Levin

i have a spectre 120 loaded at 1.25. i use it for tube dives, bird-man suit, night jump and occasional back to back. i put very few jumps on it so it should last forever my main canopy is a fx74 loaded at 2.1. i have 300 jumps on it and put about 15 - 20 jumps on it a week. i'm not downsizing till i have 1000 jumps on it. means i should be shopping for my new vx next fall. levin vSCS#3

ceratinly you can stand and sit with a ball. i've taken eric butts on a few ball jumps where he sit flyed the whole time grabbing it changing hands and doing his transitions. but in order for me to take you out in a sit jump with a ball you have already developed the same skills in a sit that i would require of a headdown flyer. since sitting is not as efficient a body position as headdown it is harder. if a freeflyer wanted to go out and do a ball jump while staying in a sit the whole time because they have not developed the headdown skills i would probably decline because there would obviously be other things that freeflyer could better spend his time on than playing with a ball. it's not a toy, it's a training aid. the only reason i take eric on sit ball jumps is because he is very good sit flyer. meaning he can accomplish many things in a sit with the same proficiancy as an accomplished headdowner. and also because my ball falls at 155mph and it's a little slow for eric to stay with on his head. levin vSCS#3

very nice pics josh. thanks again for taken the day off to video. levin vSCS#3

i use to jump with david at the east texas skydiving club in gladewater, tx from 1997 to 2000. it's a small dz with 2 sometimes 3 C182s. david, kyle anderson and i were pretty much the only freeflyers that jumped there on regular every weekend basis. so most of our jumps we made together. during that time david was a much better freeflyer than i so he coached me and kyle the best he could with the limited knowledge we had. we were re-inventing the wheel with only videos such as chronicles2&3 to learn by and an occasional visit from goat, raymond adams, dust smith and chris fiala from skydive dallas. during the winter in 1999 at about the same time we all wanted to get new gear. kyle had put about 800 jumps on his sabre150 and wanted to downsize. david had an old nova120 that was worn out and i was one of those that wanted to downsize real fast having only put 325 jumps on my stiletto 107. but fortunately for me david is an excellent canopy pilot and he gave me canopy coaching on almost every jump i made starting at around 200 jumps. either david or kyle suggested we get team gear since we always jumped together and were like a team. in designing our gear we decided to each use our favorite color. kyle's gear was grey, red and black and kyle picked red. david's gear was yellow, black and red. david's favorite color is yellow. all my gear was black and white and my favorite color is white. but david and kyle didn't want white cuz they said it would get dirty. so in compromise i said i wanted to design the suits as long as they didn't get to expensive. i designed the suit with markers on paper and then called tony suits. tony suits didn't want to build them telling me that the stock patterns they had were they only ones they would make. i then called firefly and shelly said mail them the drawing and they would make it. she really likes making totally custom stuff. we all ordered alpha84's since at the time that was one of the most popular swoop canopies. the fx had been out for a year and the vx had just been released. both of those canopies had not been on the market long enough to get all the bugs worked out. as soon as we decided to do the team thing and ordered our gear we started going to skydive houston once a month for the extra altitude from the otter and to jump with other freeflyers. we found skydive houston and the orbit punks to be very hospitable. jim slaton gave us free freefly coaching and when we expressed an interest in canopy coaching he kinda took us in and gave us all the free canopy coaching we could listen too. he even invited me to come down during the week and do hop n pops with him. an offer i should have taken him up on. we had all our new gear by the beggining of july 2000. during the pro blade meet at quincy 2000 david took 12th place with only 50 jumps on his alpha and after the meet decided he wanted a vx. icarus gave him a partial sponsorship on a vx77. he ordered a white one with the crossbracing matching the color scheme of his old nova so that his wife wouldn't notice he bought a new canopy. he says she doesn't pay that close attention to his videos. some how he kept the alpha a secret. later he told his wife about the vx he ordered and she didn't care. in october 2000 kyle made an aggressive low turn in low light conditions and had a hard landing that resulted in 2 broken femurs, a busted pelvis and tailbone, a busted nose and two black eyes. it was one of the most horrible things i've ever seen. he is lucky to have survived. the doctors projected him a long road to recovery, perhaps 8 months to a year. instead he recovered very fast. he was out of the hospital in a month and back in the air after 3 months. he had a cut away on his second jump. he's about 50 yrs old. a week before his accident a jumper that travels around selling skydiving insurance sold kyle a policy. they jumper insurance company hadn't even deposited the check yet at the time of the accident nor had kyle completed all the paper work. they honored the agreement paying a substantial portion of the hospital bill and money for him while he was out of work. shortly after the accident the team thing kinda fell apart. david quit frequenting houston as much and i started going more often. in february 2001 i went to work in the pro-shop at spaceland. late last year i sold my alpha after breaking my ankle and got an fx74. it looks identical to david's except for less black on each end due to two less cells. at the time i got my fx kyle got a vx69 and put his alpha up for sale. after 3 jumps on the 69 kyle decided he had gotten in way over his head and went back to jumping his alpha. he sold the vx and got a stiletto107 for a second rig. even though we don't jump much together anymore we still have kept the same gear since it looks really cool and we are still really good friends. i really didn't mean or this story to be so long. but as i was typing it, it just kept going on and on. levin vSCR#17 vSCS#03

