SkymonkeyOne Retires
On Friday, January 24th 2003, Sergeant First Class Charles W. Blue II stood at attention in front of his Commanding Officer for the last time. After 20 years of service to his country, SFC Chuck Blue, also know as Skymonkeyone in the skydiving community, retired from the U.S. Army.
As witness to the fact that there was a large crowd at Chuck's retirement ceremony, one could tell that he was a well respected member of his unit and among the people in Raeford and Ft. Bragg. Amongst the group watching the ceremony were his fellow soldiers, friends, skydiving buddies, past roommates, girlfriend Katie Sell and family members. Earlier in the week, Katie had phoned Chuck's father and step-mother to let them know about Chuck's retirement, but she wasn't sure they were going to be able to come. Five minutes before the ceremony was to begin, Buddy, the DZO of Skydive Opelika in Alabama, and Diane Blue walked through the doors, surprising everyone in the room but most of all Chuck.
During the ceremony, Chuck's Commanding Officer recited Chuck's military history and then he said many kind words about the type of soldier Chuck was. Finally, Chuck was presented with a medal, and a large framed collage documenting the different areas in which Chuck became proficient during his tenure in the Army. The ceremony ended with a long receiving line of everyone giving Chuck their well wishes and he gave every person a big hug in return. One could tell from the grin on Chuck's face that his retirement was a moment he was quite happy to be experiencing.
Once the ceremony was over, it was time to party in true Skymonkey fashion and it was declared that everyone was to "drink like Vikings!" The ceremony and party were both held at Aviator's Bar and Grill on the Raeford dropzone located at the P.K. Airpark in Raeford, N.C. A delicious buffet dinner was provided for all of the partygoers, including desserts made by Katie herself. There were many shots and toasts abound, all saluting the man of the evening making it a very celebratory time. To add to the festivities, the Bob Steele Band, a rock/blues band, performed for the remainder of the night. The band brought the house down with their smooth, rocking sound, and got the crowd to dance the night away helping the party continue well into the morning. All in all, it was a great way to honor an amazing soldier, skydiver and man.
SFC Blue enlisted in the army on 23 October 1981 on the delayed entry program. He then entered active duty on 2 August 1982 after graduating from Beauregard High School in Opelika, Alabama.
Upon completion of 11C basic training at Fort Benning, GA, then Private Blue was assigned to B Company, 3rd Battalion 36th Infantry, 3rd Armored Division in Ayres Kassern in Kirchgoens; the post generally referred to as "the rock".
After completing the Basic Airborne Course in September 1984, Spc4 Blue reported to the Special Forces Qualification Course. Then he went onto Company C 1st Special Warfare Training Bn where he completed the 18C Special Forces Engineer Course. Upon completion of the course, SFC Blue was assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group where he spent the next 6 years.
In September 1991, SFC Blue volunteered for newly reformed 3rd Special Forces Group. SFC Blue was assigned to Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group where he spent the next seven years performing both the Junior and Senior Engineering duties.
In July 1998, SFC Blue was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group S-3 where he served as the liaison for the BN's Company D in Fort Bragg and geographically displaced Company C. These companies conduct some of the highest risk training in the United States Military.
SFC Blue is a graduate of the 18C SFQC; the Operations and Intelligence Sergeant Course; the Combat Dive Qualification Course and Combat Dive Supervisor Course; the Military Freefall Parachutist Course and Military Freefall Jumpmaster Course; the Special Operations Training SWC pilot course in 1988; and the Anti-Terrorist Instructor Qualification Course.
His awards and decorations include the Expert Infantryman's Badge; the Master Parachutists badge; the Military Freefall Jumpmaster Badge; the Combat Diver Badge; the Guatemalan and Honduran Master Parachutist Badges; the German Shutzenshnur (gold award); and the Dominican Republic Military Academy Instructor Badge.
He also received the MSM, ARCOM with 2 OLC's; the AAM with 6 OLC's, two awards of the Humanitarian Service Medal for service in Cuba and Haiti; the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal; 7 awards of the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal; the Overseas Ribbon and the Army Service Ribbon.
SFC Blue retires to the life of a professional skydiver and hippy biker and he is now taking over the reigns as Manager of the Raeford Parachute Center School. He is accompanied by his girlfriend, Katie, his dog, Billy Bob, and his cat, Kitty.
Christmas Gift Ideas for Skydivers 2018
StarLog Skydiving & Rigging Logbooks
Price: $12
Brand new line of Skydiver and Rigger Logbooks. All spiral bound for easy logging and fit inside all standard size logbook covers.
StarLog Skydiver holds 304 jumps
StarLog Pro holds 1456 jumps
StarLog Rigger holds 684 logs
Available at ChutingStar
Power Tools
Price: $19.95
Want a great stocking stuffer with a low price? Give your loved one a Power Tool packing tool in holiday colors!
