SkymonkeyONE

Billy, next time I see your hillbilly ass you need to show me how to sign "boy, you ain't right."

On that note, I would be personally comfortable taking anyone that I can properly adjust my tandem passenger harness onto if that's what my DZO and the USPA wanted to do.

yahbaby for sure

"could I use that as a soup base?"

I will be in the wood working unfortunately. The intent as I have heard it stated is to go to the museum for the stone unveiling, then go to Raeford for the festivities.

The "headgear or not" thing is covered extensively in another post/poll. As to the tandem question, I don't have any problem taking the USPA-minimum 16-year old. chuck

What I believe has changed the most is what people consider to be dangerous. Back in the day we all flew around in poorly maintained piston aircraft with the doors taken off. None of us wore seatbelts, not even the SL student sitting back to the firewall, next to the pilot! If a student had an AAD at all it was a Sentinal or an FXC and both were prone to fire high. NOBODY with a license jumped an AAD and we were all perfectly fine with it. Square canopies either slammed open (StratoStar, ParaFoil) or barely opened (Unit). People routinely intentionally collapsed their canopies under 1000 feet and we did CRW at the bottom of every RW jump with whatever canopy was over our head. New jumpers would show up at a dropzone, spend an hour or two in a class and get dispatched out of a beat up Cessna or a Howard or something by some crusty Korean/Vietnam war vet with duct tape on his main and booze on his breath. The people that were interested in skydivng back then were totally cool with ALL of that. The people that show up these days, outside the military clubs anyway, strike me as quite different. In this litigeous society everyone is looking for that fail-safe, kid glove treatment and would just as soon sue your ass as finish their training. Just my opinion. For what it's worth, the military is the same way today. Long gone are the days when you can kick the shit out of a private for being a dumbass. In my 21 years of service I saw it all. As the son of a hard-headed retired CSM you can bet your ass I got my ass handed to me by my team sargeant out behind the team room for fucking up. Boogies and jump meets strike me as being nearly exactly the same. There were and still are people that "party", there were and still is drunken buffoonery, and there are still freaky boozehags that have pet names for themselves.

Where, exactly, did I ever said you did anything of the sort? Also, where, exactly, in my post did I do any flaming at all? Perhaps you should respond to those who you believe WERE flaming you instead of me. Hey, I don't give a rat's ass what you do, just don't fucking hurt anyone. Ultimately, it's a joint decision between a tandem instructor and a vidiot as to what shots are going to get taken. At many dropzones you simply do not have a choice; you do exactly what the vendor has scripted you to do, by the numbers, or you get the boot. Other dropzones, like mine, give an experienced videographer more freedom to do what they have proven they are capable of. I learned video (four way, to defray the cost of my own four way jumping) back when VHS-C was brand new technology. I was doing that with around 300 jumps I guess, so nobody, not me at least, is saying it's a bad thing to start jumping a camera that soon. What I will say though, as someone who did not do tandem video until around the same time as I got my tandem rating, is it's probably best to refrain from doing extremely-close-proximity video until you meet the minimum manufacturers recommendations. The last thing a tandem pair needs is some noob falling into the drogue while swooping down to get the shot. Chuck

Personally, I don't have any problem whatsoever with a small number of very-capable camera flyers taking a back-flying front-float grip on my passenger on exit. The "in your face" video is awesome. Likewise, I don't have any problem when we take that exit head down for a while (my Racer Tandem is approved for freeflying) Those same people can and do also execute the same exit (front float in a backflying position) without the grip. I have allowed it and I like it, but once again, it's only with very accomplished video flyers. Note: all the GK tandem guys work at Raeford in their spare time. Gimpy, Arvel (BlueSBDeath), and MattM are all also video guys at Raeford (as am I when Tony needs me to). When you see video of that exit it's with extremely accomplished video guys and TI's, at least when performed by our guys. Chuck

29 April is the one year memorial of Paul's death, so the local skydiving community has put together a special event. A stone will be laid in his honor at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, NC on 29 April. Here are the details from a letter put out today: There is going to be a Celebration in honor of Paul D. Rafferty on April 29th, the details are below and there is a copy of the invitation on Raff's Page on the Golden Knight Alumni site http://www.goldenknightsaa.com/roster/Rafferty.htm Please Join Us Here are the details When: April 29, 2005 4:00PM - Midnight Where: Airborne & Special Operations Museum 100 Bragg Blvd., Fayetteville, NC Details: Refreshments and Cocktails will be served There will be a demo jump by the Golden Knights (present and alumni) and music by the 82nd Airborne Brass Quartet and legendary bluesman Bob Steele of The Heaters Dress: Casual Questions: Gary Oneal - 910-391-8607 or email me at heather@heathersart.com Hope to see you all there.

