SkymonkeyONE

My choice is the Pro Dytter. It's a nice, three-tone audible that is easy to operate and has three distinctly different, quite loud tones. In my opinion a Pro Trac is a neat gadget, but doesn't suit any real purpose I care about above that of any other three-tone audible. Chuck

I totally agree that making jumps with the actual course director and those designated evaluators who will be working the course is VERY important. Training with an out-of-currency evaluator or just another AFF guy creates the great possiblilty of practicing wrong, out of sequence skydives. I am SO glad we payed for a pre-course and I was able to do full-speed practices with my CD. As far as partners go, I think it's great to practice with someone who will be attending with you. it is very likely you will end up with another partner at some point in the course, but it's a good start. Chuck

No man, you misread me. What I meant to intone was that anyone who saw that skanky ass video you and I are talking about will remember her HORRIBLY ugly pancake titties. My comment was that the money she spent on the new boobs was definitely well spent. She had the new boobs when she did the celebrity boxing thing with Paula Jones. Chuck

On that same note, there was a sort of collage page in this month's Skydiving from the world cup. Stuck in there, you will see a photo of Derek Thomas and Paul Rafferty. Raff is wearing his Skymonkey hat. They edited the photo to cut out Chris Talbert who was also wearing his Skymonkey hat. Chuck

I am seriously considering going down there with Johnny Mulford and organizing loads at that boogie. I will definitely have both my suits with me if I show up. Chuck

On the contrary, Tom. I will fly with anyone. I am not looking for cash or handouts from experienced wingsuit pilots either. I doubt I will be too busy after getting the first batch of new pilots off the ground. I plan on defraying the cost of my "fun" flights with what jump tickets I get from those first flight people. I am bringing both my GTi and my SkyFlyer, plus an assload of demo suits for people, assuming they get with me in a timely manner and the suits are available. Chuck

Nate hauled ass Wednesday evening, supposedly enroute to Shecky-do-da's to do laundry. He had not made it back to the MonkeyBago by the time I had to leave, so I skated. It is my understanding that he found some other people to eat with, but I will have to check with him today. I need to run back out to the airport anyway to fetch a tandem rig and the rest of our gear. Chuck

Hey Richard, she DID buy herself some nice fake boobs! Anyone who ever saw that video would agree that it was money well spent. Chuck

I am a very peculiar eater, not EVER eating anything that one might misconstrue as mayonaise, pickles, mushrooms, mustard, ketchup, etc, etc, etc. All I ate was bare turkey breast with salt and pepper on it, and bread-based dressing. I drank Coke and water; that's it folks. It may have been something from yesterday, but all I ate was a couple of plain turkey and cheese sandwiches on white bread. All I have to say is that I was VERY sick; barely making it home before I had to hit the toilet and then curl up in a ball on the couch. I still have a nagging belly ache, but I have lost the fever and light-headedness. Chuck

It's a simple mod, but as far as I know, unless your name is Howard Adams or Joe Bennett, you may be infringing on some sort of patent. I may be wrong, but hell, it's just as simple to send your main to one of them. Joe charged me $150 for mine and had it back to me before the weekend. Joe works at Skydive Monroe in Georgia and Howard is running a dropzone in north Florida; possibly the old Skydive Daytona. If you are overseas, A.J. Roque did his own and it may actually be a more thorough re-work. Chuck

I posted another thread in talkback, but the bottom line is that I was HORRIBLY sick all night long. I am nearly fully recovered, but I don't think I will be making the two hour drive to CSS.

