stuartjl

Our fess are fixed at $45. There are no other cost other than the cost of the tandem. Everything else goes to the charity.

We are not asking for any contributions now as the site is not launched. Unlike Skyride I am putting together proper supply agreements with DZs and being completely open and honest about the project. That is why I am making personal phone calls to DZOs and going about this in the correct manner. If you have an axe to grind with Skyride then take it up with them. But please stop trying to suggest that I am in business with Skyride, or operate my business like Skyride or have any other parallel with Skyride whatsoever. Pease forgive me, but I am not entirely sure which DZ you are from. I have checked the emails that I have sent to all the people i have spoken to in Utah and it states very clearly that the service has not yet launched. I do not want your money, if you are willing to offer a discount to us on the basis of our EXTREMELY fair dealings with DZs then that is your perogative and every penny in discount benefits the charity directly. I have personally called every DZ that we deal and explained the program in detail to avoid this type of wild rumour. StandUp For Kids is a small charity that is based in San Diego but provides services nationally. They have been running for many years and are trying to expand. If you feel that they are a false or unworthy charity then please call Virgin and Levi and American Eagle Outfitters without delay and tell them about your concerns, maybe you're right and these sponsors have been duped! As I am based in San Diego it is reasonable to expect that some of the charities that we work with are based in San Diego. Is there a reason why you wouldn't want to help a San Diego childrens charity? Skyride has backed a lot of DZs into the corner and created an atmosphere of suspicion. This looks like the picture of an elephant and the mouse. All you have to do is step on the mouse and the problem goes away. Some posts in this forum have suggsted launching 'denial of service' attacks on their websites and other guerrilla tactics. Well that is a Federal crime and I do not support that action. Skyride survives because it does lots of business. It is a great shame that they treat the supplier and customer so badly when there should be no reason to do so. I'm sure that they would do a lot better if they turned into an ethical company. Let there be no doubt: I do not support Skyride or defend their ethics. Remember, lots of USPA DZs gladly take their business. The answer is that DZOs need to get together and stamp out the problem. DZOs do not speak with a common voice and my experience has been that Skyride is the 2nd most hated thing in skydiving. The most hated thing being the nearest competing dropzone! I have spoken to a great number of DZOs and when I ask about recommendations for other dropzones I get back very negative remarks in almost all cases. I recently had a DZO suggesting major safety problems with other local DZs and suggested i check the NTSB website. Skyride is usually the farthest thing from their mind. Skydiving has been on the decline in recent years in the US. This means that the USPA and its member DZs need to innovate to survive. What happens when fuel prices push the price of a tandem up to $300 (it will happen) Where is skydiving going to be then?? The rest of the world is working very well with outside booking agencies and can sort the wheat from the chaff. If you can embrace outside agencies and show them a way to make money from selling your services then you will have a very secure and successful business. This is true in all other activity businesses. Why does the motorsport experience business have such a good relationship with their agents and skydiving doesn't. Skydiving has many threats to its existence and any DZO knows the risks of the business. Booking agents are not one of the major risks. If Skyride are such a problem then get together and compete! In the meantime I and Skydive4free will continue to operate honestly and fairly. I am expecting to spend most of my time expanding our charity base, raising money, and maintaining good realtionships with our participating DZs. I hope that i don't have to spend much time defending damaging and false rumours about our/my integrity. I do sympathise with your skepticism as i have been a DZO and have been intimately involved in setting up and running dropzones in both the UK and the US so I know what you are facing. Let's work together to show how the relationship can work to everyones benefit and undermine Skyride from a position of moral and commercial strength. Stuart Livett

