SkymonkeyONE

The boogie before that (at CSS), she and one of her fellow sophisticates (also named Stacy) completely took over my RV! I wasn't there, so my old roommate Scott took it up there for the boogie. They displaced him in no time flat! Chuck

I, as one who first put the term into standard usage, will allow stacy the BH#1 number. The very fist time I saw her she was rolling around on the ground next to a fire with her legs behind her head. No, she was not wrassling. She WAS drunk, though! Chuck

The deal here at Raeford is $30 (unless I am mistaken) to video and $5 more if you dub. We have a well laid-out mixing room here. Everyone on the dropzone is paid by the month over the table and taxed, all legal. Chuck

What you are talking there is what we here call "tandem progression AFF". Me, Paul Rafferty, and a host of others use that method to contract train government agencies under one of our LLC's. Paul's is "Total Skydiving", I am "Performance Skydiving." We do mercenary skydive instruction at dropzones that do not charge us a "student fee" for teaching out of their planes. Chuck

Nope, you wouldn't want to get man-boobs like Clayton Fowler, esquire. Wait a minute: he had those when he was in the airforce......Oh, never mind. Just playing, my monkey brother.

You guys can have keep that 25 mph crap. Unless I have a fat tandem passenger, that amount of wind means it's time for a coctail. I have plenty of wind proficiency jumps, thank you very much. Chuck

Like I said, the line forms behind me.

Yep, if it were not for my incredibly fast metabolism, I would certainly be a complete pig by now. I have not done any organized PT in over 4 years. I am still in great shape, though, from all the work I do on the DZ. Terminal Leave commences on 26 January. That is all. Azul sends

The line forms right behind me. Chuck

I watched the entire open class meet last weekend on video. The gap between the top two teams and everyone else was phenomenal. Talk about flying on every axis! The footage is amazing and the transitions of both Arizona and Alchemy were flawless. I was told that Alchemy practiced their routine 100 times in the week leading up to the meet.. No video debrief, nothing, just back to back jumping until it was completely wired. The blind moves that the top two teams made were incredible. Chuck

While I like Reggie, he blew me off completely at two meets last year (plus would not return e-mail or phone calls) when I tried to buy six blades from him. This at his attrocious $200 per unit price for the two large blades I had to have. Thanks, but I needed them this century, and I can deal with the "bad karma". I more than turn that around with the 15 years of free instruction I have given back to the sport. Chuck

No, we don't "require" anything of the sort. I do tell people that it is wise to spend the money on a tandem, though, before they commit to spending all that money on AFF or SL progression. It's best to find out right away if you even like freefall from altitude. I have had more than a few SL students make it all the way to 30 second delays (actually 60 seconds out of an Otter here at Raeford) before they figured out that freefall was just not their bag. That being said, if someone shows up on the dropzone and says they want to "skydive", I ask them if they are just out for a joy ride or are they seriously considering jumping as a hobby. If it's a one-time thing, I will try and talk them into just doing a tandem. If they are intent on skydiving, I will ask them if they are committed to getting it done quickly, or are they going to just show up once a month and squeek through. If it's the latter, I will try and get them to do a tandem first, before they find out they are wasting their time. The bottom line here is that while I really enjoy teaching, I hate to waste my time and that of barely-committed students. Now, some dropzones have hybrid training methods that use tandems as the first skydiving introduction. If that isn't your bag, then just find another, more liberal dropzone with multiple training methods. Here at Raeford we offer straight ISP-based AFF and SL. The military clubs here still offer seven-level AFF and standard SL progression. Chuck AFF,Tandem,SL-I

Steve, you are talking about something completely different. Modern (since people starting doing CRW anyway) cross-connectors connect the front and rear risers on each side. The only purpose they are used for is hooking your feet in "plane" configurations. Without them, it's very possible for the top man to pull your slider back up your lines if he applies brakes, etc. Chuck

I do not set my brakes while I am standing out in the middle of the landing area because I would rather deal with it all inside the nice, airconditioned packing room at the school. I am very peculiar about my brakes, so setting them out on the DZ with the rig over my shoulders would just have me standing around in the sun getting sweaty longer than I care to be. As for "always" doing anything, that is just a matter of having a set procedure for everything you do. I don't forget to cock my pilot chute because it's so ingrained. Likewise, I have a certain time I deal with my brakes (actually twice). Chuck

I can personally attest to the speed of the CC 65.

