SkymonkeyONE

This is an old question, but as I recall, Pam and Merrick will be there; my wife and I will be there; plus Dutchboy and the others that are going with him. Find the old thread. As far as linking up goes, that shouldn't be hard. I will write you privately with my cell number. Chuck Chuck

This Instructor let himself be hosed. These situations occur for several reasons. Freefall coaching is not for everyone and this guy might have just "eeked" through the course. More likely, though, is that he just got a bit lackadaisical and wasn't anticipating a problem. If you cannot stay close enough to stop a problem as it occurs, then you are just asking for it. A spinning student generally creates a ton of lift which, if not stopped IMMEDIATELY, can lead to that Instructor/Coach/JM not being able to catch up and help. I am on pins and needles when I jump with students. I ALWAYS anticipate getting hosed, so my head is where it should be. It is quite easy to stop a spin when you are on the same plane (or slightly above)the student, but impossible if you can't reach the student. Chuck Blue D-12501 SL-I, TM-I Yes, your friend's "I" is most definitely kicking himself in the ass over this. My question is this: has the student always had a spinning problem? If so, he (or she) should have never progressed beyond level III.

I wear gloves in the winter, but never any that are thicker than winter-weight football/baseball gloves. Currently, I wear Neuman tackified gloves, just because they were the only orange ones I could find at the time. I won't be buying the tackified ones again, though, as it is kind of a bitch to unstow my brakes without getting a finger stuck in the lines. Nomex flight gloves are great (and free in my case) as they have great "feel" and are long enough to stick up under the cuffs of your jumpsuit. Chuck

I second that, Dave. Roxy, I am afraid that you have fallen in with an odd lot. Do you wear underwear? Chuck

I must have been mistaken in thinking you are one of the guys that jumps at Skydive Opelika . Obviously you don't know there is a DZ on exit 38 on I-85, ten miles from Auburn. Why in the hell would you take a student all the way to ASC or anywhere else in GA to learn to skydive? Now up-jumpers are a different story; lots of us just MUST jump turbines, which there are none of at Skydive Opelika. Chuck

Well at least you, for one, know that there is another one ten miles down the road that you can jump at. LOL! Looking at the dropzones currently listed in this site is not a very good indicator either. It is a shame that the other DZO's don't use this FREE chance to list their operations. For example, there are only two DZ's in Alabama currently listed, but we both know that there are plenty of others. As for "those other guys" and their advertising practices, I don't agree with them at all. That does not mean that I don't the jumpers there; I swoop with several of them and they are very cool. Chuck Blue D-12501

It appears as though my original answer did not make it to the forum; odd. Anyway, Clay, my Junior Skymonkey brother, you should take that main to a rigger and add at least four inches to the control lines. See if that works; it will definitely help. After that, I would add two inches at a time until such a point that you can grab your dive loops (toggles in hand) and pull them to your chest without deflecting the tail. That is how all of my mains have always been set-up, which is to say "loose." If your shit is too tight, like Kris's Stiletto was when I busted my ass, then your canopy will "porpoise" or buck in a riser dive and give the impression that you have high riser pressure. Unsatisfactory. Kris's Stiletto was so bad that the control lines were TIGHT in full flight. It is for that reason that it "bow-tied" on me at the end of my swoop. Ugly. Chuck

In the words of my man Lloyd; enjoy: "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed... or buy anything sold or processed... or process anything sold, bought or processed... or repair anything sold, bought or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." -- Lloyd Dobler

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Eclipse. I almost bought one myself a while back. Like Lisa says, they are not about to go out of business; their tandem rigs are just too popular for that to happen. I made the requisite amount of jumps on the rig to get the qual and really liked it. Also, the sport rigs they have are pretty attractive in my opinion. Raeford Frigid Air jumped them and Muffy Davis still jumps hers. Chuck

Skydive Opelika This is my dad's DZ in Alabama. 5000 foot paved surface, swoop canals, southern hospitality, barter system in full effect. Raeford Parachute Center Two Otters, a CASA 212, full service restaurant and bar, world class skydivers, lots of shade and grass. This is my home. Chuck

I recommend a jockstrap, green beret, and a light coat of oil. Seriously, what I use depends on what axis I intend to fly on. In a sit, you just have to ensure that you have more flopping fabric up top than you do down low. It's summer, so shorts are cool with a long-sleeve T-shirt. Strictly head-down and I wear my $18 orange Wal-Mart cargo pants and a regular t-shirt. Those pants have zip-off legs, are baggy and have elastic cinches at the bottom. I, like Aggie Dave, tie the cinches into my shoe strings so that they don't fly up around my knees. If I am going to fly on both axis, then I wear those same pants and a long-sleeve t (summer), or sweatshirt (winter). The BDU (or old OG-107) pants deal is great so long as you are not at a predominantly military DZ and people scoff at "military chic" as a fashion style(definitely not the ticket at Raeford). I square plenty of my civilian skydiver friends away with my discards, though, and they DO work great as freefly pants.

