FreeFlyer2100

New speakers and an amplifier to power them would greatly improve the sound. Are you pretty handy and think you could install it yourself? If so, Crutchfield is a good company to purchase through and they include all directions and parts needed to install in factory speaker sizes. If not, then I would go to a car stereo shop, not best buy or large chains. Good luck

Are you going to have the same size and kind of main canopy in both? If not, you really are not doing yourself a favor at getting better at canopy flight. I bought my second rig so that I had a CRW rig and a free fall rig both with very different canopies. Luckily the CRW canopy taught me more than I could ever imagine so when I jumped my free fall canopy I had a ton of confidence but a very different landing set up. If you are going to be using two differnet mains and two different sizes they are going to fly different and you will spend a lot of time thinking about the difference instead of getting better after each jump. Just some thoughts

I currently do use both a Protrack and an Optima II in my helmet. I like how the Protrack keeps the log of jumps, exit alt, speeds, free fall audible alarams, deployment alti and so forth but does not have the low altitude warnings. I guess I could have gone with a Viso on my wrist so that I could see the lower altitude more accurately with some alarams but I went with the Optima. So on both ears I can hear my free fall audibles and then under canopy I can set up my pattern with the audibles from the Optima. May someone else can speak to this but building your visual reference of low altitude with only a beep to verify certain altitudes can keep your eyes free to check references and most importantly keep scanning the skies for other canopies. Any other thoughts on this?

If you already know that you are going to be a base jumper then you should make your presense known at the DZ. BASE jumpers just lead the crowd and are envied by everybody, so getting to try out different canopies won't be hard at all. Once you are done with the studnet canopies, meant for those without skills then you can quickly get ready for the Velocity. The Velo 84 sounds like a great first choice so you can master the performance landing. Let's face it, all base jumpers use these boring big canopies to land and it is not exciting to watch. When you show everyone your skills of masterfully landing a velocity on a slider down jump then no one will forget your name. Hope you waste no time through this progression and don't forget to tell your new friends to invite me on your ash jump. Blue skies

I have a Storm 135 that is the CF Storm and just started wingsuit with it. The canopy has the three rings on top for the retractable bridle but I do not use it for freefall. I have a standard bag and collapsible pilot chute. I did have to replace the slider with a standard zp slider instead of the mesh slider it came with. Your pack volume is going to go up with all that dacron and tailpocket. Hopefully your container can handle it and not create an issue deploying the d-bag from the container. That would be my only concern, have fun with it

+1 +2 Wow this is a tough crowd, I would like to see what you find enjoyable

Thought everybody on DZ.com might like to see the video that won a free Cypress 2 AAD at the Carolinafest boogie at Skydive Carolina last weekend. The video is called "The Skydiver" and hope everyone enjoys the comedy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znWvE5qmY_E

Very cool Kevin, hate that the launch was delayed a few weeks ago so we could have built that diamond. Glad you, Bob and Dave could still get together and add another CRW photo to a shuttle launch. Todd

Hey Shah those girls may even appreciate the lame coupon book given for free back rubs and other dumb crap that shows you "care"

Something else you can do is go to Skydive Sebastian and ask for Ballistic Bob. He teaches proximity flying under canopy and can really show you lots of exercises to do under canopy. He has put together an entire training program and will be in the air next to you so you can see what these controls do relative with another canopy. It is one thing to see how much altitude you lose on an altimeter but to see the difference compare to another canopy gives a better idea of altitude lost or gained from each control. Good for you to work on canopy control so early and hope you stick with it. Todd

If you are jumping at Skydive Monroe there are a few CRW dawgs out there who rarely ever go in freefall. Ask manifest to introduce you to one of them and they can jump with you and explain whatever you need to know about spotting, winds and 3 second delays. Try and find John Young to jump with since he has a wealth of knowledge and is a great teacher. Hop and pops are the best way to learn how to truly fly your canopy and not just glide it back to the ground.

Hey Aaron they are still making the patches and also sending out the award certificates. When I sent in the paperwork a few weeks ago for the night stacks in zhills I was able to order patches for the day awards also. They were out of the patches or were phasing them out when I got the day awards, so it was nice to order them later when they got them back. They have patches now for all 6 awards now and can be ordered. I still do not ever see these awards show up on my USPA card but maybe someone else can speak to how you make that happen. Good luck getting them and have fun sewing them on to your jumpsuit, gear bag, ect.. Todd

One thing you are going to find is that the 160s are going to out float the 126 more so than the 143. Now this might work really well if the 126 is flying slot four. Even though they all might have the same wingloading the 126 is going to sink faster than the 160s. I would say that the 143 with weight would give you more flexibility to move this member around in the formation. This would become very important during the inter pieces of competition. Of course this is all assuming that your team is going to train for sequentials and not just rotations. If you are only going to be doing rotations I don't think any of this would matter at all. Anyone think otherwise? Todd

Hey Jeff did you see that Matt Z put the raw video of your AFF jump on Youtube? Todd

Not to forget that dz.com skydivers never downsize in a dangerous manner and always wear a camera once they have achieved skygod status.