20kN

I know an experienced WS jumper who went straight to reserve on a jump as he could not get to his main. He was demoing a large race suit, he took it too steep and he lost control of it. He got spun up pretty fast, felt like he was going to pass out and he was unable to get to his main so he went to his reserve before he passed out. I know of another case where someone went straight to reserve because he couldent pull his main. However, he had about 10 WS jumps and just switched to a freefly handle without trying it out on the ground. He dident know how to deploy the freefly pud and so he couldent get it out.

There is ‘way’ too much emphasis on landing into the wind. Landing into the wind is not a landing priority. The number one priority is avoiding canopy collisions and having to do a crosswind landing so that no one crosses paths is by far the preferable option. So your consideration should not be which way sets me up to land into the wind. It should be which way sets me up to not run into someone and die.

You can get a wingsuit slower than a hop and pop. Just because you’re not moving down does not mean you’re not moving at all. Even if you literally threw the PC out the door, you’re still moving at the speed of the aircraft which is typically ~100 MPH on jump run. You’re just not moving down at that speed. I suspect the slowest speed is actually a few seconds after you exit. Then your forward speed has decreased but your vertical speed is still somewhat slow. I have no testing to back this though. You’d have to check with a flysight.

Most of the research done over the last several years would disagree. Most of the people who have died in the last several years would not meet your definition of someone who 'constantly putting themselves in very dangerous situations while skydiving and laughing about it later.' Most of the fatalities that have occurred in the last several years were from everyday skydivers.

Sure, I guess. I just dont know what the point is. If you unstow your toggles while the canopy is still sniveling the canopy can surge forward violently and/ or it can cause the slider to come down sooner than it should resulting in a hard opening. If you accidentally unstow one toggle but not the other, you just gave yourself a toggle fire. If you go into deep brakes before the canopy opens, in addition to the other things I mentioned, it can also cause an off heading opening. So lots of downsides, but I dont know of any upsides. Rear risers work fine for executing turns to avoid collisions after opening if that's what you're worried about.

Just for your info, L&B is a 'start up' by most definitions of the term. They are not some massive corporation with 25,000 employees in four countries or something like that. They are a small company the same as is with most skydiving accessory manufacturers. The VOG is a solid product and there is no reason I've seen that would make me question whether the device is safe to use. An audible is supposed to only serve as a back-up anyway. Your primary means of altitude awareness is supposed to be a visual altimeter.

Skydive Perris in CA. It’s one of the top DZs in the USA and has most of what you ask for. You’re probably not going to get a price cut for work though, not as an AFF student. You’re unlikely to get a price cut at any DZ. Skydiving is expensive and there are few ways around that.

Well depending on how detailed you want to be, you could argue that almost all forms of death are preventable or at least delayable. You could have ate better (heart attack), not gone out (accident caused by someone else), not driven a car (car crash), not walked down that dark alley (crime), ect, ect. Even if the death was 100% related to equipment you could argue the skydiver could have jumped newer gear in better condition or chosen a different, more reputable brand, chosen a larger canopy, ect, ect.

It's probably a typo. In any case you could be asking Aerodyne this. They will know more about their website than some random people on DZ.com will.

Aerodyne makes the Pilot in a 250. You can order it in ZPX or UltraLPV material. The ZPX would probably pack like a 230 and the UltraLPV, a 220 - 210. However, in that size and fabric combo it's ultra unlikely you will find one used which means you'll have to buy it new.

Several. SCUBA, rock climbing, mountaineering, motor vehicle racing, and several others I am sure. Then of course there are all the activities that are not sports but have closely tracked fatalities.

Not likely you'd ever get out. The airspeed of a commercial jet is so fast you'd never get the door open, not even with multiple people helping. All the doors I've seen open outward and toward the relative wind which makes them virtually impossible to open in flight. You might be able to get one of the emergency doors over the wings open, but the hole would probably be too small to get through with a rig on. Plus if the plane was in a spin, shit would be flying everywhere and you'd be lucky if you could even get the overhead bin open let alone take it out of your luggage, put it on, get to the door, open the door, jump, ect. Then of course there are issues with altitude. If you got out at 20k or below, fine. But if you got out at 36,000', you could pass out quickly without supplemental O2 and your hands would freeze likely rendering complete loss of feeling. You'd have to be selective of the door too. If you chose one of the forward doors, your exit path could put you straight into the wing or one of the engines. Any one of these things would be an issue. All of them combined make it ultra unlikely you'd pull it off. Even skydivers in jump planes sitting right next to a door intended to be easily opened with their rig on have had issues getting out during emergencies.

