SkymonkeyONE

One pretty important thing that I failed to mention: all of the wings on Tony's (and Jeff's) suits are now constructed of Parapack. It's offered in two deniers, the heavier of the two being "420" if you can believe that! The beauty of that material is two-fold: -it's much more durable than any of the ZP options offered by any of the other companies. You are not going to destroy your $1000 suit if you but-slide a landing (are you reading this, LeRoy?) -it's available in many, more colors than any of the available ZP fabrics Anyway, that's something that I thought was significant since I can't count how many times I have seen suits of all the other manufacturers rip apart from the simple stress of flying. Another thing: all of the ribs in the wings are double stitched. Another thing: Tony offers a ton of graphics options. Another thing: double zippers are offered on all of the suits should you decide that you prefer wearing your legstraps on the inside. You now have the option of doing that on all models.

the second prototype is the suit in Jeff's avatar. The production version is incredilbly refined and flys great. He can smoke my ass, no matter which of my suits I am wearing. It really is a neat suit. Sort of a "fast GS-1"

It was probably a supply train. Guy's not typically equipped with heavy gunnery and/or trained in convoy security.

For me, the decision to release, when stability is "borderline" is dependant upon which axis they are flailing. If they are head-high and pitching fore/aft, then I am not about to let them go. If they feel like they might have a built-in turn, then I will probably give them a corrective signal, let them go, and let them "feel" that they are asymetrical. Holding a guy like that straight in the sky, he isn't going to get the feedback he needs through visuals in order to decide that "oh, I ought to stop this turn". I hope that makes sense. I would much rather put a trailer hitch on a spinning student than have to dive for a flipping one. Chuck

I know Skydive Chicago sends at least one Otter down there during the winter. Skydive Arizona sends planes down sometimes as well.

That post didn't make a lot of sense.

I second that. There are some fantastic instructors at Eloy who are also PST-rated competitors who used to routinely kick my ass on tour.

That's a cool looking canopy!

That's sort of accurate. There are two grass landing areas. There are a thousand acres of desert suitable for landing in all around those two grass areas.

Jeff is the "other" designer at Tony Suits. You know, the one that doesn't put webbies on his designs! That's him backflying in his Mach1 in his avatar.

Bring it, fooooo

I had to stop jumping a video camera for a full ten years because of the openings I had on my two Monarch 135's back in the day. Brutal is an understatement for the smackers I would get about half the time. That said, you can easilly tame the openings of those old canopies by simply getting an H-mod done. As far as performance goes, they fly exactly like an original Sabre. Chuck

Recall is very important. Your evaluator is going to have a little 3x5 card in his jumpsuit pocket with a list of exactly what maneuvers he is going to do and at what altitude he is going to execute his wave-off and pull. That keeps them honest. This is getting more and more common as well: tons of us are doing AFF with sidemounted cameras and .3 (or .25 even) lenses. Even docked on the side, you get a full view of the student and can best debrief your student without wasting a ton of money on outside video during the course. Video is NOT a requirement in the course, but some course directors nearly mandate it. Personally, I did not use it on my course, but I DO use my "inside" video on all of my real AFF jumps. It's silly not to use it if you already have a video helmet and a wide lens. No, it has never, ever affected my exits in case you are wondering.

Why do I seriously doubt that?

Sorry, bro. But since you insist, perhaps I will keep it up.

I can tell you with almost 100 percent certainty that it will be "none of the above"

All very good advice. While yoru dropzone probably does not have an AFF course director, it would not be odd if there were a designated evaluator to train with. Chuck

I will pay you a dollar to NOT take any video of Purple Mike. Seriously. I particularly don't want to see any more video of Mike's openings, Matt.

The Japanese freeflyer, Katsu (who is travelling around with Keiko), did his first flight with me yesterday here at the Hills. I don't think I have ever had a student who was so animated and freaking-out-happy in the air. It was cool. He and Keiko are here for two weeks (and are on every single load that goes up). Chuck

Quite a few actually.

Not bad, Matt.

I have been flying my three-times-reborn brushless Stryker with a bent propshaft for the past two weeks. It makes a howling noise when it flies in that out-of-balance condition and I have snapped two props due to the vibration. What fun! I am going to buy another motor and some extra props today, but it's fun to see how great these things fly half-destroyed. An odd bit of trivia: almost everytime I ball my Stryker up, it's into the ditch formerly known as the swoop pond. Odd. Scotty Burns, Mark Cochran, and I all also have helis. All are destroyed at the moment. Chuck

Spence always leads with his belly! Go Spence, GO!

No shit!

Please to be bringing your brushless foamies with you to Z-hills if you are coming to train or fuck off this season. We are some F-27 C Stryker battling muldoons here, and we don't mind crashing our shit into each other. We, like at Raeford, are flyers, not modelers, so keep your pretty balsa planes at the house unless you want us to fly straight into your shit. Chuck