OK, you make a number of points there. Firstly, Adventurize.com does not trade presently and there is no plan to see it operate at least for the remainder of this year. However, I think that main point that you are driving at is how booking agencies relate to the skydiving business. I understand the fuss over Skyride and I deplore their marketing tactics and over all standard in business ethics. That said, they are running a legal business that does very good trade with a lot of USPA dropzones. There is no reason why 3rd party booking agents can not work effectively for the industry as they do around the world. In the UK there are over 20 different booking agencies that all contribute millions of dollars of trade in to the dropzones that they deal with. They are generally very sound businesses and the benefit to the DZO is that can concentrate on running the business and simply watch the bookings come in. In addition, by some estimates over half of all the tandems done in the UK are for charity and it has raised millions in contributions to the extent that tandem skydiving is synonymous with charity donations. Skydive4free is bringing the model to the US and ther service will launch in a few days. PLEASE NOTE: The existing site at www.skydive4free.com is a place holder whilst the real site is completed. I thank you for your critique of the rough draft but no-one has seen the final site, including myself. The point of the business is to raise $10,000,000 for charity by 2012. No dropzones are 'funding' the operation or charities. Any discount that we get off the jumps goes directly to the charity. No one is being asked to accept bad business and the way that we treat the customer and the dropzones is exemplary. AS you have detected all my contact information is clearly posted on my websites and so far I have not received a single email or telephone call complaining or stressing over my plans and the vast majority of DZOs that I have spoken to have welcomed the project with open arms and wished us well. Skydive4free gives money to charites that we have real contractual relationships with, the dropzones get extra business at good rates and expands there operation. The sport of skydiving expands after a protracted period of shrinkage and every one benefits. Where is the problem? Imagine my dismay at being accused of being Skyride in disguise! I will be able to announce our full list of partnered charities when the site launches. You are entirely incorrect about both charities that you scorn in your post. Stand Up For Kids operates throughout the US (http://www.standupforkids.org/slocal.html) and has recently been congratulated by Congressman McDermott after they successfully lobbied Congress, follwoing a meeting with Nancy Polosi to pass new legislation to tackle the issue homeless youth in America (http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/sp070711a.shtml)Stand Up For Kids was chosen from a long line of charity applicants to be the American partner for Virgin Unite which is a major accolade. Skydive4free.com will be running an event where the CEO of the charity Rick Koca will make a jump. The Child Abuse Prevention Foundation is a very well respected charity in San Diego that does outstanding work on a tight budget which is why we are working with them. . We also have national agreements with the Y-Me National Breast Cancer Association and also represent the National Multiple Sclerosis Society which has 58 branches, Arthritis Foundation and many more. The nexus with skydiving is not an 'angle' as you put as we are funding much more important issues. I am very happy to answer any questions directly so please feel free to contact me if you are not convinced. Blue skies

Just to out the record straight I am the owner of the Skydive4free.com business and i would be happy to clear this rumour up. Skydive4free.com is a charity fund raising site that is legitimately AND YES, REALLY contracted to a a variety of major charity clients. I have designed the business and its work flow to accommodate the DZO to the maximum possible. The process is very simple: 1) The volunteer raises $500 for a nominated charity from amongst our list. We have agreements with causes like Y-ME National Breast Cancer Association, Stand Up For Kids, Arthritis Foundation and many others. 2) The volunteer chooses from a list of dropzones that we ADVERTISE on our site with all their contact info and a link back their site. 3) The DZ gets a booking and PAID IN ADVANCE 4) The Charity gets A MINIMUM OF $250 from the first $500 and then 100% of every penny thereafter. In most cases the charity gets almost $300 from the first $500 depending upon how much the DZ is charging. The whole point of the project is to bring awareness of skydiving to a new audience and raise much needed money for the charities that we work with. I would very much appreciate it if people would take time to check the facts before they shoot about making slanderous accusations. Apparently the evidence against us is someone told someone they'd tracked the IP address or something ridiculous. Amateur sleuths should stick to Murder She Wrote! Blue Skies

I'm not sure, all i can say is that the big way is cancelled due to unscheduled maintenance on the Otter. A few of us might be at Perris for some jumps..

Hi all, Due to the Otter going 'tech' over at Browne Field the big way is now cancelled!! Thanks to all those who signed up.

