SkymonkeyONE

You know, a man DOES have to eat! Gimme a break, fool! Boxes are packed and gone. Stress alleviated. Haircut? Check! Wardrobe? Check! Tickets? Check! Room reservations? Check! We leave very, very early Sunday morning. Chuck

Holy crap am I swamped. Everyone here in Z-hills is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. All three major vendors here in town (Tony, Sunrise/TPDS, Sunpath) are going. I don't know about the other two places, but we are assholes and elbows over at Sunrise trying to get stuff finished before the UPS guy shows up this afternoon. Our group will be arriving in Reno on Sunday. See you there! Chuck

Smallest I ever took was a four-foot-eight girl that weighed under 100 pounds. Size-wise, the harness was snug and I was confident.

Come on, Matt. It's just Jonathan.

I am sure Tim Bernard would agree with you, Paul.

EXACTLY!! You can't swing a dead cat in Florida without hitting an African American skydiver. Hell, the practically run the industry! As this is a site owned and operated by an African who previously lived in America, I think it's preposterous to use the "african american" term at all to refer to black people. Again, ones race, color, or creed has no bearing on whether or not they choose to jump out of planes or if I choose to partake of the activity with them. I am great friends with a lot of black skydivers. I am ALSO great friends with a lot of white African skydivers who happen to live in the USA. Chuck

Y'all have turned this into another philosophical debate, and that was not the purpose of this thread. They guy simply wanted to know where it was ok for a 16 year old to learn to skydive. I have given two options and several others have added theirs. Chuck

I just hope that I do not hear the words "first to do this" uttered in that show. It's far, far from the first time that has been done. The stomachs of Rixter Powell, Craig Girrard, and Charlie Mullins (just a short list) must be turning. Chuck

Our smallest student rig at Raeford was a Navigator 220 for a while. We got a 200 after we found out we needed something smaller and have jumped a very-tiny girl with a Sabre2 150 with great results. The smallest was one of our regular rental rigs. It had a CYPRES and an RSL, and more importantly, it fit. Sometimes you simply have to be creative in order to accomodate the smallest and largest students. Chuck

what a moron

Exactly. You have to have a way to carry all your other shit anyway. As to having your gear sliding down the highway, just DON'T ride like an idiot. Chuck

I don't buy that at all. I bet the black skydivers reading it are laughing their asses off, too.

Other than the obvious military connection, there just must be something in the water at Raeford. There are a ton of black guys that skydive there. For that matter, I am positive that the Carolinas have more black folks jumping than any other place I have jumped. Like I said in another thread, I could give a rat's ass what color a guy or girl is, so long as they jump! There are at least six black guys at Raeford with Tandem/AFF or both ratings. We definitely do not see color on that dropzone. For that matter, I have never seen any person of any other skin tone or nationality who was ever treated differently on a dropzone. Well, maybe the old Jordanian military team who showed up and routinely stood on the toilet rim and shit from three feet above the bowl! They were not terribly popular in that regard. Sharon down in Atlanta is fantastic! I am great friends with her! Oddly, my dad has run the dropzone on Moton Field in Tuskeegee, Alabama for nearly 20 years. In all that time, I don't think I could ever count more than two black jumpers who routinely jumped there who did not come over from Fort Benning. That said, his head pilot is a tremendously large black redneck named Clem. He's truly my brother from another mother. I have also introduced at least five black guys to wingsuit flight at boogies. That's three more than the number of Japanese people I have trained. Chuck

I am on page 683 now and just started a four hour "ass sitting" shift in front of a bank of computers and radios. Lets see how far I can get. Dagny just crashed in "atlantis" and is eating at Midas's house.

Isn't that the same time as the 200-ways and the Flock and Dock? Either way, I am going to taunt you repeatedly until you relent and get back in a wingsuit. Cheers, Chuck

My only compelling example of it "not" affecting glide is Ryan Scarlett. He is MASSIVE (320 out the door), but simply kills it in his Phantom. He is incredibly fast, yet maintains all the lift he needs to stay up vertically with flocks. I don't know any other guys that big, other than "TallGuy" on here who can say that. Chuck

You, or someone else in this thread, mentioned another pertinent point: "magic." There are some flights where you get out (or leap off) and your suit seems to instantly hit the sweet spot and you know it right away. There are other flights where you can replicate every single variable possible and you simply never get that "pop." You fidget around and tweek your position all you like, but you know you just never hit it. My very first flight on my S6 out of the Otter at Z-hills was a whopping 159 seconds. I have not replicated that time since, whether trying to or not. Oddly, it didn't feel like I was doing anything special at all on that flight. The only variable on that flight that I can think of that has changed since is that the mylar was not yet destroyed on the suit (particularly in the legs). Chuck

PM "hooknswoop" on here. He works at the tunnel, used to moderate this forum, and is very respected.

The rigger at Raeford, Rob, has made a few. He charges substantially less than anybody else, but he is still using the original Joe/MEL "webbing with grommets" rings. Beyond that, it's a decent single-pull slider. Both of mine have come straight from Joe Bennet though, and since he's my boy I have to stick with him, no matter what he chooses to charge me. Edited to add: I MUCH prefer the single-pull release. It's just a reach over your head and grab maneuver with little chance of screwing around and dropping it. Chuck

I am not about to "convert" to anything; I could not fathom tieing myself to one philosophy. I am just very intrigued by the book. I was never exposed to the work in either of the philosophy or literature classes I took in college. Objectivism, what I guess she calls her style, certainly does make sense in the context of this novel. The fact that every other "peoples' state" (country) in the novel seems to have already fallen to Socialism due to their own laziness ought to have wisened up the people in this book to what was happening here at home. It's deep stuff. I am on page 567 and it's small type, but I bet I finish the book by tomorrow night or the next day. I never make time to read at all unless I am away on these trips. I ought to do more of it.

Before I left Z-hills to come up here to work this contract in Virginia, I grabbed a big book off the shelf of City Hall. It's a book that I had intended to read many years ago, but never, for whatever reason, got around to. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. It's tremendously long, but fascinating. I am half-way through it's 1075 pages. I really like what it's saying and it makes me want to read more of her philosophical work. Anyone else have an opinion on it or any of the other stuff she wrote? Chuck

My favorite three alcoholic drinks have ALWAYS been: -cold -free -other people's

Not accurate any longer, Billy! You can train any method by USPA doctrine at age 16. They do at Raeford anyway.

USPA always has and always will allow 16 year olds to skydive with notarized parental consent. Now, whether or not your state allows it, or the DZO of that dropzone allows it is another thing altogether. Feel free to go to Raeford, North Carolina and jump at the DZ owned by the former Chairman of The Board of USPA and the many, many-year regional directors (Gene Paul and Tony Thacker). They have been doing business for over 35 years. (910) 904-0000 or (910) 875-3261. Chuck

Brrrr! It's till going to be chilly at both of those places then! Bundle up, my brother! PS: come back and visit us in Z-hills anytime. Chuck