MakeItHappen

Altitude Awareness Internal clocks are only as good as the same exit altitude they are calibrated upon. After doing a number of jumps from 23K, my internal clock was WAAAAAY off on jumps from 12.5K. I use the horizon and temperature inversions (significant in S. Cal and AZ) more than straight down to back up my altimeter. Visibility does play a role here. Use more than one method to determine altitude. I went back to the original Dytter with one tone at one altitude because my TimeOut 'scared me' by beeping at 2500 feet. I thought something was wrong. My Dytter is set at 1800 feet. You might also want to consider that most 'loss of altitude awareness' happens after you pull or try to pull your main or under a fully functioning main. People try to fix a malfunction too long. People do turns too close to the ground. There are the occaisional loss of altitude awareness in freefall, but they are the minority nowadays. see also Wake up Call Survival Tip . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

OT: What is the email to reach you??? I have tried tspillersATdropzone.com dzoATskydiveaggieland.com manifestATskydiveaggieland.com no replies . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Well, I have some questions for you. Do you know the differences in the recovery trajectory based on the same initial conditions? Let's say on your old canopy you made approaches at 30 mph at 20 degrees below the horizon. If you did that on your new canopy, what would the end result be? [That's just a for instance - change the parameters to whatever you do or did on the larger canopy.] Do you know whether you should make your approaches more shallow or steeper when you increase WL? By how much? Do you know if approach airspeed increases influence your answers to the two previous questions? Should you change the approach speed? Do you think recovery trajectory only depends upon the parachute or does it also depend upon the initial conditions of the swoop? If you come in too steep (get in the corner) what control inputs will you use to try to survive? Have you practiced these maneuvers up high? For your reading enjoyment, I played with my computer and generated some plots about your specific scenario. In my 'play-out' scenario, for an approach speed of 30 mph, the best angle is between 20 and 25 degrees below the horizon on your 'big' canopy. If you take that approach on the 'small' canopy, then you might be eating dirt rather quickly. Plus the differences in speed are significant when you look at kinetic energy (KE) that has to be dissipated by bones breaking and such. Under the smaller canopy, you need an approach angle close to 15 degrees. Do you have the experience to tell the difference between these velocity vectors? So does your 'visual picture' tell you that you need a shallower angle and can it tell you that in real time so that you can make corrections? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Airspeed vs. Altitude Density Altitude Two pics showing natural recovery trajectories at SL and 5K density altitude at various WLs with an initial condition of 30 mph speed at an angle of 10 degrees below the horizon. Plus signs indicate seconds (eg 1 sec, 2 sec, 3 sec etc) And the speeds along the trajectories. You can definitely see that the speeds are faster at higher density altitude. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Sorry for a slight repost, but my original post did not go thru. USPA is NOT in any way, shape or form taking any type of lawsuit against SkyRide. USPA AT MOST will revoke memberships. To expect anything beyond that is a dream - really????? I just want to clarify something about the USPA actions towards SkyRide or any other similar type organization or individual. 1. SkyRide is NOT a USPA Group member. 2. The owners of SkyRide, Cary Quattrochi and Ben Butler, are individual members of USPA. They have BOTH appeared before the BOD, defending SkyRide operations in the past 24 months. 3. Altanta Skydiving Center (ASC), Alabama Skydiving Center (ASC) and Skydive Pennridge are Group members of USPA. USPA disciplinary actions include revoking or suspending memberships and/or ratings. USPA cannot take any action against SkyRide as SkyRide is NOT a USPA member. USPA can take action against individual members. To make a VERY LONG STORY, SHORT, USPA at most can revoke the individual memberships of Cary Q and Ben B and the Group memberships of the DZs that they own (Altanta Skydiving Center (ASC), Alabama Skydiving Center (ASC) and Skydive Pennridge). Let's ASSUME that the memberships have been revoked. Does this mean that SkyRide conducts itself respectably?? USPA can only revoke membership. USPA cannot change the behavior of third parties. If you are looking to USPA to change the behavior of SkyRide, I suggest you look elsewhere. [Disclaimer: Glenn - This is my personal opinion - no need to quote it in a BOD meeting. Deal with it.] . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