According to this source, one skydive is roughly equivalent in risk to driving 1,840 miles. That's per skydive, not per day of skydiving. Regardless of how you look at the numbers, skydiving is dangerous. No amount of skill can change that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort

For what it is worth, I have been exposing the slider grommets when packing for the last 150 jumps or so. I only do it on WS jumps though, never terminal jumps. I always expose the slider grommets now that I've been doing it for 150 jumps without issue. I honestly cannot say if it helps or not. I dont notice a difference between the two methods, but I also think this packing method is not something you're going to notice on every jump either. I was afraid to do it at first but now with these many soft openings on this packing method I am not too concerned about it for WS jumps and it makes sense how it might be beneficial (which is why I continue to use it). Also, both Squirrel and PD do recommend a similar packing method with their WS canopes. They dont specifically recommend exposing the slider grommets that I've seen, but they do show the correct packing method for their WS canopies to include opening the mouth of the cocoon and in effect I dont really see the difference between the top skin being 1/2" past the grommets vs 1/2" before the grommets. In effect, it's the same thing.

Yes, that would be a union. The problem is unions dont work very well when you're the only one in them. People who accept low paying jobs do so because they are usually not in a position to bargain. If you tell a company that their offer is crap and you wont accept, they will say fine and find someone who will accept it. In the end that mostly just leaves you with no job.

I cant speak to Tony, but I own some PF suits and I fly them all the time along with my Squirrel products. I just find the Squirrel product to be noticeably higher quality. That does not mean it flies better necessarily, I just mean the fabrication of the suit itself shows a high level of attention to detail and Squirrel does not cut corners.

I'd disagree. Squirrel's products are still noticeably superior than the other brands. It might not be a night and day difference, but small amounts of attention to detail go a long way and Squirrel consistently considers the small details while the other brands largely skip over them.

Spectra is crap for trim, yes, which is why I dont use it. Vectran maintains trim fairly well. I use Vectran on one of my canopies and after 400 jumps the lines were all still mostly in trim. Most of the lines were at their factory lengths with only a couple differing more than 1/2". I cant comment on the Spectre, but there was an issue with another well known docile canopy where the factory lineset was out of trim/ specification and it was causing hard openings on almost every jump. There is a poster who mentioned it on DZ.com. Trim can affect the canopy in ways that are not obvious, such as stability in turbulence. I am not telling anyone to or not to use any particular lineset, but every type of line has drawbacks and bulk is not the only drawback.

That’s not the only downside. Dacron does not maintain trim well which negatively affects all aspects of flight. In fact, an out of trim lineset can directly cause a hard opening.

Your AFFIs would be your instructors. Some DZs keep the same AFFI for the entire course for a student, others mix them up. Either way, whoever graduated you from AFF or whoever jumped with you the most would be 'your' instructor per se. Solo status does not mean 'okay I just need 25 jumps and I cant jump with anyone buy an instructor or a coach until then'. It's supposed to be a status where you're working on specific tasks and checking in with an instructor. The instructor is not jumping with you, but they are keeping tabs on what you're doing. Many DZs seem to take shortcuts here and once you're off AFF you're on your own, but that's not the intent of the program as written by the USPA.

She should probably work with an experienced canopy coach to fix this. Start with her instructor. If she does not have a license, then that makes her a student which means she has an instructor that is supposed to be assigned to helping her.

Many people used to use DashWare. It's okay, but I found the airspeed indicator data to disagree with what my FlySight says. It's off by about 10%. The software is legacy and no longer supported as well.

I've never seen someone with a Swift 3 have trouble getting into them either. I've flown my Swift 3 with a C Race and an Aura 3 before. It can be done under some circumstances. I have on the other hand flown with Funk 1s and I was shutting down my S3 big time. If I kept it in full flight I would smoke right past the Funk 1. All delta wing designs that I've ever flown with are very slow. Any T wing design can out fly them easily, even if the suit is smaller.

I find the stall speed to be quite low. The Swift 3, like all of Squirrel's products, likes to fly fast but it has massive range. You can shut it down big time if you need to. I've shut my suit down so much that I practically had my knees bent at upwards of 60 degrees and I was still flying the suit in formation.

I've never flown with a Gus but I've flown with many other larger delta wings like the Funk and Carve. They are slow. I have to fly in brakes or shut down my Swift 3 in some fashion not to pass them. This is over multiple jumps at multiple DZs with different people, so it's not just the one person who cant fly his Funk.