SkymonkeyONE

Back the fuck up!

My question to the original poster would be: "are you off of student status?" If not, then you need to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Cut grass, wash cars, scrub toilets, whatever. If you drag student status out too long, you start to think it's always going to be that way, which is to say "expensive" and "not too fun". If you are off of student status and have a license, then feel free to spread your free time in any fashion you see fit. Still you must jump enough to stay safe and current or you will never get on any good skydives and will then fall back into that "this is not fun" slump. Personally, if I don't make at least ten skydives a week I feel like I am missing out. I still have other comitments outside skydiving, but keep my primary focus on jumping and being around other jumpers. As far as being able to afford skydiving at a young age, we have six guys 19 years old or younger who pay their own way on the DZ by packing, coaching, or being a "yard bird". Two of our 19 year olds have over 400 jumps apiece and have been jumping since they were 16. Not bad for weekend-only jumpers who go to HS or college every day. Chuck

Pierced nipples are pretty common around here; both male and female. No, mine aren't.

United States Army Special Operations Command

I guess I did sort of misquote and will edit the original post to reflect that. We do all our formations in the "plane" or fully down to the cross-connector configuration because it is our experience that they are less prone to turbulence and . As far as using the top or "ankle hooking" dude in a standard "stack" configuration, I am sure that works fine on highly pressurized CRW-specific mains, but with our demo mains (StarTrac 1 and 2's) I have found that the "middle" guy's main wants to distort because all the pressure is just on the center two CRW lines. I have seen the main sort of bowtie and stop flying in that configuration, only being held aloft by the top person or people. That being said, we have never had a main snag on the top guy after he dropped the downplane from a "planed" configuration. I don't doubt for a second that you have done your version with "other than real CRW mains", though, so it's certainly worth trying some day. Anyway, that's why we do it that way. That, by the way, is the SOP that the Golden Knights demonstration teams use. The team leader of the USASOC parachute team I am currently on is Johnny Mulford. His last job was as Gold Demonstration Team Leader on the GK's. We have a great time teaching the new guys CRW. Being back on a demo team made me remember how much I had missed CRW over the last decade. Chuckie

No hay de que.

Uh, Wendy, was that your FIRST post as a GREENIE? I will take some cheap beer, please. Congratulations. Chuck

Since there was discussion on show-type CRW going on, I thought I would post a lesson on drag planes. I am pretty sure most of you have seen the pictures of CRW formations with one jumper spun around upside down and sort of flying inverted underneath and wondered "how in the hell do you get out of that thing?" In reality, it's pretty simple, but it's definitely not something that weaklings need to be doing. Anyway, here is how we do it: Build at least a tri-plane (that's normally all we do it with on our team, but you can technically do them with larger stacks though there really isn't any point in our show application. Once the tri-plane or taller vertical formation is built, the top guy pilots the formation around until the first transition altitude (about 2000 feet, sometimes slightly lower for us). As you approach the show line from the side (better viewing), the top guy makes VERY certain that his ankles are FIRMLY seated under the cross connectors of the center person; you can't do pendullums from a "plane" configuration without at least the center person having cross connectors. About 30 seconds is all you can expect the middle guy to be able to hold the bottom guy upside down, so that is about how far out from directly over show-center that you want the bottom two men to commence downplane transition moves. Read the "downplane" thread for the best way to do that. The only difference here is that when the "bottom/rear/pilot" guy throws his move, he will pull the right toggle briskly until such a time that he is directly under the other two people. When the move is thrown, the stack will lay forward, but will remain more flying "forward" than down. Now, you would think that there would be big trouble if the middle man dropped the inverted person prior to the second transition, but I have never seen that be the case. Yes, the lines will go slack, but I have never heard of a person actually falling into his or her own main. It works sort of like a McConkey Flip if the bottom, inverted guy gets dropped prematurely. Anyway, in a successful drag plane, the top guy still drives the formation, knowing that in this configuration the rate of descent increases noticably and the forward glide is hampered. That being said, if the initial move was thrown only about 30 seconds out from being straight overhead, you should be ready to do the second transition right over the target. When directly overhead, the top jumper "drops" the downplane by simply unhooking his ankles and forcing his or her head well forward so as to avoid being caught as the middle parachute goes whipping past his rig. Once "dropped", the middle and inverted person's formation turns cleanly into a downplane and those two people break off that formation at their DZ's hard-deck or team SOP. Once dropped, the pilot of the downplane, who was formerly the inverted person, steers the downplane so that they are sideways to the crowd line. On break-off, they either split the target or the "dirt" guy picks up the target prior to their landing. The original top guy, or remaining members of the larger formation are then free to land individually or as a stacked unit. We don't land larger than a three-stack ever. End of lesson On my first pendullum, I was the inverted guy. When we made the second transition it was still working perfectly. On the break from the downplane at 300 feet, my boy Johnny Mulford (the "grips" guy in the downplane) ended up stripping the sole off my shoe! It was pretty damn funny. Chuck

