SkymonkeyONE

I have not had any problems simply wiping off stains (generally swoop pond residue and Perris dust) with a damp cloth or wet towel.

Actually, if you want to best prepare your local, or at least national canopy pilots for the IPC event you need to at least have the "classic" events (speed, distance, zone accuracy). You might pass on distance, but speed and accuracy are key events. While the guys you talked to may have been bored with those events, the very best canopy pilots in the world still blow gates on a pretty regular basis (vertical extensions) in competition. As to carving accuracy, that's been around for at least five years (starting with the old PPPB series) and was incredibly fun. Lyle used to do high-jump stuff in his meets and that was fun too. Chuck Blue D-12501

Robi, your suit looks awesome and I hate it that we have yet to fly together. Seems like we miss each other by like one day everytime I am in Deland. Peace, Chuck Blue BMCI

We have one student rig that "delays" on occasion and yes, I have had to both pull the bridle and hit the container. I have noticed that it was more pronounced on people of a certain body type and when novice packers rotated the bag. You do not rotate the bag on new Javs. I pack everything just like wingsuit jumps: pin to grommet.

The canadian Skyhawks use cold smoke. Not sure where they get it. It doesn't stand out nearly as well as M-18 smoke, but it won't slag up your suit either.

Not that I won't or don't tell my boy Kane in person, but 2.65 is not an optimum wingload for swooping under any canopy. Repeated ass-over-tea kettle landings, hip skips, and pond maladies ought to be more than enough impetus to make anyone realize it's time to upsize. Chuck

The Icon is a fine wingsuit rig and you can order them with longer bridles stock.

Cut in laterals are great on rigs if you have the right body type. I like them (and have them on both rigs), but I absolutely don't need them because my rigs are so tiny and they are a bit of a nuisance with wingsuit fitting. Still, cut in laterals really do make your rig stick to your body and that is generally a good thing. Also, like someone else said, stainless not only holds up better, it has better resale value.

The only ones I have ever seen were the 6x6 ones.

How do you know what happened has anything to do with the specific design of this canopy? Gus There are quite a few of those canopies around here and I have never seen one act any differently than any other canopy when flown through wake turbulence or rotors off of trees. Chuck

I have seen two instances of mini-risers breaking. I forget one guy's name, but the other one was Chris Wagner, the then-teamleader of the GK 8-way team.

We currently have an 81 year old AFF student at Raeford. He is by no means blazing through the training, but we are catering our program (doubling the jumps per category for one thing) to best keep him safe. This dude is harder than woodpecker lips, so we are not at all concerned about his physical health, it's just that he isn't that flexible and he can't hear well. He is currently on Cat C. Next oldest AFF we have done in some time was a couple of guys in their late 60's who were paratroopers back in the day. I can't count how many tandems I have done with people in their 60's thru 80's.

If you find the other thread, I think I even posted pictures. Bottom line was that it was a mixture of me laying the drogue attachment in the tray folded over on itself, and that the free-floating ring webbing was too long, allowing the force of the drogue throw to be loaded onto the "small" side of the middle ring. All three cable pulled through the grommets, locking the system; it was ugly. JumpShack fixed me up lickity-split and had my rig back to me in a week. It really is a great rig; I just had it packed in a way that allowed such a thing to become an issue.

Very nice publicity here. Sorry for not cleaning it up better: Subject: ESPN's Scott Van Pelt's thoughts on AU > > Imagine you have been married to the same woman for more than 30 > years,you love her more than anything - nothing could ever change that. You have > shared many of your best memories with her and would never leave her > under any circumstances. Then you spend a day with a woman who in some > ways is more beautiful than your wife...you may never see her > again...but you won't forget her for a while either. > > Maryland is my wife...Auburn is " the other woman ". > > If you all love college sports - and I assume you do - you really need > to see a game there. I have been lucky to see a lot of places, I have > not seen a lot of places like that. It's an amazing scene in every respect. Granted, I was there for # 3 vs. # 5...Auburn was 9-0 so it was bound to be good. > > Some highlights: > > I arrived at night with the stadium lit up like a Christmas tree. It > sits dead in the middle of campus. A shrine...literally their church - > only services are held on Saturday. Made me say....hmmmm...this is > promising. > >Gameday scene - > tailgating in every available space...and not like some field full of > RV's - though they had that too. But literally people grilling and drinking in > every available spot for as far as the eye could see. I lost count of the > number of bands and stages and this was at 9 AM.> > > The Fans - I knew I was in a " red state " from all the Suburbans with W stickers > but the truth of it is, this part of Alabama is an orange state. Every > man woman and child is in the same shade of orange. Not unusual I know > ...but THIS was...they are nice, friendly , and polite - to GEORGIA > FANS. Nobody called anyone in Black and Red @#%$ or *sshole..nobody > told them they sucked nobody told them *uck you. These people are your > friends, you don't know it yet because you haven't met them - but when > you do - you have met a friend. you want a beer ? some bar- B - Q ? grab some. Let's talk for a while....war eagle...let's have a good game. I saw this at tailgate > after tailgate. Stragglers who wander by are offered anything that's > available - didn't matter what color they were wearing. This is the > oldest rivalry in the South - they call it Brother vs. Brother and > they mean it. Now there are certainly cliche's about downhome country > sensibilities - but these folks embodied the best part of the notion > of southern hospitality. Though many did admit it's a tad LESS civil > for the Iron Bowl.> > > Tiger Walk :> > Impossible to describe. Im - possible. A human welcome mat for the > team. The team walks through several blocks to Jordan - Hare through a > sea of people. I asked somebody how many folks were there and was told > they could never come up with an accurate head count but that they > were certain it was " well in excess of 25,000 people. " That looked a little light to > me...I would have bought 40 grand. 2 hours before kick the streets in > all directions were completely - and I mean COMPLETELY jammed. It was > like a religious experience. If you can be in the middle of this - and I was lucky > enough to get to walk through it - and not be overwhelmed , you are dead my > friend. ( I just went Larry King on your asses- sorry )I was honestly in awe. > > Gametime : > The eagle circles as 87,521 people ( less the UGA fans ) cheer > Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar EAGLE HEY!!! The eagle pounces on some > meat product and the hair on the back of your neck stands up...then if > you are still unimpressed you get an F 16 flyover and were off and running. > Auburn dominates, the band plays, the fans hoot and holler louder than > anywhere I have ever been ( and go Spinal tap and take it to volume 11 when UGa tries to audible ) 24 - 6 and it's time for more food and drink...but before that... > > Toomer's corner : > everyone converges on the intersection of college st and whatever the other > road is and they toilet paper every tree in sight. By the time it's over, it looks like a blizzard has rolled through Alabama. There are no riots,no police, no cars set on fire. There are families from grandparents to infants chcuking rolls of toilet paper all over the place. Again, i just shake my head at a loss...and maybe a little jealous.> > > It's a special place, the best scene I have ever seen for college football. I have ZERO doubt " our " TEAM could someday be as good. As fans though, perhaps we should aspire to be as classy as those I was hosted by. The type of hostile, vile garbage we are subjected to on the road and are certainly guilty of at home is just embarrassing when you see how they do it elsewhere. Not preaching here - just some thoughts of one VERY > proud Terrapin after seeing the light Auburn style.

