BMFin

But it's not this particular one where he flies "3 meters from the ground passing two skiers". I am looking for this one!

If you mean those jumps made in Mali, they were hardcore. Im pretty sure those guys broke some swet while climbing If im not mistaken theres more to come next week...

I see your point, but lets remember that there are huge differences in soft handles between different manufacturers. IMO the handles in new mirages are way more safe than some other mfg´s handles might be. I couldnt twist my reserve- or cutaway- handles hidden even if I wanted to. I think good handles are stiff and fat.

Would you / Do you fly a bigger canopy when attending a swoop contest.

So, at swooping contests, a lot of people will fly bigger canopys than they normally do ?

Yeah... Drinkin beer BIG TIME !!

Try this

One guy from our DZ called Jussi Laine has jumped with his bicycle. Hi landed it too ! He jumps with all kinds off different gadgets all the time and he has never dropped a single item exept one ukulele in hawaii. He has never had a reserve ride either. BTW. Check out his photos here in DZ.com they are awesome.

Good point. And it applies to many other things also. IMO those people who are always asking WHY are a lot better off than the people who just do like the others do...

Yes. I know normal doesnt mean safe. But In my opinion our wingloading culture seems pretty safe. Also, Generally we have much more strict skydiving-regulations in Finland comparet to US. (to a degree it sometimes almost seems like a joke to some of us.) To some degree we have canopy training included to our student program. For example we have to land in to a 10m circle 10 times to get our licence. We also have additional canopy training for free, but thats optional. about 20 % of new jumpers will take part. I will also try to take part to this additional training this summer, wich goes for 3-4 days.

Yes. When you have velcro toggles you get this problem. The best way to avoid it is to buy velcroless toggles. You can also try to not leave any of the line between the velcro hairs. When it gets too hairy just change the ends. The ends of the steering lines are easy to change and does not cost so much.

That is exactly the type of guy who will kill himself. 50 jumps and 1.3 on a 120 canopy. Remember him from another thread (dead man walking) where he claimed he was perfectly safe under this canopy because he stood up on most of his landings.... This is exactly the reason why I tend to agree with Ron. I disagree. 1.3 after at my level is VERY normal here. That is the wingloading our instructors advice us to have at our level. We have much more aggressive wingloading culture here, but im pretty sure we have no more accidents then in US (maby less). Now I do not know why would we be able to fly smaller canopies sooner. It could be our student program. (takes avg. 60 jumps to get our licence.) It could be something else. If you can come up with some Accident per jump and Incident per jump numbers we can start to compare. You can study some of our statistics from my earlier post in this thread.

How do you know if a pair of sunglasses is snugg enough ? I havent jumped with sunglasses but I would imagine that they could easilly be problematic in Sitfly if they dont sit tight in your face.

155 exit weight. Wingload around 1.3

What are the over all jump per fatality numbers in US ?

If anyone is intrested here is a Accident / Experience chart from finland. Choose page 20 !

Weel I have donwsized from 280 to 120 in 50 jumps. No problems here.

Anyone know the "jump per fatality" rates in US ? (preferrably from more than 3 years time)

Here are the fatalities in Finland for the last 12 years. Choose page 22 Im pretty sure none of these fatalities is due to a hook/low turn. Check it out. EDIT: the reason why I posted this is becouse some people have suspected we have a lot of incidents becouse of our downsizing culture...

This is a question about the effects of liberal policy..

Okay I have visited about 25 different countrys in Europe only. And Yes ! It is true that you really can see alot of drug users in DAM especially around the Central Train Station and around the Red light district. But the reason is that Amsterdam gets a huge amount of tourists attracted by the coffee shops. I also admit that there are many hard drug users in the red light district, But there is a reason for this also. In Holland you can test the purity of your drug in a laboratory for free (cocaine, extacy, Heroine..) anonymously and noone will arrest you. This is to get the bad shit out from the streets. Due to this a lot of people addicted to heroin come to Amsterdam because they can have a longer life this way. They can test their stuff and they wont have to be afraid of going to be sentenced as long as they are not selling. It is not the Dutch you see using drugs in Ams. Its the foreigners Also please remember that it is just a lot more visible in Ams then in other places. In other places people have to do it hidden..

Im glad you took this example about Holland. I also have been in Holland and Sweden many times. In holland people use much less cannabis than in the U.S. Dutch ministry of traffic (im not sure about the correct term of the ministry) did a study together with the dutch ministry of health about cannabis usage in holland compared to US. Now we all know U.S has VERY hard policy on drugs. You can get sentenced BIG TIME for posession in US. And as we know holland has the most liberal policy on soft drugs. They made a query on people over 12 years and among many other questions they asked these: 1. Have you ever used cannabis ? 2. Have you used cannabis in the last 12 months ? Question 1 : Dutch 34% YES US 54% YES Question 2: Dutch 3.5% YES US 5.5% YES YES a county that has no legal restrictions on cannabis uses less cannabis than a country that has propably the most Strict policy. This just proves the law of the forbidden fruit. I would belive it also applies to downsizing too. I would definetly give people more resposibility. They respect these issues much more once they understand its only up to them selves.

In Finland We have limits that allows us to jump these canopies @ 1.34 max if we have less than 250 jumps.After 250 we are only regulated by peer pressure. In other hand this is a good system, but on the other hand this seems to lead in to a situation when every new C-licence holder buys a canopy loaded @ 1.3. Most people here dont seem to remember that this is the maximum we are allowed. It is not the ideal for everyone just got their C-licence. IMO Some people can handle it @ 1.3 after 50 jumps and others cant... Those who cant, should realize that they cant.. But they wont since they seem to think: "Im safe as long as Im playing by the rules." Im talking about C-licence because we have a different system there also. We get A-licence after 6 jumps. B-licence after 30 jumps and C-licence after 48 jumps (if there is no need to jump any levels again.) After C-licence we are ready jump on our own. (this is IAD system. We also train with the AFF system but it is also different than in the US.) Also it tends to be so that after 250 people will immediedly buy a stiletto loaded more than 1.3, And thats not good always either. As I said some can handle it some others cant. About this system: 1.1 100jumps 1.2 200jumps . . 1.5 500jumps I wouldnt like that too much. Since I truly belive that there are a lot of people who can safely jump higher Wingloadings sooner.. It would not be fair to make the rules by the weakest link.. The big question is : Where to draw the line of safety ? Since we can never prevent every incident from happening unless we stop skydiving completely.

Thats not really possible with the Gath since it has so thin lining.