jcbfly

prayer

2011-04-11T21:24:00.001-06:00

baby jeebus, please grant me patience with ignorant bullies and treacherous cretins.

Shadow landing 3

2011-03-21T19:53:00.002-06:00

The sun angle was just right for swooping your own shadow.

Spring!

2011-03-21T08:09:00.002-06:00

Spring has sprung here in the high desert. The afternoons have been pretty windy, but the mornings have been beautiful for flying. Here's a picture I took over Belen Alexander Airport last weekend.

Balloon Jumps!

2011-01-13T07:49:00.011-07:00

Saturday, January 8, 2011, just after sunrise, somewhere north of Mexico.

The load consisted of Emily and Amanda, who were both making their first hot air balloon jumps, and me.

Above: A gives M a final gear check before boarding.

Lift off!

Above: Al L. hot air balloon pilot.

On the edge of the basket 5,500 feet above the desert.

In freefall.

My somewhat trusty Stiletto 135.

Amanda sticks the exit.

Wingsuit Evolution

2010-05-03T12:06:00.006-06:00

2010: Tony Suit S-Bird

2009: Tony Suit Raptor

2008: Tony Suit Intro

2007: Phoenix Fly Prodigy 1

Snow in the Desert!

2010-01-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

Snowy Day at Skydive New Mexico from JC Brown on Vimeo.

Summer Squirrel

2010-01-29T08:12:00.003-07:00

Summer Squirrel from JC Brown on Vimeo

Here's my second attempt at making a video. It features some of my wingsuit exits, flights and depolyments as well as some footage of my various flying friends enjoying the air above the New Mexico desert. I tried to include more action in this one and less of the ultra boring "gliding around" footage that made my first video such a snooze-fest.

Wingsuit 2 way over the Middle Rio Grande Valley

2009-11-24T19:08:00.005-07:00

Here are some pictures Skippy took last weekend. We were doing a flocking dive and trying to dock on each other for the first time. We got the dock, which consisted of tapping fists for a brief moment, and then somehow El Skip flew into the dead air burble directly above me and wound up barrel rolling out of the formation. After that we both just gunned it for the DZ .

Above: Diving out of the Cessna

That's Skippy's leading edge in the foreground.

Desert Squirrel

2009-09-15T10:28:00.002-06:00

Wingsuit solo at Skydive New Mexico from JC Brown on Vimeo.

I just got this cool Go Pro Helmet Hero camera from my friends at Super Fly. It's a tiny little unit that will shoot video or stills and mounts to the top of my helmet, so the camera sees whatever I see in flight. Here's one of my first attempts at making a flying video with the Helmet Hero.

As you can see I'm a complete beginner at shooting and editing video, but it sure is fun to be learning something new! I can't wait for the next day with some big surfable cumulus clouds...

New Wings

2009-06-01T11:25:00.002-06:00

I've put about 130 flights on my Tony Suit Intro, so I think I'm ready to fly a bigger,faster suit. Here I am wearing my brand new 2009 Tony Suit Raptor. I'll have to wait until next Saturday before I get to make my first flight on it.

Skydive The Farm & Chuting Star

2009-05-18T07:33:00.008-06:00

I spent 10 days at Skydive The Farm near Atlanta Georgia recently. The main purpose of the trip was to attend an 8 day Senior Parachute Rigger class at Mike Gruwell's Chuting Star rigging loft. It was more like Rigger Boot Camp - eight long days of parachute packing, rigging, repairing, and construction. The students and instructors were great, and the class, despite it's grueling pace, was awesome. I returned home ready to take my written test with the local FAA. Once I've passed the written I'll take my oral and practical test with Rich Greenwood, who is the local Designated Parachute Rigger Examiner. If I can pass the tests I'll be a licensed Rigger.

The trip was fantastic. It rained hard every single day, which was a real treat for a desert rat like me. I camped out in my tent on Serenity Island in the middle of one of the Farm's natural swoop ponds. The facilities and folks at the Farm were top notch. Between the weather and the class, I didn't get a lot of jumping in, but I did get a few nice long wing suit flights from the Farm's Twin Otter.

Here are a few pictures from the road.

Sunrise on Day 1.

Rain!

Serenity Island.

Riglet.

Jump # 666!

2009-04-21T09:15:00.010-06:00

Here are some photos that Kyle Bailey (aka FR# 2) took over the last few weekends at Skydive New Mexico. The first one shows me and KB posing with Skippy H (FR# 3) in front of 42X. This photo was taken right before my 666th skydive. Just to be safe, I did a 3 way with 2 other ministers from the Church of Spiritual Humanity on that jump.

Parachute Landing

2009-03-15T21:48:00.003-06:00

Photos by FR#2

Tools

2009-01-28T08:12:00.006-07:00

This winter I've been working on getting my FAA Senior Parachute Rigger rating. One of a rigger's jobs is repacking reserve parachutes, so I've been practicing repacking Dave Harper's Vector 2. Here are some photos of the freshly repacked Vector and the tools I used to do the job.

Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge

2008-12-24T11:37:00.013-07:00

The icy cold sunrise this morning at the wildlife refuge.

Way off to the west, the Magdelena Mountains catch some early rays. There's a great flying site on top of the Mags.

Every morning around sunrise, all the thousands and thousands of birds at the refuge "Fly Off" to spend the day in the agricultural fields to the north, and every evening they "Fly In" to spend the night. The sight and sound of all this birdly activity is an awesome spectacle to behold. It was well worth the 4:30 am wake up call and the hour and a half drive.

Canadians, eh?

This display at the Visitor's Center sheds some light on the reason for my dismal soaring performance.

GIN Bobcat

2008-11-14T18:34:00.005-07:00

My friends at Super Fly sent me a GIN Bobcat 16.5 to play with. The Bobcat's harness, risers, and controls are set up like a paraglider, but it flies more like a skydiving canopy with a faster forward speed and rate of descent. The Bobcat is fast and FUN!

Torpedo!

That's my skydiving buddy Kelly Wilson kiting his Samurai 170. Kelly is a very experienced skydiver, and today he tried ground launching his parchute for the first time. He did a great job on the ground and in the air.

Back to Hidden Mountain

2008-10-23T21:48:00.008-06:00

Hidden Mountain

2008-10-20T20:15:00.020-06:00

Hidden Mountain is about 20 miles west of where i live. The hill is like a huge open air gallery of ancient and more recent rock art. For years I've known about the petroglyphs and ruins scattered around the hill, but today was the first time I hiked it. Hidden Mountain is best known as the home of the Mystery Rock. Visiting this area requires a recreational use permit from the New Mexico Land Commission.

This inscription was in a particularly steep and narrow canyon

Here is the Mystery Rock. Many believe that it's a condensed version of the Ten Commandments, written in an ancient form of Hebrew and left here by the Lost Tribe of Israel during Old Testament times.

Bird Man.

Some scholars say this one says: "God is Great" in ancient Hebrew.

I added a stone to this modern cairn near the top of Hidden Mountain.

A short lived squall blew in and interrupted the fall sunshine. The thunder sounded good.

There's much more to explore on the ground, and in the air above Hidden Mountain.

Graffiti 2

2008-10-07T11:23:00.019-06:00

This morning I had to go back to the scene of yesterday's discovery to see what else I could find. There must be thousands of of petroglyphs in this area. Seeing these ancient rock pictures makes me feel connected with the humans that lived in this desert long before my time. When I pressed my palm into the warm rock I could feel the ancient hand print pressing back.

This owl watched me carefully as I took pictures of the petroglyphs around his perch. I wonder if his ancestors watched the 'glyphs being created.

These two remind me of my dogs for some reason. Above is Dewy and the one on the bottom is Bijou.

Graffiti

2008-10-06T15:41:00.013-06:00

Here is some rock art I found this morning as I hiked across an old lava flow.

New Mexicans have always been taggers, but for some reason it's illegal these days.

Desert Junk

2008-09-30T08:08:00.005-06:00

This week, I've been spending some time wandering in the desert like some kind of Old Testament prophet. There's something calming about the vast and stinking desert. I took these photos in the Rio Puerco valley, just west of the SDNM drop zone.

Do I Skydive?

2008-09-16T07:05:00.003-06:00

My skydiving buddy Kelly Wilson took these photos of me recently. Please note that in the top photo I'm sailing past the orange target disc that I was aiming for - D'oh!.

Lately, all I've been doing are wing suit jumps and hop and pops. I was starting to feel like I'd quit skydiving since I'm almost never in free fall these days. My wing suit starts flying as soon as I exit, and I usually only take a 3 to 5 second delay when I do hop and pops, so I'm always flying and almost never falling. So, last weekend I decided to take one of my low jumps to terminal velocity before flinging my pilot chute, just to remind myself that I'm a skydiver, not a flying squirrel or some kind of paraglider dude that launches from planes. Guess what? It's fun to go fast!

