Divalent

Was it an actual "snag" of something on a naked-mounted GoPro, or mostly a problem due to the high profile of the camera protruding out from your helmet and taking a blow from contact with someone else's body or rig? IOW, would it have survived if you had a mount or a deflector that keep material from being able to "grab" the camera? I made a deflector for my gopro (picture attached) out of InstaMorph moldable plastic that should prevent lines and risers from hooking the camera around the mount. It might be some help preventing detachment from a blow against area above the helmet, unless the contact was only with the camera body itself.

Coincidentally, in a video linked to in another thread, there was segment of something that looked similar to what the OP might have experienced: an AFF student with two instructors, the main side pulls for the student, the PC goes up, pulls the pin, and it looks like the bridle is taut, but the bag doesn't come out. Reserve side reaches in and yanks the bag out. Note: the link gets the video going about 7 secs before the segment starts, so you have time to make the ad disappear before it begins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfTex1HCib4&feature=youtu.be&t=3m55s

I find it more interesting that they weren't looking up. It looks like the game was in progress as they landed. Was this a bandit demo?

Or read the description on the video itself. oops! My bad. I watched it again, and although the guy is mostly obscured behind the observer in the foreground, it does appear that he jumps up and grabs the cable, pulling it down at his location and causing the movement into the rotors.

Actually, the length of cable coming down from the tower gets sucked into the blades by the draft of the chopper itself. You can see right before it goes that it starts jostling a bit (which apparently spooked the camera guy enough that he high-tailed it), then all of a sudden it flies towards it. (it's quite clear if you step if frame by frame)

Maybe not so safe a bet. http://youtu.be/-l4pywdqvK4?t=2m50s 111 fatalities, but 185 survivors. Since the plane cartwheeled, I suspect many of those survivors owe their life to having been belted in.

And a stand-up landing, too! (It took me 7 jumps to finally do that. ) Congrats. (Now sign up for all the overtime at work that you can handle )

Although I'm not a wingsuiter, the wording of option C leaves a lot to be desired if your aim was to measure their existing awareness of the importance of leaving with your wings closed. OTOH, it is properly worded if your intent was more to educate/remind them of what they should do (which is probably a better thing to do). I say this because option C alludes to a bad consequence of failing to keep the wings open, but (for example) option B does not. For example, if you instead used these options for B and C, I suspect a lot more would go for something other than C: B: Maintaining stability during exit to minimize the possibility of entering an uncontrolled spin. C: Keep all wings tightly closed.

My bag has 3 grommets on the flap, and I use the larger rubber bands double looped to close them. It then also has 2 sets of 3 rubber bands on the sides for stowing additional line (which don't go through grommets) and I use smaller bands just single looped. Once I've stowed through the 3 larger bands, I've gotten below the cascades, so the line bundle thickness a lot less. visually, the diagram below resembles a view looking down on the top of my D bag, the numbers are stowing bands, in the order I use to stow the lines. 1-3 are large bands double looped, 4-9 are small single looped. -----2-----1-----3---- 4---------------------5 6---------------------7 8---------------------9

I thought this was kind of a fun one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdEQhAP4tPE someone's boogie compilation.

Right now you probably don't know exactly what you need, or want. And probably won't for a good while. So at this point, IMO better to get something basic and inexpensive until you know what you want to invest serious money into. Altimeter: get a Altimaster Galaxy (used would be fine: check the classified here), just like the ones you were issued to use as a student. Simple, durable, proven technology, and very reliable. And it might be the only altimeter you will ever need. Later you might decide you really need a digital/electronic one, but even then you will probably always want the have this in your gear bag as your backup (when batteries fail, etc). (~$160 new, ~$100+ used) You won't have "buyer's regret" getting one of these. Helmet: Start with a Benny or Protech: inexpensive, reliable, functional, durable. (~$40) You are unlikely to be making a fashion statement with them, but, even when you move on to something 5-10 times as expensive, you will have a servicable backup. Then as you get more experience in the sport you will have plenty of time to investigate what will be right for you (looks, color, style, etc) without feeling like you have to make the right decision now. Again, you're unlikely to "buyer's regret" getting either of these (or if you do, not a huge $ loss).

