freeflydrew

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/gallery/imageFolio.cgi?direct=Personal_Galleries/freeflydrew

Isn't he the current US National Champion? He and Jason are great instructors, flyers, videographers, and people... Definitely setting the standard for SkySurf instruction. -drew

Pond Swooping was Awesome this weekend!!! Drew Lipinski from the Australian Swoop team came in First Sonic came in Second Cameron, also from Australia, came in third... I will post more pictures soon, but for now here's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd... Kim Emerson, President of the Ranch Parachute Club, and all the Ranch Volunteers put together a great competition.

Having researched a bunch, I too agree that it's photoshopped... Sorry for the bunk posting. To make up for it though, I found Actual imagery... Much less dramatic, so let's just pretend that the original posting is real! http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-blackout-from-space-jpg,0,5588281.photo?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines -drew

Him, Him, F*ck Him! he he -drew

I found this on worldtribune.com... -drew

Do youy know any actual write speeds for this camera? I know it depends a bit on which card you use, but I'm looking for a more general idea of it's write speed... I looked on the website and didn't find specifications on this. I have the E20n and it's too slow for skydiving... -drew

I've been there for the last 3 years for the holiday boogie and I don't think I've seen dust devuils during that time... I've definitely seen them during march though... You'll definitely see them from the ground, if they are around, and usually people are talking about them. People can get f*cked up from dust devils... -drew

You do you find it compares with the Olympus E-20n? -drew

35 feet is a little low to be letting go of the front risers... A 6 second carve isn't necessarily killing speed. You're going faster than if you don't use the riser, and slower than if you were to do more than carve... You're going to be able to plane out further than if you did a straight in approach without risers, but much shorter than if you did more of a dramatic turn with the riser and allowed the canopy to fly through it's own natural recovery arc. Broh' there was nothing shitty about any of that swoop, ok? I was being extrememly critical, and it seems like you are really aware of what it is you're doing, where you're doing it, and when you're doing it... Slow progression means safe progression, and it looks and sounds like you're being heads up about the whole thing. Shitty swoops are ones where people turn low, stab it out, and think that they rock... They usually freak out people on the ground, and disturb people in the air... They think that they have it all sorted out... Don't worry about your wing loading, and your swoop distance and put away the tape measure... You're doing great! So let's see some outside vid, aa-ight! -drew

Nice vid... I'm about to be hyper critical, but I do agree with Chuck that it's certainly a safe swoop... Here's where I'm coming from... I'm getting to a point where I try to dive my canopy by initiating a riser turn, and then letting go of the riser and allowing the canopy to plane out on it's own... I've found that pumping the riser, or just holding it down for more than 2 or 3 seconds ends up with a short swoop because my body has already swung down, and I've practically returned to straight flight, except that I'm making the canopy descend faster by holding down the riser, even if I'm "carving the turn". When I first started messing with the risers I was on a Sabre 170, loaded at about 1.1. I would hang from the riser until I felt that it was time to ease up for a second or so and then give a little toggle to initiate my "swoop". After continuing to not change my method, my "swoops" got better, but I found myself stuck at a certain length, speed, and style. Then it dawned on me that my approach was a little backwards... From that point on, and still now I made a serious effort to totally change my technique. Here's my quick little breakdown of the swoop. I'm doing left hand 270s... ok? First 90 is usually a harness turn, then as the canopy turns, I initiate a canopy dive with a riser pull that goes from less aggressive, to more aggressive, but lasts around 1 or 2 seconds, about the time it takes to bring the canopy around that remaining 180 degrees. From this point on, no matter how high I am, I do not pull down on the front risers again. I allow the canopy to plane out and apply toggle where necessary to complete the landing. If I was too high, I allow the canopy to plane out, and I land it with out surfing the grass. I honestly believe that from this methoed you will learn much more than if you were to just tug and tug and tug, until you give toggle. When I watched your swoop, I had a couple of thoughts... First, I know that it was a balloon jump and there was no one in the sky, but I think the majority of people who have dialed in their swoop don't spiral down to the altitude where they initiate their dive... They spend time in full flight or brakes, looking for the perfect altitude, and aiming for the perfect setup, which results in the perfect swoop... why not fly like that when you're trying to figure things out? It looks to me like you kept pulling down on the front risers until you had to let go and pull down on the toggles... it seems to have resulted with a pretty short swoop. When you keep the riser down for so long, and pull out with the toggles, you've killed any distance from your swoop. I'm assuming that because you jumped out of a balloon that there was little to no wind slowing you down?... I'm not saying you're not doing good, or anything like that... I'm simply breaking down what I see and responding to it. Sometimes it helps if you completely change the was that you are trying something to jump to another level... just stay safe, mindful, predictable, and heads up. Try to post some video from the outside for more accurate responses. Good Luck -drew

absolutely (have fun at the dz)

Bowling for Columbine just came out on DVD yesterday... it's a documentary film about american's obsession with guns, and more generally, about our violent nature as a whole... It sheds light on a bunch of different things, including a little of why the rest of the world looks at "americans" the way that they do. Highly recommended -drew

I would look at as many of the rigs as I could... Make sure to ignore all the ones with small canopies in them, and only see the big ones. Try the big ones on and see how comfortable they are. Feel where the hacky is, check out the cutaway handles... Talk to people who jump the big ones and see what they have to say... I own and love my javelin, and have only owned javelins... having said that, I would like to add that I'm not exactly fond of the larger size javelins, so let's ignore the javelin for a minute... My take on Vector and Infinity, in the larger sizes, is that they are pretty similiar to the mirage g3 series. I've seen many of G3 containers with big canopies in them, and they look good... I know the price is really good for the G3, and they're banging out rigs real quick... like 4 weeks. Vector, Mirage and Infinity are all great rigs and companies. The top companies in the industry are all putting out great products with minor differences, try them on, feel them out, and make a decision that you're happy with. word -drew