Clouds

2008-08-20T08:23:00.004-06:00

This year the monsoons brought us a big variety of low, middle and high level clouds. Clouds really enhance the wing suit flight experience because they give a sense of relative motion and speed.

500

2008-08-07T07:02:00.004-06:00

I made my 500th skydive last Saturday morning. To celebrate I bought all 4 slots on 42X's first load and took some of my buddies up for a jump in the nice, cool, smooth morning air. Danny did a hop and pop at 6k, C.J. went to full altitude and pulled right out the door, and Steven made his first jump in my Phoenix Fly tracking suit. I watched them all go and then I hung out next to the open door and watched Guy fly 42x another mile upwind before I climbed out and exited in my wing suit. I released from the plane and looked up to watch 42X bank off to the east in a diving turn. As soon as he was clear I 180'd and gunned it for the DZ. There's nothing like a long spot provide inspiration for max gliding flight.

Hard Openings

2008-07-09T08:58:00.008-06:00

I had a demo canopy to try out last weekend, a 270 square foot student main. I packed it just the way I always do - a regular old PRO pack with the nose neatly organized and exposed to the airflow.

I jumped it from 6k and took a 5 second delay before pitching my PC. The sub terminal opening was slow and soft, just like I expected it to be. An observer in the plane said it took "forever" for the chute to fully deploy. Sweet! I love soft, snivelly subterminal openings.

I had a long canopy flight and a soft landing. I like flying big parachutes and this was a particularly nice one, especially the way you could just hang in the brakes. I felt that I probably could've soared it if the therms were a little more developed.

Back in the hangar I repacked the 270. Same packjob as before.

Next day, first load. I'm trying another demo, a PD Storm 135, and I suggest to Lee that he try out the 270 on a hop and pop with me. Lee strapped on the 270 and we boarded the plane.

At 5k, he opened the door, checked the spot, and dove out. Lee took 10 or 12 seconds of freefall, long enough to reach terminal velocity, and then deployed. WHAM! Instant parachute. There was absolutely no snivelling, the parachute came out of the container, and boom, it was open. The harness dug into his ribs and bruised his thighs from the opening shock and he saw stars for a few seconds. Fortunately he wasn't so injured that he couldn't unstow the brakes and fly back to a good landing at the DZ. Lee spent the rest of the day lying in his trailer nursing his aches and pains.

I felt guilty as hell since it was my packjob that slammed him so hard. Ultimately we all know that when you strap on any parachute, no matter who packed it, you personally assume responsibility for the consequences. I still felt like shit. I was also mystified. It was the same packjob I've jumped 100s of times, what went wrong this time? Had I let the slider slip down the lines? Had I not stowed the lines tightly enough? Was it just a random hard opening? I guess we'll never know.

This pointless story has a mysterious ending. The next day I did a terminal deployment on the 270, and while the opening was brisk, it didn't slam me.

Bird Brains and Wing Suits

2008-06-18T14:28:00.007-06:00

I made 5 flights in my new wingsuit last weekend. I had average fall rates between 76 and 71 mph, and got down as slow as 62 on the second half of one dive. The forward speed is breathtaking. I'm not even coming close to tapping into the performance that this suit has to offer.

I was exiting just above 10k AGL and pulling around 5k, so I only had 5,000 feet to play. I still got between 53 and 60 seconds of airtime on each flight.

In a weird way wing suiting combines my two favorite ways to fly - hang gliding and paragliding. Flying the suit feels very much like being inside a tiny little hang glider. And, of course the parachute part of the flight is very much like paragliding. Hey, you even get an airplane ride out of the deal - wing suit flying rocks!

Helicopter Jumps

2008-06-17T06:30:00.013-06:00

Last Saturday we did helicopter jumps at Double Eagle ll airport west of Albuquerque. Here's the Bell 206 B-lll Jet Ranger. We did the jumps as part of the 2008 New Mexico Pilot Bash, which is an annual social gathering of aviation enthusiasts. There were several hundred pilots in attendance, so there were a LOT of comments about "perfectly good" airplanes. It always surprises me that GA pilots are such whuffos.

All aircraft look better with the doors off.

We put up 5 loads of 3 jumpers for a total of 15 jumps. Here I am waiting to hot turn my load. I got to jump with pioneer BASE jumper "Big" John Walter and Kelly Wilson who is an AFF and Tandem instructor at our DZ.

Hot turning.

Lift off.

Here I am landing my trusty Pilot 150 at the edge of the tarmac.

The jump was exceptional. The exit was very similar to a hot air balloon or an ultralight in that there's almost no relative wind. As I've said before, still air exits are the best, and I took full advantage of the situation by leaving the skid head high and transitioning into a subterminal track. 12 seconds later I was at terminal velocity and it was time to pull. The canopy flight was beautiful and I made a soft landing.

Rudi is still recovering from hip replacement surgery so he didn't jump. Rudi's already healed enough to be flying Cessna loads at Belen Alexander, but he's waiting till Water Boogie to return to parachuting.

Here I am packing up in the hangar after the jump.

Rites of Spring

2008-04-01T11:02:00.011-06:00

Uncle Whiskers

More goat than goatee

Giving George Boyden a run for his money

Dork with mustache

The weather has finally gotten warm enough to declare the 2007-2008 beard season over.

Wallaby Ranch

2008-03-14T10:17:00.007-06:00

I'd planned on an afternoon visiting with my friends at Florida's Wallaby Ranch and wound up spending a week there.

The weather wasn't the best, and I was off doing skydiving stuff or visiting friends on most days, but on the last day I was at the Ranch I had a great flight on a Wills Wing Falcon 3 170. Bob the Dragonfly pilot tolerated my constant yo-yoing on tow and waved me off in smooth lift that went all the way to cloudbase. It had been many years since I'd flown a hang glider, and when I wafted into the white room, it felt just like coming home. Despite my recent infatuation with ram air wings, hang gliding is still my absolute favorite way to fly - there's just nothing better.

There is never a shortage of amazing flying machines at the Ranch. In the powered category, the undisputed coolest is the Sea Max, a Light Sport Amphibious plane that Malcolm and Carlos are importing from Brazil.

The Sea Max is the perfect plane for Florida's lakes and grass strips. Malcolm is the complete master of it on the water, driving it around like it some kind of hot ski boat. The concept and execution of this aircraft is one of the cleanest I've ever seen.

Jim Lee and the Lambada

2008-03-14T09:43:00.010-06:00

With the prop stopped and feathered Jim eeked out a climb in the day's last thermal, aided by a reluctant vulture and his secret weapon, a Flytec Sonic!

Hang Gliding buddy Jim Lee took me aloft in his Urban Air Lambada. It's a Light Sport motor glider that can take off anywhere, climb at 1200 fpm with 2 people, cruise at 9o mph while sipping car gas at 3.5 gph, and can turn into a 30:1 sailplane just by switching off the 80 hp motor. This aircraft can be flown by Private, Sport, or Glider rated pilots. I like that it comes standard with a big old ballistically deployed parachute built in to the fuselage. Another cool safety feature is the incredibly mellow stall. The plane gives ample warning of the impending stall by buffeting, but the really interesting thing was that Jim could still turn the Lambada left or right while it just buffeted away, never even hinting at a spin. Jim is partnered with another old hangie, Joe Bostick, in the business of importing these beauties.

Looking out at the sleek 15 meter wings as we glide silently back to Wallaby.

405

2008-03-14T09:24:00.004-06:00

My Javelin Odyssey hanging on the rack, ready to save my life again.

Boarding the Twin Otter at Skydive City

I visited the drop zones at Zephyrhills and DeLand last week and logged a few jumps including my first jump out of a PAC 750 XL. Big DZs are great, but I sure do love my little Cessna DZ. I also visited the Performance Designs factory and stopped by Sun Path for a little maintenance on my rig.

Getting my Flat on

2008-03-14T09:13:00.003-06:00

While I was in Orlando I was gifted with the opportunity to read Flat Stanley to John Arthur Jones's kindergarten class. The reading was fun, but I had even more fun answering the kid's questions which ranged widely from reading and writing to flying and flatness. Of course I told them about the goats, which prompted a long discussion of the caprine lifestyle.

Senior Nationals

2008-03-14T08:52:00.004-06:00

Last week I spent a day at the Senior Soaring Nationals at the Seminole Lake Gliderport in central Florida. You had to be at least 55 to enter this meet, and there were plenty of pilots that were much, much older than that. It was great to see so many geezers out enjoying the air. Some of the pilots were so decrepit that they could barely climb up into their cockpits, but many of these "ultra geezers" could still out-soar the 55 year old "young Iions". The task and handicapping parameters allow for older planes to be fully competitive with the latest, greatest composite wonders. Events like this prove that you don't stop flying when you get old, you get old when you stop flying!