T.J. is alive and kicking, jumping on Team Method with Nate and Steve-O at ASC in Atlanta. They winter in Pahokee. T.J. is one very-funny dude. Chuck

"Sit on my face, Stevie Nicks" by the Rotters.

Mark needs to get his priorities in order. Chuck

Easy Mac. I really need to cook something decent, but am feeling very lazy at the moment. I need to write out some bills too, but just don't feel like doing anything. Chuck

As I stated earlier, the way I have done it for about 15 years is as follows: Build a two-stack and fly it around for a while. Once you get low enough to make a good showing (the whole point in demos), fly the formation over the top of the landing area or show site. On our demo team, we normally transition at between 2000 and 1500 feet. Once nearly straight overhead, bottom man reaches up and grabs the feet of the top guy as he grabs the lines and unhooks his feet from under your slider or cross-connectors. Top guy lowers himself down by the lines low enough that the bottom guy can grab the backs of the top guy's legstraps. This will put the "top" guy right in front of the "bottom" guy. From there, once the bottom guy has the legstrap grips, the top guy releases the lines and prepares to "catch" the legs of the bottom guy. Bottom guy says "left leg" and kicks his left left leg up between the legs of the "front" guy. "Front" guy leans forward in the harness and grabs that left leg and pulls the person's leg into his chest. Next, the "back" (formerly "bottom") guy says "right leg" and kicks it up and under, crossing the legs at about the calve muscle. Top guy pulls both legs up high and grips very tightly across the the chest. The front guy has not had his toggles in his hands, obviously, since he maneuvered the stack straight overhead. Next, "rear" guy says "taking it down!" and leans back, takes his toggles in his hands, then pulls the right toggle briskly until both mains are directly opposite one another. Once the "grips" (formerly "front") guy feels his partner's legs "untwist", he immediately wraps his legs around the other persons; this helps immensely in being able to keep it together for extended periods. The "rear" guy now turns the downplane so that it is pointed left and right of the show-line or whatever spectators you choose to impress. Having canopies flying "towards and away" from the crowd is not the hot ticket for several reasons: a) when you finally break it off, one person will be aimed straight at people (bad); and b) it looks more spectacular to see two canopies sort of "bomb-burst" left and right after the break. Anway, different dropzones have different rules, but my team's SOP for breakoff is 300 feet AGL. Realize that this is with REAL demo parachutes (StarTrac 1 and 2's). The SOP at most dropzones I have been to is 500 feet minimum and that is plenty low to make people go "ooh, ah". It is imperative that the guy with the grips keep tight hold and wrap his legs around the "pilot" upon rotation. Poor grips and you will not be able to hold the formation for more than a few seconds, even if you are a stud. On "break", the grip man simply releases, then immediately takes control of his toggles. On show site, when we do a downplane, both participants just split the target or land in the general area. Actually, normally, we will roll the target up before the CRW guys land, so the crowd doesn't think they were aiming at the X. Chuck