Last weekend Hunter and Jimmy "Tequila" came to the Ranch from DeLand's Freedom of Flight School for a "Boogie Camp". 9 Ranchhands signed up, and it turned out to be a great weekend. We spent Saturday concentrating on freefly, and Sunday on a little tracking (through rain and sleet), canopy flying, and hybrids. I believe that everyone involved came out of this event a more heads up and safe flyer. Jimmy and Hunter are both articulate, thorough, thoughtful, and extremely experienced and qualified instructors. They have a great way of explaining things both before and after the skydives and have very imaginative dive plans. They quickly recognized our groups skill level and worked within that, keeping everyone safe while pushing our own individual boundries. I definitely recommend them to anyone/team/DZ looking for any type of training, including rw. Before they left, they put together a short video of all the jumps that we did and left a copy for each of the participants at Manifest... They also shot stills on many of the jumps. Scott Miller, also from Freedom of Flight, has come up to the Ranch for Canopy Seminars... Also very thorough, thoughtful, qualified, and experienced. We're already looking into when to bring them back to the Ranch for another boogie camp weekend, or venture down to Florida to hang out in their neck of the woods. Mark Tutundgy organized this boogie camp weekend. Freedom of Flight School is Highly Recommended!!! http://freedomofflight.tv/ -drew

The day I made my first jump in Eloy was the day the guy hit the bleachers... (March 2000) AKA, the day they made the east to west rule. Eloy has a much higher standard of canopy flying than at most dz's. Look at all the teams... Look at Pat and Brian, look at the video guys, look at the AFF instructors. I haven't been to Perris, but I know that this sort of DZ dynamic is not really common... Eloy is a very unique and lucky place and that's why we all keep on going back (besides those sunny days of course). When you land at Eloy, you have to land straight west or straight east... If you don't, you will be told why you must, and if you still don't, you will be told to go to the alternate landing area. I know because it once happened to me. Not all DZ's are lucky to have the facilities, staff, and clientell that Eloy has... Imagine that you were at a DZ with very few outs, very small landing area, and very little experience across the board for canopy pilots... You just don't see the same heads up, disciplined, and experienced level of flying... you just don't. Here's my response to the initial question... (I heard Max say this a while back and completely agree with him) It is far more important that we all land in the same direction than if we individually land into the wind. Hopefully by this time in our skydiving careers we can all figure out when the winds are strong enough that we must land into them, and when they're light enough that it really doesn't matter, and choose the direction and set the pattern accordingly. I personally always land the mainstream direction, unless I'm last down and want to deviate. Everyone Go Skydiving and land in the same direction! -drew

Ivan did the same, under an identical US team canopy unless I am mistaken. I don't remember where Craig placed in 2001, but I feel like it was top 5? Ivan won with the USA Velocity in 2001... Jeffro got 12th with the Stiletto in 2002... Cameron from Australia got 20th under a vengeance in 2003... I chowed a bunch and got 39th under the USA 107 last year... AND patented the term "further deep" (swoop 2) , so step back! -drew

ok... you win for the funny line of the day! Didn't even make the airspeed rig/canopy connection. hijack the garage sale... ha ha ha ha ha see you next weekend

hard housing?

I am in awe!

I'll get in on this... (right from josh's website) Not my finest moments... -drew

I think that everyone should go to the Ranch at least once... It's one of the older dz around the country, and one of the few without a dropzone manager, nor any "rules". It's actually a skydiving club... Great aircraft, great scenery, great people... the Ranch Pro Shop, and best of all... ...it's not on Long Island! (joke!) To add... it's an hour and fifteen minutes to the Ranch from Tarrytown (There's never traffic coming from there) and an hour and a half to Skydive Long Island (as long as there's no traffic across the bridge or along the L.I.E.), but I would guess more like 2 hours... I've never been to Skydive Long Island, but I do know that the Ranch is surrounded by trees and the winds are definitely effected by them, so you have to be cautious about "drawing the line" when the winds pick up a little. Have a nice trip -drew

HEre's my take on it... (i'm a computer technician in a windows/mac environment with close to 1000 computers) You will be happy with either the mac or windows. Realistically speaking, there is so much software available for both platforms, that finding what you need for either one shouldn't be a problem. I find that we have more problems with windows machines, both software and hardware, but all the companies these days have great customer service and repair facilities. There's two reasons why I am extremely PRO Mac... Here they are... Almost every single virus out there has been scripted to work through the flaws and vulnerabilities of Microsoft's Operating Systems. They are constantly a problem, and constantly have to be worked with. There are very few, if not any viruses scripted for the Mac. It is a non issue, plain and simple. The other reason, which I'm sure most Mac people will agree with, is something that happens as soon as you boot up the machine for the first time and every time after. It's almost the same as logging onto dropzone.com... You feel like you're a part of something. Maybe it's because you know you're making up that tiny 7.5% of the entire computer market, maybe it's the welcoming chime, or the great graphics, but there is an immediate sense of being part of a bigger community, which is really gratifying in it's own way. I love my Powerbook -drew

Hey! you keep on changing your little pic, huh?

http://www.2kcomposites.com/