Jumping a reserve

I made 10 jumps at Skydive New Mexico over the last two weekends. 5 of the jumps were 5k hop and pops with a PDR 160 reserve hooked up as my main.

The reserve came to me through Performance Designs demo program. It's pretty cool. Anyone can request any PD parachute to try out. Of course PD makes sure that you have a chance of surviving the demo by calling the S&TA at your home DZ to discuss your flying experience before they send the chute. It costs $50, and they send you the canopy to use for 2 weeks. Included with the canopy were some helpful instructions, a bag of tiny little rubber bands, and a prepaid return shipping label. The reserve came on risers and it had an attachment point for my pilot chute and d-bag, so it was very easy to load it into my rig.

I requested the demo because I already have a PDR 160 in my rig and I was curious to try one out. Although it felt more "parachuty" than my Spectre, the PDR 160 was a nice flying and landing wing. I feel pretty happy about having one as my last parachute. Overall, demoing the reserve was a good experience and a fine way to waste a weekend.