SkymonkeyONE

There are possibly 100 threads on this very topic already. Use the search function at the bottom of the page and read through the volumes of material on this topic.

Thats pretty low. Really? My rig weighs 16.8 pounds.

When you have a couple thousand jumps, you'll realize the error of that comment. Until then... carry on. Agreed, Tim. For everyone's personal edification: ALL of us who have been jumping since the inception of the term "swoop" learned under MUCH-lighter-loaded, lower performing mains than are available today. Saying that it is "unsafe" to learn swooping under lighter wingloads just makes me laugh. Chuck

With your jump numbers we would let you jump a 1.3 wingload at my dropzone.

I have the best of both worlds, while still keeping it "Harley." I have a 2001 FLTR Road Glide and a '03 Buell XB9S. The latter is an incredibly scary bike to ride at wide open throttle. Chuck

He totally worked the Star Trek thing his entire life after the series ended. He always seemed very keen on remaining apart of that cultural icon that was/is the original series. Most trivia-minded people will know that he was missing an entire finger on one hand. Chuck

Definitely "MudFest"

MudFest 05 has come and gone. It was, seriously, like Noah's Flood every single day we were there. That said, the pilots were total troopers to be mud-bogging their planes through that crap to get us to safe takeoffs. We made as many loads as the weather would permit, but that meant a lot of sliding landings out in ground puddles. Katie and I made ten jumps apiece there. Mine were a mix of POPS bigways, SCR's, a perfect raft dive, and a few smallish flocks (six ways). I overboogied a bit on Friday evening (after ditching Ted and Jason!) and didn't jump at all on Saturday, so I missed the biggest flocking. Still, I had a good time. I am serious about the weather. It rained INCREDIBLY hard at least two times a day. Thanks to Ted (or was that Jason) for setting up that great fist fight; it was fun. Chuck

The day is just beginning! Katie and I are leaving the house in under ten minutes to drive to the airport in Raleigh. We are renting a car in Houston, so don't anyone worry about fetching us. We arrrive at around 5:00 PM, so we should be at Spacey by around 7:00. Chuck

There is a wing release on the SkyRay; you can jettison it if you get out of control.

Katie and I will be on the DZ Wednesday evening, staying with Larry (Cloud9).

Agreed, Skinny. That was a very gaylord and un-manly thing to do. Dave missed a real brain-bender by not showing up at Z. That said, I think I will let him off easy if he shows up with a sufficient quantity of Shiner. That is unless his DZO tells me he was actually back in Aggieland hauling meat or something, in which case we must be unrelenting in our harrasment of him. Lund, Shiner, NOW! Chuck

Rob, you are just not going to get "twitchy" performance out of any crossbraced canopy at the wingload you are talking about jumping. For that matter, I don't really know why you would want "twitchy" under such a fast canopy.

An H3 looks just barely different than a Jeep Liberty in my opinion. If you want a Hummer, why not just get a used H2. They are for sale all over the place for under 40k nowadays. Edited to add that you can also get used "real" H1's for under 40k. I am caucasion but must admit that I really like the 300M with the Hemi. Like has already been posted though, I would get the new Charger with a Hemi over the 300M. Chuck

Ride it into a windmill, Don Quiote style.

I am positively down for that POPS record! I did not pack a bootie suit though, so I will need an outside or whacker slot on whatever you come up with. Chuck Blue D-12501 "the best looking 41-year old on this website!"

Sounds like they are soliciting for someone to run it.

Nice inflation!

Actual time in the cone? maybe fifteen minutes per student. Edited to add that that when we used to get time at the sport parachute club, it was generally for three hours. We would split that time between first jump students, people still in the student progression, and instructor drills. Once again, each student got around fifteen minutes in the cone, but we would keep "problem children" in there till we fixed them. When we would get the tunnel at lunch, it would be for around an hour and a half per day. When we got it as a unit we would get it for the entire day, sometimes several days. Chuck

OK, here's the deal with my arrival. We arrive at Hobby at 5:10 PM on Wednesday and are looking for a ride (us and our gear). If nobody can hook a monkey up then I guess we will rent a car (which is not a big deal at all). Wendy, you promised a tent and some sleepy stuff, didn't you? I intend to pitch a tent right next to SkinnyShreck's camper, possibly under his awning in case it rains. Chuck

If you are getting a guy ready for, or fixing a guy already in an AFF course then yes, you need to be teaching pull altitude recognition, wave-off, and pull sequence. It does not matter if a guy can fall stable if he goes unstable the second he reaches behind his back with his right hand. At Fort Bragg, unless time is really short, I am generally going to start a guy off on a tether. He might only be on it for one minute, but it will keep him in one confined area if he starts "ping-ponging" around. You guys in Maggie Valley could absolutely use the same type of system as you have no walls. Once we get a guy stable on the tether and then off the tether (with AFF grips), we then ease into tasks exactly like we would do it on a real training skydive. -stable and in a good, relaxed body position without potato-chipping or turning (both grips, then free-arm, then fully released. Heading maintenance. Giving corrective AFF signals when in the cone. Outside the cone we use a dry erase board to work out problems and then dirt dive on the side until time go get back in. In the Bragg tunnel we kneel the student on the pads facing the air and "exit" them into the cone from either side (at first, just like out of a plane). -90 degree turns left and right stopping on heading -360 degree turns stopping on heading -falrate adjustments faster and slower -forward and backward movement (to teach relativity maintenance on that axis) -Once they can do that, we start teaching them the pull sequence, giving them hand and arm signals to indicate altitude countdown to "pull" altitude. We drill that, generally in a harness (when available), until they can do it repeatedly while maintaining heading and stability on all axis. We also drill EP's in the tunnel. -Ultimately, we enter the cone and perform full AFF skydives (up to Cat D2). We don't teach barrel rolls and flips in the Bragg Tunnel.

Utah was there last year (or was it the year before, Johnny?). He did the swoop meet wearing knee-high black socks. The man definitely has a sense of style.

The legwing on my S3 extends nearly four inches past my toes.

On the contrary, Ron. You know that's exactly what we have them do at Fort Bragg. I neglected to put that in the post I just responded to Dawn in.

Ultimately, Dawn, it's just the way that I fly a student in the tunnel. Depending on the guy's weight I am either standing beside him on the net with the exact same grip I am going to have on him in freefall (a legstrap and an arm until I "free-arm" him) and I am going to release him in the same sequence after giving him the same hand and arm signals during his COA as I would in freefall. On release, I am going to stay standing right there, or fly with him in the same position I would in freefall, at least initially. This way he has the same instructor references in the tunnel as he will in freefall. I am going to maintain the exact same proximity to the student in the tunnel as I do in freefall, too. I am going to use hand and arm signals straight out of the SIM. I am not going to walk over and just start manipulating him while pointing and shaking my head at him. I am going to, as a very-current AFFI, be able to know when to give "check arms" as opposed to "legs out". If they start spinning or flip on their back I am going to stop them, roll them back over, or whatever else exactly like I would do it in freefall. Stuff like that.