SimonBones

I've done this both ways. When the connection point is parallel to the pulling direction I've had breaks as low as 25lbs, but generally closer to 30lbs. When the connection point was perpendicular to the pull direction, I had a break once as high as 45lbs, but most were generally closer to 40lbs. Every time a tube stoe failed it always failed at the connection point. So, you can change what your breakforce will be on your bag by how you hook up your tube stoe. If you hook it up the recommended way, with the larks head leaving the connection point at the bottom and perpendicular to pull direction, your required breakforce will be in the higher end of the band. If you hook them up to your bag the not-recommended way with the connection going around your lines, you will have a lower breakforce. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

This is also a myth that has been disproven time and time again, but somehow people seem to keep spreading it. Try this at home. Actually try this, you'll amaze yourself. Take a spring scale, you can buy them for fishing, they're used for fabric pull strength tests. Take a BRAND NEW tube stoe and hook up the spring scale, pull until it breaks. Record the breakforce required. Now take a BRAND NEW rubber band and hook up the spring scale, pull it until it breaks. Record the breakforce required. I'll tell you how my numbers looked: Tube Stoe fails at between 30-40 lbs at the overlapping connection point. I could not get a reading on the rubber band, because my spring scale only goes up to 55lbs and the rubber band still would not break. Tube Stoes are NOT stronger than rubber bands and DO break at lower force when compared new. Here's where the difference lies. Tube Stoes wear less than traditional rubber bands because they are round, roll, and don't have corners. Since they wear less, they hold their normal required breakforce a lot longer. Since rubber bands wear a lot faster, their required breakforce drops off very quickly to below what a tube stoe would require with the same amount of use. If you put on a NEW rubber band, they are much stronger than tube stoes and therefore much harder to break if something gets hung up. Try this simple and inexpensive experiment for yourself instead of retelling false old wives tales. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Large Sitfly formations have been done here and there for fun, but at no point was it an official category for USPA state/national record keeping. Any previous claim to a sitfly formation record could only be unofficial and arguable. There weren't any official judges to validate the record against uniform guidelines. There's a picture up in the Bent Prop of a large sitfly round Amy organized some time ago that would probably have counted towards something at the time, but it's tough to try and claim it afterward for a few reasons. 1) The new sitfly national records are still subject to the rules of other national records in that it must be judged and certified within 90 days of completing the formation. 2) The formation is supposed to be submitted to the judge for proposal before the formation is attempted showing who is in what slot with what grips. Some judges have been lax on this rule and there are some sneaky ways people have gotten around this (ie videoing the dirt dive and/or drawn formation prior to the jump when the judge was not immediately available). The new sitfly records also come standard with 3 classes at both state and national level: 1) General 2) Womens 3) Collegiate I'm going to be spending some time getting copes of the new revised reporting forms and working on the first National record attempt event for mid-late August on the east coast a few weeks after the new head down world record. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

The USPA just approved OFFICIAL state and national sitfly formation records at the Board of Directors meeting. Steve Vogdes gave the presentation to the board and it was approved. Plans for the first ever US National Sitfly Formation Record are in the works. More details to come. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

