OldGregg

This is a bit of late reply, but for whatever it is worth. When I started wingsuiting the Havok was new. I did a lot of jumps on a S-Bird but wanted to back fly, so I found a used Havok. I also jumped a Swift, Funk, XBird, X2, Aura, Colugo and a few others over the years. What I found was that as "performance" increases, so to generally does pressure and sensitivity. That can lead to a lot of stress while you're jumping, esp if you're only doing around 20 a year. If you're big (like me) getting left behind is super annoying, so there is a lot of internal pressure to upsize, I get it. So as you go about making your decision. If you're light-ish i.e. <170lbs/80kg then smaller will serve you longer. It also depends on who you're jumping with, if everyone is in the Colugo/Jedei/Strix range, then you're going to have a hard time keeping up no matter what. If it is a mix of suits then you'll be in a better position. That said, if fast is something you HAVE to do, there is only one way to do that, and it is big suits. If it isn't, then you have a lot more options. Jumping as little as you do (not an insult, I have been for most of my skydiving a 200/yr jumper), something more forgiving is probably going to be more fun, and safer. If you need to go big, then something like the ATC is probably your best bet, if not, then something like a Havok or a Funk. An ATC or a Freak are likely to be your reasonable limits at 20-30 WS flights a year. I've seen a number of people upsize too quick and spend 50 jumps just getting where they had enough control to fly in a group, not to mention some butt puckering flights in the process. I don't think you need to stick with entry level stuff though, the learning return on investment (and fun) diminishes for most people after 20-30 jumps on them. But if you're super light, I've seen someone XRW in a Swift (~130lbs/60kg), so it depends a lot on you. Hope that helped some.

I put a couple hundred jumps on an original Havok, it remains one of my favorite suits.

Yeah I see this too, it's a liability nightmare, you have to be really careful about what you write and know that there is no "context," i.e. every possible interpretation is valid (even if it is the opposite of what was intended). So the quality of what a professional can contribute basically degrades to the level of a decently informed John Doe, rather than actual "expert" input. Then people will inevitably challenge your credibility (because we're all pretty anonymous-ish online) in which case you'd have to double down on what you said/say and/or identify yourself, so more liability. I for one will venture into it a little bit concerning my scuba expertise but again stay several notches below my actual understanding in the "safe zone" of 99+% of the professional scuba community would agree with me and I would stand by my comment in court under any imaginable circumstance. But concerning medical or law, lol, I ain't touching that beyond what 30min on Wikipedia might teach you or just providing raw data. I think it's less of a troll thing and more of a learning how the internet might expose you to liability thing, kinda like not posting pics drinking heavily (or doing anything else socially questionable) on Facebook. I've even heard that while some paragliding stuff may be legal outside of the US that isn't within it (like dropping a BASE jumper from a tandem), some folks have gotten in hot water with USHPA (the hang gliding/paragliding version of the USPA) for that because the member agreement states you won't do things they don't approve of, and dropping BASE jumpers from tandems is one of those. So those folks who told me this have censored their social media accounts of those photos, despite it being legal where they did it. Kinda like smoking pot in Amsterdam I guess (or any of the other States that allow it these days), come back to the US and fail a drug test, that ain't an excuse.

Welcome, it's a heck of a journey. Just as something to keep in the back of your mind. Listen as much as you can, in general if old guys tell you not to do something, there is probably a good reason for it even if they don't articulate it well. Be more skeptical if they say something that might be sketchy is "ok."

Thanks for the update @mccordia So basically it is a student Cypress until it "switches?" So the feature is a Student to Pro on the fly change? If that's the case you may want to suggest they include such a description in their advertisements (I like to think I'm not stupid, and I read the website info on it and still wasn't 100% clear on how it works, esp if it doesn't switch for whatever reason).

