SkymonkeyONE

High: anticipation of getting the roof on my house replaced today. It is long overdue and has been leaking for some time. Low: it's raining today and there is no way they can begin the work High: Seeing BoogieBob on the dropzone occasionally, just checking it out. Low: watching him drive away in his car or on his bike without jumping. It's been too long, fool! Come on out and let's make a skydive.

I hope so, Ray! I ain't dragging my ass down there just to drink TEQUILA!

At the end of a long day of maxed-out flights my forearms are incredibly pumped, just like with finger-flicking drills and my wrists are done. My upper arms don't bug me at all.

What you propose sounds fun and is not at all anymore hazardous to perform than standard zone accuracy in my opinion so go for it! I only wish I could swing a trip over there for the event. Chuck

Some years ago there was a German guy running a dropzone up at Puerto Plata on the north side of the island, but I do not believe it has been operational for some time. There is no civilian jumping anywhere on the south shore of the island, but there are MFF guys on San Isidro who jump there. Last time I was there was Feb '98.

slotperfect chutingstar NightJumper Mark Baur jlmiracle bbarnhouse councilman24 fields Rigger53 USSkydiver SkymonkeyONE

My backflying technique looks like sort of a "lazy indian sit." If I am in a bootie suit I will cross my legs and lay way back either with my hands interlaced behind my neck or my arms as far back as I can get them. If I am not in a bootie suit I will still generally cross my feet at the ankles unless I am moving around.

I will likely move all the tunnel-related threads in forums which I mod over here in short order. PM the mod of those other forums and ask them to move those which you think are important. Also, to answer John, I have always kept a running tally. It's all comprised of the number of full days my team was in their for training, hours we were teaching students at the GB club, when I was doing demos at SWC, plus the number of hours I spent in there at lunch during my last five years at SWC (we owned the tunnel).

This is another reason why we use three two-way radios at our dropzone until the student is "cleared from radio." We have one on the student, one on one of the in-air instructors, and one manned by another instructor in the landing area. You see, there are instances where you as a student might be able to make it back to the DZ when we, as your instructor under a much smaller main might not be able to. Having a guy on the ground in the landing area negates the chances of you not knowing where to fly if you forget all your ground training (which happens sometimes due to being overwhelmed on first jumps). If the guy on the ground thinks you can make it back, he will guide you to the landing area; if he doesn't because he thinks you are going to land off, then he will simply tell the JM (who landed off) to guide you to the place where he landed. No matter how much time we spend with students in the classroom, there will still be times when they either: don't respond to radio commands; forget everything they were taught and aim for the only patch of woods within three miles; or simply have no control over the fact that they can't land on due to a faulty spot or their excessive delaying in the door. Shit happens, pure and simple, so we best prepare ourselves for those possibilities by having double redundancy with radios, and further redundance with orange paddles. Chuck AFFI (among other things)

Tailgate for RW: last out or super float Tailgate in a wingsuit: linked gainer or poised and flying over the tail Cessna for fun: bat hang Cessna for AFF: inside Cessna for 4-way: in the crotch Otter for 4-way: point Otter for bigway:last out or super-front float Otter for AFF: either, but I get stuck with "inside" more times than not Otter for wingsuit: rear or last out DC3: last out or rear float King Air: nowhere...I hate King Air exits and just strive to get out the door without bashing myself on the something. They are the absolute worst thing to jump in a wingsuit. For AFF I am always on the inside in a King Air.

I don't find backflying hard in the tunnel hard per se, but in order to maintain your vertical levelidity during transitions front and back it requires a bit more thought than in freefall. Dropping onto the net (at low airspeeds) and corking up (at higher airspeeds) can run the gamut from simple nuisance to safety hazard.

Kelly made a good point: dumping higher. I don't ever deploy my velo below three grand and will normally deploy as soon as is safely possible, sometimes as high as 4500 feet (when I am doing AFF) or higher (some swoop meets where I am using my RDS). If I am on a skydive where traffic is going to be an issue and I must dump lower than three, I will jump my other rig with my Sabre2.

I hate it that I was not there for that party. Dave told me about it when he was up here doing TSO stuff.

I absolutely loathe smoking and would gladly smash the fuck out of someone if they burned a hole in my gear.

There are a butt-load of BMI's in Deland. Look up Ray Dutch, Vladi Pesa, Jay Moledzki, or Louie (at RWS).