Is skydiving a winter sport?

2008-02-05T16:25:00.003-07:00

1. line it up

2. level off

3. flare!

That's our DZM Lee and Head Rigger In Charge Danny gathering up their parachutes in the background as Santa Claus (FR#1) greases in for another soft landing.

I've been doing a lot of hop and pops from 5 - 7 grand lately - it's too cold for full altitude! Plus, I've been enjoying learning how to fly my Aerodyne Pilot 150. These are some recent pictures that Kyle Bailey (FR #2) and Dar Weagley took of me landing the Pilot at Skydive New Mexico's student LZ.

Balloon Jumps 2008

2008-01-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

Balloon jumps went well. Last Sunday morning 19 jumpers got to make the zero airspeed exit into the ice cold early morning air, and all 19 had sweet jumps and good landings. The winds were in our favor, and almost everyone was able to land on the mesa. Kevin C got his balloon to altitude so fast that Eric, Dave H, and Andres were able to land right at our airport LZ! We had an all star jumper retrieval crew that had everyone else back at the DZ in short order.

There were lots of good jump stories, but my personal fave was Alex W's. Alex exited on his back and was enjoying watching the balloon get small, when he saw a small black object go sailing by his feet. In the next instant the small black object disgorged a cloud of cash and credit cards, and Alex realized that he'd just jettisoned his wallet! Amazingly enough, he was able to land nearby and, with the help of a few of his friends, he actually found his wallet. The cash, however, floated away, never to be seen again. I admire the way Alex skipped the "middleman" in the Manifest Office, and gave his money directly to the sky!

I wish I had pictures, but my camera batteries went dead before I got any good ones - D'oh!

My jump was fantastic. I helped my buddy Travis R get sorted out on his first balloon exit and then I climbed out to my exit position and waited for Steve to get his balloon to stop climbing. I got to sit on the edge of the basket for a minute or two while Steve sorted out the balloon. I made sure to fully enjoy the wonderfully free and somewhat absurd feeling of sitting on the edge of a hot air balloon basket with my feet dangling 5000 feet above the early morning desert landscape. Steve couldn't quite get the balloon settled out, but since we were starting to drift over less friendly terrain, he gave me the OK to exit anyway. This was my third balloon exit, and it was every bit as much fun as the others. As I've said before, there's something intensely beautiful about still air exits and the sensation of accelerating from zero to 120 mph in those first 12 seconds. I tracked for a good LZ and opened right above a balloon that had just landed. The canopy flight in the dawn air was great and I made a perfect landing right next to the balloon and the chase crew. For the whole rest of the day I was grinning like a blind monkey that had just found a banana.

Spectre 4 Sail

2008-01-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

I bought this parachute last August and I've put about 60 jumps on it. It's in perfect condition and flies great, but I've got too many parachutes and the Spectre has got to go. In the second picture you can see the rubber band attachment point I added to the slider. It makes it easier to stow the slider, but if you don't like the mod, just remove the rubber band and it's back to stock.

It's a custom, all red PD Spectre 150, DOM August, 2007, 60 jumps, no rips, tears, or repairs, always packed indoors, never crashed. Somebody make me an offer!

Tye and Yoshi

2007-12-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

winter cats

Sunset Hop and Pop

2007-12-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

Photo of JCB FR#1 by Kyle Bailey FR#2

Have a nice day

2007-11-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.haveaniceday.ru/

350

2007-11-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

Who is the famous old school hang glider pilot in this picture?

Last weekend I logged my 350th skydive. I thought it would be fun, and maybe even educational, if I looked at how those 350 jumps break down by dive type:

Pre A License Jumps with an Instructor or Coach: 23

Solo Belly: 101

2 Way Belly: 22

3 Way Belly: 13

4 Way Belly: 10

Stand-in as a "Student" or "Coach": 10

Hop and Pop at 5k: 96

HAHO: 10

Tracking: 50

Wing Suit: 5

Balloon: 2

Night: 2

Vintage Aircraft: 1

Ultralight Trike: 1

Water: 1

Cut away and use the reserve: 1

Tandem as Passenger: 2

Breaking it down jump by jump like that shows exactly what kind of skydiver I am: anti social.

When you add the solo specialty jumps to the regular old solo belly dives, and then factor in all those hop and pops ( I figure that about half of my tracking dives were solos too), around 250 of my 350 jumps are solos!

In the world of skydiving, folks that like to jump solo are considered a little bit weird. OK, a lot weird.

Part of it is the nature of my home DZ. Skydive New Mexico is a weekends-only Cessna 182 DZ that emphasizes teaching and tandem. Many loads only have a single slot available for sport jumpers. That's because a 182 holds 4 jumpers, and most loads consist of a tandem pair with video or an AFF trio. Being willing to fill those slots is the best way to get a bunch of jumps.

I also do more hop and pops than the average jumper. What can I say? One of my greatest joys in life is to squander 5000 feet of cool, smooth morning air. I've always loved the morning sleddie and the evening glass, and a hop and pop is a very easy way to tap into that.

Another part of the equation is that I come from over thirty years of participating in solo air sports and I'm used to flying alone. Hell, I'll admit it: I like flying alone.

What are my plans for the next 350 jumps? I see a lot more tracking and wing suiting in my future. I'm totally addicted to the bird-like sensation of forward movement through the air. I also want to start learning to free fly, a part of skydiving that I know nothing about. I'd like to get my USPA Coach rating and focus on coaching new canopy pilots. And, of course, I'm gonna do a whole bunch more hop and pops. And finally, just maybe, I'd like to spend a little more time zooming around on my belly trying to fly relative to some other jumpers!

The Weak Peak Geek Fleet Rides Again

2007-11-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

My good friend, the Reverend Jay Blackwood, took these photos of our recent Sandia session. It's not often that Sandia gives it up to the paragliding crew this time of year, so it was especially nice to share the sweet glass off with Jeremy, my new flying buddy, and one of my most favorite wingmen, Bill Lemon.

That's me, a very small man on a very big rock, waiting for a lull in the wind.

Bill Lemon and I cruise the glassy ridge lift above the top of 10,378 foot Sandia Peak

Fall

2007-11-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

A beard is an essesntial winter freefall accessory. I'm getting an early start on mine this year. When it gets long enough, it becomes a terminal velocity indicator - it flips up into your face at 120 mph.

Damn, it's been a beautiful fall season here in North Mexico! In the last week I've flown three different paragliding sites, including Sandia Peak, and made a bunch of jumps at Skydive New Mexico. Here are some pictures from one of my jumps last weekend. I opened high and whipped out my digital camera for a self portrait and a couple of shots of the airport and the student DZ - check out the zia.

A visitor from the Great White North

2007-11-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

Vancouver local Jeremy Hanen is visiting North Mexico and is forcing me out of paragliding retirement. Here's a photo of J-Dog himself, representing for Flat Stanley while Clay flies overhead.

J-Dog's blog gives the details of our recent mild paragliding adventures

http://jdogsadventures.blogspot.com/

I haven't had my PG out much lately, and it sure has been fun to float around on my 51 cell eliptical cross-braced canopy again!

Bridge Day 2007

2007-10-22T16:17:00.000-06:00

On Bridge Day it's legal to BASE jump from the 876 foot New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville, West Virginia. 450 jumpers from all over the world showed up for the 6 hours of legal jumps, a BASE film festival, a trade show, and one hell of a party.

There are two exit points: a platform and a diving board, here a jumper leaves the platform.

A jumper opens up below the bridge.

BASE jumping will be legal when pigs can fly.

The huge LZ

My brand new Blackjack 260

New Glider

2007-10-02T17:32:00.000-06:00

Phoenix Fly Prodigy Wing Suit

(parachute still required for landing)

7 cells Rule!

2007-09-14T08:12:00.000-06:00

2007 H2O Boogie

2007-09-10T11:54:00.000-06:00

What is Water Boogie? Just take a regular old late summer weekend at the lake, a lake that happens to have an airport and campground/LZ at it's edge, and add in two Cessna 182s with jump doors, a couple of big boats, 250 gallons of aviation gasoline, 2 kegs of beer, a few potato cannons, some mid size pyrotechnic devices, and the Skydive New Mexico club, and you have Water Boogie 2007 at Conchas Lake, New Mexico.

Some of my personal highlights of the event were chilling on Thursday night with the other early birds (we actually did get the worm, but that's another story) , Chloe's first tandem, my first water jump, a 3000 foot hop and pop with fellow geezers Ken Mascarenas and Deadwood under Sunday morning's low overcast (jump #299 for me), and a Saturday night feast and party that went on long into wee hours of the morning.

