SkymonkeyONE

Hey, Lew, turn on your damn phone. You have a message waiting from me. Mono Uno

Since you said the "H" word, let me just add that the originator of "the Howard mod", Howard Adams, now works at The Jumpshack in Deland, FL. That said, my H-mod 75 Cobalt was a great opening canopy, right up to the point that it got very out of trim from pond swooping.

Consumption......MASSIVE consumption.

Cindy, who was the person from "the other Quincy" who was handing out water at the sqatters party?

The back of the T-shirts at my Dad's dropzone in Alabama say: "if you die we split your gear"

Agreed. I own a factory diver, but rarely wear it. When I do, for fast 4-way and the like, it's generally with the lens off and SkyEyes goggles over the top; a perfect combination.

SkyKAT.

We wear frap hats for incidental contact. Contact between my tandem passenger's head and my chin on exit or landing. Contact with that same person's head and the roof of the plane as we move to the rear prior to exit. Possible sliding contact with the ground or off the side of the plane. Definitely better than nothing.

The "other" Airforce team is "the chuting stars" and it is filled with PJ's and CCT guys. They hold their tryouts and do yearly training at NAS Boca Chica in Florida, seven miles from Key West. When our C-130 broke down about two years ago on one of my many KW trips, they let me borrow their C-17 for a HALO lift. I took myself and four other people up to 12,999 and JM'd the lot of us off the ramp. Five people.......nice

Remi, I did a couple of days with Philip last year. The smallest thing I did was about 24 way and the largest was 60 way. Only one zoo the entire time. Chuck

Good to see you again as well, Kimmie! You guys missed another complete mindwarp Saturday night, but ce la vie. See you and the rest of the DeLand mafia soon. Chuckie

My current (subject to change in the very near future) BirdMan rig (which is never un-sewn from my S3) is a 1998 Javelin XRS. No cut corners. Long bridle. Packed pin to grommet. No problems at all. I also have a 2001 Javelin Odyssey RS with a long bridle and no other mods. No problem with that rig at all either.

The Leap Frogs are the Navy team, but are comprised solely (unless this has changed) of SEALS who are assigned there off of the teams or NSWG assignements. That said, you must first be a SPECWAR guy. The Golden Knights is the Army's primary aerial demonstration team. Same category as the AF Thunderbirds or Navy Blue Angels. ALL of the other military skydiving teams fall into lower tiers; some have full time members, others are only partly staffed with full-timers. The USASOC team, USSOCOM team, and 82nd team fall into the "partly full-time" category. By that, I mean that only the Team Leader, the rigger, and possibly a couple of other "padded" individuals call the team room their normal place of business. The Golden Knights accepts applicants from all branches of the military. There are Infantry guys, french horn players, admin clerks, and Special Forces operators. Once accepted to the team, the members are still required to attend their carreer advancement schools, but no, they don't do any "real" army training when they are assigned there. Conversely, members of the "other" army teams, once accepted, make as many demos as their "real" job permits. Chuck

At Rantoul I saw: Chris Martin (GroundZero) take Beezy Shaw for $300 in an electric scooter drag race. It was an epic event! Chris had only paid $150 for his scooter. The most unlikely group of people most folks could imagine being friends, all sitting out in chairs laughing at the masses passing them by. Incredible fun. More South Africans in any one spot than I have ever encountered.

I am a physical wreck. I did two tandems yesterday and my ass was kicked.

We were callling him "Big Bird" after that. It was a hoot.

Howard had the grey one with the small FireBolt in it.

I generally pop in once a day to see if anyone is lurking, but generally, we are only in there en masse on Wednesdays

Beacon riding is still very much alive here at Raeford. Actually there at two separate categories: wrassling on the grate wrassling on top of the beacon while it's rotating

We were not sucking.

There were loads and loads of Deland people there. Chuck

It was thought that Felix was jumping a "real" SkyRay, but that is not the case. The two that he has are either copies or modified versions of two SkyRays that the German company that builds them sold some time ago to RedBull. You can read all about it in the wingsuit forum.

My opinion is that Howard Adams was sporting a very small, extremely tidy rig at the WFFC. He did his BirdMan training in it and I checked it out. I would seriously consider it as a next rig. Chuck

Yes, I would advise that your friend either get a new packer or figure out what he himself is doing to that canopy to get such a high malfunction rate. I jumped four different Cobalts as my main for three years and only once took a ride (on a wingsuit flight). Is your friend's canopy in trim? Has he even checked to see if it is? Any number of things can cause a malfunction, but having three in three weeks is odd. Chuck

It's an S3 that was sew custom, but ended up too small for it's designated recipient. The logos are sewn on applique and let me tell you, that's one sexy looking suit. Oddly, the wings were smaller on that suit (by some margin) than on my own S3. BirdMan owns the suit and yes it's for sale. Chuck