I've not had a problem with just using tube stows for the locking stows, regular bands for the others. I find the tiny tube stows (really tiny ones needed for regular non-locking stows) are difficult to use. It can work absolutely if you know what you're doing and can keep proper tensions. I worry about someone screwing up the stow tensions and putting themselves in a bad spot because they wanted to mix and match. Like I said, as long as you really know what you're doing. I wouldn't recommend mix and matching to a novice. I personally like the the tiny tube stoes for the rest of the stows. They keep great tension and last a ridiculously long time. I've redone some pull tests recently with a spring scale to test the force required to break a tube stoe. New tube stoes that have never been used tend to fail at the overlap, but not actually breaking, just slipping out entirely from the overlap. The numbers I got depended on two scenarios. If the overlap part is being stretched parallel to the spring scale, the break force is about 25-30lbs. If the overlap is perpendicular to the spring scale, it can take 40-50lbs. Just figured I'd share my numbers. Considering the drag force if a pilot chute at terminal velocity, I've long since laid to rest the old myth that "tube stoes won't break". My spring scale only goes up to 55lbs, I've never found a flat rubber band (that had never been used) to fail at a force my spring scale can measure. My conclusion, it takes a LOT more force to break a new flat rubber band than it does a new tube stoe. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Love tube stoes, been using them for over 8 years. My GF and I have over 5,500 jumps using them and loving them on multiple rigs. Most reserve bags also use a rounded elastic bungee more similar to a tube stoe than a flat rubber band for a locking stow. It's just better IMHO. That said, I've always warned against people mix and matching. If you're going to use tube stoes, I tell people to use ALL tube stoes, or else use all rubber bands. Don't ever double wrap the tube stoes, this blocks their rolling and you lose the benefit of tube stoes preventing the racetrack effect like flat rubber bands cause. Sure you COULD mix and match if all your locking were one type and the other stows were the other, but then you'll start messing with different stow tensions. Better know what you're doing. I've seen people get lots of line twists and subsequent cutaways from playing the mix and match game. I usually buy several packs of two sizes. The next size up will be the same size as the locking stoes of the smaller bag. After I get them I separate them into two bags, regular and locking stoes. The locking stoes of the bigger bag can be tossed or used as cock rings, whatever tickles your fancy. As far as spelling goes, everyone knows that "Tube Stoes" was meant to be Ebonics for "Tube Stores". They store your lines and they're just plain gangsta. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

I got an email from Amy C on Monday saying she would grab Ty's camera and get the video on facebook or something since Ty doesn't do the facebook thing. I wish I would have thought to get a copy of it, but I had to catch a flight home. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Dave Brown was a friend and freeflying mentor to me. It was through Dave that I was introduced to the girl who has been my partner, team mate, and best friend for the last 5 years. We both flocked to Jumptown Mass for Dave's monthly free freefly coaching and load organizing back in 2006. I learned a lot from him. It was there that I saw 4 way VFS for my first time as he would play video of what Team Mandrin was doing on the big projector. It was mind blowing and many watched speechless. It's crazy to see how far VFS has evolved in the last 5 years from the days when guys like Dave where pioneering it. Yesterday at the USPA Nationals, a group of us competing in VFS 4way came together for a Dave Brown memorial jump. We built a big 'D' on our heads and folded it in to a 'B' for the second point. The video was shot by Ty Losey of Arsenal and I hope it gets posted online soon. Thanks to everyone who was on the jump and thanks to Ty for getting the jump organized and filmed. I will never forget Dave Brown and the impact he had on me and in this sport. I'm excited to dig up the video of some of the coach jumps we did together back then and some of the cool freefly jumps he organized. I won't forget how much he challenged me! I'm sad that I won't see him anymore going to Florida for the winter holiday boogies and I'm even going to miss that hilariously hideous mustache he started wearing. Oh yeah, and several people were proudly rocking a fake DB mustache on his memorial jump. BSBD Dave. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Signed and FB shared. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

On the exit, you want to make sure that the fabric gets deployed in a proper sequence so that it does not end up inside the tube. There are various ways of achieving this. Some people roll the tube and rubber band it off to reef its deployment, some do some inside out rolling, and some fold. I just keep the fabric bundled up in one hand and the base ring in the other. I toss the fabric first before releasing the base ring to make sure they're clear of each other and I'll get proper inflation. On a tailgate exit, I have seen people toss the fabric while standing in the door so that it is already trailing before jumping. It won't be enough force to pull you out. As for deployment, remember that an advantage to leg-mounting is that if your leg is extended it keeps the tube further away from your body. Also remember that extending your leg can pitch your body head low and offset those gains. What I do is flatten out like a board so I can extend my leg as far as I can while also stretching out my arm over head to keep my pitch flat. In this way I have never had any conflict with the tube and an opening canopy. But I have had a few with hand held tubes. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Never slips away because your upper ankle is smaller than your foot and you can make both straps pretty tight. This design puts the cutaway just below the knee, but I have seen others that put the cutaway much higher with a ripcord system similar to old strong tandem rigs that you can clip on. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Swivel clip on the end of an old grounded riser. The clip makes it interchangeable from leg mount to hand hold. My leg mount has two attachment clips, one for above the ankle, one for below the knee. These are re-sizable with velcro. Good luck! -Simon 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

