SkymonkeyONE

I prefer hand-deploy in a BOC configuration. It might look a little less "clean" than a pullout, but until recently pullout puds were a little prone to coming unsecured while moving about the aircraft and sometimes in freefall. I witnessed plenty of them flapping around behind people; not cool. I must say, though, that the newest versions I have seen (namely, on the Jav), are MUCH more secure and quite stylish. Still, I am a big fan of the BOC hand-deploy. Chuck

Cheap RV's are everywhere. Look in the paper and auto traders, but mostly just pay attention when you are driving around. You see them sitting in people's yard all over the place with for sale signs on them. We bought ours from my Grandfather last year for 3k. He is 84 now and was just tired of travelling, so we snatched it up before it rotted. We jump-started it (it hadn't been driven in two years), got it to a tire store and put seven new tires on it (#7 being the spare), and then drove it 500 miles back to North Carolina. Since then, all I have done is replace the brakes, tune up the motor, and clean up the interior. That, plus service all the LP gas fixtures, replace the blinds, and other "little stuff" that my wife wanted to do. I see them all the time in decent shape for less than 8k. Newer and bigger would be nice, but for what? I have buddies that paid (and are still paying) for bigger rigs, but that is not what a couple needs. It is certainly much nicer than staying in the bunkhouse or in a tent. Also, there is nothing like the security it provides for all your gear, etc. Our RV is ALWAYS stocked for at least a one-week vacation. If we get to a place where we can't hook up to electrical power, we have an onboard 3kw generator that powers everything at the flip of a switch.

Those days are over. There are no free jumps in MWR clubs on Bragg anymore. The rare exception are the demonstrations that are done occasionally by guys on the demo teams. We still have two clubs here: the Green Beret club and the 82nd club. Both offer training at about the same cost as the civilian vendor on Raeford (RSS), but where people save money is in gear rental. We (the GB club) rent complete sets of gear for $30 all weekend. Nice, new student rigs with cypres AAD's and rigs as small as a Flexon with a Sabre 120 are available. Yes, we still coach our jumpers along for free. Chuck We pay full price for jumps at Raeford. Sad but true, we have not had free helicopter support in a couple of years.

Screw the fantasy, yall need to get out there and MAKE IT HAPPEN! Here is what my wife and I have; some of you have seen it already: -1976 Coachman 23' Leprechaun RV (aptly named "the mystery machine" -78,000 original miles -350 Chevy that doesn't use a bit of oil -Sleeps six in comfort, plus several on the floor if need be -stylish orange shag carpet! -bathroom/shower -fridge for the beer, chow, and crown royal -Stove, oven and microwave for the Chunky Sirloin Burger soup and popcorn -27" TV, high-end VCR(with about 100 movies), stereo (with loud techno), super nintendo (only super mario world; my wife is an addict), vintage 23 channel CB. -Black lights, Lava Lamp, glow-in-the-dark constellation on the ceiling, Scooby Doo posters. VERY TRIPPY at night! -Scooby sheets on the beds, plus Scooby throw pillow. Total investment so far: $4,500 We live in North Carolina. We have taken the RV to The Ranch in New York, Cross-Keys in Jersey, Baltimore, Savannah, CSS Easter Boogie, and to Alabama several times. RV's kick ass! It is the smartest money I we ever spent in our lives. We normally keep it at Raeford, in "the ghetto." There, we keep a big picnic table and a gas grill. Chuck

