SkymonkeyONE

Is it legal there? If so, and she is mature enough in your, and her parents' eyes, then go for it. It has been authorized by our governing body here in the USA (USPA) for 16 year olds to learn to skydive since way before I was born. There are tons of places here where we routinely train 16 year olds without hesitation. By the way, I am not interested in hearing anybody's "you can't sign away a minor child's rights" rants either. It's fine in a lot of places and if you are not cool with it then don't let your kid do it. Mike Mullins' kids have all proven what's possible at younger-than-normal ages. Once again: if it's legal there, her parents are cool with it, and you know she is going to get decent instruction, then I say let her do it. Chuck

Hey, as long as you don't cut him off to get there, then that's cool, bro.

I have a set of GK-issue vans that I think I stole from Jon Ewald. They slide nicely and are comfortable; that's why I wear them (when I am not wearing tevas or my Sketchers).

The link to the thread that Dave posted will tell you all you need to know.

I am not sure how we got on the wingsuit tangent, but I can give you a lot of examples of quite-experienced wingsuit guys who regularly jump small crossbraces with their suits: -Jay Moledzski either jumps a Velo 75 (maybe that 71 now) or his BASE rig with his wingsuit. -Chris Martin made every single one of his 800+ wingsuit jumps under a Xaos loaded above 2.0 -Jari Kuosma routinely jumped a Velo 75 loaded around 2.4 with his suit before trading down to a Sabre2, then back up to a Katana (the smallest one available). -I made about 50 wingsuit flights with a Velo 75 before I decided I liked my bigger Velo better and traded the 75 for a Sabre2 97. Ultimately, I don't think that adding a wingsuit to the equation, regardless of main, has anything to do with "needing" or shying away from the speed CYPRES. It's only got to do with the wingload of the main and how big a turn you are busting. I throw 360's 99% of the time now under all my mains (minus my tandem main) and I make my dytter holler at me everytime on approach. That has nothing to do with wingsuiting. The old blurb we had in the BirdMan First Flight course (and manual) that "a CYPRES may not activate at wingsuit speeds" is passe. I know for a fact that if a guy zoo's out at pulltime in a wingsuit he is going to be falling more than fast enough to get the unit to fire as he is flailing and trying to pull handles. I don't think we will ever see the day where a guy hums it down to CYPRES fire altitude in full flight without freaking the fuck out and reaching for handles. At least I hope we never see that. Chuck

There is quite a bit of information exactly like you are looking for in other threads in this forum. A simple search would give you all the answers you want. Still, here are my quick thoughts: -none of us use 1" "reserve bridle material (whatever that is) for our RDS line. A piece of Vectran line is just fine. -ALL of us found out that using an RSL shackle is a quick way to lose your deployment system if it touches anything in the deployment process. My first one went "sayonara" over Crosskeys dropzone in early 2003. Most people I know who jump "partial" RDS systems like you describe who still leave their sliders on use small Rapide links. Those people are now in the minority though as the great, great majority of jumpers using an RDS system have gone "full system" and use removable sliders. -looks like you punched a gromet in the tail of your slider instead of sewing on tabs like everyone else does. That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea to me as I did, back in the days before I got my removable slider, did have two jumps where I could not release my RSL shackle and, later, my Rapide from the tail of the slider. Reason? The lines had fouled around the tabs and shackle. I had to reel it in and stick it down my shirt, still attached to the back of my slider. -I don't know why in the world you would be jumping your main with an RDS system and dumping in the 2000 feet region. That just doesn't make sense. If you are going to jump with an RDS hooked up, you MUST open high enough to reel it in. Leaving it trailing behind your slider is nuts. Better to just use the RDS when you know you are going to have time to fully appreciate it's benefits. -I jump a "complete" RDS system with vectran lines and a Joe Bennet-built removable slider (the industry standard). On most jumps, my bag, pc, and bridle are still up on top of my main, but I pull my slider off on every single skydive. I only jump the lines attached to the back of the slider when I am training or competing (which is pretty rarely this past year). PM me if you don't get all the rest of the answers you want from the others who are going to give their advice. Chuck

Tell her worthless, piece of shit ass to get the fuck out.

This has been a very long read, hasn't it? It's all got me to thinking about the first time I saw video of a guy doing this stuff down in florida a decade ago: Mike Hagendas (sp). The video was this same "pommel horse" routine and I don't know who brought it to Raeford, but we were all just shaking our heads saying what a bad idea we thought it was. That was a very long time ago. I had no idea people were still actually still doing that kind of stuff. While some other TM's might find it "stylish", it certainly does not show the student in his glory does it? I am pretty sure that's the reason students actually pay for video; to be the star of the show. Take care, all Chuck

I think that if that is your concern then you are surely free to do it with small rapide links. Like Scott implied though, it's just an amazingly miniscule posibility with the way the system is configured. This is a dangerous sport though and I guess anything is possible. I guess it's possible that someone might throw their pilot chute through the legwing vent on a Vampire too, but I don't see that happening, even though it's technically possible. I just don't live my life worrying about the small stuff. YMMV. Chuck

Ryan and JD Fortune both look nearly exactly that that whackjob, David Blaine, the magician.

