base615

I stand corrected. Still a death trap though :)

Yeah but this one has happened over and over and they refuse to accept it's a problem.

This can be avoided by not jumping the deathtrap Racer double RSL

I only jump in non-polarised (Oakley Gibston) for just that reason. Also better for seeing the surface of a swoop pond.

Double posted accidentally

No, I’m not, but a mate of mine recently did AFF and got his first 4 jumps done in a day including briefs and debriefs (excluding the actual ground course) so I still maintain some DZs are more efficient than others in getting through loads.

Depends where you jump. I'm often closing my container as the plane's landing and then stuffing my pilot chute in, gearing up and sprinting for the plane before it takes off without me.

Yeah, I think they all vary. I have great openings but I have mates who have slammers and regular chops.

Nice one. Remember the removable slider does open quicker than the stock one so, as long as you find the Katana openings with the stock slider comfortable, you should be good.

No worries on bigger canopies (135 and up) but on anything smaller, unless there’s some wind to land into, I generally just slide in anyway. I’m seemingly too shit to completely shut it down and I’m too old to run things out with 100% consistency. It doesn’t help that I have mutant feet and mostly limited to extra wide New Balance - not the slickest of shoes. If you are able to find skate shoes or similar to fit you should be good to slide on your feet until the speed is out of it. Another thing to consider is I think sometimes people have jumped cross braced canopies for too long to remember how much more lift they have.

Yeah man, as posted above, awesome openings on my Katana 120 with the VFX2 sized RDS I had on my Crossfire before (75cm wide by 64cm deep). I had it made by a local rigger and it's got the PD style connections which are pretty easy to reconnect. Takes maybe 2 minutes more to pack and so much easier to deal with after opening. IMO, the NZ Aerosports method is a bit more difficult to put back on but others prefer it so your mileage may vary. Depending on where you are, happy to share his details with you if you want him to make one to the same specs but, if you're not in Australia, you'll probably be better off finding someone closer to you. You'll get people telling you "You don't need a removable slider on a canopy over 100 square feet" etc. but they're just talking about performance and I don't think that's the reason for removing your slider. Like you, I hate stowing my slider behind my neck so I think you should ignore them. You'll never go back once you start taking your slider off.

Update on this for anyone looking to reference in the future. I’ve had this slider on my KA120 for about 30 jumps and have had nothing but awesome openings, terminal and sub-terminal. The openings are improved massively over the stock slider. The only minor issue is having it usually stop a few inches above my soft links but a little bit of front helps push it down so I grab it without much of a headache https://youtu.be/HW3cdNfIi7Q

Agreed. I’m merely saying that I would caution against making that decision on the basis of an experienced person doing it as it wouldn’t be a good option for most of us.

And what makes you suppose I don't understand them or have very little knowledge of how to use them? Moderately dickish of you (and actually wrong) to presume such a thing and, in fact, I never said anything of the sort. I was merely commenting on the use of "I know someone who does it and they're more experienced than you" as an argument for them. I even pointed out that I wasn't casting aspersions on this person when saying it. BTW, they work very well on reserves for a number of reasons but a key one is that the pilot chute doesn't stay with the canopy after deployment. That's not the case with a main and, unless you had to do it due to shoulder mobility for example. I'd argue that towing a pilot chute full of metal behind most modern canopies wouldn't be a great idea at all.

I have no dog in this fight but, without casting aspersions on this particular person, I've seen some extremely experienced people doing very stupid things :)