My wife and I (Raeford people) went DZ-hopping up north last Fall and ended up at The Ranch one weekend. The end-of-season RSL meet going on, but we still found plenty of others to jump with. I must admit that I had never been to another DZ that came anywhere close to Raeford when it comes to facilities and goodwill. I would have never thought I would find another place I loved so much, but I did at The Ranch. As we were not members, we paid a whopping $16 dollars to 14,000; this, one dollar more than members as I recall. We were in our RV, so I called ahead and talked to Guy, the manager. Even though there were no RV hookups available per-se, he told me where I could park and hookup my electricity, just accross the ditch from the great hall. Thanks, Guy! The Otters were flying non-stop, right up to dark. I made a bunch of jumps then settled into the apres-skydiving scene at the bonfire. Unbelievable. It fascinated me that people were driving 60+ miles from NYC just to hang out and socialize for a few hours. The crowd there was first-rate; very friendly to us out-of-state jumpers if I do say so. Saturday night after jumping, Billy brough out about 20 free pizzas and at least two kegs of beer. Very nice. I was standing around the fire Saturday night and about had a fit when I saw all the wild skunks eating the pizza bones under the great hall. Crazy! Of great interest to me were the cool camping platforms that are scattered throughout the woods. It seems that members are able to "claim" a platform and occupy it for the season with whatever tent or shack they wanted to erect. Interesting. They were raised up off the ground to keep the animals out, or so I was told. The swoop pond there is fantastic, though you would be crazy to swoop it in other than one direction for fear of hitting the ledge on the leading edge. People were camped all around, set-up between it and the woods. All in all, I give this place my highest rating and can't wait to return.

Hey, I resemble that remark! Chuck Skydive Raeford Skydive Opelika

Agreed. This category should include BirdMan suits. I would love to write a "first impression" on those. Also, I would include all major manufacturers of suits, just like in the main/reserve canopy section. I know you would have to solicit the "factory line" from the companies in order to include them, but I am sure the owners would be happy to oblige. Just a thought. Chuck Blue

We used to regularly have the opportunity to jump the king of fast climbers: the Sikorski CH-54 Skycrane; a helicopter which will beat an F-14 Tomcat to 12,000 ft. The pilot could pull pitch and *literally* pin all the passengers to the floor like a safe fell on you. This monster, when fitted with "the box" would hold at least 30 jumpers. It's open back was 8'tall and about 10' wide. You just ran a safety strap accross the back for the climb to altitude. It was also able to completely hover at altitude without washing all over the place for those times when you wanted a balloon-like experience. We used to sneak out the front door of the box and crawl all over the fuselage when on jump run. The pilots would just shake their heads and laugh at us. Excellent. The last military unit to have them was the Alabama National Guard. The 20th Special Forces Group Parachute Team got use of them pretty much anytime they wanted it. They would either fly it to the sod farm in Pell City, Alabama or just fly it to my dad's ranch (which just happens to be surveyed as a military DZ) and we would skydive our asses off all weekend. THOSE were the days! Besides that, I am also quite fond of the three turbines we have at my home DZ, Raeford. Two Twin Otters (one a Super Otter) and a CASA 212. Lovely. Chuck

I don't know about Langar, but if the two DZ's I visited a year and a half ago are any indication, then England is FULL of good-looking female skydivers. Feel free to send your 34 year-old Daddy's girls over to Raeford. North Carolina redneck skydivers dig chicks with freaky british accents. Chuck PS: what's up with the anonymous posting? Hiding something?

In response to: "At your height it will be really hard to find a used harness that fits you correctly." Actually, there are quite a few good deals around on small rigs. I sold a little Talon 2 with canopies that would have been fine for Kel just last fall to Tee (who might be reading this). A Candadian girl I talk to quite often is the same size. Her name is Karna Luchsinger and she ALWAYS has extra stuff for sale. She is a distributor for several manufacturers, too (Wings, TSE). E-mail her at karna.luchsinger@irdinc.com if nothing else but to bullshit. She has about 3000 jumps and could really hook you up. Vacations in Eloy and Pahokee alot. Also, I have a buddy here that quit jumping not long after he got his new rig. Racer 2000 NOS, Sabre 135, PD 126, Cypres. He is like 5'5" and it is small on him. $3,000 would take it. The whole rig has maybe 50 jumps on it. Colors are red/blk/with a little blue on the backpad. Kel, send me a private message if you are interested. No need to clutter the forum. Chuck

