20kN

Mars has been making AADs for more than 20 years. They are by no means new to the market. They just havent been making the M2 AAD for 20 years, but they have had other versions for other markets. I was wrong on the 10k number, it's 15k as Mars states. However, as has been said previously, all current AAD manufactures (Cypress, Mars, Vigil) are making AADs which do not require service for a minimum of 10 years. As a result, 10 years is the de facto standard because literally everyone that is making an AAD at this very moment is operating to that specification. However, I was not aware his product had field replaceable batteries so that moots my point. My concern was more with the returning of the AAD than with the actual battery itself.

The standard for batteries in an AAD is around 10,000 jumps. 1k will not cut it. For some people that means sending the AAD in for service every year or two which wont fly. Pretty much all the current brands offer some 10+ years of use with no mandatory service so that's what you're competing against.

You should probably ask the USPA this. They will know better than anyone on here.

Well of course it's all about supply and demand and who is in an advantageous situation. Many of the people that work at Ifly do so because they want access to free tunnel time and training so they accept poor pay and benefits. By contrast, where I worked if the management stated everyone is getting slashed down to $11 an hour and losing all their benefits, come Monday morning they would have no employees left. There is always a struggle between the boss and the worker where the boss wants to make more money and the worker wants to make more money. You cant have both all the time, so the free market decides where you meet in the middle. A union in its most fundamental sense is the end result of what happens when workers feel they are not being treated well and they decide collectively it's going to be our way or the highway. In a less extreme sense, a high turnover rate is also the end result of the same issue. Employees sign on, find out pay, benefits and working conditions suck, and they find somewhere better to work so they leave.

This canopy shipped with Spectra lines, not Dacron lines. The PIA standard is an optional suggestion, not a legal requirement. There are numerous examples of companies ignoring the PIA. For example, what's quite likely the largest canopy manufacturer in the world does not measure the size of their canopies using the PIA standard. They use their own standard. Consequently a 150 from this company will not be the same size as a 150 from a different company. Pack volume is also something that has a PIA standard but many manufacturers do not follow. Without a legal requirement for manufacturers to follow these standards, they are little more than suggestions which can be ignored completely at will.

You can believe what you want. The fact remains. One canopy that I purchased brand new did not include slinks or quicklinks. Another canopy included quicklinks, but not slinks. They were both skydiving canopies, but from less mainstream brands. Any canopy from any of the big name companies I would expect absolutely would include slinks.

Not all of them do. I have purchased new canopies that did not include slinks from the manufacturer. I would not say that is should be implied that the canopy comes with slinks. If the seller does not state that slinks are included, I'd assume they are not included. Only about half of the used canopies I bought included slinks. I dont care as I use my own slinks regardless, but if you really want the slinks, I'd say as the buyer it's your obligation to clarify with the seller what the terms of the sale are. edit: reserves are different because the slinks are part of the TSO process and so the correct slinks need to be used to meet the TSO requirement. Mains are not TSO certified and therefore there are no requirements for attaching the canopy.

No it doesn't. https://uspa.org/SIM/2#1

Well I use mine for WS but I dont want to pay the absurdly high price for the WS Cypress nor do I want to deal with the audible thing it uses. If I could choose my own speed and altitude I'd choose 60 MPH and 1100'. Pretty simple really. Higher than the student setting, but not as high as the PRO/ expert mode. As far as fires in the plane go, just limit the range to no lower than standard student mode (45 MPH) and no higher than canopy piloting mode (108ish MPH or whatever it is). Then no matter what you set the AAD to, it's not outside the range of the modes already available by other manufactures. Also student mode on some AAD manufacturers is as low as around 29 MPH which I think is unsafe for any application including actual students. So your concern already exists with the student mode with some currently-made AADs.

No. I 'd like to set my own parameters for my application. I'd prefer that the AAD just ask me what activation speed and altitude I want and I set those parameters myself. Call it 'custom' mode or whatever.

Of course he's over 18. It's skydiving. USPA BSRs strictly prohibit any form of skydiving by anyone under 18. Perris is one of the largest DZs in the world and they are very much USPA affiliated.

