Bip

I used about 80 jumps between SL and 5 sec ff (rounds). I got to be pretty ace at SL but everytime I went to 5 sec ff I would pull as soon as I was out the door. Eventually I realised the SL progression system was not for me. I ended up doing AFF with no re-jumps.

No 1 is easy, Go for your main. As Billvon said, Conditioning will make the decision for you. It will also be a lot quicker. I was once in a 4 way where we lost altitude awareness. We all got massive groundrush about the same time. All of us dumped our mains while still in formation. People on the ground say we were probably well under 500 ft when our canopys were open. Nobody was wearing a cyprus. Not one of us thought about the reserve. No time for that. :)

I refused to jump once when I was on 5 sec ff. I was so scared I was absolutly sure I was going to die. On the ride down I realised I would never jump again if I did not go right back up. I landed, manifested myself on the very next lift. The 5 secs went well. but then had a total. Got my reserve out at about 400ft. The rig I was jumping was an old B4 rig with a R10 reserve. (I think) I was wearing thick winter gloves and lost the main handle as I pulled it out of the pocket. The reserve was difficult to pull because the handle was tight against the reserve. That was about 1300 jumps ago in 1977.