I don't know where you could get a decent copy of any of them, other than maybe Para Gear. I have old copies of all of them, but they are very degraded from many hundreds of plays. Chuck

UGH! Katie, her mom, and I were driving back into town after having Thanksgiving dinner at one of her mom's old friends when I suddenly felt very ill. Not sure if it was food poisoning, some "24 hour bug" or what, but it kicked my fucking ass. Oh my god! You would not believe how bad I felt. I barely slept at all, running a high fever and having terrible stomach pains. I was running to the bathroom every half hour letting it fly; ugh! Thankfully, I managed to nearly fully recover by 10:00am and am now contemplating the rest of the day. Anyone else get bit by a virus yesterday? Chuck

That Skydive U rating won't count for anything if you don't already have a USPA instrutional rating. You must have at least a USPA coach ticket nowadays to attend the AFF course. Personally, you can have that S.U. junk. It won't make you a penny at most dropzones; only those with [laughing] official [/laughing] Skydive U franchises. Pay for real ratings, then go to work. Chuck AFF/SL/TM/BM Instructor

I just got back from Thanksgiving dinner and I am sad to report that I am sick as a dog! I am still planning on driving up to Louisburg tomorrow, assuming I don't barf all night long. Chuck

I spent about $250 on "shots for my friends" on a regular Tuesday afternoon/evening a few years ago. It was not uncommon for me to run up several-hundred dollar bar tabs four days a week back when I was running the streets hard. Thank god I lived through those days without getting a DUI or killing myself. Chuck

The Stiletto will surf farther naturally, but an inexperienced pilot will pound himself under one. Also, as previously stated, that Safire is actually placarded larger than it really is. Chuck

Ah, sounds like a typical, cheesy, Skydive U thing. [pakistani voice] "Please to be paying me all of your American dollars so that I can afford new tires for my Porsche." [/pakistani voice] Chuck

Did someone call me a post whore?

"I'm a man with a mission, a boy with a gun. I've got a picture in my pocket of the lucky one." -Vintage 1978 Devo lyrics

Agreed in principle Paul, yet my second paragraph does make sense as something every category of jumper could put to use. Chuckie

Like Wendy, I jump a lot of completely different gear, each for a different purpose. It is not uncommon at all for me to jump from a Sigma tandem main to my competition Cobalt 75, straight to a StarTrac1 for demo team practice. I also jump a 69.5 square foot Xaos as well as a Stiletto 120; the latter for when I want to jump something fun, yet legal out of GK airplanes for free. The bottom line here is that after every opening, I do my post-opening procedures and get the "feel" back for whatever I have over my head. I make some hard turns, some braked turns, practice my flare, fly in deep brakes for a bit, then I go on down and land my canopy using whatever style is dictated for what I aim to accomplish on the bottom end. Chuck

I agree with your comment.

Just to pound this home a bit more: There are two different things being discussed here; rear risering for survival in the absence of toggles or having a broken steering line; and swooping on rears. If you are landing on rears as a survival technique, do not worry that you are still hauling ass. Just make sure you are within close enough proximity to the ground as you are planing so that you can put down your landing gear (feet) and slide to a stop. Trying to run out a 30mph canopy plane is assinine. If you have winds and can get your canopy stopped, be happy. If not, then just be happy you lived through the landing without serious injury. Now, for swooping, yes, there are instances where people will complete their entire swoop on rears. This, of course is VERY rare. I will sometimes do it if I am doing a "dead man" swoop where I end up sliding in on my belly (on purpose). Typically, though, we will all transition to toggles to scrub off that last bit of speed without risking the violent stall that goes along with rear risering too long. Chuck

While your cables might seem a bit long when you first assemble your suit/rig combo, I have personally experienced many instances where the slack gets taken right up when you sit down and move around a bit. It is for this reason that I would hesitate to cut the cables. If, on the other hand, you have never had "cable creep" then you can seriously think about cutting them a bit. As Arlo stated, it's really not tough to cut the cables with a set of diagonal side cutters, then burn the ends to cover the exposed cable. I am very cognizant of "cable creep" now, having on several occasions taken notice of it right before exit. Check your cables prior to every exit. Also, check to make sure none of your tabs have pulled free from their seams. My roomate experienced a tab blowout at Rantoul this year. Chuck BM-I