SkymonkeyONE

Anyone else bringing a mouthpiece?

Yes, he seems like a very personable guy! Making friends and influencing others as he sees fit. Chuck

Damn, Woman! My ticket is sitting in my car right NOW. You just have your party on when I get to Atlanta. Chuck

They keep falling like flies!

Where I am from, everything is "Coke". A typical exchange goes like this: "Want a Coke?" "Yeah." "What kind?" "Doctor Pepper!" Another similar, funny thing still sticks in my mind from a trip I took a long time ago to an out-of-town four wheel drive shop (to buy a new set of 44 inch TSL super swampers): Me and a buddy were sitting in this little hole-in-the-wall diner in bum-fuck, North Carolina (actually New London) and we are ordering food, waiting for the 4WD shop to open. I ask the waitress what kind of chips she has and she tells me (with a Marlboro hangin out the side of her mouth) "tater chips". I shit you not, I thought I was going to fall on the floor. Chuck

This has been a year of many ups and downs for me. Luckily, I ended up way on top as far as my personal life goes. I was a slacker and only made 360 jumps this year and I didn't make some of the boogies I was committed to, but oh well, I had fun. Chuck

Like Dave said! I will be doing quite little outside the DZ.com group (other than hanging with a few Eloy buddies like Craig Girrard and Tim Wagner). I am not going to Eloy for any other reason than to be around and skydive with my online family. I hate dirty, dusty dropzones, but will have the biggest smile on my face the entire time I am there. Chuck

I second the beer vote. I pay for neither skydives nor tunnel time, so the money is better spent on sustenance. Remember, there is food value in beer, but no beer value in food. Chuck

"The force is strong in this one, Obi Wan."

Yeah, Jason threw a couple of very stylish double-footers. I was totally surprised when he popped up and out on that one round; outstanding. When it comes to chow commitment, though, it has to be Morgan, hands down! That boy aint right. Chuck

Nice! I haven't read talkback in two days, so if you posted it there, I missed it. Anyway, that's great to hear. Chuckie

Wendy, are you going to be jumping again by then, or are you just going to party? Chuck

Another benefit of staying on base is getting to know the Special Forces guys that live, work, and jump there. To me, it's all about making connections and having them show you around to their favorite haunts. On another note, the Presidente beer their rules. Chuck

Before we retire for the night (not!), I just wanted to logon and say that nig-noggery is in FULL effect at the CoconutMonkey Lounge and Spa. Poor Tom and his roommate BOTH have to work in less than five hours, yet we continue to keep them up! Anyway, it's all goody in the hoody. Nathan, aka: assMonkey, is asleep in the MonkeyBago. He did not make it the 300 yards to Tom's house. Needless to say, he missed out on all the festivities. Check that: he missed out on part of the festivities. Good night to all, and to all a good night Carlos Azul Maestro de tiempo e espacia.

Steve, you are KILLING me! BWAHAHAHA!

Nathan has some STINKY-ass footses! I seriously don't let him keep his shoes in the MonkeyBago anymore! Me and Nathan sit around and drink lots and lots of cock-a-tillios and sing the "ass monkey" song when the weather is bad. Billy Bob was getting pretty rank too, so I had Nathan take a shower with him. Now, he's all better too. Billy Bob is such a good dog. Chuckie

Simply outstanding........

After thinking about it for a bit, here is what I would do in my skyflyer if there was no way I could avoid a water landing: UNZIP out of the wings, making sure the zippers are ALL the way up to the stops. You are not getting out of the suit unless you unzip the arms, so pulling your arm cutaways first would be counterproductive in my mind. UNZIP all the way out of your legs also, then ball your leg wing up and stick it in your vent hole (SkyFlyer specific). UNDO your cheststrap completely, then UNZIP both front zippers completely down, letting the center fabric portion just drape down between your legs. From there, you should be able to flare, being prepared to do a PLF if the water is shallow. Once you are in the water, lay forward out of your harness and arms. Next, reach down with both hands and loosen your legstraps enough to swim forward and free of the suit and harness. I have made quite a few intentional water jumps in the past 20 years, both freefall square (and round) and SL round. Keeping a cool head is the key to making it out of your gear. I am not sure how much of this sequence a low-pulling BASE jumper could get through prior to water entry, but I would say that the most important parts are getting your arms unzipped completely, then unzipping both main zippers in order to gain access to your legstraps. Chuck BM-I

