SkymonkeyONE

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Posts posted by SkymonkeyONE

  3. His real name was't even Richard Kiel, but he was pretty fucking cool. He used to fly his helicopter to Lake Wales and Z hills back in the day and hang out. Tom and Deb Dellibac used to be pretty good friends with him.

  4. 51, started jumping at 17 on 10 Jan 1981, SL instructor in 1982, 21 years active duty Army, 9000 jumps, 120 hours of freefall, FAA senior rigger, AFF/SL/T-I, PRO, S&TA, moderated these forums for 8 years, and still best friends with all the original mods. Not bad....

  8. I live in Arizona and up until about four months ago I lived three miles away from the Casa Grande airport. It is NOT a busy airport and there is NO REASON those guys shouldn't be able to land their tandems right there on the airport. It's a Cessna/Handycam tandem operation and true, there are only a few guys working there, but they stay busy enough to feed themselves.

    If I were those guys and could not get permission to land on the airport the only thing I would change is I'd quit landing out near the interstate and get permission to land right behind the Airport Tavern which sits on the site of the old, original airport three miles down the road towards town.

    PS: CG is not that bad a place to live. Plenty of shady biker bars, restaurants, and places to shop. Definitely better than living in Eloy or Arizona City if you work at Coolidge or SDAZ!

    Chuck

  10. Quote

    Was that an abnormal amount of time on the net for a first timer? I've never been in a tunnel before, so I don't really have a point of reference go to off of. I assumed they were keeping me down due to stability.



    For general reference: I work at a facility where all of our students do 20 minutes prior to their first one-man AFF jump out of a tailgate aircraft. Ten minutes (two minutes per rotation) doing basic body stabilization with only a jumpsuit and another ten minutes (again, two-minute rotations) with a dummy rig on to work on bottom-end sequence (wave-off, practice touches, pull sequence). We put them in for their first rotation with the air turned down so we can manipulate them into a good body position, get them to turn left and right, then forward and back with their belly on the net. If they are squared away then I have them turn up the air and get them off the net right away. If not in the first two minute rotation, definitely very soon into the second rotation. I'm in the wind with them walking the net or flying with them every second of it. Ultimately, the sooner you get a student off the net, the better. Also: it's ALWAYS better to be coached by tunnel coach who is also an actual AFF instructor.

  12. JohnMitchell

    Some time ago I reverted to old school and now bring my bridle up from the bottom, same way we did in the early 80's . Problem solved. ;)



    I don't know how many times we have to have this discussion. Seriously. If you are jumping a wingsuit, you should be routing out the bottom and pinning upward as John just said. This applies to ALL containers, period. Trust me; I've been flying wingsuits since 1999 and have over 2900 flights. This not only prevents the bridle piercing problem; it also prevents pilot chute in tow problems (particularly on rigs with up-facing main pin flaps).

  14. RiggerLee

    This is like one of the great secrets of riggerdom.

    It's hard to explain. You need to get some one to show you. But basically you sew up almost to the edge. Rotate the machine through till the needles are about to strike again. This completes the last stitch and insures that the thread is pulled from around the hook so that you will not create a jam. Then rotate the machine back wards to relax the upper thread and allow you to maneuver the peace. Lift the foot and use a dental pick to hold back and form the lower pleat as you rotate the peace in place to change direction on the corner. Then form the pleat on the upper side with the pick. Lower the foot on the work, matching the outer needle into the outer hole to make a nice 90 deg. turn. Continue binding.

    This will not make any since to you till some one shows you in person and endows you with the secret knowledge of binding.

    Lee



    This is exactly how I was trained to do it by Mark Kruse. Excellent description of the technique.

    Chuck

  15. Remster

    Never. Trust. Small. Girls.


    They can be very bendy.



    Truth! It's ALWAYS best if you are going to take a small girl on her first release dive to have been on at least one of their previous jumps (Cat A or Cat B). In my experience that's the best way to prevent yourself from getting hosed.

    Chuck

  16. Wow.....Comparing the "who sucks the most RedBull ass so they can get invited to their private event" list to whether or not a particular brand of wingsuits is "better" or not because of their lead time just summed this thread up for me.

    Unbelievable.

    PS: somebody shoot me a message when things really heat up.

  17. You really believe it's a rigger's responsibility to tell grown-ass men to NOT jump approved/airworthy/TSO'd reserves? You really believe a rigger should NOT pack that same airworty/TSO'd reserve just because some jackass never took the time to test jump his reserve type or to at least bother to do a couple of test flares prior to landing his reserve?


    I've seen plenty of people stall small Ravens and Micro Ravens due to their short toggle stroke, but I'm not about to blame the reserve (or the rigger).

  19. Remster

    Fastex type buckles do not work consistently when under load. Their very nature makes them prone to not release when loaded.



    True. I'm gonna put this out there as well: If a system will not work under load, then what's the point of installing one at all? The entire point of helmet quick releases is so you CAN get rid of your helmet if you have a line snagged on it and you need to chop.

    Chuck

  20. When I was working as a Guerilla Chief at the Robin Sage culmination exercise of the Special Forces Qualification Course years ago one of the first things we treated the student A-team to in our camp was the sacred meal of "Opla"........That is, of course, Alpo spelled backwards. None of them ever refused it.

    Chuck

  21. Jeff,
    If you think ANYONE at ANY dropzone is obligated to keep track of you (or your lost gear) then you are mistaken. While it is true that a rare few US dropzones do have ground personnel who are tasked with loading planes and doing a canopy count, those places are the exception. I can promise you that the first time you chop a $3500 main and you choose to fly back to the main landing area instead of attempting to land safely as close as possible to your gear then you will understand how fiscally flawed your plan is. You MIGHT get lucky and get some others to help you go retrieve your stuff or you might not....

    I didn't say anything about flying yourself to a dangerous landing spot. Land as close as SAFELY possible to your gear. Hopefully one of your buddies will follow your freebag if they see you making an effort to follow your gear.

    When you own $50k worth of gear like I do to make your living you will want to take care of it. Not letting a main hang in a tree for three days or sit out in the blazing sun for even one hour REALLY makes a difference.

    Bill Von Novak is 100% right in saying that it will never work because people will not consider such a device until after they have already lost that $3500 main.

    Chuck

  22. Quote

    Agreed, but from this thread alone, there are people who ordered both and will keep the one they prefer the most.



    I can't argue with that since I've done exactly the same thing with swooping canopies in the past. If you can afford it, it's a fantastic plan. Carry on.

    Chuck

  24. I'm not exactly sure why anyone would want to own both (in the same size) since they are both designed to do the same job. I own a lot of suits, but I run a school so I do generally have multiple suits by different manufacturers with the same general wings size (acro/phantom/student-intro sized). No reason to own multiple suits in the same size with wings that large in my opinion. YMMV.