I just got an RSK.5 and put an Optimum 126 in it. It was pretty tight and I had to lengthen the recommended reserve closing loop length 1/4". The difference between the RSK.5 and the RSK1 is only in the length of the main pack tray. According to this link: http://www.rigginginnovations.com/forms-docs/documents/pia%20volume%2006-09.pdf The Optimum 126 has the same pack volume as the PDR113 so I'd say be prepared for it to be pretty tight but still possible and within the recommended size. The RSK size is pretty small. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

So Bones, if DBC was a "cool dude" drinking Tequila to excess and talking too much, he might very well have been a skydiver or at least a pilot. Glad you didnt rat him out if he was a sky bro. What was his jump history? Did he pay for his drinks with a twenty? 377 He accumulated somewhere around 1200-1300 jumps in his lifetime, most of which were done a long time ago. I don't know the distribution of those jumps over the decades. He'd been on a long break from skydiving by the time I met him, probably due to financial constraints. He did do a recurrency jump and a small handful of jumps afterwards in 2007, one of which I was honored to be on. He did fly jumpers for a while as an income. I don't think he payed for his drinks at all that crazy night. We all had so much fun sending the tequila shots his way and eventually got kicked out of the bar over some of the lewd suggestions he made to the waitress. He has a rather strange sexual fetish. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

I've said it before and I'll say it again. DB is alive and well living on the east coast. I met him in 2007 and one night after more tequila then the old man can handle he let me in on his secret. He's a cool dude. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

"Furthermore, we have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3 of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships, which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction... In the face of this situation we would be better off to dispense now with a number of the concepts which have underlined our thinking with regard to the Far East. We should dispense with the aspiration to 'be liked' or to be regarded as the repository of a high-minded international altruism. We should stop putting ourselves in the position of being our brothers' keeper and refrain from offering moral and ideological advice. We should cease to talk about vague — and for the Far East — unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans, the better." —George F. Kennan, Policy Planning Study 23 (PPS23), Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1948 Same guy: "A political society does not live to conduct foreign policy; it would be more correct to say that it conducts foreign policy in order to live." 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

You could launch your own line of winged atmo-suits ! It would be a revolution in the sport completely redefining skydiving as we know it ! Just imagine all that LIFT ! You have disproven gravity ! An aeronautical physics professor told me so ! 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Hmmm... Looks like steep tracking in those pictures. Is the guy on the bottom of the formation atmo-ing and not tracking? Maybe atmo just means you're tracking with smoke on your ankle? Maybe I just don't understand, I'll probably never be one of these atmosphere navigators then. I'll just have to stick to being an old fashioned fleshy-flap-valve navigator instead 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Care to date the video? I didn't think so. It obviously could not have been before the year 1998 because that's the year flying at an angle was invented 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Sure I can. Just as Squeak did above: and I think you should re-read my previous post, here is a snip: Nowhere am I saying that you shouldn't do it, or that it isn't a ton of fun, nor am I saying that Babylon aren't talented flyers in any flying that they do. I do quite a few angle dives every year. I've done some pretty intense ones at Summerfest. I have had freefly coach students I have taught angle flying to and have led several angle dives at several dzs. Some flatter and some much steeper, and some changing direction and pitch. I am not saying that it is the exact same as a flat track. What I won't do is buy into the notion that steep tracking or flocking or flackmonacing, or whatever you intend on calling angle dives, is a revolutionary transcendence of freeflying and a whole new discipline that is not "adopted" by the US because it's new or different than what has already been being done for a long time. I personally don't buy it. But you can if you'd like. Like I said, different strokes for different folks. Not sure where the conflict is. So to answer your question, I see lots of tracking all over the video. Tracking/Flocking at steep angles as well as shallower ones like at 1:25. Just because they change leaders or directions or angles does not mean they are not tracking a path through the sky. But I agree, I did not see a spoon What do you think Tim in your years of freeflying? Is the concept of steep angles/flocks something you've never seen or heard of before? Is this above and beyond the definition of freeflying? Do these dives "revolutionize the concept of skydiving"? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Agree mostly, except for: Apparently you did not read the atmonauti website or the original Tiezzi and friends threads. There is a very strong push from some to not only attempt to re-categorize it entirely as specifically NOT tracking, but beyond even freeflying as a completely new discipline separate from freeflying that requires its own instructional ratings, its own licensing, and even its own section on dz.com separate from freeflying. I'm not disputing that there are some small differences from the flattest of possible track dives and the steepest of possible track dives, but it is certainly not different enough for the need to develop new licenses or instructor certifications. Come on now, tracking relative at a bit of a steeper angle with your mates certainly does not "revolutionize the concept of skydiving". If refusing to buy into the revolution of human flight band wagon invented "in 1998" means that Americans are narrow minded and that angle flying is not 'accepted', then consider me proud to wear that label. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Freeflying So here's a couple questions to ponder. If you have a track dive, but then you make it a bit more complicated of a track dive by having two leaders and tracking around each other, at what point does it stop being a track dive? When you have more than angle X but less than angle Y? Does more than one leader stop making a track dive a track dive? What if there was no particular leader, is it still not a track dive? If you take a belly RW dive, but have two bases that fly up and over the other, at what point does it stop being a belly RW dive? There are certain 4way FS blocks that do exactly that. If you do a spaceball jump but use more than one spaceball and let them drift around each other, does it stop being a spaceball dive? Speaking of Carolinafest, there we all saw a double raft dive where flyers flew two inflatable rafts relative to each other, up and over each other. Is it still not a raft dive? Maybe a track dive stops being a track dive when you make a website about it and start offering to issue instructors licenses in track dives for a fee. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