Above: Lee Norris makes a sunrise pass over the Water Boogie campground/LZ in his vintage Cessna 170

Above: Rudi Krenz prepares for one of the two water jumps he made during the boogie. Rudi has made over 60 water jumps in his 40 + year, multi thousand jump parachuting career. Rudi likes to jump his vintage round canopy, "The Blue Max" for his H2O "landings". In this photo Big John, Bob Martin and I make fun of Rudi's water jumping boots. On Saturday night Rudi received an award from James Englund and the club in recognition of his years of being a great contributor to the club and the sport of skydiving.

Most jumpers land in the open space in the middle of the campground, but a few also make jumps into the lake. You wouldn't want to use your sport rig for a water landing, because it's pretty hard on the gear, so everyone uses older, but still servicable gear. The hardcore water jumpers use old round parachutes and chest mounted reserves. I jumped a more modern system that Deadwood lent me; a Vector 2 with a "mystery main" that eventually revealed itself to be a Cruislite 220. I felt pretty nervous about jumping the "mystery main" until I found out Rich was jumping a "death rig" complete with "Death Rig: Do Not Jump!" printed on a label just above the cut away handle. The "death rig" held an Acutron 2000 ("the canopy of the future today!" according to Rich) that lived up to it's name by landing him dead center on the floating target. BTW, the "mystery main" opened soft and on heading, and gave me a nice ride all the way down to a smooth splash down right next to the rescue boats.

In the photo above, Rich watches Chloe arch and check altitude before pulling the ripcord, meanwhile, I continue my never ending search for a pull up cord

Above: One of our natural born stick and rudder experts sets up for a low pass in the jumpship. You might have to click on the picture to enlarge it because they are so freaking low that they are partially obscured by the weeds

Below: That's me and Chloe posing with Tandem Master Rich Deadwood before we jumped

Even our dog Timber got some airtime

Arno Hucks The Perrine

2007-09-05T07:08:00.000-06:00

Here's my buddy Arno flying his parachute over the Snake River last May.

Click for High Res.

12 Days at Skydive New Mexico

2007-08-13T09:35:00.000-06:00

Climbing out: The Rio Puerco

BSMs with BFPs: Elijah and Kelly got their Tandem Instructor ratings

"How come you have all the parachutes, and I don't have any?"

Elijah takes his "Pops" up as his first passenger

Skydive New Mexico DZ Manager/Birdman Lee Norris strikes the classic wingsuit pose

Instructor Examiner Jay Stokes was at SDNM for most of the last two weeks teaching Tandem, IAD, and AFF Instructor classes. I had the great good fortune to be allowed to give some ground support to Jay and the various instructor candidates. My duties included keeping a manifest of all the jumps, checking the weather and winds aloft, some pickup van driving, a little parachute packing, and the usual light janitorial duties. Best of all, I got to fill some loads. Usually the DZ is only open on the weekends, so getting to jump 11 out of the last 12 days was a lot of fun.

We started on August 1st, with the Tandem class. SDNM AFF Instructors, Kelly and Elijah were the two candidates. By Friday, they had both passed the challenging class and received their ratings from Jay. Elijah celebrated by taking his father Danny for a ride. Danny looked a little uncomfortable waiting to board the plane without his Racer on his back, but you could tell he was pretty proud of his son. It was very cool to see two generations of skydiving Combests making a jump together.

Over the weekend Jay held the IAD class. Rudi, "Big" John, and Kelly all passed the class and got their IAD ratings. In between sport jumps I made 3 jumps as an IAD "student". I really liked the 4000 foot IAD deployments - I mean, what's not to like? The openings were soft and on heading, I got a nice long canopy ride, and the skydives were free!

The AFF class started on Monday with three candidates attending: Matt, Danny, and Rich. For me, listening in on the AFF course was the most educational part of the last 12 days. It's been a little over a year since I was an AFF student, and I feel like I just took the course again; only this time from the perspective of the Instructor. To say that Jay Stokes is a Master is an understatement. You simply cannot be in the man's presence without learning something. Of course I learned about skydiving, but I also learned a bunch of stuff I can use as a paragliding instructor.

The AFF course was burdened with a few logistical problems, not the least of which was that they closed the Belen airport for three days to resurface the runway! We solved the problem by launching our plane from nearby Mid Valley Airpark and landing, packing, and debriefing at the Belen airport. It worked, but we spent a lot of time in the shuttle van. By the end of the week, only Rich was able to complete the requirements and get his AFF rating before the class ended. Matt and Danny will get a chance to finish up when Jay returns in September.

All in all, it was a fantastic 12 days of learning, leaping, and living large with some of my favorite folks. I wish the DZ was open today...

I'm smarter when I'm asleep

2007-07-23T09:29:00.000-06:00

Chloe just got her learner's permit and she and I went on a short road trip so she could practice her skills. She did a great job on the 350 mile drive from the Flying Goat Ranch to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and back. She also took these pictures.

That's me packing my Spectre after jump #233 at Skydive New Mexico last weekend. Mad Mac lurks in the shadows.

Yesterday afternoon, after I got home from the drop zone, I packed my Mojo. I hadn't packed it in weeks, and I was feeling a little out of practice, so I was slow and methodical. I had a really good feeling about the quality of the packjob as I closed the container.

I spent the rest of the day working with the goats and, like all good ranchers, I went to bed early. I fell asleep and started dreaming, and in my dream I realized that I'd forgotten to make the primary line stow when I packed the Mojo. I dreamt that I should try and remember to check the packjob in the morning, and sure enough, it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up.

As soon as I was caffeinated I opened my rig. The flaking and folding looked great, and the lines were perfectly arranged, but guess what? I hadn't made the primary stow. Forgetting that step in the packing process won't kill you in and of itself, but the lack of a primary stow could lead to a hard, or maybe out of sequence opening, and might also make it easier to develop a tension knot malfunction during deployment. Of course, it probably would have opened just fine, since that's what huge 7 cell parachutes tend to do.

I repacked, this time stowing a bight of lines in the primary stow pocket before S-folding the rest of the lines into the tailpocket. I had a really good feeling about the quality of the packjob as I closed the container.

Moab Report

2007-07-02T08:55:00.000-06:00

The Moab trip was great. I spent every day hiking and climbing in the mountains and canyons. I beat the heat by hiking the canyon country in the early mornings and spending the brutally hot afternoons high up in the cool of the La Sal mountains. I met some fun people, drank a few locally brewed Black Raven Stouts, and just generally had a sweet 3 day stay in Edward Abbey's neighborhood.

There as only one morning where the winds were light enough for jumping. That's Troy, me, and Marta on the climb up Tombstone. Troy and Marta and Jimmy jumped, and I ground crewed. The pre dawn hike through the canyons, walking past the numerous petroglyphs, was fantastic. It was the first time I'd ever seen real, live cliff jumping and, as my friend Rudi says: "you can observe a lot by just watching".

Above is our climbing instructor Matt Moore. Matt is a master of rope and rock, and he's also a paraglider pilot and BASE jumper. His class emphasized the real world skills and info you need to be a useful participant in a typical cliff crash/rescue situation. It was my first experience with roped climbing and I had a blast learning all kinds of new stuff.

Marta exits at Tombstone

One of the highlights of the ABAT course was EMS Master Dave Black's presentation on backcountry medical emergencies. Here's a picture of his BASE first aid kit.

Moab

2007-06-26T20:20:00.000-06:00

Toady, I drove from the Flying Goat Ranch to Moab, Utah. It was an easy 450 mile ride through Navajo country to the slickrock deserts of southern Utah. When I got to Moab, it was 102 degrees. After I got settled into the hotel, I took a drive out towards Dead Horse Point and stopped along the way to take some pictures. The last time I was at Dead Horse was in 1976, when it was still legal to fly there.

I'm here in Moab to take a two day course on backcountry first aid and rescue. Never hurts to work on one's EPs (that's "emergency procedures" for all you wuffos).

Falling Friends

2007-06-18T09:10:00.000-06:00

The Debrief

In between jumps yesterday I rode the pickup van out to the student LZ and took post jump pictures of some of my buddies. We have 3 LZs at SDNM; one right by the hangar for experienced jumpers, another at the edge of the airport also for experienced jumpers, and a student LZ that's 3 miles from the airport out in the middle of the stinking desert. The student LZ is also our "Area 51".

Kyle Bailey grinning after his first wing suit flight. Kyle is a coach at SDNM, he also does video. His real passion is 4 way RW. Kyle and I are ministers at the same church.

Elijah Combest is a second generation jumper that grew up at the Perris DZ. He and his dad Danny are both Instructors and Cameramen at SDNM.

James Englund is a newbie like me, but he's a lot more talented. He's already shooting video and working on his USPA Coach rating.

That's me and Elijah's daughter Hailey. Hailey and her grandpa Danny like to visit our goat ranch from time to time to look at the goats, jump on the trampoline, swing on the swing, and play hide and go seek.

