DrewEckhardt

I suspect that once the canopy is fully open, line twists are un-recoverable from normal skydiving deployment altitudes under any canopy that has enough over-steer or will spiral from harness shifts with the brakes stowed. This covers most elliptical canopies. Good body position on opening will minimize the chances of something happening, although there's enough chaos at 120 MPH that you get an occassional wierd opening anyways. If you feel the canopy starting to turn, shift your weight to counter it. If things feel wierd, pull the risers appart and deal with any line twists before the canopy is done snivelling. I used to cutaway a lot (about every 150 jumps) before I figured that out. Afterwards, I got 500-600 jumps out of my Stiletto 120 before it spun-up. Could have been inattention; could have been the trim (the lines were shot).

1. Canopy progression & wing loading My weight was arround 150-155 while bicycle racing, maxed out at 180, and I am now 155-160. I've made a couple hundred jumps at sea-level boogies, although all the rest have been at 4500-6000 feet MSL so I'm probably jumping canopies 1-2 sizes bigger than I would at sea level. I pretty much jumped what I had until I felt a real need for more speed, resulting in the following progression: 12 jumps under Sky Master 295s and Manta 288s 70ish jumps under a Turbo Z 205 @ .88 12 jumps under a Sabre 170 @ 1.06 100ish jumps under a Monarch 155 @ 1.16 150ish jumps under a Monarch 135 @ 1.33-1.52 before acquiring other canopies, 100+ after. 250ish jumps under a Batwing 134 @ 1.5ish 600+ on my Stiletto 120 mostly at 1.67, but now

Sure, although you won't be able to get much of a turn with a weight shift.