Available at Para-Gear
Hanging Handcrafted Wood Swooper Dude
Price: $20
Made of mahogany, coconut and jute, the details on this handcrafted swooper includes a canopy, lines, rig on the back, hair, determined swoop face and skirt.
Available at ChutingStar
Rig Hangers
Price: $42
With these colorful hangers you can hang your skydiving rig wherever you want. Whether it's on a rack at the dropzone hangar, on the back of a door, in your closet or anywhere else you can think of.
These powder coated hangers make it easy to spot your skydiving rig, as well as give it a nice accent.
Available at Para-Gear
The Summer I Became A Skydiver, Children's Book
Price: $25
Skydiver Ben Lowe wrote this children's book that tell's the story of a boy's introduction into a summer of skydiving. This 29-page hardcover book is a great short story that also helps explain skydiving to youngsters.
Available at ChutingStar
Glow Face Alt III Galaxy - $169
Meters and Black Only. The phosphorescent face provides a background glow to assist in low light conditions. The glow lasts over 2 hours in complete darkness, and is perfect for either night jumps or those sunset loads when it starts to get dark.
The Glow Face Altimaster III Galaxy features a field replaceable lens. In case your lens gets scratched or cracked you will now be able to replace it yourself instead of having to send it to get serviced.
Available at Para-Gear
Selections Skydiving Photo Book by Michael McGowan
Price: $43
This giant, hardcover photo book from McGowan is the perfect coffee table book of some of the most amazing shots in skydiving. Packed with more than 100 large, full-page photographs. Includes forward by Michael McGowan as well as liner notes from Angie McGowan and Tom Sanders.
Available at ChutingStar
Para-Gear Parachute Gear Bag
Price: $85
Durable fabric and heavy duty zippers make this bag ideal for storing and carrying all the gear needed for skydiving.
ID sleeve for personal information
Dual zippered main compartment with zip protector
Back pocket with additional inner zippered-pocket for storing accessories and documents up to size A4
Rubber handle on top and side
Heavy duty metal buckles and comfortable-shoulder straps
Durable, easy to clean, splash proof material.
Available at Para-Gear
Norge Roi - "Da Base" - It's a Beautiful Thing
When you're engineering a blueprint to construct a world skydiving record, you have to start with a solid foundation. Roger Nelson, at Skydive Chicago, was building the 300-Way World Record attempt on Chicago native, Norge Roi.
The objective of Skydive Chicago's endeavor to break its own world record was simple. Position twelve aircraft in formation at 21,000' above the ground. Have 300 skydivers jump out of the airplanes. Then, they will fly their bodies and dock on each other to form a pattern of concentric circles as big as a football field.
Last, at predetermined altitudes, they will let go of each other, make a 180° turn, place their arms in a delta-wing position, and speed away from each other, deploy their canopies, and land. They have 70 seconds to create the formation while they're dropping through the sky at about 120 mph.
Norge isn't just a team player, he's a team builder.It sounds scary, doesn't it. Yet, this effort wasn't about fear. It was about discipline, concentration, and team work. That's why Roger Nelson chose Norge Roi to be in slot "001"- the Captain of "Da Base". Norge isn't just a team player, he's a team builder.
Many of the other 299 skydivers who participated in the World Record Camp arrived with thousands of jumps in their logbooks on August 12 to start building the formation. They were committed to making 24 jumps. But Norge's 6 to 15 person Base Team had been practicing all summer. One member drove six hours to practice each weekend. Another drove four hours. The Base Team had launched nearly 200 times, and successfully completed Da Base 97 % of those times. As a union carpenter, Norge understands the value of a cornerstone. Da Base was the cornerstone of the 300-Way.
When asked what his duties as Base Captain were, Norge explains, "I was responsible for launching Base on heading, at the right speed, with nice, set back-up plans."
Da Base grew from 6 to 15 and then to 60 on the record. But, Norge's responsibility didn't end there. He signaled the entire 300-Way skydiving formation when it was time to stop flying and start deploying their canopies. Break-off altitude for this formation was 6,500'. The team member opposite Norge wore his chest-mounted altimeter upside down, so that Norge can read it without turning his head.
Conversation is impossible in freefall. Nevertheless, Da Base Six: Norge, George Wright, Duane Klinefelt, Christa Cross, Robert Lawton, Doug Durosia, and Mark Folkman communicated. "We had eye signals and head gestures-- we were very intimate with each other. My guys were spotting for me, all around me, watching for me."
At 6,500', Norge threw out his pilot chute, a piece of fabric that in seconds catches the air, and deploys his main canopy. His pilot chute was the first signal that the dive was over.
