SkymonkeyONE

The same reason I wasn't: neither one of us was able to make it to the rescheduled meet in Oregon because we had already committed to other things. Originally, the "US qualifying event" was scheduled to be at the WFFC in Rantoul. It was much-later rescheduled to Oregon because the USPA thought the WFFC was not the best venue to host the meet. Unfortunately, several of us had already allocated that time and couldn't just up and change our plane tickets and travel plans at that late hour. In my particular instance, I had already promised my time to one of the vendors at the WFFC in order to defray the cost of the trip. When the meet change was announced, there was no way I was going to bail on one of my key sponsors, so I kept my plans and went to WFFC instead of the Oregon meet. Shannon was off somewhere coaching and wasn't going to ditch that job to compete. As such, neither of us were able to compete at the world meet. They made no exceptions; either you competed at the Oregon meet or you didn't. Every single competitor who competed at the Oregon meet was able to compete at Perris. Everyone who missed that meet, no matter their competition record, was denied. Chuck Blue

I believe Chris's point was that it would have been MUCH smarter to build the plane with a T-tail. This, assuming the plane being "purposely built" for skydiving.

We drink like VIKINGS! I will be in Eloy this evening, along with Katie and Mouth. MonkeyLip is picking us up.

We ain't gonna stop till we are done jumpin....on the 6th of January. Katie and I are leaving here in about twenty minutes. We arrive in PHX at 6:40 where MonkeyLip will be picking us up. We will be drinking in the PHX airport for an hour till Mouth gets there, then the lot of us will be high-tailing it for The Bent Prop. See you all very soon! Chuck

That's true. As a person who has had exactly that responsibility/power, I can tell you that the only people I have ever had to "shut down" were the ones who fucked up incredibly, then tried to pass the blame or tried to make excuses for repeated, wreckless actions and a "fuck off" attitude. Some people have a pretty cavalier attitude, not really giving a shit whether or not they are making nuisances of themselves. It's really easy to get away with that crap when you have a bunch of turbine dropzones within a two hour drive from your house. There are plenty of people who have been banned from dropzones, yet not many of them stay with the sport too long after they realize that they might have to drive six hours to make a skydive at the next closest podunk dropzone. It's too easy to get over on the system nowadays.

Good post, Ron.

Eddie Spears in North Carolina makes them as well under the Monkey Fist name. Sunrise Rigging (wings makes them too). Chuck

Dogs, cats, horses, cows, hogs, a snake, fish, and a rabbit. My dad lives on a 500 acre ranch.

Most dropzones have at least some rudimentary course now. The three dropzones within 80 miles of Fayetteville, NC all have (or had) them. The one I used to set up at Raeford was a mix of ten foot airblades and five foot swoop noodles. I changed the course fairly regularly, but mostly just kept it up in PST distance fashion. Chuck

Cars Trucks (dually, 2.5 ton, 5 ton, 915 tractor trailer rig, LMTV) M113 and M125 tracked vehicles boats (Kayak, canoe, F470 Zodiac, RHIB, flat-bottom jet boat with a 454 in it, Correct Craft Ski Nautique, 35 foot center consol dive boat, 50 foot Hateras sportfisher) Jet skis and SeaDoos 3 and 4-wheeled ATV's, both racing and farm varieties Motorcycles (every size, shape and configuration) Airplanes (C150, C152, C172, C182, Cherokee 6, Citabria, Aeronca Chief) Tractors (Ford 2000, Ford 9000) and every implement you can hook on the back of them. Snowmobiles (but not since I was about 14 years old) edited to add: Golf Carts, both electric and gas powered Horse (used to rope a bit) Ostrich (though not with grace)

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Who's yo monkey?! Chuck

Jib: "Ray, let's go" Rdutch: "in a while, Jib" Jib: "NO, Ray, we need to go NOW!" Rdutch: "where are do we need to go, Jib?" Jib: "sss....ssst....stairway to heaven." Priceless