Quite the contrary. Most of the British skydiver chicks I have met are quite attractive, party like Vikings, and are very taken by my southern accent. Chuck

When I just HAVE to filter through a bunch of crap just to see what is up, I access it through one of two servers: www.deja.com (which is now actually Google, but is still the direct link to the newsgroups), or www.newsone.net. Either way, you type in what area you want once you get there, and it will take you to the forums. Both sites are flawed in one way or another, though. If you go to the deja (google) site, you will generally see more thread roots and responses. But, and this is a big but, if you post through that portal it doesn't get on the site for three to nine hours; odd. Conversely, if you read "wreck-dot" through newsone.net, you don't get all the threads, but your posts go on immediately. There are MANY more experienced skydivers who lurk wreck-dot than this forum for some reason, but mostly it is full of a bunch of mindless banter between a cadre of full-time posters who seem to do everything in their power to piss others off. I used to stay logged onto the newsgroup all day long, but tired of the "fluff" and constant idiocy exhibited. There are some very angry people who post there who will do anything to downtrod those with whom they disagree. The flip-side to that coin is that almost everyone of power in this sport goes there to post up to the minute reports on accidents, upcoming and current events, and USPA matters. It is too bad that it is a non-regulated forum, as there really are some decent people "over there". Thankfully, several of the good ones have started spending time here. They include ME, Donna (A.K.A. "Ty" on the newsgroup), and Alan Binnebose (who oversees the gear and rigging forum here). Chuck

Clay is correct about that last Raeford incident; it was ugly. Though not nearly as ugly as the girl that flew straight into the wires and had both lower arms, one lower leg, and a breast blown clean off. This was a beautiful, blonde haired, blue eyed, E5 Army girl with everything to look forward to. This girl had, just on the previous jump, come VERY close to hitting the same wires. She was told in no uncertain terms that one foot closer and she would have fried. The VERY next jump, she caught herself downwind again and tried to make it over the wires. No such luck. She could have landed safely in EVERY other direction, but felt she just HAD to land "in". DON'T HIT POWERLINES! Conversely, one of my best skydiving buddies at the time hooked it right over the road, wasn't going to make it over the same powerlines, then hooked back left and right into the road. He died later that night of internal injuries. The moral of THAT story is, of course, don't HOOK yourself into the ground to avoid powerlines. Especially when a flat turn would have worked. As a result of that last incident the powerlines were buried along the stretch of road right next to the landing area. It was LONG overdue, but was completed around eight years ago. The last incident with the guy that was hung upside down in his risers and fired his reserve right into the mess was very unfortunate. Cutting away the main while it was still providing lift did not help matters and he spiraled down into the wires behind the neighborhood across the street. That is the first example I can remember where powerlines might have actually saved someone. He hit them and caught on fire, but they actually slowed his very-fast descent right before impact. That guy ended up recovering with only skin grafts to his neck/chest. Chuck

You can do one of two things. First, you could put this guy's name all over this forum and rec.skydiving along with everything you know about him. Second, you could give a person like ME (or the other guy that has already volunteered) the info and I would make sure he was personally taken care of. It is very unfortunate that there are people out there that still get away with this kind of crap. The people that harbor them are just as bad. These people are very naive to believe that they will not get waffle-stomped eventually.

Yep, I grew up on a DZ and was flying in the 182 when I was in diapers. I could do everything but land the plane (couldn't see over the cowl) when I was six years old. My mother made me a cover for some phone books to sit on and I had blocks for the pedals. I would have gladly started skydiving before age 16 had my dad allowed it, but back then there really weren't but one or two people who were doing it under-age and my dad was pretty "by the book". That, plus the equipment of the day was too big and literally fell off me when I modeled it. Thus, I was relegated to "dropzone boy" status as a child and helped pack, cut the grass, manifest, etc. A great life by any standard! Nowadays, with the advent of tandem and very-small equipment it is actually not such a big deal to outfit a small person or child. That, obviously, was how the Mullins boys got into it. Those who REALLY know me have witnessed some of the tandems that I have done for certain people. So long as I can cinch the harness down small enough for them, then it's all good in my book. Custom rigging and duct tape are not my bag, though, and I would not compromise the integrity of the equipment to "make it happen". Chuck

I like "formation" best, but orgy is pretty cool too. Chuck

A good guess. You are correct. Now post those reviews! LOL!

