SkymonkeyONE

Looks like that same old worn out and faded pink set of DaKines. That boy ain't right!

Jason is exactly correct here. Each one of us flies our canopy in a different manner. Hell, I fly each of my personal mains differently since they both fly differently in front risers and have subtlely different "bottom ends". Also, what I prefer as my setup may not work for you at all. Jason is also correct in that competition techniques vary wildly from person to person, and even from event to event by the same person. The turns that would have gotten you to the podium two years ago will not get you in the top 15 this year. Chuck

I look forward to my much-anticipated retirement from the service. I have some nice plans; none of them involve ever having to punch a time card.

Nathan, if you are lucky (like me), you will have one of your dropzone.com brothers or sisters host your freshman effort on their site for free (thanks Seth). I actually got paid to learn HTML because they needed someone to take control of our unit's page. The course I took was an online-based one month course with two modules per week. It was simple, had great online instructor support, and only cost the unit like $50. Thing is, you can easily find the same teaching material all over the internet, as is evidenced in the many previous responses to your original post. Making a webpage is very simple using a WYSIWIG editor, but as was also stated in this thread, it can lead to some VERY dirty code. Without a base knowledge of HTML, you will never be able to un-fuck your shit if it ever goes awry. Man, I tell you what, I sure am glad that I took that course. I really like messing around with it now. Speaking of that, I really need to update my site with some new stuff! Chuck

Anyone else here eat scabs?

Not to take the thread too far off topic, but since Kris and a couple of others mentioned it, there are some people jumping all varieties of odd drag-reducing stuff on tour. Personally, I don't think I would be doing what Perry is up to, but if it works, heh, good for him. One other noteworthy but quesitionable method is Sonic's removable slider. When it comes down after the canopy opening, he simply pulls a line and all four corners come undone and he puts the slider down his shirt or jumpsuit. Problem is, the corner openings drag on the lines on the way down and he has to fight to get it down. I am not sure if he still uses that. As far as cleaning up the top of your main for competition purposes, I like Troy Ketsdever's plan the best: "throw away" pilot chutes and d-bags. Hey, jump out, dump, and not care if your PC d-bag combo gets found or not. I have an almost endless supply of non-collapsible PC's laying around and I can sew a bag in 10 minutes. Typically, the people who use stuff like this only use them in "distance" competitions anyway, so it's not like you ever have to make more than two or three. Actually, I am not sure Troy ever lost a single one of his bags at Perris last year, either meet. Someone always fetched them for him. OK, back on target: blast handles looked very stylish, but if you pulled in any direction other than straight along the line of the channel, you were hosed. I find it odd that a lot of the bail-out rigs you see on military aircraft still have them. Chuck

It would be less hassle to just install a new mudflap, but you can just pick out the stitching to get rid of it until you get a chance to either send the container off or get a local rigger to make you a new flap. Either way, no big deal. Chuck

Eric was wingloading that 95 at over 3:1 in gear. He put the first jumps on that prototype. It opened very hard and the brakes were WAY too long, but my monkey brother still decided to land that canopy on the first run, rear risers only. It had very heavy front riser pressure, low rear riser pressure and tons of lift and glide. After playing with the control lines and putting some more jumps on it, he sent it to Bryan. Bryan then had it and put some jumps on it at his more-manageable wingload. Notes were taken, trim was discussed, additional refinement planned, and now, after Dan gets a chance, the second canopy will get sent to me. I really wasn't interested in playing with the first canopy, knowing that there were about to be many changes to the second prototype. As soon as Dan gets it to me, I will wring it out at various wingloads, play with the trim and control lines if need be, then report back to the bat cave. Chuck swoop monkey

Hey Chile, did you keep the contents of that blister to use as a soup base? Yummy!

Listen, I jumped Stilettos for six years (107 and 97) and NEVER once had to chop a spinner. I weigh 155 pounds, so we are the same size. I had my 97 get two turns on me one time and it dove me hard, but I was able to easily kick out of it. So long as you have secure brakes, decent (straight) packing, and a good body positon at pull, you won't have a problem with a Stilleto. Chuck

My brother Eric rules. Last year he finished the PPPB season ranked 10th overall. Anyone who makes that seminar can feel free to ask him about our many escapades. Chuck

Enough. Keep the thread on target: discussion on the Velocity. Take the back-biting to PM.

