SkymonkeyONE

Well, if nothing else, this means that I will be at Richmond for the duration. Nothing in the way at work at all during that time frame.

Just call over there. They will tell you the deal, but obviously you are going to have to take the lens off before you do anything.

I found out this afternoon at work that my leave was cancelled for all next week. Too many people out of the shop means that I have to hold my seat down with my ass all week while my family and friends are skydiving at the WFFC. I am very ill. Anyway, my roommate is out at Raeford picking up all our gear for our proposed 6:00am Saturday departure. Looks like he will be making the trip alone. I have already instructed him on where to locate all of you, so keep an eye out for him. His name is Josh Seagrave, but around here he is known as "SeaMonkey". He will either be wearing his SEAMONKEY hat or his Cobalt hat. He will be in possession of a red and white BirdMan GTi and plans on getting very stupid for the entire duration. He lurks here, but does not post, so give him a good indoctrination. He will be jumping the orange and blue Cobalt 85 that I was flying on the back of Parachutist magazine, so if you see him, say hello. Sorry kids, Chuckie

Given those two choices, and the desire to stay an active skydiver without any six-month interuptions, you ought to look into the airforce. While I have nothing against people who choose the navy as a carreer, the great majority of regular navy personnel work horrible schedules. Not gonna get any skydiving done out on float in the Med, that's for sure. Chuck

My 20th year highschool reunion is that weekend, so I am not going to be able to make it this year. Anyway, I recommend camping on the dropzone. If you just aren't up to roughing it, then there are a couple of hotels in New Paltz, right on the NY state throughway, about ten minutes from the DZ. The PSN is a killer event; I am completely bummed to be missing it. Chuck

In my 20 years of service I have seen quite a bit of the good and the bad. I was lucky enough to pass all the challenging courses that were available to a young thrill-seeker and thus ended up in a very rewarding carreer field. The service has taken me all around the world several times and while some of the trips were truly lame, the great majority of them were fantastic. While the initial pay on the enlisted side is low, it is more than you need to get by on. I went in to the service with a dude that was 31 years old. Hell, there was an article in the paper about some pro football player that just quit the NFL and joined the army to become a Ranger. There is a guy here in the Q-course with a PhD and was a history professor at Dartmouth. He decided he wanted to be an action guy, so he enlisted in the army as an E4 and is now an E5 in the course. Bottom line is age and experience will get you through the tough times much easier than the "kids". Also, having a good head on your shoulders will get you promoted faster. The army paid for every cent of my college education and if I had wanted to, I could have went to OCS a decade ago. Not my bag, but I don't have any opinion one way or another about the people who choose to stand on the other side of the line, so long as they don't act big headed or think they actually have anything on me; they do not. As far as people talking crap about military officers, NCO's, or any other rank or branch; that's just juvenile. What you do at work has absolutely no bearing on how you act out of uniform. I skydive at a very military-populated dropzone and we absolutely do not tollerate the rank/caste system. If you can't funtion on a first name basis, then you will be shunned. We don't care where you work, where you went to school, or who you know so long as you can skydive. As cool as you may think you are, there are plenty of cooler people on Raeford DZ, they just don't run their mouths or toot their own horns. I belive SlotPerfect and CoconutMonkey will attest to that. Chuck

In a wingsuit jump, your bridle trails off nearly straight behind your feet, not straight off your back as in a regular jump. Rotating the bag forward (like normal) means that your bag has to do a half flip before it leaves the container. This causes it to flop unneccessarily during deployments and leads to line twists. When jumping a wingsuit, it is CRITICAL that you have a clean, non-spinning opening, especially under a small elliptical. Leaving the bag lines down toward the backpad with the grommet towards your closing pin gives you the cleanest snatch, thus provides better openings. That, plus the fact that the smallest rigs have main containers that favor the "straight in" placement of the D-bag; at least both of mine do. Chuck

I own two houses in town, but stay in our RV at the dropzone all weekend, even though it's only 22 miles from home. I am all about the apres skydive experience, so it would be nuts to go home after skydiving. My RV stays plugged up at the DZ all the time, except when I am road tripping in it. Chuck

We absolutely will not put a full-face helmet on a student. We want to have unrestricted vision, but most importantly, we need them to be able to hear their radios and other people hollering at them. Chuck

Tom, you are KILLING me!

Let me tell you about odd situations: My dad operates his dropzone off of Moton Field. Anyone know what or where that is? Well, it's the actual home of the Tuskeegee airmen. Tuskeegee University is three miles from the dropzone, yet there is VERY rarely any business from there. The black-only flying club (N.A.I.) that operates there gets plenty of business, but as far back as I can remember, there may have been two pilots and two more black skydivers who worked at or jumped at the dropzone. Auburn University is ten minutes down the road and he gets plenty of business from there (without advertising), so I don't know what the deal is. I believe it comes down to the same old thing: people get truly involved in activities because they have buddies that do it and enjoy it. As previously stated, there are plenty of black jumpers at Raeford. Man, I don't care if you are yellow, purple, or green; come on out and jump! Chuck

Chuck Sims is a fantastic dude. I have known him since 1985; we both "came up" in the GBSPC on Fort Bragg. I guess he is still plugging away on the committee as well as out at Sommerton, isn't he?