Good Tow

2007-06-15T07:11:00.000-06:00

Below: Looking north towards the Sandia mountains

Larry West, Glenn Norman and I had a sweet tow session yesterday evening. I got one flight right before sunset. At the top of the tow it was pretty windy. Brakes off, I could just barely creep into the wind. Being high above flat ground, in perfectly smooth air, with no perceptable ground speed feels more like being perched on a very small platform than flying.

200

2007-06-11T07:22:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I made 6 solo tracking dives at Skydive New Mexico, which brings my total number of skydives up to 200. It was a fun weekend with lots of student activity. As usual there weren't many sport jumpers, but there were plenty of slots to fill on tandem and AFF loads.

On Sunday I saw something I hadn't seen yet in my short skydiving career; a student that wouldn't jump. It was a young guy on his first static line jump and he was last out. When it was his turn to go, he simply refused to exit, so he and the Instructor rode the plane down. When he was back on the ground he said "today wasn't my day to jump". He came out to the DZ with his girlfriend and some of his other buddies, and he took a LOT of shit from all of them, because he was the only one in the group that didn't jump. I thought that he made a good decision - if you don't wanna jump - then don't jump!

Last week Joni sent me a set of 7 CD's of pictures James and Heather took at the bridge. I'm still checking them all out; here are two launch photos, I'll post a few more later this week.

Tunnel Time

2007-06-04T10:14:00.000-06:00

On Sunday I drove 925 miles, to the Denver wind tunnel and back, for a 30 minute flight session with a coach. The drive was epic and the tunnel time was fantastic - I learned enough new stuff about belly flying to work on for the rest of the summer.

New Flag

2007-05-30T22:12:00.000-06:00

It was time to change the flag that flies from the main corral.

Spring Soaring Safari

2007-05-26T22:56:00.000-06:00

Here's some photos from the last two weeks on the road.

Riker Davis took this one of me kiting my toxic green Zulu Explorer on the South Side

"Aussie" James Mills took this pre-launch photo at the Perrine Bridge

JR Nershi took this one while we were cruising the North Side glass one evening

The Spring Soaring Safari Triple Ram Air Wrap-Up Gloat

SKYDIVING: I skydived at 3 DZ's on this trip: Mesquite, Nevada, Ogden, Utah, and even the rarely jumped "tandem only" DZ at Moab, Utah. The Moab jump was incredibly scenic - and lucky. I happened to drive right by the DZ on my way home to New Mexico, so I dropped in just to break up the drive and have a look at the "tandem mill" in operation. I didn't expect to jump because I knew that all four slots on every Cessna 182 load that they fly are always filled with two tandem pairs. Much to my surprise, as soon as I walked through their front door, they told me that they had a slot available on a load leaving in 15 minutes! By the time I'd signed the waiver and turned my Cypres on, the plane was boarding. The usual 182 style 20 + minute epic ride to to altitude passed very quickly because there was so much stuff to look at during the climb. The panoramic view of the canyonlands just kept getting better and better! On jump run at 10,000 agl the scenery was breathtaking. I spent the whole freefall and canopy flight doing lazy turns and gawking at the view. Everyone at the DZ was super friendly and told me to visit anytime I was passing by. They admited that it was rare for slots to open up for sport jumpers, but they said that they are always happy to sell solo jump tickets when they can. I paid $20 for the jump, repacked my parachute, and got back on the road. It took a little over an hour to pull in, manifest, ride to altitude, jump, land, pack, pay and leave! Five miles down the road I wasn't even sure it really happened.

PARAGLIDING: I got kiting, soaring flights and sled rides aplenty at the Point, including 2 stellar evening glass off sessions at the North Side. Paragliding is so much fun, I wish I lived in a friendlier place for those ugly bags of mostly air.

BASE: I made my first beginner BASE jumps during my week in Twin Falls. I took my lessons in low altittude parachuting from Tom Aiello at the Snake River BASE Academy. A short day at the BASE Academy involved 12 hours of jumping, packing and lectures with discussion, followed by a group dinner and a few beers. On a long day we would skip the beers and return to the bridge after dinner for some night jumps. Despite the fact that the weather wasn't the best, I still managed to log 13 jumps. A week, even an intense one like this, isn't nearly enough time to learn much about a complicated sport like BASE jumping, but it did give me a pretty good idea of the risks and rewards involved in BASE.

Twin Falls

2007-05-21T22:35:00.000-06:00

The 500 foot tall Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls , Idaho is one of the few legal objects in the US. I'm here to attend the Snake River BASE Academy's "Spring Deathcamp", a seven day introduction to the sport of BASE jumping.

Flying Folks

2007-05-16T22:35:00.000-06:00

One of the best parts of visiting the Point is getting to see some of my flying friends.

Above: Riker Davis photographing his son Tucker on one of his first soaring flights. Riker started flying in '75 and has hung glid continuously since then. He and I met in '77 in the Owen's Valley. His 19 year old son is an advancing paraglider pilot and is here at the Point working on his P2 rating.

JR Nershi is looking good and is more passionate about flying than ever these days.

Here's Tucker Davis, part of the growing second generation of foot launched pilots.

Chris is the best flight instructor I've known in my almost 32 years in this sport.

THE GLOAT

The flying has been great every day I've been here, with both the North and South Sides giving up nice sessions. I've flown my Explorer a bunch, and I've demoed the new Nova Ibex mountain wing. I also got to ground launch a Mojo 260 parachute from the top of the North one morning. Today, after the South Side session, Duane and Jeff L. and I made a jump at Skydive Ogden together. First jumps for them; #188 for me.

Strong and south

2007-05-13T10:32:00.000-06:00

It was a little too breezy for me this morning at the south side of the Point of the Mountain, I took a short flight but landed because I didn't like the air. The strong south wind didn't stop the local bad boys from playing. Here's a picture of my buddy Carson flying his small Gangster.

Skydive Mesquite

2007-05-12T22:38:00.000-06:00

I only got one jump because there were a ton of tandems, AFF students, and fun jumpers at the DZ but they only had a single Cessna 182 in operation. The wait between jumps was around 3 hours.

I had a great jump. The scenery was absolutely incredible and the air was warm and smooth. I was just a little disappointed that they didn't have their Cessna 206 up and running, check it out in the photos - what a classic jumpship.

Afterwards I hopped in the car and drove 300 some odd miles to Salt Lake City. I got there in time to go to the south side and see some old friends. The wind was too cross for flying, but the forecast looks good for the next several days.

Lost in Paradise

2007-05-12T21:38:00.000-06:00

Despite the fact that I had a GPS receiver mounted on my dashboard (and a whole pile of maps in the glove box) I got completely and gloriously lost several times on my way from the Goat Ranch to Mesquite, Nevada yesterday. It wound up being an almost 700 mile drive.

Here are some pictures I took of the Colorado River around the Vermillion Cliffs. The tiny black blur perched at the cliff's edge in the lower photo is a California Condor hanging out in the shade of the bridge. 60 Condors have been successfully introduced to the area around these cliffs. I know that the picture sucks, but I'd never seen one in the wild before and I'm totally stoked that I got a look at one of the largest soaring birds in the world.

The best part of the drive was when I had to back track 100 miles roundtrip due to a wrong turn, and wound up driving through Bryce Canyon National Park to get back on course. I’d never been to Bryce and had no idea of the huge scale of the place.

After almost 14 hours on the road I arrived at my destination, the Virgin River Casino and Resort. The Vigin River is a mere trickle in the stinking desert, and the resort that bears it's name is equally unimpressive. Known for it's penny slots and massive buffets, it's not the kinda place I would normally choose except for the fact that they offer a discounted room rate for skydivers. After I showered and took a short walk in the adjacent foothills, I sat at the bar and drank some Jim Beam and watched the slot jockeys at play.

New Zulu, Trike Huck and Road Rage

2007-05-01T06:56:00.000-06:00

Click on this wingtip photo to see all the cool features of the Zulu Explorer. Who could resist a glider that employs the "Keel System", the "Yeti Concept" and a "Kick Down Speed System". Also take note of the slim risers and very thin sheathed lines.

ZULU EXPLODER

Last week I made a quick trip to the republic of Utania to pick up my new paraglider - a Gin Gliders Zulu Explorer. Not only did I save $26 in UPS shipping charges by driving over 1200 miles round trip to get the glider - I also got to fly it at the Point of the Mountain, which is the perfect place to try out a new wing.

The Explorer is a new light weight version of the Zulu. It isn't an extreme mountaineering glider, it's an everyday glider for pilots that want a lighter wing for travel and the occasional hike and huck. It's light, but not at the expense of user friendliness or longevity. This makes for a very noticeable reduction in weight without the hassles associated with the stuff like tissue paper sails, Dyneema risers, unsheathed lines, and miniature brake toggles that you'd find on a true mountain glider.

