SkymonkeyONE

I was jumping an orange (blue diamonds, stabilizers and ribs) H-mod Cobalt 75. At least five of my swoops are shown. Two carves, one raft accuracy, one freestyle/canopy expression, and something else towards the front. That was a great meet, fatality not withstanding. Other than Lisa's tragic incident, there were no other serious injuries. A couple of people bruised tailbones on the distance runs; one guy twisted an ankle pretty good. Other than that, a few people quit after they realized that they were woefully unprepared and chowed heavily. The PSN is a very specialized swoop event. It is the one complete competition where one MUST contact the water on every run. Highest points are awarded there for longest distance covered with their foot or feet in contact with the water. It is very different than other meets; sort of like NASCAR guys on road courses. Some people who do well on tour do very poorly at the PSN. Others do well there, but have a hard time negotiating blades. The ones who are truly great excell at both. I was very happy with my placing at that meet, even though I chowed once. The dude swooping under the entrance sign is Kamuran "Sonic" Bayrasli. He is a good motherfucker, a fantastic swooper, and I consider him one of my best friends on the tour. Chuck

Amish Boy says "you better pack a lunch!" Actually, Matt knows that he has your ProDytter and says he has no intention to return it since you up and deserted Raeford. He also says that he is going to sell your car to his lowrider buddies for parts! Chuck

Agreed. I thought the solid black BASE pantz were really smacky-booty. Kim, PM or call me when Jari tells you what I owe you for my S3. Chuckie

LeRoy was out here on the DZ all day today, Kim. I am sure he will see your post as soon as he gets back home. You can generally get him on weekends using my cell number (which you have) or the number here at Raeford: (910) 904-0000 Chuckie

See, now that makes absolutely zero sense. College graduates that don't go ahead and take a commision are out of their minds. This, of course, assuming one is comfortable be accountable for other people's actions. Strike what I said a second ago: Nathan ought to enlist and get some direction. Not sure about those other services, but enlisting with a college degree means you enter at grade E4. You DID mention to them that you had a degree, didn't you Nathan?????? Chuck "a hippy retiree"

Knock on wood....I have never been cited for DUI (or DWI; whatever you call it where you live). I do have, on the other hand, one friend who has been popped four times in the past two years. Here, the limit is .08, and that ain't shit. It is for that reason that you will VERY rarely catch me off the DZ on a weekend. No reason whatsoever to skate when you have a bar as nice as ours right on the premesis. Chuck

Yes, I am sure they have a big following in Germany and the like. I read some time ago about the accuracy competitions they had. Hell, they would build these skydiver models which were very realistic and drop them from under the wings of RC aircraft. Next, they fly the parachutist in for accuracy landings. It looks fun. With that 21, I would build a dude that would wingload that rascal at about 1.8, then swoop ponds with it. THAT would be outstanding to see. Of course, chow once and you would probably fry the electrics. Chuck

Your two photo or picture types for saving on the internet are GIF and JPG. Generally, one saves drawings and the like as GIF's and photo's as JPeGs. Open any photo editor or draw program and then resize your picture. Next, save it as a JPG and see how big the file ends up. If it's still too big, generally you can "dumb" it down. Chuck

Reaford is due west of Fayetteville NC about 20 miles (if that). The border to the greater Fort Bragg training area is less than one mile north as the crow flies. Chuck

How long can you hold your breath, Che?

If Jake doesn't stop referring to himself in the third person I am likely to stick his head in a toilet. Better yet, I will hold him underwater in the hot tub till he stops moving. Chuck

Yeah. T.J. does it a fair amount of the time.

