faulknerwn

I have never heard a molar strap called a death strap before, but I also haven't seen one used in years. And I find Racers the easiest reserve to pack and I have never used one of those straps. I know CRW dogs have been referring to their downplane straps as death straps since the early-to-mid 90's at least.

Really? Holy cow! I have been jumping for 30 years and have never heard of that happening. Definitely on opening or a worn line braking occasionally later but never a canopy ripping in half not during opening shock..

I am an AFF instructor and most of my student jumps I have my VOG now. I LOVE the Vog. Before I always had traditional audibles which beeped at altitudes which was fine. But I can tell you when you have a student flip upside down ar 5k and things start hitting the fan - traditional audibles just sound like continual screeching in your ear. The way more expensive VOG -instead of just screaming in your ear tells you an altitude. And having chased down students - I love my VOG and it is worth every penny I paid for it,

I had a local artist in my town paint this one of mine last year.

I think you are talking about Chris Bickerdike. There is a thread about him in the old school skydiving, but many of the pictures are no longer there. https://www.dropzone.com/forums/topic/55548-chris-bickerdike's-skydiving-artwork/

He still lives somewhere in the Austin area. He occasionally brings parachutes up to my dropzone for repacks. I don't have any contact info however.

I was a horrible freefall student but kept at it and have over 12000 jumps now. I am an AFF instructor who just a couple weeks ago had a student go fetal for the first couple thousand feet but recovered. She now has passed all of the AFF levels and is moving on. Do not let one jump stop you. My student Logbook

I have packed reserves that were completely fine - I inspected it with no problems - but that had no prior pack card. It was brought to me because another dropzone in the area refused to pack it without its prior history being spelled out on the pack and data card. A lot of times I have had people bring me used reserves with some weird shit. One time I had one reserve come with toggles still attached (!!!!) but it actually worked out because that person had bought a used container from someone completely different who didn't send it with toggles (both standard velcro toggles). But holy heck - anyone sending a canopy at least send it with connector links (metal or slinks) attached to a card, I have had ones shipped with lines and no links and in a giant mess. Ugh...

Does the fact that I followed you in on that load qualify as stupid ? :-)

My plan whenever we were using straps was (besides not taking it so low you get &#*@*ed) was if we could not release the straps for whatever reason we go back into a side by side and either cut the straps with a hook knife if we could not release them or land the side by side. But I would never go so low with straps where I had no options.

I will say it is a rare Javelin where I launch the reserve and it does not go to full bridal extension. Racers always do too. The Javelin PC is wimpy compared to a Mirage but it doesnt have to push a crazy amount of flaps out of the way. In my rigging career, Racers and Javelins (and old Reflexes) consistantly have the best launches.

It seems even a large amount of the 'normal' fatalities tend to be older people. This year alone was an older jumper doing a low cutaway in Florida. An older jumper getting caught by a dust devil in Eloy. Most of the stupid deliberate low turns are still young males, but it does seem that sometimes there are older people reacting poorly or slowly to emergencies.

I have a handful of jumps on them many years ago. Not a bad canopy. A slightly less aggressive canopy than a Stiletto.

My dz has both a bunch of KISS and a bunch of Cookies to try on - from what I have seen it is very much head shape - Cookies fit me better because the Kisses were way too tight on the face. Other people the Kisses fit way better than the Cookies..

One thing to do as well - there have been times when I over-used an arm and my right elbow was killing me - Once you open the parachute - do the vast majority of movements/turns with your good arm - in my case I did practically all left turns while my right elbow healed. That way you will save the strength in your bad arm until you need it for flare..

Good to see you too! Yeah GoPros even on the narrowest setting are super wide. You can be 10 feet behind a CRW formation and look like you are a hundred yards..

Is there a good video camera out there that does not record as wide as a go-pro? Videoing CRW this weekend even being super close to the formation and the go-pro set on Linear it still seems super far away. My old mini-dv cameras and such back in the day had a much better viewing angle that was not nearly as wide.