Agreed. I should have stated that my main container is taller off my back than it is long. That is to say, it's tiny (98 XRS Jav, 2001 Odyssey RS). Still, I pack everything that way now, up to and including my StarTrac 1 demo rig. Chuck

While it's great that the SkySlut has been able to live through a very-abbreviated "cutaway", I would absolutely not consider it until I already had ever rating one needed to really make it on a dropzone, which is to say every rating. If all you have it one rating, then you will definitely find yourself short. The smartest people are the ones that are also pilots, or even wiser, A&P's. Flying jumpers is certainly not the glory job some make it out to be. Most dropzone pilots make far less than the active tandem bitches and vidiots; not to mention the packers (highest paid employees on my dropzone). I guess my point is that while full-timing it may seem very glamourous, it is generally a meager existence. Yoshi would do well to curb that pent up energy for a bit, if only a year, and wait till he has the "major" ratings. Chuck

:12:0 It was a nice weekend at Raeford. Well, I should start by saying I actually jumped every day this week, so the second number should be 16. Friday morning I spent four hours in the wind tunnel doing verticals and knee flying. Saturday night, we had a kick-ass SKA/Ragae band that had seven members. I can't remember the last time I had such a relaxing night. The NSL regional playoff was here this weekend, so there were some old friends around, plus some people who had never been here. Saturday night, we all got run out of the bar at closing time and just kept drinking out next to the horseshoe pit. Gene Paul and Miss Billie were there until after 3 am. Chuck

Reggie Eastaugh makes the "real" airblades, but several others make a fine replica. Personally, I got mine from E.G. SkySystems. Edgardo operates out of Sky's the Limit in Newton, New Jersey (unless he has recently moved). I paid $60 a piece for my 12 footers, which is MUCH cheaper than Reggie's. Several other people also make them, including Joey Costa down at Thomaston (at least he did when his team was jumping at CSS). Chuck

"knock, knock, knock" Can I come in? Chuckie

I do not set my brakes until I am back in the building and have my rig laid down. I do, though, generally un-cock my slider and pull it back over my toggles before I move off the field. chuck

Grommet up, facing the closing pin. Absolutely no drawbacks whatsoever in my considerable experience. Chuck

Like John said, the Packaho's at Raeford get $5 for a sport or student main and $10 for a tandem. Tipping is not in the Raeford vernacular. Pack somebody a mal and expect to get your ass kicked around here (and probably fired). Luckily, the two full-time indians we have here do a good job and, believe me, get paid more than anyone else on the dropzone. There are very few people that use them (only the freeflyers who are all very lazy), but they also work contract for the Golden Knights during the week, so they are set. Most folks around here pack for themselves, me included (except when I am absolutely swamped). We had an NSL meet here this weekend and Bobby packed 85 the first day and 70 the second day; he did good. Chuck

Ted, I competed in two meets last year with a CYPRES still in my rig and it was not harmed when I came up short and my rig got wet. It must be noted that the device was not turned on, but I don't think it would have really mattered. The rig was totally submerged at two meets (round 1 PPPB accuracy June 2001, plus raft accuracy at the PSN) and the only thing that really got wet (other than the outside of the container) was the reserve freebag. I jumped the rest of the meet, then fired the reserve, took out and wiped off the CYPRES, then flew my reserve dry before repacking it. No big deal in a competition pond since you can stand right up. Chuck

More tunnel talk: There are about to be quite a few tunnel built, each better than what currently exists both in the civilian and military world. For those of you who didn't know it, the Elsinore VS-1 tunnel will be built by the same people who built our Fort Bragg tunnel. Needless to say, it will rock. I think it will be great to get some tunnels out on the left coast and up north like is being discussed. As for me, I will certainly agree that the tunnel is a phenomenal tool. I wish every student had the opportunity to get their shit straight in one before I had to drag his or her ass out on that Cat A (or D#1) AFF. True, it would not help me out with their exits, but man, it sure would keep down the number of Missouri Boat Rides. It's also a tremendous Instructor training tool. The fact that I get to do a lot of RW in there is great too, but there are plenty of things that you can get away with in freefall that you can't do in the tunnel (and vice versa) without substantially changing your flying style to avoid sinking out or corking within the confines of the cone. The bottom line is that while the tunnel is a fantastic tool, it can create some bad habits. I have well over 200 hours in the Bragg tunnel and consider myself very fortunate as such. Still, I sure am glad I didn't have to pay for it! I can't imagine how some of these people can afford to buy big blocks of time in the civilian tunnels. Chuck