faulknerwn

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Everything posted by faulknerwn

  1. faulknerwn
    I have always dumped my reserves on all 4 of my rigs every repack. I'll let other people do them as well if newbies or someone else is around who's never had a ride, but my reserve is always dumped. W
  2. faulknerwn
    Yeah. On my freefall rigs I have 18" risers. On my CRW rig they're 15". I love the shorter risers - they make everything so much nicer and I've never had any issues with flares. Its much nicer than having to climb up the riser to retrieve the toggle you let go of :-) W
  3. faulknerwn
    Just always remember skydiving should be fun. I've got over 3100 jumps now but read my student logbook online. You're doing way better than I was :-) I had 48 jumps when I got off student status! http://www.eco.utexas.edu/~faulkner/skydive/howcrw.html
  4. faulknerwn
    Didn't Mike McGowan nearly die 3-4 years ago because he cut away during a pilot chute in tow? If I remember correctly, his main risers entangled with the reserve lines and he only got partial inflation. If he hadn't landed in a tree he'd probably be dead. As for the 2-canopy out study, the army used big canopies, but the PD study used all sorts of different, widely-varying canopies. I'm definitely of the belief that I'd rather have 2 canopies out than none. I'll dump my reserve on a pc-in-tow and then deal with 2 canopies if need be. When I'm plummeting towards the earth at 120 mph I don't want to waste time cutting away something which isn't even out. It is all a personal decision though. I'm a lot less afraid of landing with too much canopy out than too little. I just figure my odds are better with the second. W
  5. faulknerwn
    Try http://ddi.digital.net/~bryan/bry17.html or http://www.normankent.com/CRW%20Gallery/index.htm
  6. faulknerwn
    Read my student logbook at http://www.eco.utexas.edu/~faulkner/skydive/howcrw.html I had 48 jumps when I got off student status :-) About 3100 now - I eventually got it :-) W
  7. faulknerwn
    The guys I learned CRW with hadn't done any CRW either. Things went slow for a while, but we weren't dangerous. I was teaching CRW by the time I had a hundred CRW jumps - mainly because if I wanted to learn CRW, I had to teach. I had more off-airport landings back then than I do now, but it wasn't really more dangerous. W
  8. faulknerwn
    Yep. Both my Diablo 88 and my Cobalt 75 get me back from a long spot better than either my Triathalon 99 or my old Jedei 92, but the Cobalt gets me farther than the Diablo. Its got a much flatter airfoil. W
  9. faulknerwn
    The Diablo will turn faster than most anything out there, but the Stilletto will swoop farther. The openings will probably be slightly nicer on the Diablo, but you'll get a better glide ratio and distance on the Stilletto. The Diablo can absolutely be swooped, but it won't go as far as a Stilletto. So it all depends on what you want in a canopy. I own a Diablo 88 and a Cobalt 75. I love the Diablo for its fast turns and fun flight characteristics, and the Cobalt more for its swooping ability. W
  10. faulknerwn
    I've jumped all 4 of my current reserves and then some :-) Yeah I do CRW :-) Definitely can say my Tempo 120 lands the best of them all - swoops beautifully - and way better than the 23 ft round that time! W
  11. faulknerwn
    Left row 7 wing, pink and purple canopy on the outside.
  12. faulknerwn
    We did side-by-side 25-ways last spring in Sebastian. We did consecutive 50-way diamonds in Lake Wales. Definitely no side-by-side 49ways tho :-)
  13. faulknerwn
    A lot more I think if your goal is sinking. Rear risers change your trim rather than just slowing you down like brakes.
  14. faulknerwn
    Well, having been in a canopy collision after a CRW wrap - where we probably had about 60 mph closing speeds - I'll never get big on freefall canopies. At the time I covered my head (I couldn't steer at the time) and did a half twist in the harness, I have a nice big scar on the back of my knee, and some other faint ones on the backs of my legs. I think that if I had hit microlines I would have lost the leg. In this collision I blew straight through the canopy and perfectly out the other side into clean air, only breaking some lines in the process. There's no possible way I could have "bounced off" anything at those speeds.
