James, Thanks for your informative post. I've been looking at Bear info for weeks and will now look at Sable.
Le Grand Saut... What can I say? My $17 weekend skydives are to Fournier's planned epic jump as a pebble is to Mt. Everest. Nick Piantenides died trying a similar balloon freefall record. It is fraught with peril and ENORMOUS expense. I wish Michel the very best and am in awe not only of his courage but the huge personal sacrifices he has made to make the jump happen. My upper limit is 24,000 feet. I've made two HALO jumps from that altitude. Why 24,000? I conferred with a USAF flight surgeon who worked with a Pararescue squadron that did special ops HALO and HAHO jumps. He said an O2 equipment failure at or below 24,000 feet won't kill you. Above that and your chances of injury or death climb rapidly with extra altitude. Fournier is so far into the danger zone that death is certain if he has a serious failure in his life support systems. I wouldnt dream of taking the risks he will take. Godspeed to him. 73 Mark AF6IM