QuoteNo comment! Surprised the atmo mafia thought police havent stepped in.... Relative rotation gravitational wind or something like that, crazyness![/reply Oh boy, the licensed atmo instructor speaks up Care to give us all some instruction? 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

Why wouldn't I? I do these dives all the time. Did everyone land safely? Did everyone have fun? Did everyone walk away learning something and progressing their skills? If so, then yes, I would say it was a very successful dive. It does. When I do them, we go do x, y, and z, have fun and learn, then have a beer. I don't think that's dismissive at all. Like you say, it's all flying at the end of the day. What I dismiss is trying to push angles as something radically different. It's all just freeflying and doesn't exist in a state that has yet to be "adopted" because a small group of Europeans want to tell everyone it is a radical shift in modern freeflying. Olav-envy, I like that. You're dismissing angle flights done in the US as inferior and of low quality. I guess you weren't on some of the ones I've been on. The best angle dives I've been on in the US were far better than the angle dives I've been on in Europe. They were large, tight, speedy, and very organized involving formations of different groups interlacing and having multiple formation group leaders. Then afterwords, we did something else. Then had some beer. Either way, I'm glad you figured out what type of flying you personally find amazing. Different strokes for different folks. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook

If you think it's hard to find then you're really not looking at all. There are many dropzones all across the country where people do this regularly. The difference is that in some minority group European mentality, it is prefaced with "look at us look at us! we're doing something new and different" and attach all sorts of names like angles, atmonauti, tracing, etc, or whatever the newest name is for the same thing is again. Then edit videos about it like it's all new and different to post everywhere on the internet. In the US, it's just freeflying and the folks say, "hey let's go freeflying". Okay, maybe some of the Eloy folk have taken a liking to calling it "zoom zoom". But all the same, it's easy to start doing and you can really find it anywhere where there is lots of freeflying going on. What you probably won't find is groups of people doing ONLY this all weekend and treating it like a whole new discipline. In the US it is often just another dive in the mix for the weekend. Like said above, you can see this ANY weekend you go to Eloy and Gabe is around. Or ANY weekend you go to Sebastian and Luis is around. There are many who organize these dives, but generally not ONLY these dives. If you're looking to focus ONLY on angle stuff, your best bet would be to go to Europe and find the places where it is in higher concentration. 108 way head down world record!!! http://www.simonbones.com Hit me up on Facebook