faulknerwn

Its not that different. A lot of how hard the Lightning is to land is seriously overblown. It does help to come in on front-risers with a tad bit of extra speed, but that's true on all canopies. The flare is a little bit different but still fine - you can surf Lightnings. The shorter the lines definitely makes less of a pendulum effect. Its a little more responsive than the others I'd say - but PD typically measures their canopies "bigger" than the rest of the industry so a Tri 150 would probably be more of a similar size to the 143 than the 135. W

Prodigy's aren't designed for high-wing-loadings. Lightnings land much better than Prodigies... I definitely prefer having a distinctive center and distinctive end cell. I know when catching people, its a big help to know just to "grab the red" rather than have to try and figure out where the center or end cells are. I also notice that when I've jumped my one Lightning without a distinctive center cell - a lot more people end up one cell off than on my other canopy... W

But we can't cater everything we talk about to the lowest common denominator. In the swooping forum, they discuss carving turns and rear riser landings and doing all sorts of tricks on landing. Should those be not discussed because some 100 jump wonder decides to try it? There's a huge difference though between an experienced CRWdog with 3000 CRW jumps under a Lightning trying to catch another Lightning at 8000 feet, and an experienced swooper trying to catch one under a Velocity at 1500 feet. I've never seen a CRWdog try and catch a canopy that low. I wouldn't even try and catch a freebag that low. Its completely nuts in my opinion. I wouldn't even try to catch a freebag with an elliptical canopy at all. I watched a very experienced CRWdog with probably 10,000 jumps try to catch one last month (no luck - it was outfloating both of us) to try and save it from going out to sea. This was happening at 8-10 thousand feet. What he was trying to do and what Nate was doing are night and day differences. Could he still be killed doing it? Absolutely. But he fully knows the risks and was willing to take them. And i guarantee you - even he in 1500 feet wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole. Do I catch mains? Nope. Freebags? Yep.. Do I recommend others chase mains? No.. But I don't think not discussing something because of what some 100 jump wonder may do is the right thing. Just like they should be smart enough to not do what Luigi Cani is doing in swooping, they should be smart enough to not do what a few extemely skilled people do in CRW.

FYI - you're not supposed to put ads looking for gear here but I decided to leave this one as it can be hard to know where to look and it might be helpful for other people. The biggest suggestion I would have would be to join the CRWdogs email list (PM me with a real email address if you'd like to join) and send an email to that group. Its a group of a couple hundred CRWdogs and you might have better luck there than here. If no luck there, you just may have to buy new. CRW has been growing a lot in popularity recently, and used canopies are hard to find. (If you want a used 113, somewhere in the jungle near Empuriabrava is mine. Feel free to go look! ) W

I'm 0 mals on 2100+ jumps on square canopies, and have I believe 7 in 1500 jumps on elliptical canopies. Course I have about 8 cutaways from CRW but that's a tad different :-) W (haven't chopped in a month now! )

Not true about lines getting snagged. I've got almost 2000 CRW jumps on Racers and 3600 total jumps on them and just don't have that problem. Its not hard to pack the pop-top well. W

Wow. Juju is being the straight-talking peacemaker. Who'd have ever thunk? :-) You are right though. He genuinely does want to spread the love and teach wingsuits, and he genuinely does want to get someone out here to train him how to teach. He has just been expressing this in a not-always-so-tactful manner online. People just need to manage to get together and share a beer in person and a lot of online misunderstandings go away. (And give me one of those beers!) So I'm agreeing with Juju - bury the hatchet, make up, and get me a kid-sized demo suit in Texas! Wen

My poor Lightning is somewere in the jungles of Spain. Empuriabrava ate it! W

In my younger days, I used to do a lot of CRW with the Jedei I owned at the time. It was definitely extremely solid in CRW formations - my 92 would be stable as a rock in a dock with a 250 sq ft 7-cell - even more so than a Lightning - and I think that was because of the rigiditity of the airlocks. I hounded Brian for a lot of years to send me a 7-cell airlocked canopy to play with but he never did. I'm not sure I'm buying the won't reinflate though - they open as consistently as any other parachute. It might take a tad longer perhaps - but unless its 50 feet off of the deck its not an issue. I was quite impressed with how well the airlocked canopies flew though. What would be interesting to know though - my canopy has come around/collapsed on the wing numerous times. In general I prefer it collapsed because its a lot more likely to reinflate and not wrap. I wonder whether the airlocked canopies would be more likely to come around than regular canopies. W

Does the rigger have to be American or just have an FAA license? When I chopped in Empuriabrava last month, they had a couple of FAA licensed riggers who could pack. This enabled me to continue jumping this reserve for the 120 days in the states without having to get it repacked. W

I had an interesting cutaway about a year ago. (I don't have an RSL). I was spinning on my back with mega-line-twists and went to cutaway. (This was something like cutaway # 14 or so). I pulled the cutaway handle and one side released and I ended up dangling by one side - I then did a second pull and the other riser quickly released - I think there maybe was an inch of difference or less.between the cables. I think I must have just stopped during the brief length-difference between the 2 cables. The good thing was - instead of going back into freefall spinning widely on my back, the slight time delay had me falling head high and then instantly belly-to-earth stable which made for a nice reserve deployment. W (I owe beer now for cutaway #16 in Empuriabrava last week - gotta love a nice CRW wrap on my birthday :-)

Very sad news. Sam was one of my many JM's during my bad student days at Palatka. Many condolences to Stan. W