Have a screen made up at a shop (about $200 for a three color design, less if you just want one-color words), then sell the hell out of them on this forum and the rec.skydiving newsgroup. Simple. I command it! One, size large please. Chuck

Just lost my "newbie" tag yesterday, thank God. I must say that I am quite happy to have a better mannered forum to follow nowadays. The Wreck Dot newsgroup is so crammed with spam that I can't hardly stand to even check it anymore. I am especially happy that I can respond in specific forums without fear of mindless clutter when need be. I really do enjoy helping out others and DO seem to spend an exhorbitant amount of time on the computer. Lucky me, I have very little to do at work (just over a year from military retirement) and don't feel one bit of guilt as I type away and drink my coffee. Good thing I have a high metabolism or I might be growing outward at an alarming rate due to the many ice cream sandwiches I consume at work. Ciao, Chuck

Alan, I am sure you did not intend to come off as sounding antagonistic. I have followed your posts in this forum as well as rec.skydiving for some time now, and have not witnessed anything untoward from you. I will say, though, that the cut-and-paste-athon that has gone on concerning your dealings with Dan on this subject is pretty out of hand. Certainly, it could have been squared away via telephone or private E-mail. I myself am now guilty of propagating the diatribe, which kind of bums me out. Dan is the sole US distributor for Atair; he does not make the parachutes in Red Hook. As such, he obviously pays for his parachutes. You cannot expect the man to just blind-send a main to you, or anyone else, regardless of stature in this sport without first getting some sort of paperwork done; a demo request in this instance. It is not a big deal, it only takes a minute, and you certainly should not be taking it as a personal affront. Once you get that done and receive your canopy I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised. I would probably get a 95 since you are jumping an 89 VX, though you could probably easily get away with an 85. Concerning bias, especially in this case: You need to meet Dan in person and check out his testing equipment. It really is neat stuff, and Dan is the last person who would spout unfounded information; it is not in his nature. He is very interested in spreading the wealth and is all about safety and proper reporting. Playing on semantics has failed on all counts (by both sides) in this instance. Once again, I am sure no harm was intended, but perception is reality; especially, it seems, in print. Have a good day, Sir. Feel free to respond to me directly. Chuck Blue D-12501

I am not sure which nation's 4-way team they were (Danish maybe?), but they were jumping them at CSS at Easter. The Nitro is what was to be the Vortex, though I didn't see any mesh over the end cells like was depicted in Gunther Worlein's crude ad under the old SkyDepot website. They were supposedly going to be manufactured by Performance Variable. The first one (the prototype) was built by Atair. The subseqent ones were produced in Malaysia or somewhere, but not at the place Performance Variable has most of their mains made (the Atair factory in Slovenia, in case you didn't know). As for the mains themselves, they looked like they flew pretty nice. The "fins" on top look pretty lame though; more squared-off than streamlined in front. I seriously doubt that they add anything to the performance, but as they didn't test the design in the proper manner, then I doubt we will ever know. FYI: the way to test that theory would have been to build a canopy with a winglet on only ONE side. Why, you ask? You see, if the wing INCREASED efficiency (and thus, performance), the main would turn in the direction that did not have the winglet. If the winglet increased DRAG (and thus, reduced performance), it would turn in the direction of the side which has the winglet. Anyway, they sure were "different". Dan Preston and I discussed them for quite some time. He is the one that told me about the proper theory-testing. Chuck Blue Atair Factory Pilot

three shoes I have liked the most: Old-style Tevas with the strap coming up between your big toe and the second toe. Those are MUCH less likely to get torn off if you hit a rock or dip on your surf. Of course this doesn't matter if you are jumping your bootie-suit. They were discontinued for several years, but I am pretty sure you can order them from the Sunshine Factory now. Second favorite is a set of US Navy coral dive-booties. Gray canvas uppers almost exactly like Chuck Taylor All-Stars, but with a very thin, though stiff, slick hard-rubber sole. Super lightweight, smooth bottomed, extremely cheap (free for me). I sewed flames (cut out of a VS-17 panel) on the sides of mine while drinking heavilly in the rigger loft. Terribly cool. Third on my list of all-time favorites is standard issue U.S. Postal service high-tops. They are black reebock-looking things with VERY slick, flat soles. Gotta be made in Taiwan or something, but MAN do they slide along during turf-surfs! My postmaster buddy Ray Porterfield hooks me up with them (for free of course) everytime I wear a set out. Groovy! Chuck

