Thursday, April 29th 2002
First Jumpsuit/Pullup Cords

With the increasing popularity of freeflying, I see more and more AFF graduates who want to buy freefly jumpsuits right off student status. I have nothing against freeflying (as I eagerly try to increase my own freefly skills), but I do think it is a bad idea for AFF graduates to jump straight into freeflying without spending 50-100 jumps learning how to do relative work on their belly. I know many skydivers these days eventually choose freeflying as their favorite type of skydiving, but I believe some graduates are missing an important step that I’m sure 99 percent of today’s best freeflyers learned how to do at least decently first, and that’s relative work on their belly. An AFF graduate has a higher opportunity for learning relative work skills on his or her belly due to the lower speeds and increased ease of initial stability. There is also less of a danger of a fatal freefall collision between beginner bellyflyers than beginner freeflyers. The difference in speeds of two beginning bellyflyers is no where near the potential difference in speeds of beginning freeflyers. Even if you have your heart set on freeflying from the get go, bellyflying relative work skills can lead to better freeflying skills. Basic relative work skills of eye contact, smooth docks, fall rate adjustment, center point turns and the like are imperative for relative work whether you are on your belly, your head, standing up or sitting. Bellyflying just allows you to develop some good relative work habits at a slower freefall speed. Also, many AFF graduates fail to recognize the added gear responsibilities for freeflying. Much of the gear manufactured 5 years ago was not made with freeflying in mind. Failing to have your gear inspected by a local rigger to make sure it is freefly friendly can lead to a dangerous situation in the air. I highly recommend buying a RW bellyfly suit first to get used to skydiving on your belly before flipping onto your head. Your overall skills in the long run will be much better.

One of the most basic ways to advertise in the skydiving business is on pull-up cords. Nearly everyone who jumps uses pull-up cords and there always seems to be a shortage of them on any given drop zone. Some skydivers have chosen to use the “power tool” to close their main container, but even most of those people still carry a pull-up cord in their rig or gear bag. A couple of years ago I began using pull-up cords to advertise my business, Chuting Star Rigging Loft, as well as my 4-way team, Mr. Pink. At that time I found one advertisement in the back of a Skydiving Magazine for a company in Washington that printed pull-up cords. With little knowledge of anyone else in the market, I placed several orders with the company, receiving 400 pull-up cords for $300. The quality was great as was the customer service, but at 75 cents a piece, it seemed steep. And even more expensive was an order I placed for 100 pull-up cords for my wedding, which cost $100 or $1 each. I really had nothing to compare it to until I saw another little classified advertisement in the back of Skydiving Magazine. This company claimed it specialized “in small to medium quantities at low prices.” I soon found out the ad wasn’t lying and that I could get 400 pull-up cords for $187 or 47 cents each. I placed an order expecting a lower quality, but instead got an expanded design selection, faster service and a similar quality of cord and printing. The company, Endangered Species, is based out of Colorado and is owned by Neil Shannon Walker. In two weeks, I had 200 Chuting Star Rigging Loft pull-up cords advertising the Rigger “Rant and Rave,” along with 200 Mr. Pink pull-up cords advertising the team’s web site at www.mrpink.tv. Obviously I highly recommend Endangered Species for any advertising you want to do on pull-up cords. The company can be reached by e-mail at pullupcords@yahoo.com and Neil usually returns e-mails within 1-2 days.

Mike on 04.29.02 @ 03:09 PM EST

Thursday, April 22nd 2002
Used Gear Inspections/GSL 2002

Last October, we ran a “Rant” on skydivers buying used gear from out of state or online. Just last month we had some used gear come into the loft that demonstrated the need for a second opinion before buying used gear. Many skydivers try to dump their old, used gear on unsuspecting AFF graduates who then have to pay hundreds of dollars to get the gear updated for today’s skydiving and even after that, it may not fit right. The recent young jumper who brought used gear to our loft had to spend more than $300 to get the AAD updated, repair numerous items on the worn out rig and have the reserve repacked ... and it still is not a “freefly friendly” rig. Every month or so our loft has a new jumper come through who wants to find the “best deal” on a rig. They usually are interested in finding used equipment either online, through classified ads in skydiving magazines or purchasing from any of a number of larger skydiving gear companies that are out of state. From the start I believe this is a bad choice. Most DZs have used gear available from local jumpers, and local riggers know a lot about the condition and history of the rig, AAD and its parachutes. Gear bought online or out of state usually carries little or no information on the history, how the rig was taken care of or the number of jumps. Purchasing a rig on the DZ also allows the customer to try it on for fit and comfort. Finding a rig online that fits well can be difficult. Most jumpers end up sacrificing a good fit for a low price. Lastly, by the time a jumper pays for the “best deal” used rig, including shipping, rigger inspections and necessary upgrades or repairs, the jumper could have bought an inexpensive new rig for the same price. There are many brands with different prices available from your local DZ that can be custom fit for you. Contact your local DZ for more info. Chuting Star Rigging Loft will give a second opinion on any skydiving gear you are considering.