This person absolutlely does not need to be jumping anything loaded at 1.5 with that limited experience. I find myself having to be the bad guy fairly often on my DZ when it comes to canopy flight infractions. Likewise, my friend Stephen Lee has to do the same when some kid in student gear walks up to the mockup and proclaims that he is going to do some head-down. The problem is, today's skydivers just have to get instant gratification. Very few want to "pay their dues" and work at it in a common sensical manner. Back in the day, the great majority of jumpers were perfectly happy jumping 223 square foot canopies that you could do anything with (the Pegasus). When smaller stuff came out, only the very-fringe of the sport was interested, seeing as how the very-best skydivers and competitors were still jumping larger, reliable gear. People called you an idiot and made fun of you if you jumped small mains, saying you were just asking for trouble. Decades later, the truth is revealed: we have a lot of trouble with people piling in under too-small mains. Young jumpers need only look at the incident reports on this site, and those in Parachutist to see the truth. You see, it's certainly not only low-time jumpers getting hurt, it's generally the people they look up to: the cool freefly guy or RW competitor. Guys who have all the airskills they need, but for one reason or another, did not "stay ahead" of their canopy. All that being said, I try my best to educate the jumpers on our dropzone in the "do's and don'ts. Still, there will always be that guy out there who sneaks by and somehow manages to get away with jumping a too-small canopy. When they biff a landing, they always have an excuse. In the end, it's up to the DZO or S&TA to tighten that guy up, but it's everyone's responsibility to police our own. Chuck Blue D-12501

Hey Baxter, good to hear from you. Do you sit up after you throw, or do you stay in a track until you are snatched up? Do you pack with the grommet to the pin like Dan and I (and Jari, etc, etc) do, or are you still rotating your bag? As far as the pilot chute thing goes, both Dan and I use small ZP pilot chutes with no problem in our wingsuit flying. Chuck

That's nuts, but I like the offshore boat better. They showed a boat on ESPN2 or TNN a while back during a break in an offshore race. Chuck

They used to host a big ass boogie and competition in Bali. Just like Copenhagen, you can get mushroom omelettes in the cafes. Yes, those kind of mushrooms. Chuck

Dude, unless you saw the first couple of seasons, then you missed the REAL cool shit. It is a joint German/Canadian sci-fi show that is TRULY trippy and has a lot of nakedness in other-than-USA areas. The first season was shown here in the USA on Showtime Extreme on heavy rotation. It was outstanding. The subsequent seasons barely made it onto US TV, but eventually the second season was shown, heavilly edited, on the Sci-Fi network. Overseas it is shown uncut and is pretty damn racy. I think it's a cool show and I am pissed that you can't get it in it's proper form anywhere in the USA. I was told they were selling DVD's of it overseas. I would pay for that. Chuck

I tell my students I don't want them doing any turns more than about 90 degrees below 300 feet unless it is to avoid hitting an immovable object. Flat turns are fine down to the point where you need to let your parachute fly in order to land safely. Still, large student canopies can be flown and landed in pretty deep brakes and even in flat turns without any ill consequences. Problem is, most students are too amped up at low altitudes because that is when they first notice how fast they are actually travelling. It is for that reason that we preach not to make any radical turns below 500 feet, etc. It is also for that reason that we have our students practice PLF's in case they MUST land in a flat turn to avoid an oncoming car or a building. Do you follow me? Chuck

Ugh! I can't begin to remember the number of times I have seen it happen; unfortunate. Where's the pic?

The highest paid person at the RPC school is Bobby Pritchard, a 19 year old dude who packs for the GK's during the week as well as the school on the weekend. He is a righteous BirdMan pilot and a pretty good skysurfer as well as all around jumper. He has more money than he knows what to do with. Chuck

Exactly. X=crossed arms behind back; O=the round shape of the mouth you kiss with. You always hear "hugs and kisses" and you always see it written as "XO", never "OX".

Whuffo you assin all dem queshions?

Nope, that was in the new demo team one. The "beef jerkey" frappie is blue with orange ribs. Old blue rotten leather tastes like chicken!

How old and skanky would you like it to be? I have one that I bought new over 15 years ago that has the entire front leather rotten off of it. I sometimes pull little strips off and chew on it, like beef jerkey. No amount of zig-zagging will close the gap now, so it sort of inflates in freefall; very stylish. Anyway, I still wear it on occasion for when I want to swoop sans headgear. I also wear a "meat helmet" when jumping with the demo team. Here, it is SOP that our tandem passengers wear a frap hat and we are required to wear a helmet at least one degree safer; my mindwarp fits the bill for that. Azul sends