SkymonkeyONE

To all: there are already volumes written in this forum about ways to get into swooping. ALL involve working on your turns at altitude prior to bringing your turns down to ground level. To reitterate some of what has been posted elsewhere in this forum: -one first starts out with 90 degree carving turns after figuring out what straight-in, double-fronts will do for you. Dump very high, then do a four second diving turn, starting at an easily recognizable spot on your alti. Once the turn is complete and you have released your riser, the canopy will follow it's own natural recovery arc. Once you feel yourself back "under" the canopy, check your alti again. The difference in those two altitudes is the altitude you ought to be making your final turn, assuming you make the exact same type of turn. Do this, and you will have a high probability of success. Try to work it out down low, on regular skydives, and you will find yourself both too high, then in the dirt on a regular basis. -180, 270, or whatever you choose, should all take nearly the exact same amount of time to perform. Slower and you will get no more velocity out of it on the bottom end; faster, and you will come out of the hole too high and look like a geek flying accross the ground at 20 feet. -All of this assumes a person is swooping along a predetermined path our course. One should aim for SOMETHING on every skydive. Those who throw wild turns with no apparent method to their madness will end up plowing into spectators or other skydivers. Plan your dive ALL THE WAY TO THE GROUND, then dive your plan. Chuck Your friendly neighborhood touring professional

BirdMan piggybacks are fun. Keeping both the pilot and passender squared off with the relative wind really helps things out on exit. I have found it best that the passender just sort of lay in the burble until the pilot has got horizontal with the ground. Then it's nothing to sit up and sort of drop your knees over the pilot's sides. Chuck

Novice birdmen don't really have much problem getting out a mile long. I have been on several skydives from the 14,000 foot range where we have made it back from three miles out, getting out upwind of course. Chuck

Likewise, the next TEAM SKYMONKEY canopy flight classes are open for reservationss. Unless you are world-class, save yourself some money and come EAST. PM me for more details. SM-1

Just a quick note to say that MY 8-way team, "8-up", kicked that ass and took the gold medal in 8-way speed. Those poor 82nd boys didn't know what hit them! Even in my absence, the pick-up monkeys kicked that GK ass. I say that because over half the "82nd" team are actually really assigned to the GKs. Can I get a big "skymonkeys rule the w0rld" ? chuckie

LAME

I must say that I am TERRIBLY disappointed. There have been absolutely ZERO responses to my post and only one real friend that has shown up to party with us: Eric Butts. All you DZ.commers that said you were up for it, more than a month ago, have failed me miserably. I have given you my address, room number, phone number, and yet you have still failed to show up for either the demo itself (downtown Houston) or the apres demo fiesta. Bottom line: What ails you people? Please don't say you are up for the fiesta and never show up again. I will PROMISE you that if you ever show up anywhere near me that I will not only put you up for free, but I will also hook you up completely with however freaky a crowd you desire. All I can say is this crowd is LAME,LAME, LAME. Thanks must go out to my old teammate Eric Butts and his old lady, plus Bryan Moffet. Each of them made their way downt0wn to the Hyatt Regency to party with me and my teammates. We have to leave at 7:00am tomorrow. If you missed us, then shame on you..................................Period Once again, for the slow learners: (910)273-6291. SkymonkeyONE

Well, they have flown over 30 free otter loads, as many Porter loads, and the 4-way meet went off without a hitch. They are doing 8-way speed today, but I am in Houston, so I am missing it. My 4-way team tied for second, but the silver went to some airforce test jumpers because they did better in the last round (which we funnelled completely and only scored a 5 on). Chuck

OK, here is the deal. We are all here in the Hyatt Regency, downtown Houston. I am in room 2531. I already gave my cellphone number, but haven't recieved any calls from any of you. Scared? Say scared! Seriously, it's only 4:33 PM and yall need to get on the ball. Don't MAKE us drink alone! Chuck

Well, the day is upon us. Myself, Johnny Mulford, and seven others will be flying into Houston airport at 1:57 PM today (Sunday). We have wheels waiting on us and will need about an hour to check into the hotel, but after that it's game on! Who among you has what it takes to keep up with the king of all skymonkeys? Let us eat, drink, and be merry tonight. I am calling Eric Butts in a minute to tell him the hookup plan. We are jumping in to the Veterans Day parade downtown tomorrow, partying again, then flying back to North Carolina on Tuesday morning. Anyone who plans on hooking up with us this evening should call me at (910) 273-6291 after 1:30 PM Texas time. Chuckie

Why yes, John, she has been here for a while, as a member of the 82nd club. We shall both see you tomorrow at the DZ. Chuckie

Betsy, this, of course, means that me and Katie will be needing semi-private accomodations. Hook a monkey UP! Chuck

Tom, I can't believe I failed to mention the apres skydive scene!

The person you responded to has well over the 300 jumps on the Cobalt he is talking about. Still, like he responded back to you, your rant is appropriate in all other ways. Thankfully, those "must immediately downsize" types are starting to realize that those of us on the canopy tour have primarily upsized this year and are jumping lower wingloads in competition. The marginally lower wingloads lend themselves better to longer distance and far better rear riser control and transitions. Chuck Team Atair 3130 jumps and a 2.2-2.3 wingload in case anyone was wondering.