I only very-rarely make it home to Alabama anymore, but my cousin Jay Phillips (Pajarito on here) is there most weekends and works on staff. On that note, my dad's (Buddy Blue, D-597, the DZO) three-day birthday party is the weekend of April 21st. It is a huge event that any local skydiver ought to attend. Chuck

SkyCAT has a few Aviators in stock as well. (910) 875-7231

You asked for it, you got it. Growing up "Blue" My dad, Buddy Blue, D-597, had 1000 jumps when I was born so it would be absolutely correct to say that I was born into the sport. He competed regularly at the conference (Cottonbelt Parachute Council) and national level in Style and Accuracy. That was all there was back then. My dad was known for getting in a lot of fist fights back then. He was also known as someone who threw an M-18 smoke grenade in the Cave Tanji night club in Louisiana during a conference meet just for shits and grins. As a child I would always get in trouble for dismantling his trophies and putting them back together in odd ways; that made him nuts. He has pictures of me pulling tension on the "round du jour" at jump meets when I was three years old. I never did full packjobs for him, but always pulled tension back in the "round" days. My mom ran a daycare in Pepperell mill village and I would sometimes get taken out to the dropzone as an infant with my dad. One story that gets told over and over is that my dad refused to change diapers and would just as soon put me back in the plane (we always had at least one plane, normally two) and fly me back to the Opelika airport and have my mother meet us there so she could change my dirty diaper. We only lived two miles from the airport so it's really not THAT big of a deal. I was at the controls of both C-172 and C-182's when I was six years old. My mother made me a cover for some phone books to raise me up (I was small for my age) and my dad made wooden blocks for the pedals. My folks divorced when I was seven years old and I went home every Summer and Christmas to stay with him. I have very vivid memories of him in the back of the plane with a girl named "Sunshine" (not a joke) doing the huck-a-buck while I was at the controls at age eight, flying instruments because I was too short to see over the cowl! First jumpers away with me at the controls? 12 years old. Hey, throw me in jail; I never really gave a shit about flying the plane anyways and, unbelievably, never took the practical for my SEL (though I got a 98 on the written and over 100 hours in my "legal" logbook). Unlike some people though, my dad was not about to let me jump till I was 16. Same for the Thackers who we have been best friends with all my life. He was very strict in following PCA/USPA guidelines in that regard. Ultimately, I got dispatched from a C-172 with the door off at Tuskeegee in early 1981. The gear? He made me jump complete gutter gear: a 28' 7-TU in a B-12 container with a 24' flat in a belly wart (no PC). No Stevens lanyard, no Sentinal. SL progression of course. Anyone who knows my dad knows he is a very hard man. He was very hard on me, but I would not trade him for the world. He will be 69 next week and he just past 10,000 jumps. Anyone in the Auburn/Opelika, Alabama area would be well advised to make his birthday party. It is a three-day brain bender that you would never regret. Lots of jumping, drinking, and automatic gunfire. Thats my story and I am sticking to it. Chuck Blue, D-12501 AFF/SL/TM-I, BMCI, PRO Raeford Parachute Center

77. Not a problem at all.

There are quite a few of them in stock at SkyCAT for less than $200. Both BASE and Freefly versions.

I really don't get that kind of behaviour. Seriously people; think before you post.

Not only have I banned a lot of people for various and sundry reasons, but I myself was banned once prior to being a moderator. It was over an argument about risers as I recall!

How are you in love with Seth and live three states away? Have you left Tejas? Is this another dropzone.com internet love thing? Have you ever touched Seth on the Glans Meatus? Did he like it?

Yes, we do 12 ounce curls all the time.

Gimpy! Where you at?!

Next you will see her all fat-bellied and barefoot with a Marlboro dangling out of the corner of her Louisiana redneck mouth. Who was it exactly that decided it was OK to pay a bunch of former Mickey Mouse Club retards richly for the rest of their lives?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Nice one, JayBird!

Actually, saddlebags are an option. The sooner you realize that you will do what you have to do to get your shit to the DZ, the sooner you will stop worrying about the vanity points you might lose by having some sportbike bags thrown over your tail. FWIW, they make some pretty stylish throw-over bags for sport bikes. Once you get all your shit to the DZ you just pull your bags off and pretend it never happened. Chuck

No, they have not changed.

that is not Norman's current trailer.