About 30 days. BTW - what was said is not in the minutes - only what was done (aka Motions) read Robert's Rules FFI I just want to clarify something about the USPA actions towards SkyRide or any other similar type organization or individual. 1. SkyRide is NOT a USPA Group member. 2. The owners of SkyRide, Cary Quattrochi and Ben Butler, are individual members of USPA. They have BOTH appeared before the BOD, defending SkyRide operations in the past 24 months. 3. Altanta Skydiving Center (ASC), Alabama Skydiving Center (ASC) and Skydive Pennridge are Group members of USPA. USPA disciplinary actions include revoking or suspending memberships and/or ratings. USPA cannot take any action against SkyRide as SkyRide is NOT a USPA member. USPA can take action against individual members. To make a VERY LONG STORY, SHORT, USPA at most can revoke the individual memberships of Cary Q and Ben B and the Group memberships of the DZs that they own (Altanta Skydiving Center (ASC), Alabama Skydiving Center (ASC) and Skydive Pennridge). Let's ASSUME that the memberships have been revoked. Does this mean that SkyRide conducts itself respectably?? USPA can only revoke membership. USPA cannot change the behavior of third parties. If you are looking to USPA to change the behavior of SkyRide, I suggest you look elsewhere. [Disclaimer: Glenn - This is my personal opinion - no need to quote it in a BOD meeting. Deal with it.] . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I ran across these two domains in sponsored links from Google and Alexa http://learnskydiving.com/ http://www.skydiving-e.com/ . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Try Whole Site Validation Most of the errors are minor . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Most auto-generators and code writers have severe limitations, including, but not limited to keywords, descriptions, robots, code bloat, portability and syntax. Frankly, if I were the person hiring you and saw this post of you admitting that you did not know what you were doing, I'd find someone else. If you do find some template generator that you like, check a sample made with it for proper syntax. If it passes that, then check for load times. If it passes that, then check for search engine friendliness. Search engine friendliness includes keywords matching up with page content (page by page), linked text relevancy and so on. If that is your biggest complaint, then you really do not know what you are doing. Take all recommendations in stride. Jen uses plain old Javascript as an 'authentication' scheme. Guess she hasn't learned that if you disable javascript you can get to the pages and that search engines do not parse javascript. Attached is a pic from one of her sites that was supposedly password protected. attachment deleted by Skymama...Just because you have a skill doesn't mean you need to use it in order to put someone else down. . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Congrats on your invitation to success. An invitation to be on the WWR does not necessarily mean you will be on the record breaking event. No pressure ;)! . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

My 4th Night Dive . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

This is a fallacy based upon incorrect assumptions. The reason SkyRide gets a lot of internet traffic over and beyond what real DZ sites get is because the real DZ sites do not always exploit search engine features to their best advantage and they do not use Google/Overture ads. [I will not say that all SkyRide sites are perfect in these measures, but SkyRide sites are generally are better than the competing real DZ site.] 1. keywords: keywords listed in meta tags appear in the page (that the search engine indexes) 2. description: meta tag description appears in part at least in the content part of the page text 3. linked text relevancy: linked text is relevant to the page linked to 4. correct html/css/javascript syntax 5. use Google ads - if you want a lowdown on price breaks for search words, ask me. I have studied the Google ads data enough to project minimum prices for click thrus to gain the best visibility. Fix the web sites of the real DZS! Want proof? Google 'Skydive Detroit' The third listing is my Funjumper.com/skyride page Why don't any of the MI DZs appear??? You may see an ad for chicagolandskydivingcenter.com, but that web page does not appear in the regular unsponsored links. Google 'skydive sacramento' the 4th major listing is my Funjumper.com/skyride page Why don't any of the CA DZs appear??? You may see Google ads for: www.skydivesacramentovalley.com SkydiveNorthernCalifornia.com www.skydivesanfranciscobay.com www.1800SkyRide.com I don't have any Google ads promoting my web sites, but I do come up in the searches. I'll repeat myself: Fix the web sites of the real DZS! I find the copyright violations of SkyRide to be despicable. I however am not the person they have stolen from. I cannot do anything about it. It is up the people that have been ripped off to contact the Feds and whoever to gain compensation. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

An RSS feed is now available for Sport Parachutist's Safety Journal articles The url is RSS feed for SPSJ A sample implementation is at SkyRide Virtual Network (It was a handy page that needed info on the right.) The feed randomly pulls 5 links from the +70 articles on SPSJ Now you can easily add changing content to your site. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