Design one in CAD or actually build one? Wingsuits are complicated, require specialized machinery to make, and are very tedious and time consuming to sew. You're not going to be able to make any worthwhile wingsuit without access to specialized equipment you likely don't have access to. Even with it, you wont know all the techniques and trade secrets to actually cut and sew it together.

Look up the companies Pro Fly and Vertex. They make jumpsuits for half of what brands in the US sell them for. I own both brands and they make reasonable suits

I am not sure I agree about the first statement. I've certainly met several skydivers that I think would not do well in a legitimate emergency. They were so shy and passive that I'd imagine they would freeze pretty easily. Also while it's possible someone might reach that conclusion, they could also conclude that as a skydiver you: - Take excessive and unnecessary risks. - Do things that are dangerous needlessly. - Are careless. - Are an adrenaline junky that always needs a fix. Keep in mind that non-skydivers do not understand how skydiving works. What they know is just what the preconceived notions are about extreme sports which typically involves terms like adrenaline junky, extreme risk taker, and the classic 'jumping out of perfectly good airplanes for no reason'. For that reason, most HR professionals would advice leaving out your hobbies on your resume or applications unless they have direct relevance to the position you're applying for.

So what, you're a legal adult. Make your own life choices.

Everything in skydiving is expensive. AFF cat A and the ground course are nothing compared to the true cost of skydiving. There is no AFF cat A without video. All AFF jumps are videoed, generally speaking. This is to help you learn from your errors in freefall.

I had to chuckle at this one a bit. Falls from 50' certainly are not 'usually survivable'. Most falls from that height would not be survivable. OSHA tracks fatal falls quite closely because falls are one of the leading causes of death in the workplace. They have lots of numbers and statics on injuries and deaths relating to falls. The short is that most people who die from a fall actually fell less than 20 feet and a substantial number of fatal falls (about 80% according to the article below) were from a height of less than 30 feet. About 15% of fall related fatalities were from a height of only six feet. https://www.ishn.com/articles/103425-most-fatal-falls-from-heights-are-from-20-feet-or-less https://www.lhsfna.org/index.cfm/lifelines/december-2012/watch-your-step/

Smartphones do not sample fast enough to be useful for our application. There are already several smartphone applications for skydiving that show altitude and all that stuff. None of them are really accurate, at least not compared to a FlySight.

Again, where does this come from? How are they the safest? What is the judging metric for determining the safest? I am pretty sure most people who says Cypress is the safest say that solely because that's what they heard other people say, so 'it must be true.' I feel like arguing about what brand of AAD is best is equivalent to arguing about what brand of automotive seat belt is the best. They all do the same thing so you mind as well get whatever is cheapest.

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I haven't flown the Barracuda line, but the Carve is one of the worst suits I've ever flown. Have you looked into the Squirrel Funk and Gus? Those might be an option as well. Honestly, if I had to pick I'd probably pick the Barracuda. I havent flown that exact suit, but I've seen some of the other suits from their lineup and in general they make solid suits.

There is no 'the best.' AADs only have two main functions: fire when they are supposed to and not fire when they are not. In that capacity, I have not seen any evidence that one brand does that better than another. Can you point me to a case where a Mars unit failed to do one of those two things?

That's not entirely accurate. A lot of testing is done by the manufacturer's athletes and they are typically not paid for their efforts. They might get to keep the product they are testing.

That's a ridiculous extrapolation. Name one actual instance this has ever happened. People test jump canopies all the time. That's how you got the product you're flying right now. At some point someone was test jumping a prototype version of your canopy. People change their sliders all the time but you need to know what you're doing. OP: The short answer is no, you should not mess with the slider without consulting a rigger or (preferably) the manufacturer first. It can be done safely but you need to know what you're doing.

The Mars is great. It’s not true that you always get what you pay for. There are plenty of overpriced products out there and the Mars unit is just as safe as any others. In my opinion it’s superior to other options as it has a much better screen that is easier to use and configure.