In the air, the Explorer feels like a Zulu with hot sauce on it. The lighter, lower drag wing trims out a little faster and the handling feels more direct because the wing has less inertia. In other words - it's more fun to fly! The low speed performance seems to be improved as well. I'm flying a small Explorer at 2 kg over the top of the suggested weight range and I could match sink rates with Bill Lemon who was flying his large Zoom Race in the lower third of the weight range. Another sweet low speed feature of the Explorer is that it will make the flattest, tightest circles in light lift of any glider I've ever flown. For me, the low speed circling behavior is the Explorer's best feature; it likes scratching in light air just as much as I do.

I'm pretty stoked about my new Zulu Explorer and I'm looking forward to a bunch of adventures while dangling from it.

TRIKE HOP

Chris Santa keeps a sleek, overpowered 2 seat Cosmos trike at a little red neck airport somewhere out in the vast stinking desert southwest of Salt Lake, east of Area 51. While I was in Utah last week he invited me out to the desert to jump out of his trike. The drive to the airpark from the Point was scenic as hell and a good reminder of how beautiful Utah was before the recent suburban sprawl.

The ride to altitude was fast - 1000 fpm for the first 5ooo feet, and 600 fpm above that - the air was smooth and the view was incredible. It was cool to have a hang glider wing over my head again. At 7000 feet Chris cut the engine and I climbed out and hung from the landing gear for a second or two before taking the plummet. I fell on my back and watched Chris get small before flipping over and tracking for the aeropuerto. I pulled high and had a great canopy flight down to a nice landing at the airpark.

The trike rates right up there with the hot air balloon as being the funnest jumping platform. There's something about the low speed exit and subsequent acceleration to terminal velocity that is so much more beautiful than stepping out into the the roar of an airplane's slipstream.

ROAD RAGE

The drive home was an aggravating mix of bad weather, traffic, and endless road construction. I drank lots of coffee and didn't eat, which really enhanced the experience. I wound up contracting a mild case of road rage. If I flipped you off somewhere out there on old Route 666, I'm truly sorry.

First cut away and reserve ride

2007-04-14T19:02:00.000-06:00

In fact, it was my first reserve ride of any kind, ever.

Palabra

2007-03-19T11:21:00.000-06:00

Pura Vida

2007-03-12T11:54:00.000-06:00

Here are the promised words and pictures from last week's family vacation in Costa Rica. You can click any picture for a bigger version.

The beaches were almost deserted

This beach at Domenicalito was one of our LZs

We saw some huge river crocodiles

Landing at the lower Jaco LZ. Jaco has soft thermals and hardly any sink.

Mirador: looking north towards Caldera from way up in the hills

Zip line tour of the forest canopy at Hacienda Baru near Domenical

One afternoon we rode horses and hiked through the rain forest. The girls found some nice pools to cool off in.

A morning walk along the beach near Boca Barranca

The Mountains

2007-03-12T10:44:00.000-06:00

We spent most of our time on the coast but we did venture across the 10,000 foot summit of Cerro de Muerte to visit some small mountain towns way up in the cloud forest. In addition to the great mountain views, we also found relief from the constant heat and humidity of the coast. We even had to turn on the heaters at night.

Jungle Kat

2007-03-12T10:32:00.000-06:00

Zip line through the rain forest

On our last day we went in search of the elusive Quetzal

All smiles after another soft landing on the beach

Kat sees a 10 toed sloth

CR from the air

2007-03-12T10:22:00.000-06:00

Looking down on the lower Jaco launch from 2500 above the upper launch.

Gliding out from Fred's, an 1800 foot launch. The LZ is on the beach, right next to a nice bar

Soaring the Zulu at Mike's

Looking down at the LZ from launch at Mike's. Mike's is named after the landowner, a local pilot named Mike. Unfortunately Mike just sold the land, it changes hands on March 20th, and it's unknown if the new owner will permit flying.

El Pes Flaco high above Jaco

Check out the knee socks at cloudbase, pretty styly, no?

Nick Crane: El Pes Gordo

2007-03-12T09:03:00.000-06:00

We hired Nick Crane to be our guide in CR. Nick's been travelling to CR for years and has the place totally wired. He's also an instructor, a tandem dude, a Chiropractor, and very importantly, he has the essential four wheel drive vehicle that's required to get to the top of the jungle flying sites.

Nick did a great job, especially considering that our diverse little group consisted of me, a P4, Kat, a P2 that hadn't flown in 12 months or more, and Chloe, a teenager with a lot more interests than just jumping off of cliffs and mountains. Flying was the main focus of the trip, and Nick got us as much airtime as we wanted, but he also made sure that we stayed in nice hotels, ate great food, toured the rain forest by horseback, foot, and zip line, saw the crocodiles, sloths, monkeys, and exotic birds, and had plenty of time to play on the beach. He also helped Kat a bunch with her kiting and flying by giving her private lessons and even took Chloe on a tandem flight.

I think Nick has a great little niche in the paraglider adventure travel biz. While most tour operators cater to big air pilots, Nick's CR tour is perfect for recreational pilots and families that want to do more than just crank and bank in the strong stuff. Thanks Dr. Nick!

Family Vacation Time!

2007-03-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

Later today the girls and I leave for a week in Costa Rica. We are bringing our paragliders, cameras, and our collective sense of adventure. I'm gonna try and avoid stuff like phones and the internet, so when I get back I'll post some words and photos from the trip.

Above is another of James Bradley's photos of me hiking at Blue Springs - the best one of this series is in the gallery at the Gin Gliders website.

One-fiddy!

2007-02-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

Landing the mighty Spectre 170 at Skydive New Mexico.

SDNM meets The Wicker Clan

2007-02-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

Lift off!

Adam landed right next to me in the middle of the stinking desert

Ron Weagley assists with inflation.

Me and Rudi. Rudi always tells his static line students that "gravity does not reward your good intentions"

A shitty self portrait, but the best one I got. Kat says it makes me look old. Hell, I am old!

Last Saturday the weather gods smiled on us and the often rescheduled meeting between Skydive New Mexico and The Wicker Clan finally happened. The Clan showed up in force with 6 balloons of various sizes to accomodate the 10 skydivers that braved the freezing dawn. I had the great good luck to be paired with Rudi in Kevin Cloney's 3 passenger balloon. I like jumping with Rudi because of his vast experience and very dry sense of humor.

The jumps were great. All the balloons launched at more or less the same time, and although we were never very close to each other, we were all within sight as we climbed quickly in the cold dense air. I saw climb rates of 600-800 fpm on the Flytec vario that Kevin had mounted in the basket - I wish the 182 would climb that fast! All too soon we were at 4,500' AGL and starting to drift over a wide swath of unlandable terrain - time to go!

I watched Rudi set up on the edge of the basket and make a perfect jump before I climbed out. I exited head high and transitioned to a track as my airspeed built up. It seemed like I was just starting to really fly when it was time to flare out and pitch my pilot chute. The canopy ride down through the smooth morning air was great and I found a perfect LZ right on a major dirt road that didn't have power lines or fences along it's edges. A few minutes later Adam landed right next to me. Rudi was down safe in his own LZ about a mile up wind of us. We barely had time to high five before Patrick pulled up to give us a ride back to the DZ.

Over the next hour all the balloons and jumpers returned to the hangar and the Wicker folks set up a big tailgate breakfast which looked delicious. I wasn't hungry, so I skipped breakfast and did a hop and pop instead.

After the HAP I packed up and headed over to manifest to see about another jump. Before I got there I was asked by a senior club member if I'd volunteer to go on a couple of loads with our new pilot, Chad. Because these were training flights the club paid for our jump tickets! In exchange, the 3 of us (the 4th slot was taken by one of our regular pilots who was coaching Chad) had to do slow climb outs and spend a little more time than usual hanging out on the strut and step to help Chad get used to flying with a bunch of peeps dangling from his right wing. My first free jumps - Beer!

On Sunday we got in one low load with Chad flying as PIC for the first time. The wind aloft was a bit stronger than the forecast and I wound up spending the whole time under canopy hanging off my front risers in order to penetrate back to the DZ. As I packed up after the jump the surface wind began to howl, so we put the plane away. All in all, not a bad wekend.

Click on the pics to see high resolution versions.

Goggles

2007-01-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

I've tried a bunch of 'em and still can't find the perfect pair. Some have great optics, some have a nice airtight seal, and some are comfortable, but I haven't found a pair that scores well in all three categories. So far Bobster motorcycle goggles (the big ones with the orange/yellow lenses in the picture) are my faves.

JCBFLY on Myspace

2007-01-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

Clicky: jcbfly

I put this site up recently so that I could interact with some of my music buddies like my former bandmates The Memphis P.Tails .

