SkymonkeyONE

When I was overseas, they made me buy a temporary BPA membership to jump at Netheravon and Weston. USPA ratings didn't count at all. I was on active duty then. Chuck

They rented one of our Caravans for the jump. You can see the track at altitude from our dropzone (skydive san marcos)

Not a bad write-up, you old woman!

Contact Michael Elliot (formerly of the US Army Parachute Team) and his All Veteran Parachute Team based out of Raeford, North Carolina. Mike does this kind of stuff all the time. The link to the website is: www.allveteranparachuteteam.com . Just google it and you will get all the links to his work. Chuck

Now THAT is the kind of fund raiser that I'd GLADLY help out with. Chuck

First jump in 1981 at age 17. It would have been age 16, but I got a D on my report card and my dad (a DZO) made me wait till I got my grades up. I've been steady at it for 32 years.

I've always had healthcare and I always will thanks to the 21 years I spent on active duty. $21 bucks a month is nothing. I also have life insurance and always will because it's stupid to die and expect others to take care of your personal affairs if you croak. Being a professional skydiver and not having health coverage is stupid. You are definitely, at some point in your jumping career, going to incur a hospital or doctors office bill for something skydiving related if you stay at it long enough. If you, like most of us who do this for a living, are a 1099 contractor at your dropzone then you are an idiot if you don't understand that the price of your healthcare is a business expense. Skydiving is DANGEROUS and shit happens! If you cannot afford to pay your hospital bills if/ when you pile in, then STOP JUMPING and get a safer job. It is NOT the responsibility of the rest of the public or the government to pick up the tab. Ever. Now as to the question of "contributing to a broken jumper", I'll make that decision based on the individual circumstances. First of all, does that jumper have a history of doing reckless things? No insurance? BASE jumper? BASE jumper previously injured on a BASE jump with no insurance? Has the person committed a felony by assuming another's identity and using their SSN to get treated for previous jumping injuries? Is there ANY possibility that ANY donation I make would make the slightest dent in any hospital bills or would that money simply go into the person's pocket for living expenses due to the injury which should have been covered by health insurance? Does the person have life insurance? Is the person married? Does the person have children? Is this donation really going to do any good? I've gifted and lent out a lot of money in the past. I've been gifted and lent money as well. I've paid to help pay for a memorial page in parachutist magazine a NUMBER of times now. Does anyone remember the woman in Texas that was having a fundraiser so she could save her house from foreclosure? No job, big-ass house with a hot tub and pool, always throwing parties?

I use paper assholes when I "need" to zoom in a bit for tandem video (which is very rare these days)

Who do YOU know? I pay $100. Ratings, PRO, etc...

Then he should spend some of the money he makes "working" on insurance. 1099 Contractors, which the VAST majority of full-time jumpers (like me) are, ought to be smart enough to get coverage to cover such tragedies. It is a BUSINESS EXPENSE. Skydiving is DANGEROUS and people making a living off of this sport ought to be prepared for inevitable injuries. It's definitely not my job as a taxpayer to foot the bill for anyone other than myself. Claiming indigency (sic?) raises EVERYONE's costs. I hope Andy recovers fully; he's a nice guy. But, I totally agree that the money would be best spent getting a lawyer and filing for medical bankruptcy and THEN making damn sure he's covered, somehow, before he busts himself up again. Seriously. Any money that is collected in this "fund raiser" will be but a drop in the bucket to the hospital bills he's going to pile up. Are any of the bills from the previous incident payed off yet? Chuck -a full-time skydiver with full health coverage

That's right, MEL! The original rings were just regular slider grommets pressed into webbing with a zero grommet for the cable. I STILL have a set of those old rings on my wingsuit rig! It wasn't until later that Joe (and maybe you) had the first set of stainless steel rings built. To the guy who was asking if I built my own: Nope. Joe Bennet (in Georgia) and Rob Wardell (at Raeford Parachute Center in NC) build all of my sliders. Rob's are a copy of Joe's with one small improvement in the routing of the cable. I MUCH prefer these over the two-cable ones that Scott Roberts designed and are sold with PD Velocities. I have one that is nine years old and still totally serviceable. Chuck

WOW! Way to bring a nine-year-old thread back to life! REST IN PEACE, TONTO!!!! BSBD! Since the thread seems to have come back, I'll add my two cents by saying I get taken for a good ride about once a year. I also get vomited on (badly) about once a year, and I also have one tremendously sketchy AFF jump about once a year. If you have not, then you haven't been doing it long enough. Chuck

Good post, Bill. Totally accurate. Spot posted something that made me chuckle: "Workman's compensation" What is this workman's compensation you speak of? I've never worked at a dropzone, full or part-time as anything other than a 1099 contractor. Only salaried full-time employees get that benefit, brother. Thank GOD for my military pension! Chuck

I believe Marc Hogue is/was one as well. He's at Skydive Phoenix in Maricopa, AZ.

Johnny Mulford in Raeford, NC is/was one.

All of my rigs have removable sliders. I reach up, yank the cord in the center, and stick it down the front of my jumpsuit. I've been jumping them since Joe Bennet built his first ones in like 2001/2. I have never, ever had a problem with any of mine.

I remember when Luigi Cani used to wear 50 pounds of lead in competition under an 80-ish square foot VX. Barefooted.... I can't remember if that was Panama City 2003 or Wildwood 2004. He wore a vest with one-inch tubular nylon weight pouches sewn across the entire front and back as well as a weight belt. I thought he was out of his freakin mind. Running out landings with that much lead on, barefooted, made for quite the show.

I can see the potential benefit of the flysight, but can't for the life of me figure out why someone would want to occlude their vision on a wingsuit flight with that stupid Recon thing. I mean REALLY? I'm assuming it's the same people who jump with their Ipod music blaring. The word "novelty" comes to mind. Noobs can't navigate properly without distractions. Chuck

Arlo Pace is one of my best friends. She's been in the business for a long time and has worked for all of the major manufacturers in Deland. Absolutely trustworthy. Chuck

My Roam takes stills, but only at the rate of one per second. Also, you must program it to do so on your computer; there is no multi-mode switch like on other Contour cameras. FWIW: I have contour HD's, GPS's, and a Roam.

I totally agree with that. Every bit of it.

My mistake, I have no idea where Austin came from. Houston! Spaceland is a fantastic facility. For what it's worth, I work at Skydive San Marcos which is in between San Antonio and Austin and we, too, have a "big boy" rig with a 300 navigator in it. Chuck

Anyone that's going to be using ANY HP crossbraced for everyday use would be wise to order their canopy with such lines, bro.

I jumped without an AAD for 18 years, but I have had them in all my rigs for 14 years. My life is worth $1000 bucks.

Our students are given a form prior to every level/category of their student program which has checklists they should follow to ensure they have the correct gear, know what they are expected to accomplish on that skydive, and a ton of other stuff. We walk our students through the entire process from picking the correct rig off the rack, signing it out properly, then following a VERY complete gear inspection checklist from top to bottom. Rushing a student into a rig, not explaining the "how's" and the "why's" along the way is a bad idea. If you think you are being rushed by your instructors or you have more questions, then TELL THEM and ask them to slow down. Chuck