On video, when Norge's canopy deploys, he appears to be rocketing straight up from the center of the formation. In reality, the formation continued to fall while he was suspended above them.
This is unusual because, at the end of a skydive, most skydivers turn and track away from the formation, for collision avoidance, before they deploy.
When asked, as the centerpiece of the 300-Way, what he saw, Norge replies, "It was a beautiful thing. It was a trip. I've probably been extracted from 2,000 formations. I watch it every time. It almost looks like I'm taking off from it. It's a beautiful thing, the huge circular platform of colorful human bodies."
"It's a beautiful thing. It's a romantic thing. Especially the sunset load." Only a very few people in the entire world have seen what Norge saw under canopy high above the formation. He adds, with wonder, "The deployment sequence looked like a fireworks explosion-- people were tracking away, then their canopies opened." Norge nods and repeats, "It's a beautiful thing."
Norge's aesthetic appreciation may, at first, seem in-congruent. He's an imposing figure in his bright yellow jumpsuit, solid at 6' and 225 pounds. Rugged, with an easy grin that makes him seem much younger than his 45 years, his tone shifts. "I could see everything from up there, and I go into a defensive mode. I look for cutaways, wraps. Because I'm at 6,500', I could spot canopies on the other side of the river. As soon as I landed, I reported them to manifest so the divers could be picked up. I identified my guys by their parachutes. I wanted to know that they were OK. "
As he continues, Norge softens again. "I was up so high -- I could see the twelve planes lined up on the horizon for the traffic pattern." And again he adds, with sincerity, "It's a beautiful thing. It's a romantic thing. Especially the sunset load."
He explains, "I set up. I land. Then I reported on who's here. Who wasn't. Then, I went to the captain's meeting for the debriefing."
Norge was also the Base Captain on the July 26, 1998, 246-Way World Record at Skydive Chicago. He has made nearly 3,000 jumps since he began in 1985.
Why does he do it? Why does he keep skydiving? He gazes off into the distance while answering, "We're magic people... There's something in our composition... We have a high artistic value... Everybody here has a life wish... The camaraderie inspires me... We experience things that most people never experience... It's a special life... I really feel blessed... Not many people get to do this... Especially at this level... These are some of the best skydivers in the world."
Roger Nelson was trying to create another world record, and he put a Chicago carpenter in charge of building the foundation. The efforts to break the record concluded on Sunday, August 20th. For more information about the record attempt, visit www.skydivechicago.com.
Marcelaine Wininger is an instrument-rated commercial pilot, flight instructor, Grand Rapids FSDO Safety Counselor, and a skydiver. Her free-lance writing has appeared in McCall's, The AAA magazine, and Michigan Living, The International Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts, Teaching Theater, Michigan Education Association Voice, English Journal, Midwest Poetry Review, Superiorland, UP Catholic, Above the Bridge , Marquette Monthly and many newspapers. For three years she was a national-level American Red Cross Disaster Public Affairs Officer. In addition, she's an English teacher of at-risk high school students at Houghton High School in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
NZ Aerosports Offers "Weatherhold Woogie" For Those Trapped Indoors
With Covid-19 shutting down cities and even countries around the world, it's not just skydivers who have been affected by the limitations put on both movement and the ability for businesses to operate. We've seen a number of music artists and even actors coming out and offering online forms of entertainment for those stuck under quarantine or even lockdowns.
Well now New Zealand Aerosports have decided to offer a little something for the skydiving community. You're likely to be out of luck finding an operating boogie in the current situation, but that doesn't mean you can't still create a bit of a skydiving vibe from the comfort of your computer. It may not quite be the same as partying with all your friends, but it's still cool to see something that can lighten the mood in these otherwise uncertain times.
Below is the information on this "Woogie" event as sent out by NZ Aerosports:
By Administrator, in News,
Taylor Air Sports closes
Taylor Air Sports has folded it's last parachute and closed it's doors at the Fairfield County Airport. "We told them we were not going to renew their lease when it runs out next May," said Steve Goodyear, president of the Fairfield County Airport Authority. Gene Taylor, president of Taylor Air Sports, said they decided to close the doors Jan. 1.
Taylor Air Sports provided parachute training for students and carried out jumps at the airport during good weather.
Taylor said they were running approximately 1,000 students through the school a year and providing between 3,000 and 4,000 jumps a year.
"We've been there for 14 years, and I spent the last two years there full-time trying to make it a go," Taylor said.
Goodyear said one of the reasons for not renewing the lease was concern about the number of jumps being made onto the runways with the air traffic coming into the airport, especially on the weekends.
Taylor said the closure and the non-renewed lease was partly political and partly because he just didn't want to bother with it anymore.
