Westerly

the havok absolutely sucks. it's literately slow as balls. I can outfly one in my sleep with something even as simple as an ATC. anyone who recommends a havok clearly has absolutely no experience with performance flying.

They are not unlawful. Just because you dont agree doesent make it illegal. You dont decide what's legal and what is not. Judges make that decision and they have decided it's legal. The interest of national security trumps whatever fake self-proclaimed rights that you think you have.

That's fine, a shorter line for me then. Stupid people are stupid. None of this is new news. Based on recent Facebook posts, it seems half the people out there think Covid is all bullshit and nothing more than a flu anyway so it's not like we're dealing with intelligent, well-informed people here anyway.

post up in the fun jumpers groups for spaceland on facebook. That's where the fun jumpers hang. You should find someone easily.

I dont think it matters. there arnt going to be that many tandems for a long time. It's not exactly tourist season considering current world events.I think DZs are going to be running lean for awhile. Fun jumpers will take a larger portion of the market share for a bit.

Well that's going to be well into 2021 just FYI. I am pretty sure the CDC's recommendations for social distancing are now a semi-permanent thing. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t believe the virus is real, but there are many people who feel the risk is not high to them, they don’t care, or they are otherwise more motivated by external factors (e.g. making money). Usually the phrase is something to the extent of ‘well just how long are we supposed to stay home?” That is a valid question, but also we’re not even really that far into this thing. Stay at home orders have only been in effect for around five weeks in most areas so it hasn’t even really been that long yet. The only thing that is clear is the USA is on track to become the most infected, most hit, most poorly performing country in the world with Covid. We already lead the world in infected cases and deaths by a far margin and by the end of next month we may have the highest rate per capata of infected people. No matter how you look at it, the United States is getting completely handed. We are in dead last place in this race. I think what we saw early on was people saying, ok the risk is real so we can deal with staying at home for a bit. But now after a bit people (largely small businesses) are getting strapped for cash , they are bored sitting at home and so now we have a situation where making money is more important than saving lives. So it went from 'lets all stay at home for safety' to 'ah, it's not actually that bad we need to get businesses back open'. Even though when you look at the numbers, the hard data clearly shows there are hundreds of times more infected roaming around right now than there was when we first closed down. There are also many, many people who straight-up minimize the risk. They just genuinely believe the risk is marginal and it's not something to be concerned with. That's quite common.

Yea, the Funk 2 and ATC are in the same class size wise, just they are intended for different applications. If he was jumping something like a Swift then I think going straight to something in the Freak/ Strix 2 class is too big of a jump. But if he can really nail down the Funk then I agree that a Strix 2 or Freak2/3 would be a fine move. But the Freak 3 will have a ton more speed and power than a Funk 2 by a large margin so he would want to be pretty dialed in the Funk first. Even going from the Funk 2 to the ATC2 he will gain some speed and power as the ATC2 is more performance orientated than the Frunk. The ATC2 is actualyl a pretty solid suit and it can hang with Freaks all day as long as the Freaks dont totally try to dust them. It's basically just a de-tuned Freak in the same way that a Culugo is a de-tuned C Race.

You're right. I am sure that's all it takes to avoid getting sick. It doesent matter if the guy sitting on your lap for 20 min per load is sick as long as you washed your hands.

just burn your rig. that should kill the virus nicely.

That's a ridiculous assertion. If that was true for you, then you were flying with some incredibly bad WS pilots. i would like to add that most of the of the top WS pilots in the western part of the world do not train in the tunnel--at least not any of the ones I have flown with (which is many of them). The absolute best of them all, the current world record holder, has never even been to the tunnel once (I asked him). Very few of guys I know have been and I've been lucky enough to fly with some of the top pilots in the sport. SO not saying it's bad or you wont learn anything, but without question you can become a highly competent pilot in the sky and it is not at a rate of like 30x as slow. for what it's worth, I've flown with dudes that have like 10 hours in the tunnel. While they were not 'bad' they certainly were fantastic either. I've flown with many people with 0 tunnel time who are much better pilots. so to each their own. you can learn either way.

I think most DZs dont give enough of a crap to even bother hearing you out. They provide the bare minimum cheap whatever that the FAA requires and that's it. For years experts have been advising people that the single-position seatbelts that lock into one lug are not sufficient and that they can fail at low loads and people should use the dual lug belts instead. Well I dont think I have ever seen a single DZ use the dual lug ones because they are more expensive. No one cares really. safety takes a backseat in a lot of skydiving operations. Some DZs dont even maintain their aircraft properly let alone care about the seat belts.