I have bought and sold a lot of gear through the classifieds on both this site and the ones at www.enclave.com. So long as you go through a reputable gear store or well known rigger as an intermediary, then you should never have a problem. Chuck

Since it's very posible that many of you missed this post, I am re-posting it here in this thread. It's in response to some of the mixed opinions some people have about what this boogie "should be." Anyway, here it is again for all to see: Here's my take on the "organization" thing. I am an incredibly social person and I make my own fun. I jump with whomever I want, whenever I want. While this is now being called "the dropzone.com boogie", to me it's just a venue for me to relax and see what I can get into. Yes, I am giving one of the seminars, but I don't really expect many people to attend; they didn't at Rantoul. Personally, I don't expect that the boogie will be any different in the grand scheme than it has been in previous years. While there will be a certain cadre of people bound together under the dropzone.com tent (assuming that's what we will have again, like last year), the majority of people will be busy with their own agendas, registered members of this site or not. If Rantoul was any current indication, very few dropzone.commers will even bother to make their presence known. Odd, but that's what happened there at Rantoul this year, and last year at Eloy. That's unfortunate; there are a lot of fantastic people on this site, many of whom I have met and become very close friends with over the years. Still, I am not about to fault someone for going out and doing their own thing. Last year, we had WAY more than enough capable big-way skydivers on hand to break the record, yet most stayed away because they didn't care to participate in what was surely to become a zoo due to the way the roster was structured. I did those jumps and had a good time, but truthfully had a much better time doing the technical big-way stuff with Philip. In the end, the boogie will be exactly what you expect it to be. It can be a big party (lots of free beer), a jumping frenzy (Trevor and Alex made more than 130 jumps last year), a take-you-by-the-hand organized event, a learning experience (lots of seminars and coaching), or a friendship-buliding experience. Personally, I take bits and pieces of it all and put it together the way I want to. It's exactly like Rantoul in that respect. What I am really looking forward to at this boogie is having all the vendors on-site. People in the know will have sense enough to understand that making friends with those in the industry is incredibly important. Networking is crucial to the serious skydiver and I spend a great deal of my time interacting with my sponsors and other friends in the industry who build our gear. There are no better opportunities, barring visits to the actual factories/stores, for you as a skydiver to really see what's what and to try out gear than at big boogies like this. Do yourself a favor and exploit this opportunity to its fullest. Touch, feel, ask questions about, and jump everything you can. In closing, I would hope that people go into it with an open mind. I hope I get to meet each and every person from this site who shows up, but then again I am an object in motion and skip around a bunch. I certainly don't expect everyone to sit in a circle and sing "cumbaya"; people break down into cliques almost immediately and do their own things. Still hopefully our paths will cross at some point and maybe our circles will expand in the process. Some of my defining moments have come to pass at large boogies. Peace, Chuck