Winter Skydiving

2007-01-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at the freezing fog that cancelled our hot air balloon jumps last weekend. The entire Wicker Clan ballooning club showed up and brought 14 balloons with them to accomodate the 24 jumpers that had signed up to take the zero airspeed leap. We hung out till it was too late in the day for balloon flight and then almost everyone left. Of course it cleared up about an hour later and we were able to jump the 182 all afternoon.

Jumps have been hard to come by for the last 5 weeks or so. It always seems like the bad weather comes in on the weekends. Even when the weather's been good there have been very few jumpers coming out to the DZ. Two weekends ago C.J. and I bought 2 slots each just so we could do a hop and pop!

Speaking of hop and pops; I've been doing a lot of them. It's simply been too cold to go all the way to 15,500' MSL for a longer freefall. The good thing about all the low jumps is that I'm dailing in my canopy control and accuracy landings. I can't wait for my winter jumpsuit to arrive so that I can get back into some body flying.

Land of Enchantment

2007-01-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

New Mexico recently unveiled their new license plate that depicts a skydiver jumping from a hot air balloon. Click on the photo to enlarge it and get a good look at the new plate. Pretty cool, huh?

New Year's Day 2007

2007-01-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

It's been cold and foggy and not much snow has melted. Even some of the local birds have turned blue from the cold.

Winter on the Rio Grande

2006-12-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

Kat and Chloe like the snow. The goats and I prefer warmer weather.

It snowed on and off since yesterday morning; it finally started clearing up around 3:30 this afternoon.

More Snow

2006-12-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

You can barely see some pissed off goats hiding in the barn as the snow begins to fall...

Here's two pictures from the start of our second snow storm of the season.

G.O.A.T

2006-12-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hollywood is a member of the Goats Of America Team, a loose knit band of rebel goats that practice totally extreme goating. In this picture Hollywood has reached the exit point and is ready to jump.

Mojo

2006-12-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

Mojo, aka Captain Green Hawk

The bird, Mojo, is ringing his bell like crazy this morning. I wonder what makes him decide it's a good day for bell ringing?

As a flyer, I've always sorta felt like it's politically incorrect to "own" a bird. Mojo was already living here when I moved in, so I've had to make peace with the idea of having a caged flying creature as a roomate. His wings aren't clipped and his cage is often open, but he rarely takes advantage of his flight privileges. When he does choose to fly, it's usually just a few frantic low altitude laps of the office and a slider landing on my desk. In the summer I always worry that he's gonna crash into the ceiling fan as he flies his laps.

I've tried hard to make friends with Mojo, and we are pals, but the thing that keeps me from getting really close to him is that he's a biter. Not always, and certainly not predictably, but he will bite if he's in the mood. Sometimes months will go by without a bite. He'll happily wander around on top of my head or takes baths in the sink perched on my finger, and then, out of the blue, he'll bite. Not that I blame him or anything, but it does make it hard to relax around the guy.

Snow Dog

2006-12-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

The late, great Sky enjoys the snow.

Jumping a reserve

2006-12-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

I made 10 jumps at Skydive New Mexico over the last two weekends. 5 of the jumps were 5k hop and pops with a PDR 160 reserve hooked up as my main.

The reserve came to me through Performance Designs demo program. It's pretty cool. Anyone can request any PD parachute to try out. Of course PD makes sure that you have a chance of surviving the demo by calling the S&TA at your home DZ to discuss your flying experience before they send the chute. It costs $50, and they send you the canopy to use for 2 weeks. Included with the canopy were some helpful instructions, a bag of tiny little rubber bands, and a prepaid return shipping label. The reserve came on risers and it had an attachment point for my pilot chute and d-bag, so it was very easy to load it into my rig.

I requested the demo because I already have a PDR 160 in my rig and I was curious to try one out. Although it felt more "parachuty" than my Spectre, the PDR 160 was a nice flying and landing wing. I feel pretty happy about having one as my last parachute. Overall, demoing the reserve was a good experience and a fine way to waste a weekend.

Short but Sweet

2006-12-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

We'll miss you Sky Dog.

Snowy Day

2006-12-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

First snow of the season

Goats in the barn, hiding from the snow

Kat and Hollywood

Snow Goat

It's a rare day when it snows here in the bottom of the Middle Rio Grande Valley, the weather guessers say that a few inches of the white stuff might accumulate by tomorrow. It's the first time any of the goats have seen snow, and none of them seem to like it very much.

Kat and Dog

2006-12-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

Kat is sniffing the flowers she got for me. Check out Sky lurking in the background.

Animals

2006-12-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

Sky, the new puppy.

Some of the goats hanging out at the Scratchin' Shack

Rose is a Nubian

There are 12 animals living with us these days. The dogs: Timber and Sky. The cats: Yoshi and Tye. The bird: Mojo. The goats: Bootsie, Bella, Otis, Sunny, Scout, Hollywood and Irish Rose.

Foolproof Plan B

2006-12-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Spectre in a Vector

2006-12-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Vector 3: Dork saver
I bought my rig from Keith N., an organizer, instructor and coach from SDC. That's why the mud flaps are adorned with "STL" and K's Team Funnel Number.

I know it's nerdy, but I love my skydiving rig. It's a used Relative Workshop Vector 3 harness/container loaded with Performance Designs canopies; a new Spectre 170 main and a used PDR 160 reserve. I've also got a Cypres 2 and a Skyhook RSL lurking in the reserve container as back ups to plan B.

There was a serious lack of skydivers at the DZ last weekend, I guess the cold weather is keeping folks away. There were a bunch of tandems and students during the day on Saturday, but only a few sport jumpers. I got in a couple of jumps; a high one filling a tandem load and a low one filling a static line load.

Saturday night we put up 2 loads under the light of a full moon. As a newly B licensed skydiver I was allowed to make my first night jump. The scenery was incredible, and even ratty old 42 X Ray's wings looked beautiful in the moonlight as we made the slow, cold climb to 10.5 k AGL. To the north we could see the lights of Albuquerque and a solid deck of clouds pouring over the Sandia mountains. The cloud deck was being lit up by the city lights and full moon. As bright as they were, the clouds and urban lights were just a tiny splash of light in the overall scene. The vast empty desert, looking very mysterious in the moonlight, dominated the view. I exited solo and just turned slow 360's in freefall, enjoying the icy blast of wind and taking in the view. At the top of the skydive I felt like I was in outer space. After 30 seconds the ground lights started growing, giving me a sense of speed and signaling the end of the freefall. I pulled high, turned on my strobe light, and enjoyed a very mellow canopy ride down to a good, on target landing.

On Sunday there were only enough skydivers on hand to fill the 4 jumper Cessna 182 twice. And 3 of us were on both loads! One of the club Instructors, Elijah C., helped me out by doing two RW dives with me. I did OK on our 2 way, but I funneled our 3 way. It was cold, 12 degrees OAT on jump run, but the winds were fair, the sun was shining, and the cold, dense air was perfectly smooth. So far, I'm liking winter skydiving.

Retro Jumpship

2006-11-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

1947 Cessna 120

It took Mark and Mitch less than 5 minutes to remove the door.

Me and Mark after the jump

Once again, the weather was perfect for skydiving over the weekend; I can see why this season is called "Fall"! I made 8 dives, mixing it up between attempted 2 way RW and solos. On Sunday one of my best buddies Mark Mocho showed up at the airport. Mark and I shared a lot of great sky adventures back in the hang gliding days, but in the early 90's he switched to sailplanes and I became a paraglider pilot. Mark and his friend Mitch flew into Belen in Mitch's 100% original 2 place 1947 Cessna 120. The plane is in perfect condition and even has the original paint. Half seriously, I asked if they'd take the door off and let me jump out of that vintage beauty, and of course they immediately said "yes"!

Once the door was off we had to find a parachute for Mitch since the FAA requires that everyone in the plane wears a chute for flight with an open door. Lee, the drop zone manager, helped out by lending Mitch a pilot rig and giving him a quick briefing on jump operations. We also practiced a few exits on the ground to make sure that I could actually get in and out of the cramped cockpit with my skydiving rig on my back. It took a few tries to figure out the easy way to wiggle out of the plane.

The 85 horse power Cessna took a long time to climb to 5,000 AGL, but I didn't mind at all. I loved the feel of the slow plane, and the view was great with the door off. Mitch is also a glider pilot, so he took advantage of every scrap of lift to hasten our climb, but it still took about 25 minutes. At 5 grand he flew a perfect jump run and I dove out into the slow speed slipstream, taking a 5 second delay before opening my parachute and gliding down to a good landing. Thanks you guys for making an already great weekend even better!

