riggerrob

Listening to your own inner voice and sticking to your own hard deck is probably the most difficult thing you can do in this lifetime.
The second most difficult thing is finding a way to tell you friends to slow down without hurting their feelings.
Standing up and stating your opinions is difficult and dangerous. Many people do not want to listen to opinions that differ from their own, so their first instinct is to shut you up, their second instinct is to ignore you, but if you persist, they will try to kick you off the DZ.
I have an annoying habit of being ahead of or behind the times and some people don't want to hear my opinions, so when they tire of listening to me, they try to kick me off the DZ.
For example, 16 years ago I tried to introduce the notion of tandems as a paying profession to a small DZ in Ontario. They branded me a whore and slandered me off the DZ. They may have forced me to move to other DZs, but all my income over the last ten years has come from tandems and rigging. In the long run, I was proven right, but no-one wanted to hear it back then.
Another example occurred 10 years ago when I publically disagreed with an AFF Course Conductor over whether students should be allowed to jump hand-deploys. In the short run my comments established an adversarial relationship that prevented me from earning an AFF rating. In the long run, most USPA DZs have adopted my attitude.
'told you so!"
I have not backed down from stating my opinions, but these days, I am getting more subtle with age. Sometimes I wait until the end of the day to state my opinion. The response is often "You are the third person to mention that." Some skydivers need to hear the same message from three or more people before they change their ways.

The disadvantage to jumping too small a canopy is that it will be ahead of your brain for hundreds of jumps. You will be too scared to practice all of the canopy control exercises you need to stay alive on bad days.
Tell the factory that you are returning the 135 and want a 150 in your favorite colours.

A floating ripcord pin sounds like the reserve closing loop was too loose.
That problem can arise with any model of container.
A wise jumper would have taken it back to the last rigger - who singed the card - and asked for a newer, shorter reserve loop.
The bottom line is: don't jump "dodgy" gear.

The only people who can legally jump 2-pin Teardrops in the USA are foreigners (ie. not American citizens). The FAA now allows foreigners to jump gear that is approved/certified in their homelands.

Jumping a tiny canopy just so you can land before your student to radio him down is a lame excuse. You should jump a mid-sized canopy, and spiral as if the devil was after you to land before the student.
Secondly, you do not need a full-blown AFFI to talk down students. Any Instructor A (Canadian term) who has demonstrated competence at talking down first jump students should be able to talk down an AFF student.
Thirdly, I found that publically dis-agreeing with an AFF Course Conductor established an adversarial relationship that I was never able to over come. It does not matter that my attitude towards hand-deploy pilotchutes eventually became standard policy at many American DZs, that adversarial relationship prevented me from earning an AFF rating.
The adversarial relationship was not totally the course conductor's fault. In childhood I never learned how to trust authority figures, and all those weird head games carried over into adulthood.
I later earned a CSPA PFF Instructor rating, but that is another story.

To clarify, Sabre Is are rectangular 9-cells, while Sabre 2s are slightly tapered 9-cells. Sabre 2 competes directly with PISA Hornet and Icarus Safire.
Triathlons have 7 cells.
As for the urban myth of Sabre 1s spanking; the only time my Sabre 1: 170/150/135 spanked me was when I packed sloppily.

Michelle,
Your original question was valid.
Unfortunately a few guys got a bit too loud.
Please continue asking questions. Curiosity will keep you alive in this sport.
My 2 cents worth. Sounds like you had a slower than normal opening on a lightly loaded Spectre. Spectres are designed to open slowly, to make the cameramen love them. I don't know your exit weight, but I suspect that you were loading your Spectre 230 at less than 1:1, which would explain the slower than normal opening.
My experience has been that the lighter the wing-loading, the slower the opening. For example, the SET 400s - that I normally jump - open firmly within 500 feet when I jump with students weighing more than 200 pounds. On the other hand, if I take a sub-100 pound student, a SET 400 will open very softly and snivel for 1000'.
The bottom line is to stick with your personal hard deck. My personal hard deck is 1500' (as per USPA guidelines). The last time I busted my hard deck was two years ago and I still have nightmares about hanging under a lineover at 1400' over the Fraser River.
Hard decks are a personal decision. Hard decks for students and junior jumpers should be in the 2500'-2000' or 6 seconds after pulling range. Most licensed jumpers set their personal hard deck around 2000'. USPA recommends making a decision by 1800' and pulling more handles by 1500'. Taking it as low as USPA guidelines makes me uncomfortable.

Yesterday it was sunny, so I did tandems.
Today it is raining, so I will pack some reserves.
I get to surf the internet because the boss does not expect me to be at the DZ until noon on weekdays.
Oh, and I am studying to become a commercial pilot, so I can tell the rest of you to "get the F' out of my airplane!"

The problem is that raw gasoline dissolves the adhesive on duct tape.
Remember Red Green's advice: "wrinkles in your duct tape are a sign of poor workmanship."

