SkymonkeyONE

Yo butt said what? that was a fantastic perv shot! Nice one, Glen!

Rickster Neely's mom used to jump at Magee, MS back in the day and then, much later, I taught him to skydive on Fort Bragg at the GB club. Later, around 1990 or so, when Rickster got out of the army and went back home, he taught BOTH Colon Berry (champion freeflyer) AND Johnny Mulford (of the USAPT Golden Knights) to skydive. Rickster was a total clusterfuck in some ways, but he was the man! His proteges CERTAINLY showed that they got a good upbringing. Oddly, THE Colon Berry is now back living in Lumberton, MS and jumping at the NEW Gold Coast Skydivers (formerly at Moss Point). Rickster Neely is a K-9 Drug Cop working in Jackson, MS, but still owns my old, original Mike Fury J-1 Javelin with Excallibur 150 and Phantom 145. Seriously. Chuck Blue

I am alive and well, currently working a contract up in Canada. If I have not answered your drunk dials it's because I have been getting up very early or just don't want to talk to some of you. That, of course, excludes all of my Z-hills and Farm peeps who I love dearly. PS: my month in Hawaii did not suck either. Back in Z-hills in two weeks, Chuck

I am the prick in the yellow long-sleeve T-shirt, Pony Tail and chrome gatorz in those photos.

there will not, in the lifetime of any active-duty US army special forces soldier that I know today, be an instance where an A-Team guy infiltrates using one of these rigid wings hauling gear, motors or not. First of all, the great majority of military freefall jumpers have less than 200 jumps. Even the the VERY experienced MFF guys rarely get the opportunity to even attend the AMFFQC (or the black-side tandem and tandem bundle courses). It's an AMAZINGLY small community and I was a part of it for over 20 years. While there are some daydreamers in odd, research and development jobs who might possibly convice their bosses that they ought to be able to at least try out these contraptions, I can promise you that none of these things will ever make it down to the operational level. Seriously. Chuck

All of the Phoenix Fly demo suits from Z-hills will be there with Rob, including my Phantom2 and at least one other one. Our S-Fly suits will be there with Scotty as well if he does, in fact, make it to the boogie. I will not be there since other people chose to snake the organizer slot I have had at that boogie for the past three years. Have fun, boys. Chuck

Yes, positively, every single time.

Was that really a camoflaged Blade in one of those photos? Sheesh!

I was one of the tandem instructors that participated in the 20th anniversary of tandem jumping a few years ago at Carolina Sky Sports in Louisburg, NC. Bill Booth and Ted Strong were both on the load(s). We had 20 tandems in the air at one time exiting a formation load of two CASA 212's. Chuck

You are cleared to "self supervision" after completion of all the required cat E TLO's; not during the category. Cat E means barrel rolls, front loop, back loop, diving exit, solo poised exit. We ran Cat E as three jumps at Raeford, but would you can complete it in two jumps so long as one jump is a diving exit and the other is a solo poised exit. I don't have any problem whatsoever with "on the ball" students completing TLO's from multiple categories in one jump when possible. I have had plenty of students finish the nine (normal) ISP progression A thru E progression in seven jumps, but they are the exception. The bottom line is that your student must "check all the blocks" on Cats A thru E before being allowed to do unsupervised jumps and complete Cats F thru H with rated coaches or instructors. I use the four-page card and feel it is positively the best way to get your students trained without cutting corners. Chuck Blue Performance Skydiving D-12501, AFF/SL/TM-I, PRO, S&TA

Join the club. Mine is fantastic.

It's actually very clever. Still, I think I would keep the thumb loops, Tony.

This is not at all related to BASE wingsuiting, but it does have everything to do with wingsuiting-related PC-in-tow situations on regular skydives, so bear with me. I had been experiencing a rash of very-delayed deployments on my wingsuit flights. I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on, but it was seriously sketching me out. Bear in mind that I have a fully-wingsuit-optioned Wings container with a long bridle and the anti-line-twist D-bag. I would throw, then wait, wait more, bring my hands up to my handles and then start "wiggling" until the thing opened. Turns out that the way I (and my packers) were stowing the first bit of excess bridle (above the pin) under the pin-closing-flap was causing the PC to tow when I threw from full glide (which has become my habit). It really pissed me off. After much toying around with the rig in it's packed configuration, Khan Hildebrand figured out that the first bit of excess (above the pin) being stowed under the pin flap was preventing the pin to be extracted when pulled mostly to the rear. The fix was simply to route the bridle out the bottom, set the pin from the bottom, then stow the rest of the excess back out the same place (the bottom). The situation is resolved and I have had zero problems in any of my four suits since the new packing method. Without it, the pin simply would not pull until I was more "falling" than "flying." If any of you have been experiencing this, just start packing like I said. If you have more questions, just give me a call and I will send you photos of what I am talking about. Chuck PS: my new Phantom2 kicks ass!

That was perfect, Eddie!

I have owned four removeable sliders and only one was a tad smaller than the stocker. FWIW, I jumped that one on three different sized canopies withhout any problems whatsoever. The one I jump on my Xaos 27 is slightly larger than stock. The one on my HMA/RDS-equipped Sabre2 is the same size as stock.

you know, Glen, if you weren't such an underachieving hater, all of your hair would still be on your head instead of your torso. Your incessant whining abouut this subject CAN'T be good for you. Take a break and make a skydive before you blow a head gasket.

The way we ran the four-page ISP aff program at Raeford, the student was not cleared to coaching jumps ( cats f,g, and h) until signed off to solo supervision at the completion of the cat e TLO's. I run my private program the same way here in Z Hills. "Coaches" are not qualified to take cat E students. Chuck

Primary suiit: BirdMan S6. It does everything nice. This is my 5th SkyFlyer-series suit and my second S6.. If it had backventing it would never come off of my rig at all. Yes, I had a Blade and, no, I did not like it better than my S6. next most-used suit: PF Phantom. It's simply fantastic. I have a new Phantom 2 on the way. Maximum distance/ time aloft suit: a custom Super Mach 1 with a 4" longer, slightly narrower legwing.

I totally agree. Don't waste your money. I haven't ever been in a situation where I had to use my LQRS.

the skyflyer three was introduced in February 2003 at the PIA symposium. It is still a fantastic suit, but there are many newer designs available from BirdMan (and other manufacturers) which offer the same, or superior, performance with less stress on the arms and far superior backflying ease these days. The Tony Raptor design is just under two years old now and has been refined numerous times since it's release. It is a great suit with fantastic backflying capability. It is also only made out of very tough Parapack fabric. The leg stance on a Raptor is MUCH wider than the S3. Again, the S3 is a five year old suit. Chuck

- so whuffos will compare me to champions like Felix and Jeb!

One look at the ass of Purple Mike's Vampire ought to be enough to convince you I am right.

blow it off and just go to the ranch, dave.

just the simple act of sitting on the floor,or even bench, in a plane is enough to seriously degrade the butt of a zp wingsuit. In a perfect world we would be order hybrid suits with parapack knees and butt deflectors, but zp everything else? Any of you guys listening? Chuck

I saw Denise a few times last year at Z Hills and she looked fucking hot.