SkymonkeyONE

I am pretty assed up that you are still getting the run-around about that gear. If Jay Stokes is still around, then you need to get him to un-fuck those people for you. All of the "legality" questions have already been answered in your previous thread. Chuck MFFJM (among other things)

More examples by yourself and Andy where neither of you really need to be posting answers in this forum. Not that I don't like you, Andy, but this is not the forum to be posting answers at your experience level. Please don't post "answers" in this or any other specified forum if you are not qualified to do so, no matter how right you think your answers are. This, specifically, is one of the forums where guys like you can ask questions and listen to the truly educated answers. Don't get aggravated if someone with those qualifications doesn't answer right away; it's not a race. Peace, chuck

that is quite possibly the ugliest suit I have seen, Fergs. Holy sheeeeeut!

hey, SkyPsycho, you obviously don't kown any of the Bachman family. Yours is a mail problem. ParaGear has been in business for a very long time and I have never had anything but positive experiences with the company or the Bachmans.

Nice one, Derek. Personally, I though my post was a pretty good analogy, but as you posted last, yours is best.

If your only experience was that of your AFFI's coming back to the hangar with you, why would you think it different elsewhere? That is SOP at most dropzones.

You KNOW you be needin some free shit, my brother! REPRESENT! It's all about the water, dirt, water.

Looks like it fits pretty good, monkey lip!

Make no mistake, I am not "giving" shit away. You all know my original stance on this issue. I have every rating and I wish everyone had the same who intended on coming to these courses. The fact of the matter, though, is that there are some people out there in dealer positions, and others who just have undeniable natural talent who, in the group consensus, ought to be given the opportinity to excell. That does not mean that every candidate is going to pass the course; we don't expect that they will. Just like the AFFIC, people will be given the opportunity to prove themselves. If they blow it, then they will have to regroup and schedule another course. Once again: no gimmes. Peace, Chuck

OK, here is the revised poop: If you think you have the instructional skills and can demonstrate your airskills to us, then come to the course. We have decided that there are plenty of people out there who ought to be given the chance to achieve this goal, yet are unproven in other "standard" disciplines. Smart business would be to show up early and make some jumps with the people who will be running the course. No, we are not interested in taking your money for that; we just want to give you the opportunity to show you what we expect in the air. The course is set up with an AFF Instructor Course-type Targeted Learning Objective checklist. All tasks are pass/fail and you must pass both the ground eval and air eval. Copies of the checklist will be available after today. We plan on uploading all the paperwork to the BM webpage right after we run the course this weekend in DeLand. As to the question about "what does the course fee cover?" Well, among other things, it gets you fairly hefty discounts on suits, discounts on Wings BM edition harness/container systems, plus the course fee and evaluation jump, and course materials. That's all for now, Chuck

This is more of a Safety and Training-type post.

For distance, some guys are going as light as 1.8 (Nate Gilbert) for distance, but others like 2.05. I load lightest on my 79 at 2.23, so that's what I use. For speed, I pile on about 12 pounds, but know people who, seriously, wear about 30 pounds for speed. Yes, you lose distance when you pile on lead, but most speed courses are only 190 feet, so that is not the issue.

It's posted elsewhere, but just to remind you, we are running a BM-I course this weekend at DeLand. Show time at the BirdHouse is 8:00 am on Saturday morning. Call BM headquarters at (386) 785-0800 for more details. Chuck

Actually, Chris, you were post-whoring here long before you ever made your first skydive if I remember right. Ivan spends FAR too much time abusing his Multi-Pass to actually skydive. Still there are far better (worse?) examples. For some time there was a girl on here who had only one tandem who was definitely in the top 25 in the post numbers. I won't mention her name.

Are you kidding? That canopy is obviously not "fixed" if you are still having to jump it with extra links on one side.

Jav corners do not wrap around the bottom of the rig.

Ah. Did you blow that zipper out? At any rate I will see you this weekend in Deland. Chuckie

I believe the notion Mike has is that every dropzone has rules set in place now that the ISP is in effect which prevent people other than school staff from taking people on coach dives. Personally, I don't care if you are working for the school or not; if you have a rating then you are free to coach anyone you like for free. Yes, there are dropzones out there that will mandate that you use only their instructors and pay their fees, but ours is not one of them. At small Cessna dropzones, like the one my dad owns and operates in Alabama, when you get the requisite experience you are expected to get your ratings so that you can give back to the sport. Everyone benefits in that model. Chuck

"Does this bother you?" -Sam Thistle

If you do not yet have your A-license, then you need to REALLY make sure your paperwork is in order if you hope to jump without supervision at any reputable DZ. Properly filled out logbook, A-card, and USPA membership are what you will need if you show up at my DZ. Also, if you do not have an A-license, then any rig you rent or bring will have to have all of the equipment required in the BSR's of the SIM. This, of course, assuming USA.

PD 106's in both of my rigs loaded at 1.65.

Terminal or sub-terminal, Jason? If sub-terminal, riser covers open or closed?

Katie is going to kill me for travelling so much.........Wait, we will be in Minnesota then, so I can't be there. See you this weekend anyway, my brother. Chuckie

There are instances at our ISP dropzone where people are cleared to cat F (self supervision, hop and pops, and category specific coaching tasks on the "A" card) where some students just want to go up and "punch a hole in the sky" for their own confidence. Yes, that is totally legal (assuming they get a good gear check and someone checks their spot), but those jumps only count toward your jump-number totals in working toward your A license. Some people will do that because the weather is too shitty to get full altitude to do any of the coach dive freefall blocks on their card. On those, they can certainly still accomplish the canopy tasks on their card, they just need someone to watch them and see that they completed the tasks. Ron's statement makes pretty good sense if you are jumping at a dropzone with a proper zero-to-A student progression. I don't care how many jumps you have, if you circumvent my training plan then you are not doing me any favors. It's my job as a chief instructor to make sure that my students get through the program without skipping any steps. I use the "crawl, walk, run" method. Some 4-way chimp teling my Cat D student that he needs to be flying Mantis and dropping knees on turns is only going to fuck him up. Some wanna-be swooper telling one of my students that if's fine for him to do 360 degree turns below 1000 feet (when he should be flying a proper downwind, base, final landing pattern) is just going to piss ME off. If your dropzone has people "falling through the cracks", then you guys have a systemic problem that you need to fix. If you don't take care of your own, then don't bitch when people look outside your school for help. If you barely have your own body under control in freefall, then don't be fucking with my students. Even if you are an accomplished skydiver/competitor/whatever, check with the dropzone school and talk with the chief instructor before trying to "help" one of my students. Your "assistance" may go directly against what the school is teaching. There are many ways to skin a cat, but one need only know one to get the basic job done. You can have them once I am done with them. Chuck AFF/SL/TM/BM-I, PRO, S&TA

I really like superbands. They last at least as long as tube stoes in my experience and plus I got a LOT of them for free some time ago. I have never had a baglock in 22 years of jumping and regularly mix tube stoes, regular rubber bands, and lately, these superbands. I replace broken bands with whatever I get my hands on first. As to the baglock issue: I want to hear from any person on this forum who has actually experienced one caused by the use of this product. No urban legends or "friend of a friend" info please. Chuck