SkymonkeyONE

First off, good on you for living! What container are you using? Your Vortex II as listed in your profile, or are you jumping another rig entirely for wingsuit? Regardless of what container you are using, do you have your corners modded at all? Are you packing "pin to grommet"? Do you have a stock length, or an extended bridle? Are you throwing your PC with everything you've got? That last bit, about a strong throw, can make up for alot. A weak throw is a prime cause for linetwists, particularly in wingsuits. Make sure you throw strong and keep your shoulders straight during the opening sequence. Like you, I went a very-long time between cutaways; over ten years. Like you, my next two were in a wingsuit; just not two in a row like you. I realized right away that it was imperative that I do everything in my power to make for clean deployments if I was going to make wingsuiting a primary discipline. Like you, I am also an "old" skydiver (laugh away Texas boys!). I very-clearly remember the Pintail canopy. What I remember about it was that it was notorious for spin-ups back in the day (when I was jumping an Excallibur). I can't fathom that canopy as a reasonable choice for wingsuiting. Question? You stated that you had at least 500 jumps on the canopy; is it in trim? Do you generally, on "regular" skydives, reach for the risers during deployment to keep it straight or to catch it with the risers if it starts to spin? If so, find another "squarer" canopy for your wingsuit flights. Yes, there are plenty of people that get away with jumping very-HP mains with a wingsuit, but there really aren't that many who choose that path who do NOT have chops. Me? I traded one of my Velocities for a Sabre2, albeit a very small one. It was the smart thing to do. Take care, Chuck

I was talking to my best friend, Ray Porterfield (who had seats on the 50 yard line) off and on the whole game. They are all on the way to town to roll Toomer's Corner. Beautiful. Chuck

Auburn just kicked the Gators' asses!

As you have already jumped the S1 and didn't have a problem with it, why NOT spend $200 on it? That suit cost over $900 new and if it's in good shape you have yourself a "fast" suit all your own. The only real problem with the original skyflyer as compared to the later models is lack of usable "pop". I made a ton of jumps on one and liked it fine. After that, sure, go ahead and buy yourself an Acro or a Phantom in your own colors if that's what you want. There really just aren't any of those suits on the used market right now. Both are great suits though. If I were buying a new Phantom, it would definitely have the Acro top vents, that's for sure. Chuck

The same as what? There has only been one RSL design on the 2k3 Racer. It's attached to both risers.

"everybody inside, upstars!" Everybody downstairs, outside!"

Most of my tandems are under Sigmas, but I bought a 2k3 Racer for a number of reasons: -I liked the much-lighter weight and size of the 2k3 Racer. I am a smaller TM (five foot seven, 160 pounds) -I liked that I could get the Racer with a main smaller than 370 square feet. -I didn't like the fact that it was going to cost me nearly three thousand dollars more for the Sigma I originally wanted to purchase. -I didn't like the fact that it was going to take me an entire season to get a custom Sigma due to the massive backlog of military and other orders. No cutting in line was possible, even though I was very good friends with both Mark Procos and Egon. My completely-custom-to-order (main, reserve, custom embroidered container) Racer was delivered to me in NC from Deland 14 days after I decided on my colors and sizes. I positively love the Sigma tandem system, but I am totally happy with my Racer. Chuck

I own a 2k3 Racer tandem and no, the RSL does not concern me.

The only caveat to your post, Rob, is that I believe you meant to say "mid 80's". I did a lot of the test jumping on FTS parachutes when Dave first started making them at his house and in my dad's loft before he moved to Alpharetta, GA (after he got out of the army). I jumped every single model Dave ever sewed and owned the very second 8-cell parachute he ever sewed. Chuck

If you fucked around when I was growing up, you got your ass tanned...period. My mother and grandmother would have me go outside and pick a "switch"; a small branch off the bush outside. They would grab me by the left shoulder and run my little ass in a circle as they smacked my butt with it. If I ever screwed up so bad that my dad had to lay a hand on me, my mom would have me sit in my room and wait for my dad to get home. He would wear my ass out with a belt. You KNEW you had royally fucked up if that happened. I am a firm believer in corporal punishment like I was administered at home (and at school!). It positively reinforces discipline and you can bet your ass that if I ever have any kids they will be brought up the same way. Kids for the past two generations have literally run all over their parents. The "meet the nanny" shows on TV present the worst examples of how bad it's gotten. Here's a line my dad used to repeatedly tell me when I had destroyed something or otherwise really fucked up: "boy, I was man enough to bring you into this world, I am DAMN SURE man enough to take you out of it." You would have to know my dad to understand the gravity of that statement. I was brought up in a VERY respectful household and I still, to this day, say "yes sir" and "yes ma'am" around my elders. Chuck

Jeff Nebelkof has been driving all over the state since the Chicks Rock boogie with a bunch of demos.

Have your wedding at Flock and Dock! Seriously!

I have two CYPRES (one "S") 2's and one nearly-expired CYPRES in my three rigs.