There was a great turnout for the first Georgia Skydiving League meet of the year hosted by Atlanta Skydiving Center in Cedartown. Seven teams competed in two divisions of 4-way formation skydiving. Nemesis placed first in the open division with a 14.2 average over six rounds, followed by Mr. Pink with an 11.0 average and Skydive Monroe in third, skydiving at an 8.8 average. In the intermediate division, Apogee took home the gold with a 7.0 average, followed by last year’s GSL champion 5 Minute Call with a 5.8 average. GT Inviscid finished third with a 2.8 average and Delusional placed fourth with a 2.0 average. Competitors jumped out of Atlanta Skydiving Center’s Super Twin Otter and a few indulged in the drop zone’s new swoop pond toward the end of the day. Chuting Star Rigging Loft had its 61st save courtesy of Jeff Wills on 5 Minute Call. Wills’ main was locked in the deployment bag when lines got wrapped around a stow. Wills cutaway the main and deployed his reserve. Besides first, second and third place medals in both divisions, free wind tunnel time was awarded to the top teams determined by handicapped scoring as per the National Skydiving League and the Skyventure wind tunnel. Nemesis and GT Inviscid were each awarded a free 10-minute block of wind tunnel time by Skyventure. Congratulations to the top teams in both divisions whose hard work has paid off with great scores on the board. Robert Chromy served as judge and also helped the teams with engineering, exit techniques, block moves and gave general 4-way advice. Chromy explained all his judging decisions to the competitors. For more details on this meet, visit the GSL web site at www.gaskyleague.com or the NSL web site at www.skyleague.com. The next GSL meet is May 18 at Skydive Monroe. And don’t forget, Mr. Pink offers free coaching at ASC to 4-way teams seven days a week. Go Compete!

Mike on 04.22.02 @ 03:08 PM EST

Thursday, April 15th 2002
Racer Freebags/PIA Riggers Forum

Racer manufacturer Jump Shack broke away from the industry norm last year when it issued a service bulletin on the line stow system of its reserve freebags. In the sport skydiving market, the reserve deployment line stows for square reserves includes an elastic Safety-Stow for the two locking stows and a Velcro pouch to S-fold the remainder of the lines. Jump Shack’s service bulletin (and addendum) recommended that the Safety-Stow and Velcro pouch be replaced with rubber bands. After the service bulletin is completed, the freebag closely resembles a main deployment bag. In the April 2002 issue of Skydiving Magazine, one rigger details his experience with the new system. Rigger Dave Hillebrandt, says a Racer that came to his loft for a repack had the new system installed and he replaced the rubberbands during the repack. According to the article, when the rig came back to Hillebrandt four months later he found several problems with the rubberbands. “The mil-spec, bag-locking, rubber bands were gummy from contact with the unplated brass grommets,” Hillebrandt said in the article. “One band was broken; the other was half rotted through. The canopy ‘dumped’ when the bag was lifted by the bridle, leaving the lines still stowed on the bag.” Jump Shack owner John Sherman has spoke with Hillebrandt but does not believe the new system is flawed. “Mil-spec rubberbands should not melt or fail … Dave got some bad rubber bands.” Sherman says the rubber bands and system have been thoroughly tested. But Sherman and Hillebrandt continue to disagree on the issue and further argue on which system is less likely to result in line dump. Chuting Star Rigging Loft is looking for more feedback from other riggers on what they have found during the repack cycle on the new Jump Shack line stow system. We believe the jury is still out on this system for sport reserves and are taking a “wait and see” approach.

