SkymonkeyONE

I have absolutely zero WINGSUIT landings in water, but I am always prepared. Each and every one of my water landings have been intentional: -the one that was required for me to get my D license back in the day which I did with a Para Commander. -three that I did as intentional water jumps for demos into Lake Martin, AL with squares -five ParaSCUBA jumps with rounds and twin 80 open circuit dive gear (two with rucks) all into Shark DZ in Key West, FL -four ParaDraeger jumps that I did as MFF/SCUBA jumps with MT1-XX HALO gear (one with ruck) all into Shark DZ in Key West, FL -more than 15 SL water jumps into Shark DZ, NAS Boca Chica in the keys, Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Puerto Rico, Rota Naval Base in Spain, NAS Antigua/Barbuda or into Gatun Lake in Panama as a member of SFODA 725 and SFODA 355 (SCUBA) when I was serving my 21 years of active duty.

That should be your new avatar, Nick

I need to post a caveat to my response just to clarify what I meant by unzipping EVERYTHING: -by everything I DO mean everything, including your main body zips. You can obviously not quickly get to your legstraps and get out of the rig if your main body zips are not completely undone. Pretty much every suit on the market and still flying around the air has two main zippers that go down past your legstraps. That makes it very easy to get to your legstraps. You would play hell getting to your legstraps in an original BM S.U.I.T, or an old Crossbow, but thankfully the legwing is small on both of those. In that case, Stoney's hook knife remedy would be very useful. Someone wondered where you ought to unzip from on a newer Tony. I, in any of my Tony's would unzip up from the bottom to about the knee, then kick my shoes off, then unzip down from the top and down to the knees. This is some good discussion, folks. Scott is right on the money about the temperature tollerances as well. Ultimately, I can think of plenty of instances where it might be plausible for someone to land in the water. Too far out to sea and either blow an exit, flat spin, or just can't make it to shore. Too long of a spot over a dense forrest and your only choice is 200' tall trees or a pond. You get the point. FWIW: when I am jumping over open water or doing beach jumps my choice of PFD is my old trusty UDT vest that I used when I was on my SCUBA team in the army. It lays flat on my chest under my suit and doesn't flop around like those little belly-band ones most people use which, by the way, only contain one flotation bladder. I own a couple of those as well, but generally just to lend to other people. Chuck

Helmets generally float, unless they are a camera helmet that is. I would definitely keep a ProTec on. I would shuck any of the other two I own though.

I wear a UDT recovery vest for intentional water jumps and demo jumps which require water gear.

That is not accurate. I know I wrote a complete water landing EP around six years ago for BM and it's definitely archived here on this site somewhere. At any rate, here is the correct response: When you KNOW you are going to land in water IMMEDIATELY unzip everything. Pulling wing cutaways on suits equipped with them is not a smarter answer than unzipping because your egress will still be hindered. Next, UNDO your chest strap fully and let it hang. If you have shoes on, kick them OFF. Land INTO THE WIND. Take a breath before you touch the water. IMMEDIATELY upon water entry reach down and fully loosen both legstraps. If you are being towed backwards across the water by your canopy, that's OK as you will generally be held up on the surface. Whether or not you are being towed, get the rig off of your shoulders and get out of the legstaps as soon as possible. Again, if your rig is being towed, just let it drag you as this is a MUCH easier thing for a rescue party to see. If your rig is not being towed, stay near it anyway so long as it stays on the surface. This, again, makes you much easier to spot. If your canopy ends up straight on top of you when you surface, punch upward, create an air pocket, trace a seam until you find the edge of the canopy, then get out of your harness. I have done an awful lot of military water jumps with both round and square canopies, with and without combat equipment. Para-Scuba and Para-Draeger as well. Chuck

A number of years ago we had a once-yearly visit from a group of military school cadets from Oak Ridge Military Academy in South Carolina. They would bring around 10 young people between the ages of 16 and 18 up here for a summer "adventure training" trip. Anyway, among this group was a kid who was quite-clearly mentally "slow" if I am being honest. The "real" army guy who was in charge of this group was an old friend of mine and I thought it was a joke; it was not. He sat through the entire SL FJC, but was distracted by the smallest things. He had a real fascination with this GI Joe (with parachute pack) that we had hanging on the wall and wouldn't stop asking me if he could go outside and play with it. There was NO way I was going to let this kid skydive and I told his parents (both of them were present) and his Cadre guy as much. Still, I got through with the class and pulled out the written test. Like some of the people have relayed in this thread, this guy hadn't retained a bit of the information. Case closed; failed test equalled no jump. No amount of retraining would have make this guy safe. I told the cadre guy that he needed to better screen the people he brought to skydive. Now what pissed me off (and still does) was that he would have been just fine on a tandem. This was before the USPA wording gave us the window to do 16 year old tandems. We don't train students under 18 at RPC School anymore, but we did for over 30 years. Speaking of the Oak Ridge Military Academy groups though: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister both got stuck in military school for a while when they were kids and both of them came here to Raeford and did SL jumps with that group a few years prior. Chuck

It's not to early for me to start this list of attendees: Chuck Blue

Who's going to be there AND PARTICIPATE on this wingsuit skydive: Scott Bland Chuck Blue Scotty Burns I will be arriving NLT next thursday

Slide the flange over the pipe with the cutout facing the head, put on the circlip, make sure you put your wire-weave gasket in the exhaust port, slip the pipe in, tighten the nuts down. Those gaskets come in two types: conical and straight-round. The Conical ones can be a motherfucker to get into the head without distorting.

I will be down a few days early.

I use flux-core wire, cracker!

The rule is, you are SLEEPING if your shoes are off and, as such, you should not be fucked with. You are PASSED out if your shoes are ON and, as such, are free game for fellow party-goers with Sharpies.

We had a great Derby Day here at Raeford!! Lots of the girls dressed up and wore their hats. Mint Julips were flowing and there was some very expensive bourbon being drank. I have tons of pictures of it all uploaded on my facebook page if anyone wants to see them.

did your voice raise two octaves? Oh wait, you wouldn't know!!

That's some excellent shit, Caldwell

it's going to be awesome.

my airlift is combination foot/pneumatic. It's just sexier to run it off the compressor. I wanted a Handy, but mine was $400 cheaper and works just as good.

MAJ (ret) Roger Pickett, a long-time Raeford/Military jumper passed away last night of cancer. He had been fighting it for a long time. He was a 46th SF company (Thailand) guy at the end of Vietnam, a 5th group guy, the commander of the MFF school, a Delta Operator, and a test director at the Airborne and Special Operations Test Board. He was one of the first guys to ever jump a full-size IMAX camera in freefall (on his belly on a tandem-type rig). He epitomizes the term "been there and done that". A generation older than me, he will be sorely missed by so many people in our community. Chuck Blue

"gored four inches into the GROIN!!"

Not a bad birthday, Bill!

Everything Cookie makes is fantastic.

My rigid is "chopper wired". I don't have any wires at all to the bars. I have a simple toggle switch mounted to the top of my coil bracket as an "ignition switch" which also turns on my headlight (high beam only). I have a push button mounted to the top of the same bracket, as well as on on the side of my starter, as my starter button. Brake light is activated off of a Goodridge banjo bolt switch on the back caliper.

Can I have your stand?

I have a few myself! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v400/onekick/Dodge/door013.jpg Simply excellent.