riggerrob 643 #26 March 12, 2015 The Dutch rules for new wing-shifters are common-sense. Common-sense in that most wing-suit manufacturers and instructors agree that they are good advice. Sounds like the Dutch standards are slightly higher than those written by WS manufacturers, but that is good. Local rules can always be higher than national rules. OTOH local rules should never be allowed to be looser than industry-wide best-business-practices. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DSE 5 #27 March 13, 2015 chemistDoesn't seem to be a necessary rule. Although I have heard of some people wingsuiting elliptical canopies, I think it would be extrememly rare to find a WS instructor to let a student do a first flight with an elliptical, rendering the rule obsolete. Unfortunately, you'd be incorrect in that thought. There are PLENTY of WS "instructors" that truly don't care, and recently I had one arguing with me that he was "endangering the student's safety by asking him to jump something larger than the 2.1:1 elliptical he was jumping, because he's not familiar with the bigger canopy." Seriously. We've recently seen a fatality of a man in a suit he shouldn't have been wearing. The suit didn't kill him, the "instructors allowance" didn't kill him; there are several links in those chains of error. But...having instructors following a standardized process (like the most-excellent Dutch, BPA, new CSPA, Australia programs) will help increase the safety mesh for new entrants into a discipline. FWIW, I don't care if you have 15,000 freefly, belly, or CRW jumps. If this is your first flight, you'll be treated like a 200 jump wonder. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
