SkymonkeyONE

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Everything posted by SkymonkeyONE

  1. I took an off on my five foot longboard at 57 mph (a ford truck was right beside me the whole time) on North Union Blvd in Colorado Springs, CO in 1980. I had Rector pads on, but my elbow pads slipped up and i ground all the skin off of my right inner elbow to the bone. Gnarly! PS: I'm 52 tomorrow and I still have a longboard
  2. Oddly, to me Jhohnny was the "young wingsuiter". I trained him and took him on his first flight. I taught the FFC in spanish around the bonfire at the holiday boogie around 2006. Yet another pointless fatality. I'll miss your enthusiasm, Medusa. Chuck
  3. Man...........What a bummer. That's two close friends under 50 years old who have died of heart attacks at home in under a year. Mike was great and I'll miss him. See you on the other side, Asshole! Chuck
  4. Absolute truth. Here's the caveat though: none of us were jumping 80 square foot crossbraced canopies in 1981 when I started. I have a LOT of tunnel time and a LOT of skydives after 34 years in the sport. I am flown circles around by these young tunnel kids in many ways, but am saddened at how fast many of these guys downsize their skydiving gear in order to "complete the look" that took years to gain the proper experience to operate safely. Whatever; we all have to learn one way or another. Chuck
  5. Check your FB messages, John. I'm pretty sure I've got you hooked up. Chuck
  6. Anyone wonder why I gave up moderating on this site after eight years of stuff like this??? At any rate: I've worn a side-mount camera (Contour) on every single work jump I've made in the past five years at our facility, as has every other instructor here. We are charged with instructing four students from zero to A license. We do four loads back-to-back-to-back-to-back and then debrief all four guys, then go up and do it all again. No way in the world you are going to effectively debrief four students without that inside video. No room on the plane for outside video and in my experience all they do is get in your way. We do one-person AFF here. No one at this facility has ever had a camera snag which resulted in losing a helmet or any other type of malfunction. Outside video on Cat A and Cat B non-release AFF is fine, but I'd never recommend outside video on any release dive. Chuck D-12501, AFF/SL/TM-I, PRO, S&TA
  7. long-time Deland jumper, Rob Herrick died in his sleep on Monday. He'd been dealing with Siezure Disorder for a number of years, which had grounded him from jumping. He was a GREAT friend of mine and I'm really going to miss him. Rob was an original member of the Deland 4XB canopy piloting team and he shot video for many FS teams over the years. I was lucky enough to speak with him on Saturday and he was going great. I"m so glad I got that chance to bullshit with him before he passed. Many condolences to his wife Kim. BSBD, brother! Chuck Blue
  8. Ed "Ted" Cheslek at Skydive San Marcos or Jason Weisberg (if you can force him to leave the house) are the most experienced guys in that area. I'm not sure if they still read DZ.com, but they are "Professor" and "Voodew" on here. Chuck
  9. I'm with Matt on this one. I've been at it since the very first boogie Jari and Kim showed up at in the USA an I, at one time or another, owned at least one of every BM model. I still have a pristine S6 hanging in my locker. I have an S3 as well and I really, really loved those suits for everything except prolonged backflying (no vents). I've still got an S-Fly expert, A Phantom2, a Havok Carve, and a couple of other things hanging in my closet. I wish my belly had not gotten to big to fit into some of my other great suits that I ended up selling. As far as "suits which made a significant difference" goes, here are my choices: -Original BM Classic S.U.I.T because it's release system made it safe for all of us to give it a whirl. -BM S3/S6: Just a fantastic handling suit with plenty of "flocking" power. A perfect size suit for instructional work. -PF Phantom series, particularly P2 and later versions with ram-air vents: Allowed anyone to easily backfly without sinking out. EVERYONE should own a Phantom. -PF Vampire 1: The beginning of fast, steeper-gliding suits. I bought my first one from Scotty Burns. -Tony "Bird" series suits. This saved Tony's ass. They are great-flying suits. I've owned three Tony's and my favorite was the S-bird. -PF Havok Carve: a "do everything " super-powerful, acro tool. Another suit I will never, ever sell. Chuck
  10. I made over 2500 WS jumps under a Sabre2 before I got my Storm 120's. I love my Storms.
  11. I've been at this a very-long time (both skydiving and wingsuiting). I put over 2500 WS jumps on my Sabre2 97 with zero malfuntions, but keep it mind my rig has a long bridle and cut corners. I've also got two Storm 120's in my work rigs and LOVE them. I've got about 1000 jumps on the Storms. I live in the desert now and would be VERY hesitant to buy a low-bulk canopy. They are simply too fragile for all the dirt and dust we have out here in Arizona.
  12. With your rig on lift one leg up in a "captain morgan pose" (knee bent 90 degrees) and your bootie should be tight.
  13. The Xaos 21 is a great "work" canopy. Super-reliable openings; much better than the 27 (I own an 80 square foot Xaos 27). Chris Martin (rest in peace) from Precision Aerodynamics made every single one of his over 1000 wingsuit jumps on a Xaos 21 and never, every chopped it.