Like Dave said. What I urge fledgeling up-jumpers to do on solo dives is just do something off the wall out the door, then recover and check out the scenery. I am especially fond of the old "jump out the door and grab your left foot" move, or just a regular old cannonball. Chuck

Dan, find you a place with a BM-I and some loaner suits and check it out for yourself. Of course you should FIRST read every thread in the wingsuit forum to get some ideas on what to expect. I own two suits and that is all I care to do on my "fun" jumps anymore. Chuck

I am going to start another thread in a second concerning zipper blowout and creep, but I would just like to respond to the one comment that was eluded to by Kim. If you have NOT zipper creep or blowout, you eventually will. I think it's just going to be a fact of life until we come up with a better zipper. My left arm on my GTi is a constant problem, so I remedied it by sewing velcro closures on both arms, right over the zipper end, down on the cuffs of both arms. When that didn't fix the creep totally, I replaced the zipper slide with a ring off a key ring and now run my velcro cuff lock through that ring. It only takes a fraction of a second to undo the velcro and it REALLY helps out. That cured problem number one. Problem two started some time later when the same zipper (left arm) would blow out about midway up in the middle of a dive. I couldn't figure it out at all, then I checked both zippers and discovered that the left arm zipper is different than the right arm and the two front zippers. The teeth are not nearly as heavy duty. Not sure how that came to be, but I am going to have to replace it with a heavier duty zipper sometime soon. It does not blow out often, but I can't risk that happening to one of my students, so I will do it as soon as possible. Another problem on the same suit arose when my roomate was jumping it at Rantoul. He had a sort of mid-suit/ wing junction blowout in mid-flight. The white tabs that one feeds the cutaway cables through to affix the wings pulled free on the wing side. We ended up running an additional seam accross the tops of all the tabs, reinforcing them and hopefully preventing this from happening in the future. It should be noted that we jump the shit out of that GTi. I sewed the same reinforcing seam on my SkyFlyer as a prophylaxis measure. My SkyFlyer does not exhibit any of those zipper creep problems, but I have been on a flight with a guy who had a catastrophic blowout soon after a CASA launch at CSS. He sucked it up and flew the suit all the way to standard pull altitude, but he was an experienced flyer and just worked through the problem. Bottom line here is that if your zippers are creeping or blowing out, then you need to fix the problem before it leads to something serious. Chuck Blue BM-I

Mikeal Stevens was jumping his 63 or 66 in competition, but jumped his 53 most of the rest of the time. T.J. got a wild hair up his ass and jumped the 53 just for shits and grins. Since he has become a chunky boy, lets just say that he was HAULING ASS under that main. Chuck

In case any of you servicemembers didn't know, this is black and gold weekend at Raeford. The GK's throw this meet annually as a sort of recruiting tool and general gesture of their goodwill toward "other than GK" military skydivers. The meet is comprised of 4-way sequential, 8-way speed RW, and accuracy. Jumps all weekend long are FREE to active duty, reservists, and guardsmen. Bring your ID card, a rig with a CYPRES (I am pretty sure they are mandatory at this meet), and beer money. Those not interested in competing can get free skydives plus coaching from members of the Golden Knights. If you are ANYWHERE near here by foot, car, train, or airline, you ought to come out and take advantage of it. Non-military folks can also take advantage of free organizing (but no free skydives, sorry), plus our school and regular jump operations will be in full effect. Chuck Blue D-12501 Raeford Parachute Center USASOC parachute team GB Sport Parachute Activity

Just a quick note to say that I have not been to either an Easter or Thanksgiving boogie at CSS where at least one day wasn't a complete wash. High winds, rain, or both have been the standard on at least Sunday, sometimes as early as Saturday afternoon. There is a LOT of room to camp at CSS and I have always been able to snake a power cord somewhere. If you have REAL overhead cover (like an RV), then you will be fine. If not, you may want to consider the hotel option. As for the skydiving, it's great. Lots of people to jump with and plenty of turbines to fall out of. There are generally a good crowd of vendors on hand also. Just my observations. Chuck

Nathan is alive and well. We just got back in from having a few coctails at Crazy D's. Chuck

I think the most bang for the buck I have gotten out of skydiving has been the purchase of my wingsuits. Best time spent/ best memories are from swoop meets. Chuck

That is why I wear an open helmet in all but the most frigid conditions. I am a complete villain when it comes to sneaking in kiss passes. Chuck

LeRoy is a young guy. He jumps here at Raeford and is a pretty good wingsuit pilot. Chuck

Jim, I didn't personally commit them to memory, but I finished tied for 8th, which is to say "not last". It was a hard meet. We ran two of the events downwind, no, actually crosswind, and the setup was pretty nuts for those who had not jumped there. As for the results, I am sure that they will be posted in short order on the team method website: www.team-method.com. Chuck