That is how I always do downplanes. So long as the top guy gets a good high and tight grip then wraps his legs also once it's turned, you can hold it for a very long time. Chuck

You know, I jumped nearly 20 years without an AAD of any sort. You could "what if" this to death, but in the end, if you don't have confidence in your own ability and the airworthiness of your gear then you probably ought not be skydiving. The sport has inherent risks that will not go away no matter how safe you think you are. I see no reason whatsoever that you shouldn't go ahead and jump that rig. Chuck

I have never experienced any "problem" with hop and pops under an elliptical. Just make sure you pull with your shoulders square to the wind. Chuck

Nice one

It was two of them about midway up on the wing side. The tabs, if not cut to the correct length, will only be caught by one pass of the sewing machine. This was what was up on that suit. I subsequently checked all the rest of them and found it in my best interest to run another couple of passes slightly closer to the outside; it's pretty bulletproof now. Chuck

Generally, I zip into my legs, feet in the booties, as soon as I get seated if the airplane is full. If it's a light load, I will leave my leg wing undone and stuffed in the center air channel (on my SkyFlyer) or snapped up to the sides of my suit (on my GTi). I would absolutely not pull the LQRS on my SkyFlyer if I were already zipped in. As reported earlier, the LQRS only releases one leg, leaving the mass of the leg wing attached to the other leg. In freefall, this would be a bad situation probably resulting in a freaky spin. The LQRS was designed so that a person could more easily kick out of line twists. Pulling the handle give you your full range of leg motion to throw a leg and untwist. Arms? If I were zipped in I would just do a poised exit and dump. Which parachute I used would depend on altitude. Anything below about 2000 feet, I would go for my reserve. Above that, I would just fly away for about five seconds and then dump my main. I have seen wing blowouts where people have cut their arms away and seen others where the pilot simply flew dirty until pull time if he still had a margin of control. Chuck

Key West, FL on business; very unfortunate. My roommate Josh was there as my proxy. I believe he showed you that a couple of the thread-throughs on the wing of my GTi had pulled out on an 11-way flock. This year has been an almost total wash for me as far as boogies and competition goes.

OH YEAH! The pepper spray incident was VERY funny. I watched the whole thing. Cop number one tries to break up fight; cop number one is having a hard time; cop number two comes to help and maces the offenders. Mace gets sucked into the swamp cooler and sprays everyone sitting on the bench! It was beautiful watching them scatter. Yes, the game was a route. The one long run-back that the Redskins scored on was good though.

Nah Mark, we were wearing our flight suits after the jump. That made us easily recognizable targets to the hordes of people in the club suites who kept buying us free beer. We did jump in our team jumpsuits with Redskins jerseys over the top (which we of course got to keep). Chuckie

All I have to say is: six guys on target. I landed last with the american flag and the crowd went NUTS! They all started chanting "USA, USA, USA". Weather for the practice drop at 3pm was a tad on the "wet" side, but we did it anyway. At jump time, there was still some residual rain on the ground, but the skies had cleared. Winds were 7 knots and variable at jump altitude (2,500 feet, all the clearance we could get), 4 knots at the lip of the stadium, and dead calm in the bowl. The first man hit the ground at the exact start of the National Anthem and I came into view (into the lip) right near the end and touched down right dead on the indian head emblem at center field. NOICE! These guys really treated us right. Six $800 tickets in the front row, ten tickets in the upper suite of the club level (VERY nice in there), and field passes. Our dirt guys stored the box and target in the cheerleaders dressing room between drops and were therefore forced to go in there and fetch the stuff about a half hour before the game. Naked chearleaders everywhere.....lovely. Anyway, too bad they didn't televise it; it was a perfect show. Also too bad I was too busy boozing it up at the game to see Micheles gig. Oh well, I am sure it will get played again. Chuck

Holy shit.

Anyway, the GK's will be back home, here in Raeford, very soon. I can't wait to slap my buddy Chris Talbert on the back and congratulate him on a job well done. Chuck