CRWCheryl

Actually, the diamond death spiral has come in quite useful for taking care of problems. Think about it... You have someone (who shall remain nameless and blonde but not Wendy) docking a row 5 wing and wrapping it. If the pilot allows the formation to turn to the heavy side, you keep it from wrapping more. It's flying and scary, but those on the outside wing understand they are dealing with a spiraling diamond and are attempting to do what they can to stop the turn. Now, one thing that we did learn this year is that you don't starburst out of those problems.... By the way, 9 way pullouts spiral quite nicely. Highly recommend it.

It's kind of like ducking or cringing. You do pull your chin down, like you mentioned, Chris. Then I pulled my shoulders up and tightened my back, kind of like a very intense shrug.

Hey, you left out a couple! Like when you get your teeth realigned by gasping when you go into a wrap and get a line stuck in them. Or from reaching up to grab the risers as they come off your back and having the rings slam your hand and break it.

Hey Chris, On that jump last August, I knew there was a delay and so I tensed my shoulders around my neck very hard. It probably saved my life. I do recommend tensing up that way.

Hey Billy, My injury was out of an otter and the exit speed was perfect. The airplane speed had nothing to do with this particular incident, although past openings may have had accumulating effect. I have been more focused on on-heading openings. The d-bag tends to give me more off-headings, so I don't use a d-bag. And I hadn't rolled the nose. I liked the fact that I knew my parachute was opening right when I wanted it to. Never thought in a million years that I could do so much damage to myself. Now I roll the nose and curl the tails in on both sides. And I mean I roll the nose tightly. I still get a snappy opening sometimes, but it just may be that I'm more sensitive. Nothing like that one incident! At first I jumped with a ZP slider to slow the opening, and that helped. As soon as I started jumping larger than 8 way, I changed back to the mesh slider so there wasn't so much noise in the formation. I found I was getting hard of hearing with the ZP slider. Other contributing factors to my injury probably included: wearing 26 pounds of led around my waist and going horizontal faster, a pilot chute that was too well used and didn't immediately pull the parachute, line dump, and possibly questions about the bridal being too short. The opening was directly on-heading, so other than being horizontal or past, there are no body position issues on the injury. Oh, I do try to make sure that I am more upright when I deploy now to eliminate some of the snap on opening.

Hey, those new canopies have float AND drive! Great for making wing docks, huh? LOL. You can remove the extra french links when you see the lines don't lay perfectly together when you're packing. That took 50-70 jumps for my new 143.

Seems to me I heard some discussion about radio interference having to do with the Thailand record last year. Even if the latest/greatest is fixed, what about the old gear out there?

There is more than one way to build a downplane, yes. There are a few CRWdogs - Toadsuckers - around the Titusville area. It is difficult to describe the maneuver in written words. You might want to actually have someone show you the maneuver on the ground.

Hans, were you over there playing? I got a note from Susanne and Gauda, along with a rebuttal from Chris Gay. I still can't believe that they combined perfectly good tequila with raw eggs, though. Gustavo's pictures look like more fun in paradise.

Great shots, Gustavo! I especially liked the angle you got looking down on a starburst. I hadn't seen that before. The coast was beautiful! But you got no pictures of the tequila and eggs? Cheryl

Hey Kleggo! I flew into Girona, but flew out of Barcelona. (Had problem with weight issues using Ryan Air out of London to Girona, so rebooked out of Barcelona. Glad I did.) Hotel - I liked the Hotel Castle Blanc (sp?) because it was clean, close, and very very cheap. You might want to check with Dave Richardson or Chris Gay about sharing a car. The car is very convenient, although scary when driving in Barcelona. (There are zippy little scooters EVERWHERE who think they are James Bond!) Lots of hills towards the coast a little ways. Keep in mind that the roads are NARROW! Oh, and there is no shoulder in a lot of places, so if you get run off the road on your cycle, you'll get run off the mountain. Dali Museum was interesting - strange. The Dali home was over at the coast and was interesting. There is a museum of the Citadel of Roses at the next town over from Empuria - interesting. I enjoyed the architecture in Barcelona the most, especially Gaudi's El Temple De La Sagrada Familia. Save some time to walk (or cycle if you're not run over) in Barcelona. Cheryl

