SkymonkeyONE

Skinny, you are a big motherfucker. Be smart enough to know when to take a pass on the super-floaters if you think you aren't going to be able to stay up.

Do you see this as any different than world champion four-way jumpers (like Joe Trinko and Chris Talbert) charging more than $200 per day (plus travel) to stay on the ground and just coach creeping and do video debrief? Do you feel it is any different than Kate Cooper charging people for the privilege of attending her "camps?" Personally, I feel this is a matter of simple economics and guys are going to charge what the market will bear if there is a market for it. While Dave Brown does not compete at all, he IS a very good instructor and I believe people get their money's worth when they pay him. Same for Max Cohn. He has no records to speak of, yet he is a very, very popular and extremely talented instructor/coach. While I am not a freeflyer, both of those guys are friends of mine and I regularly run into them on the boogie circuit. I think it's great that they are able to parlay their name into the means of supporting themselves. Chuck

The back of Parachutist is a good place to look for a used rig. Also, Ralph Hatley generally have more than a few used ones. The classifieds at www.enclave.com are also a good source of used gear. Lastly, calling around to very-busy dropzones might be beneficial. Chuck

The intent of the entire league is to get people to a point where they are comfortable in a competition environment. I know you guys are just joking around in this thread, but your comment made for a good segway into a relevant thought. I, in particular in my district, and not so much looking for the "cool guys" in over their heads under crossbraced canopies, but the guys jumping Stillettos, Katanas, Crossfires, etc. Sitting on the sidelines and watching people run the course will get you a little insight into how we go about doing things, but actually getting in the air and running the courses on the practice day (while the course director and others critique you) will give you the confidence you need to just say "fuck it" and compete. What these competitions also do is give the organizers and other local competitors a chance to tell the local "beer line heroes" that they have no excuse for not making meets this local. A sort of "show me or shut the hell up" if you will. Most beer line swoopers initially do very, very poorly when it comes to making it into and out of a course. People who routinely bust 300 footers down the beer line, but cannot navigate a 180 foot carving course (the entry level) really need to expand their repetoir and get with the system. Chuck

Beth is right on target. I lurked a lot and posted a little over on rec when she, Rev, Peanut and Alan were post whoring, but got very little satisfaction in the mindless banter. It was very hard to keep a "serious" thread serious and it was ridiculous that an old retard with under 200 jumps was sort of "king of the roost". It was worse that he was spouting nonsensical crap about all forms of training he had no concept of. It has been years since I even bothered to take a peek over there; is it still even in existence? Even in it's original form, this site had a place for bullshitting and places for getting proper answers to serious questions. Most reasonable people were happy that it wasn't an unmoderated free-for-all like rec. I happened onto the original site (Sangiro's Synergy) by way of the old skydivers "web ring" and have been around ever since. I eased into it by only responding to the serious training questions in the Safety and Training forum and ultimately got asked if some of my posts could be used on the main page as articles. I became a moderator when the site went from three forums (Talkback, G&R, S&T) to pretty much it's current configuration. While there are some pretty slick, more-specified forums (Kevin's "FlyBirdman.com" and Jim's "CanopyPiloting.com"), none have ever, nor will ever get this amount of traffic and participation, even in those specific topics. Chuck

You got THAT right, my brother!

That's a perfect analogy, Glen.

No, man, that's not what I meant! We always have a "ground instructor" here at Raeford (generally one of the two school owners, Tony Thacker or his wife Kate, both AFFI's) who guide "early" students in on radio. They have a set of paddles they keep with them out there in the student landing area that they use in the event of radio failure. If for some reason an "off field" landing is imminent, then the student is taught to instead take directions from the AFFI that has located and landed in a suitable "off" field. That AFFI will guide the student down on the radio he is carrying (at least one of our AFFI's carry a radio on two-JM jumps) and if that radio fails the student is taught the "mirror image" method you discussed. Same thing only no ping-pong paddles. It's incredibly rare that we have radio failures, but they do happen. In those events the student is taught a variety of backup plans, but are told that ultimately they are the pilot of that canopy and that they should rely on their good canopy control training to get them to a suitable landing site. Many, many dropzones get along fine without the aid of radios at all. Most of those, though, do use some semblance of "hand" guidance for final approach. Chuck