  14. SkySystems moved their entire operation to Raeford, NC. They occupy some of the space in the massive Sunpath Products factory. No idea why you would not be able to contact them unless you are calling one of their old Florida phone numbers.
  15. I remember back when lifetime memberships were only like $240!!!!!!
  16. In my case the answer is "yes". My rigs are tiny enough to fit into a briefcase-sized gun bag. I would never try to carry one in the open; it's lame.
  17. DEFINITELY claim it on your homeowners/ renters insurance.
  18. These days I always recommend a tandem first to potential skydiving students. Reason? To find out if the person is OK with getting out of an airplane at 13,000 feet. I offer every tandem student an altimeter and the opportunity to deploy the canopy, and to fly the canopy. I've had more than a few people insist they want to go straight into the AFF FJC and then have them balk in the door on CAT A. I've never had that happen with a student with previous tandem experience. Chuck
  19. I've been jumping removable sliders/RDS systems since 2003 on all of my sport rigs (including my Sabre2 97 WS main). All to terminal, never a problem. Joe Bennet builds my sliders. The "full" RDS lanyard system is simply three pieces of Vectran line: two short ones which larks-head onto the back corners of my slider; and one longer one which larks-heads onto the two tails of the slider lines and then is slinked to the end of my bridle inside my D-bag. When I do NOT use the full system I just keep the lanyard lines rolled up inside my mudflap. I very-rarely run my "full" system these days, but I pull my slider off every jump. Chuck
  20. In Florida we all called it "Top Ringing" your risers. All four of my rigs are set up this way: two with mini rings attached to the slinks and two with the rings sewn on to tabs on the top/back of the rear risers. Ultimately, what you are preventing with this method is "binding" of the brake lines with the "stock" guide rings (which are generally sewn four-inches down on the riser) when you transfer from fronts to rear risers during swoops. FWIW: I've never experienced any odd line-wear in the decade I've had top rings attached to my Slinks. Chuck
  21. You're joking right? I know people who can flat pack a canopy faster than most people PRO pack. Knowing how to flat pack is as essential as knowing emergency procedures or how your equpment functions. For some people flat packing is easier to do than a PRO pack, especially for those with large mains. Regardless, one should become proficient at flat packing before moving to PRO packing. it all goes with the crawl, walk, run theory of learning. +1 I personally refuse to PRO pack any canopy I cannot lift off the ground at my waist (that normally means 120 square feet). PRO packing tandems is dumb and causes so many line-overs at some dropzones that the instructors just laugh about it like it's not a big deal. The "it takes too much space to flat-pack" argument is BS as it normally takes about one minute to get from side layout to stack. Ultimately, it should be about what makes sense, not what others tell you is "how everyone else does it". I work at a place where every one of our students jumps his own packjob on his first jump. Guess what we teach/test them on? Chuck AFF/SL/TM-I, PRO, S&TA, FAA Senior Rigger
  22. BirdMan Classic when I had 1500 jumps in 1999 BirdMan GTi (which I later gifted to Chris Frisella who owns BoneHead Composites) BirdMan Skyflyer (which I sold to Scott Campos a year later) BirdMan S3, then another one of those, then an S6 for about 1500 flights.. I still own one S3 and one S6. BirdMan Blade (which I did not like and sold to Phil Peggs) S-Fly expert and ProFly (which I still own) PF Phantom, Acro, Phantom2 (over 1000 jumps on the Phantoms, which I still own) Tony Raptor, R-bird, and S-bird PF Vampire Rigor Mortis Sugar Glider (which is in a box somewere) PF Havok Carve which will likely never be de-rigged from my WS rig.
  23. It should be your intent to complete your A license as soon as possible; not just finish AFF. As an unlicensed skydiver you are required to make a jump every 30 days in order to remain "current" in your program and not have to re-do your last succesful jump (at a minimum). As a licensed skydiver you have much more wiggle room. Moving from one dropzone to another mid-training is often problematic as, oddly, very-few dropzones utilize the same "zero-to-A" training plan and it's not uncommon for some dropzones to discount experience obtained at other dropzones almost entirely because it does not fit into their mold. That's sad, but true. So, my advice for you is to go somewhere warm and take enough money to finish your A. Chuck
  24. I have had removable sliders (with full RDS capability) on all of my mains, even my Sabre2 97 wingsuit canopy, since 2003. Why? I don't like dicking around with collapsing and stowing "regular" sliders and I like the improved visibility afforded by them. I keep my three-piece RDS lines coiled up in my mudflap of my AFF/swoop rig so they are handy on the rare occasions I want to "really" train anymore. Joe Bennet in Georgia built mine. Chuck
  25. It was not uncommon for my two Storm 120's to smack open and and dive 180 when they were new, but now both have over 500 jumps on them and they are excellent: straight, medium-positive openings on terminal jumps and straight slow openings in any of my wingsuits. FWIW: I jump a Xaos 27 80 square foot main in one of my sport rigs and a Sabre2 97 in my personal, dedicated WS rig. My Storms are in my two work rigs.