Ron Houser, a member of the Taylor Air Sports Skydiving team, said he would miss it.
"Taylor Air Sports has run a safe, fun and friendly operation at the Fairfield County Airport since 1988," Houser said. "Their safety record is impeccable, as any of their customers can attest to."
Houser said Taylor was the life at the airport.
"Taylor Air Sports actually breathed life into the Fairfield County Airport. On Saturdays and Sundays, when TAS was open for business, a majority of the cars in the parking lot belonged to TAS members or skydiving spectators. There were countless people who had no interest in the airport or flying at all who would come there to watch the skydivers," said Houser. "With the departure of TAS and Gene Taylor from the Fairfield County Airport, that facility will lose a very valuable resource of aviation knowledge and experience. These are qualities that any airport of that size would be proud and happy to have available to it."
Taylor said that he was looking around and trying to find a place to base the school, but it had been a tough couple of years.
"If we don't find something by the beginning of the season, sometime by April or May, we will quit," Taylor said. "It's too bad, but that's life. I quit a lucrative full-time career to pursue this, but business is tough enough without having to fight the Good Ole Boy network at the Airport Authority. It's time to move on."
Goodyear said the airport was looking to use the hanger for other aircraft.
Performance Designs gives back to the community
Performance Designs donates masks to first responders and healthcare workers in their hometown. PD employs just shy of 200 folks in VolusiaCounty. In late March, when the Coronavirus concerns began to close in on the area, PD closed their production facility. After a couple of weeks of planning, they reopened, primarily for the manufacturing of Defense Industrial Base products, and with many new health and safety guidelines in place. Constant cleaning in the factory continues, in addition to other changes in the "new normal" work environment. Many folks working at PD wanted to help the community and do something for local first responders.
Performance Designs reached out to another local Florida business that manufactures masks and partnered with them. The goal is to support local manufacturing, as well as to provide masks to first responders and healthcare professionals. For every mask sold, a mask is donated. It has been 2 weeks and more than 400 masks have already been donated. PD anticipates many more donations in the coming weeks.
"Performance Designs is part of the skydiving community, and we're also part of the local community as well. The opportunity to bring those two communities together in this endeavor has been great. Every little bit helps, and we want to do our part."
- Albert Berchtold/Marketing Manager
This week they have shipments of masks going across the US as well as Great Britain, France, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Mask donations were provided to AdventHealth Foundation (Deland Hospital), Deland Police Department, and Deland Fire Department, as well as local assisted living facilities.
By Administrator, in News,
New Zealand skydiving plane crash
Badly injured victims of a plane crash in Motueka this morning were conscious and reassuring each other when help arrived, according to the first rescuers on the scene. Ambulance staff said two of the six people on the Skydive Nelson Cessna 185 plane were in critical condition with head injuries. The others on board the plane were badly hurt.
The 29-year-old aircraft lost power as it was taking off, and crashed deep inside a kiwifruit orchard on College St near Motueka airfield about 9.30am. It hit kiwifruit vines and slewed round 180 degrees as it struck.
All the injured were taken to Nelson Hospital by helicopter or ambulance, with the first - a 35-year-old man with serious head and chest injuries - arriving at 10.19am. The second critically injured patient arrived 25 minutes later.
Paramedic Hank Bader said the six people had suffered injuries including to the head and chest, and broken legs.
Father and son Ian and Cliff Satherley were working on an orchard with Pip Hart when they heard the plane go down nearby. They raced over to the crash site.
When they got there, they found people both outside and inside the badly wrecked plane, all conscious.
They were "just lying there quietly, reassuring each other. What they were doing was really good", Cliff Satherley said.
"All we did was reassure them, and make sure they were all breathing until emergency services arrived. Thank God there was no fire."
St John volunteer Vickie Hovenden, a nearby resident, arrived and emergency services - called by neighbour Ron Ewers - were not long behind her.
Fire engines, the Fire Service emergency vehicle and ambulances, quickly converged on the scene. Cordons were thrown up around the crash site, apparently amid fears that the aircraft's full fuel tanks could ignite.
Emergency services put out calls for doctors and extra medical staff from Nelson and Wakefield.
She said the plane had reached about treetop height when it appeared to lose power and plunged to the ground.
Her husband Ron ran inside and phoned emergency services. "They responded really quickly. It only seemed like a couple of minutes and they were there."
Mr Ewers witnessed the crash and said that the engine stopped as the plane was climbing.
"They're always working a bit when they take off. This one stopped working. We knew it was in trouble, being that plane we know he doesn't cut the motor for fun."
The plane did not get more than about 20 metres above the ground.
"The nose went down, it did a twist and then started down."
Senior Sergeant Grant Andrews of Motueka police said there were six people on the plane - a pilot, a video camera operator, two jumpmasters, and two passengers.
