Leaderboard

Dear God, Lee. The whole post is gold, but the quoted stuff is platinum.

It’s hard to plan for the long term when every single step in between is seen as individually important. I don’t like this focus on quarterly results by all and sundry; never have. It’s trends that matter more of the time, not individual data points. Several data points make a trend, yes, but if it were all about data points, no one would ever go through chemo for cancer, because you’d feel worse before (possibly) feeling better Wendy P.

My first reaction is to ask why you would want to do this? It's a small industry with a limited market. I would not pick this as a high ROI opportunity. Most people that persue this are all ready involved and do it out of passion. That is why they tend to fail. They are skydivers not business men. Getting your rigging certificate is not the answer. I'm not saying that it's a bad idea just as general background and in theory could help you legally with the FAA. It's a weird gray area where all you have to do is say you are a manufacturer and you are. But in theory you need to be a rigger to do any kind of repair. But manufacturer trumps rigger... The logic gets convoluted and weird. Can you build it but then not fix it? In the end it doesn't matter. Half of your employees will be riggers. A rigging course has very little to do with what you will need to learn. Here is the real truth. There are lots of different types of riggers. And this isn't a senior vs master thing. Master means they can sign more paperwork. In theory they are more experienced and can do alterations, etc. In reality it just means they can sign things. But manufacturer tops master. A master can perform alterations approved by the manufacturer or can apply for an approval through the FAA. This gets into whether it's a TSO'd component. Non TSO'd, people just go to town on them although in theory some of these rules still apply. There are some very good master rigger manufacturers on here that will be happy to delve deep into that rabbit hole. Here is the honest truth as to what you need. You need a business degree. Or a degree in accounting. Running a business is a business in it self. Taxes payroll book keeping accounts receivable accounts payable suppliers PO's tracking records marketing finance. These are the actual skills that you need. You are going to hire someone to run production. That's a completely separate issue and the small of the two issues. Who do you need to hire. Remember I said there are different types of riggers. There are riggers that pack, there are riggers that sew, there are riggers that build, and there are riggers that design. There are ones that work in the sport industry. They pilot rigs are almost their own separate industry with limited crossover. Military is it's own thing. These groups have been cross pollinating but they are still very different from each other. Most riggers are glorified packers, and that's fine. A lot of them really are not comfortable doing even basic repairs or sewing. This is what all the classes turn out. You don't really learn to see and prepare things till you work in at least a medium size loft under the supervision of a master rigger. Some people get really into that and just live at a sewing machine. Note that they are probably not master riggers. You just need a master rigger around to theoretically be "supervising" and maybe sign something now and again. There are people that get into building things from scratch. Batches of risers jumpsuits sliders toggles pilot chutes etc. This is a different skill set. You mostly develop it from working for a manufacturer or in a larger loft. You don't learn all the secrets and esoteric knowledge from any course. There is a smaller group that delves deeper into the why rather then just the how. Designers are mad scientist with a sewing machine. You'll know them by the kackle in their laugh. All of these people have way over inflated egos for what they are. We are all a pain in the ass. There is another related category. Let's be polite and call them workers. The more common name that we often use is slaves. These are non skydiver non rigger 9-5 workers that set at machines doing repetitive tasks all day long. They are actually very valuable. If you get good ones treasure them. They come in diffrent varieties. I think Koreans are the best but any one (xxx) will do. LOL's (little old ladies) are very good if you can get them. The problem is that they are by definition old and tend to die. They are almost extinct. Wet backs are I think the last option but they can serve with enough supervision. Sewing machines. It has gotten progressively harder over the years to source good used machines. And you will need some one to work on them. I don't know what your going to do but you will be surprised at how many machines you will wind up with. Her as a thought. Don't start a company. Buy one. None of these companies are big. You might be surprised at how low an honest evaluation of their value would be. Some of these guys are getting old. Sandy Reed as an example. Or the dolphin rig. Or some one in a financial bind because they don't know how to run a business. You could pick up not just a turn key operation but maybe a TSO. That's fucking gold. All the old shit is grand fathered in and it's only getting harder to meet the new standards. Again my real advise is to go open a McDonald's or some shit like that. Any thing but a loft. If your not already married to this industry why would you dive into this water? Lee

Sounds about right. I once used my teeth to get a better leg grip, and turned out there was some leg in there, too… Wendy P.

