SkymonkeyONE

Jill is the name of the girl we were talking about.

What about me???

Ryan Scarlett at Z-hills is bigger than you and has two or three suits; one of which is a Phantom. He now jumps a Ghost, but fucking KILLS IT in his old phantom. I have never seen such a big guy fly so hard and fast in such a small suit. Chuck

Ah, the same guy who used to incessantly post on wreck-dot... Sad.

me likey!

You got it, Kris. Good memory. We all jumped together at WFFC in like 2003.

Trainler park......LOCK! See you Saturday, Negro!

I agree with Bryan's post. Another thing: the great majority of us pull or push out on our rears; we don't pull them down. Pulling down on your rears is counter-productive to a clean transition to toggles. When you pull down on rears, then release them to transfer, you get a "bump" in your flight which not only shortens your swoop, but also causes the canopy lose rigidity for a moment. If you pull or push your rears outward the transition to toggles is seamless. When you release your rears you just basically leave your hands in the same spot and the slack automatically gets taken back up in your brakelines and you don't get that "bump" during the transfer. I hope this makes sense. Chuck

Are you talking about Jon's sister?

Actually, the purpose of the closing was two-fold: for NEK to acquire an entire, ready-made aircraft fleet for contracting purposes, and to acquire a jump-ready training facility for military freefall training. The company, NEK, is looking for other turbine aircraft certified for military use as well. I have made a ton of jumps at CSS over the years, but will not fault Paul and Nancy for taking the deal and putting some much-earned money in their pockets for their many-years of work they have put into the sport and their operation. How many of you remember jumping there when there was only a D-18 Beech and a Cessna 182? How about before the old building burned down? Man, I AM getting old! Anyone wanting to talk the military/contracting side of this can feel free to PM me with your questions. I contract for the company that bought the DZ. Chuck

The Hog Flop is typically the following weekend. Odd.

I can talk to others in flight in a wingsuit if I holler. Seriously. The first time I ever encountered it was in Deland when Kim Griffin flew over next to me and said "you go, Chuckie Blue!" It really surprised me! Chuck

I am just sitting here looking out the window on a rainy day and thought I would go through these old threads and read what was written about my deceased friends. This one hit me incredibly hard. Paul and I were best friends and I miss him terribly. We got into a lot of shit together. His RV was parked right next to mine at Raeford for a time. He gave me my tandem rating. Lastly, I stood by his bed for the last five days of his life in the burn ward at Temple University Medical Center in Philly, along with Stephan Lipp and Paul's family. When Paul finally died, me, Stephan, Frick, and Will got hammered at a seedy bar on Broad Street near the hospital. And I do mean HAMMERED! I, after this horrible passing, then walked right down the middle of the street back toward the hospital and then took a swing, as hard as I could, at a huge guy leading the pack of about ten other huge guys on rice rockets. I missed, they calmly pulled over (and did not remove their helmets), and then they kicked the living shit out of me and Frick. I suffered four broken ribs and deserved it totally. There was no point other than needing to actually "feel" the pain of Paul's loss. It was a dark, dark time. If there is but one lesson to be learned from this very-tragic death of a world-class skydiver, father, friend, it is this: DO NOT EVER, EVER "FIRE WALK!" Paul's death was utterly pointless and completely avoidable. I, at every opportunity, attempt to stop drunken people from doing this at boogies. I have seen at least three other people fall into fires and get badly burned at boogies since Paul's death and I just shake my head. When I am feeling really pissed off about it, I show people the photo I took of Paul in his hospital bed at that burn unit. It is utterly sobering. It took me over a month to get the smell of that burn ward out of my body. Everytime I sneezed or coughed you could smell death. It was horrible. I miss you, Brother! BSBD! Chuck Blue

You got that right, brother. Him, Beezy, Chris, and all of my other recently-departed friends I used to routinely drunk-dial or see at boogies. Chuck

It sucks to be so reasonably-close to Gardiner right now, but unable to attend. I fly back home from Canada (a work trip) on the 4th and won't be able to make it even with the push-back date. I haven't made the trip to the PSN since 2005, but man, I LOVE that meet! Chuck

I positively agree with everything Phil said in his post. Chuck

I am still not positive which event I am going to attend. I can't take time away from the dz for both events and I certainly don't want to hang out in Vegas with the likes of YOU and spend a ton of money during the lull between events. It's going to be a hard call. Chuck

I don't understand this. There will be no slack in the brake lines. The canopy PULLS them up...no slack to get tangled in other lines. That's sort of accurate, at least in most cases. For example, on both of my sport canopies the brake lines are let out very long and the excess loops out back behind the canopy in full flight. The only tension on the toggles in full flight is because of the drag to the rear created by the airspeed. The tail of my canopy in no way pulls "up" on my toggles. Even on "non-swoop" canopy setups, the brake lines should not be pulling down on the tail of the canopy at all during full flight. Chuck

Or you can look me up at Skydive City and I can train you independently with my personal student gear..... Chuck Blue, D-12501 AFF/SL/TM-I, PRO, S&TA

Then you have never been in my wingsuit school in Z-hills and seen the big photo of Jeff Nebelkopf with his eyes "redded out" from an out of control spin. That is all, Chuck

I jump a Neptune 2 and it has always worked great for me. I jumped (and logged) with the original Neptune before that. Chuck

So very true

The Phantom2 is a tremendous improvement over the original in my opinion. I have jumped both of them quite a lot and the difference is night and day. The inflation on the "2" is fantastic and If have not been able to make it flap in any flight mode. Backflying is where it really shines, though. The rear inflation slats are located at, and below the elbows so the arm wings stay inflated no matter how far you sit up (to video behind you) or how flat on your back you are. It's a tremendous suit and we have five of them on the rack in my school to demo. It's positively my favorite PF suit. Chuck Z-Flock Wingsuit School

We are jumping the Turbine Caribou right now! Come on out. It's a fantastic plane. Me and Matt Wells just did the first wingsuit jump (ever) out of it. Case of beer! Chuck

Agreed. They are fantastic suits, but need to be flown with the legs fully spread to avoid flapping. The Phantom2 does not really need this, as it is inflated in a completely different manner. Mine is rock solid, front and rear. Chuck