The crashed plane was a mangled mess, with a wheel and undercarriage debris scattered around.
"It's a miracle there are any survivors," Mr Andrews said.
He said when emergency services arrived they had to cut some people out of the plane and some had been flung out.
Stuart Bean, owner operator of Skydive Nelson, said the Cessna was bought two years ago and there had been no problems with it before.
Weather conditions were perfect and there was nothing unusual about the operations, said Mr Bean, a pilot. Six people was a normal load for the aircraft.
The plane was built in 1972 but was "not old for a Cessna", Mr Bean said.
The 10-year-old company, which employs six people, has one other aircraft and has operated out of Motueka since September 1999. Previously it was in Nelson.
Mr Bean declined to identify the people involved.
A Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigator was on the way from Christchurch.
Staff at the Skydive Nelson office were busy contacting relatives and friends of the people involved in the accident. Victim Support workers were on hand.
Nelson Hospital was well-prepared and equipped to handle the injured in the crash, general manager Keith Rusholme said.
Scheduled surgery was postponed in preparation for the arrival of the six patients, while all theatre, accident and emergency and intensive care unit staff were put on standby.
"Initially we had a full staffing component. We put everything on maximum alert and then wind it down from there, depending on what happens," Mr Rusholme said.
"In terms of numbers, this doesn't happen very often. But we're trained for this kind of thing."
Patients due to be transferred from Christchurch to Nelson Hospital because of the nurses' strike, remained in Christchurch for the time being.
Tasman Mayor John Hurley received news of the crash at a Tasman District Council meeting this morning and said his first thoughts were for the injured people.
"It (the skydive operation) is a well-run organisation in my view, from the information we have on it. It's a very regrettable situation.
Sunpath - SPS B009 (23 May 2013)
DATE: May 23, 2013 SERVICE BULLETIN# SPSB009
SUBJECT: SUPPLIER/VENDOR RECALL OF PS70104 HOUSINGS (METAL FLEX HOSING INC)
STATUS: MANDATORY INSPECTION AND REPLACEMENT OF RECALLED HOUSINGS
SERVICE BULLETIN: MANDATORY INSPECTION (COMPLIANCE WITH METAL FLEX HOSING MATERIAL RECALL)
IDENTIFICATION: ALL JA101 XX HARNESS CONTAINER ASSEMBLIES (JAVELIN ODYSSEY) WITH METAL FLEX HOUSING BATCH #33234 A AND 33227, .375ID PS70104 HOUSINGS.
SEE SERIAL NUMBER LIST BELOW.
38159
38891
38901
38912
38959
38973
38987
38997
39027
39037
39047
39061
39165
38231
38892
38902
38913
38960
38975
38988
38999
39028
39038
39048
39063
39419
38453
38893
38903
38923
38961
38976
38989
39013
39029
39039
39049
39064
39499
38523
38894
38904
38924
38963
38978
38990
39014
39030
39040
39050
39066
39527
38589
38895
38905
38925
38964
38979
38991
39021
39031
39041
39051
39070
38753
38896
38906
38943
38967
38980
38992
39022
39032
39042
39054
39076
38799
38897
38907
38945
38968
38982
38993
39023
39033
39043
39055
39083
38800
38898
38908
38946
38970
38984
38994
39024
39034
39044
39056
39087
38860
38899
38909
38947
38971
38985
38995
39025
39035
39045
39058
39089
38890
38900
38910
38953
38972
38986
38996
39026
39036
39046
39060
39118
BACKGROUND: Metal Flex Hosing (supplier of flexible metal housings) has recalled 195 total PS70104 .375” ID SS housings due to the ability of the coil to separate. 155 of these housings were received by Sun Path Products, Inc., 124 of which were installed in harness container assemblies, 27 pulled from inventory prior to use and 4 damaged/discarded. (Note: this is not a failure mode. Separating of the coil does not impede normal operation or function of the system)
Who can inspect: Anyone can inspect this area. See photos below.
What to inspect: All JA101 XX harness container systems listed in table above. Inspect Reserve Ripcord housing.
PROCEDURE: If the serial number is listed in the above table, inspect the available exposed reserve ripcord housing. Locate the lower end of the housing, which is clamped to the Main Lift Web, just above the reserve ripcord pocket. Inspect the exposed length of housing from the clamp upwards; ensure that the coil has not separated/unraveled. Be sure to inspect the section that is routed through the chest strap.
Inspection Results:
A. HOUSING FOUND TO BE INTACT (GOOD): The rig may continue to be jumped with periodic monitoring until the next repack cycle or earlier elective replacement. However this housing must be replaced at the next repack cycle. See http://www.sunpath.com/support/HousingReplacement.pdf for instructions for your rigger to complete the replacement of the housing.