Quasar II is a decent, 1990s vintage container. The real questions are wether the harness fits you and how much wear it has suffered.
Quasar II packing manuals are available on-line at Strong Enterprises' web site.
http://www.strongparachutes.com/manuals.html#quasarmanual

PFF Instructors need:
a main large enough to "land out"
a reserve large enough to "land out"
a Cypres
gloves
1 or more visual altimeters
1 or more audible altimeters
Which brings us to the question of where to mount your audible altimeter and the whole helmet debate. Leather hats are hopelessly obsolete. Some type of hard-shell helmet is mandatory for survival.
I usually wear a Protec because it is comfortable and cheap. A Bonehead Mindwarp or the latest G3 would be ideal, but I can't afford them.
On dives that might result in a kick in the head (ie. early release dives) I wear a full face helmet. My full-face is actually an old Hansen camera helmet without a visor. It leaves my lips free for conversation, but its main function is to protect my jaw when I have to dock on the spinning student from hell.

When I pulled my reserve ripcord - back in 1979 - it was a silver metal handle on the right side of my chest-mounted reserve. The reserve was round, because most people had round reserves in those days.
Since 1985 I have only owned square reserves. and all my rigs have had cutaway pillows on the right side, with silver reserve ripcords on the left side.
I have to agree with Bill Booth that standardization is a good thing. It does not matter how much "better" your new handle is, if you cannot find it NOW! during a malfunction.
As for innovations, my advice is to wait two or three years until someone else works out all the bugs. When I worked at Rigging Innovations, it took us two or three years to eliminate the bugs from any pattern set. For example, the Flexon debuted in 1991. In 1994 we released the '94, which was basically a simplified Flexon with trough style riser covers, because few people could be bothered to learn how to pack Flexon risers. There were a bunch of minor fit issues with the '94 Talon pattern set and I replaced a lot of side flaps for free. Come January 1997, R.I. released the Talon 2 which was a Flexon/'94 Talon with all the bugs worked out. It only took us 6 years to refine the Flexon reserve freebag to the point where it was easy to pack!
If you think that R.I. was slow, just look at how long it took Relative Workshop to de-bug the Vector 3.
The other issue with innovations is that sometimes it is just too much work to teach old dogs new tricks. For example, at Pitt Meadows all the students and most of the fun jumpers use BOC. A couple of older jumpers have their pilotchutes still mounted on their leg straps and the DZO still jumps a pull-out. Older jumpers claim thay don't want to be bothered learning about newer handle locations. And frankly I agree with them. If a system is proven and has worked well for them for many years, why change?

On some DZs "SSS" means checking "shape, speed, spin?"

Yes, the Para-Flite's Evolution was a funky, 21-cell canopy made of F-111 fabric. They had some problems with the reefing line jamming, so make sure you have the second pattern of d-bag and reefing line.
Also, since Evolutions are made of F-111 fabric, do not plan on loading them much more than 1 pound per square foot.

If I find myself on my back in freefall, I do a lop-sided delta. The delta gets me head-down pretty quickly and the lop-sided arms add a roll to speed up the process. Once I am in a chest-to-earth delta, I resume my normal arch to flatten out. This recovery technique works great with tandems.

2 points:
A long time ago, USPA. CSPA etc. insisted that all students wear some kind of AAD.
Secondly, heros collect medals posthumonously(sp?), while smart people collect pensions.

Currently, PD SLinks are only approved on PD and Raven reserves. If you install slinks on any other brand of reserve (ie. Tempo), you have a 99.999999999% chance of surviving everywhere except in a court-room.

Yes, extra weights can lead to drowning if you jump near water and trust Helen Keller to spot.
Some types of weights can be discarded while you are hanging under canopy.
Weight belts are the easiest to discard, followed by weights in mud flap pockets.
Some bib type weight vests can be discarded under canopy, provided you wear them over your jumpsuit and practice discarding them while in a suspended harness.
If your weights are sewn into your rig, then climb out of your harness as soon as possible after splash-down.
Surviving a water landing comes back to the whole concept of thinking through (and practicing) emergency procedures on the ground, weeks before you need then, then keeping your eyes open under canopy and keeping your brain a minute or two ahead of your canopy.
Jeez! That sounds like a recipe for surviving all skydives!

If students are still in freefall below 3,000' they are on their own.
Rob Warner, PFF Instructor

We discussed the maximum efficient wing-loading in the swooping forum.
Sabre 1.5
Stiletto 1.7
Blade-running competitors 2.3
etc.
For example, I have a Sabre 150 that I load at 1.46. It has a huge sweet spot and turf-surfs great!
On the other hand, I load a Sabre 135 at 1.63. My Sabre 135 has a tiny sweet spot and hardly any surf.

