faulknerwn

You guys let Mike call the breakoff? That explains it! I mean if he'll fly a 70-way down to below 3.5, then a mere 25 way should be landable!

Japan's not THAT bad.. At least for regular jumpers.. When I was there I had to pay something like $20 for national insurance (free for Japanese folks) $20 to join their version of USPA for the month $50 to jump with rental gear (didn't feel like lugging my gear across the ocean) So while it was that for my one jump, it wouldn't be so much for a regular jumper

I've got a copy. My copy is a many-generation copy so its definitely fuzzy. My first attempt at it for some reason didn't bring the audio. I'm gonna try it again and if so i'll upload it to skydivingmovies.com W

Very true - but this guy landed this canopy safely in this case - so it surely wasn't spinning like the test case you mentioned. The last linover I witnessed (on someone else!) was straight over the middle and the canopy was flying perfectly straight. He chopped it and landed his reserve, but the canopy was by no means out of control. W

Wing-suiters have flown by canopy formations on multiple occasions before - we just usually have them leave from the airplane!!! Mr Bill's are challenging enough to do usually without adding in the challenge of all those wings and zippers and everything else to get in the way!

I remember being told that years ago when I had borrowed a big rig, was wearing 30 lbs of lead (I weighed 115 back then) and was jumping a Prodigy 175. I was told the reason I had problems was because I needed to learn to fly my canopy and that I didn't need a 150.. I'm a fan of matching.... W

Oh yeah - Skydive Locarno in Switzerland - an hour north of Milan by train. By far and away the most beautiful dropzone I've ever skydived at. Nestled in the Swiss Alps - its gorgeous! W

Venice! For sure.. And Florence is a much cooler city to visit than Milan... I love Salzburg as well.. And Spain is an awesome country - I loved Barcelona... W

I've never had a problem with any of my Racers, but I can think of multiple instances right offhand where Reflexes had premature reserve launches. I think its something about the one pin system is easier to pull accidently than the 2.. W

Is it this? http://crwdog.servebeer.com/crwpics/Brits.html

Where is Ann going? W

The only video I have easily accessible online is the following - I usually did them out of a 182 instead of a 206 and much more stable :-) http://crwdog.servebeer.com/crwpics/Deploy.mov The canopy I deployed here was my Lightning. That's what I usually used. Sometimes I'd use a Triathalon or an old ragged-out canopy of various sorts as well... W

That's exactly what I do.. Step out back to the wind, toss the pc and launch the bag right after it. Worked well 50 or so times anyway ;-) W

What is the fastest ypu have seen anyone pack a tailpocket equipped main? I've seen a few people pack tailpockets, and it is always painfully slow. Are you kididng me? It is WAY faster to pack a tail-pocket than a bag... If for no other reason than it just saves a step of getting it into the deployment bag! And if you're one of the people who only do one locking stow and then everything else is free-stoweds, its super-fast... Then add in that a lot of CRWdogs use pull-outs - which are faster to pack than throwouts... Heck - I don't pack slow but watching the packing competitions last weekend between Chris and Liz was impressive.. They were seriously smoking... I seriously wish it were possible to free-pack my freefall mains. Its so much faster to not have to deal with the bag.... W

Interesting - I never tense my body - I just relax. I'm going with the theory that the drunk driver never gets hurt cuz they're too relaxed! (That and unconscious people under canopy do pretty well cuz they're not scared of pounding in!) I can only think of 2 times in my CRW career where I had openings hard enough to feel the next day (and both times it was my back - not my neck.) One was when our Cessna pilot had the plane in a dive as we left, and the other was when I foolishly took 10+ second delays last year at Perris because the trail pilot was lost ;-) W

That's what I said but I was told it was all camera angles and he was actually about 2k! I posted these videos on my website at: http://crwdog.servebeer.com/crwpics/Jose.html W

Oops! Fixed! W

What sort of format is that? I can't seem to play it. It might just be that website. (I'll be happy to host it if ya want to put it somewhere else) W

They're still there: http://crwdog.servebeer.com/crwpics/Brits.html

I think it definitely is affected though by how heavy you are and how you pack. I never roll anything but just stuff the nose to the tail and its really unusual to have a opening hard enough that it hurts. They're usually quick but fine... I've never been able to tell much of a difference between having a bag or not on opening speeds. But as I was discussing with various folks this weekend, I think body weight has a lot to do with that. The big boys were having hard openings in Perris this weekend whether they had bags or not (think the pilots liked the small load better because we got great cuts!) I just really don't like deployment bags. I'd happily freepack my freefall canopies if I could (course a couple of spinning mals on tiny ellipticals caused by a bag spinning will do that for ya :-) I'm not sure whether Dave had a bag or not when he chopped the 218 where all the A lines broke 'cept for the dacron end cell lines, but I do know that his reserve opened software subterminally on that jump than on the next jump when he had a bag lock :-) W

As a small person it was always WAY easier to use links instead of wear weights. The weights on your body wear you down.. I don't think it makes a big difference in the long run however... W

Exactly! the Nationals is what would kill the CRW part this year - with so many people going to that the week before its practically impossible to get anyone to be able to come in. W

Yeah - if I had to guess tailpockets are WAY less likely to mal than bags. There are just are fewer possibilities :-) W

Well yes and no. I lost NUMEROUS contacts over the years of skydiving. With eyesight that was 20/550 - trying to land sub-100 square feet canopies was quite challenging half-blind... Trust me - that was EXTREMELY scary at times. I just consider myself lucky that I never lost both contacts on one jump or I easily could have killed myself. Or even just getting dust in one in the airplane and being in complete pain. Add in that I couldn't sleep in my contacts, and that I couldn't even read the alarm clock beside my bed without them. Numerous times I'd stumble to the bathroom in the middle of the night and step on a cat thinking it was a t-shirt. So while yes my contacts corrected my vision they only worked well in the best of circumstances. I cursed them (and I hated glasses worse) at least once a day. My night vision has improved noticably as well since the Lasik - probably because I don't have the glare of the contact lens anymore. W

I had it done 5 years ago and love it! I went from practically blind to almost perfect vision. It was awful skydiving with contacts and losing them periodically and barely being able to see the ground. My vision is much better now and I haven't had any issues.. W