In "Predictably Irrational", the author Dan Ariely used his own use of this product to describe the power of the placebo: he actually thought it benefited him, and used it whenever he flew (and believed it helped him). After learning the maker paided millions to settle false advertising claims, he wised up. It's just vitamins. Take it if you want expensive urine.

LOL! I bet you're now sorry you asked. I count over 50 bios you "should" now go look up. IMO, it's way more important for us to know, for example, how our 3-ring works then to know that Bill Booth invented it. IOW, the knowledge they uncovered, the lessons learned, the techniques developed, etc, are what are important. Which is not to say that knowledge of the history of the pioneers in the sport (or the current list of top swoopers, etc) is necessarily uninteresting and/or without value, but it's more of a cultural element of the sport.

Boy! Do they EVER love students at Eloy! You've heard of a inflatable toy dive, eh? You know, where a couple of jumpers jump out with an inflatable whale or shark or raft, and they have fun wrestling with the thing in free fall? Well at Eloy that have this thing called "a student dive"! The link below is to a video of one. Doesn't it look like fun? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwK8zwf3Leg&t=1m02s

Remember to breath *out* after you breath in. (seriously)

And for completely different reasons: - Ted Nelson - Sangi

Well, technically, it's "30 minutes or more." And it's for the "average indiviudal." ... Kinda like LD-50, the standard for lethal doses of poisons or medications. Different individuals will have different tolerances. Some higher, some lower. More importantly, these are estimates for an individual who is acclimated to sea level. Even one day at an intermediate altitude will extend the range that can be tolerated. There are short term (~1 day) and longer term (~ several days +) processes that are involved in acclimation. A Floridian who intends to hike/camp in the mountains of Colorado would be well advised to spend at least a day in Denver before hitting the trail head. I wonder if DZ's in Colorado and other elevated places have an acclimation policy for flat-landers who show up. I mean, if they go to 12,000 ft AGL, that would be > 17,000 ASL. For a local, that is probably not an issue to do without supplemental O2, but for someone who just flew in from the coast, it might be risky.

You know, maybe you should strap on that altimeter during the day so it is always there to keep reminding you that you are on a mission. (Set to 0 ft AGL, of course!) In any event, keep posting. Good luck!

No sir. If that was a pull-out, ... I think this image shows it is throw out.

Here is a online great primer from USPA: http://skydiveschool.org/ That should occupy you for many hours.

It's a jump done in the southern hemisphere (about 50 degrees south of the equator). That's what it looks like down there.

If you don't yet have one, just have him put the window on the opposite side of the bridle. (That is, on the side the pin is attached to, rather the normal position on the side opposite the pin.) And as Brian said, if you use his method of folding the PC, you'll know if you are about to pack a collapsed PC.

Ya, my point was not so much directed at the problem, as at the question as posed. It seems to be a problem that threatens the discipline, and the solution to eliminate it (yet still allow wingsuiting) is almost certainly education/training/emphasis in one form or another. Maybe various FFCs need to increase the priority, emphasis, coverage, and practice of proper exits, maybe just sticky-note reminders by the door will do, or maybe a combination of those and other strategies (like a publicity campaign to make the issue more prominent in the minds of existing wingsuiters). And maybe also a component of the solution is a stardardized curriculum to ensure that all wingsuiters get proper training with proper emphasis. My interest in the issue is only as a fellow jumper interested in ensuring there are planes to take me up for my non-wingsuit jumps at a price that does not reflect a risk I have no control over.

Okay, I'll bite: EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! (Their level of experience is irrelevant.) They either 1) did not know proper exit procedure in a wing suit, or 2) were incapable of doing a proper exit despite their knowledge, or 3) did not know the importance of doing a proper exit every single jump in a wing suit. (Note: I'm not a wingsuiter and don't really have an opinion on the proposal.)

This is not correct. Some try to get your money by doing something like sending you a check for more than the purchase price (and having you send them back the difference before you discover that their original payment was all phony) and others try to get your stuff by making it seem like they paid for it and get you to hand over the goods before you discover the payment was phony. In the latter scam, either you are shipping to an untracable "rent-a-mailbox", or you deliver the stuff to a third party (who likely is an innocent go-between duped into helping the scammer) as a way to prevent you from tracking down the stuff after the fact.