SkymonkeyONE

That's FANTASTIC!

BWAHAHAHA! A fucking .75! I would love to see that fucker pound into the side of a hangar "McDuck style!" I want a gasser badly, but am not, I repeat NOT, buying anymore planes till we get to Z-hills in July.

There is a wide variety of gear in use on the USAPT. The rigging section controls who gets what, but here's a general breakdown as of the last time I bothered to look: -demo team guys jump either PD seven cells or Flight Concepts Startrac I's and II's (this is the stuff you jump in tryouts, as you are trying out to be a demonstrator) -the RW team jumps Stillettos -the few stylies left generally jump Stillettos for style and Parafoils for accuracy -the tandem team jumps Sigma tandems and a mix of sport mains. As the freefly guys and most all the swoopers on the team come from this section, they have been playing with different things. Their "standard" sport main is the Stilletto, but there are several larger velos (I think the smallest one they have is a 96) and they have demoed Katanas and some precision Xaos's in the past couple of years. -lastly, they maintain some larger gear for AFF training and "silver team" (operations section) use. They have Navigators in most of those and I have seen some Silhouettes too. Chuck

No need to attack the man, bro. back on topic, I think any of us who have been doing tandems for any length of time have encountered people who just don't get it. At our dropzone we have been pretty lucky. I can only think of one instance where we needed to ground a tandem instructor for his inability to land a parachute and one instance where we dismissed a guy for his inability to grasp the importance of tightening the side straps enough and exit with stability. Chuck

That was awesome.

That's another good idea. Call this number (856) 278-3792 if you want to talk to him about who did his.

Kim is correct; Jerry Loftis was definitely not "first in the USA". As there was no source for "skysurfing boards", those of us wanting to do it had to figure out what would work with the least potential for killing us in the process. I do credit Jerry with doing a great job of redesigning existing parts, outsourcing, and putting together some really nice, marketable boards. Two of his boards sit dusty in our school at Raeford next to mine. Some observations from back then: -what people were most concerned about was getting into a spin on your back. The fact of the matter is that this was only a problem if you mounted your bindings sideways, like you would ride a skateboard. It's hard to straighten the board out in front of you if your feet are cocked. If your feet are straight on the board (like on a slalom waterski, just offset a bit), then you can get flat on your back and rotate left, right, or fall straight down without fear of "spinning up." As I am "regular footed", my left foot is just forward of center and offset to the left side of the board facing straight forward. The drogue pouch (a modified BOC pocket) was just right of my forward binding. The drogue deployed out the back of the pocket, not out the top like Jerry's stuff. My right (rear) foot was just behind the drogue pouch, offset to the right of the board and facing straight forward. This setup was perfect for me. I know people who cock the rear binding and like that, but the asymetry of the stance in freefall bugged me so I never did that. -what made most sense for me as a suitable board, as an avid waterskier/barefooter, was a trick ski. A bit heavy, but the perfect shape and available in sizes ranging from about 36" up to 44". I had a 42" Connelly trick laying in my shop and went straight to work. All of Jerry Loftis' Surf Flight boards were/are simply trick ski blanks with plastic bottoms and a lighter honeycomb core to make them lighter. The problem with the "new" boards with the plastic bottoms was that you tore them up if you ripped downwind landings and slid to a stop on the board like I always did. Kicking off your board is very pussified in my opinion. -I swooped to a stop on ever single board jump. After opening I just reached down and pushed my rear heel loop off so that I could pull my foot out and catch my balance at the end of my long slide. You can go a tremendous distance across the grass on a board, particularly when you bust downwinders! (Raeford is perfectly manicured and flat green grass). I swooped the entirety of the main landing area once and ran straight into the fence. As the base of my board was fibreglass, it never even once got nicked. Landings were, seriously, half the fun of those jumps. -what I first used for bindings were extra large rear toe bindings off of cheap slalom skis mated to heel straps off the original Hyperlite wakeboard. I rigged a two ring release for the heel straps. My last board had complete Hyperlite toe-strap/heel loop bindings with the same two-ring release. -since I was very concerned about having to chop a pretty heavy board and the damage it might do, I rigged a drogue (an old pilot chute and bridle) that released if I ever pulled my binding release/cutaway (a cutaway cable nicopressed together at the bottom to hook both bindings and the droge together). I never had to chop either of my boards, but the damn thing slipped off my feet on the second jump. As I was barefooted (actually wearing socks) due to having waterski toe loop bindings (shoes wouldn't fit in that first setup), it sucked landing in the biggest briar patch in NC to pick up my un-damaged board off the DZ. My second set of bindings allowed me to wear shoes (thank god). -I had over 100 jumps on my board before I ever heard of Jerry Loftis. I called him on the phone and we talked for a long time about bindings and such. I would have loved to have gotten a set of his binding plates (they ARE light), but my stuff worked fine. -my second board was smashed up fairly badly when Rodney Cruce (the four-way guy) jumped it down at my dad's DZ in Alabama in around 1993. The front binding failed when he was doing a back flip and he spun up so bad that he could not locate the cutaway handle on the inside of his front thigh. He shucked the heel loop off the other bound foot and the board went flying without the aid of the drogue. He took like 15 seconds to stop his spin, pulled, and landed dazed and out of breath. The board fluttered out of the sky, rolling like a leaf and landed on the ramp literally five feet in front of a taxiing Cessna 310's left engine! The board smashed in and the pilot slammed on the brakes. I was as horrified as the pilot I think! Anway, I still have that board in it's semi-smashed state and another one that I have not jumped in a very long time. -I built and sold four 42" and 44" boards using H.O. trick skis and modified Hyperlite bindings with my own drogue/cutaway system. I have no idea if any of them are in circulation anymore. -I didn't pull standing up until my third board jump. Even with a 42" board and my "inline" binding configuration I never had any problem pulling from a flat and stable belly position with the board tucked up behind my butt. The tail never interfered with the opening in that configuration. -When I was training people, I never even talked to anyone with under 200 jumps. Also, I went with my trainees (without a board) and videoed them (VHS-C baby!). If anyone ever got out of control it was my intention to fly over, tackle them and stop the spin. Very naive of me maybe, but it was what I had every intention of doing. Nice memories from what seems a lifetime ago, Chuck