Look on the www.canopypiloting.com website under "PST" and there you can find the definitions of the rules and diagrams of the courses. The original carving accuracy was designed to be run over water as there are points for dragging through gates and out into the pond prior to throwing your carve, but I could imagine it possible to work out over a beach if you enter from the water side.

I have never chopped a Velo or any other crossbraced main (around 2000 jumps on them). My only two chops under highly loaded elliptical mains were under an out-of-trim H-mod Cobalt 75 in a wingsuit. I probably would not have had to chop either of those two times had I been able to get to my risers a second earlier. Never chopped a Stilletto either and I jumped them for six years in sizes 107 and 97. Of all the rampant chopping I see today under highly loaded mains, whether crossbraced or not, I truly attribute most of them to lack of experience and poor body position at pulltime. People need to realize that highly loaded wings simply cannot be treated the same as larger, lighter-loaded, "square" and lightly elliptical mains. One must be totally on his/her game when deploying and flying canopies such as these. The fact of the matter is that most people jumping them don't have any business whatsoever doing so. I don't know how many times I have to say it: HP mains at high wingloads are very poor vanity purchases. If you are one of the people regularly chopping your shit, you probably need to take a step back and get something more reasonable over your head. Chuck

I had an army buddy in Germany who was actually paid (by dowry) to take his wife's name. He did it for the money and he didn't really like his own family name anyway.

Why is your name so "extremely important" to you? Are you the last child in your bloodline and want to make sure that the name lives on? Just wondering what the underlying reason is for your stance on this subject? In the case of your question above, it's simply because that's the "standard" way of tracking bloodlines and relations; through the family name of the husbands/male. Chuck

Glad someone did, cos there appears to be at least two entirely different conversations going on here. I am assuming that the original poster was talking about two-to-one mechanical advantage toggles.

I'm not Bill, but from personal experience I can tell you that wingloading and canopy size absolutely do play a part. I would just like to say that it's pretty fascinating to me that anyone would consider a Stilletto unsuitable for swooping. It is still a very high performance canopy for someone with under 500 jumps. I cringe when I see low-experience jumpers under even lightly loaded ST's. That said, the fact that it has a shorter recover arc than some other canopies in no way shape or form detracts from one's ability to perform HP landings under it. I can promise you that with someone with under 500 jumps has not possibly exploited a Stilletto to it's full potential. FWIW, I think a Sabre2 is a great all around canopy and you can absolutely swoop the piss out of them. Mine, in my wingsuit rig, is a 97. Chuck

I have bought and sold probably twenty pieces of equipment through the classifieds on this site. The key to success is being smart enough to perform your transaction through some sort of reliable intermediary. I have, on almost every occasion, shipped and recieved my gear through my dropzone gear store (SkyCAT equipment, formerly SkyKAT). In doing so I am providing both security for the buyer and guaranteed payment to me. I package my item and carry it to the store; the buyer pays with a credit card; the item is shipped with a five-day take it or have it returned to the store guarantee; I get paid. If they don't like it, they get it returned to the store within five days and their CC recredited. I pay the store a small transaction fee which I have already included in the sale price. This system is simply faultless.

There is no limit to the degree of customization that Nancy and crew can put into a suit. I was simply floored when my suit arrived. Chuck

You seriously overestimate the strength of "average" people, Dave as you are "ape sized". Very few average-sized people with 200 pounders strapped to the front of them are going to be able to use the risers of most tandem canopies. Likewise, there are a lot of tandem instructors out there who simply can't completely flare (with flare toggles and toggles in hand) older and/or larger tandem gear, particularly after a long day of meat-hauling. I don't ever need help landing with my Firebolt 350, an Icarus of any size, a Cobalt 350, or a Sigma 370, but I regularly used my passenger/student on old 421's, 500's, and even EZ 384's. I am far from weak, but could still absolutely see the benefit of some 2 to 1's.

BDU's work fine as freefly pants. You may want to tack the cargo pockets down or at least add velcro to the flap (and leave the buttons on as well), plus you will probably want to secure the bottoms to your shoes (so they don't fly up when you sitfly) with either the cinch ties already on them. I think Aggie Dave used to use them quite a bit. They are functional and plenty stylish, so long as you are not on or near a military base.