SkymonkeyONE

Junior Skymonkeys are meant to be seen and not heard. Send me your number and I will call you while I am there, Clay. Later, brother! Chuck King of all Skymonkeys

Of note here is the fact that we will be trying to logon using our web-capable phones as a modem and our lappie with webcam. Those of you that are coming out, call me when you get there: cell= (910) 273-6291 and we will hook up. Chuck

Screw it, we are doing it RIGHT! Nobody to share gas with, but me and the wife are taking the RV. We are leaving here at about 7pm and driving straight through (18 hours). Science is on our side, so it ought not be a problem. See you other monkeys there! Chuck

Pam, unless you are paying for one of the RV hookup slots (which are most definitely full by this time), then you will not have any electric hookup other than what you bring. Generators are OK, and yes, you can park near your tent. Nowadays, we park our RV's on the closed runway on the left as you go in and run our on-board generators. Fuck paying the $200+ for the hookups. Chuck

Go see Eddie Spears as soon as you get there. Look on the Quincy WFFC flyer in Parachutist and you will see where his tent is. It is labeled "R.E. Spears, Inc". Eddie runs the Auger Inn paraloft at Raeford and will be there for the duration. Chuck Chuck

I met Stacy and Froggie (Kelly) at the CSS Easter Boogie, but didn't know they were "forum people" until after the fact. I knew Clay the entire time he was here at Raeford and the GB Club and taught him the Skymonkey ways before he un-assed to Georgia and the corporate machine. I COULD have met plenty of you at Perris in June at the swoop meet, but nobody came forward and identified themselves to me even after I repeatedly posted that I would be there at the meet. What a bunch of shit-birds!

But of course! That is the main reason I am going, other than getting shit-faced with my Dad and the other Alabama Gang guys I only get to see a couple of times a year. FYI: the actual swoop meet is on the morning of the 11th AT DAYBREAK. It is four rounds of what we call the "speed" event. Official practice, though, is all day on the 10th. Registration, etc, is on the 9th. I think me and Caven Warren (if he makes it) will be the only two Team Atair guys in the meet. Chuck

My primary rig is a new Javelin Odyssey(pre-PIA symposium!) RS (terribly small, fully articulated and with triple mini-risers); Tempo 120 reserve; Cobalt 75 main (also an 85. both are matching orange and blue, of course); and a cypres that I remove when I compete in pond swoop meets. This is the righteous little black with orange/blue stripes Jav that was shown in the "who's baby is it" a while back. It has "Skymonkey One" on the mudflap. Chuck Edited by SkymonkeyONE on 8/2/01 09:28 AM.

Pam, that means that you guys will only catch the tail end of the party. At least you will be there to see the swoop meet! Where are yall staying anyway? Camping and RV life is the standard. Screw leaving the airport. See yall there, Chuck

You must not have been there at the last meet at Perris when Brigitte Liss did so well in the intermediate class UNDER A SPECTRE. I think she got 9th. Chuck

Fayetteville is what you make of it. I have been here since 1984 and can't complain. I am five minutes from water skiing, 20 minutes from a righteous DZ, 100 miles from Myrtle Beach, and four hours from the mountains and skiing. I am also right on I-95 and all thus close to everything on the East Coast. True, the average Joe just sits around and bitches about it for three years then moves out smartly, but those of us "homesteaders" find the good in it. While people joke about this place, most of the people in my line of work and who I skydive with make their most important friends and contacts here. While I do not plan on retiring in North Carolina, I will have a very hard time leaving Raeford. None of this has any bearing on the topic of my post, though, does it? You people need to find someone to ride with me to Quincy, damnit!

I would dump high, swoop the freebag out of the sky, then land in the landing area next to my buddy that did the intentional cutaway. Chuck

In my experience (20 years worth), there has to be a definite proactive means to each skydive. Levelidity drills are very important. You absolutely must be able to control your distance from another person. Formation skydiving really helps with that. Another thing that really helped me early on was jumping a camera. Video work really forces you to be in the right place. If you are not, then the video sucks. Most good video guys have cat-like reflexes and are dead on the money, no matter what they are filming. The ones that chose to do so end up making very good coaches and Instructors as they are conditioned to react to others' movements. Filming freestyle and skysurfing offers the most challenges because of the constant fall-rate changes. Maybe start by "shadowing" a video man. Besides that, good old-fashioned 2-way drills with another experienced jumper will get you ready to deal with those students who are commonly all over the sky. Chuck Blue D-12501, I-2001

