SkymonkeyONE

If your canopy is "bucking" then nearly anything is possible in turbulence. In clean air, I have also seen entire sides of canopies fold under for no apparrent reason as well, but it's pretty rare. Wind can do some very strange things to parachutes. Chuck

If I am not distracted, I can pack any of my mains in five minutes and any student rig in around four minutes. I generally take about ten to 12 minutes to pack a Sigma. I have a lot of practice. Chuck

BOY, hell! His name is Sammy and he plays with YO MAMMY!

Phree made an interesting point. There were several people a few years ago who went and competed in the first Venezuela meet who were making subtle trim changes by using different size rapides on one side (front or rear) and either Slinks or smaller rapides on the other. There were also people around that time that were experimenting with longer outside lines in an attempt to flatten out their canopies. I posted something about this in the "old" dropzone.com forums after talking to Joe Trinko about it. It used to be fairly common in competition, but I don't know anyone who has done it, or at least talked about it, in the past couple of years. These changes in angle of attack not only affect the glide, they also affect the way a canopy handles in risers. Once again, this is dated information, but it used to be fairly common in competition circles. Chuck

I have SO done that! That said, feel free to PM me anytime you regret something you have said which you wish you could erase or edit. I am good at fixing things. My name is Chuck Blue and I am a moderator on dropzone.com (among other things)

Pablito is from Argentina. VERY shady, this one... How you doing, Shady? Hoooooooty Hoo!

cheeeeeeck it!

Por que? No puedes hablar? Por falta de eso, no se va a intender algo de este conversation. Lo siento, muchacha mia.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

ooooops. lol

All over central and south america, these are drive-in, hourly motels known as "push buttons" and "cabanas." They are incredibly cool. You drive into a garage, lower the door, ring a buzzer and someone comes to a sliding door with linen. You pay when you are done, then drive your car back out of the garage. Inside, they have bedrooms and you can get all kinds of stuff from room service. Totally, incredibly cool. I can't believe we don't have them here in the states. Chuck

I hope that was not meant as a joke. Accuracy is INCREDIBLY important in swooping. You don't make the gates, you get a big goose egg for your score. Chuck

Kramer is a mess! We used to be roommates when he lived in North Carolina.

Boo hoo hoo, ha ha ha!

The A-license proficiency card has to either be signed by a method-specific Instructor or Coach, depending on what catagory you are in. Coach dives begin at Cat F. If your husband does not at least possess a coach rating (assuming USA here), then no, he can't be signing your card, no matter how many jumps he has. Chuck

Pretty much everyone on tour upsized last year to get better distance. For speed, most just pile on more weights. The larger wing weighed down to a heavier wingload has been found to work best for this purpose. Chuck

Andy and Steve both: At altitude is where you do all this experimentation. Hop and pops from altitude can be great learning jumps. As to the "how deep in brakes" question, just go up there and see for yourself what works best. Always starting at a known altitude, then checking it again after each maneuver. Rob posted earlier that he does a lot of pullups to get conditioned. That is a fantastic plan. Especially for someone who has not yet built up the degree of specialized "risering" muscle tone from practical application. My method? Riding my hot-rod Harley extremely fast and having to keep a death grip on that fucker. Chuck

back in the day we used to ALL do CRW at the bottoms of our RW dives. Hey, I'm old, give me a break Gean! Chuckie

That's a fine idea. Actually, you can post all the stuff you want in the events and gatherings forum. The BirdMan site has a lot of events listed. Chuck

As the manager/chief instructor of a fairly busy ISP-based dropzone school, I can tell you how in depth we do it here at Raeford. 1. Every student gets issued a two-jump-per-page precision logbook in which every jump is critiqued in great detail and then a blurb is written whether or not the student is cleared to the next level or not. 2. In depth student training record forms are kept in a file here on the dropzone. Every jump up to A-license is recorded, as is a checklist on the back page which both the student AND the instructor initial off on after the FJC. At the bottom of that page is a blurb stating basically, "yes, I have actually recieved all the training outlined above and yes, I understand the liabilities. This, along with the individual's waiver form are kept in an alphabetical filing cabinet in the school. 3. Finally, every single student gets an A-license proficiency card which is filled out during debrief after every jump. The "long" A-card is the simplest checklist available to ensure a student is on track and has not skipped any steps. Once again: we follow ISP to the letter here at Raeford. It's the best way to ensure there is no disparity in training from one dropzone to another. As our clientel is highly military-based, we get a lot of students and unlicensed novices who have come from other dropzones. I am amazed by the incredible lack of documentation some of those people come here with, thinking they are "good to go." I have also encountered on more that one occasion a situation that just makes me crazy. What in the world is up with a school that refuses to give up your individual training record should you have to leave, or just don't think you are at the dropzone for you? I have seriously had a student tell me that his old DZ manager refused to give him his logbook and records; he had to stay and finish his training there. A call to the dropzone from my regional director rectified the situation. If you are an instructor or school manager, please do yourself and your students a favor: don't skimp on the paperwork. The less you write, the more you are hosing that next instructor who gets the student. Chuck Blue D-12501 Raeford Parachute Center School

HAHA La zona roja, where boys become men. They would eat him alive There is no emoticon for HOWLING, so I will just have to sit here and laugh my ass off. Scott hit the nail on the head.

If you were two feet taller, Ed would still be a foot taller than you and he would still kill you.

Exactly. Packers are paid to provide a service. The packers on this dropzone make more than I do as the manager and AFF/tandem instructor. If a packer here has a shoddy opening record, then we are going to releve them immediately. That being said, there is an incredible shortage of packers here at Raeford. Who needs a job?

amen That is absolutely true. A good pilot will wring the hell out of whatever is over his or her head.

Jason said a lot in regards to riser pressure that I will totally second. One can't arbitrarily state that, even in general, riser pressure goes down as size does. This may apply to some parachutes, but I can promise you it does not apply to my two Velocities. If anything, my 75 has higher riser pressure than my 79. Both have nearly twice the front riser pressure of my Stilletto 107 in my staff rig. Still there are plenty of little ways you can trick your canopy into lower riser pressure in a turn. Lots and lots of people set up in deep brakes directly over their entrance point, then let up on the toggles, then harness-steer heavily into the turn while pulling in that one front riser. The key to not letting the riser get pulled out of your hand is simply not giving it any slack. Slightly letting up on a riser mid-turn will get you more back under that canopy. If anything, to dial your dive steeper, simply pull the opposite riser down to maintain course. ONce you start letting them up, it's nearly impossible on some canopies to stop the motion. Chuck