Totally depends on what I am drinking. Brown liquor straight-up or mixed with cola equals hangover. Any amount of wine equals hangover. These days, if I am going to drink liquor at all I try to use Sprite or 7-up as a mixer.

Ugliest. Bike. Ever. Jesse James has a Hyabusa; did you know that? He rode in on it on one episode of Monster Garage. He was also sporting a doghouse on his head and his "Way Fast Whitey" leathers. Also, concerning new Harleys. All big twins, whether Softie framed, dyna framed, or dresser/fxr/roadking (identical except for the neck) have 88B's (or screamin eagle 95 or 103 inch modded "B" motors. All are incredibly smooth riding these days. It absolutely fascinated me the first time I took a ride on an 88B-equipped Night Train. Prior to that you could not have paid me to own a Softie-based bike. '04 and up Sporties are likewise smooth and don't beat your wrists up. That Hypercharger is worthless and gives no increase in power whatsoever. An expensive Kuryaken doo-dad that does a great job of sucking in water in the rain. I don't know anyone who has one on that still has the vaccum line hooked to the butterflies. Most people who still run those things just rig them open all the time. I ran, and still have in my garage, a five-inch velocity stack on my FXR for quite a while.....without any sort of filter (dumb). I kept a black nylon sock under my seat that I would pull over the end of it if I was near dirt, but I still burned up my cylinders in like four months. Now? My S&S teardrop with an inch-longer K&N filter.

Like a monkey, you simply cannot teach a bird to not shit everywhere either. That makes letting them fly free in your house or teaching them to perch on your shoulder out of the question in my book.

Nice one, Ron. I could type volumes about my experiences on the homestead (my dad has 500 acres). Nothing better than cutting the nuts off little piggies and being nearly mauled by their 500 pound sow mother.

You should not have any problems closing that J2 with a 170 (non crossbraced) canopy.

Wings EXT.

I own a Racer tandem and that's the rig that I had my incident under a few months ago. It's discussed in the "who many tandem cutaways" thread.

Tha's cause you be hiding out and shit.

Actually, the the company was known as something else even before it was renamed FTS (when Dave moved the business to Alpharetta, GA). The company was founded by Dave Davenport; a (then) Army guy from Fort Benning. He got out and stayed in the area, jumping primarily at Buddy Blue's dropzone in Opelika, AL. Many of the original canopies were cut out and sewn in Buddy's (my dad) shop. The great majority of testing on "FTS" canopies was done at my dad's grass strip. I put the first jumps on everything too small for him to jump, all the way down to 150's (the smallest thing they made then). Dave made a lot of pretty odd stuff by today's standards. You could get a Rascal, Bogy or Laser in seven, eight, or nine cells. The "Ranger" was an 11 cell. The Air Bears (US 4-way team from Deland....Piras, Jeffries, etc.) jumped eight cell FTS canopies in the world meet one year. Bob Chafin came along and took the company over, changing the name to APS, when Dave "went on vacation" for about ten years. He didn't really make many changes and never really advertised much when he moved the company to Texas. His key addition was the Apache and the Shark. Apaches were weird alternating ZP/F-111 topskin canopies; Sharks were a sort of Sabre, then Stilletto copy. My last APS canopy was a Shark 110; the first one they ever built. FTS/APS canopies were very, very popular in Alabama and Georgia in the 80's and early 90's. The Laser 250 was/is probably my favorite demo canopy and I flew one into many a bowl stadium back in the day (20th Group Parachute Team and Green Beret Parachute Team). Dave Davenport got done with his "vacation" several years ago and is now working for Eagle Enterprises designing body armor, holsters, and other tactical equipment. Rumor has it that he may be taking another design/engineering position within the parachute equipment field. He and my dad are still best friends and you can generally find him with The Alabama Gang at the WFFC. Peace, Chuck Blue, D-12501

Doesn't everyone?

I get a lot of that. I get equal amounts of "nice softail" (it's an FXR with a ten inch wide ducktail back fender and you wouldn't think another harley guy could mistake the two) and "nice springer" (though, once again, it's really an FXR though it does have a springer front end).