Pre-levels for CReW include mastering all of the exercises in USPA's ISP, all the exercises in Skydive U's Basic Canopy Flight 101 and reading the first chapter in Jon Sikorsky's textbook on CReW. Then find a CReW Coach, (East Coasters please help out here) preferably someone with medals from the Nationals and some type of coach or instructor rating.
Riggerrob, are you experienced with CRW? I'm a real low-timer, but am interested in it, and knowing that there's other people out at Pitt meadows would be a real incentive to learn in that direction eventually.
The US CReW team spends some time up at Cross Keys, and I know at least one of 'em lives up that way.....ask around.. I'm sure Kelly, Stacy, or Dave could point you in the right direction since they all know CK well..
There were two guys up at the DZ the last time were there and they were trying to do some CRW. One guy had a XFire loaded at about 1.3:1 (just a guess) and another guy with a PD170 F111 loaded at about 1:1 (also a guess). They were flying all over the place up above trying to dock but they couldn't.
Seems like the difference in canopies would make it very hard to do since one would fly much flatter and another would sink more, etc.
Just thought I would relay that. No good reason. Sorry. I'm leaving now.
That's a good question.... Speak to some experienced crew dogs and/or your local instructor or s&ta. I think a lot depends on you. I did my first stack on jump #32 and completed a 10 stack on jump #37. I now have more than 300 jumps which very few are crew jumps. I still consider myself a novice and are always looking to jump with the more experienced types to increase my skill and learning. I had some great instructors and owe a lot to them, for they encouraged me and provided me with skills to be confident in the air. I love it and would do it a lot more. Even if you don't persue it, I would still recommend doing some crew jumps. Have fun!
schroedera, Sorry, it has been quite a while since I have done CReW. Frankly it has been a long time since anyone has done serious CReW at Pitt Meadows, something about those airliners going over at 6,000' and the air traffic controllers asking us to open below 5,000.' I hear that some guys at Victoria take their CReW pretty seriously. Ask them. For the best CReW in this corner of the planet, try driving down to K-Pow.
hello. what dz do you jump at? Cross Keys is in NJ, located in Williamstown, in Glouster county, about 20 minutes from Philly. if you want to learn some CReW come to xkeys. you can talk to Mark Krusey... hes on the US Crew team, competed in spain, and has a long history of Crew comps behind him.. Doug Forth also is an experienced canopy pilot (9,000+ - jumps) Spotty did competative CReW also (i believe). theres actually a lot of people at xkeys to talk to.. just call ahead. Explain what youre looking for. See if the winds are cooperating for CReW on that day.. see whos available. www.freefalladventures.com or 1-888-855-jump