Unbelievable. If you don't think that the ISP is in effect, then you better recheck your A-license proficiency cards. They mirror the ISP. Think what you want, but if you think any person out there who has only completed an outdated 7-level AFF program and does not yet have a completed A-card is going to be able to travel anywhere but their home DZ and skydive, you are sadly mistaken. In order to get signed off on about 1/3 of the stuff on your A-card, you are required to be supervised by at least a USPA coach. That being said, one must expect that their "student" training is going to encompass more "paid" skydives than just what the dropzone advertises as their "complete AFF package" or whatever SL, tandem, or hybrid system they use. A respectable dropzone school will have systems in place to take the student all the way through the A-license. This, of course, means packing classes, rig maintenance, and all the other little blocks which must be completed prior to obtaining that license. Stamp someones A-card before he or she can pack, spot, undo then reassemble a 3-ring, or replace a closing loop and YOU ARE ONE SORRY MOTHERFUCKER. It is our duty as instructors to run professional and COMPLETE programs. It is also our duty to make sure that a potential student understands the TOTAL cost of obtaining that A-license. Make no mistake: until you have an A-license, you are a student. All that said, yes Jess, you ought to get that USPA Coach rating. If you didn't already have a very-experienced mentor to guide you along the way to capable instruction, then you may want to take that SDU program. I am not a fan of the program, but others really like it. For the most part, though, they come from dropzones with SDU campuses and are sort of forced into taking the course in order to work for the school. Whatever. I come from the old school where we bring up our own and abide by what the USPA tells us. Chuck Blue D-12501 AFF, SL, TM, BM-I Manager, Raeford Parachute Center School

No no no!! Betsy is a "rock n roll ballerina"

it is not bolted down, but it would be VERY hard to move a hot tub that large. Scott Scheck's dog, Bruno, was in there for at least an hour last night. I stayed till I got wrinkly, then hauled ass back to the MonkeyBago. Chuckie

My boy Josh is correct on all counts. There are plenty of very experienced pilots who instruct for a living that OUGHT to be running courses. There are also, unfortunatly, plenty of young monkey lips out there who have neither the skill nor the teaching experience to be teaching shit, but who have mastered self promotion to the point that people will pay them just to drink a beer with them; very unfortunate. I am sure Derek will run a fantastic course. You can also be assured that I run a good course. On the other hand, I can't understand for the life of me why anyone would pay a cent to learn from someone who finished next to last at the PSN. Just my opinion as someone who finished 18th out of 81 at that meet. Chuck

Me? Wings, hands down every time. If I ever buy another container it will be a Wings with cut-in laterals and all the wingsuit mods. Affordable, great looking, good customer service. Chuck

His e-mail is jimcazer@aol.com Jim is one of my dad's best friends in the world. Chuck

C-130, Herc Boogie. Inboard engines (numbers 2 and 3) obscured by jumpers. Chuck

Both Billy Bob (my dog) and Kitty (my cat) love me deeply. They are great pets. Kitty sleeps on the bed every night and Billy Bob has his own bed. Katie's cat Raccoon is a great pet also. She sleeps on my chest when I am there. Chuck

I treated Joe and his Hitler Youth partner Adolph Wolfgang (call me "wolfman") to the typical Skymonkey hospitality. Needless to say, I got them fucked up like a soup sandwich. I think they will do well at Raeford. Chuck

0:10:0 all work, no play.

around here, we call those "8-way grips", as that is what a lot of the teams use for their exit frame. Having your hand inside the legstrap on a person who is jumping a tiny main might cause you to pull a legstrap uneven, so the outside grips you mention prevent that. They are also fantastic to have on your student rigs that you do AFF with. It really helps prevent the student from grabbing the main-side jumpmaster's wrist mount during practice pulls and at "real" pull time. Chuck

You are talking about Craig Girard. He would throw his turn right at the beer line and the bleachers, then carve hard 90 degrees right on his rear risers while dragging a foot to keep his body facing the crowd. At the very end of it he sort of "un-flips" and skids to a stop right next to the mockups. It is equally impressive over a pond, I can promise you. Others do the same thing; swooping to a complete stop on their rears. What you fail to mention, though, is that none of them were doing this on a main smaller than a 107. The smaller the main, the more difficult it is to "finish" your swoop on only rears. I can do it all day long on my staff rig (Stilleto 107), but always transfer to toggles to finish it off on my personal rigs (Velocity 75 and 79). Chuck

How I figure out how far I need to let mine out is pretty simple. In full flight, with my toggles in my hands of course, I pull down my front risers towards my chest. If you can't pull them all the way to your chest without deflecting the tail and causing porpoising, then they are too tight. This, of course, assuming one wants to do riser dives. If you can't get them all the way to your chest, look up at the tail as you are pulling them down and see what point the control lines become taut. Look at where your hands are then in relation to your chest, then use that as a guage of how far the brakes need to be let out. Generally, I won't let them out more than three inches at a time. Be advised, though, that the amount you let out will be that much less you will have at the end of your flare. If you were finishing your flare around tit level then this isn't a problem. Chuck