Here's a good dive I use when working with newbies. It gives them a chance to see the relativity of using different controls. Trainer goes out, lays base. Newby exits second, figures out what they need to do to get back to base and then sets up off the side, about level. Sometimes trainer moves to get in position. Trainer front risers for a couple of seconds, stops. After trainer stops, newby front risers and stops. Reset so that you are side to side and level. Trainer hits rear risers gently. Stops. Newby hits rear risers. Stops. Reset again if necessary. Trainer pulls brakes. Stops. Newby pulls brakes. Stops. Reset. Trainer performs outside spiral. Stops. Newby performs outside spiral. Trainer resets near newby who usually goes very low in the spiral. This last one is to reinforce that spirals put you behind and below. Best use of it is exiting out of chase planes on large formations. Otherwise it is generally best not to use this. It is fun to end the dive with a dock or bumping end cells. But the point is to let the newby see what the controls do relative to another person.

If you've been jumping with Vern and Ken, you are fine for coming out to play with the recreational CRW set up all over.

OK, I want the story..... I hear something about an all Goodin 4 stack at ZHills last weekend? Hmmmmm?????

Nice "first" wing dock, Lori! I will collect next time I see you.

You might try Kevin Vetter. He used to do strange things with rounds.

Just my two cents.... I hate it when people loose their mains. But I hate it worse when they get hurt. I would rather take a chance on not finding a main than on someone being hurt. And, pursuant to a discussion this last weekend, I THINK CATCHING A CUTAWAY UNDER A RESERVE IS A VERY BAD IDEA NO MATTER WHAT THE CONDITIONS. If I was to see someone do it, and survive, I would ask another CRWdog, maybe Jon Sikorski, if they wouldn't please knock some sense into that person.

There is nothing like the CRW community when you are feeling down and out .... And there is nothing like getting up in the air again and jumping! Four jumps today, post broken neck. WHAT A BLAST!

Even after 4 years, it is possible that a hunter will maybe find a green canopy and turn it in to a drop zone so that a certain crwpup who happens to be going out of town for a crw weekend will turn the salvagable parts over to the crw dog who might have lost a canopy. Don't give up, Wendy!

She´s still in Spain. We´re going to Barcelona to get in trouble for the next three days. A couple of hours ago, our favorite moderator once again became a drag queen, this time it was under a 4 way diamond hanging out over the Mediteranean. Wait until you see the pictures! Her birthday was more like a few days. She had a reserve ride, don´t you love your reserves! Unfortunately, we´ve been looking for her main for 2 days, no luck. But.... this is probably one of her most memorable birthdays. Last night she led a group of Brits under several banquet tables.....

By any chance are you referring to JimBo's new invention? I think he took a tennis ball and glued streamers of some sort to it. He took it up at Moss Point. He threw it across the 16 way diamond, zoomed right past Chico who was on the wing on the other side. Chico didn't know what it was! Then, JimBo was playing it again and threw it straight up. It never came down! I can't remember who just happened to catch it in the formation. They finally dangled it down the front of the formation. Loads of fun! JimBo is always up to something. Someone's silly revenge.... JimBo looked up to make sure he was docked, then looked down to take a dock. When he looked back up, there was a Barbie hanging from his parachute!

"You guys should just do CRW. There are so many more ways to get killed, it makes a CYPRES seem safe." -Kevin Keenan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OHMYGOSH! Kevin! You are being quoted in a reputable forum! Does that mean that, um, you're getting old?

Even catching a freebag can be a little dicey. There is a video out there where two CRW dogs converge on one freebag. BAM! Two more freebags. (It is an old video. I think most have learned from it.) One of my team mates caught the freebag up in his lines. He tumbled a bit on landing. And I've even heard that the spring can cause intense pain to a certain gender should it be caught in the groin area. Would I still catch a freebag? Yes, as long as the traffic was clear and I was up high enough. I won't catch a main, though.

OHMYGOSH! It would be much better on all of us, and probably yourself, if you just used your teeth.

Besides having "the line of death" at 2000 feet, it's important to pursue enforcement/education. CRWdogs can chew on the pups that cross too early. Management can take a part in educating both freefallers and crw who end up at the wrong place. And the pilots can also help by informing the right people when they see problems. (One of the Perris pilots recently buzzed an airplane flying around a CRW load.)