We keep it pretty common sense here at Raeford. First of all, everyone in the plane only reacts at the prompting of the pilot. Students are taught to always take commands from their instructors in the plane and here is what they do: -below 1000 feet they are landing with the plane -1000-2500 feet (their decision altitude) they will exit on their reserve. Out of the Otter they are taught to grab their reserve ripcord, extend their right hand out in front of them (like diving) and dive to the rear counting "one thousand, pull thousand", ultimately ending up with both hands in front of them like diving. The "one thousand" count gets them clear of the tail before blousing their reserve. Out of a Cessna 182 the student will, upon command, pivot their feet out onto the step and dive to the rear in the same manner as described above. More experienced students and experienced skydivers will use whatever exit style they prefer out of each aircraft: poised or diving. -2500-4000 feet they will bail out on their main. Out of the otter they will have their left hand out in front of them (like diving) and their right hand on their PC (BOC mounted here). On exit they will dive to the rear and count "one thousand, throw thousand" and end up with both hands in front of them like diving. Method of egress out of a C-182 is as described above: pivot feet out onto strut with right hand on PC and dive to the rear deploying on the "throw thousand" count. -above 4000 feet and with sufficient time, early (not solo exiting yet) students will be launched off the airplane by one JM and deployed at standard altitude. 2500 feet is the "exit on main" altitude as that is the students decision altitude. If the main works, great. If it malfunctions then they are still above their 2000 feet "handles pulled" altitude and can activate their reserve. Chuck

Gotta be a "good ole boy" or local thing seeing as how Joey Jones didn't mention it to me when I drove him to the Fayetteville airport on Friday. Fifty-way is a really fun size. Chuck

Unfortunately, neither Dave nor I can make it to the Cinco de Mayo boogie in Chester due to "real" work commitments, so we are going back to plan "A" and will be running the first round of the Carolina CPC at St George on the weekend of 21/22 May. Hope to see a good crowd there. Chuck

More to the point, is the any video of Jonathan's record breaking swoop?

He did that in the prototype suit he has.

I would just have to say that "phenomenal" might be a relative term. Ed averages in the high 30's in that suit, which means it's obvously got a ton of lift. It does suffer from "leg wing flappida" though and Jari just does not feel it's a design he wants to continue development on. Ed will have to elaborate on further flight characteristics of that suit though, because it was too big for either Scott or I to jump.

Ed has not flown that suit, nor have I. It is not anything like the Phi prototype that Robi designed and which Jari's brother put a bunch of jumps on. The only similarity is the airlocking mechanism on the tops and bottoms of all the wings. The suit will stay fully inflated while flying either belly or back to sky. No, I have not seen it (the new version), nor has Ed, so don't bug us about it. What Ed does have, and has been flying a lot lately, is a one-off prototype that will likely never see production. It's a cross between an S3 and a sugarglider and he gets phenomenal performance out of it. Chuck

Hint: don't fight your suit to get your arms up to the risers before unzipping. You will tear the suit up and if still zipped in you will only have very limited reach upwards. Best to perfect your super-quick unzipping. Glad you are happy with your new suit! Chuck

Sure. I know a lot of guys who have taken their spouses on tandems. Most of the spouses were experienced skydivers themselves and were doing it for a photo op or the train-up dives where you must jump experienced jumpers up front. Likewise, I know a lot of guys who have taken their non-jumping wives on jumps. In my opinion, if you are concerned at all about the safety of _any_ passenger on a tandem, then you probably have the wrong mindset to be doing them at all. You see, I feel that if I were going to get a passenger injured, then I would also get injured in whatever accident we had. I can tell you with great certainty that I am NOT going to do anything on a tandem that is going to cause injury to myself. It is that confidence in my own ability which keeps me safe in freefall and under canopy. The day I lose that confidence I will stop instructing. Chuck

Orange ping pong paddles are used as a secondary (or tertiary) means of guiding students in if their radios fail. They have been in use since the 50's.

I'll tell you what. If your country allows students to exit without grips on their second skydive, then the instructors had better be the most capable guys on the planet.

eggzackly! Stay on the DZ

Keith, contico boxes work fine for most stuff, but they are far from being as tough as a Pelican box. True, Pelicans are heavy and expensive, but they are far more durable in my opinion. Most of the guys "we" know use Conticos as footlockers these days, but most get cracked tops after people sitting their fat asses on top of them for too long. For ultimate durability I guess I could start using my old knock-down steel team box, but retrofitting one of those with wheels would be dumb. Besides, those boxes aren't waterproof like Pelicans. The most common skydiving gear-sized Pelican ( the model 1660) runs like $225. You get what you pay for in this instance.

What, exactly, did you take offense to in Rob's post? I think it was quite accurate. Chuck

I instruct my students that it's exactly like flipping over IN a swimming pool from the face-down-floating position.

yep its both If Gimpy can get off of work, we will be in Washington, GA on Friday night and Saturday doing tandems (me) and video (gimpy). No, we will not be coerced into driving to The Farm, you fucking heathens.

All I can say is "good luck". I have made quite a few jumps in the DR, but they were all in San Isidro on the Airforce base with the SF guys. There used to be, quite a few years ago now, a German guy that ran a tandem mill up in Puerto Plata on the north shore. I heard a rumor last year that someone else was planning to open a similar operation on the same airfield, but cannot say for sure if it ever happened. For what it's worth, the Dominican Republic is a fun place to visit. I spent around nine months total there on a few military trips in Santo Domingo/San Isidro. There are a LOT of european tourists there and one of the absolute coolest nightclubs on the planet: La Guacara Taina. Google that and you will find out what it is. Chuck