SkymonkeyONE

Agreed. The Hornet is an outstanding first main. It is Zero-p, lightly eliptical, inexpensive, and packs quite small compared to similar-sized mains from other manufacturers. Not sure why that is, but what it mean to you is that you can buy a Jav (which you stated was your choice of container) big enough for a say, 220 something or other, but would fit a Hornet 240 (assuming they made one that big). A rule of thumb that I tell people, whether or not others back me or not is this: If you weigh 250 in gear, then you should not buy an F-111 main smaller than that, BUT you can get a ZP main one size smaller and be fine. A better idea in my mind would be for you to find a used rig online; something about the size of a student rig as you are a pretty big guy. That or something in the J-5 size range would fit the main you need to start. Jump that, with a 1:1 wingload, then work your way down to your optimal size as your experience permits. Once you get to that smaller size that suits you best, THEN go ahead and order that new Jav and main. I know PLENTY of guys your size that jump 190's or 210's, including my 230 pound, 65 year-old dad. Chuck

It's 85 and sunny in lovely Raeford, NC. Screw Eloy, it's WAY too hot in the summer. Chuck

As some of you may have figured out, I am second generation DZ trash/instructor/pilot, etc. Anyway, last weekend a bunch of us met at my dad's (Buddy Blue D-597)place in Opelika for his 65th birthday. About 55 people showed up at the ranch for the fiesta; many of them old Cotton Belt Council competitors. We had a blast! Eat, drink, skydive was the modus operandi for the weekend. My wife and I drove down from North Carolina, Rixter Neeley came up from Mississippi with his wife (who I gave a tandem to on her 40th birthday Sunday), plus all the DZ locals made it over. I was very happy to meet several of the new guys from Auburn University. Christian and Mike were pretty damn cool and have brought freeflying to my dad's traditionally flat-flying DZ. Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night are just a blur to me, but Sunday we all managed to drag-ass out of bed and head to the DZ. As usual, my dad worked me like a DOG! Hey, I haven't ever paid for a skydive there, so I guess I shouldn't bitch, but four tandems (me packing)later I was pretty damn smoked. Luckilly, I had enough energy left and there was enough daylight left to throw down some monster swoops. Unfortunately for me, my DZ brothers had not bush-hogged the swoop canals yet this season, so we were without water displacement. Anyway, my wife and I had a blast, then drank heavilly and laid down for the night. If ever any of you happen to be rolling down I-85 between Montgomery, AL and Atlanta, stop by exit 38 in Tuskeegee and check my dad and those guys out; they are a riot. I am very pleased to report that at age 65, my dad has nearly 10,000 jumps, still teaches FJCs and does tandems, flies when we can't find any young pilots, and still is ornery as a rodeo bull. I am pretty proud of him. Chuck Blue D-12501

I am sorry to report that I was not allowed to jump before my 16th birthday even though I grew up on the DZ and my dad was the DZO. Too bad for me; most of my contemporaries too (I.E. the Thackers). I would have LOVED the opportunity to do it like Charlie Mullins and his younger brother! Funny though, when Mike was flying around doing his $100 boogies about 10 years ago and he would bring Charlie with him, I generally was against him jumping with us. In retrospect I was totally wrong, as I was doing stuff just as "dangerous" when I was six years old; like flying a 182!. I think it has everything to do with several important things, but nothing to do with age. For example, I would have no problem taking my 12 year old nephew on a tandem if he wasn't such a chickenshit. His sister, now 10, was begging me two years ago to take her, but she was too small to fit in the harness. Bear in mind that both these kid's parents are "fair weather" skydivers that jump when they are at my dad's DZ. Now, if either of these kids showed me that they were mature enough to understand all the risks, plus had the aptitude to understand the lessons, I would certainly train either or both right away. Chuck Blue D-12501 forced to wait till the age of 16 (actually 17)

If you have an ex that is giving you a hard time about taking your child to the DZ, or even you jumping without the kid around, then the spouse was obviously not cool with you jumping in the first place. My wife and I do not have any kids yet, but I wish to relay to you how it was for me when my folks divorced when I was seven years old..To preface that, I must say that my mother was not ever a "DZ wife". She tollerated my dad's habit, but never once hung out on the DZ or wanted to make a jump. Granted, this was the '60s and all men wanted to take their little boys to the DZ. I myself was pulling tension on 28 foot 7-TUs and PCs when I was three years old. I loved the DZ and would cry like a baby(which I was) when I could not go. I loved that shit. Hell, I had a jack-up cushion and wooden blocks made for me so that I could fly the 182 when I was six! When my folks divorced, I was forced to move out of state with my mom. I went back to Alabama to stay with my dad all summer, every summer, plus every other Christmas. My mother never had anything to say about my dad's jumping or flying at all. I guess I was lucky judging my some modern standards. When I started jumping when I was 17, my mother never accused my dad of "forcing" me into the sport. The fact of the matter is that my father, though an Instructor and S&TA (ASO back then, for you old guys), he had nothing to do with my FJC or intermediate training. My dad never saw me jump until my 50th jump, where we made our first jump as father/son onto our farm. To the original poster: I would do everything in my power to convince your ex to allow your child to be apart of our big skydiving family. Lord knows it's a better life than slapping them into some bullshit daycare program. Hope this helps. Chuck Blue D-12501, a second-generation hellion who happens to be the son of Buddy Blue D-597.