That would be smart. Paul's number is (919) 496-2224 at the DZ.

That's exactly how it's still done at that military club on Fort Bragg. Every student makes his/her first jump under their own pack job. I would still be all for that if every FJC lasted five evenings. Chuck

Hardy Har Har, Jack!

The "skyflyer 3" comment was not accurate. There are only a few suits that the team has: -a GTi that was built for Jon Ewald -a couple of new Firebirds that are logoed the same. I certified Jon as a BMI last year so that he could train others on the team. Also, as to canopies, there are a few members of the tandem/freefly section who are now jumping Velos in their work rigs.

I searched the forum with that line and got zip, so I will just go ahead and ask. I am looking to put a small digital still camera on for tandems. You know, about the size of a digital elph, but with a remote shutter release. I know there is at least one film camera with such an option because I know people using them, but I am talking digital format here. Spill it. We have been wanting to buy another digital still anyway and don't want to waste money on one without this function if there is, in fact, one available. Something 5 megapixel our above, like the digital elph. I don't check here often, so if you do respond, please also shoot me a PM. Chuck

I think it's you, Bob!

"what can I get's me fo fifty cent?" "Just pour a little in my hands!"

You are only tested in rudimentary freefall skills in tryouts, but your target accuracy gets averaged starting very early on. Target accuracy under F-111 seven-cell demo canopies would be the smartest thing I could advise you to work on.

Well, I guess it's Taylor who will win. Whodathunkit?

"launch SEAL team 6" is my favorite.

I was the very first person on the east coast of the USA to strap a board on after seeing "the silver surfer" commercial and the Coke commercial. That was 1990 and I still have photos of those days in my albums. Ultimately, while fun, I got bored with the discipline after about 200 jumps. I still have my two boards (one destroyed by Rodney Cruce!), but have not made a jump with one since around 1998. I was pissed that they started the skysurfing league long after I had quit screwing around with it. It was neat, but got very repetitious to me after I had mastered what tricks I could think of back then. There is still one guy that routinely jumps his very-nice TS board at Raeford; Jim Lanigham. There is also one other guy here who jumps his old board about once a year. Trivial note: I taught former GK national/world champion RW guy John Hoover to skysurf on his 200th Skydive at Raeford a long time ago. He did great on that jump right up till pull time when he flipped over and threw his PC right between his legs. He obviously lived, but I was scared to death watching it from five feet away in freefall. Chuck

I always look for smoke out of smokestacks, forrest fires, etc. My first choice, though, is to look over at the dropzone (even though I know I am not going to make it), compare my intended landing direction there to the terrain below me, then set up for a landing in that direction. I hope that makes sense. Chuck

Alright kids, that's enough of that. This is a topical forum and I really do wish we could keep positive information and feedback flowing without meaningless jabs. Chuck

BZ didn't seem any taller than me when I met him (I am 5'7 1/2" on a good day), but it might have been an optical illusion. Tell him I said "hello" Chuck

A quick update on my latest carnage: -The Blade CP heli: still can't hover to save my ass, but I can keep it in the air and flying where I want it for up to five minutes now before balling it up. I am amazingly sick of buying replacement main-frames, skids, and blades. I just ordered two sets of the newly-available nylon blades. They are guaranteed not to splinter and disintegrate on wipe-out. Only $15 per set, so I got two sets. I recently flew it right into a light pole at Raeford; the wreck was spectacular. -The Parkzone Stryker: I guess my 2100 mAh Lipo finally shit the bed. It stopped taking a full charge and will "drop" one cell sometimes and just stop flying. It had been in at least 30 very bad wrecks in both my P-51 and first Stryker, so sayonara $85 for a new one. I just bought a replacement battery yesterday. I fly the hell out of the Stryker. Can anyone else here say that they can successfully and safely land theirs upside down? I love this plane -The Parkzone P-51: lost it in the late-afternoon sun a few weeks ago and balled it up badly. Total loss on the airframe. I swore I would never buy another replacement airframe for this, so I think I am going to put the electrics in another Stryker as a back-up plane for our drunken dogfights. -The Aerobird Extreme: It went straight in last week under full power when I lost attitude awareness of it late in the afternoon dusk. I have an old fuse I can put the electrics in. I don't fly this plane much anymore anyway. Chuck

At this point I don't care who goes home. My vote for eventual, though pointless, winner is Taylor. My guess is that Kat is going home tonight.

BZ is nowhere near 5'11" so you must have "traded up" Carrie!

You're my boy, Colon!