SkymonkeyONE

I have never seen Tandem, AFF, and video guys working so hard in my life as they do at CrossKeys. I have never been there when their staff wasn't making at least 13 a day.

No, I bought a Racer. I saved myself four thousand dollars and had my new rig delivered to me in 16 days, complete: custom embroidered container, new custom main, new reserve. My Racer weighs just under 38 pounds and has bungee retractable drogue releases just like a Sigma. If you don't believe the 38 pound statement, I would be glad to sit it on a scale for you. I have my drogue releases in the same location as on a Sigma as well. I am a Small guy (5' 7", 155 pounds) and this rig is perfect for me. I would have loved to have had a Sigma, but the extra cost and the tremendous wait made me choose differently. Chuck

Walls are an issue unto themselves. The Skyventure tunnels are in no way shape or form "better" than the tunnel on Fort Bragg and the Bragg tunnel does not have walls. Flying in a tunnel without walls maintaining the venturi means that you can enter and dismount from any side you want. If you get "spit out" because you flew outside the cone, you simply fall out onto the pads. You can fly the air in the Bragg tunnel right up to the edge of the venturi and you can even fly with a foot or hand hand hanging out if you try. I think it requires more concentration to stay cleanly in the cone in an open venturi, that is not a drawback by any means. The problem with outdoor tunnels is that they are "blowers" and the air dissipates the farther it gets from the fan. All modern indoor tunnels are "suckers"; that's what makes it possible to fly cleanly right up to the top net so long as you don't tangle yourself up in the side nets (Bragg) or zoo yourself into a wall up high (SkyVentures). Having said all that, I don't think flying in Maggie Valley, NC at that outdoor tunnel would pose any significant problem to someone with previous tunnel time. This, assuming the thing really does have the clean air they claim. Chuck

Is that a fancy way of saying IBTL? We have a winner. Get a grip, fools!

That is some funny shit!

Yes, it depends on how they are flying. Generally, if you have a biplane with the main in FRONT, you don't want to screw with it. Cutting away a main in front is just asking for your risers to become entangled with your also-cleanly-flying reserve. If the CYPRES beat you and the reserve ends up in front, then cutting away the main is not nearly as dangerous. Still though, once again, if they are both flying cleanly in the biplane configuration, then you may as well land them both. We used to get at least one instance per season where some SL/IAD student would end up with two out and land that way. If you have a side-by side, it's my experience that it will try to get to the biplane configuration during any turn you might try, or it will do the opposite and downplane. Ultimately, it's your call in a side-by-side. If it's flying nice, you can control it, and it's not going to fly you into the piney woods, then you may want to land it. If it's dancing around and the canopies keep bumping into each other "fighting" each other, then you need to check to see if your risers, etc are clear then cutaway. This is all stuff that should have been covered in your first jump course. All of that information is listed in the Skydivers Information Manual or "SIM". Chuck Blue D-12501 AFF/SL/TM-I, BMCI, PRO

That might possibly be the longest run-on sentence I have seen in some time. Not sure what you want to compare these things for, but I will talk about the rigs I am rated on and what I think about them: Vector II: the first rig I got rated on. Pretty comfortable; simple to use; ability to move secondary drogue release where you want it. Still a decent rig. You are supported slightly head-low on a Vector. Cons: possibility of losing your drogue releases, particularly when you permit students to pull (tandem progression). Older 421 and 500 F-111 mains suck, but each later main was an improvement. I put a lot of jumps on an EZ-384 after we replaced our 421's. You can put a nice Sigma main in an older Vector II and still have a nice, cheap, safe rig. Eclipse: Exactly like a Vector II except with a slightly narrower profile. Additional drogue cutaway handle for instances where you might have a drogue-in-tow total. Most came with Icarus (Precision) mains which fly great. You can find cheap Eclipses all over the place and they are nice rigs in my opinion. I only put about 10 jumps on ours. You are also supported head-low on an Eclipse Sigma: Incredible harness and container systems. The absolute standard, but pricey and with a long wait for a new one. I have jumped them with Sigma 370's since they came out and think it's a great main, but wish they offered one around 340 or 350. The majority of my tandem jumps are with a Sigma. You are supported less head-low on a Sigma than a V-II. Racer: Very, very tidy and light. Incredibly comfortable. The Firebolt tandem main is great and is available in sizes as small as 298. I got my entire rig, custom colors, with a Firebolt 350 in 16 days flat for several thousand less than the best price I could get on a Sigma. You are supported right in the middle of your fore/aft CG with a Racer. Also, when you pitch the drogue, the laterals draw tight and pull the passenger to you. Pulling the cutaway cuts away the drogue, therefore your EP's remain the same, no matter what the mal. Strong: I don't have this rating and never will. I think the rig looks like crap anyway you pack it. The design is incredibly dated. The strong, like the Eclipse, has a separate drogue cutaway handle for those times when you have a total with drogue-in-tow. Some people swear by Strongs, but I am not one of them. A Strong SET main does fly and land OK, but I couldn't ever see us buying one. We just gave five Strong systems away because we had no luck selling the damn things. They were listed for three years for cheap. Everyone has different opinions about different gear. Many people have preconceived notions about gear without ever having laid eyes on the stuff; I am not one of those people. Chuck