All very true. Bad-mouthing is generally done by two types of people: those trying to sell you something else, and those that have their head in the sand because "everyone else on the DZ jumps something else". You all know that game by now I hope. Concerning overloading: it absolutely amazes me when I see guys ordering the teeniest tinyest rig just to "stay up with the Jones's", regardless of the fact they overload their placarded reserve limit by 50 or more pounds. "But, but, but, Chuck's rig is SMALLER than mine." True, but I am pretty light in the ass! Yes, in the end most do pay for it one way or another. Lucky for me I am only 155 buck naked! I didn't feel one bit of guilt ordering my Javelin RS or the little tempo 120. LOL! Anyway, once again, anything with a TSO is good to go. If it weren't, it would not have that label. Chuck

I like Slinks, but as I trade main canopies so often, they are a bit of a hindrance. Right now I am using #4 Rapide links which work fine and don't hamper my slider-stowing at all. If you only have one main canopy, then I would say put them on. They truly do make for a cleaner pack job in my opinion. As for having problems reaching your slider, you need to get yourself some shorter risers; that would cure your problem right away. One trick that some of us swoopers are using for optimum canopy tuning is to put Rapides on front or back then Slinks on the opposite side. Sounds odd maybe, but it is definitely the easiest and cleanest way to make minor up/down trim adjustments. I don't see any problem with using Slinks on the reserve, but you really aren't creating that much extra space by doing it. As for the "legalities" of using them on only certain reserves, that is purely a CYA move on the manufacturers part. Rest assured that they work just as safely on every other reserve, legalities not withstanding. Before PD started selling it's Slinks, plenty of riggers were making their own soft links, Jimmy Cazer among them. The first ones I had were not removeable; sewn together at the ends. Nice, but one-time use only. I used PD slinks about half of last year and really did like them, but I was not comfortable taking them apart all the time to change mains. If I were content to jump regular mini-risers, then it wouldn't have mattered because I have several extra sets, but now I jump custom, quite-short triples, so I ended up swapping at the links every time (more of a pain in the ass with Slinks). Chuck

Either your exit weight is 235 and you misquoted it, or you are not loading a 210 anywhere near 1.2. Anyway, if you only have 100 jumps, not just 100 on a Sabre, then I can tell you that there are plenty of things to improve your swoop with the canopy you already have, even though it is quite large. First on my list is a nice carving front riser turn ending with your flare. Not sure if you are already doing high performance landings now or not, so I am just assuming you are flying it straight in at this point. Snapping your canopy around via a toggle hook is not the answer as it is both much more dangerous and really does not produce the longest swoop. If in fact you are already making fairly aggressive attempt to maximize your landing speed and it truly IS time to downsize, then here are some suggestions. First, since we are talking about your first eliptical, I would recommend the PISA Hornet for many reasons, all of which are already listed in other posts in this forum. Many like the Icarus Safire as a first, but I don't really like the "bottom end" on those mains. A Triathalon is a decent mid-performance main, too. A PD Spectre is a nice choice if you like that 7-cell layout. The new "super sabre" or whatever they are going to call it should prove to be a very nice main also. To go along with one of the other posters, I too would reccomend a lightly loaded Stilleto or Cobalt. You can get a Stilleto as big as a 190 and they are very forgiving at that size. We have a 63 year old man on Raeford who jumps one. His exit weight is about 230. Another hot new ticket from Atair is the new Indigo. It is a 7-cell eliptical along the same lines as a Spectre, but has a much nicer flare. Food for thought. Chuck Blue D-12501 Atair Factory Pilot

