Hi Gene,
Welcome to trhe R/C Skydiving world! You will have a lot of great days enjoying your new sport-except on the "dirt diving" days-and they will may happen once in a while. Like when you forget to turn on the switch. Been there and done that!!!
I am not that familiar enough with Dave Naylor's Ultimate Jumper to compare it with others but I have seen and heard enough about it to know that his jumper is far better than the Charly. The Robbie Charly was manufactured in Germany and was one of the first r/c skydivers to be mass produced. It went out of production many years ago and can only be found used, or rarely, as a new one still in the box. Charly is just as steerable as any of the others being made and weighs about three lbs. No, I don't sew chutesthat's an art in itself. I still have 4 Charly's and 3 Mikes made by Parramax in Germany and use 2 Giant Stingers to drop them.
You should try to make one or both of the R/C Skydiving rally's (competition) in Columbus, Ohio in July and Muncie in Sept. You will meet a lot of other guys with varied amounts of experience but have one thing in common-they have a ball with their Skydivers.
Try to make one of Mac Hodges Flyins in Andersonville, Ga. in the spring or fall and you can jump at the noon demo. I'll hook you up to one of my Stingers.
Welcome to the crowd!!!

Jim