Kelli is correct; riser length makes a big difference in the "feel" and flare of your parachute. I jump very short risers, but don't need to flare all the way, so they are fine for me. The longer toggle stroke afforded by longer risers is fine, so long as you can reach that slider. Still, if you don't touch your slider, then even that doesn't matter. Chuck

I have got to say that I have had some outstanding times all over the state of Texas. I lived in Dallas, Fort Worth AND Arlington when I was a kid. Nothing like being within walking distance to six flag as a second grader! As a grown man I have criss-crossed the state many times on business. I have partied on the river walk in SA, and taken down drug smugglers in Laredo (actually the Falcon Reservoir); both terribly fun. I have been pulled over by the cops for running 90mph just south of Dumas and have shot up roadsigns in El Paso while doing jumpmaster checks out of a rental van. My only bitch about Texas is that it takes FOREVER to drive across. Chuck

If anyone sees Karna Luchsinger there, tell her hello for me.

Luis, it says on your profile that you jump a rig with a 181 reserve. Is that an indicator of how large you are? If you are a big guy (as I would imagine, with that size reserve), and you are jumping a Crossfire 149 (a high performance eliptical) with only 350 skydives, then don't you fall into the catagory you are chastising? Nobody of consequence here on the forums preaches that it is good practice to downsize too rapidly or jump extreme performance mains before they have sufficient experience. True, there are people that are going to do what they want no matter what anyone else says, but they are the exception. Ten years ago, the main you are currently jumping would have been considered "extreme" for even a small guy. No way would anyone with under 500 jumps been able to purchase one from a reputable dealer. It is not uncommon at all for people to buy a 170 straight off student status now. Anyway, the purpose of my post was to see at what wingload you are jumping that Crossfire. Chuck

We did a thread a bit over a year ago where we all posted sattelite photos of our dropzones. Anyone interested can do a search and I am sure you will find it. Chuck

I wanted to end the "hijacking" of the Infinity thread and get this topic its own, so here it is: I have two tiny rigs, and run into the "do I rotate or not" situation. While it might be "technically" correct to rotate the bag, it's aesthetically and functionally better for me NOT to do so in my application. You see, the main container is taller off my back (by about an inch) than it is long from the reserve tray to the bottom flap. I never rotate the bag on my Odyssey; just stick it straight in with the grommet sticking up. This packs very cleanly and provides a clean snatch for my nine-foot wingsuit bridle. My older XRS has a D-bag that is slightly shorter top to bottom, so it rotates easier. I rotate it sometimes, and sometimes I don't, depending on what I am doing on that dive. I never rotate the bag on a wingsuit jump. Either way, my closing loop and packing style make for a clean appearance. Chuck

The original poster did not ask how to do anything. He asked what was the farthest around anyone was doing carving surfs. As far as teaching people how to do "deadly" things, that is what this forum is designed to prevent. Armed with the proper information, a skydiver has a much easier time learning new techniques. We all know that skydiving is dangerous to start with; we also know that "hook turns" kill. That being said, the best way to prevent injuries is a good education and common sense. This forum is a good place to get some of that education; I can't help with the common sense. Chuck Blue

Rest of your life? I don't think so. As a 23 year old, you could start and finish TWO separate 20 year careers before retirement time. Personally, I don't think any young man has any business worrying about kids, family etc. Hell, most aren't NEARLY grown until at least age 30. I tell you what; strap yourself down that young and you are just throwing your youth away. When I was 23 years old, I had already been to five Central and South American countries, and seven European ones. My only concerns were "where am I going to party tonight" and "wonder how many skydives I am gonna get FOR FREE this weekend? At 23 years old, you can write your own ticket. As for the "government tool" statement, that's a bunch of crap. Chuck

I don't think Strong makes any more "hawks" other than the Dual Hawk Tandem, but I may be mistaken. The Quasar 2 is their current sport and training rig offering. The old sport rig before that was the Mini Hawk.

Need direction? Join the military. Not some candy-ass MOS either; I am talking about action guy jobs. There is a lot to see and do out there in the world. I can't imagine being only 23 years old and worrying about stuff like is concerning you. Chuck Chuck

Ask and ye shall receive.

Barry Wed sent me that picture this morning. Nice.

Like Jack said, there is absolutely nothing connected to the "rank" other than the amount of time you have available to post. You will see very experienced skydivers with "newbie" and "enthusiast" rankings, and others who are barely off student status with over 1000 posts. That title doesn't mean anything, but generally the people who post here a lot have already physically met others in the forums. It's sort of a large, loosely-knit family, much as many internet chat rooms become. I have personally met at least 20 people who post here fairly regularly. Then again, I have been skydiving over 21 years. Chuck