faulknerwn

WHen I first got mine, I replaced the battery that came with it after about a month. Since then - probably 300 jumps or so - I haven't had to replace it at all... W

Ah but even regular altimeters can fail. I used a borrowed "traditional" altimeter last weekend on a solo, and I looked at it and saw, 10,500 - a few seconds later saw 10,500, a few seconds later saw 10,500 again. At that point I reached over and bonked it and promptly lost a couple of thousand feet. :-) All altimeters can fail. You can turn them on in freefall (done that), and for me - a member of the digital age, I can read one MUCH faster than an analog altimeter. An analog altimeter makes me have to think. And for the concerns about them being digital - I assume you don't use a Cypres then? I prefer my Digitude anyday over an analog. The only reason I have an Analog at all is for those long CRW jumps which use up the batteries at a much faster rate. W

I had several hundred jumps when I did CRW first, but my rule for teaching people is 20 jumps and their own gear (i.e. non-student rigs.) We have a great time. W

Yep. He was a friend of mine. But he was doing more than just hanging from the risers (which I still like to do on occasion.) Dan was about 7 feet tall - really dang tall - and what he liked to do was flip upside down and he could get his feet way up in the lines (unlike my short legs). He did this a lot on his Prodigy, but then he got a new Triathalon 220. (Not that lightly loaded - being that he was 7 feet tall - I'm sure he weighed a good bit). He did it after a freefall load on a canopy he didn't have many jumps on. He got a foot stuck in the cascades and couldn't clear it and spiraled into the ground. AFAIK, no attempts to cutaway/reserve pull were made. W

I've got one on each of my 4 Racers. Have been jumping them for years. I also think its a great compromise - now when I jump a rig with a regular handle I feel very vulnerable. I really like being able to hook a thumb and not worrying about it folding under. W

Quote What I meant was that for those CREW dogs out there who do jump round reserves exclusively... I think (Hookit please correct me here) that some of the newer rigs do not have manufacturer approval to install and pack round reserves in them... [/reply> There's very few of those out there anymore however. The only CRWdogs I know who have a round reserve are those who are jumping old gear and can't afford a square. The slight benefits you can get by having a round don't outweigh the negatives of a round in my opinion. W

Let's see in ~3100 jumps I've had: 4 malfunctions on freefall gear 1 round reserve ride on old-timey gear 0 mals in CRW (well that I couldn't clear) 7 total CRW cutaways (1600 or so CRW jumps) Of the CRW ones 1 was a 3-stack with a newbie who did a poor rotation I was taken out on a 2-way by a newbie who did an EXTREMELY aggressive rotation:-) One was a dragplane gone bad (poor planning on my part) 1 was on a 9-way where I was so busy coaching the newbie locking me up I forgot to pay attention to my canopy And the last 3 were big-ways gone screwy (for various reasons).

QuoteHi everyone, I have 2 Questions re: gear. I like a little CReW but am by no means an expert. 1 Do some of you do recreational CRW w/micro lines? " I thought I would be shunned for the thought by the pro's". --- I don't really recommend it, and I try not to teach people on microlines, but I do. I stick to basic stacks and simple stuff and have never had a problem. Dacron is a much better choice for CRW however. I just tend to do some with microlines because that's what everyone has and I wanna touch canopies :-) -- 2 Does anyone use something other than 3 ring for main release ie: clam shells? --- Never even heard of clam shells. Never seen anyone use anything but 3-rings. W

Yeah being small can be difficult. When I started doing CRW, ahem before a few of those cheeseburgers, I weighed about 115. I jump a Lightning 113. I am now ~128 or so and still jump that canopy. One trick you can use that helps a lot is to put an extra set of connector links in the rear risers. It points the canopy a bit more nose down and saves you wearing some lead as the canopy is "always" in a touch of front risers. I do hear rumors of a Lightning 106 as well these days.

It is in the United States, but if there aren't any where you live, I'd advise going with a canopy you can jump with people locally. if all the CRWdogs in your country jump the Rubus, that might make it easier to find people to jump with. In the US, the Lightning is the most popular CRW canopy, and is the canopy of choice for big-ways and world records and such. W

later I'll agree with the stall point. I love my Tempo 120's, but when I jumped my Dash-M 109, I had just had a spinning mal and by the time I opened my reserve and got the toggles unstowed I was at 1100 feet. I got back to the dz and turned into the wind. I had forgotten to do a test flare. I flared it like I flare my Tempos (and I'm up to 12 or 13 reserve rides total on a variety of canopies) - which was a "staged" flare like I flare mains - with that flare my Tempo lands beautifully. I stalled out the Dash-M hard and had my worst landing since I landed a 23 foot round reserve. I'm selling my canopy and getting another Tempo. Think I might buy one last Tempo for my 4th rig because I like them so much. W

People often have ones for sale on the crwdog email list I administer. Let me know if you want on it. W

Kapowsin has a lot of CRWdogs at the dropzone. W

114-120 RW 118-135 Sit 90-100 tracking (in a freefly suit) all SAS

Lots of places will. I've paid for my own slot on the front of more than one tandem helping a friend out. W

At some point you'll get tired of your feet hurting - especially in no wind. Extra speed is really a necessity on Lightnings to make landings bearable over the long haul :-) W

Has anyone ever managed to actually do this? I've tried and haven't even been able to come close. I just normally fly with one rear riser while working on the other toggle, though I have done the teeth thing before. Had a tension knot and it enabled be to use both hands to clear it (this was on a CRW jump though and had plenty of time.) If it were me, I wouldn't try restowing the brake because I'd be surprised if its possible. Far easier said than done for sure. W

That's the first time I've ever heard that about Tempos. I've got 12 (maybe 13) reserve rides -on a bunch of different canopies. Most of my Tempo reserve openings were at terminal (long delays after CRW wraps). The fastest it ever opened was brisk, and that was still slower than the last ride I had on a Dash-M. Faster than my Microraven though, but typically about the same as the ride I had on a PD. I wouldn't want to open any brand of reserve at 180 mph - but i don't think you're any doomed to a harder opening than with PD. I've jumped 5 different types of reserves - most more than once. The biggest difference I see in them was landing charactistics - not opening. Now if you want a reserve that opens fast - the 1969 era conical I jumped - now that sucker opened fast at terminal!