Yep. A couple of my rigs have foam padding slid down in the legstrap area held onto the outside by a couple of stitches. Works like a champ. W

This is exactly the method I use. It works like a champ! W

Someone else already posted a link to my student logbook. I did the static line program, but it took me 48 jumps to get off of student status! I attempted a couple of L2's during my student days and they sent me BACk to level 1! I've never heard of anyone else going backwards :-) W

I disagree with a lot of that. I do CRW with Spectres and Triathalons ALL the times - they work great - you don't necessarily need a traditional hard-core CRW canopy. And yes, you don't want to jump with an RSL - but I've got ~15 cutaways these days. The highest I was under a reserve ever on a freefall jump was 3000 feet - most were below two - only once have I been under a reserve on a CRW jump below 5000!!!! feet - and that was deliberate because I was flying the stuff I was going to cutaway down to help avoid losing it. The vast, vast, vast majority of CRW cutaways I've seen are thousands of feet higher than the typical freefall one - and the only reason you might need to do such a long delay was if it was a big-way CRW jump - on a 2 or 4 way - which is what most low-timers would be on - its just not necessary. I usually freefall after my CRW cutaways just for fun and because I have the altitude - its very rarely necessary.

Its never really been an issue. I've had it happen way more often on the ground than ever in the air....

I own 4 and love them! They're super-comfortable and very light-weight. Especially for smaller people they're fantastic. W

Skydive Temple is far enough out that we're not affected when he's there, but we have been shut down for an hour here or there when he's flying in or out - especially if he flies into Fort Hood. Its generally not a big deal for us however. W

It was a spectacular jump. I was just happy that Craig's orange canopy showed up so well - as I couldn't see anyone else in the formation when I exited! W

Dang you've got me beat! I've got 15 rides total - 8 of which are on Tempos. I've ridden 2 different Tempo 120's and have a as-of-yet-unjumped Tempo 150 in another rig. I hated my Dash-M 109 reserve (no flare) and swapped it for a Tempo because I've liked them so much in the past. Mine lands very well, flies straight and is a very good quality. W

I highly recommend Locarno. I rented gear when I was there last year and did a few solos. It was absolutely gorgeous. I loved just falling and doing 360's and enjoying the view. W

Wen, have you considered (for lessons learned) the wisdom of taking a ~60 jump skydiver, on borrowed gear, doing CRW for the first time and doing a unplanned downplane? ------ It wasn't unplanned - it was discussed on the ground. And the canopy was actually considerably more docile than what this guy normally jumps (a Stilletto 150/135) so I had no worries about him landing that. The vast majority of my downplanes end well above 2k - I never take them low. He has been at my dz for quite a while at this point - I knew his skills and abilities and had no qualms about doing that. W

Well I had an interesting weekend for downplanes. First jump Saturday I went up with a new guy for his first ever CRW jump. He has ~60 jumps or so, and I put him on a friend's rig which has a Triathalon 150 in it (this kid weighed ~150 or so.) Anyway, the rig in its current setup had at least 100 jumps on it - and I had made 10-15 jumps on it myself with no issues. So we go up and do this CRW dive, and do some rotations and he's doing really well and wants to do a downplane. So I have him climb down and I throw up my feet and at about 3500 feet we initiate the downplane. First little bit was fine and normal, and then I suddenly feel a jolt and my Lightning is spinning itself rapidly into line twists. We just were hanging onto each other's legs with our arms, so we let go, I have 5-6 line twists, and he's under a streamer. He chops and has a good reserve ~2000 feet or so. I fully expected to find a broken riser or a broken link when recovered, but everything was fine. The cutaway handle was still on the velcro when Jean went to cutaway. We were befuddled for a bit but the owner mentioned that he only had 2 inches or so of extra yellow cable past the white loop of the riser. It was long enough that it disappeared into the slot for it on the riser, and I never pull the cable out to inspect that unless I'm changing canopies. Anyway our theory is that the extra tension on the harness from the downplane was enough to pull the yellow cable past the loop. I am 100% sure the 3-rings were assembled correctly so that's the only theory we could come up with. So this guy still absolutely loves CRW (he really does.) He got his first CRW, his first downplane and his first reserve ride all on one jump! Lessons learned: - Cut those cables long! - Check the lengths if you're jumping unfamiliar gear - in theory it could have popped even on a hard opening - Be VERY wary of starting downplanes low - if we had started at 1000 feet instead of 3500 feet he'd be dead. - Be knowledgable about RSLs - if one had been hooked up on the released riser a royal mess would have happened - keep those cables long. My other amusing downplane jump was I did the first CRW jumps of another guy at my dropzone. We also did a downplane on one of the jumps, and he's the first person who ever managed to steal not just one, but BOTH of my shoes! I laughed hysterically the entire way down to the pea pit on that jump. Luckily he's a German guy and he owns a German bakery and promised to bring back some good German beer for all of his firsts! Wen

Without a doubt trying to catch a cutaway main is stupid. Follow it down. I've certainly caught freebags in my time, but my hard deck is around 2500 feet. Below that I would never try. Its not worth it. And that pretty much rules out ever catching them on most freefall jumps. I know of at least 2 people chasing a freebag who managed to run into each other and they had 2 more cutaways. If this had happened low? Egads. Chasing freebags is one thing if you're at 6k after a CRW jump - its a completely different beast if you're low - don't ever even attempt it at an altitude lower than you want to be cutting away. And don't ever try to catch a main - they're WAY too unpredictable. W