SkymonkeyONE

another perfect example of failing to think before hitting the send button. Talkback, talkback, talkback. NOT general skydiving discussions.

You have the right idea with your figures.

Stolen while the car was parked at the beach? I would be checking pawn shops first.

Alcohol will absolutely undo any good that anti-seizure meds do. My ex-roommate (now a policeman in Gwinnet, GA) had a few in the army and was put on meds. He continued to drink for a while even though he was warned against it (and continued to seize as a result), but never once seized since stopping drinking. As to the "what happens if she seizes while driving" question, I can answer that one too. Unbelievably, I know two people who were killed when seizing drivers lost control of their vehicles and ran off the road and over helpless bystanders. This is a veryserious topic to me. One of my best friends was killed when an older driver in a full-grown Cadillac ran right through the fence of a construction site in Manhattan and smashed him between the car and the blade of a Cat bulldozer. The car was going so fast it broke the blade off the bulldozer. Chuck

Very funny.

I don't really get your question, Jim, but I will answer what I think you are asking. Katie's, run through an RF modulator, has a bit of a "whir" when she speeds up, but I am sure that's because the power was run right off the ignition. Volume cranks up just fine. No idea about any other line-out voltage issues.

No shit!

Raeford will train 16 year olds as will Skydive Opelika

Pricing for the boogie is listed on the Roaming DZ message board. The first flight course takes about 30 minutes. I will be there friday afternoon and stay until the completion of the boogie on Sunday.

No, no, no. don't listen to them fools; give ME a call. I'm yo pusher.

I start my pull sequence at 4000 feet. I have 3800 skydives and over 385 wingsuit flights at last check. I think of my wingsuit as an additional piece of equipment in the same light as a board or a tandem passenger and keep my deployments that high because I know, first-hand, that things can go to hell in a handbasket in no time flat. My dedicated wingsuit main is a Sabre2 97 loaded at 1.8. Chuck

Deland is 16 miles from Daytona; it's a straight shot. I will be there all this weekend and there are a lot of people on this site who call that DZ home.

Do you have to wear a jumpsuit? No, but there are good reasons to do so. Increased drag in the right places makes for more maneuverability. Jumpsuits also protect you when you blow your landings. Jumpsuits are warm in the winter. Jumpsuits cover "flappy" clothing which might otherwise cover your handles, etc.

I bet you can sell that suit in one week flat. Are you going to Dublin for the Roaming DZ boogie? If not, send the suit down with me and I bet I can sell it there. Put it for sale on the wingsuit classifieds here and on flybirdman.com as well. Chuck

Three words: pull your strings

Front loops, back loops and barrel rolls are all designed to teach you recovery from instability. Many times, I will have my front-looping students simply stand in the door of the otter and reach over and hold their feet. I will nudge them out and tell them to count to three before arching hard to regain stability. It's not about performing a "perfect" loop or barrel roll; it's about being able to get back onto your belly should. In the "real world" outside of student status this becomes very important should you zoo your exit or get clocked in freefall by one of your buddies. That said, one time last year I had a visiting skydiver from Missouri who was "signed off of student status" (AFF method) by his dropzone, yet he had never performed flips or barrel rolls of any type. Unbelievable. Chuck

I agree completely. I put my pages together with bare code (but Katie fiddled with them in frontpage because she was bored). Knowing HTML is important to being able to fix your pages should one of your trusty WYSIWYG's take a shit on you. Not being able to open a page and figure out the source code in notepad means that you will eventually have to rely on others to fix your problems. FWIW though, throwing stuff together in frontpage is incredibly fast and easy; it just makes for incredibly dirty code.

No swooping. This is focused at younger skydivers and I don't feel like promoting a 100/200 jump freeflyer to be swooping under the pressure of competition. Brian, that is one of the most mature things from a "freeflyer" I have heard in a while and I give you props for taking that stand. Many, many young skydivers interested in that specific discipline incorrectly believe that swooping tiny ellipticals is direcly tied to freeflying. The same goes for young jumpers trying to emulate Majik. Canopy skills in no way, shape, or form are tied with one's ability to fly on their head, feet, or belly with confidence. Competition swooping is an entirely different discipline and requires the same level of dedicated practice. Competition swooping is not the same as beer line swooping and you are correct: the pressure of competition causes young jumpers (and plenty of older ones) to do incredibly stupid stuff under canopy. Chuck