Call me a grumpy old fart, but I made up my mind on this issue in 1979. In 1979 a skydive went to !@#$%^&, I pulled a silver handle and I lived.
All my rigs have have had silver reserve ripcord handles. This is partly due to our climate in the Great White North. It is difficult to find things by feel while wearing thick gloves.
If you worry about oafs grabbing your handles in error, then don't jump with them.
The second solution is to ask for the smallest silver ripcord handles that are currently installed on Racers and Mirages.
My third choice would be the fabric-covered steel tube ripcord handle available on Vectors. I do not want go any softer than a Vector reserve ripcord.
Finally, you can mix and match ripcord handles from various manufacturers. For example, the Racer factory builds ripcord handles for dozens of other manufacturers, just specify the length (from the pointy end of the pin) when you order.

Yes, last year I published an article in SKYDIVING Magazine about weight vests, etc. The conclusion was different vests for different folks. In the short run, you should ask other slender jumpers on your dropzone what they wear and maybe ask to borrow their vests. The closer they are to your size and build, the more reliable the advice.
Once you have tried a variety of vests and belts, then you can decide which is most comfortable for you.
Remember that good coaches deliberately under-weight junior jumpers, forcing them to continue improving their skills.
In the long run, you will probably get tired (read fatigued) of vests and want to sew weights into your container. Sewing weight pockets into a container is best left to a Master Rigger or the factory.
Also consider whether you want to wear weights high or low. Some people with er. "low centers of gravity" like to wear weights high on their shoulders to flatten out their body position. On the other hand, some people with "balanced physiques" cheat by wearing their weights high on their shoulders, this allows "balanced" people to relax their legs and fly mainly with their arms.
In the end, it comes down to which vest makes you the most comfortable.

Andy brought up a good point:
any new canopy should be accompanied by new training. The first jump course did not cover all possible canopy scenarios for three reasons.
First, first jump students can only absorb a limited amount of knowledge in one sitting.
Secondly, they will only grasp some information after they have made a few jumps, ie. the sight picture as they turn onto final approach.
Thirdly, new classes of canopy require new skills. For example, the cure for line twists on a Manta 290 is radically different than the cure for line twists on a tiny Stiletto.
Returning to the original question, the dude who has only jumped X228 canopies so far would be wiser to do a dozen jumps on a Sabre 190 before doing a hundred or more jumps on a Sabre 170, before considering a Stiletto. The point here is to only change one variable at a time. Only move down one size (15 or 20 square feet), or move down one class at a time (ie. 7-cell to 9-cell, square to slightly tapered, slightly tapered to seriously tapered).
If your DZ will not allow you to transition to BOC and two handle emergency procedures, then tell them they have two options: update their rental gear or watch you take your jump dollars elsewhere.

PD reserves do have an excellent reputation among skydivers who seriously over-load their reserves (much more than 1 pound per square foot), however they are not the only reserve manufacturer to incorporate spanwise reinforcing tapes on the bottom skin.
You can buy spanwise reinforced reserves made by: Parachutes de France (Techno), Performance Designs (PD series), Free Flight Enterprises (Amigo) and Parachute Industries of South Africa (Tempo made in 2001 or 2002).
This whole spanwise reinforcing concept started with Para-Flite's 5-cell Swift back in 1981. Swift's don't have spanwise reinforcing tapes per se, but they do have spanwise seams, which were strong enough reinforcing for many years. Spanwise seams were strong enough until people started loading canopies more than 1 pound per square foot in the 1990s.
When Precision introduced the Raven-M series in 1997, they incorporated spanwise seams (similar to Swifts), but that was more of a bulk-reduction scheme. During the Precision's P-124A drop tests, we exceeded the TSO standards for weight and airspeed by considerable margins and never tore a Precison canopy. Mind you, we deployed all those test articles with the risers even. We thought that spanwise seams were strong enough until people started tearing up Raven -Ms in in 2001. Part of the problem was tearing off line attachment tapes, and part of the problem was tearing bottom skins. The new variable seems to be deploying over-weight, over-speed and UNSTABLE. When you deploy unstable, you momentarily put all the load on one side of the canopy and exceed the tear strength of F-111 fabric. This can lead to bottom skin tearing. The solution to reducing bottom skin tearing is more reinforcing tapes.
PD, FFE and Parachutes de France all use spanwise reinforcing tapes on the bottom skins of their reserves. PISA introduced spanwise reinforcing tapes to the Tempo reserves in 2001. Precision has promised to introduce span-wise reinforcing tapes on their new Raven-Max series, but they are still drop testing and have not announced a release date.
In British Columbia the market is split between Tempo and PD reserves. Consumers perceive PDs to be better, but I cannot tell the difference at close inspection. The only difference I can see is that Tempos pack slightly smaller.

Listen to bill von.
If you get a fresh Tempo, it will have spanwise reinforcing tapes on the bottom skin, which makes it pack maybe 5% larger, but makes it far stronger if you are dumb enough to deploy it over-weight, over-speed and un-stable.