faulknerwn

It probably would make a difference, but me (5'1 130 lb girl) has never had even the slightest problem cutting away from spinning twists with the red cable. I suspect it certainly would make it easier as well, but none of my rigs have them, so I have no personal experienc,e and the only times I've had a hard cutaway (twice) it was on yellow cable. W

I have ~16 reserve rides these days and at least for my stuff - the red cable is WAY WAY WAY easier to chop with than the yellow. Its a night and day difference.... W

Sometimes I look for my handles and sometimes I don't. Having ~16 reserve rides these days I've had a variety of events... I had one reserve ride after a spinner where I found the reserve handle literally about a foot away from my body - it was a really nice spin. And that was on a very small rig built especially for me. There was another where I had to do the "follow the harness down from the 3-ring and feel" because I had a bigger chest-mount altimeter on than I usually jumped and I couldn't see nor feel the handle (this was after I was already in freefall having cutaway from a CRW wrap.) I've had my handles be in unusual places numerous times where its been extremely helpful to look for them. Other times they've been right where I expect. I remember one time being in freefall after a CRW wrap fumbling for my handle which had moved quite a bit (I usually track away for a bit after a CRW wrap just to make sure I have clean air for my reserve) so when I reached for it it wasn't there. I just remember as I was looking for it in freefall thinking about what an idiot I would like like in Parachutist if I didn't find it :-) Don't be complacent about not being able to see your handles. Sometimes biology makes it that way, but if you can avoid it by wearing helmets which don't restrict your vision of them, it might save your life one day. W

That really depends - I teach a lot of CRW and I've somehow managed to accumulate 6 rigs - 5 of which have CRW canopies in them. The last 3 rigs I've only paid between $400-$600 total for the container and the reserve. They're older, they're not super freefly-friendly, but they work great for CRW. They're all Racers so trying to find 6 Cypreses and keep them up to date would be seriously cost-prohibitive. I know there are a bunch of jumpers up in Canada who have a rig for freefall (often with a Cypres) and another rig for CRW and a bigger rig for an accuracy canopy. Many can't afford nor want a Cypres for their CRW and accuracy rigs though they do for their freefall one. I was at a CRW boogie this past weekend - I bet there were at least 10-15 containers being jumped that were made in 1990 or before.. Just because people may have multiple rigs doesn't mean they're expensive multiple rigs.. W

Man - its been years - I seem to recall you make the "small" s-fold and then wrap the diaper around that. Make one large locking stow to hold the diaper closed, and then free-stow the rest of the lines in the diaper like you would a reserve... Then just s-fold it into the rig like normal...

Did you look on this site for a link to the PIA pack volume chart? It doesn't go into details about tail pockets or line types, but it should give you a general idea about the relative pack volumes of the 2 canopies.. W

Yeah. What I think could be interesting is the 81-way this fall. We're going to have 81 people wearing radios in very close proximity - there have been enough cases in the past of radios causing accidental firing of Cypres'es that you couldn't pay me to use one on that jump. I'm sure there will probably be a 10-20 people with Cypreses on that load so it might be an interesting test. I've got Cypres "stickers" in the Cypres pouches in all of my rigs. They look amazingly real :-) I also have an old Astra from a friend who quit jumping I would put in the pouch if I ever had to jump at an AAD required dz..

I'm a pretty small 5'1 girl and my Dash-M 109 stalled when the toggles reached my shoulders. I pounded in and traded it immediately for a Tempo 120. I do a lot of CRW and have 8-9 rides now on my Tempo 120 and it flares like a typical freefall canopy these days - surfs quite nice too in no wind... My Microraven 120 I find very difficult to land unless I come in with extra speed. I've figured out when I jump it that I need to come in on front risers to get a good flare.. W

It took me 20 to get off the actual static line, and 48 before I was off student status! (this was back in the days when there was more of a distinction between off of student status and getting an A...) We didn't have to do coaching jumps or anything of the sort back then. I was just impressively bad :-) W

One was made from scratch, the other 2 were done afterwards, (all done by the manufacturer - Jumpshack. It does shorten the lift web a little bit if you are doing it later, but the 2 rigs I did it with later on both had much longer lift webs than I needed anyway. W

I must just have small ears - I forgot one time and was in utter agony the whole way down. It was worse than jumpiing with a cold. I wear them on the way up every time, but never on the way down.. W

I've got 3 rigs set up like your option C - they all have removable rings, The setup works well and I haven't had any problems with it. W

Most dealers generally give a considerable discount though. I don't know of anyone who paid $1850!!! for a Lightning... W

Cut-in laterals are where the horizontal harness near your waist attaches to the rig more to the center of the container rather than the outside... The Sabre's really not a good canopy to learn CRW with. I teach a lot of people on Triathalons and Spectres, but they're 7-cells which make them better for CRW... W

I've had Digitudes for years. Never had an issue with any of the 2 I've owned (lost one in freefall so replaced it with another)... I would never go back to analog for freefall. I much prefer digital readouts.. W

I love my Tempos, hate MicroRavens, like big Ravens, and like PD's... Of all the choices, I have a Tempo 120 in my CRW rig with ~ 8 rides on it - it still flies great... MicroRavens ya have to either have wind or a lot of airspeed to keep them from stalling. PD's land really well and I like those too - I only own 1.... (I have a bunch of rigs - have 2 Tempo 120s, 1 Tempo 150, 1 MicroRaven 120, 1 PD 126, and a Swift. Not a bad collection - I have no problem jumping any of them now that I know how they fly.) W

If I remember correctly that was FCI's post-Nova canopy. Never heard anything bad about them, but they're certainly a 10 year old design... W

You shoulda added a line about knowing how to change one but having a devil of a time getting those #&*(# lug nuts loose! Tire shots put them on SO tight! W

Macs all the way.. I use Linux at work (and occasionally Windows) and Macs smoke them hands down. I'm very tempted to use my home laptop for work use just because it is so much better. I absolutely adore Tiger as well... Everytime I have to use Windows I'm amazed that people put up with it! W

What's really funny - my company has our main European office in Dublin. We have people traveling over there all the time. What's really funny is that even our chain-smokers here LOVE the non-smoking bars. They like the fresh air. I was really shocked to hear that from a couple of my big smoking friends but its true. I can't wait to get back over there to see the difference... W

I would love to hear some of the names of bars and live music venues. I've been in Austin for a long time and have never been in a single non-restaurant bar which banned smoking... W

I don't believe that. The only bars that I've seen that are non-smoking are inside of restaurants. I can't think of a single bar downtown that is non-smoking, and places like LoveJoys definitely still allow smoking and don't have filtration systems (you can hardly see your hand in front of your face in that place.) W

I know - I'm so excited! I was one of the ones who voted to ban it. I'll now be able to go downtown without coughing for hours the next day... There just weren't any bars downtown that I ever saw that were non-smoking (except for those inside of restaurants).. Its going to be so nice to not have to go outside regularly just to get some fresh air... W

Interesting idea... I forwarded your post on to Dan Rossi, my most favorite blind skydiver :-) W

That's true as long as you have large hands. I had to re-rig a pair of toggles recently because I couldn't grab my toggles and my front-risers at the same time... I have mini-risers because I often have a difficult time with small hands front-risering on the large risers. W