Aristide is a sketchy little guy. I met him a few times in 94-95 when we were there. He likes to sit around and play folk music on his guitar. There are a few peacocks that strut around the presidential palace in Port Au Prince; I never knew they could jump so high. You would be walking by, under the trees around the back of the palace, and they would sqwawk at you from up in the trees; very odd. I stayed for quite some time in DeSaline Barracks, right behind the palace. Another one of the many, many structures that was erected in the early 1900's (1915-1934) by the US during the first occupation that has since fallen into complete disrepair. DeSaline was the US Marine barracks for both the first and second occupations. Last time we (my Army unit) were there, people would march around with tree branches chanting "Aristide, Aristide". They thought he was the answer to it all; what a joke. He was weak and just as crooked as any of his predecessors, though less violent. It was incredibly disheartening to see the remnants of such a nice city utterly gutted by looters. Not a single building left unguarded has any of its fixtures, wiring, windows, anything. The second a building goes unguarded, it is looted to the bare walls. Such is life in Haiti. People will destroy infrastructure without any concern for the repurcussions on not only everyone around them, but themselves as well. We showed up, occupied the major cities, and attempted to restore order and at least get some electricity flowing. We would show up at power plants and stand aghast at the monumental tasks before us. The "citizens" has taken over the sites, then simply scavenged everything of potential value to them to take and trade in the markets. Wire windings out of generators; switches, fuel tanks, etc. All they would leave is what they could not carry. Never mind that all they needed to restore power was diesel fuel for the tank. No, instead they chose to loot and riot in the streets, running around with machetes like the natives in some old Tarzan movie. Fucking idiots. Of course once they knew we were there to "help" (read: give them free shit), they would clean up their act just long enough to get said free stuff, then run around and beat each other up so that they could horde the goods and sell it on the black market. We routinely took down houses full of contraband goods, many times it was that of the local mayor or other town leader. Incredible corruption at every turn. I have been inside the presidential palace and I have stood on the top of the open garbage collection sites in Port Au Prince. I have eaten ice cream in Petionville (the only sizable bastion of wealth in the country, where everyone speaks "real" French). I have flown in circles in a MH-60 around a castle called "The Citadel" and rode a donkey up the trail to visit it. I have stayed in an occupied Baptist mission while operating roadblocks on the only North/South highway in the country. I have seen the end result of a hurricane sweeping through a valley occupied with squatters, washing 500 of them into the ocean and burrying many, many of them in mud, leaving only body parts sticking out of the now-solid surface. Of course nobody bothered to police up the corpses. I have seen more riots than I can count. I have seen people attack each other with machetes and I have treated some of the victims. I have been part of local and national elections and shook my head at the lack of control measures. I have deployed the emergency slide on the side of one of the many deserted/inoperable jet liners sitting on the ramp at the international airport and slid down it, just for shits and grins. Lastly, I was on one of the very first MH-53's that set down at that airport on the first day of the last occupation; I was carrying 150 pounds of equipment. It is my very-educated opinion that nothing any country ever does to aid Haiti (and other similar places) will ever lead to any "real" change. We (the US and anyone else involved in trying to "assist") are simply pissing the money away. That kind of stuff makes me ill. I loathe what I saw there.

If the campy is a rockin, don't come a knockin! Check it!

There is another long thread about it on here already, but my answer is that Katie and I love our XM. Channel 44 (fred) is cool, as are the ones in the 80's (the electronica). Never losing a station on my long-ass road trips is very cool.

To be 40, obviously; to send your one-time-only $20 entrance dues to POPS (by mail only; they are cavemen). That's it. I got my card and patch in about eight days. http://www.thepops.org/usa/joinpops.asp Chuck Blue POPS 9234

Chris, you are sweating it simply because you changed your major? Gimme a break. In what world do you think it really matters what variation of degree you have in order to be successful at pretty much anything you like? Having a business degree will not guarantee that you will be a successful businessman. Likewise, having a computer science degree will not guarantee that you will be successful in the IT world. If you are saying that you have chosen to change your major because you don't plan on being a part of the family business, then that's something completely different. Chuck

I am incredibly pleased that you have found time to join our discussions, Brian. I appreciate your ability to expound on theories in a language a bit more refined than what I use. Your "five dollar words" appleal to that certain percentage of enthusiasts who need complete and utter understanding issued forth in an almost clinical manner. Your "animation" in real-life seminars keeps the participants awake and engaged as well. Keep it up. Peace, Chuck

Scott's old primary wingsuit rig had an original Sabre 135 in it. I think he still has that rig laying around, so someone might want to try to talk him out of it.