To each their own, and if someone wants to use the same EPs across the board there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with that, and an obvious benefit is doing the same thing all the time makes doing it correctly under stress more probable. But just as a reason why modifying it makes sense for some people (esp big suits). 1 - Vertical speed may be less than 1/2 belly speed (I can chug out a whole jump in the 40's mph vertical without much effort), so the relationship between altitude and time is blown way out of proportion compared to a belly jump. (Also I'm a big fella, so my relaxed belly speed is 140ish, hard arch and I can tap 160). This may incline people to pull lower (not me), but it's a thing. 2 - There exists the possibility of becoming unstable is such a way that it is difficult to correct and even get belly down quickly, in such a situation your vertical speed may be bellyish. So if that happens at pull time for whatever reason, you may not be able to get stable reasonably quickly and now you're worse off than if you were doing a belly jump (1 of the 2 reasons I increase my pull altitude). Also the whole, deployments in general aren't as clean or stable and more prone to line twists and such can be thrown in here. 3 - The suit is restrictive, that is just a sacrifice that has to be made, getting unzipped and situated takes longer, and/or getting out of line twists, and doing EPs fully zipped is less than desirable (done it zipped and unzipped myself, neither is ideal and each have their own drawbacks). This is the 2nd of 2 reasons why I increase my pull altitude. Even on a totally normal jump with a clean deployment, getting situated (at a comfortable/no stress speed) fully unzipped, visor up, slider collapsed, and brakes unstowed, takes me around 30 seconds, as opposed to 4 or 5 without a wingsuit. As fast as I can, maybe 10-15 seconds in a ws.

Thanks for the update LJ I'm of the thought process that I definitely do not trust an AAD to save my life, if I ever do fire one and live to tell the tale, I'll probably stop jumping, because that is an epic f-up. I do however trust the big name ones in their decades long tested formats not to kill me during a regular jump. So for me an AAD is a hope and a prayer, not a life saving device I'm willing to lean on for assistance. But that's just my 2-cents. (Yes I do jump with an AAD, yes I always turn it on; so I'm not "anti-AAD")

Just take this for what it's worth, I don't really care if you buy one or not Pros: 1 - Might help in a very rare event (among very rare events) that has only been documented a couple of times; and for which we can't be certain an AAD activation would have been effective (supine righ rate flat spin at slow vertical speed; reserve deployment likely "impeded;" and the scenario is basically untestable because of risk to the jumper). Cons: 1 - More bits = more things to break/fail/need batteries (lose your helmet (lost/stolen/etc) with the cypress dytter, AAD now temporarily useless. 2 - More complicated function of a device (all AADs) that aren't exactly error free. Also requires "user participation" i.e. you have to hear it to know it's working; I don't know about you, but I've missed an audible tone before. 3 - You can only ever sell it to WS ppl, smaller market, not everyone wants one, even smaller market. 4 - If I'm not mistaken, it is WS only, so if you ever want to do anything else, your AAD is useless because you have to turn it off (I'm not 100% sure on this one).

Let's read it again, but slower "scuba diving ...after flying"

Hey there, so as far as decision altitude, I increased it at first like everyone does, then went back to 2k deck and 3k pull, then had a PC in tow followed by a full flight reserve deployment. I didn't have as much altitude under my line twisted reserve as I would have liked, so back up I went. Several hundred WS jumps later and I am still pulling at 4k 9 out of 10 jumps. It also gives me a little wiggle room to take it a tad lower for separation or spot preference. I don't really have a hard deck, I have an audible set at 3k, that is my "hey buddy, can you fix this like now-ish or not?" As opposed to a hardcore "chop now if not fixed." I also have a 2k audible, I guess that would be my SHTF "hard deck" but if I hear that one I'm already a few failures into the jump. i.e. I'm trying to chop, but can't for some reason, in which case me hearing it doesn't help. Had one chop since, stable but severe line twists that I couldn't get out of (badly out of trim canopy that had been opening wonky for a while). I was fully unzipped with a SkyHook, basically was immediately in a snivel, I got to maybe a recliner like position before the reserve pulled me up. Had plenty of altitude thanks to pulling a bit higher.

Hello there! A topic I can't not comment on! I'm a scuba instructor, both NAUI and PADI (44415 and 263934 respectively). As for the OP's initial comment, yeah it's different for everyone. For the students I had with similar issues, I would recommend practicing by putting their face in the shower stream and breathing through it for 30 or so seconds every day. Also, practice opening your eyes underwater in a pool and looking around. If you want to go hardcore, snort water in your nose. A lot of it is primal instinct, water+lungs = bad. Overcoming it and realizing that you can still breathe just fine with water on your face, in your mouth and in your nose is a "turning point" for a lot of people. The next part is "gear fear." If you don't trust your gear you'll never be comfortable. Same thing with skydiving. Learn the gear, get to where you can manipulate it blind, learn how it works, how it behaves, etc etc. On a parallel topic, diving and skydiving in close proximity. I had a gaggle of skydiver scuba students including instructors, so I had to time their checkout dives with their skydives. Long story short, I called NAUI, PADI, and DAN. The takeaway was for altitudes exceeding 8,000ft, there is NO DATA. All the don't fly recommendations are based on commercial aircraft (pressurized to 8k). So if you have a computer that tells you don't fly for 4 hours, that means "don't fly at 8k ft for 4 hours." What we ended up deciding on that I and all of the students were comfortable with was 1 gap day. So you scuba on Thursday, take Friday off, then you can skydive on Saturday. And because someone might ask, there was (as of like 6 years ago) no data suggesting scuba diving immediately after flying was deleterious. There are some anecdotal stories but they are insufficient for analysis or making recommendations.

