SkymonkeyONE

I had the most fun out there on the three jumps we did with the Frenchies on Friday, didn't you? Fun stuff.

OB deserves a gold medal for his camera flying then. Seriously. He definitly had the hardest job on those jumps. Perhaps you should hook him up with one of those "unavailable to the public yet" Stealths so he can take even better pics? Chuck

The ONLY caveat to my original post way back then concerns suits with one-piece (neck to feet) zippers such as Tony Suits and S-Flys: Tony Suits: Unzip arms fully, undo chest strap and then zip DOWN the main zippers all the way to the feet and then kick your feet out. Once you touch the water lean forward out of your harness, loosen your legstraps, and swim free of the rig/suit. Fly Your Body (S-Fly): Pull your central, secondary arm release to release your arms instead of unzipping. Reason? The handle will have to be out of the way to get out of the suit anyway and pulling the handle releases the arms along the same axis as the arm zippers. Next, completely undo your chest strap. Next, unzip both main zippers all the way DOWN and kick your legs out of the booties. Lastly, as with all other suits, upon water entry lean forward out of the harness, loosen your legstraps and swim free of the rig/suit. I have all brands of suits at my school and I have put a LOT of thought into these procedures. Be prepared for every situation! Rehearse these procedures EVERY time you might possibly have to use them. Chuck Blue

Hmmm ... I cut them down on my Phantom II so they only go around my thumb. I only ever put them around my thumbs as well. Chuck

The only thing that irks me about those jumps is the fact that Jim Slaton let out a "press release" on facebook and several other media venues saying that those suits were "specially purpose-built and not-yet available to the public". Total bullshit and that kind of stuff ought to piss you and, particularly, Robi off. Also, aren't they technically four-way formations with three wingsuits and one parachute? What was O.B. Jumping? His camera suit or a wingsuit? Chuck

The huge mural at Head's is still there! The bar is now called The Hawg Pound and it's twice as large. When they enlarged the bar they had to cut out some of the lower portions of the mural, but rest is intact. There is also an 8x10 photo of the original mural hanging on the wall in the bar. Chuck

CX-7 or CX-12 Sony. I think we have like ten people here on the DZ jumping them. Hell, we have four in my teamroom!

I will agree with Dave on this one, at least in a general sense. If you don't have perfectly manicured grass at the end of your swoop pond, then you are definitely going to lose skin with "manpris". When I was an active competitor I think the ONLY times I ever jumped in swoop shorts was at the Panama City and Wildwood Beach events. Beach sand is easy and you normally just stop when you land. Sliding out distance landings on the side of your legs on the busted-up gravel and dirt at Perris, though, is an entirely different thing. MX pants with stirrups (so they don't slide up when you pile in) are absolutely mandatory in my book at places like that. Bomber makes nice swoop shorts for "fun" swooping. Mine are like five years old now. Chuck

I agree. Excellent post. Please pick a fight with me or Campos.

It looks just like any other P2, only slightly scaled up on the armwing, like for a larger person.

Yes, it was an excellent weekend. There were actually 8 people trained that during the Turkey Boogie.

It must be very close to the ghost, no? If I judge by the overlay ? Why not go for a Ghost in the first place, which feel like a souped up Phantom right from sthe start ? No, my suit is only slightly bigger than my first Phantom2. The shape is still "pure". I don't need a Ghost. I have a ton of larger suits on the rack in my school for times when I need a bigger wing.

Is that accurate, Greg? 3rd in the world? Not bad for a fat boy that used to be worked like a slave by Buddy Blue

My personal Phantom2 has a longer wing-root than stock also because that's the way I ordered it. My first Phantom2 was about 2" short and had the same size wing as our "magic" green original Phantom. Since Robi had to cut a new one, I asked him to scale up the arm wings a bit. It's phenomenal and perfect in every way. Definitely my default everyday wingsuit. I still have bigger suits for task-specific duties that require it, but I have found very, very little reason to every disconnect my Phantom2. Seriously. By comparison to my original Phantom and my first Phantom2, my personal suit is one "tab" longer and maybe 10% larger in the surface area total. Chuck

Z-Hills for sure. Our season is in full swing and we are flocking our asses off. Want to demo something? I have over 30 suits on the rack. Want to jump with more than one or two great wingsuiters? Come on down. We kill it here. Chuck

among one of the finest reasons I never even bother to check this forum anymore. Bravo.

Are you saying that at this particular dropzone (Orange) they are mere passengers? I see you live in Alexandria. Is this your home dropzone and you know this is the attitude or management? That would seem strange to me. After all this is the home of the USPA ISP. I positively concur with Gary on this one. NONE of my students (whether AFF/TM/or SL) are considered "Passengers". As a rated tandem instructor you are supposed to show your students what handle does what and they are supposed to have a visible altimeter. I ask EVERY single one of my tandem students if they would like to deploy the parachute and I put the toggles in the hands of all except the most-reluctant students down to 1000 feet so that they can fully appreciate the skydive and the dynamic of flying the parachute. It sounds like the original poster jumps at a tandem mill. Too bad for the students. Ultimately, the more of the actual process you let a tandem student participate in, the better a chance your dropzone will have in retaining that person as a freefall student. Chuck Blue Performance Skydiving/Z-Flock Wingsuit School D-12501, AFF/SL/TM-I, PRO, S&TA

my answers: Mike: "Hey, you wanna do a rodeo?" the girl: "Beat it, fool"

Well, thanks at least to the whopping TWO first flight students who bothered to take advantage of my free FFC's. Amazingly, there was only one other person who demoed any of the 20 suits I brought with me. Very disappointing. On a better note though, the Palatka BirdCage is very squared away.

Likewise, I have practiced AFF drills in the tunnel almost every single time I have been in the cone. It is an invaluable tool for practicing spin stops, maintaining proximity, and roll-over drills. Chuck

That's true, but I don't know anyone jumping HD in handcam right now to judge how easy it is to pull stills off like I can on my PC 109. FWIW, I jump a CX7 HD camera on top of my helmet and a 109 on the side. I have two handcam gloves for my PC 109's.

In my opinion, the PIA is one of those "must attend" events. It's the one place where you can mix and mingle with positively everyone of consequence in the sport/industry. There is simply nothing better than being able to talk face-to-face with the designers and manufacturers. This will be my fourth in a row. It does not hurt that the entire trip will be written off as a business expense either. Chuck

I packed up exactly 20 wingsuits for the trip. Big shit, small shit, medium-sized shit. Something for everyone. Looks like I am going to now pull out of Z-hills at 0800 tomorrow morning. That puts me at Kay Larkin at 1040 in the morning. Chuck

I am packing up about 20 suits today to take to the boogie. I am bringing Tony Suit stuff, PF stuff, Fly Your Body stuff, and BirdMan stuff. Come one, come all. The boogie starts tomorrow (Friday), and there will be a Skyvan there on Saturday and Sunday. I plan on putting together some challenging flocks. Chuck

People DO know how to throw down at Raeford.