If your ex-military then you might know of the US Army Golden Knights, I have a few jumps logged with them. Good guys, those guys had the life, doing demonstration jumps and training RW (Relative work) full time as a job in the military.
In this case you would want an old school round parachute that floats straight down. All of the other modern parachutes use a ram air open cell design that requires forward motion to pressurize the cells to make the canopy become a wing and actually fly. This is the basis of all high performance and maneuverable modern canopies. The problem with this in a Rock climbing scenario is that the canopy can open facing the cliff, the canopy will fly into the cliff which will cause it to collapse from becoming depressureized. BTW.....this scenario has killed many base jumpers
I've been learning tons from you guys about track days and racing so nice to give back a little of my knowledge on skydiving. FYI, also the safest and easiest way to try skydiving is a wind tunnel, there are several scattered around the us. Not as exciting as jumping from a plane but good to get a feel for it.
Understood, most climbers, I would think, would want control as that terrain is rarely fluffy level grass to land on. And their athletic ability would transfer to rig control with proper training. the big round emergency floaters with a blast deployment like airbag suits would be safest for life saving but probably way more injury prone from landing wherever it went than a modern maneuverable unit. What is currently out there? Just skydiving and base rigs? Noting in between? What were they talking about in FreeSolo that was supposedly more compact and low elevation deploying? I know I could search... but you have real world first hand knowledge... I hope...
I’ve looked at those and there are a few “I Fly” franchises within driving distance... how close to actual free fall is that? It looks fun and way cheaper and the ability to instantly experience it the same day, without having to tandem jump and log those then finally getting a chance however many jumps later... seems like the only way to get started to me...
We’re heavy on the sarcasm and smartassness so make sure you get accurate info for your track days... please ask anything and I’ll gladly answer without the normal banter... safety first, the best gear possible at all times. bike safety, all racers will offer assistance to make sure your bike is safe and ready and a proper maintenance plan. bike upgrades, rarely needed, but suspension and set up is by far the most valuable of any upgrade. instruction, many schools out there that will help you achieve your goals on track while helping you be a better safer rider all around. thanks for your knowledge on this topic and feel free to PM me if you have Qs about anything motorcycle related or ask here too and I’ll answer seriously and correctly.
Ive done that a couple times. You are basically in freefall. You have to have body control and use your arms, legs, hands, etc to move forward, back, turn, etc. Several jump places use a tunnel to help speed up freefall training. It should help a ton if you spend some time in a tunnel and then go freefall.
There are high speed and low speed tunnels. The high speed are the closest to real skydiving because you can get in those with no special suit and freefly doing head downs, uprights, sit flying etc...all the advanced stuff. The slow tunnels you have to wear a big baggy suit to keep you up and you can only fly in the traditional belly down position. Either is OK for someone just wanting to try it but you can learn more and practice advanced stuff in the bigger and faster units. I have trained with a 4 way for RW competion in a wind tunnel. I'm sure there's tons of videos on YouTube. The tunnels are also very helpful for those who wish to become certified to skydive on their own. Speeds up the learning process for real skydives.
Not counting the wind tunnel, You wanna just try skydiving once? Tandem is best for most, very little to know and do, the instructor does basically everything. You wanna jump on your own? Then you have a few options. Tandem progression AFF (accelerated freefall) SL static line Hybrid, combination of the others The biggest governing body of skydiving in the world is the USPA (United States Parachute Association) They USED to have all the power and would dictate how all skydive centers or DZs would operate. That is until my friend sued them and basically bankrupted the organization. For many years the USPA only approved SL and AFF as a means of student certification. My friend developed a hybrid system called Tandem progression that would start students out on tandems then convert them to AFF to finish their certification. We'll the USPA didn't like that at all, my friend who still owns several DZs in different states had all of his credentials revoked by the USPA as well as some of his instructors who worked under them. They also slandered his name in publications. He won his lawsuits and the USPA was gutted, now they are but a shadow of their former self and most DZs do whatever they want now....which is good and bad in ways.
Cool. You go since you moved up North? The “IFLY” one in Chicago? Are there others to look into or is that “the” franchise?
I’m actually not very interested in skydiving as a sport. While I think the “IFLY” places would be fun for a group activity and to get a taste of it, the time and financial investment to get to the free fall and actually interesting part is more than I’d consider investing, the time really. My interest is more of the crossover into rock climbing as a safety rig. Our climbing thread left me with many questions and like most engineers turned racers my mind wanted answers. Cool your buddy put them in their place. Oppression is never ok, and even worse when it’s monopolized like that, or worse yet, when it’s the evil that. Lives ruined and losses compounded by those in places of power without ethics or morals.
I would definitely recommend people to start with a wind tunnel, then go from there. I can't tell you how many broken bones I've seen even with just tandems, including a couple fatalities. The biggest parachute manufacturer in the world is probably PD, Performance Designs in Florida. I jumped their canopies the most and they make great products with the best track record. I would reach out to them and ask. I also jumped some experimental canopies that a few different aeronautical engineers came up with.....some didn't work out so good and have several broken bones to show for it. Some my ribs are still broken today, didn't have the surgery to have them removed or wired back together.
Called free flying. We did stuff like that for fun, that's called a Mr Bill. Guys are always looking for alternative ways to skydive. Sit flying was popular for a while, then the head down became popular, wing suits, board flying, canopy stacking. RW (Relative work) used to be the big thing for serious jumpers that were looking for structured competition. That's what I competed in and did state and world records in. I was also into high speed canopy surfing too. Here's link to pond surfing which I did as well.
Lol Here are the US Army Golden knights in action doing RW. I jumped with them doing RW and as their videographer. I did tons of video for competition teams as well as on world record attempts
papa for the lol post of the day so far.... weren’t you a pilot too Papa? You and your copilot never docked up like that vid you quoted? Nttiawwt of course... Tangent... did you watch that amc series Pan Am? I could see you being all Paris Chic in those days...