B. HOUSING FOUND TO BE SEPERATED/UNRAVELLED (BAD): The housing must be replaced before the next jump by a certificated senior or master parachute rigger (or foreign equal) or the manufacturer. See http://www.sunpath.com/support/HousingReplacement.pdf for instructions for your rigger to complete the replacement of the housing or instructions to send your system back to the manufacturer.
Resolution:
A: Housing is intact and will be monitored and replaced at the inspection/repack cycle.
1. NOTE ON PACKING DATA CARD, SPSB009 COMPLETED
2. AT TIME OF REPLACEMENT, FILL OUT WEB FORM AND SUBMIT at http://www.sunpath.com/MetalFlexRecall.html and add “–Replaced“ after SPSB009 COMPLETED from step 1 above.
3. NO FURTHER ACTION REQUIRED
B. HOUSINGS ARE SEPERATED/UNRAVELLED:
1. GO TO http://www.sunpath.com/support/HousingReplacement.pdf FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS ON REPLACEMENT OF THE SUBJECT HOUSINGS.
2. AT TIME OF REPLACEMENT, FILL OUT WEB FORM AND SUBMIT at http://www.sunpath.com/MetalFlexRecall.html ;NOTE ON PACKING DATA CARD AND RIGGER LOG BOOK, SPSB009 COMPLETED REPLACED.
3. NO FURTHER ACTION REQUIRED.
COMPLIANCE DATE: INSPECTION BEFORE NEXT JUMP (BY ANYONE) AND MANDITORY HOUSING REPLACEMENT AT NEXT REPACK CYCLE BY FAA SENIOR OR MASTER PARACHUTE RIGGER OR FOREIGN EQUAL.
AUTHORITY:
DAVID L. SINGER
Sun Path Products, Inc.
Director of Engineering
404
West Edinborough Ave
Raeford NC 28376 USA
Telephone: 910 875 9002
FAX: 910 875 9272
DISTRIBUTION:
1. All Sun Path Products Dealers
2. PIA Technical Committee
3. PIA Rigging Committee
4. National Aero Clubs, Parachuting Section
5. All Parachuting publications
6. Military Parachute Organizations
7. FAA MIDO SAVANNA
8. FAA FISDO, GREENSBORO, NC
9. FAA ACO, ATLANTA, GA
10. DGAC, FRANCE
Skydivers
Yes, I know who you're talking about.
It is these crazy guys, who jump out of perfectly good aircraft with the bunch of ropes and fabric in their backpack.
The only reason why they are allowed to do this is the fact that the pilot wants to get rid of them. Badly.
Having a cabin full of freaks which are laughing, kicking out the jokes only they can understand and giving each other high five from time to time... you know, I can understand the pilot.
Some of these guys are so untolerable so the pilot makes them to get out in the middle of the way up (sometimes at 3,500 ft). The crazy bastards call this "hop and pop".
Aha. Hop'n'pop. You know.
Hop! And pilot turns the red lights. I believe this is because skydivers almost never listen to the pilot so he has to give them a visual cue. Most of them are still allowed to drive a car so the red light still rings the bell. Surprisingly, this bell tells them "the fun is about to begin"! Green light follows.
Pop! The guy is popped from the plane. I suspect, sometimes, this happens not without a good kick to the ass from the humble bros and sisters. Why would they call it "pop" otherwise???
Then, there is always somebody who is curious if the pushed out guy got his lesson - you can always see a few heads out of the plane looking at the guy tumbling in the air.
No, they had not been such freaks from the very beginning.
In the beginning the innocent guys and girls were lured into the small room full of weird stuff: worn out harness containers hanging on the ceiling looking like just taken from a dead body, creepy plane cabin imitation, tables on the wheels with soft tops looking very... very... suspicious.
The whole place looks like a mideval torture chamber.
Then, during several hours they are asked to do a lot of strange things: hang in the harness and partially disconnect it from the hanging ropes, falling down like been hanged, assume strange poses on the soft table, fall and roll on the floor while other yelling "PLF, PLF!!!", memorize a lot of motions which doesn't make much sense for any decent person who got used mostly to the movement of glass with beer to the mouths.
I think, "PLF" must be an abbreviation for Practice Leaning to the Floor. But why jump from the small stair for that???
All this is sometimes interrupted with the videos showing multiple ways how the parachute doesn't work. And such videos for some strange reason are supposed to be encouraging. No way!
After a few hours, when the instructor ensured the guy is driven crazy enough already, they get with the student on the plane going up.
While it is the beginning, no normal person is going to jump out of plane, but these bastards got a trick for it: one of them holds the poor guy on one side, another - on the other side and then they suggest "just to look at the prop". Yeah, they are trained well so it is easy to push the relaxed guy into the air.
