Levin

always last. i great deal of attention needs to be paid to the spot. it's not somethin' that should be rushed in 5 or 6 seconds. i always exit last with ball. my dytter is set for 6500'. i retrieve the ball at 6000' and deploy by 5000' - 4500' leaving plenty of time to make it back from a long spot. And by exiting last if i get to the door and find a cloud layer has moved in i do not hose anyone else while giving the ball to the pilot. If the conditions aren't right I always give the ball to the pilot since there is no longer any reason to exit with it.

i understand what u r sayin', but i have to disagree. this information should be restricted. I get the freedom of skydiving, your life is your own do what u want with it, but skyballs are an exception. when jumping with a ball u r not only responsible for your own life but also pilot's license and career, the DZO's business and anyone or anyone's property or any living creature that maybe under the flight path of the ball. not to mention that a spaceball is an far violation if it is not retrieved. it will only take one major accident for the far's to be re-worded to specifically include balls. what's to stop an upcoming freeflying at a cessna dz with few or no experienced freeflyers from making a spaceball and experimenting with it when they are yet ready. say for example they follow jose's instructions in this thread. his instructions are for a very fast ball. after leaving the cessna or any plane that ball will take off like a rocket once released. the freeflyer will have to do 200+mph to catch up to it and when they do will discover how difficult it can be to retrieve one at 180mph. it's quit likely they will lose the ball. if spotting was not taken into consideration or the freeflyer does not know how to spot from a cessna the ball could go down in a place it shouldn't. if it hits pavement it could pepper anyone or anything wihin' a couple of hundred feet. like a tandem a spaceball is not a regular skydive. you r responsible for more than your own life. once a freeflyer is ready to jump with balls they shouldn't have any trouble finding out to properly make one. even if instructions are not available in print. it's part of policing our own sport. edit: typos

yawn you have no respect for the ball. there is a reason why instructions for making one are not readily available. your instructions for making one and your post are horrible. u took a stab at me with the skygod comment. i returned the favor. i wasn't offended. sorry u were. i'd offer u a cyber klenex if could.

jumping with a ball not only requires skill but also a great deal of respect for what u r doing. by posting instructions for making one in a public forum u clearly do not have the right attitude or a clue as to the ramifications if something goes wrong. u may have the skill but u lack the mindset to be jumping with a ball. ok jumpwonder again, it's a training aid, not a toy.

keep this in mind... if u lose that ball and it peppers or kills someone on the ground... 1. the pilot will lose his license 2. ur dz will be sued. any waiver will not be binding due to gross negligence. 3. u will be eligible for manslaughter charges at 600 jumps no matter how talented u r u have no business jumping with a ball let alone giiving advice to others. the ball is a training aid, not a toy. edit: typos

just to let everyone know i've cancelled the swoop meet this weekend. we only have two confirmed competitors and those competitors that are eligible to go to the championships were determined at the last meet sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone.

this sunday at skydive spaceland. registration is 8 - 9 a.m. the distance course will be set up for practice on saturday. cya there!

u didn't miss anything. not 10 minutes after u left the winds picked up to 15+. we called it with only one speed round. storm blew in.

here's the results from the meet... Accuracy 1. Levin 2. Todd 3. Kat 3. Brit 3. Dave Distance 1. AggieDave 2. Todd 3. Kat 4. Brit 5. Levin Speed 1. Todd 2. Levin 3. Kat 4. Dave 5. Brit OverAll 1.Todd 2. AggieDave 3. Levin 4. Kat 5. Brit thanks to everyone that helped setting up the courses and judging. Stan, Reg, Chris, Kat, Brit (hope i didn't leave anyone out). thanks to CBS for covering the event. haven't seen the broadcast but supposedly it was really good. Kat and Mazzy were all over it. looking forward to our last meet of our 1st season.

This Sunday, 8/7, at Skydive Aggieland. Register by 9 & comp starts at 10. cya there!

bummer about that Dave. u weren't in long enough toget it in the pics. but fortunately u were in long enough to make it on the news. i now have a copy of both broadcast. they should probably be on skydivingmovies.com late next week. just have to get them burnt to dvd and sent to pilotdave. hope ur knees are feeling better.

and a few more...

and a few more...

here's some more. those are some good shots u got over the water, amanduh.

our swoop meet at lake gladewater sunday went pretty well. about 300 people came out to watch the event. we got started right on time at 1:00 w/ a 5-way demo jump w/ smoke. JeNnEjEnN & moonglo made a couple of bird-man demo jumps w/ smoke. it was definetly one of the coolest things i saw that day. our first round of competition didn't get off till around 2:30. the competition went well. There were 8 competitors entered and 4 that competed in every round. this event was a huge learning experience for me. i failed to put enough attention into the flow of the event. the errors i made were obvious and easily fixable. i really think after this experience all of our future public meets are going to go very well. most of my attention for this event was focused n ensuring a crowd and media coverage. the tyler paper ran an article on the event the sunday prior. 105.7 was onsite from 12:30 - 3:00. They advertised the event for two weeks prior. Region 56 news and Chanel 19 (CBS) both covered the event. CBS did an excellent job getting intervies at the DZ and lake from both competitors and spectators. They also took there news camera for an observor ride. They got some great shots rom the ground and narrated it very well. Region 56 interviewed the jen and jen and got some good shots as well. as soon as i have copies of both broadcast i will mail them to pilot dave to add to skydivingmovies so everyone can see. tghe results of the competition are as follows... DISTANCE 1. Casey Anderson 231' + 212.9' = 443.9' 2. Todd Spillers 262.7' + 171.2' = 433.9' 3. Katrina Autry 171.3' + 191.4' = 362.7' 4. Dave Lund 235.8' + ns = 235.8' 5. Brittany Sanchez V + 155.7' = 155.7' 6. Lee Todd 91.5' + 33.7' ACCURACY 1. Todd Spillers (L60 + Z24) + (L60 + Z9) = 153 pts 2. Casey Anderson (L60 + Z16) + V = 76 pts 3 Brittany Sanchez (L60 + Z0) + (L60 +Z0) = 0 3. Katrina Autry (L60 + Z0) + (L60 + Z0) = 0 3. Aaron Neccesary (L60 + Z0) + (L60 + Z0) = 0 3. Levin Jackson ns + (L60 + Z0) = 0 SPEED 1. Katrina Autry 2.43 + 2.27 = 4.7 2. Todd Spillers 1.8 + F = 11.8 3. Casey Anderson 2.2 + V = 12.2 4. Brittany Sanchez V + V = 20 4. Aaron Neccesary V + V = 20 5. Lee Todd ns + 2.7 = [2.7] 6. Levin Jackson ns + V = [10] OVERALL 1. Todd Spillers - Aggieland 2. Casey Anderson - Eagle Flight 3. Katrina Autry - Spaceland 4. Brittany Sanchez - Houston 5. Aaron Neccesary - Eagle Flight 6. Levin 7. Lee Todd - East Texas 8. Dave Lund - Aggieland Thanks to everyone that helped w/ this event. Amanduh, Kathy, eagle flight girlfriends, demo jumpers, bird babes, aggieland jumpers and skydive east texas and jumpers (hope i didn't leave anyone out). couldn't have done it without yall. and thanks to aggieland for the caravan. i talked to the city manager during the competition and we will definetly be doing this again next year. looking forward to it.