BWAHAHAHA! Well, the Xmas lights are up around the MonkeyBago and they are holding up well so far. Nathan and I ran to town earlier to stock up on booze, so I guess that means he won't be getting off his ass till we run out. Actually, his smelly-foot ass is going to try skysurfing tomorrow or Sunday, weather permitting. It's supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow, but windy, so we will see. Time for another COCK-A-TILIO! Chuck

The problem with SL/direct-bagging a canopy is that unless you are written down as the "last out" in your group of four (the standard competition pass), you can't just dump out the door. Opening altitude is sorted out by wingload, with the highest wingloaded person going out first and burning it down, this in order to set up a nice stack. Dump high and crowd the people after you and you hose them completely. I have experienced this several times in competition; having someone pulling high, then dicking around with their bag, then hanging in brakes causing a rejump for myself and the guy behind me. Sometimes we make concessions for these people, but when the aircraft also has fun jumpers or students aboard, we will get out in groups of four in climbing passes. If you are out last on a pass that gets out at 5500 and you dump right out the door, then the first guy out on the next pass will likely burn it right past you to the pre-declared pull altitude. This, of course, REALLY fucks things up. That has happened at at least two meets I was at in the past year. Personally, I prefer the "throw-away" d-bag and pilot chute that Dan talked about earlier. You can dump where you are supposed to, then if you can find the d-bag/PC, great. If not, then so what. You really only need it in Distance and possibly Speed runs anyway. Chuck

OK, back to the top since time is getting near. What I need to know from each and every one of you who are interested in the class is your physical dimensions (as requested in the first post) and your REAL intent to do this. I am going to call down to Kim in the next few days and try and lay the suits on. Chuck

HOLY SHIT! I logoff for 12 for the night and magically, this thread has gained two and a half pages of nonsense! What's up with the mutiny? They are falling like FLIES, Betsy! That's OK; less than two weeks till meltdown! Chuckie

lots of photoshopping going on in picture 1.

Thanks, Bill. I got my rating from Paul Rafferty and if HE doesn't PRO pack, then I sure as hell won't ever. He will also not use tube stoes. Anyway, to answer your question, Dave: I can get the job done in ten minutes if I don't bullshit. I have jumped PRO packed tandems and have had both crisp and slow openings, but the thought of having a line-over makes me nuts; thus my propensity for packing my own tandems when given the chance. I am one of those people that has a very hard time accepting the fact that malfunctions are just a way of life. This is totally false. I have one friend with TWELVE tandem reserve rides due to "packers" hooking him up with line-overs. This at Elberta, then Skydive Las Vegas. I asked him why he hadn't killed the packer and he said that it had happened so often that he got sort of fond of reserve rides! Unbelievable...... As previously stated: I will take that 90 degree out-of-the-bag opening anytime. On heading should not mean anything to a tandem master opening at 5000 feet in clean air. Chuck

Narcimund, there are all-inclusives there, but for the most part there are just nice hotels there with a great view of the ocean. There are hotels just as nice on at least three of the streets that go perpendicular from the Malecon. I can't for the life of me remember the names of any of them, but the one I usually stayed in was straight across the street from the Wendy's restaurant and right next to the University, across from the national theater. Those would be my choices if I chose to stay downtown, but if you wanted to stay at the beach you have hundreds more options and like I said earlier, it's only 10-15 minutes to the beach. Chuck