When my skydiving days are past-tense, then I would say the word would be "dead". Other than taking it that way, I would say the following: I went skydiving today. I made a bunch of skydives today. I skydived 10 times yesterday. He skydived for the first time today. Chuck Blue D-12501

Agreed. Patrick really put the caddywompus on it when he flew back into the airplane with the wingsuit on. But for me, a mere commoner with 20 years in the sport, I still live for perfect 8-way exits. I have done bigger (up to 16-way off the plane), but I truly love 8-way exits. As an active Instructor, I like almost all phases of student training. But I must admit, teaching novices/intermediates the joy of launching 4-way is among my favorite jobs. Once they finally grasp that technique they are truly on their way. As far as boogie screw-around goes, there is nothing like rolling a big tube out the back of a tailgate aircraft. My favorite was a 12-way out of a Caribou; nice. Back "in the day", it was quite common for someone's rig to open prematurely; thank got for "freefly safe" rigs! Gotta run! Chuck Blue D-12501

My exit count for some of my wanting-to-balk-the-door tandem passengers: "On three: One, THREE!!!!" Never had one NOT go. Chuck

Today's jumpers, the ones with money at least, have it much easier than we did 10 years ago when it comes to "alternative" skydiving. I still remember seeing that first commercial with the Austraian guys jumping little modified surfboards to fetch a Coke. Gear? Had to make our own, of course. My first one was a 42" trick ski with bindings, release mechanism, and emergency drogue all of my own design. Worked fine; actually still does, as I still have that first one sitting in my garage. It turns out that my bindings and releases ended up looking very similar to the ones still used on Surf Flite boards, though less "polished". I was very glad when Jerry Loftis scored the deal with whatever ski manufacturer he had that was making his much-lighter boards. If you are NOT able to find anyone to teach you this skill on your home DZ and don't have the money to get to one of the reputable schools, then I wish you good luck. Back in 1990 I didn't have anyone to turn to; nobody on the East coast did. In order to be allowed to jump from one of Gene Paul Thacker's planes, I first had to show him my completed board, my emergency procedures, and finally, promise not to tear the tail off his damn airplane! Luckilly, all went well and I lived through the "learning" process. It has to be mentioned that I had over 1000 jumps back then and nobody doubted my airskills. Before I had a skysurf suit sewn, I jumped the board in running tights and a floppy windbreaker. Webbed gloves were a must. Even with as many jumps as I had, it was not until my third jump that I pulled standing. After that, it was cake. After I lived through it (LOL!), others wanted to try. I ended up training about five guys total and sold three boards. I myself made about 150 board jumps then got bored and stopped. Too bad for me, this was WAY before the advent of skysurf competitions. Oh well, it is still fun and I reccomend it to young jumpers. One guy I trained jumped the board on his 200th jump; pulled standing up on the first try! His name is John Hoover (the Golden Knights RW team). I think he might still have the board I made him so long ago. Chuck Blue D-12501

I have owned two sabre 135s in the past; pre pocket-slider days. I don't care HOW you packed them, eventually you were going to get the shit smacked out of you. I would not consider buying one these days, not with the advent of so many other similar-flying parachutes with more reliable opening characteristics. But hey, don't take mine or anyone elses word for it; test jump other stuff before you make your next purchase. In the Sabres defence: A BIG pocket slider really does cut down on the frequency of bad openings. My dad, who just turned 65 this past Monday, still jumps a Sabre. He has a 190 and a 210, both equipped with pocket sliders. The openings are soft enough that he hasn't complained to me since the slider replacement. That being said, I would still try other stuff. A PD Spectre, if you MUST stay PD, flies a little better (IMO) and definitely opens better. Both parachutes are pretty easy to find in the classified ads of this website. Chuck

Since George was one of the chairmen on the Icarus Project, my guess is that his mains are going to be very "VX-like" which should be interesting. I used to own a VX-74 and liked it quite well, but could not see keeping it as my "primary" main due to it's excessive ground-hungriness. I wonder who has been testing them? Chuck

