Oh, and just for reference for the new guys. When you go to MFF School, they will give you a class on canopy characteristics, including speed of foward drive. I don't know if they're still using the MT1XX, but the class I got was "The foward drive of the MT1XX is approximately XX miles per hour."
They don't tell you a couple of things. First, when you land with the rucksack, that number is somehow squared. Don't ask me how, but you will be going at least, AT LEAST, Mach 1 when you hit the ground. Second, if you cut away your main, the reserve's forward drive is cubed what the main was and to a power of ten if you have any other problems or cannot avoid landing on the concrete.
They also give you a rate of descent. If you are NOT over the DZ or any other clearing, the rate of descent doubles for every 100 feet you're short to the next clearing. And I have been told that the R of D slows by half and all forward drive stops when you are being shot at from the ground while under canopy.
They also tell you that if you pull the little red thing, there is a device which will "instantaneously" assist in deploying the reserve. The word "instantaneously" is obviously a very relative term. In my experience (HAHO cutaway at about 17k), it takes at least, at least, 7 days for the reserve to deploy.
