faulknerwn

People tend to see people like me as canopy Nazis - that's fine. But you must understand the reason - we've seen people get over their head. We've seen people become quadriplegics, we've seen people die. I know a bunch of people who quit the sport because they went too small, made some small mistake, and that was all she wrote. I had a friend who died under a 1.1 loaded canopy on her 201st jump. She had to land off in a tight area, got over her head and it cost her her life. I just want to keep my friends alive. Every weekend at the dz I end up preaching this stuff over the beer light. You can make a Sabre 135 fly fast like a 120 by using front risers and such. When you're in a tight spot landing off, you can't make a Sabre 120 landing like a 135. ALWAYS plan for the worst case scenario. Maybe the worst case scenario may never happen, but if it does you might survive. I've watched so many people downsize too quickly over the years. I've watched them hurt themselves too. I want my friends ro stay healthy so I have people to jump with. The one thing that seems consistent among skydivers over the years is that everyone thinks they're the exception. "Yeah most people at my number of jumps can't land this, but I can. I have more skills than they do." I see a lot of people who downsize smaller than they should and get scared of their canopy. It happened to me when I had about 500 jumps, and I upsized for a while. I got in over my head. Just remember, most of us "canopy nazis" just want to keep our friends alive. I'm tired of burying people.

At least go to my website and read the info there about what to do in emergencies. What if one of you does something unexpected and you end up entangled? Do you know the proper order to cutaway or other emergency procedures? The incident in Dallas appears to have been one guy accidently spiraled into the other - not quite CRW. Everyone should knoww how to properly handle a CRW wrap because even unintentional canopy collisions happen. W

Can you not reach your main pin to do a check on your own gear? A floating pull-out on older style Javelins had a bit longer of a line. The ones I've seen on Reflexes and new Javelins, would leave the pud most likely still floating by the corner of your container. On a Racer, my floating pud floats right by the bottom right corner of the container - i.e. if you reach back to where it should be, it hits you right in the hand. So I've never seen a floating pud get even so far away as to where the pin is located - and most of us are flexible to reach back to where our main pin is to feel it. Perhaps some older used gear would have this problem, but I haven't seen it on rigs manufactured in the last 5 years or so anyway. W

Keep working at it! I had 3 tandems, 2 AFFs and 43 SL jumps when I finally graduated student status. I have almost 3000 jumps now so even I eventually "got it!" If you want to get some hope, go to http://www.eco.utexas.edu/~faulkner/skydiver/howcrw.html That's my student logbook. Its rather funny reading now years later. I like the entry "Lived through it again". W

I've got 4 rigs - 3 of which are throwout and 1 of which is pullout. In my opinion the pullout is definitely the superior system. The only thiing you have to watch out for is having other people pack it - if you do - ALWAYS check your gear - all the misrouted stuff I've ever seen on pull-outs was done by packers. Being able to pull your pin yourself ensures you get the pc into the airstream. I like having the pc hidden - more protection for it. A floating pud is no longer an issue on the modern designs of rigs - that was more of an issue 20 years ago. All of the ones I've seen (mirage, Javelin, Racer) even if the pud comes loose, its TRIVIAL to find and pull. The modern designs are also more secure than the old rigs. I don't mind jumping BOC - for various reasons I have 3 throw-outs and one pullout and I'm not die-hard enough about one method or the other to switch the rigs. I know you can get a more consistent deployment on the pullout - fewer pc hesitations and such. That's why almost all good competition CRW teams use pullouts. And as far as releasing your pc into turbulance, I've dumped my throwout onto my back occasionally during the years, just as I've done my pullouts. It was a lazy throw in all cases. With correct packing, you will never find yourself having a total on a pullout systems. Just be very careful about checking your gear if a packer packs it because they don't always know what they're doing. W

Some of it depends on wing-loading, but in general, you'd want the 9-cell on top. They're a lot more "twitchy" and more likely to have issues than the 7-cells. For equivalently loaded Lightnings and Triathalons, expect the Triathalons to be sinkier and slightly faster than the Lightnings. They have a deeper nose-down trim. So they'd have an easier time docking late, but they might could want to fly in a bit of brakes to slow themselves down. Big thing to watch out for is trailing pcs - especially if you plane it up, it can be a risk for sure. ... So, please proceed with comments on how to stage based loading, canopy type, canopy angle of attack, zero-p and hybrids, jumper skill, riding out occillations, whatever you'dlike to add. ... Hybrid Triathalons are good - especially if they've been bought with Dacron lines. The retract PC is a big help. Larry can teach you about riding out oscillations - he's been in bigger stacks than I I'm sure (I'm of the diamond age). In general you just start adding a touch of brakes from the bottom to the top.