For a CRW rig - you are pulling at altitude - you have time - spend too long and the opening will hurt but you can get the handle. I had a floating pud on a pullout once but it was on a freefall jump pulling at 3k or so. And my current pullout system is far more secure than the Reflex I had back then. I feel like I get more on-heading openings on my actual pullout as well. I think doing CRW where you are pulling 2 seconds out the door both work fine.

I switched to a pullout for my CRW rigs years ago. I like it much better than throwouts for CRW. I think the handle is less of an issue for CRW than for freefallers because if you check the handle right before you leave the plane it is unlikely to be floating when you go to pull. And its pretty simple to train yourself to actually pull the pin.

Most likely as long as you have a logbook and can translate (if not in English) and the logbook spells out exactly what your jumps were and what you did (as opposed to vague jumped at 12 pulled at 5). dropzones will work with you. Often smaller dropzones are more flexible than bigger ones with rigid rules.

A lot will depend on your dropzone and the people who are there. I have thousands of CRW jumps and have done lots of intro 2-way CRW jumps with people on 1.0 loaded Triathlons when they had 25-50 jumps. If they are at a dropzone with no experienced CRWdogs like me - they need more experience before jumping with other beginners. Jumping Lightnings - they are a bit more challenging to land than Triathlons or Spectres. I would say at least a hundred jumps before jumping a lightly loaded Lightning - most of the beginner CRW camps around have the beginners on 1.0-1.1 loaded Lightnings...

That video is definitely long and I couldn't sit through it. But as in most disciplines in skydiving - are you doing a solo angle jump or a 10way? Are you trying to do CRW with your 50 jump buddy or the guy with 5000 CRW jumps? Are you trying to sitfly with 4 friends when none of you can keep it for a whole skydive? So much depends on the experience of everyone involved. I have done a ton of CRW jumps with people who had less than 50 jumps but they were simple 2 ways with me who has world records in the discipline. Them doing a 2-way with another 50 jump wonder would be a completely different thing. Trying to sitfly with your friend who also has 50 jumps is a completely different beast than doing a sitfly with someone who has a thousand freefly jumps..

I don't like the big initial jolt - I definitely agree that you are more likely to be on-heading but when I open with all of the lines double stowed, the first stage of the opening is slow and soft, and then the second stage is all about the parachute and its pack job. With the semi-stowless bags the initial jolt is much more abrupt, and I would be afraid to jump with my heavy camera helmet on one. Even on normal jumps with a standard helmet, the semi-stowless bags always have me going UHH on the first stage of the opening because its so much faster - like a reserve opening. I definitely get if you are on a super tiny canopy where heading control is crazy important I think it could be good. I jump more 'traditional' canopies which are nowhere near so sensitive to minor issues compared to the sub-100 stuff and I'd rather have the softer opening in exchange for more off heading than the brisk first stage.

I jumped with a friend's VOG this weekend. While the accent was weird (I felt like I was being yelled at by schoolmarm the whole way down) it was kinda cool knowing the altitudes the whole way. But it is CRAZY more expensive than a regular audible and I'm not sure its worth it. I did like it telling me the numbers as we came down but is it worth $200 more than a regular audible?

There are two stages of openings - the part where the lines stow out, and then when the parachute opens. The first part is DEFINITELY faster with the semi-stowless - I am used to all double stowed rubber bands where my initial situp is super gentle This week I did a couple jumps on a demo canopy with a semi-stowless -the initial part of the opening was jarring but the second part was soft (depends on the main.) I would never jump a semi-stowless with my gigantic camera helmet - the non-stowed portion seems to fall out practically instantly causing a sudden jolt before the parachute does its part. In reality the semi-stowless bags are just like reserve freebags which are designed to open super fast. I don't mind them on a normal jump where I have a light helmet on and my neck can take that initial jolt, but I would never have one when I jump my great big camera helmet. My neck would not be happy