The “Riggers Forum,” conducted by the Parachute Industry Association, started up as a moderated e-mail based system. Riggers who had questions, comments or advice could send an e-mail to the riggers maillist and other riggers or manufacturers would respond to the entire maillist. Important matters, questions or requests were handled immediately and the information was quickly raising the bar on the quick dissemination of rigging information. But along with all the relevant topics came a gluttony of useless e-mail clogging up e-mail boxes. Similar to rec.skydiving, those who were actually looking for good advice or discussions would get fed-up with wading through the garbage. The good thing is that the maillist was open to only riggers or manufacturers, so the garbage was never too bad, but just enough to be annoying. In addition, there was no catalog system to look up old articles or just look through the topics that interested you. So the PIA recently changed its system. According to a recent e-mail announcement from Communication Services Committee chairman George Galloway: “We are now happy to introduce to you the re-organized PIA Riggers' Forum. It has been rebuilt as a threaded and moderated group. You will be able to see in succinct order the categories, messages, and replies. As the forum and number of messages grow, you will be able to search the forum by keyword, by author, by date, and other criteria. You will, when some time has passed and the message content grows, be able to search archives of information that has been posted in the past.” To subscribe to the Riggers Forum, see the member communication section of the PIA web site at www.pia.com. As for now, you must be a rigger to view the messages and I recommend all riggers to check it out. This forum is an invaluable resource and keeps the knowledge base for riggers growing.

Mike on 04.15.02 @ 03:08 PM EST

Thursday, April 1st 2002
5 Minute Call/Mirage Containers

Finding four people who want to make 4-way jumps with the same people for one year can be the hardest part of formation skydiving. In the six years that I’ve competed in 4-way, it was usually smooth sailing after finding three others who had the same interest, drive and commitment to jump together all year long. And it’s no different for last year’s Georgia Skydiving League intermediate champion "5 Minute Call." Even though the team needs one more person, 5 Minute Call started training for its second season Friday with an hour wind tunnel session at Skyventure in Orlando.

The team finished last season with a 5.3 average. It was the first year of competitive formation skydiving for three of the four members. In the off season, three members found other interests, but team captain Katie Cox recruited two new members for the 2002 season: Anthony Stone and Doug Mauk. Cox has been skydiving for two years and has 310 jumps, most of which are 4-way jumps. Stone started jumping in 1979. He began jumping more actively over the last two years and now has 575 jumps. This is his first year of competitive 4-way skydiving, which is the same for Mauk who started skydiving just over a year ago. Mauk has 270 jumps. The team hasn’t let the lack of a definite fourth stop them from training for the 2002 season. The team has already trained six days and made its first trip to the tunnel Friday. 5 Minute Call hired veteran GSL team Mr. Pink to coach the team in the tunnel. While this was Katie’s fifth trip to the tunnel, it was the first trip to Skyventure for Doug and Anthony. 5 Minute Call has its work cut out for itself as two new intermediate teams have already started training for the 2002 season. "GT Inviscid" and "Delusional.” Contact Katie Cox at skydivkc@bellsouth.net if you are interested in trying out for 5 Minute Call. For more information on the GSL, visit the league’s web site at www.gaskleague.com.

Mirage is by far the most popular rig at Atlanta Skydiving Center. Part of this is because most of ASC’s rental gear is in Mirage containers. Skydivers who graduate off student status immediately are renting Mirage containers until they decide to buy. After seeing other rigs on the market, skydivers begin to appreciate Mirage’s pin protector flaps, bridle protection and overall comfort. Another part of Mirage’s success at ASC is that it is one of only four rigs that is highly recommended by the riggers of Chuting Star Rigging Loft. For riggers, the reserve container is extremely “rigger-friendly,” customer service from the company is near the top and the quality workmanship leads to few repairs over its first few years in service. Mirage is constantly updating its entire system and listens to feedback from riggers and customers. Recent updates, listed on its web site, include: “On all Velcro™-less risers we have instituted a simple, Velcro™-less excess line keeper system. This eliminates a common problem with such risers, unstowed excess free brake line. Also on all Velcro™-less risers we introduced a new toggle design that "presents" itself better to the user on opening by springing open to produce an easily grasped profile. For those selecting soft reserve ripcords, we have modified the handle by introducing a stiffener plate between the handle attachment strip and the handle pad. The stiffener forces the handle to lie flat with the main lift web. This prevents the possibility of the handle "rolling under" the main lift web and becoming inaccessible. For sit-fliers, bum strap attachment points are now included on every rig. Finally, we have introduced a modified version of our cutaway housing end-fitting. The new version has been modified to provide even smoother cutaways under the most adverse conditions.” Visit the company’s web site for additional information and pictures of the updates at www.miragesys.com.
Mike on 04.01.02 @ 03:08 PM EST