Let me relate to you a story of Steve Morrell. Forgive me if I get any details wrong. Steve was like a cat - he had 9 lives. He flew jets for the military, was a hard-core skydiver and base jumper among other things. A while back, he was base-jumping in Saudi Arabia. He had an off-heading opening and a cliff strike, His buddy carried him out and he was in a hospital in S.A. for a while. He missed his flight back to the U.S. That flight was the Pan Am flight which exploded over Lockerbie. He always wondered - he said he always kept his rig under the seat in front of him - no gearbag, and he knew he could get it on in 10-15 seconds flat or some such. That particular flight split in half at around 30,000 feet and freefell to the ground. He said he always wondered how it would have looked for him to be returning from Saudi Arabia, happen to have a parachute with him, and to have been the only survivor.

I've had a bunch of "engine-out" emergencies over the years. It depends on the airplane, but if a Cessna is flying fairly flat, just without an engine, we've generally managed to evacuate in

Interesting - my Cobalt 85 consistently opened with closed end cells, but my 75 opens beautifully. 95% of the time it stays on heading and I've never had a hard opening on it. All I do is bury the nose, quarter the slider, and just barely roll the tail to keep it neat.

Its not ideal, but I do it. You do run more of a danger of nastier line burns, but I do stacks with Spectres and Triathalons all the time. I'd be MUCH more wary of doing diamonds with them - I've got to trust the person pretty well before I'll do that. But I'd much rather see people doing CRW on Spectres than Sabres or Stillettos. W

In the past couple of years, I've seen more and more people get interested in CRW. Unfortunately many of them are going up and trying it without getting proper training, without using proper canopies, and doing dangerous that they don't even realize are dangerous. The accident in Dallas is something that could have happened in a lot of places. From what I understand, the two went up without any training and tried to do CRW, and got into trouble. No one knows right now why they never executed emergency procedures or what happened. Recently before I arrived at the dz for the day, several young jumpers went up to do CRW. They all had done a couple of CRW jumps with me, but really at this stage just know enough to get themselves into trouble. They built the stack with the 1-1 loaded canopy on top, the heavier loaded ZP second, and a 1.8 loaded Jonathan third. They didn't understand the concept of the fast canopies MUST go on top - anyone who's ever been around a stalling stack will never make that mistake twice. There were pictures of it with the bottom canopy deformed and I'm just thankful that it didn't stall and cause cutaways/injuries and possible death. You can do CRW with all sorts of canopies. But to do it safely you need the knowledge. There's no need to go back 20 years ago where we didn't know so much of the stuff we do today - find someone experienced, jump with them and learn. Learn CRW on proper canopies - I understand that true CRW canopies can be hard to find at times - but Spectres and Triathalons work well. You have to be careful of trailing pilot chutes and such, but either one is 10 times better than a Sabre and a hundred times better than a Stilletto for this stuff. I was told a story this weekend of jumpers (who had very little CRW experience on actual CRW canopies) trying to build a diamond with their sub-100 sq ft Cobalts. And building it in the wrong order. I'm just thankful they didn't kill themselves trying. I love my Cobalt 75 and I love building diamonds, but I don't think that even with 1500 CRW jumps I could fly a wing with my Cobalt. The canopy is just wrong for the slot - its not designed for that. I hear more and more these days about people doing CRW and trying to build formations with no training and not even realizing why what they're doing is so dangerous. It doesn't take many CRW wraps before you become way more cautious. But when you're learning CRW on ellipticals with microlines - you may not live through the learning curve. So _please_ before you go out and get a couple of buddies together and try this - get together with a coach - someone who's done CRW and knows what's going on. 10-15 years ago everyone did CRW because the canopies were more compatible back then. If you start asking around some of the older jumpers - you'll find people who can help you. Don't just try it on your own. Go to my website - read some of the info on there as well. Educate yourself on what you're doing please. BSBD, Wen http://www.eco.utexas.edu/~faulkner/skydive/crw.html

Yee haw! Now you understand why we love it so much!

Yep. A few years back I was a tandem passenger for a friend who was getting his rating. The Queen Air picked that load to blow an engine at 800 feet. Everyone landed with the plane, but it royally sucked not even having a choice in the matter! I wanted a parachute!