190 is an incredibly popular size for a first rig, especially at your size. The beauty of buying a nice ZP canopy in that range is that most people who jump alot will put one good season on one and then be able to sell it with little or no loss to some other person fresh off student status. There are many, many options to choose from and you might even be able to find what you are looking for (used) here in the classifieds on this site. Chuck

Unless I am terribly mistaken, no, the entrance gates are the same width as the rest of the course in Distance.

Hey Talbert, DO A TRICK, FOOL! No......TWO TRICKS! Edited to add that Tim Tennant, Tim D'Annunzio, and Scott Rhodes were all standing around the DZ yesterday talking about the "creative" video job by France. Scott shook his head and said that he thought it wasn't legal that the video was flying around like that. Anyone want to argue with the ONLY six-time 8-way (in slot) gold medalist on the planet? Chuck

What I do to make sure my Slinks (or copies) stay put in place inside the webbing of my risers is give them several solid yanks after installation to give them a "set." If you don't do so, then they will take whatever set they are at upon your first deployment with them. If they cocked out to the side, then guess what....they are going to stay in that cockeyed position unless you tack them in place. FWIW, my shit does not ever move on me. Chuck

I used to own a Viper 150 that I kept around for demos and such; it opened perfectly. If your canopy is opening too slowly, it's possible that the brake lines have shrunk up to the point that the cats-eyes are too low to allow for proper inflation. Slow openings are a plus for me. How long does your canopy take to open? If the trim checks out right, then you can easilly make it open nearly as fast as you like. Leave the nose out there and don't wrap the tail much and that should really help. If it's out of trim, then get your lines replaced. Chuck

It doesn't really matter how many marker gates there are in distance runs. The tape is run straight up the middle in most cases and your distance, from first point of contact after clearing the initial entry gates, is marked at first point of contact. The gates after the entrance gates serve to simply mark your left and right boundaries, not neccessarily tell you how far you have flown. In distance it is OK to pop up above the gates after cleanly making the entrance, but you cannot fly outside the left and right boundaries. There are only VERY few instances where competitors blow outside the course. If you are going to mess up in distance rounds it is because you have missed the entrance height and received a "vertical extension." Chuck

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! Nice one, Cliffy! I just blew snot on the monitor!

I throw every "ex" thing away as fast as I can or can remember where the stuff is. I certainly don't save any e-mails or PM's either; that's creepy. No matter how benign something like that might be in your eyes, someone else is going to get upset if they ever find it . Just my experience.

Not ME.

The best one I have ever seen is the one of MochaSkyChick. It's in a thread somewhere on here.

I think Slink shrinkage issues are pure hearsay and that someone is trying to start some sort of new urban legend.

Perris will be absolutely swamped with Nationals competitors till after mid month.

I just registered online. Be advised that the "pay fees online" function is not yet up and running.

Where did you leave your shit so that someone could snag it?

Where are you right now, Nathan? Out in CA doing boot camp (or whatever the fuck the Navy calls it), or are you still in GA?

CLASSY you say??? Both have little class, but are generally decent people.

Rainy in October in Z-hills? No. Perris will be swamped more than half the month of October due to Nationals. I would pick Eloy or somewhere in FL.

My two favorite teams are Auburn and ANYONE playing Alabama. Even if Auburn lost every game of the season leading up to it, if we beat bama then it's all good.