Once again the House GOP demonstrates that it wants the tax cheats' votes by tying aid to Israel to a cut in the IRS enforcement budget. No doubt this will also appeal to the poorly educated, who think this helps them and haven't figured out that tax cheating is overwhelmingly the province of the wealthy.

Because that particular school sucks, perhaps? This is as dumb as the argument "Obama bought a house only 10 feet above sea level so obviously he doesn't believe in climate change."

Perhaps not - but republicans certainly do. Republican Doug Mastriano wants to cut funding to all public schools in his districts by 100%, and replace all funding with vouchers that cover only half the cost of education. The House GOP education bill cuts public school funding by 28%, and would result in 224,00 public school teachers being fired - almost all in low income areas. 61% of republicans think schooling has a NEGATIVE effect on the US. 65% want the Department of Education's budget cut. 66% of republicans are OK with having the history of slavery taught but do not want any mention on the effects of slavery on black people after slavery. And of course there are the book banners and educational program cutters. Most of the people trying to ban books are republicans, coming out of groups like Moms For Liberty and No Left Turn in Education. The books they want to ban are generally books about growing up as an LGBT or minority kid, and books about systemic racism. Greg Abbott came up with a list of around 850 books that "might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex" - including if a white kid feels bad that whites enslaved blacks 150 years ago. Banning "CRT" from schools has been very popular. This is even worse since CRT isn't taught in public schools, which means they are trying to conflate CRT with something like the history of slavery in order to ban it. Florida schools now teach that slavery benefited black people, by order of the state. I hate to tell you this, but education - especially STEM education - makes you more liberal. Conservatives think that their "beliefs" trump reality; that's why conservatives believe that vaccines don't work or change your DNA, they believe that evolution doesn't exist, they believe that the climate isn't changing, or that we have nothing to do with that. They believe that there are no natural trans people so being trans is unnatural and sick. The more educated you are the harder it is to maintain those misconceptions. This is the underlying reason that republicans oppose education so much, and try to either cancel it or cripple it. The less educated people are, the more likely they are to vote republican. A high school dropout, for example, is only 26% likely to consider themselves liberal. Someone with postgraduate education is 54% likely to consider themselves liberal. Thus for conservatives the answer is clear - destroy public education and win more elections. And while any reasonable person would see this as a bad outcome (uneducated people are more likely to be poor, kill themselves etc) the republican party these days sees elections as a battle to be won at all costs; 41% of Trump supporters see violence as acceptable to ensure their political agenda wins out. If you are willing to maim and kill to see your guy win, then ending schooling for the same purposes is an even easier sell.

There are rational R's?

PD is hiring production staff. Start at the bottom and work your way up.

Ducking what? Sometimes you just make no sense.

Is that what she's calling herself now?

At least Georger is beginning to understand one point. If the money or money bag enters the Columbia east of the point where the river it will sink (per TK's experiment using real money) to the bottom of the river and stay there. Also, when the river makes the turn to the north, the money bag moving along the bottom of the river is going to end up at the bottom of the 40-deep shipping channel and it will stay there. There is no natural process that will move the money uphill from the bottom of the shipping channel to several feet above the shoreline at Tena Bar. Hopefully, Georger will continue to try to understand the General Energy Equation.

The loops in the steering lines also enter into the equation. If they’re a little loose, toggle fires get much easier. Has nothing to do with that risers. Like most things in skydiving, look at it, think about how it is supposed to work, and imagine error scenarios. Wendy P

Some of the interviewers I hear on BBC radio are very tough. They ask pointed questions, and don't accept dissembling answers. I'd love to hear some of them have a go at our US politicians, but of course our politicians are just barely smart enough to never get caught in that position.

Unless they have a rich daddy who can pay an unscrupulous doctor to make a diagnosis to get them an exemption.