You could at least be a person waving your arms and heading to the nearest road to wave someone down. Its not always easy to figure out exactly which field someone landed in. W

[reply IMHO. (to some degree) This might be a situation where some people like to recommend the traditional way, becouse thats the way it has been always done. See I usually recommend the small reserve handles - I view it as the best of both world. Easy to feel and hook a thumb in, yet way less likely to get snagged than the traditional handles. For the life of me, I've never understood why more people don't get the smaller reserve handles. W

I get great swoops with my Diablo - I usuallut do a straight-in final on my front risers. Obviously its not going to swoop as far as a Cobalt or cross-braced or anything like that, but it landed me nice. The key is just to remember its a 7-cell. If you go too deep of brakes it'll kill your lift at the end. I think its got a smaller "range" where you can do the flattening out part of your flare - if you go past that you'll lose out on a lot of your lift.

Why? What did it being metal have to do with anything? You said you felt down the MLW to the handle. You obviously knew which MLW to move down, and found the big lump sticking out of it, so why does it matter what that lump is made of? You couldn't see it, so you used another (good) way to find it. ---- Because I had absolutely no visibility on it. Trying to feel for a soft handle which you can't see at all amidst a sweatshirt and an altimeter - the metal handle is obvious - trying to separate out the sweatshirt and the lift webbing and the soft altimeter with no visibility would definitely have been harder. Seeing as how I was at 6k at the time I'm sure I could have done it. Had I been at 1k by that point? I doubt I could have. ----- Read Bill Booths last post here http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=141612#141612 In a nut shell, it says that his test showed it doesn't matter what type handle was used, grip strength and the ability to pull were not changed by the handle type. ---- In my case it was because of the distance away I think I would have had more trouble with a soft pillow. I just managed to sneak a thumb in there. Long story erased, I ended up dangling from my main, by my RSL, which was hooked up on the left side. The lift webbing was distorted a solid 2 feet. It was arm extension away. And trying to grab a pillow from that distance would have been a lot harder. I agree with Booth that in normal circumstances, normal cutaways, both handles are equally easy. My circumstance wasn't "typical". Haven't had anything like that before or since. The handle was definitely far enough away that I couldn't have gotten a second hand on it, and I just think a pillow handle would have made life a lot more scary. --- but there is also truth to the idea of an evolutionary design (We'll keep this contained to mechanical design...I don't even want to touch the whole Creationism argument!!) --- True. I'm not against change. I just have had 2 very different experiences where I personally believe a pillow handle would have made my life a hell of a lot more difficult. I can't remember who it was, but some big-wig in skydiving had a pillow reserve handle fold under and it ended up folded under underneath his armpit where he couldn't reach it. He says he would have died if he hadn't had an RSL on that jump. I've never once had any of my small handles snagged or come out in freefall, and I've had 2 distinct circumstances where a pillow handle would have made life more difficult for me. I'm not willing to make the switch without good evidence that it will help me more than it will hurt me. And I just haven't seen that in my personal experience. Heck - the only handle I've ever personally seen prematurely released in freefall (other than the main) was someone's cutaway accidently pulled. They can happen on any type of handle.

What do you do if you can't see it? I was on a CRW jump about 5 years ago, had a wrap, couldn't see my reserve handle (we were about ~7000 feet). Chopped anyway because I needed to chop then - and went back into freefall. Had absolutely no visual on my handle. In retrospect I think it was because the altimeter had slid over and hid it from view and groping at the general area I couldn't find it. What I did was put my hand on the 3-ring, which I could see, slide my hand down the harness webbing until I got to metal. I never was able to see it. I was VERY happy my handle was metal. About 7 years ago I had a spinning mal on my Jonathan. My harness stretched so far out because of the spin - I literally was almost at full arm extension to grab my reserve handle - that was before the days of pillow reserve handles and I think it would have been an awful lot harder to pull it if it hadn't been metal. That's why I go with the best of both worlds - the smaller reserve handle - still able to get a thumb in it, but WAY smaller than the regular d-rings.

People tend to forget that there is another option. I won't ever have a soft reserve handle on my rig because they're more difficult to grab when your harness is twisted violently and such. See the above post for a reference to that. What I use is the low-profile reserve handle. Its still a metal handle, I can still hook a thumb, but its way too small to hook a foot. It looks more like a tandem reserve handle than a typical reserve handle. I love them and wouldn't use anything else. W

I haven't jumped a Spectre at that wing-loading, but I'm typically between 150-160 out the door (depending on how much lead I'm wearing) and own both a Diablo 88 and a Triathalon 99. Both land fine at that wing-loading. The Spectre seems to have a flatter glide than either of those 2 canopies, and flying on rear risers I typically make it back as far as everyone else on a long spot. Heck, a month or so ago, I was the only person on my 8-way who made it back - they were all on 9-cells and I was on my Diablo. But doing so much CRW, I'm pretty good at getting every last ounce of lift out of my canopy.