ZigZagMarquis

Then why do it? If someone bought you a sport rig that hadn't been packed in a year... say because it was sitting in a jumper's closet for a year, but now they want to get current... would you charge them an extra $10?

Just currious... why do you charge more for pilot rigs? Personally, I always found flaking a round (which is usually what's in a pilot rig) easier... although, the closing of pilot rigs tends to differ from band to brand more so then with most sport rigs; is that why, maybe?

I charge $50 US for an A.I.R... caveat, for folks who's kits begin with the name "R", I refer them to other riggers who will pack those things as I'd rather not... ... and I don't nickel and dime folks for stuff like "new Cypress loop", "new main loop", "Installation of Cypress Batteries", "Re-Instl Cypress after 4 (or 8) Year Check", etc. Changes in gas prices have not changed what I charge for a reserve repack. As for this "gotta have it in 2 hours" bent to your survey... Since I don't rig for a living, whether or not I'd take on a quick turn job like that or not is a luxury I enjoy. Factors, to me, whether I would or wouldn't would be things like... would I rather pack a reserve or skydive myself?... would I rather pack a reserve right now or drink beer?... would I rather pack a reserve or is there some place / something other I'd rather be doing right now?... is the person asking me a good buddy of mine that's in a jam and needs some help?... is the person asking me a hot chick?... etc. I probably wouldn't charge extra for a short turn job, but I'm not saying I wouldn't either... it all "depends".

Nah, we're not all focused on safety, really... all you have to do is read the two threads in the Incidents forums about the two fatalities at Eloy on 30 & 31 Dec 06 as well as the several other threads they spawned and I think its pretty easy to get the vibe that there are lots of folks that are "all for safety" as long as "it doesn't inconvenience them" or make them "make a change to their habits." Its the skydiving version of NIMBY!

Well... the last three main's I've bought, I chose my favorite canopy colors... IN STOCK... because I get the canopy in 2 to 3 business days after purchase.

N/A

Hopefully HappyGirl will get a copy of the next FFE year end video and show it to us. Great stuff to watch while sitting around the DZ eating popcorn and knockin' back the suds after a day of jumping...

PM MJOSparky.

Ya know how at some amusement parks they have these cartoonish characters outside some of the rides that say something like, "If you're not taller then me, you can't go on this ride"... maybe they need "chubby" one's at this cave (and at some DZs for prospective Tandem students) that say, "If you're fatter then me, you can't go into this cave (or do a Tandem)."

Ummmm... WTFO? East Pattern... West Pattern... North Pattern... South Pattern... Perris has an East Pattern... [sarcasm]which way is North?... is Mickey's big hand on the N and his little hand on the E, or is it the other way around? Which way is Right?... no your other Right? Some people cannot remember their left from their right? I guess the right hand rule doesn't quite work if you use your left hand? Is their any gyroscopic-precession involved here? What about the Coriolis Effect? Does this all do a 180 for our skydiver friends, say, in Australia?[/sarcasm] *sigh* ... is this a case of trying to re-invent the wheel? And I thought the concept of a Left Hand or Right Hand Pattern with respect to one's final direction of landing was such an easy concept to understand. Jan, can you post a picture of the DZ at Perris showing this "East Pattern" to the (I assume) grass landing area... I don't get it.

True enough... and I'm not picking on your friend and I hope he recovers fully and quickly... but couldn't you also say that if he had done better up high reading the wind-direction and setting up his pattern so that he was into the wind short final and wasn't in the position to make that mistake of turning low trying (too late) to get on the wind-line would have been "best"?

FOO FIGHTERS!!!

True enough. I've recently come to realize that for every newb out there thats "too cool for school", there's some ol' grey hair that "knows so much" they're "so good" they ain't gotta dirt-dive, door jam, creep or mind the landing area rulz... There's got to be some point is a long term skydiver's carrer where the "too cool for school" curve trails off and before the "knows so much / I'm so good" curve kicks in where we're trainable.

Ummm, incorrect. There are no alternatives at the DZ he is talking about. It's a long dz/airport but it's not very wide. The WORST you will have to face there is a cross wind landing and even then those are rare at best. The winds don't blow that way predominately. Our first jumpers do just fine in those conditions.....no reason for anyone else to have an issue with them. Blues, Ian Ian, that's just plain DUMB, in my opinion... having to do a downwind or crosswind landing because the locaiton is such a poor choice for a drop zone and/or so poorly laid-out of a drop zone, that in certain wind conditions (direction) there is no other alternative. I realize I'm calling somebody's baby "ugly" and I'll get the requisite smoking for it, but I calls em as I sees em... y'all disagree, I'm okay with that. What is the name & location of this DZ so I can put it on my list of "never jump there"... PM me if you don't want to post the name of the DZ in an open forum. Same thing, different words, "If you accpet shit, you get shit"... "If you accept crapy landing areas, you'll get crapy landing areas."