Not that any other "regulars" are from anywhere near here, but I am hoping that one of you "lurkers" out there would be interested in splitting gas with my wife and I in our RV from Fayetteville, NC to Quincy. We plan on leaving this Friday night or Saturday morning and staying until after the completion of the PPPB swoop competition on the 11th. We intend to drive straight through, both ways if possible. I MUST be back here on the 12th, because I fly to Key West again on the 13th. Interested? Call my cell: (910)273-6291. Also, if you are along the way (we are going I-40 over to I-77N to I-64, etc) we could pick you up. Chuck Blue

I just calculated my gas cost for the trip and unless I can get a couple of people to drive up with us and split gas, I am going to drive a car and just stay in my dad's much-bigger RV. Still, I will be in the same area (left side of the road when you come in, on the closed runway). His is a white 33' Holiday Rambler with orange and blue stripes. It has Skydive Opelika stickers all over it. Keep a lookout for me. Hopefully, I will be able to corral someone into going from here so I can take ours. Chuck

Still off topic, but: Oddly, IMO the heatwave and diablo fly about the same, thus the "almost identical" reference. Chuck

Dan is going to be in Chicago for Roger's gig, so if you want access to the demo fleet, that is where it will be. Chuck

You would not have any problem fitting a 135 in that container; you will just need to take up the closing loop a bit. You would probably be fine with a 120 in there too in my opinion. FYI: I used to have a V1-1 Vector that was sized for a 120, but I had a Stiletto 97 in it most of the time. I also had an older V1-2 that would fit up to a 150 that I had a Stiletto 107 in for five years. But to answer your question: a Cobalt packs around the same size as a Stiletto. Chuck Blue Team Atair

The only uncomfortable rig I regularly jump in my MC-4 work rig. My fully articulated Jav Odyssey RS is VERY comfortable. My old Vectors were all comfortable. If you are concerned about the legstraps digging, look for something with wider ones, like a Wings or something. Chuck

Still, I would leave the blood stain as a battle scar. Hell, it's just a toggle. "There I was, no shit.." Chuck

You have to be shitting me. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not real estate or petroleum futures. You buy a parachute and jump it until you kill it. They do not appreciate in value or stay the same. You put jumps on them and they immediately go down in value. If you pay $1400 for a new parachute and put 500 jumps on it, then you will be very lucky to get 800 for it when you decide to sell it. I don't care it you did it in one month or five years or what kind of main it is. I have bought and sold A LOT of parachutes in the past several years and have not had a problem selling any of them, regardless of make or model. Anyway, if you were concerned about resale value you should have stayed away from that Diablo. While they are nice parachutes, they are not what most people would call "mainstream", thus are quite difficult to unload. Still, if you are happy with it, then you shouldn't be worried about some false monetary "value". FYI: the PISA heatwave is almost identical to that Diablo and I can get them brand-new in custom colors for around $950. Chuck

Ah! You must have been training at Raeford this past several weeks! Yearly, we get a group of Arabs; this time from the UAE. They come and spend like a month and work on their Style and Accuracy. Raeford was (and still is) the bastion of these disciplines, so everyone from around the world used to come here and train. Nowadays, it's mostly an RW DZ, but we still get the S&A groups occasionally. Anyway, in case you haven't been around them, most Middle Eastern folks have very bad bathing habits. You want to talk about a stinky airplane ride! It is like sitting in a Pizza Hut restaurant! And HOLY SHIT, don't get me started on what they do to the bathroom/showerhouse! Unbelievable. Chuck

Demo the 150. As Dan has already stated, the Cobalt has MUCH more lift than a same-sized Sabre (or Stiletto for that matter). Cobalts are definitely NOT what I would call twitchy. Actually, the only really twitchy mains I ever owned were my two Stilettos (107 and 97). A lightly loaded Cobalt is a VERY easy parachute to learn and fly and not "dangerous" at all. It's once you start loading them near and above 2.0:1 and then they really shine for us swoopers. They still handle magnificantly, but the added lift translates into sick, very-long surfs. That is why I deal with Dan and Atair. Chuck

Dear Mr. Walls, As I get three copies of Parachutist every month, I would be glad to send you an autographed copy in exchange for 24 malt beverages. All of you asking for canopy hand-outs, though, can pound sand! LOL! Oh yeah, I still have an unused lift ticket in my logbook for Netheravon which I did not get to use on my last visit there. Who wants it? Sincerely, Charles W. Blue II, esquire

I am not sure what kind of customer service he was looking for, but I have always been able to straighten out problems with Atair for my friends in no time at all. Most common among problems seems to be opening oddities in the 105 size. Almost every one I have seen has had the control lines set way too short (tight). I have no idea why they come like that, but the fix is generally to just let them out several inches. Those problems, if sent back to NY, get fixed right there. Canopies are then test-jumped by Dan Preston then sent back when they are right (or replaced). Chuck