NSEMN8R

They can't print anything in the paper that's not true, right? I can't believe experienced people here are judging her or calling her a retard based on what the media quoted her as saying. That sounds more like a wuffo reporter making up a story than an actual quote from someone with 50 jumps. I'm sure they had a good reason for not letting her jump, but I doubt if she really said that shit about a malfunction with 9 tangled cords... We've all seen reporters misquote people.

I just had this happen. I let the student decide weather she wanted to land by the camera or where the spectators could see her. She picked landing by her family.

I don't really see the realtionship between coaching and tandems. I'm guessing that most of the people who think it's unfair to charge extra for heavy tandems are either "Big" tandem masters who don't often get the pleasure of taking the 250 pounders all day long or not TMs at all so they have no idea what they're talking about. I'll do free coach jumps anytime. Those are fun. In general, big fat tandems are not as much fun as littler ones. I don't really think they're any more dangerous, but they are a lot more work. It sucks having them sitting all up on you in the plane and squeezing them out the door of a 182 is a pain in the ass sometimes. If I get a bunch of big ones in a row, I definitely notice it in the way my body feels when I'm done. Right now we charge the same for everyone, but if they wanted to throw a couple extra bucks my way for hauling the heavy meat, I wouldn't complain. Do you think it's fair if the big TM takes all of the 120 lb. little college chicks and the little guy has to take all the blobs because he won't overload the gear with them? I think the ones doing more work should make more money.

I jump a tonysuit. On mine, the fingertips are open so I can feel things fine. I've never had a problem finding my handle. The only downside to them that I can see is the slippery zp palm could suck if you have a hard cutaway. I have hard housings, so I'm not too worried about it, but I'll probably put something a little tackier on the palm. Other than that, I love the suit. The magnets instead of snaps and the velcro strips on the leg zippers make it really easy to get on in a 182 and alot easier to get off under canopy. And it's nice not having to attach the rig to the suit. I like that I can do back to back tandem video/wingsuit loads with the same rig without having to hurry up and thread my wings together.

Were there other factors in your decision not to take her, or was it just the ankle? I took a guy this summer with a sprained ankle, but he was in great shape otherwise. We got him to the plane and brought his crutches out to the landing area. He did fine. The only test I gave him was to make sure he could lift his legs up which was no problem for him.

A fat tax would be a great thing for us. I just read that MI is the fattest state in the US again this year. I wouldn't even mind splitting it with the DZ to cover the extra fuel they burn. Seems fair.

I know most of these fat tandem students are lying. We turned down a guy who wrote 280 on his waiver about 6 weeks ago. He came back this weekend and wrote 245. The jump went fine, but I still think he's full of shit. Do you weigh them? If you do, do you have problems with them getting offended?

Happy Birthday Clair! Hope to jump with you guys again someday. Tony

I'll mostly be throwing drogues at the boogie, but I'd like to get some base and wingsuit jumps in too.

No, you're probably right. I should know better. Actually, I've jumped at a handful of dropzones and as far as I'm aware, none of them regularly flex the risers or do anything with the 3 rings between reserve repacks. I'm glad I posted this. I'll do as AggieDave suggested this weekend. thanks i

They were both on Strong rigs with SET400 mains. It never spun on me. The fast stall sounds familiar, but it flew pretty much straight the whole time. Knowing the rigger/dzo that takes care of this gear, I'm sure they get flexed at least every repack cycle. Do they need it more often than that? I'm wondering if it didn't have something to do with the way the main risers had to go around the outside of the reserve risers. Maybe it was not pulling straight on the 3 rings? Having someone else there does add something to the situation. I think I almost gave the student on the first one a heart attack. When I saw the main out I let out a big "OH F&#$K". I know the dude shit himself. Having dealt with it the day before, I was able to keep up a little more professionalism on the second one. Both of the students did great. What's funny is while I was getting geared up I was talking to a guy who recently had his first tandem reserve ride and I said "I'm glad I haven't had to deal with that yet..." , so I get one. Then at the fire that night I was telling someone else "it was a total so I still haven't had a cut away.." Then the next day I get that

Had my first 2 tandem reserve rides this weekend. The first one was a total malfunction. I'll probably never know what caused it. I always do a good gear check and everything looked the same to me on this one as they always do. Student pulled at 5500. Nothing happened so I pulled the secondary. Still nothing so I pulled the cutaway and then the reserve like I was taught. The reserve came out and all was good for about 10 seconds. I just got the reserve toggles down when I felt the main come off my back. I looked back and saw it already out of the bag and starting to inflate. That scared the crap out of me. I couldn't figure out how I could have 2 out when I was sure I cut away first. I dragged it behind us for at least 5 seconds before it released. I still don't understand how the 3 rings could hang up enough that all the rubberbands and bungees came loose and the canopy came out of the bag. I guess in the end we're lucky it did because we probably would never have found it if it was still in the bag. On the second one the main came out and snivelled for a really long time like it sometimes does. So I got the toggles down and it popped right open as usual, but it opened with a big forward surge that I never noticed before when doing this. At first glance the canopy just looked like it had some closed end cells on the right. I went to pump the toggles to clear it, but at about half brakes it rocked backwards and stalled really fast. I tried it again and held it and let it snivel for a couple seconds to see if it would clear, but it didn't. The slider was about 2 feet up above the risers blocking my view of alot of the canopy so I'm still not sure what was going on up there. It almost seemed like tension knots in the A/B lines. Anybody had anything like that before? Anyways, it just seemed like a lot of weird shit so I thought I'd post it. It all cost me 2 fifths of tequilla a case of beer and a couple pairs of underwear.

I once saw a guy spot 2 static line students in the lake and a 15 second delay student at the golf course. Same load, 3 different passes. I watched the same guy yell at a student over the radio because he wouldn't obey radio commands only to figure out that he was looking at the JM. The student landed in the corn. The canopies looked nothing alike.

I went. It was ok. They didn't really have much to offer considering the registration fee was $40. They had 2 otters and Mullins King Air. I guess I was expecting more. I was hoping for some vendors and demo stuff and maybe some specialty aircraft... Partied pretty hard since the weather was shit most of the time. Skyfest was better.

I think your vibrator trick sounds pretty bad ass.

Doesn't it get wet? btw, I can knock chicks up just by looking at them.

What the hell is that a picture of on the cover?

Richmond is 8/30 - 9/4

Any wingsuit demos or load organizing?

Any of you guys going to be at the Richmond Boogie?

This guy has got to be HATING RealExtreme right now.

I ordered a Zwing at Skyfest (7/16). I just got an email from Tony saying it shipped on 8/21. It should be here any day now. Can't wait...

I'd try to scrape up the extra couple hundred dollars for the XT if speed is important. I was getting 12 to 16 shots in freefall with my 300D. With the 350 I usually get 40 or 50.

Many thanks to all you guys down there! I had a blast jumping with you all. I learned a lot too. It's difficult to get better when you only do solos. I think flying with you guys really helped me improve. You never know how it's going to end up when you go travelling by yourself, but the Texas hospitality really lived up to its reputation. Thanks again, Tony

I wonder where that came from? If there's a flock around here, I'd sure like to find it. We're working on it though. I just ordered a Z-wing from Tony at Skyfest. He made me a dealer so hopefully I can get some others hooked up here. Plus I still have my S3 and there's a borrowed Classic I at my DZ that people can use. F16Driver on here has a Firebird, but he's always too busy playing with his airplanes to come to the DZ. Hopefully someday Michigan really will be known for its wingsuit flyers.