I was just browsing through the dropzone reviews and noticed that there are VERY FEW that have more than one review written, if any. This is completely unsatisfactory. I have written reviews on every DZ I have ever visited that is covered in this site. You all need to spend the five minutes it takes to go to your that area of the website HERE and write a review. Short of calling others you know in the area, one of the best ways to get un-biased information on a DZ is through these reviews. There are people on in this forum from all over the country (and world!), so there is no reason those reviews should be empty. Don't put a bunch of propaganda there either; write what is REALLY going on there. Write reviews on ALL the dropzones you have visited, too. This gives the DZO a good feel for what others think of their place and it helps them to make changes. Now get to it! Chuck slave driver

My guess is that your control lines were too tight and you were probably pulling down the tail as you riser-dived. All four of the Atair canopies I have owned (Viper 150, Alpha 84, Cobalt 85, Cobalt 75) have had VERY managable riser pressure. Certainly less than my VX or any of my Stilletos. Chuck

Thanks Marteen, you are giving me a big head . Actually, I have sold quite a bit of gear through the classifieds in this website as well as the one in http://www.enclave.com . What I do is use SkyKat gear shop on my DZ (Raeford) as an intermediary. Not that I would ever sell anyone bogus gear, but the person on the other end can't be sure of that, so my method is outstanding. I take the gear to the shop, box it up, and have Tony send it off to the person after having them pay in advance with a CC. Once they get the gear, they have five days to decide if it is what they thought or else ship it back to the shop in "same" condition. If they want to keep it, then the transaction is completed; if not, their CC is credited back to them. I pay SkyKat a small fee for this transaction, but it is definitely worth it in my opinion for both party's safety. Chuck

At Raeford, we have a "ghetto" where we park our RV's and people pitch tents. It is behind the "L" formed by two of the largest buildings and back in the piney woods. Currently, we only have two 30-amp hookups, but there are a bunch of 10-amp outlets around the buildings. It generally works out that all of us who need power have it. We also have cable TV outlets that we pirate off of. I went and bought several boosters so that there would be sufficient signal at the TV. Right now we don't have any septic system, but the shower house is 20 feet away, so everyone just uses it instead of their in-RV units. When we do use them, we empty our tanks into a portable unit and haul it across the runway. Right now we have six full-time RV's there. There are normally two or three tents out over the weekend. During boogies and meets it gets fairly crowded. Since the Thackers own the airport and all the property around it, it's not a big deal. The plans are in the works to run a line of proper 30-amp services and a septic line. Hopefully, it will be done in the next month. On the other hand, my dad's DZ in Alabama is on a municipal airport. They will not even let him build his own hanger on the site of one that burned down 20 years ago. As such, he operates out of several temporary shade structures and a very-large RV and a U-haul truck which acts as his rigger loft. Camping isn't technically supposed to go on there, but it sometimes does. It is not uncommon for people to stay there in the RV and once in a while people stay in tents. Nobody has ever been run off by the police (who come by there during the night)so far. Keeping it low-key is definitely the answer in that situation. Chuck, the "other" Blue

Proven Chuck Blue techniques for ridding yourself of roaming Mormons, Jehovahs, etc.... Come to the door with NO PANTS OR UNDERWEAR ON then talk to them like nothing is out of the ordinary. A nice finishing touch is to have your .45 in your hand. Believe me, they will never come back. As far as telemarketers: If I am just too tired to hang up on them, I will generally tell them to give me their home phone number and I will call them back there. Chuck

I, on the other hand, would not get an F-111 parachute just because they are easier to pack. A Sabre with 300 jumps on it is plenty easy to pack. They are only REALLY slippery when they have less than about 50 jumps on them. Still, if you are practicing a solid technique, then it's never a big deal. FYI: I NEVER PRO pack "square" parachutes; I flat or "roll" pack them because it's so much faster. If you smoosh the air out from the nose to tail, then the canopy will generally not get away from you. If you "must" do something else, because you just think it's not cool to flat pack, then Psycho pack. The Psycho pack does a really good job of keeping the material from squirting out when you are trying to stick your main in the bag. Step-by-step instructions can be found all over the net, with the Icarus canopies site being my favorite. Chuck

as the Dutchboy said, that is not the hot ticket for sit-flying; they assist you in staying head-down, but hose you for sitting unless you have an equally baggy top. Yep, the hot ticket for sitting, especially now in the Summer, is to wear shorts and a baggy sweatshirt or long-sleeve t-shirt. That, or borrow a sit or skysurf suit. When I DO sit, I generally wear my skysurf suit. I am small, so I don't go TOO much faster than my FF buddies. The wings are smaller on a skysurf suit than a sit suit in case you were wondering. I generally regulate my speed by transitioning to a knee-fly if I am going too fast. Chuck