mattlyle

I haven't been riding or skiing in SOOOO long. No one down here skis or snowboards, at least not on anything real. We really should get a trip of people together, even if it isn't together with a tunnel trip...

Fly 2+ hours and then you'll understand why we don't care about jumping that day so much! Next time we can just swap times a little more to accomodate, so all your time could be Saturday morning, then some people could go jump. It would have been cool to have you and Melissa in the tunnel at the same time too. I will keep everyone posted when details about the next camp come in. Probably late-January, but not sure yet.

http://www.carolinaskysports.com/HiddenPages/Events/NightJumps/tabid/137/Default.aspx I heard they're out of the Cessna, so let them know how many jumps you want to do so they can figure out how many loads.

Yevgeniy drunk was one of the funniest sights ever... drunken 4-way exits into the hotel swimming pool with our clothes on... ahh, the good old days ;-)

Someone over the weekend said it was Chad Wilcox.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/bathroom.asp Sadly false.

Post-game report for Mojo Camp #5... GREAT time, as usual. Only Yevgeniy and I were there the whole time -- Beth was there for the first day, but had to bail for work. Chromy and Alex were the two coaches (for true 1-on-1 coaching!) because Captain Smartass decided not to grace us with his presence... oh well, next time! I know I flew over 3+ hours, learned a ton, and can't wait to go back. So now the info you're all waiting for... the next trip is scheduled for September 24-25, so mark your calendars and get of work now

What's up! Slight change from our end... yeah... Ian isn't coming now (work) and Beth might be bailing too(work)?! So Yev and I are splitting Ian's time (him now 2.5 hours, me 2.0)... I REALLY hope Chromy has some FL people coming otherwise it's going to be crazy because it will be nothing but back-to-back-to-back sessions. We'll almost find out what it's like to be a coach and fly the whole day straight ;-) See ya guys Saturday!

Which of you coaches are going to be there? I assume Chromy, and I heard Alex too. You going to be there Ron?

pull the fire alarm

All you non-geeks out there, ignore this... anyway, I use MPlayer. it's a linux tool, but there's a windows port. So here goes: 1) Download MPlayer http://ftp5.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/releases/win32/MPlayer-mingw32-1.0pre7.zip 2) Unzip it probably to something like c:\temp\mplayer 3) Download the file off skydivingmovies.com 4) Run the program open a command line window (start -> run, type "cmd.exe" without the quotes and click enter) and then start the program with something like: c:\temp\mplayer\mplayer.exe c:\temp\pafiledb.php.mov this windows port sucks, as the GUI isn't there at all... quick keyboard commands: toggle full screen: f quit: q jog forward/back: use the scroll wheel or left/right arrow keys

Actually you just chose a weird video encoder... the .mov is just the packaging. You should be able to just change this encoder and resave and post it again. I can give you guys directions, but the way i do it uses a player with a command line interface (read: MS-DOS) so unless you're comfortable with that, it may be easier to wait for Floaty. I'm a geek so it's standard for me ;-)

Yeah, he used a weird video compressor. I had to use a different program to view it. MPlayer will play it, or hopefully he will repost using a more standard codec.

Everyone is bailing... just Yev, Me, Ian and Beth... Beth may only be flying Sunday too. Gonna be a lot of back to back rotations...

Sadly I'm in Ohio this weekend visiting the parents... i WISH i was jumping this weekend... all those skills learned at the tunnel and no chance to use them yet. Next weekend I'll be out though, so let me know if you need a ride.

You're actually near a bunch of us... I live between that exit and the Soutpoint/Fayetteville exit, as does Joe and Dave (when he's back in NC). Let me know if you need a ride (though this weekend I'm back in OH visiting the parents...) because I'm out there a lot too.

My first show as well... is that beer? Awesome time though! I was quite impressed

Since you live all of like a mile away, I'll be there. What's needed?

I think it's a good sign where each time the camp gets bigger because we always rant and rave how much fun we have

Not bad for first time for the four of us... but much to improve on, at least for myself. I heard May 28/29... weekend after CaSL meet 2.

we expect nothing less

I had this happen actually about 6 weeks ago. Kind of freaky since it was on a canopy with about 80 jumps at the time :-/ Anyway, it was a fairly brisk opening... nothing bad, but worse than usual. I look up and the left steering line has sheered off and is trailing behind the canopy in the wind... The right toggle was still stowed fine... so obviously I was spinning, so releasing the right toggle restored normal flight. I was at around 2000 feet, so plenty of time to make a decision... I *could* chop it, but the parachute is flying perfectly fine, it's just the flare you have to consider. It's easy to fly the landing pattern using risers, so I practiced a few rear riser flares and honestly I felt perfectly confident I could land the sucker without a problem (for me it's a littler easier than some of you... it's a Lotus 190 loaded at 1.1) So I just sat in rear risers to let the landing pattern clear out a little, then came in and flared using rear risers... even stood up the landing. Obviously ready to butt slide it in, but landing on that canopy is so easy, so I wasn't concerned... it flared awesome and landed easily in rears. People were looking at me a little funny because they noticed I didn't flare (it looks different with the whole trailing edge coming down, not just where the brake lines attach), and holding the sheered off toggle in my hand as I walked back through the packing area to the loft was amusing. The hardest part is actually hanging onto the rear risers. The front riser dive loops make it really easy, but the risers themselves are pretty slick, so it's harder to grip. I also notice I pulled one down a slight bit faster because it's not as smooth as toggles... takes more muscle which I wasn't as precise with. When we got it back to the loft we saw that the line had sheered where it was fingertrapped, and it was only like a 1-inch long fingertrap, so they thought maybe that all the force was applied to that short area, and it exploded?! All in all I'm glad I didn't chop. It was a perfectly functional canopy, so why get rid of it and be down to my last shot? I understood canopy flying enough to be safe landing with rear risers, even if it might not be as perfect or graceful.

I have to agree with Brian here... was an AWESOME weekend! Ron (more affectionately known as "captain smartass") was a HUGE help for me especially... I didn't fly with you last camp, but I'm glad you were back this time around. Alex and Chromy were also amazing to work with... I think the secret is that they all have slightly different views and know different ways to accomplish a task, so if something doesn't work for you, they can give you something else that will. Spent a lot of time with all three coaches, and I learned a LOT. I had a blast! Can't wait for the next one. Feb I think?