i would say on average 400 jumps on your head before you develop the skills to gain anything new from jumping with a ball and 800 - 1000 headdown jumps before you even consider ball mastering yourself. i will not take anybody on a ball jump that has not yet developed the skills to have decent control of their movements and fly their column. and even at that stage i think it would be more beneficial to do a good 2 way with that experienced (ballmaster) freeflyer than a ball jump. levin vSCS#3

definetly one kick ass weekend. thanks to trent, jed, stevie and eric for hosting this event. thanks to max for organizing the bigways and thanks to josh for taking the day off to video them. i had a great time and definetly left as a better flyer. here's some pics from the event. can't wait till next time. levin vSCR#17, vSCS#3

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=189017;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread here's the link to a dicussion we had about this before. there is a suggested weight at the end of the post. beware the information is inaccurate and incomplete. if i remember right the post with the suggested weight started with a disclaimer. i checked your profile and at 260 jumps you have no business being in the air with a spaceball. not trying to be ugly levin vSCS#3

works best with a bungee cord levin vSCR#17

i first started wanting to get into base around 200 jumps. but i didn't get a chance to do my first until i almost had a 1000 jumps. i'm damn glad i waited til i had a 1000 jumps before i got into it. at 200 jumps i don't think i would have been ready. levin vSCS#3

the degree of difficulty is 10 fold. i would be much more impressed with a 10 way round than a 20-way with a small base and stingers. Levin vSCS#3

well at least it was for a valid reason if it gets to cold for yall in colorado this winter, remember yall are always welcome at skydive houston levin vSCR#17

i know why derrick and richard weider are banned. but why are you?? levin vSCS#3

it's a good idea to have a tube that is longer than your line set, but it isn't imperative depending on how you deploy with it. if you deploy head high with your arm out then the tube will likely go right up the middle of your line set and bounce off the slider. i have seen this on several videos. the correct position is to get as flat as possible and hold the tube as far away from you as you can. when the canopy lifts you quickly yank your arm down. this will pull the tube out, down and away from your deploying canopy. however even with this technique the tube gets very close to the nose of the canopy. but with that same technique i have never seen an entanglement. personally i have little to no problems deploying with one on my feet but i will never deploy with one in my hand. with a hand deployment the tube is just to close to the deploying canopy and in a malfunction whats to say the tube won't fly right up in the mess if i have to chunk it. when on your feet the tube is clear of deployment. if your still interested in getting a tube i recommend calling trent at the gear store at skydive spaceland also flyvertical.com. the tubes are built great. i have about 50 jumps on mine and it still looks new. they come with a sit handle and a cut-away 2 ring release for feet mounts. good luck! Levin vSCR#17 vSCS#03 gRAT#40

there is also the 7-way headdown round record that was built at skydive houston back in july, 2000. building a large round is much more difficult than a bigway with a small base and stingers. since it's a seperate record i figured it should be mentioned. levin vSCR#17, vSCS#03

interesting. maybe that will give the big boys the edge they need to slow down. i've always thought that it is better to fly your body instead of your jumpsuit. i don't think the freeflying version will all around be that great a thing. guess we'll wait and see. should be a great thing for base though. i noticed they have yellow with red stripes for a stock color pattern. levin vSCS#3

he didn't mention that was from a C182 levin vSCS#3

has anybody reading these forums obatined a letter of proficiency from the faa? just curious what's involved and what the steps are in getting one. levin vSCS#3

you can get something similar to a pro-rating thru the faa. levin vSCR#17

i like the one on my bird-man suit the best... -The user of this equipment MUST NOT attempt to land a wing-suit without a parachute. -Flying Bird-Man Wing Suit can be extremely addicting and high levels of endorphin may affect your flight as well as your personal life. levin vSCS#3

if i'm not mistaken i believe the big ways are the 5th and 6th. the 8th and 9th is a tuesday and wednesday. levin vSCS#3

i'll be there today around 4:20. i have a haircut appt in pearland at 3:45. it's on the way. levin vSCS#3

that's douggie in the back levin vSCS#3

ramon owes beer. i landed off 0 times. yall actually thought that would've been any other number. levin vSCS#3

Skydive Houston Fall Boogie this weekend make 5 jumps and get the 6th one free in the same day. Ramon and I will be organizing hybrid, vSCR and tube dives this weekend. Freefly coaching available all weekend. 1st coach jump is free after that they are only $30 which includes both slots, video, pre and post dive debriefs night jumps saturday night!! levin vSCR#17 vSCS#03 gRAT#40