Ltes see: Malfunctions: 2950/4 = 737.5 (had gone 2100 hundred jumps between my 3rd and 4th mal) Reserve rides 2950/12 = 245,8 (I do a lot of CRW :-)

You just need to be careful with them. I got rid of one a long time ago because I came to realize I was waiting for the beep and not being altitude aware. About 6 months ago I got a Pro-track but am trying to be extremely careful about not waiting for the beep. Its very easy to do. I was talking to a guy at Rantoul who casually mentioned that'd he'd had 2 canopies out 3 times. I was shocked and asked him how - once he took it low on a 9-way because of crowded airspace when tracking, and the other 2 he basically just ended up low because of lack of awareness because he didn't hear his audible. With a look of disbelief on my face I asked him then if maybe he should consider checking his altimeter once in a while in freefall. His reply was that he never looked at his altimeter in freefall. With my mouth hanging open, about the only thing I could respond was, "I highly suggest you start!" This guy has between 500-700 jumps I believe., Scary stuff.

When landing on rear-risers the flare is a lot more sensitive. The biggest mistake people make when doing this is pulling down too far on the risers. Its a LOT easier to stall on the risers than the brakes - and you're not likely to slow down quite as much horizontally as you would with brakes. So people tend to keep flaring past the stall points on the risers. Practice up high. W

What's so nice about it? I've never jumped in that area, but in general traveling around the country I've noticed that the bigger the dz the less friendly, the harder to get on a load unless you know someone, and if you're traveling alone its generally less fun. So I have absolutely nothing against Cross Keys (never been there) but typically tend to choose the small-to-medium sized dzs because its easier to get on jumps and such. So I'm curious what the atmosphere is like there - I'd rather go somewhere where I'm treated as a new-found friend, rather than a nameless face in a sea of customers. Again, I'm not trying to bash anyone - I'm just assuming that with that flightline of aircraft that its a really large business. W

I'd bury the nose, pull the slider in front, and roll the nose and the tail. :-)

if you have a choice, and you're using it for freefall, definitely use a sail slider. I do know people who have taken freepacked Lightnings with a mesh slider to terminal. Hard opening but they didn't die. Its not going to be a Spectre snivel for sure, but I expect how bad the opening will be depends on the canopy, the age of the canopy, the weight of the person and how fast they're going. So expect it to be brisk. How brisk is hard to say. W

15-20 second delay is still as much terminal as a 60 second delay. :-) Only way to know for sure is to do it - I know people who do - I've taken 10 seocnd delays on my freepacked one and it opens pretty brisk. I would use every packing trick in the book to slow it down though when you try it. W

I may be staying over on a weekend near Philadelphia for business in September. The plane ticket is $500 cheaper for my company if I do a Saturday night stay. Before I commit to that though, I wanted to know the scoop on the dzs within a reasonable driving distance from Philadelphia. Can someone fill me in? A friendly Cessna dz is just as nice to me as a big drop zone so i'm up for any of them. Thanks. W

Yep. That should be fine as a starter rig. If you want to get into CRW on a regular basis, I'd advise at your next reserve repack (if you're jumping with mustwrap .... :-) get your (master) rigger to sew a CRW flap onto the reserve container. That's basically a triangular flap which just lays overtop of the reserve flap to keep lines from snagging on your reserve pins. Its an easy mod. The biggest thing you'll notice quickly with CRW is the legstraps. You'll know very quickly how comfortable they are!

Depending on the willingness of the manufacturer, yes you can. When I ordered my last CRW rig from Jumpshack, I sent 2 pages of text on how I wanted my risers set up :-) They did well. 2-1's can easily be added to existing risers. I use them for everything but rotations and landing. My risers are mini risers (many/most CRWdogs prefer wide risers but my hands are too small to grip wide risers well), with blocks on both the front and the rear risers and 2-1's on the fronts. Basiclally a rigger would need to sew a ring on the risers simillar to the ring the brake line goes through. I've found the best setup has binding tape going from the bottom of the risers up through a ring at the top and attaching to a toggle. Its basically just a pully system. Works wonders when flying wings for a while. I've replaced broken 2-1 lline/tape on numerous occasions at boogies with a tacked on pullup cord. Works just as well. Have had that last for hundreds of jumps before :-)

I prefer Tempo's myself. Being a CRWdog I've used mine quite a few times and I love how it lands. I've owned several Ravens which I've never figured out how to land well. I like PD's but they pack large and are much more expensive. W

[ As far as the nasty videos go, damn! It was cool that some were put in slow motion. The collision.mov was pretty wild, wtf was that guy thinking?! And on a couple of those wraps, it was like a wing was just kicking back and forgot what trim was...damn!