During the freefall their favorite joke is to tease the guy in the middle with quite inappropriate gestures.
The most popular is the gesture which the Rome Ceasers showed "death to him" to the gladiators at the arena: big thumb down.
Some other gesture is the way people in the Europe say "you're an ugly goat" - two fingers apart.
When the student screams and kicks legs, they just tip the big thinger to the palm showing "shut up".
And when they sick and tied of the guy, they point to him, which will mean "fuck off, pull now so we cannot see your ugly face any more around".
Do you know why they give the guy the radio on the first jumps?
They always say "it's a one way radio" but actually they enjoy listening to the screams of the student.
It is obvious that after such a treatment the guy goes nuts completely and gets an inevitable desire to repeat.
However, some of them reasonably try to get rid of instructors on the jump (who wants these freaks around, really???). The most popular ways are: don't give an exit count or exit in the middle of count, tumble like a bitch on the exit, hoping that the instructors will be lost, assuming the unusual positions in the freefall hoping the guys aside will not be able to hold on. Apparently, this almost never works – in the most successful cases the best achieved result could be the one instructor lost only.
With the time, guy's craziness goes deeply and it is only one instructor needed to make him out of plane. To check that the process of madness goes well, instructor requires the guy to do weird things on the jump: put the head completely out of plane and look for aircrafts, roll and rotate while falling, try to hit the small piece of land while landing.
The advancing on that way is almost completed when the guy decides to jump out of plane alone.
However, after a few jumps alone almost all of them got a bit better and prefer to get out with a coach, trying to hang on him during the freefall. Obviously, it is safer to hang on something firm while in the air! They call it "docking".
The progressing in that is recorded in the special (I believe, medical) sheet (white or yellow) and then submitted to the organization which tries to keep account of the sick bastards. The organization is named USPA which is apparently the abbreviation for US Psychiatric Advisory. In 25 jumps and when all the symptoms are listed, USPA classifies the guy and assign him a first "A" number in the sad history of sickness.
The progressing classifications are:
A - Almost Hopeless
B - Better Be Avoided
C - Completely Crazy
D - Dreadfully Mad
It took time for USPA to figure out exact symptoms of progressing from one category to another.
However the common anomalies were noted and listed (like jumping into the water, jumping in the middle of the night etc.)
It is noticed that many guys prefer to exit from aircraft not alone (some prefer to have as many jumpers as possible surrounding them). And this is a natural fear - and it is not a rare to see multiple jumpers hanging on each other in the sky. Sometimes, by chance, their formation looks even nice. However, within a minute they realize that hanging on the other guys don't help them from getting close to the earth and they break off and fly do the different directions, obviously scared. I personally saw 30 such guys at once, flying from each other as fast as they could.
Some of them try to pretend nothing unusual happens and flying sitting - like they were at home on a sofa. Some prefer to have some roof over the head and flying head down.
Anyway, all of them soon realize that something goes wrong. "Most probably", they think, "it is that heavy backpack drags me down to earth" and the obvious decision is to get rid of it. For some unknown reason all of them start with ripcord or BOC pilot chute...
In a few seconds the parachute opens and now they have the desire not to get down to earth somehow satisfied. Poor bastards! They could have simply stayed in the plane instead!
Any reasonable man can confirm that having as big umbrella as possible above you is safer under the open sky.Who know, what can fall from it on your head. Especially, when you are flying.
So, obviously, the most experienced skydivers land with two parachutes over them.
They call their parachute "canopy". "Canopy" must have came from Russian “konoplya” and in Russian it means "cannabis" - something that gets you high, which obviously is associated both with the parachute and the whole process itself. "Get high naturally!" - they say, - "Skydive!”
Hmm... I think skydiving should be declared as a controlled substance too.
Note, while under canopy these guys are very dangerous and do not hesitate to use their awful knives (designed in the best traditions of Jack the Ripper) if somebody else decided to join them. Even if another guy just wanted to chill out together!
The separate branch of the symptoms is the animalizing. Some of these guys (and their number is progressing with the years) decide that they are not humans but the... birds. Yes, birds!!! I suspect birds flu has something to deal with it.
They take on the bird-like costumes. Sure thing, somebody is making money on this heavy mania, selling the bird suites to them. Then they jump out of plane.
Another proof of the animal-like anomaly is then they get and fly together. They call this "flocking" - what else needs to be said!
Sure think, not all of them so unreasonable. There are some guys who recognize their “mental change” and do the best to make it safe. The best of them do not get on the plane to jump on awfully high altitude with heavy backpack stuffed with two parachutes.
They know that it is safe to jump from low, unmoving object. They know that two canopies introduce exhaustingly big number of options: which to pull?