If Helen Stavely happens to show up tell her I said hello. She normally jumps at Weston On The Green and keeps a caravan parked there. I took a Holiday over in England almost two years ago and visited her. Hey, couldn't bitch about 8 pound jumps at Netheravon either! If nothing else, I partied my ass off. Chuck

Yep, I could have done much worse for parents. You want to see the old man in action, just show up at Quincy. Ask around and find out where all the Alabama Gang are setup. Chuck

John (at least I think this is John Hawk), Ask Paul Rafferty. He owns one and loves it. I am technically "rated" on it, but can't tell you much other than I like it better than the regular Vector Tandem. Chuck Blue D-12501 SL-I, TM-I (vector bitch)

Before you go buying that main from the gear store, you probably want to check out all the online classifieds. This one (dropzone.com) is outstanding, as is www.enclave.com. I have sold a ton of gear on both sites. Also, if you are surfing gear-store sites, check SkyKat.com. Tony and Kate are outstanding. Chuck

Agreed. The Hornet is an outstanding first main. It is Zero-p, lightly eliptical, inexpensive, and packs quite small compared to similar-sized mains from other manufacturers. Not sure why that is, but what it mean to you is that you can buy a Jav (which you stated was your choice of container) big enough for a say, 220 something or other, but would fit a Hornet 240 (assuming they made one that big). A rule of thumb that I tell people, whether or not others back me or not is this: If you weigh 250 in gear, then you should not buy an F-111 main smaller than that, BUT you can get a ZP main one size smaller and be fine. A better idea in my mind would be for you to find a used rig online; something about the size of a student rig as you are a pretty big guy. That or something in the J-5 size range would fit the main you need to start. Jump that, with a 1:1 wingload, then work your way down to your optimal size as your experience permits. Once you get to that smaller size that suits you best, THEN go ahead and order that new Jav and main. I know PLENTY of guys your size that jump 190's or 210's, including my 230 pound, 65 year-old dad. Chuck

It's 85 and sunny in lovely Raeford, NC. Screw Eloy, it's WAY too hot in the summer. Chuck

As some of you may have figured out, I am second generation DZ trash/instructor/pilot, etc. Anyway, last weekend a bunch of us met at my dad's (Buddy Blue D-597)place in Opelika for his 65th birthday. About 55 people showed up at the ranch for the fiesta; many of them old Cotton Belt Council competitors. We had a blast! Eat, drink, skydive was the modus operandi for the weekend. My wife and I drove down from North Carolina, Rixter Neeley came up from Mississippi with his wife (who I gave a tandem to on her 40th birthday Sunday), plus all the DZ locals made it over. I was very happy to meet several of the new guys from Auburn University. Christian and Mike were pretty damn cool and have brought freeflying to my dad's traditionally flat-flying DZ. Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night are just a blur to me, but Sunday we all managed to drag-ass out of bed and head to the DZ. As usual, my dad worked me like a DOG! Hey, I haven't ever paid for a skydive there, so I guess I shouldn't bitch, but four tandems (me packing)later I was pretty damn smoked. Luckilly, I had enough energy left and there was enough daylight left to throw down some monster swoops. Unfortunately for me, my DZ brothers had not bush-hogged the swoop canals yet this season, so we were without water displacement. Anyway, my wife and I had a blast, then drank heavilly and laid down for the night. If ever any of you happen to be rolling down I-85 between Montgomery, AL and Atlanta, stop by exit 38 in Tuskeegee and check my dad and those guys out; they are a riot. I am very pleased to report that at age 65, my dad has nearly 10,000 jumps, still teaches FJCs and does tandems, flies when we can't find any young pilots, and still is ornery as a rodeo bull. I am pretty proud of him. Chuck Blue D-12501