Ummm... then who ever chose that as the landing area chose poorly... moving the landing area may be a better solution rather then accepting downwind landings under some conditions (wind directions) as a dubious "solution" to not flying over obsitcals short final... but that would probably mean landing elsewhere and having to take that long, un-cool, walk back to the landing area and/or not being close to where the students, whuffos & visitors hang-out so one could wow them with cool landings.

Hey! I'm gonna take my FFE 05 Year End Video CD and go home... you... you... you two POOPY HEADS!!

Shhhhhh! Don't let it get around, I've got a rep to keep up!

And you're really one to talk... Guys! This was for FUN! Seems y'all have some issues to work out between the two of you... like this fighting and negative waves is bumming me out...

GG, I'm not picking on your post specifically, but I am using someting from it as a point of discussion as I've heard it in your post and similar in others... The part of what bugs me a bit that I'm using the above as an example of is that swoopers and non-swoopers can land in the same area. I'm kinda thinking not... sure, it will continue, and maybe its just being a bit exasperated with this, but I'm still kinda thinking that maybe the only way is TOTAL segregation of HP / Swoop landings & non-swoop landings and a total zero tollerance for doing a swoop landing in the non-swoop landing area and vica versa; that no amount of training or education can totally keep swoopers and non-swoopers safe in the same landing pattern / landing area forever & always. Okay, I'm realistic, setting up different landing areas at all DZs everywhere wouldn't work and I'd also guess that not all DZOs would have the time or energy or be of the opinion to police a zero tollerance policy for landing infractions. I just think we're kinda kidding ourselves that swoopers and non-swoopers can always land in the same area all the time under all conditions... sure, it may work a lot of the time (translation, we'll get away with it), but it'll just be a matter of time until a collision happens. Somewhat along the same lines... okay, for the record, I'm a non-swooper when it comes to landings... and I'm starting to feel like its us non-swoopers that are going to get sent off to land in the back 40 to land and take that bothersome, un-cool, long walk back to the packing area. *sigh* Oh well, I guess I'd rather do that then be involved in a canopy collision... again... short final. ... of course, if we wanted to be safe forever and always, we wouldn't jump out of marginally maintained aircraft with glorified bed sheets strapped to our backs...

HEY!!! HappyGirl can't kick my ass!!! I just bought her and her S.O. T-Bone Steaks for dinner!!!

Ah now now, lets not argue over who killed who, this is supposed to be a happy occasion... I was just pokin' a bit of fun... if I ever do get back Missiouri way with my rig, I'll work on doing a jump at FFE... . Anyway, again, just wanted to say folks should take a look at FFE's 05 video if they get a chance.

yeah... same thing different way... I was on the 4th of July Demo into the park at Cal City one year where the fireworks guys thought it would be "cool" to shoot off one firework while we were undercanoy coming into land... ... nothing like being on final and having a mortar go off like 50yds away and shoot this explosive up in the air in your vicinity... DOH!!!

Well, seeing as how one of the folks that has been very vocal in the Incident tread dealing with the fatality at Eloy on Dec 31 is a National Director... and the owner of Eloy where fatalities happened on Dec 30 & 31st is a National Director... upcoming USPA Election Results withstanding... seems there are (have been) folks on the board that are in the right place to do something. Interogative... I would be currious to know if Eloy has done (will do) anything in the future to address this.... e.g. there have been sevearl comments in the this thread, the Dec 31st Incident Tread and the Landing Patter Police thread posted by folks that were reported to be at Eloy this past weekend saying things were "scary" in the main landing area even afer the first fatility happend on the 30th. One comment made by I'm not sure who stuck out in my mind, they commented that while the main landing area was closed while the EMTs were picking up the one person injured and the other killed on the 30th, that folks were still hookin' it in the pattern while everyone was landing in the alternate area. Granted, these are all just posts on DZ.com (aka hear-say), but, again, I did find it bothersome... then I remembered... We all signed the waiver. I'm not sure what all of the "take away" from all of this should be, but one things for sure, I'm even MORE motivated to just land out and stay hell and gone away from the main landing areas at the big DZs when I happen to visit them.

Bytch... Not sure what DZ you were jumping at in 93, but in 93/94 when I started, sashaing on final or spiraling down in the pattern would get you a talkin' to at the DZ I started at and still will. And... thanks for the explanation. I didn't want to jump to the conclusion that you were saying that folks that don't do high performance landings and do prefer to do straight in approaches on final while jumping a canopy that isn't much loaded over 1:1 were soooo 90's.

Ummm... Bytch... what do you mean by that?