SkymonkeyONE

As someone who has been "frozen in a pond" I can tell you that regardless of consequence, we are gonna do it if it means doing well in competition. While I stayed much drier last November, Nathan Gilber still beat me even though he ate the pond five times in the meet. I was sucking, but he was SUPER SUCKING. He ran out of clothes five times. Anyway, as cold as it was, if someone would have had to chop, they may have encountered the problems Derek is relating. Bottom line: excessive exposure to freezing water sucks. Chuck

What you know about the huck-a-buck?

Skydive Deland has a nice camping area and a nice RV area, but I stayed with buddies last time I was there. A smart birdie would make friends with the people at the BirdHouse (on Lexington ave.). Doooood, there are some great people in DeLand.

yes. Clearly "not BASE" gear. This was pure idiocy just to see if he could live through it.

Sorry: I have a bit over 3300 jumps, every instructional rating that we use in this part of the country, and quite a bit of experience in every aspect and discipline in every part of skydiving I have ever put my mind to.

Derek jumps a tiny little VX and I can personally vouch for the speed he obtains from a snap at roughly 1500 feet. He throws his turn, dives like a bomb, and translates that massive speed into enough horizontal speed to land his canopy very nicely. The tiny amount of riser input that would be required to modulate a controlled carve under his main would be nearly impossible to control. That being said, Derek does a fine job of landing his napkin (even at altitude I am told). This advanced technique is, of course, not recommended for the average Joe. Chuck

It was because of the person you are talking about that it is no longer legal at Bridge Day to free-bag anything. That moron did a complete disservice to the regular jumpers. Yes, I said moron. Chuck PS: the word is spelled "cajones"

Yep, my Velocity 79 is fairly tight in my RS (and older XRS). James O and Stephen Lee both fit 96's in their RS.1's Aesthetically, they look nearly identical. The added inch does make for quite a bit more room. Chuck

it's never too early to have a cocktail when you are off work.

You misunderstood. I am betting you anything you like that you will NOT get an Onyx in the time you prescribed in the size you mentioned. I will coach you in wingsuit flight for free anyway.

That was done some time ago, my brother.

A demo what? Onyx? I'll take that bet.

FRUITCAKE!

I agree with a lot of what both Paul and Lisa said, but I disagree with Paul on the "instructional rating" point. Personally, I much prefer LO's to have some sort of instructional capabilities. This, especially, when dealing with low/mid-time jumpers. Next, I believe that if a dropzone is going to advertise that they have LO's, then they better always be available for at least the major catagories of jumper (low/mid-time RW; experienced RW; low/mid-time FF; experienced FF). As someone else said, Eloy does this right. I have been other places where if someone gets cut from an organized more-experienced jump, they have no place to go; unfortunate. A personal gripe with me is the pretty poor choices some boogies make in regards to organizers. Personally, I am not interested (at my level) in being organized by some person with two years in the sport and 1000 jumps total in three different disciplines. Skydiving organizational skills come from being around the sport, having a varied background in the target discipline (competition experience; big-way; AFF skills; teaching; etc). I don't think you get that in two years...period. I also don't think that just because a person has 10,000 jumps they qualify. He person must still be in command of his skill-set. My dad, for example, has that many jumps, but he would not (nowadays) be a good choice as an organizer even though he has more than 40 years in the sport. Patience, understanding, the ability to make on the spot corrections, a very observant eye, and lastly: a nice binder of different formations for different numbers of participants. Without that last one, I have seen some "organizers" put together some truly ugly and impractical formations. Chuck

About a grand. I haven't started shopping yet so I was just guessing how much everything costs. You can EASILY find an old, functional enduro for under $1000.

Two words: used enduro. I am kind of jonesing an old enduro myself, just for sporting around the dropzone. The RedBone Express is far too impractical for such rudimentary tasks (besides only sitting one inch off the ground. An old '70's Yamaha would be stylin. Chuck

You are driving somewhere with Jake? Please bathe with de-licer before you step into my camper....

"What is the purpose of this exercise?" Bring your wireless lappies; we have quite the "bubble" out here on the plantion now courtesy of yours truly and MattM (Amish). Chuck

I have three Michigan comp suits; two with Knife Edge booties (Joe Trinko actually designed that) and one with regular comp booties. I love them all and use them for everything: all RW, tandems, AFF. We have a good raport with Mike, so customer service is always great here. Before that, I was a combination Tony (Pit Special) and D'Annunzio (now Paraclete) guy. I think that pretty much all suits wear and perform the same to me (a generalization), but it boils down to cost, delivery time, and customer service after the sale. This, unfortunately varies wildly from region to region. If your gear store or dealer has a better relationship with a vendor, then you are going to get treated better...period. Chuck

A Sabre 2 is a very versitile wing. I have a factory team pattern 97 on the way that I will be loading at 1.82. I chose this as my contingent parachute because of the great amount of time I jump a wingsuit. Small enough to fit in my tiny rigs, yet large enough to keep me safe at higher altitudes, unfamiliar dropzones, etc, when I just don't feel like jumping my Velocity 79. They open great and straight, plus in the wingload I am talking about I can swoop the piss out of it. Chuck

There is very little that compares to jumping into the FloraBama. One of the most drunken times I can (barely) remember is participating in the interstate mullet toss.

Any trouble-maker perpetrating as a journalist, taunting the soldiers with guns and shouting obscenities deserves to have a tank round fired at them. Oh wait, the tank crew was only aiming at their equipment; firing anything above 7.62mm at a "person" is against the rules. Chuck

One thing I have noticed after a substantial time packing PC's the same way is that some people, myself included, get lulled into a sense of complacency when it comes to actually pulling. A change of PC, bridle length, or BOC pocket will all change the pull force of a "same" PC packjob. I have been caught off guard before at the bottom of a very-fast 4-way dive in competition where my arms were so smoked that I barely had the strength to pull. I couldn't believe it. Likewise, I found myself last year having delayed, then spinny openings. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out. I just happened to see one of those openings on video and realized that I was just barely tossing the PC, thus it was not giving me sufficient snatch force to ensure a clean deployment. From then on, I started grabbing that son-of-a-bitch and yanking and throwing like it was my last chance. Violence of action during the pull will ensure that the PC gets out of the pocket and, thusly, into clean air. Adding a foot to the length of my bridles (for BirdMan openings) in no way hampered my "normal" openings, but it DID make my PC pack bigger; much like jumping a larger PC would. Another option for the original poster, and anyone else having this problem for that matter, is to simply downsize pilot chute size. There is not a single parachute out there on the market that needs a 36 inch pilot chute, yet there are plenty of people jumping PC's that big in old rigs. Current "standard" size from Eddie Spears is 30 inch ZP. If you are not willing to do that, then you may just want to workout those "pull" muscles. Chuck

Rascals were (actually still are) made by APS in Texas. Previous to that, they were made in Alpharetta, GA by FTS (same company, different name) by Dave Davenport. Previous to that, they were made in my dad's loft in Opelika, AL. They were made in 7, 8, and 9-cell versions and sold as both mains and reserves. They were very popular in the 80's down south. Chuck

This phenomenon fascinates me. I have been amazed at how some people treat strangers, having no idea as to their actual skills or qualifications. Even worse, I have seen the whuffo wife of a fellow instructor at "the other dropzone" around here try to make fun of ME for working at Raeford. I had to laugh. The woman didn't even know me, nor had she ever so much as made a single visit to my dropzone. I (and everyone else in the room) explained how flawed her thinking was; that we were actually all very good friends who had worked together before. She didn't get it; thought it must be like NASCAR fans or something....LOL! Chuck