SkymonkeyONE

I thought your new canopy would be named "slicey-dicey" after the way it got mutilated by your hook knife!

In the original, seriously-no-holds-barred UFC fights, there were a number of clowns that showed up in the octagon with their boxing gloves on. They all got their asses handed to them. I can't for the life of me figure out why they just didn't go in with taped fists, but they, bigger than shit, showed up with gloves on. That was back when it was cool to repeatedly beat a guy in the nuts and the only two things you could not do were gouge eyes and bite. There were no TKO's then. You either tapped out or were rendered unconscious by your oponent. Those were the days. You had to show up and fight your way all the way up the card until the final event. There were no weight classes and there were no headline fights. Truly "last man standing" stuff. Chuck

Is he going to be Jari Kuosma's house boy in Dubai?

If you limit yourself to just doing one kind of skydiving over and over and over, then yes, you are going to tire of it and possible quit. Although, I must say, the idea of playing X-box instead of skydiving is incredibly gay. I have taken three breaks over the years. First time I was burned out from too much four-way. Second time I was too sore to jump after too many video jumps with an old Monarch 135 that beat me up every time. Third time was because my ex-wife took all my friends with her in the divorce settlement and I felt out of place on the DZ for a while. Want to keep a clear head? Mix it up. Try something in the air that you suck at and try to get reasonably proficient at it. Try competition if you haven't already done it. Any discipline. Get some ratings and pay back to the sport. There are just so many different options these days that it's hard to get complacent unless you let yourself get that way. Too many work skydives? Quit doing them and go make some fun jumps. What? it pays your bills? Get a real job and then you can afford all the fun jumps you want.

The great majority of competition canopy pilots ARE USPA (or name your national aeroclub) instructors, at least in my experience. Chuck

I have all of my USPA ratings and dived my entire military career (SF combat dive supervisor, PADI adv open water, PADI dive master). I haven't blown bubbles in four years though. To me diving is very, very different than skydiving. An entirely different dynamic. Chuck

Aaron was up in Ohio visiting his kids. That's why he wasn't there.

exists a discussion at dz.com with this topic? Sure, but you will have to dig back about four years worth of posts to find it. Here's what happened, briefly: -Young college student at a small Cessna dropzone in Kansas gets his hands on a wingsuit from someone online who did not ask him about his experience. -He had under 100 jumps (around 80 if I remember right) -He didn't read any training manual, didn't really know how to hook it up correctly, and wasn't instructed or coached by anyone. -He got out had a hard time in the suit, deployed unstable and was wrapped up in his suspension lines when he went in and died. I have since trained four of this guys old friends. The first was a guy named Chris who used to post on here frequently. I trained several more here at Z-hills over the Christmas holiday.

Ankie already answered, but let me just say that I love my new one. The spacer foam is comfortable and the "racing stripes" down the sides of the rig look cool. Chuck

A bunch of the stuff on the Wiki is total propaganda. Just some of the skydiving-related history stuff has me reeling.

Assuming your profile is up to date and you only have 88 jumps, you are going to have to wait alot longer than 30 jumps to get any instruction on any wingsuit in FL. As far as I know, there are no wingsuit instructors at Homestead and none of the people at Sebastian, Z-hills, or Deland are going to teach you with under 200 jumps. Going out and "just trying it" without any proper guidance and with insufficient skydiving experience is what killed the first guy who ever died in a BirdMan wingsuit. Wait till you have 200 jumps and I will GLADLY train you for free here at Z-hills on a smaller, more managable than that S3. Chuck

The leg stance is definitely narrower on that production suit. That's a plus in my opinion. Looks like a good fit, Tony.

That suit makes sense to me. The ergos of the wing grippers don't seem bad at all. I can't wait to see one up close.

That was a very scary video. I see both wing cutaways out and visible in the video. I wonder why the girl held onto them for so long? Yes, I bet this surely did pucker her butt and I am glad she got out of it with a clean canopy over her head. Wow.

Glen you have NO problem telling me that these guys only jump with each other. NEVER with any other experienced wingsuit pilots on the west coast. Why defend them now? Hey, Eddie, have you ever jumped with any of these guys. Hey, JP, did you ever jump with any of them when you were there? Hey, SARAH FUCKING BRACHER, have YOU, as the most experienced wingsuit pilot I know at Perris EVER jumped with these guys? Seriously??? Did they, instead, hide their "project" from you guys and simply not want to be in the air with you? I would really like to know. I just got an inflamatory PM from Jeb asking me "if I even BASE jumped" and I piled right back into him and gave him my reasons why I thought this was a clusterfuck. Please don't try to fuck with the guys that actually do this as more than a sideline/whim! I am simply not impressed and neither should any of you other "real" wingsuiters. I give a rat's ass how cool you think you are for pulling at 300 feet and lower. That has NOTHING to do with your actual proficiency at flying a wingsuit. Again: I don't care how much heat I take from these people. None of them fly wingsuits as much we do here at Z-hills and none of them have been doing it as long as we have. Please come to Z-hills and show me what you have fucking got. Chuck

Sloppy flying plus tree grazing plus poor opening technique equals total clusterfuck in my opinion. The coolest thing about this stunt is the motherfucker who fell on his ass at the top of the escalator during one of the fly-bys. Like Robi said (and I said in the wingsuit forum): if you want to have maximum power and range as you pass an object then you need to dive down to it and flatten out as you approach it from the rear. Sinking down to an object is assinine. Flame on, Cherries.

Only because that's the only suit he had at the time maybe. Your and my definition of "ton" is clearly different.

I sent it in on April 13th and just got it back today! Nice! Long live the the PC 109!

I set it as my background. Nice.

Yes, as everyone else has stated, tack them down. What happens with soft links (of any manufacture) is that they get a "set" the first time you deploy. If they take the set with the tab or ring still inside the riser, then you will likely never have a problem with that tab/ring sticking out to the side. If they take the set with it outside, it's always going to work it's way back out there, even if you stick them back under after you land on subsequent jumps. You can help yourself out tremendously during initial assembly by just setting them manually on the ground. Once I rig the soft link, I rotate the tab/ring under the riser where I want it, stand on the three-ring and yank the hell out of my suspension line group a few times. That ensures there is an even load on all two or three wraps (manufacturer dependant) and it will generally prevent any occurences of "tab/ring creep". It's the same as setting your CYPRES loop in the disk. Chuck

There were a ton of Hornets at Raeford back when they were still selling them. Apart from the relatively brisk openings on some, they were great canopies.

I always try to do something special on my x-thousands.

You hit the nail on the head, JP. People who follow the four-page card to the letter are definitely teaching the canopy stuff. People who pencil-whip a two-page A-card just to get back in the air with their next $30 dollar piece of meat are the ones who are fucking people. I am a competitor (well, a lapsed competitor at this point) and hold a PRO rating as well, so I WONDER if my students get the full benefit of my knowledge when I teach the FJC and brief them up for their AFF jumps. You bet your ass they do, because I know how important it is. It's a tremendous responsibility that some people are content to just blow right by. The responsibility lies with the school to provide a complete, solid base of experience and knowledge prior to setting these young jumpers free on the world. Again, all of the basic skills ought to be covered in the A-license progression. Chuck

No shit! I sure hope you are going to put some turf or beach sand on the ends of that thing. I would hate to ball it up on that ground. It's like Perris! Post pics when it's full of water! Chuck

air rebels. www.airrebels.com