I believe it is legal to deny bail all together for a "significant flight risk." Also I did some digging, it is indeed legal to deny bail all together if the judge feels the defendant is a "flight risk." Also why they sometimes seize passports pending trial, and you can have assets frozen before trial. Also as of some time in the 1980s it became legal to deny bail if the judge felt the defendant was a danger to the public. Which makes sense in the case of terrorists like the Boston bombers or a school shooter, etc etc.

I'm unaware of how this would really affect attorneys. It's not that I disagree, just that I don't get it. Could you elaborate? My impression is that most of the folks it would affect would be poor people awaiting trial for various crimes from check fraud to murder. The large majority of who would be represented by Public Defenders. But I could very well be mistaken, I'm not a legal expert. Also just as an FYI, apparently something like 70% of our prison population are people awaiting trial that haven't been convicted. I didn't realize it was that high. I very much do not endorse The Nation as a "news source" because they are pretty bias, but this article does a pretty good job of explaining the history and some of the current problems. e.g. I didn't know, but Bail Bondsmen will set up a payment plan and then charge astronomical interest that can often fall on relatives shoulders rather than the offender (even if the charges are dropped later). Pawn shops are an important part of our society and I've got nothing against them as a whole, but they are also kinda shady and that sort of loan sharkeyness shouldn't be associated with (much less an integral part of) our criminal justice system in the form of bail bonds. (Also to the point of it doesn't do much to deter flight risks, bail bonds are considered a "low risk" investment by insurance companies. i.e. the vast majority of people bailed out do indeed show up for court, even though they don't have any money to lose since they already paid a bail bondsman.)

There was an article I read a while ago that was trying to look for a silver lining about Trump and his legacy; the hope was that it would cause significant concern for the ever increasing power of the executive branch (that Dems and Repubs have both proliferated immensely). And part of that increased power is what has lead to severe polar politics and POTUS meddling in State politics (again from Repubs and Dems). Curbs to discretionary spending, power of pardon, Presidential directives, etc may come, and bring more power back to the House and Senate; hopefully (fingers crossed) curbing some of the extreme polarization and stopping the 180 degree swings between POTUS's. Any way you cut it, and from any side "undoing" and pulling a complete 180 on the previous POTUS is a gigantic waste of money and time and doesn't serve the public. We've already seen it with Trump trying to erase everything Obama did, and if a Dem wins in 2020 the same thing will happen all over again, along with having to rebuild our institutions. Even if a Repub wins who isn't Trump, there will likely be a lot of walking back on Trump policy and the same amount of rebuilding necessary just to function properly. A quick search and I wasn't able to find the article, too much has happened in the last two years. But it was something like "Trump is teaching the American people a lesson they didn't know they needed" or something like that, and it focused on ever expanding POTUS power. THIS is not that article, but somewhat similar.

Good point Bill, sometimes we get trapped in the "all good" or "all bad" cycle, when it is a mixture all around.#polorizedpolitics. To reiterate on the post on the previous page about wage discrepancies based on education, I think that is a good point too, it isn't the same across the board. The military is a good example. Take an E3 for example, ~ $25k a year, but housing, insurance, bonus if married or has kids. Basically 100% job security, and the good ol GI Bill that can be worth up $21k/year (actually more since most universities wave whatever the GI bill won't cover. "Yellow Ribbon" programs). For a 20 y/o HS graduate, that is about impossible to beat. Now going to a 4 year college degree, that can vary a lot but where the shift starts to happen. Take an O3 ~50k a year plus those other benefits, but there are a lot of 4 year degree civilian jobs paying more, and a lot paying less. With graduate degrees, it is pretty one sided, physicians are a prime example, in the military they get paid half or less than their civilian counterparts.