If it's highly suspicious by your own admission and Flight 1 has is, why dont you just have them ship it back?

I'm impressed, we managed to execute a full switch-and-bait 180 in only three weeks. Americans in March: "We all must stay at home and avoid going outside for any reason or life as we know it will end!" Americans in April "The economy has taken too much of a hit and we all need to get back to work NOW!". I guess it is true that we have always been bad at math. Less than 1 million infected in the USA right now, which means 327 out of 328 randos on the street are still capable of getting infected and dying. I guess that dident come up in those home Zoom meetings.

Not all DZs are lame tandem factories. There are DZs out there that can remain profitable without ever sending a single tandem or AFF student. Some DZs hardly even do tandems at all. 90%+ of their clients are licensed jumpers. Those are what we call real drop zones.

this made me think of an idea for a dating app. I'd call it SkyFuck.

Then you take it up with the S&TA. Licensed skydivers report to the S&TA, not to other licensed skydivers. I have not witnessed what you've expressed very often. Most experienced jumpers know the correct exit order and they follow it. Also, most larger DZs have a pre-established exit order that everyone is required to follow regardless of whether they want to sit next to the door or not.

There is no seniority that trumps safety. As with most things in life, there is a correct and established way to do things and being around a long time does not make you exempt from the rules. Wingsuiters get out last. That's how it is done at any reputable DZ. Is it physically possible for a wingsuiter to get out first safely? Sure. It's physically possible to safely execute any combination of exit order that exists. We could put AFF students out first and head-down carving freefliers out last. It could be done safely if enough time was put between groups. But since most DZs dont want five passes per load, we need to follow the correct, established, 'de facto' exit order which puts wingsuiters out last. Unless the wingsutiers have their own pass with at least four minutes between their exit and the exit of the next group, putting them out first is not smart. A wingsuiter in a very large suit can get nearly four minutes of freefall if s/he tried.

I've seen pilot chutes in tow from burble traps on tracking suits with OEM bridles. Let me repeat that, I've seen it occur with tracking suits. Even a student wingsuit has a larger burble than most tracking suits. The single most important thing on the list (assuming you're not jumping some highly loaded elliptical canopy) is a longer bridle. I'd get one ASAP if you want to get into WS. The standard 6' one will work for a bit early on, but the first time you pitch and get nothing, nothing, nothing, more nothing, you're going to piss yourself. It's not a fun experience.

Makes sense. I think a Racer and Argus AAD is a perfect combination. While you're at it I think you throw a Sabre 1 in there with OEM slider as well. That would make a nice all-around package.

Well people dont get to just make up their own definitions of a word. that's not really how languages work. they 'think' the word means whatever they want, they would just be wrong. The word has a specific meaning and the dictionary will tell you what that meaning is.

Often I see people say things like pitching in a track is the worst thing you can do and it's going to slam the crap out of you, ect. So I set out to see what the flight pattern of a track actually looks like. Looking at my FlySight I found that my fall rate actually slows in a track, not speeds up. That is assuming you're doing a flat track and not angle flying or something like that. I was able to get my fall rate to as low as 105 MPH in a track, whereas I cant go that slow no matter how hard I dearch in the standard box position. So then I looked at forward speed. On average, maybe 25 MPH in a flat track. However, that's nothing compared to a wingsuit and you can have fantastic openings with a WS all day if you know how to fly the openings correctly. So while pitching in a track is obviously not ideal, I am not sure it's as black death as some seem to think it is.

It's a non-issue. If you're worried, dont use your real name online and restrict the privacy settings. At the end of the day, the free market principle still applies. If my whatever insurance company raises my rates because I have a profile photo of me skydiving, fine I'll just drop them and find someone else. They can come up with any excuse they want, I am still the one that decides if I want to continue being their customer or not.

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This was covered in the videos posted upstream if you would watch them. Ron Bell talked about why he wanted this change in the video.

I have read your posts, I just think you are overreacting here just like half the people on this forum do anytime anyone even whispers something about the USPA. The USPA makes a small change and all of a sudden BIG Parachute is out to get everyone and destroy skydiving. Having to send in a form in an effort to learn trends in AAD fires is not a big deal. Collecting statistical data to determine safety trends is literally one of the USPA's core functions, as is the core function of anyone who works in any industry involving safety. It's a basic principle of determining risk.