There are a whole bunch of middleman sites (besides SkyRide). Here are a few: http://www.advflights.com/ http://www.800soaring.com/ they also have some domain aliases. 800soaring was one of the first sites. Cary Q actually joined their network. They gave each operator a list of all the other operators (and still do). Cary took that list as seed for SkyRide. I got this info from Roberta at 800 soaring about 2 years ago. 800 soaring did cause a ruckus in CO with the soaring operators. 800 soaring was selling certificates that none of the CO operators would accept. The soaring operators asked the Denver DA for a 'cease and desist' order against 800 soaring. They got that c 2002. Since then http://www.milehighskyride.com/ started up. http://www.thrillseekersunlimited.com/Vskydive.htm http://www.skydivingteam.com/ New one. By either a disgruntled SkyRide employee or a puppet SkyRide employee??? I called their number and the operator told me they did not schedule skydives. I thought that was weird, but whenever you call a toll-free number, the company can see your phone number. So maybe I was 'flagged'. Or it could be that they do not have any DZs onboard yet?? They advertise with Google ads. http://www.extremesportscafe.com/skydiving_tandem.html http://www.redletterdays.co.uk/experiences/experience_details.asp?ExpRef=XPCTT http://www.adventuresportsholidays.com/product_details.php?ProductID=401 http://greatamericandays.com This one is interesting reading. http://tandemskydive.com Go look at the 'Gift Box' deal on this site http://tandemskydivingusa.com http://www.tandemskydives.com/ http://www.milehighskyride.com/ REAL DZs are getting into the act too. These websites http://skydivenortherncalifornia.com/ http://www.skydivesacramentovalley.com/ http://www.skydivesanfranciscobay.com/ are fronts for Skydance. The top page presents what appears to be a different dz, but the sub pages are all skydance.net http://www.skydance.net/ Google Sacramento skydiving and you'll see ads for these domains. Crosskeys also has a number of sites that upon first inspection appear to be different businesses. http://www.newyorkskydivingschool.com/ http://www.freefalladventures.com/ skydiveprinceton.com http://skydivecrosskeys.com/ From SkydiveCrosskeys: For comparison, SkyRide offers a 60 day refund policy for $31.50. Several DZs are participating in content link spamming. Linked text is spammed (aka words that you would not normally use to describe the link). This supposedly increases search engine rank, but the search engines are becoming wise to the practice and are ranking the relevancy of linked text to page content. Content link spamming definitely breaks the usability of the page. Examples are at: http://skydiveelsinore.com http://skydiveperris.com http://arizonaskydiving.com http://skydivehollister.com Scroll to the bottom nav at these pages. You will see links that have link descriptors that have nothing to do with the page that is linked. View the page it links to in the status bar. For instance, On http://arizonaskydiving.com the text 'Skydive Arizona' is linked to the price page. On http://skydiveperris.com the text 'Southern California skydiving' is linked to the price page. On http://skydiveelsinore.com the text 'Orange County Area Skydive' is linked to the student tandem page. On http://skydivehollister.com the text 'Monterey Skydiving' goes to the price page. BTW, the reason I have found these sites is because I look for skydiving sites for Parachute Pages Multiple domains aliased to the same site are hard enough to keep track of. These new multiple front web sites add a new twist to maintenance. What a tangled web we weave……. A lot of the marketing problems would disappear if real dzs effectively used meta tags, navigation and text on their pages. I've helped two dzos in the past couple of weeks make their web site more search engine friendly. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You mean as on this site: Adventure Balloon - near the bottom of the page [CT] or this one ? Champagne Flights - near the bottom of the page [Ohio] or this one ? Fantastic Fall Balloon Flights! - middle of page [Iowa] This is interesting: LifeTime Fitness Balloon Life time Fitness Hang Gliding Life Time Glider Life Time Skydiving . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

For your reading: Brent Finley Tim Eason-1 Tim Eason-2 Tim Eason-3 Tim Eason-4 Partial Summary on Tim Eason's stolen web sites ASC Tactics from a few years ago - scroll down to Paul's Parachuting - below that there are screen captures of the earlier knockoffs of Tim's web site. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

What I am saying is that some real DZs would not come up on a search on 'Skydive MyCity' even if SkyRide was not there because they do not have search engine friendly web sites. Since SkyRide is out there with those city names, it is important to at least have a web site that would come up in the basic search results. The theft issues can be taken to the proper places, but not many are willing to do that for whatever reason(s). Content Linking Spam is also considered by some as theft and is most always considered as a usability stopper. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Let's get this back on topic. Many DZOs have said that they reason they use or used SkyRide was because they 'get business they would not otherwise get'. Is this a valid claim?? Background Reading: 2001 2003 Look at the reasons DZOs may think this way: 1. a SkyRide DZ shows up in search results before their DZ 2. Sponsored links have SkyRide links before theirs Why would a virtual DZ web site appear in the search rankings or gain the appeal from a whuffo before a real DZ? Some possible reasons: - real DZ web site is not search engine friendly - real DZ web site is not submitted to search engines - real DZ web site is not linked from other web sites - real DZ web site does not put major city names on their pages - real DZ web site does not use Whuffo keywords (ie use 'first jump' or 'first skydive' vs 'student jumps') - real DZ owners do not buy sponsored links Some tactics used by real DZs to circumvent these deficiencies: - Multiple domain names ----aliased to same web site ----aliased to same web site but with a different top level page -Hidden Costs -Content Linking Spam -Consumer Alert I should give examples, but I'll hold off on that right now. What I am trying to convey is that real DZOs do play a part in SkyRide's success, even if they do not accept their certificates, because they are not creating web sites that reach their target market effectively. .

