SkymonkeyONE

"Falling Maggots" my old four-way team "Candy Assed Mommas Boys" the four-way team that Mike Nay, Bill LeGard and a couple of others took to the Malvesti meet in Russia back around 1990.

I believe Andy Ford (Fordy on here) is the chief instructor there. I also believe Helen Stavely is the RAF Lieutenant charged with running it.

I doubt there is any other site on the internet that has 1/50th the video footage as skydivingmovies. Most everything I have seen elsewhere has been uploaded to skydivingmovies.com by someone at one time or another.

Betsy Barnhouse, who just happens to be here in Fayetteville/Raeford right now, told me yesterday that she was probably going to have to go.

Anne, do you know for a fact that the kid is not emancipated or are you just guessing?

Beezy Shaw is riding with you? Oh the HORROR! I hope you bring enough pain to last the entire trip, fool!

I jumped Cobalts for three years and only "spun up" one time. That was under a 75 that was very out of trim and me in a wingsuit. I never had problems of that sort with any of the four Cobalts, one Alpha, and one Viper I owned. Also, I jumped Stillettos for six years in sizes 107 and 97 and not once ever chopped a spinner. Chuck

Jimmy Tranter is the first person I know of who was leading tracking dives in reverse. I think he calls it the "Deland MoonSlide". It's definitely a flat track, not at all like Atmonutty.

Edit that to say "Optik Illusion" and I am with you 100%, PJ. While I do not use a top mount camera, I much prefer the hinged, double-ratchetting chin cup on my Illusion.

That was funny, Jeff!

What about our boy, Frizz? Where's Macca at?

What? You and Gimp Master Flex on the outs? Let me guess, you got tired of him riding bitch on your Harley... BWAHAHAHA! take care, Chuckie

That's a really good point, James! Seriously. If people are fascinated by "things more rigid" then they really ought to try hang gliding. You can do some phenomenal stuff under a kite and you can get the best thing on the market for the same as you would pay for a new rig. Likewise; sorry for the hijack; people wanting to fly canopies down mountains would probably be much happier if they took up parapente. The canopies are easier to launch, they stay up forever, and you can do some sick tricks with them. Once again, less than the cost of a rig for the very best one on the market. I don't think it's right to pigeon-hole yourself into one sport if what you are really looking for can be better achieved in a similar, yet totally different venue. Chuck

I will play the diving analogy too if you like. I attended the Special Forces Combat Dive Qualification course in 1986 and got paid to dive for the great majority of my career. I also attended and graduated the Combat Dive Supervisor Course and ran many very technical dives. That said, my team only dived once a month (for pay) when it was required to do it like that, and then only six dives every six months when they allowed us to schedule trips like that in an effort to stop pay losses. It was very rare for us to make more than about 15 dives per year. Not what active "sport" divers would call a bunch, but how many sport divers do you know that have done submarine lockouts? I have run over 50 trunk evolutions from the forward escape hatch on three different SSN's. How many do you know that have done body recoveries in the Chagris River in Panama? Ultimately, while I do not possess a great number of logged dives, I have a shit-load of experience in both open circuit SCUBA and closed circuit UBA (Drager LAR V) in a wide variety of water conditions ranging from nearly unlimited vis open water to pitch black murk. In all that time I never once purchased my own sport gear; does that mean I am not experienced? Just like the skydiving analogy it's what the person has done in the amount of time he has been a participant in an activity that matters. I know two guys on the local 8-way team who are under 21 years old and both have over 2000 skydives. One of them does 8-way very well and one of them does video very well. Neither land their canopies worth a shit. Chuck

My hands are tired from all the editing I had to do on this thread. Shimmel, I know this stuff makes you nuts, bro, but you gotta keep it clean. If you really dislike JP that much then why don't yall just duke it out at WFFC; I'll bring the beer. Chuck

Like Matt said; there is no flap in an S3 if you are flying with your arms in the correct position. Cancer Chris hardly ever grabs his grippers.

My wife and I are flying into Hobby on, I think, Wednesday evening. We are definitely going to need a ride.

They are both such spotlight rangers, aren't they?

You hit the nail right on the head, my brother.

It takes both, salted with attitude, to develop JUDGMENT. The issue is not experience or knowledge or any one attribute, individually, but the way they all combine to hone one's ability to evaluate and act on the various situations one encounters. I don't care how many jumps you have or how much you have studied, if you can't put it all together in a way that keeps you and those around you intact and breathing, everything you know and do is worthless. rl That's a really good post as well.

That is exactly it. The person who toils away for ten years is certainly going to see more and learn more. This, of course, assuming the guy who has been around ten years has played an active part in the sport and has done some instructing. I know plenty of people these days who make over 1000 jumps per year, but can't think of many people who have kept that pace in years past who still jump. Burnout factor is very high in people that jump that often and do one kind of jump over and over and over. Chuck

I really like my PC 109, bro.

Actually, if you want to talk one-off coolness, I can tell you that Rixter had the only zero-P Excallibur there ever was. It was solid pink. It was a 135 if I recall and he was jumping that main when the rest of the Deland Gang had gone to the first Sabres. He put thousands of jumps on that canopy. We all begged PD to sew us ZP Excalliburs back when we saw it and they told us to pound sand. The canopy was simply too difficult to sew within tolerances and they told us "Sabres fly as good as Excals anyway." We shook our heads and laughed. NOTHING flew like a brand-new Excallibur. Thank god that manufacturing techniques finally caught up with engineering possibilities. Chuck

My question to you is "why do you think you need to ever buy a crossbraced canopy?" Do you plan on competing under one? If so, then I would advise you to first get involved in the discipline with your CURRENT canopy which, by the way, is loaded pretty heavilly for Colorado elevations. You only need to be able to fly your canopy 180 feet to make it entirely through a Speed course and to reach the maximum scoring zone in Zone Accuracy so there is simply no reason to rush into downsizing. Ultimately though, if you are not to be talked out of downsizing, then I would choose the Katana as I feel it has a longer recovery arc than an XF2. That said, there is seriously no reason to downsize just for the sake of downsizing. Chuck

I disagree with this statement. Just because someone is AFF qualified does NOT mean that person is also qualified to teach anything in a wind tunnel. I've seen people who are AFF qualified try to coach in a wind tunnel and end up being a danger to both themself and the student. You misconstrued my statement, Ari. What I said was that I thought it best that a person get his freefall problems fixed by an AFF-qualified tunnel guy. I am not a "Skyventure authorized (TM) tunnel instructor", but I have trained over 100 people in the Fort Bragg wind tunnel and have over 250 hours in the cone. What I am primarilly is an AFF Instructor who just happens to know how to best exploit a wind tunnel when given the opportunity. My statement was in no way derogatory toward "Skyventure Certified (TM) tunnel instructors" or whatever the title might be at other-than-SV tunnels. What I can tell you is that there are tunnel rats out there who have other-than-optimal ways of fixing skydiving student's problems just to get them flying in the cone without banging off the walls. I just had a conversation last week with a moderator on these forums who was less than satisfied at his child's learning experience at a commercial tunnel (which I will not name). While there are phenomenal freefly tunnel flyers out there (you being one of them), that ability to fly one's own body does not neccessarily constitute an ability to best prepare a skydiving student to pass an AFF course. Ultimately, I think the best person to fix a skydiving student in the tunnel is a guy who uses the tunnel as that kind of a tool and also does a lot of "real" AFF; not the kind of person who generally runs around the walls and carves around on his head. Once again, not a dig on you at all; you are a great skydiver and tunnel flyer. Chuck