Agreed. The original poster was fed a line of propaganda by his obviously biased rigger. I jump a Tempo 120 reserve. A reserve, which by the way, packs smaller than a PD 113 and fits lovely in my Javelin RS Odyssey. Blow up? You mean like a Micro Raven M-Z? Tell that guy to get a grip. Chuck Chuck

Worse feeling ever is getting within about 500 feet of the ground under your 85 square foot canopy and realizing you are about to PASS OUT! This, after a two-day bender with no sleep whatsoever. Needless to say I slept most of the day away after that jump and missed out on a day of 4-way team practice. Not a good deal. Chuck

Wish I would have got in on this one early on, but as I am on vacation in Hilton Head I have not been checking the computer much. Anyway, here goes: I am second generation DZ trash. My dad owns a DZ in Alabama. He (Buddy Blue, D-597) has just under 10k jumps now, is 65 years old and is still a very active jumper and pilot. Both of his brothers were skydivers back in the '60s and early '70s. My uncle, Bobby Phillips, still jumps regularly, as does his son Jay Phillips. Both of them have around 500 jumps. Both of my sisters are "fair weather" skydivers. One, the youngest (at 23 years old) is also a pilot. Both started, worked the DZ as packers, etc., then got other interests (read: boyfriends, then husbands). Both sisters hover around 60 jumps right now and only jump when they are visiting Alabama. I just gave the oldest of the two, Ami, a tandem last weekend. Her husband, Steve, has about 150 jumps and made two re-currency jumps this past weekend after about a five year break (he did great). My mother has made two tandems, but has no desire to jump alone. Lastly, my wife has just over 2,700 jumps. She is an AFF-I, SL-I and a pilot. I have just under 2,700 jumps in 20 years in the sport. So few because I have taken three several-year breaks during that time. I am a "professional student pilot" who has been flying since the age of six, also. I get to retire from the military in less than a year and a half, then go back home and take over the family DZ. Can't bitch about that, can I? Chuck Blue D-12501

in response to: "Hell, i even found the corner that got me on the plane, it still had a piece of skin hanging from it...lol." Did you pull it off the plane and boil it up as a soup base? EXCELLENT! Chuck

In response to: I know of SEVERAL cases where an unsuspecting skydiver has washed their jumpsuit, only to end up with a shocking 80's pastel result! That is CORRECT, that is CORRECT! LOL! I washed one of my Pit Specials one time; that one was black with orange and blue grippers. The orange faded to pink, because I, as a typical single guy back then, had no sense of how much bleach or detergent to put in the washer. Anyway, the orange came out PINK as hell. "OH HELL NO", I said, and proceded to color the pink with a nice broad-tipped yellow highlighter until they were nice and orange again. You get it: yellow+pink= orange; catastrophe averted. Lucky, huh? Didn't look bad either. Chuck

I cannot believe that noone else has witnessed this, but the fact is, yes, it can and has been done repeatedly. Back in the late '80s and early '90s there was a couple that used to go to boogies at Barnwell (in SC). They would exit whatever tailgate aircraft was there, normally a C-16 Caribou, faced-off to each other and already "coupled"; the guy standing facing aft and the girl "hooked up" with her legs around his waist and arms around his neck. As I recall, last time I saw them do this (around '93 maybe, at the Halloween Boogie), they were in their early 40s. Neither gave a shit who saw them at the back of the AC getting ready. Quite a sight. I also know a several-time world champion 8-way competitor who, prior to joining the Army, was working as a Tandem Master in Illinois. This brave gentlemen, who's name I will keep to myself, would regularly put chicks into a passenger harness backwards, hook them up, and skydive like that (faced off). Hop and pops were the norm so that they had all the time in the world to "work things out" under canopy. Strange but true stories from Chuck Blue Hey, that rhymes!

Froggie, I am pretty sure you are talking about Brandon. He was partying with us most of that night. He is kind of stocky, and I think he had on a floppy hat that night. He and Alan, but Alan didn't wander around too much. His was the trailer that was "home" to the K-bottle, but we had it in our RV on Friday night for QUITE some time. On Saturday, it stayed in his camper, which was up against the building, hidden behind mine.