  15. faulknerwn
    Pulling down heavily on one front riser and the opposite toggle. It warps your canopy, dogging it out and making it sink. Very handy when doing CRW. W
  16. faulknerwn
    --- Of course I do :-) We built 5 50-ways in a row on Friday, getting everyone on the bench into a 50-way (85 people, 50 way being the US record.) Built a 56-way on Saturday, an unofficial world record (proper paperwork isn't there), and the only reason we didn't make a 64-way was clouds. I didn't land off on a single big-way, we didn't have a single wrap/cutaway the entire time I was there. I was amazed at the healthinesss of the formations. It was an awesome time. W
  17. faulknerwn
    Warping is very stable and I have no problem doing it low, but Its way too slow and I wouldn't use it to avoid a collision. W
  18. faulknerwn
    I have a different philosophy - I have multiple rigs for different purposes. I've got my Cobalt 75 I jump most of the time - on jumps where I won't be pulling at 2k, or the spot won't be horrible, etc. On bigger ways, or on sunset loads, or on formation loads where the spot might not be as good, I jump one of my bigger mains. They're a bit more forgiving, easier to land if my depth perception is slightly off. If I have to land off I can do it in my Cobalt, but I'd much prefer a bigger main. I have 4 rigs - I jump them all but different ones at different times depending on the type of skydive. I really like the flexibility of having small fun canopies at times, while having canopies I can choose to go slow on when circumstances are not as perfect. The only real thing I notice on the rigs is that 2 of my freefall rigs are hackeys, one is an orange handle. It feels weird to grab the orange handle. W
  19. faulknerwn
    I had 200 jumps on my Monarch 135 before I downsized (I weighed ~115). And in retrospect its clear I downsized too fast anyway. I put 500+ jumps on the next canopy before downsizing. I watch lots of people in the 200-1000 jump range being a passenger - not a pilot. They never learned to truly fly their bigger wing before downsizing. That's part of why we see so many injuries under good canopies now - and I'm not talking about the deliberate hook turns - I'm talking about just plain "Oopses.." Everyone will make mistakes - its just better to do it under something that won't kill you. I've lost 3 friends with between 200-600 jumps this year who were flying perfectly good canopies. And this is not an unusual year for me unfortunately. That's why I'm such a hard-ass on people not downsizing so rapidly. I'd like my friends to live through their mistakes. W
  20. faulknerwn
    Most importantly - get an accurate version of the winds aloft. GPS can do it more accurately on the way up than the forecasts you get quite often. Spot accordingly - i.e. if the uppers are higher than your canopy's forward drive - ya better spot long :-) W
  21. faulknerwn
    I use plain old "mail" for quick emails. Generally use elm for most stuff, pine occasionally though I mostly find pine annoying. I do like mutt as well tho :-) W
  22. faulknerwn
    Aha! I think I figured out part of it - I didn't realize there were 2 different mail programs on here. The only one I've ever used/seen before was the private message one under the forums. That's what I always end up using because I'm usually replying to a forum post. I take it the other one is just for regular email? Using a GUI for email is too painful for my taste so I'll pass on that and stick with Unix. But is it possible to CC private messages and such? W
  23. faulknerwn
    Ok. I thought this was at first a mozilla thing (I use it both on my Mac at home and my Linux box at work) but even when I brought it up on a Windows box using IE I still don't see any buttons! I see the subject showing up in white in a solid dark blue line. I see the person/date on the left in blue, then the message in pale blue right beside it. Below that is a choice of "return to message list, delete and reply." I don't see _any_ buttons when I'm reading an email. The only choice I have is to reply. When I click reply, I don't see any options for CC or BCC..... ??????????????????????????????
  24. faulknerwn
    Hmmm. I was trying to reply to a message someone and can't forward nor CC it from a current message. I guess the option only exists on new messages?
  25. faulknerwn
    Just noticed today that there's no CC or forward options on the mail client. That would be very handy. W