

[url]www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/articles/article.asp?articleid=20 I believe that the reccommendation for flying in commercial aircraft which are typically pressurized to 8000' msl is a 12 hour wait after the last no-deco dive. How you relate this to skydiving at 13000' is up to you. How long, how deep, how many dives, your risk tolerance, alcohol/drug consumption, physical condition etc. A lot of stuff to manage. 24 hrs is considered a good delay time, 19 hours might be ok too. Or not. I've made many jumps fairly soon after diving but manage the risk by managing my dives and jumps. But some think I'm using myself as a Guinea pig too. What works for me might kill you. There are no fixed rules here. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I'll pay for the jump ticket. Somebody has to step up to the plate here if Airbus won't. What kind of flowers does he like? Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Crossbracing is a program that lets you have a canopy that is smaller than what you had but packs bigger, should be easier to pack because it is smaller but really turns out to be much harder, has simpler construction (if it has non-cascaded lines) but is much more expensive and would have a really high cool factor except that most people don't know what they're looking at and the others don't care. But I like mine a lot anyway. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

We have a local flyer that always unzips his wings before pulling. He jumps a JVX eightysomething and throws very high. It's a trip to watch the routine. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

A lot of Infinity rigs here as they were built locally. The farther south you go the more variety there seems to be. I don't have anything against most newer rigs (some riggers might be better able to point out deficiencies) but I find my Infinities to be designed and built as well as any and better than most. Than again I don't get around much either. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

True but this problem seems more a function of loose boc's and poor pc packing. The slipperiness of zp can't be ignored though. As far as high snatch force goes isn't using a smaller sized zp pc going to achieve the same reduction as using f-111? I'm not a fan of f-111. It doesn't have the stability of porosity that zp has so it constantly degrades and needs to be replaced more frequently. It snags more easily. It seems to be used as a crutch to solve premature deployment issues. It certainly has gentler opening charachteristics (lower snatch force) but so does a smaller surface area of zp. Since f-111 is less slippery coming out of a boc a higher likelyhood of horseshoe malfunctions might be expected. Etc. etc. Apparently some manufacturers feel differently than I do and they are certainly more qualified to assess appropriate design materials. I'd like to hear their reasoning in choosing f-111. Sorry Wayne, we're way off topic here, a post in the BASE forum might get more response. I'm surprised at my lack of awareness of the apparent popularity of f-111 pilot chutes. Thats what happens when you live on an island. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I stand corrected, there are at least two manufacturers that use f-111 pc's as their standard issue. I can't imagine why Sunpath would reccommend against using a zp pilot (unless it relates to using a non-spandex boc) but they clearly must have a reason. I didn't find any reference to zp pc material at all on their website. Javelins aren't popular here nor are Microns, again no f-111 pc's here that I know of. As I mentioned the trend, if there is one, hasn't reached the fourth corner. More to the point is your question regarding the use of f-111 pc's for low speed deployments. Are there any advantages of f-111 over zp that aren't better resolved by venting? Even low speed/ low altitude jumps? Thanks Eric for moving this discussion to a more apprpriate forum. Sometimes you eat the bear..............