Unstable

Gotta be cool about it though. Shake hands, talk about skydiving, show credentials, and grease the right palm. It's an art, really.... =========Shaun ==========

I agree with Davelepka on this one, almost 100%. I may not be a DZO, but I have been on the BOD for a dropzone for a number of years, and I'm starting to discern short term versus long term goals as far as running a DZ are concerned. In our case, the Coach program has not been a method of extracting more $$ from poor helpless students. On the Contrary. It has been key in helping us keep raising up the next generation of instructors. It helps students have more 1 on 1 contact with the Coaches, and it provides us a venue for our long term goals of growth. I agree with this. It is applied well to our case; but I can see where it can not be universally applied to all DZ's. The DZO's in the Kansas City Area all agree: Skydiving, for the most part, is a word of mouth sport. We've dumped up to thousands of dollars doing various market surveys, market response trials, and pure advertising. Even on successful methods, they did not compare to Word of Mouth advertising. We live next to a large (25,000 Soldier) military base, Ft. Riley. We draw quite a few upjumpers. One of them, with about 50 jumps, is involved in this group Single Soldiers Group, a group, funded by the army and various Grants, to provide soldiers with things to do other than go drink and party. With the right connections, we found a major pool for tandem students, and we take large groups of them often. This is how we pay for our club and our DZ, and that has proven effective. By adjusting ourselves to be a very up-jumper DZ, we are able to grow. For the First time, we will be hosting a Turbine week long boogie in 10 years! This is a case study; Does it hold true to, oh say, Skydive Las Vegas? Probably not. But it holds true that experienced skydivers are not a plague or a financial burden to DZO's. =========Shaun ==========

I've had really good luck just by showing up at a Balloon festival with a rig, my license, and $100 in cash.

Unless someone else is going to step up and make a few kinky threads per day, then yes. Yes it is time for a pick on stitch thread. Maybe Stitch and Turtle can get together on this one.

Since we are playing reasons here.. how bout this one... PD is the only company on the market right now with so many different canopy models in production that there is at least one for every skydiver! No other company makes such a variety of canopies, from Student (Navigator), to light performance and ease of packing (Silhouette), to a general purpose (Sabre2), to a solid high/medium performance 7-cell (Spectre) and so on.... =========Shaun ==========

Don't we end up doing that everyday anyways?

man, a lot of times those arn't even for people who died skydiving - but it really doesn't matter to them.... =========Shaun ==========

Man Stitch, It's been waaaay too long since a good ol' Stitch thread. I was starting to worry about you.... =========Shaun ==========

Isn't tittie sex more of a foreplay thing? I'm all down for it, but there's gotta be something else. If not, well, Hell, I'll take it anyway. =========Shaun ==========

Hmmmmmm. That explains a few things.... =========Shaun ==========

yeah, I agree that it's all in where you live. At my Dz, all the cool kids have Wings containers and Pilot (Aerodyne) mains. We used to be a PD dropzone, but then a few people bought Pilots, really liked them, and told their friends. When I was jumping in the NW, everybody who was anybody had an infinity. Wings were for losers. In DeLand, I felt like a king with a Racer, because that's what the cool kids there had. =========Shaun ==========

That is one perfectly good Skydiving able Cessna 185 which never saw dropzone service. That was also one pilot who could have flown us. A moment of silence, please..... =========Shaun ==========

There are a lot of good movies out there now-a-days. How bout this.. I'll tell you one movie to NOT rent.. "Grandma's House" It was a horrible abortion of a movie. It was just watching people smoke pot and play video games for an hour and a half..... =========Shaun ==========

True that. I don't know why some people do shit like that. They know they are raking up mud but they play innocent about it. Immature. You deserve better than that - I'm glad you're outta that relationship.

Clear until I was 13, I had a lot of brothers and sisters in the house. Not that they wouldn't have left me alone, but the opportunity never came up... =========Shaun ==========

What? You no likey skyvan? Sheesh, I can't imagine someone not liking any for of turbine jumpship... =========Shaun ==========

yeah man, get better. I had almost the exact same issue for 2 months, one doc thought I had strep, and finally after the antibiotics didn't work, I had a weird form of mono. I'd ask for that test if you went in.... take it easy... =========Shaun ==========

Man, that's impressive. that's the kind of parenting that takes 2 balls.

Go to a big enough boogie - you'll see all sorts of jackasses out there. =========Shaun ==========

Because they can go from zero to nuclear in .3 secs. Walt I second that. I dated a dumb redhead for a while - she went from zero to nuclear in 3 seconds over retarded things... =========Shaun ==========

That kid looks retarded. I guess it's the cool look these days. =========Shaun ==========

Yes. Then we'll make a bunch of posts "PM sent" or "REPOST" That will solve our problems. =========Shaun ==========

STOP right there. What's the problem again? You no like deaf sex? =========Shaun ==========

I second that. I don't think it's wrong to not like hot chics - everybody has their thing. =========Shaun ==========

Son of a bitch. I can't believe you pulled that one off.