That's your opinion, but your opinion doesn't count very much to me. My experience in the suit led me to my opinion about the suit. More to the point, it's not so much my opinion as that of the two guys I regularly jump with who both own V2's. One, Scott Burns, has more than enough jumps on his suit to recognize that he just doesn't like the suit. He much-preferred his V1. I simply don't have a need to "take time to relearn" the V2; my V1 and S6 are perfect for what I use them for (instruction, dirty flocks, fast flocks, technical flocks). Robi makes great suits, I just don't like what I felt in the V2. It's not my bag. Your "just plain stupid" comment is just plain stupid. Not a good analogy. Lots of people out there don't have the money for multiple suits, so many of them choose to get the most HP suit that they can. Yes, I totally agree that the Phantom (a fantastic suit, particularly with the Acro top vent option) is a better flocking suit. It doesn't matter that the Vampire series was not "designed for flocking"; that's what most people who own them do with them. I didn't say that the V2 was a step backwards. I said that I liked my V1 and my S6 better than the perfectly-fitting V2 I jumped and I gave my reasons for stating such. Crazy talk is calling me "ignorant". Robert makes fantastic suits. I doubt he is pissed off that three of us on one dropzone simply don't like one model. Chuck

Come to Z-hills, fool! It's warmer here than Eloy! We did two Holiday Boogies at Eloy and the following two at Z-hills and much prefer it at Z. Chuck

I know I can positively land students better under my Firebolt 350, A Sigma 370, and the smaller of the two Icarus/Precision mains than I could under any of the older Vector Hi-Lifter and 421's/500's. If I ever wear out my personal 350 main, I will replace it with nothing larger than a 330 HOP. I simply don't need anything larger over my head as a 160 pound TM. Chuck

I jumped Jason's and found it both floaty and flappy (I could not make the legwing extension stop flapping).

Good, now maybe the fucker will put a back tire on his bike.

I was piss drunk at home after a day of skydiving and I was running through/around my house sort of mosh dancing/skipping to an old B-52's song when I tripped over my own feet and smashed face first into the hat shelf in my foyer. I split my chin open and it required seven stitches. My roommate back then, Rixter Neely, got it all on video. I still have the scar and tell my tandem students I got it when a former student smashed his head into my chin on exit, thus the reason I make them wear a frap hat. Chuck

We weigh them

I prefer non-booty, spandex arm RW suits (with leg grippers) for passengers.

There are plenty of dropzones that licensed 16 year old skydivers can jump. Where exactly are you going to visit?

That is the primary important reason for the robert cutaway system. The only time I ever pulled those handles was one instance where I jammed a zipper on my left arm unzipping after a brake fire. I had to pull the wing cutaways after I got under my reserve. They serve a very important purpose. Chuck

I can now, positively give you my ratings of all the three suits listed. I already own an S3, an S6, and a V1. I, today, traded suits with Scotty Burns (who owns a V2, but generally now flys a Tony Z-Wing Nebula). Anyway, I have just over 1,100 wingsuit flights and have been flying wingsuits since 2000. I really like my new S6 and I really like my V1. I do not on the other hand care much for the V2. Here's what I, as a very-experienced wingsuit guy, felt. A year ago, I was very happy with my S3. I had never been smoked by anyone in any other suit. At Flock and Dock 2.0 I had several good friends in Vampires smoke my ass horizontally on different techinical flocks. I was fucking pissed. Anyway, when I moved down here to Z-hills I got the opportunity to acquire a perfectly-fitting V1 from Scotty Burns. He had outgrown the suit and had ordered a V2 and a big Tony Z-wing. The Vampire fit me perfectly and flys fantastically. Faster by a wide margin than my S3, with as much lift. I asked my primary wingsuit sponsor (BirdMan) for a much faster suit and was offered the new S6. I was very skeptical that the new suit would be substantially better than my old S3, but I have to tell you that I was totally surprised. I got the S6 about two weeks after I got the Vampire. I really liked the Vampire, but I immediately found that I had WAY more range in the new S6. I swore it couldn't be possible, but I promise it's true. The S6 is at least as fast as either of the Vampires, but it has MUCH more lift. I could not stay up with a Vampire at all in my S3, but there is nobody I have jumped with who can smoke my ass in either a V1 or a V2. Here's what we did today: I started out with a jump and tandem swoop in my S6. Scotty was jumping his V2. Scott Bland also wore his V2 after his first reserve ride of the day. I wore both their asses out. On the next jump, we traded suits. I gave it everything I had speed-wise and float-wise, but Scotty was able to match my speed and pop horizontally on me anytime he wanted in the S6. Ultimately I hated the suit. It wore my arms out and it was not able to stay up with the fast-flying flock that was made up of VERY experienced wingsuit guys. It flew fast, but it would not stay up vertically. The V1, on the other hand, has much more usable range than the V2. It's a step back, flocking wise (regardless of speed and efficiency) and that doesn't make sense to me. Scott Bland was very bummed out that he could not get any "usable" range out of his brand-new V2. He's pissed and selling the suit immediately. After getting my fill of the V2 in our environment, I swapped Scotty's V2 for my V1 (Scotty's old suit that he outgrew). I got MUCH more usable range out the the V1. It was also MUCH less work on my arms than the V2 for the same, documented (by Neptune) performance. I jumped the V1 straight away after that last V2 jump, just so I would have a good reference of the felt performance of all three highest-end suits. My rankings are as follows: S6, V1, V2. More later. Feel free to PM me with specific questions. Scotty Burns will mirror my comments, as will Scott Bland (who owns six suits). Chuck

Scott bought a case of Shiner Boch for his first reserve ride. It was delicious. It's amazingly funny to me that the info pipeline got so fucked up so fast that Scott Campos left repeated messages on my cellphone saying that he heard that "Scott had went in". That's very, very funny to us there at the Hills. Anyway, Scott has personally told Campos that he is, in fact, still alive. The webbies will be cut off of Bland's suit tommorow first thing. The webbies will be gone and replaced with regular wrist cuffs and grippers. It's truly a beautiful suit, but man, I hate webbies.