Not a problem at all. SOMEBODY has to do pretty pack jobs! LOL! Anyway, the hot ticket is to find a rigger with a TINY rig of his own. They are the ones that really know how to get something tight and pretty, because if it's not, then the rig looks like crap. My personal rig is HALF the size of the one that yall got through me. Chuck D-12501 Atair Factory Pilot

That was me that handed yall the pillows. How we became aware of your plight was that we were walking back down the hill from another buddy's (Charlie Lynn) tent. We heard the "lack of pillow" complaints and decided to help! That was Friday night, wasn't it? Maybe it was Saturday, hell, I don't know; I was rolling my ass off both nights! Anyway, it was me that actually gave yall the pillows, and yes, I am cool as hell. LOL! Chuck King of all Skymonkeys

I have to disagree slightly on the Stilleto/Vengeance comparison. Here are my impressions as someone who used to own both (back in my P.D. or die days! LOL!) First: I owned Stilletos in sizes 107 and 97. Five years on a 107, then about six months on a 97 before I got my new Vengeance 97 (should have bought an 89). I weigh 150-155 and normally wear 12 pounds for 4-way. My Vengeance packed quite a bit bigger than my Stilleto of the same size. It opened about the same; which is to say pretty nice. The control range was much longer, meaning the brakes are down around your torso as opposed to up around your ears. Turns were slower, but the canopy dove much steeper and was thus more "ground hungry." While it SEEMED like you might be going faster on the swoop, I didn't really go any further accross the ground with it than with my Stilleto; odd. To me, it just didn't make sense. But, back to the original poster: a Vengeance "feels" like a Stilleto one size bigger. For example, I thought my Stilleto 97 rocked, but felt my Vengeance 97 was a complete dog. I would have been much happier with the 89 and knew it, but was talked into a 97 by a rep at the PD factory. I held off on buying a tri-cell even though that is what I really wanted because I was concerned with the fact that since they are so much more ground hungry, I might be getting in traffic jams with my students at Raeford. After jumping the Vengeance a couple of days and dealing with it, I decided to ditch it and buy a tri-cell. Ended up buying TWO mains: an Icarus VX-74 and an Alpha-84 (thus beginning my relationship with Atair). Some people really like the Vengeance. Personally, it did nothing for me. WHAT A BITCH TO PACK! This is an individual sport and everyone has their favorite equipment. Luckily, we have these forums (though the equipment forum would have been a better place to post) to express our experiences with different gear. As Raeford is a typically "Javelin and PD" dropzone, I got a good bit of ribbing when I sold my PD mains. After a while, though, people started diversifying a bit and actually TRIED different products before they started talking shit about them. Now, I am proud to report that there are "diamonds all over the place". Gotta love it. Chuck Blue D-12501 Atair Factory Pilot (and former Vengeance owner)

I must concur with my fearless sponsor, Dan Preston; I just do a regular PRO pack on my Cobalt 85. I, unlike Dan though, roll my nose once but do not stuff it back. I pull my tail around and roll it about four times in my hand. When I lay the parachute on the ground I maintain my hand and the rolled part under the center so it doesn't "unroll". I have never been smacked by a Cobalt, nor was I ever smacked by my older Alpha using the same method. I hope this helps. Chuck Blue D-12501 Atair Factory Pilot

Decorous, I believe you asked two different questions, so I will answer both for you. First, the nose on a Cobalt APPEARS the same as a Stilleto or say any other nine-cell eliptical; leading edge flipped over the top a bit. The nose on a Crossfire is more closed off; with only two oval-shaped openings per cell. I am not sure what benefit this adds, as the Cobalt flies at least as well and certainly opens better. The "control range" on a Cobalt is similar to most other "performance" mains (all tri-cells, the Crossfire, etc.) on the market other than the Stilleto. That is to say that the brakes are more around your shoulders/torso than your ears as is the case with the Stilleto. The Cobalt is a much less "jittery" canopy than a Stilleto, The Cobalt, as well as most other performance mains, also dives steeper and has a longer recovery arc. I personally compare the Safire to something like a PISA Hornet; an intermediate experience-range, lightly eliptical main. A Safire flies nothing like a Cobalt. I would write more, but hey, it's quittin' time! Chuck

OH! While we have both been sponsored to some degree by Dan for a while, Caven and I had never formally met prior to that boogie. He is a hoot! Odd that we had not met, as my dad owns the DZ in Opelika, Alabama and I had skydived at Thomaston and most of the other DZ's he frequents before. I have lived in NC since '84 and jumped at Raeford primarily since then(DZ heaven if you ask us). Actually, I had not been at CSS since they had a D-18 twin-beech and a dirt strip! I didn't like it then, but was very impressed with the new facility and the good vibes. Chuck

Froggie, That was me and my wife that gave yall the pillows. Ours was the winnie you can drive that has all the scooby doo stuff and the black lights, etc. "the ambiance will seduce you." You are all correct, it was a great time. To those of you from Cross Keys and points north (namely The Ranch): Kris and I were at CK during the POPS meet (though I am not quite a POP) and we were at The Ranch the next weekend. I think they had an RSL meet that weekend, but I was too trashed to notice! Anyway, we get up that way at least once a year. We will definitely be there for the Ranch Pond Swoop competition. Chuck