So they jump from very reliable, unmoving, low bridges, buildings and cliffs. With one canopy only.
These ones are obviously less crazy and the other skydivers call them BASE jumpers - they are nuts too, but only basically nuts.
Yeah, and, of cause there are some guys who enjoys to see the normal people dropped from the plane. These are very smart and persuade the good citizens to do this, proving on the ground that there is nothing scary in that.
"You even don't have to wear this heavy ugly backpack. I can do it for you. But put this harness on so my boss would not suspect anything."
While in the plane, they sit behind the poor guy and, unexpectedly, grab his harness and tie up to his one.
He get close... very close... to the guy or the girl.
And I personally saw how they pushed the poor one to the aircraft exit in front of them, telling them: just cross your hands on your chest, there is nothing else you can do now... Yes, I was the one of the guys dropped out of plane that way.
But this... hmm... close relationship doesn't last long - in 6-7 minutes they are on the ground, and giggling, seeing as normal people runs from them, screaming on their way.
"They are excited!" they say. Yeah, right!
If the guy doesn't run away - here we go, he is another candidate for AFF (see what I wrote about it before). Oh, yeah, AFF is obviously for Awfully Freaked Fella - the student.
So, when you are going to marry a skydiver, don't even hope that he or she is going to be around you all the time. Sky and jumping will be the on the top of his/her list of priorities. And if you want to get to that list not far after sky, jumping, boogie, bonefire, beer, new container, try a wingsuit, new reserve, freeflying, freeflying jumpsuit, wind tunnel, night jump, audible alti, jump from balloon, big ways, CRW, hook turns, swooping, go to Florida to jump in winter, spend vacation on drop zone in New Zealand, high-altitude jumps, sleep sometimes, try weight, try that cool new canopy on boggie, jump from the cliff in grand canyon, dogs... then you have to become a skydiver too!
Wanna have him or her around more often? It is simple. Do RW with them!
Blue skies!
New Wind Tunnel in Lake Elsinore
Marissa Partners, LLC and Aero Systems Engineering today announced their plan to open the world's most advanced design indoor skydiving facility. Located in scenic Lake Elsinore, the state-of-the-art complex will be the widest diameter commercial facility of its kind at 14 ft. and capable of producing wind speeds in excess of 150 mph.
The Tunnel VS 1(TM) is a realistic skydiving simulation experience. Unlike some older technology wind tunnels that exist today, The Tunnel VS 1(TM) provides participants with the actual sensation of flying through the air just like a real skydive from a plane.
"Our indoor skydiving facility will allow people of all ages to come in and experience the thrill of an actual skydive in a safe and controlled environment while also serving the training needs of recreational, professional and military skydivers throughout the world," said Bruce Federici, a managing partner for the firm.
"Think of all of those people who would never jump out of a perfectly good airplane in order to skydive, but would love to experience first hand what it is like to be free to fly!"
Indoor skydiving facilities have existed for some time for use by both the military and skydiving markets. Only recently have they begun to catch on as an affordable source of family recreation and entertainment.
"The City of Lake Elsinore is a recreation and tourism oriented community that already has a strong tie to skydiving," said Marlene Best, assistant city manager. "A facility like this would be a great addition, and create synergy with the attractions already here," she added.
Aero Systems Engineering Inc.'s President, Chuck Loux, said, "We are enthusiastic about this opportunity to work with Marissa Partners, LLC in providing this state-of-the-art wind tunnel."
Aero Systems Engineering has more than 50 years of wind tunnel experience, including the successful Matos Military Freefall Training Facility, provided to the US Army at Fort Bragg, N.C. Aero Systems Engineering provides wind tunnels and jet engine test cells worldwide.
Today's announcement is the first step in a new era for the entire skydiving industry and represents a major shift toward more family-based recreation.
About Aero Systems Engineering
ASE designs and supplies wind tunnels for testing in all speed regimes: low speed, subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic. The company's primary wind tunnel business areas include turnkey projects (new facilities and facility upgrades), vertical wind tunnels/free fall simulators, automotive climatic wind tunnels, engine/rocket altitude test facilities, high temperature heaters, and design of all types of wind tunnels and associated systems and components.
About Marissa Partners, LLC
Marissa Partners is an investment holding company. The company's primary business is the development and operation of Vertical Wind Tunnels "The Tunnel VS 1(TM)" for recreational use. The company's focus is to create and market an exciting new form of recreational entertainment for the enjoyment of consumers and to provide a realistic skydiving simulator for skydiver training.
CONTACT:
Marissa Partners LLC
Bruce Federici, 909/615-3052
[email protected]
or
Aero Systems Engineering Inc.
Don Kamis, 651/227-7515
[email protected]