Here they is, biznitches!

Another thought here which may debunk Kris' assumption: Are all of these terminal BASE sites at or near sea level, or are they as I presume, at MSL altitudes which would coincide with the altitude density one would experience at standard skydiving wingsuit altitudes? Do you follow me here. If the MSL altitude of the landing area at any of these magnificent BASE wingsuit sites is at or above 4000 feet, then Kris' hypothesis is poop. If the landing areas at these sites is near sea level then altitude density is for sure a factor. Either way, that's just something that popped into my head. Cheers, Chuck

Hey Henny, I am not there and you are, so I don't mean to be critical, but were the winds within the specified limits for everyones' runs? I don't think there is a single one of us who has not been screwed during one round or another due to winds. I have competed in meets where one pass of guys got a ten mph tail wind and the very next pass got ten mph in the face. It sucks, but of course we cannot control mother nature can we? At any rate, I wish everyone luck and I hope that you have an injury-free meet. Cheers! Chuck Blue

You have no idea how pissed off I get when my order gets fucked up. Seriously. I once threw a cheesburger back through the window at the girl after they fucked my order up three times in a row. PLAIN MEANS PLAIN!!! Ask Katie; she'll tell you! Chuck

There is a Pimp and Ho party on the dropzone tonight. I have no idea why the girls didn't put up a thread in Events and Places to Jump, but it's TONIGHT, beotch! Scared? Say scared!

I have been in two units where we were issued GSG-9's and I still have a pair that I like to wear when it's too hot outside to wear my Oakleys (especially my black ones) or my 5.11's. The only problem with GSG-9's is that the outer sole peels away pretty easilly and the nubs on the tread wear out quickly. Lots of places will resole them, but if you wear all the way through the outer sole before you take them in then you are screwed. They are incredibly light boots and have good traction on everything except for oily/slick surfaces. That said, they do offer more traction on slick surfaces than any of the three pairs of Oakley assault boots I have owned. Chuck

I am pretty sure the guy that won that contest knows that, Kris.

Hey Laura, does Oren actually skydive? "it might rain in five hours; I better stay on the ground." Hee hee hee!

Absolutely not. It's WAY too hot here to wear undies. Why would I want to sweat-soak shorts and undies. I have half the laundry to do this way. Oddly, not many guys wear Ranger Panties here at Z-hills, Dan. Almost everyone wears them as outerwear at Raeford. Chuck

What the hell are you talking about Kris? I don't get it. You have like nine wingsuits, but I can't believe you have more than 50 jumps on any of them. Make your mind up for god's sake. I don't mean to sound shitty, but I really don't get your comment. Chuck

I am going to chime in here and say that myself and old-school BMI Bobby Pritchard neither one had any problem staying down with a regular tracking dive. We exited last everytime and simply flew very dirty to match fallrates. If you are jumping with someone with a lesser-performing setup (IMPACT, PF tracking suit, whatever else is less performing than what you are flying), just exit after that person and make sure they fly a pattern 90 degrees off the flightline so that you can catch up without having to back up as you drop down. It's never been a big deal for me at all. Chuck

And I will positively disagree with you. This site and, particularly, this forum has been in existence far longer than Jim's site. Likewise, this site is frequented and contributed to my many, many professional canopy pilots. Any question you can think to ask has, positively, already been answered on this site. Just do a search. Jim is a great guy and he has a very slick-looking site, but he is not the end-all authority on anything. His site also gets very-little traffic in comparison to this site (particularly this forum). In my opinion it is far better to get a wider variety of answers from other positively qualified experts, than just blindly follow the advice of one person. That is all. Chuck Blue D-12501

I know of at least one person, Aaron Comp, who ordered a Xaos 27 canopy exactly 1/2 foot larger than a pretty standard size, just for shits and grins. The canopy flew great; he might still have it. Chuck

Beat me to it, John! I have to elaborate a bit though: John is a big motherfucker and would have no problem preventing a student from flaring early. I am, on the other hand, a much smaller guy and have had to, on occasion, lock my thumb around the rears to prevent a person from flaring too early. It was after one of those jumps where I decided to always take control of the canopy and land it myself on "first tandems." I have not seen any "first tandems" down here at Z-hills which are permitted to help land the canopy. Likewise, unless I am doing a "training tandem" (cat A or B), then I have my student (passenger in this case) drop the toggles at around 500 feet. I land the canopy myself on all except very-few "first tandems". This prevents me from having to deal with the potential problem our green friend posted about. Chuck

Which one? OH, either of mine will wipe the floor with your ass.