We have around 33 jumpers so far that have confirmed. That leaves another 11 slots available. Please can you get in touch if you want to get on this jump. It looks highly likely that the date will be the 23rd so don't delay if you want get on it. Thanks

***As one of a number of tributes to Andy there is a Big-Way planned for Saturday 24th. We will have upto 44 slots available (2 Otters). All those who are interested in filling a slot should PM me ASAP so we can organise the jump. You must have a minimum of 200 jumps to get on this big-way. __________________________________________________ A number of people have expressed concern about the minimum jump numbers so we have changed it to 500. The 23rd is an alternative date. Let me know..

This a is a message to all fun jumpers at Skydive San Diego. As eveyone now knows Andy will be shutting down the current operation in Jamul as from 31st Dec. As one of a number of tributes to Andy there is a Big-Way planned for Saturday 24th. We will have upto 44 slots available (2 Otters). All those who are interested in filling a slot should PM me ASAP so we can organise the jump. You must have a minimum of 200 jumps to get on this big-way. See you all there! stuart ps don't even think of coming without beer!

Thanks for all that info. i have agreed to lease one and it arrives in March at Skydive London nr Swindon. The turn rate is less important for us at the moment as we have just come from a c206. come visit

Has anyone ever jumped a Gippsland G8 Airvan. I know there are a few out there in Australia and South Africa. I want to get in contact with any DZOs that are running these ac as I need some information about them as a jump ac. Can anyone help? Cheers

Hey, I'm the owner at Skydive London, yes at Swindon... Always get your training where you feel most comfortable. People have different views about things but most people are trying to do the best by their students. Learning to skydive is an intense experience and is all about instructor-student mentoring. My advice is to choose the people and not the centre.

Good advice Bill. My impulse is to go to reserve under 1000ft irrespective of what is happening above unless the risk of entaglement is too great. This means possibly choosing to land a lineover (very dodgy)

i've now visited a Sony Centre and they have basically told me that it won't ever work in any type of air flow due to vibration!!!!!!!!!! SO DON'T BUY ONE!

The vibrations are the obvious answer but the camera has peformed well in very violent conditions over and above that which a skydive will create. I will be speaking to Sony and will report back....

I have recently purchased a new Sony mini DVD camera and am having difficulty getting it to work in freefall. The camera operates perfectly well when shaken violently but simply turns itself off when offered into any kind of wind flow. Can anyone offer an expanation as to why this is? The picture quality generally is as good as any mini DV tape but just doesn't work in freefall!!!!!!! Thanks

Better than being British! There's very little better than being British, and being American isn't one of them.

Can anyone suggest a good dz near La Manga in Spain? It is near Alicante... Thanks, Stuart

Hinton Skydiving Centre in [www.skydive.co.uk]will be holding its first Annual Film Festival and Awards Dinner on Saturday night of August Bank Holiday. All DZs, teams and individuals are welcomed to enter a film for the Awards (no talent required). The format is intended to showcase short films made by skydivers for fun. Already we have entries for The Italian Job and various other classic film re-makes so get your thinking caps on and get down to Hinton for an evening of fun and hardcore partying. Any genre will be accepted and prizes will be given for Best Film, Best Skydiving Sequence, Best Production and Best Comedy Moment. There will be a pig roast and an after show party. Tickets are priced at £7.50 and are available on the night. for further information email me on [stuartlivett@hotmail.com]. Overseas entries are also welcome. See you there!!

Thanks, that definately helps..

Thanks for that. Can you tell me what is meant by 0.5 etc. I know it relates to the angle but is 0.3 a wider angle than a 0.5?

Hi, I need some help deciding which lens to get for my first camera. I hear people talking about 0.5 lenses but I don't know what it means. Can someone offer some advice on which wide angled lens I should be looking at to start my camera flying career. I have just bought a Sony TRV-33. Thanks

Hinton is agreat dz and I'd have no hesitation in recommending it for your AFF. The fact is though that doing your AFF in somewhere like Florida or California is an awesome experience. The benefits are that you can expect to complete your course in 3-4 successive days. The cost is likely to be no more than $1,000 - $1,300. Deland would be my personal choice. The disadvantages are few...

The Police have been given permission to detain the two suspects for a further 24hrs

BBC news have just reported that whilst they have arrested two people they are still appealing for more information from within the skydiving community??