Chloe and Rudi Go Flying

2006-11-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

The aviatrix and her flying machine

In flight self portrait

Chloe and Rudi

Rudi Krenz has taught me a lot about skydiving in the short time I've been a member of the Skydive New Mexico club, and today he taught my step daughter Chloe a little about flying single engine airplanes. Chloe and I got up early and drove to Double Eagle 2 airport to meet Rudi for a flight in a Cessna 172. I stayed on the ground while the two of them made a cross country flight to Belen Alexander airport (which is the home of Skydive New Mexico). On the one hour flight Chloe got a taste of General Aviation flying and even got to take the controls for part of the journey. Here are a few of the pictures she took during the flight.

At age 14 Chloe has flown tandem in paragliders and ultralight trikes a few times, has soloed a hang glider at our local training hill, and now she can add the mighty 172 to her list of aircraft she's piloted.

100 Jump Wonder

2006-11-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

42 X-Ray, our club's Cessna, has an extended wingspan, a wider body, and a more powerful engine than a run of the mill 182.

I took advantage of the beautiful fall weather by making 9 jumps at my home DZ this weekend. That brings my total number of skydives up to 106 and my total amount of free fall airtime to over 70 minutes. My paragliding, hang gliding, and sailpane buddies laugh at how many flights it takes to log an hour of free fall airtime, but 60 seconds of free fall is every bit as much fun as 60 minutes of soaring. To me, different kinds of flying are like different kinds of music; everyone is entitled to their preferences, but in the final analysis they are all equal. Anyone that disagrees is just a whuffo!

Emergency!

2006-11-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Top: I survived! Below: Rudi watches as I struggle for my life under the parachute in the nice warm water.

Here are two pictures from the "live emergency water landing training" that I had to do as a step towards getting my USPA "B" Skydiving license. It sounds hairy, but all I had to do was put on an ancient skydiving harness and jump in a comfortably heated indoor pool at a local luxury hotel. Once I was in the water, Skydive New Mexico Instructor Rudi Krenz threw an old parachute on top of me and I had to swim out from under it and then take off the harness while I treaded water. As you can see in the picture of me swimming to safety, I survived the experience. Now I feel totally prepared to land my parachute in any heated indoor pool!

After the training session, Kat and Chloe and I had dinner with Rudi and traded flying stories. Rudi is 74 years old and has been skydiving since 1964, so he had a few interesting tales from the "good old days" of the sport to share with us. I sure hope that I'm still enjoying death sports at age 74!

I've had a few other sky adventures since my last post, the best of which was jumping from a hot air balloon during a recent trip to Skydive Arizona. I felt so free as I climbed on to the edge of the balloon basket that morning. I stood there for a few seconds, enjoying the view and drinking in the moment before I uttered the traditional "See ya!" and jumped. The zero airspeed launch was spectacular. I loved the sound of the wind as it went from silence to the 120 mph roar of terminal velocity.

I currently have 97 skydives in my logbook, and with any luck, I'll make my 100th jump at Skydive New Mexico this weekend.

Las Salinas y la perrita nueva

2006-11-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

Today I took the family on a trip to Las Salinas Monument, the site of a 500 year old Spanish Mission. Las Salinas is about 50 miles from our home in the Bosque and only one of many ancient treasures in our area. On the way home the girls talked me into stopping at the local animal shelter, and guess what, we got a new puppy. Now we have 13 animals: 2 cats, 2 dogs, a bird and 8 goats! The top photo shows Chloe with the new addition; I think we are going to name the puppy "Skylar".

Tango Delta Golf

2006-10-10T08:54:00.000-06:00

I broke my camera, and since photographs are my excuse for writing, I lost interest in Blogging. Here's an update on some of the shit that's been happening since my last post.

I went back to Skydive Chicago to hang with El Jefe while he did "AFP in a week". The weather wasn't the best, but I did get 10 jumps in, including some highly educational and entertaining jumps with skygodess Nanette Studebaker. On one jump we did a "spinning compressed accoridan"; now I know what a frisbee feels like! She also helped me work on some bad habits I was getting into since my last instructional jump. Dave Cicciarelli also helped me out a lot, especially with some very important shit like owning my mistakes.

Jeffrey did great in the air but couldn't finish the program 'cause of the weather and some hideous cold that was going around the DZ (all that high fiving in the plane spreads disease like crazy).

Since it was raining the first day we were at SDC, Jeff took all his ground school classes, including his packing class. Like all students, he fumbled with his first few attempts at folding the wing, but eventually he got the canopy in the bag and the container closed. It didn't look particularly pretty, but it looked like it would work, so he decided to jump it on his AFP level 1 jump! I'd bet that there aren't many other freefall students that packed their own rig for their first jump. He said it was his sweetest opening of his 10 jumps that week.

One night El Jefe almost got us lynched by the locals for some impromptu stunt driving he did in the DZ parking lot. Jeff was demonstrating hand brake turns in the rental POS. He had to shout above the sound of the squealing tires as he explained the difference between a "Rockford Files" style slide and a "Hawaii Five-O" skid. Turn after turn, Jefe lit up the cheap tires, leaving perfect black spirals on the pavement and a cloud of blue smoke in the air.

As we left the parking lot, we noticed a posse of four pickup trucks following us back to our trailer. I guess there was a party going on nearby, so there was a good supply of slightly drunk skydivers on hand to form a posse. When they confronted us they were pretty mad - till they realized we were slightly drunk skydivers too, then all was forgiven.

I've only done a few jumps at Skydive New Mexico recently. That's gonna change since I'm no longer working weekend nights. The key to getting jumps at a small, weekends only, Cessna DZ is to be able to hang out all day, a luxury that my schedule hasn't allowed till now.

I spent five days at the Point flying paragliders with Team Death Gaggle last week. Again, the weather didn't cooperate, but I still managed to fly everyday and at least regain some of my basic paragliding skills. I haven't touched a PG wing since last July!

It was great to hang with the TDG crew. Highlights included watching El Jefe teach Nanette how to fly paragliders, a flight on the Nano, an early morning sled ride from the rarely flown top of the north side (thanks Carson!), and five days of great fellowship with the brother and sister apes of Tango Delta Golf.

Sorry for the long post, I'm gonna buy another cheap camera and get back to posting some photos (and short captions) soon.

Flying Goats

2006-09-10T16:26:00.000-06:00

Above: Bella is one of my favorite goats.

Below: Old goat.

Fiddy!

2006-08-30T07:14:00.000-06:00

I made jump number 50 last weekend at SkydiveNew Mexico. Paragliding buddy Paul Briggs was on the load with me, strapped to Deadwood for his first tandem . I hung from the wing strut as Paul and Rich got in the door. It was fun to make eye contact with Paul right before I let go and plummeted earthward. Paul also made his first solo sailpalne flights this past weekend! Another brother, Bill Lemon also made his first tandem skydive that day, but I couldn't get packed fast enough to be on his load.

There was a bit of carnage at the DZ last weekend. Both crashes were under perfectly good parachutes and resulted in ankle injuries. Sounds more like paragliding than skydiving.

Best Bachelor Party Ever!

2006-08-24T21:59:00.000-06:00

I just returned from a 3 day epic journey to the Republic of Utania. The trip consisted of 2 full days of driving, and one full day of play. The main reason for the journey was to attend Santa's bachelor party at the Ogden Skydiving Center. Instead of strippers and crack, our party featured a Cessna Caravan, gobs of altitude, and a bunch of good friends. Part of the fun was that it was a surprise party.

Here are some pictures I stole from Jeffrey Farrell's Paragliding Blog . Check out his Blog to see more pictures. In the photo of Chris and me sitting in the plane, do my goggles look dark enough for the time of day? I could barely see my glow in the dark altimeter. I told Santa that I didn't have a good feeling about not being able to check my altitude, so he traded me for his clear ones. What a pal!

It was supposed to be a paragliding/skydiving trip, but the winds didn't cooperate for gliding. Fortunately, the skydiving made up for the lack of soaring. The Ogden Skydiving Center is a fun, friendly place to jump. The Caravan is a sweet jump ship and their pilot flies it very well.

I got four jumps despite the fact that the weather wasn't the greatest and we had to stand down for a while due to wind and rain. The last jump of the day was supposed to be a sunset load, but it turned into a night jump complete with small strobe lights on our harnesses. I caused our 4 way linked exit to hinge and flip wildly for 5 or 6 seconds before we broke apart. After that I lurked above and watched Chris, Scotty and OJ dock on each other before tracking away to my own airspace. Falling through the black sky, watching the lights on the ground get bigger was otherwordly. I pulled high and enjoyed a smooth canopy flight down to a soft landing next to the hangar.

After we put the plane and parachutes away a huge pot of homemade soup appeared and we all sat around the hangar living large and telling lies till it was time to drive back to SLC. Later that night Jeffrey and I sat at his kitchen table, drinking whiskey out of a plastic bottle and making plans for total world domination.