I totally responded to a random post by JP, but that's only because I just read the tread, but backwards, just to see what I missed. Here's my take on the "organization" thing. I am an incredibly social person and I make my own fun. I jump with whomever I want, whenever I want. While this is now being called "the dropzone.com boogie", to me it's just a venue for me to relax and see what I can get into. Yes, I am giving one of the seminars, but I don't really expect many people to attend; they didn't at Rantoul. Personally, I don't expect that the boogie will be any different in the grand scheme than it has been in previous years. While there will be a certain cadre of people bound together under the dropzone.com tent (assuming that's what we will have again, like last year), the majority of people will be busy with their own agendas, registered members of this site or not. If Rantoul was any current indication, very few dropzone.commers will even bother to make their presence known. Odd, but that's what happened there at Rantoul this year, and last year at Eloy. That's unfortunate; there are a lot of fantastic people on this site, many of whom I have met and become very close friends with over the years. Still, I am not about to fault someone for going out and doing their own thing. Last year, we had WAY more than enough capable big-way skydivers on hand to break the record, yet most stayed away because they didn't care to participate in what was surely to become a zoo due to the way the roster was structured. I did those jumps and had a good time, but truthfully had a much better time doing the technical big-way stuff with Philip. In the end, the boogie will be exactly what you expect it to be. It can be a big party (lots of free beer), a jumping frenzy (Trevor and Alex made more than 130 jumps last year), a take-you-by-the-hand organized event, a learning experience (lots of seminars and coaching), or a friendship-buliding experience. Personally, I take bits and pieces of it all and put it together the way I want to. It's exactly like Rantoul in that respect. What I am really looking forward to at this boogie is having all the vendors on-site. People in the know will have sense enough to understand that making friends with those in the industry is incredibly important. Networking is crucial to the serious skydiver and I spend a great deal of my time interacting with my sponsors and other friends in the industry who build our gear. There are no better opportunities, barring visits to the actual factories/stores, for you as a skydiver to really see what's what and to try out gear than at big boogies like this. Do yourself a favor and exploit this opportunity to its fullest. Touch, feel, ask questions about, and jump everything you can. In closing, I would hope that people go into it with an open mind. I hope I get to meet each and every person from this site who shows up, but then again I am an object in motion and skip around a bunch. I certainly don't expect everyone to sit in a circle and sing "cumbaya"; people break down into cliques almost immediately and do their own things. Still hopefully our paths will cross at some point and maybe our circles will expand in the process. Some of my defining moments have come to pass at large boogies. Peace, Chuck

Observation rides? I can't imagine why you would want to spend your money on that, but if they permit it (some places do not) and you think it will make you more comfortable, then go ahead and do it. More important is to just make sure you get someone from the dropzone to walk you around and orient you to the facilities. Also, make sure someone shows you the aerial photo to orient you as to the landing pattern, safe out-landing areas, and any obstacles. Chuck

I don't remember having any service problems in Z-hills. Chuck

Glad you made it back home, Alex. Didn't I read somewhere that you were successful in getting both your AFF ticket and your tandem rating as well as your BMI? If so, great job! See you somewhere down the road, Chuck

Actually, some of the better canopies for wingsuit jumps are the ones that "nobody wants anymore". Old Sabres are a dime a dozen and incredibly cheap. Just an idea. That said, I have done wingsuit jumps with a tiny Xaos and didn't have any problems at all. Chuck

Agreed. I believe you need to start attending Donuts Anonymous.

Eggzackly.... SunCheHag is quite the sailor-talkin' boozehag when she wants to be.

I cannot fathom why someone would want to hoist a fucking 370 square foot canopy over their shoulder simply to say they PRO pack. I have a lot of jumps on a XX (and MC4) and there is simply no reason to do anything other than roll pack it or, like the instructions say, X pack it. An X pack is an only barely-modified stack pack. The only times I ever did that was when the unit's riggers oversaw us and mandated it. All the other times I simply roll packed it, making sure the nose was rolled tight. The only major gripe I ever had with XX's and MC-4's was the lack of packing tabs. Very, very stupid. Chuck MFFJM (among other things)

probably not at all. You change the pitch of those devices by sliding yourself fore and aft under then wing. Critical to setup of SkyRays is center of balance. Dan Preston posted some pics and detail of one a few months ago from his last trip to Europe. Chuck

Well, it's like I said in the original thread: I have never had a bad/spinny opening on either of my Velocities, my old VX-74, or any loaner crossbrace I have ever jumped and I pretty much always put a roll in the nose. I get similarly good openings leaving the nose straight as well.

I will agree with both points. The Sabre2 is a brilliant wingsuit main. I load my 97 to 1.82, but you have to understand that this is quite an upsize as compared to my Velocity 79 and the four mains even smaller than that which I jumped previously on a regular basis. I am extremely current under sub-100 mains and have no issues whatsoever with my choice. I would say that jumping down two sizes is a bit rash. Opening and flight characteristics under ANY main at that wingload are going to be considerably different than that 135 he is currently jumping. Like JP said: currency and confidence under whatever main you choose is imperative to stress-free wingsuit openings. Chuck