On Friday, August 31, 2018 at 6:35:38 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Friday, August 31, 2018 at 9:18:13 PM UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
That's one thing I disagree with Don about....

Where I'm not personally expert,
I consult with multiple people who are,
and take their advice when it's consistent.

Are you as expert as Don, or the folks at Strong??

I have a few thousand jumps was a skydiving instructor(AFF and Tandem) and am a CFI(helicopters and gliders.) Started jumping when there were still some round reserves in use, I've seen enough to know I don't want to use a round. Perfectly fine with jumping a square. And I've taught enough people in both disciplines to believe glider pilots can manage a square parachute. Student skydivers, with all of the performance limitations imposed by fear, manage square parachutes after half a day of training. I'm not in the parachute business I promote squares because I believe they are safer for us. Next time you are at Pepperell walk over to the jumpschool and talk to some instructors, ask their opinion.

I have no jump experience, and would like to keep it that way! Allan Sliver explained to me that if you are not planning on doing the training and a few actual jumps then the square can get you in big trouble, this is why they use rounds for loads such as cargo. Dan Marotta went and got the training and even did a few jumps. A lot of the glider pilots I know have not had any training other than reading a few articles or hangar flying. It is a risk vs reward. I can use a round with verbal, or instructional video training. Or I can practice bleeding. Take the risk at my newly earned senior citizen status of actually jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft. This is all for the extremely small chance I might need a chute. Could this be akin to learning to suture yourself when you can buy Qwik Cot. At this point in life am inclined to leave the actual jumping to a real emergency.