Does your DZ require a deposit? So you are saying they 'probably' went to one of these sites: skydivecenter.com skydiverome.com georgiaskydiving.com or some other site that could easily be confused with your site of georgiaskdivingcenter.com and called the number on one of these SkyRide sites. Implicit in this is that the customer asked something equivalent to 'Is this Georgia Skydiving Center in Rome, GA?'. The phone operator says ' yes it is.' Did your customer get any sort of email confirmation or some sort of printed certificate? What did the email or certificate say in regards to the location of the jump? Now, my next question depends upon your answer to the deposit question. If your DZ took a credit card deposit, then the customer would not have to charge the entire jump if they were lead astray by SkyRide/ASC. If your DZ did not take a credit card deposit, then the customer would or could be lead to believe they HAD to make the payment right then (under the pressure of SkyRide operators). So if a customer finds your DZ and wants to make a booking, do you require a deposit via a credit card? If you did, then this sort of mix-up (on the part of the customer) would be less likely. Another way for your customer to dispute the charges is to demand a SIGNED receipt by contacting their credit card company. The credit card company will ask SkyRide or ASC or whatever shell company for a signed receipt. The company has x many days to produce a receipt. If they cannot, then the customer is not charged. I just want to make sure by asking this question. Do you or have you ever accepted SkyRide gift certificates? [Please do not take offense. I realize that most of the Atlanta area DZs do not like ASC-SkyRide. I am only asking to make sure of the answer.] This is where I become confused again. If this was going on 24 times this summer, how did you get paid previously? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

SkyRide Story The jumper lives in Altoona, IA Driving Distance &Time to Owatonna, MN = 181.7 miles Approximate Travel Time: 2 hours 44 mins Des Moines Skydivers - 25 miles S of DM. Skydive Iowa 70 miles E of DM Altoona is 10 miles E of Des Moines. ……… From the story: So did I follow this right??? Guy gets booked at Skydive Iowa (a real DZ) AND Skydive Minnesota (a SkyRide virtual DZ) AND SKYDIVEMINNEAPOLIS.com (a SkyRide virtual DZ). Then he gets directions to Minn. Skydivers Club(a real DZ)? $14 price difference for a 2.75 hr ride vs a 1 hr ride? And the guy gets hurt too. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Pardon me, but your letter is as clear as mud as to what happened. Did Sparks & gf actually get trained and do a jump at your DZ? IF YES ( Did they 1. use payment already given to SkyRide OR 2. changed payment directly to the DZ and stop payment on the SkyRide charge OR 3. something else - please specify ?) IF NO ( Did they try to stop payment on the SkyRide charge? ) Being the ever 'check everything out' person that I am, is Mr. Sparks, Truman Sparks??? . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Because everyone does it??? Bush parachutes for 80th birthday Bush parachutes for 80th birthday Gear Issues factor in death of British jumper Skydiver's parachute 'incorrectly packed' Gulfport skydiver killed in stunt landing Gulfport skydiver killed in stunt landing FMI: ImagePiracy Model Release . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Do you mean http://FunJumper.com/skyride The page that lists the urls and has a domain owner lookup is at SkyRide Domains . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Bill, how can you in one post castigate Mommy Rules suggested by Shlomo and then in another post suggest Mommy Rules that fit 'your beliefs'? Keep in mind that you said: "Just don't try to impose your idea of what's too risky on other people." while you re-read Risk and Safety and About Risks See also Square1 BSR for information on why a BSR waiverable by an I or S&TA will not work in the real world. Please also inform me on how 'your view of how the BSRs ought to be written' would have had any influence on Chris' jump? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

This does not make sense to me. The G load would increase the loop load too. At some point the loop will break or the cable will kink. This can only be related to force magnitude, not Gs. 6Gs for a 100 pound person would be 600 pounds in the main lift web. 6Gs for a 200 pound person would be 1200 pounds in the main lift web. I would think that the cable kinks at such-n-such a force, eg 223 pounds. or that the loop breaks at such-n-such force, eg 550 pounds. Do you have a relationship between F_loop vs F_MLW, empirical or experimentally determined? For instance if F_loop = 0.33 F_MLW and a 6 G scenario the 100 pounder would have 198 pounds in the loop and the 200 pounder would have 396 pounds in the loop. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker