I agree with Tim Mara's points in his post above.

I had to bail out after a midair at Uvalde this year. That was my
first jump.The round Softie did the job perfectly. I did land hard,
and sustained some fractured vertebrae, but my ship landed a lot
harder than I did. As Tim states, you'll be adrenaline pumped, and
really won't feel it at the time. I got up and walked about three
quarters of a mile until I found some help.

My main take-away from the experience is that you need to have an
egress plan, and I got mine (and one of the two Softies I own) from
Allen Silver at www.silverparachutes.com - I highly recommend the
articles on his site. I got my other Softie from Tim at www.wingsandwheels.com,
and he's a great resource as well.

Regarding the 20-year limit, my first Softie is coming up on that
soon, and I'll replace it when that time comes. Seems like cheap
insurance to me. I'm a happy Softie customer, although I hope I don't
have to use the product in action again.

Mike Brooks
ex RG1 (next up - XL5)