ebeziere

Interesting question. I don't think I know enough about the durability of canopies (since i've only been in the sport for less than a year) to answer that question but I'd like to ask another question : why would anyone want a repack cycle longer than a year? I can understand why people want cycles to be longer than 120 days because it's during the season so it s a pain in the ass. But once a year is long enough and very practical : everyone has their gear repacked every winter break, they know they are good to go for next season and that's it. I don't own a chute but I think I would like to know that my gear is perfectly ok to start another year of skydiving. And I have to say that I think a one year cycle is not more dangerous than a 120 days cycle if the repack is done by a guy with experience and is being done very nicely.

Just so you know, out here in France the repack cycle is 365 days.. No one seems to complain about it, and saying that this triples the fatality rate is very unaccurate as most deaths are bad swoops and collisions... You very very rarely hear of a reserve with a malfunction. The repack has to be done by a professionnal and there are very few packers.. In fact, lots of instructors are not reserve packers. So basically you get your reserve checked once a year by a real pro and it looks like a good system to me (at least it seems to be working fine Of course a 120 days repack is great too, but i m not sure it s very usefull as longer cycles seem to work. Just my 2 cents here, I'm a beginner so maybe I'm ignorant lol.

Hey philly ! There s one thing in your posts that surprises me. You never seem to doubt the fact that you'll love it ! I'm not experienced but yet, I can tell you that sure, what you see in the videos is super cool and OMG i so want to do that ;-) But the real thing is a whole other deal. It's like nothing you've ever experienced before so you can't know if you'll like it or not. I'm saying that because a friend of mine thought he wanted to skydive and he was going to love it and we saw him FAINT during his first jump. It was a static line, he jumped out, parachute opens, he s already asleep. He woke up a few times and fainted back during the flight. He landed in a forest. He was lucky though, if he had a mal he would have been in huge trouble, perhaps dead. He never jumped again, and told me that it s weird how you can be so into things like this before even doing it and then find out that the real shit is brutal lol. I m not saying you ll faint or whatever. I m sure you ll do good. But my advice would be : take it easy and try to see if you really like it first :-) Have fun! Ed

The thing is, I don't see what's the advantage of jumping without a rig. I think this is a challenge which will be very hard to accomplish but even if it is done, I don't think it will ever generalize to all wingsuit jumpers and stuff. There are some very compact rigs that you don't really feel already. They are quite safe, it's a repeatable process, etc... IMO those who think that in the future every wingsuit jump will be done without a rig is a dreamer :P

I have read until page 8 of the posts and i don't think anyone saw someone say that to them: I was at school talking to a guy who was talking about suicides (dunno why, he's quite weird i gotta say) and he INSISTED that as a human if you decide to jump off a building you instantly die because of the freefall. He said you'd have a heart attack before you even touched the ground. I didn't even bother saying I have jumped out of a plane and survived. I just went "hmmm i don't think that's true, just my opinion though i'm not sure" and had a good inside laugh :P

Hey, I thought I'd write something here because no one talked about the static line program. I did an SL because I didn't have the money for an AFF. I have to say I had a blast. Every step in SL is an accomplishment : the first time you pull on your 10 sec delay jump, your first 20 sec delay jump, and your first 12000 ft jump. I never did a tandem but i never wished i had done one before starting SL... To me, the advantages of SL is a step by step progression, the fact that you truly made progress on your own and you "deserve" your first 12kft jump instead of paying for it. I dont really see a disadvantage. Sure it takes longer to get the A lisence, but honestly i didn t give a s**t. i had a blast and that s what mattered. Now i m practising tracks and stuff and i don t feel that my level is worse than that of an AFF student. Anyway, I just wanted to make a post about SL ;) Wish you luck! PS: AFF is not risky what so ever ; So don t worry for your daughter ; It s true though that an AFF without ever having done freefall can be emotionnally too much for some people... PS2: forgive me for mistakes I'm french lol. PS3 (omg lots of PS) : I respect all AFF students of course, I m not sure i'd have had the balls to jump at 12kft on my first jump ><