skydived19006

It will be interesting to see if this is simply another phase in the deception. Either way, they've been a very low presence in Kansas for the last year or so. Dropped paid adds for terms with Kansas, and Kansas towns, etc. My thought has been this is due to the fact that they get no cooperation from DZs in Kansas. Who would have thought?!? I do see sites still up for the more densely populated states. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

More than anything that "we" did here, other than possibly convince a few DZOs to stop doing business with the devil, Larry gets the credit! We all owe Larry a great debt of gratitude! Larry Hill is obviously a guy with the will and ability to put his money where his mouth is. Actually, I don't know that I've ever heard Larry say or seen anything he's written regarding the Skyride boys. Short on talk, long on action! Also, no doubt that the Tennessee law set an excellent precedent. Thank you Larry Hill!!! Martin Myrtle Wichita Kansas Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

"Bitter, party of one, your table is ready." Obviously tongue in cheek, but seriously how some skydivers see the DZO. Also interesting how the guys with a year in the sport, and a couple hundred jumps are full of advice, and the first to get upset with the ass hole DZO's decisions. Why would I be bitter, I own the football. I get to be the guy to push all the fun jumpers buttons, and send them away bitter! Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Open a little high, and deal with issues up there! Should have never been cutting away in the basement. Anyway, good times! Oh, and don't do anything stupid, especially close to the ground! Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Here's how I spent my afternoon yesterday at the boogie. Fun stuff. (cut/paste from an email to local skydivers) If any of you just happen to be wondering the woods South of the Ft Dodge IA airport, somewhere East of the river, and happen along an Eclipse Tandem reserve free-bag and pilot chute, I'd love to have it back! I caught up my log book this weekend, and have something less than 3000 skydives, and almost 1900 tandems (with no main malfunctions). That streak was broken Monday afternoon around 3:00 pm with a line over. I watched the main, and free bag go down into the woods, had very good ground references on the main, but not so for the free bag. I walked right to the main ($3000 plus to replace the canopy, drogue, bag, risers, RSL, etc). Spent 45 minutes searching for the reserve free bag (UTP gives $210, I thought it was more like $500, or I wouldn't have looked so hard. That said, Eclipse is out of business, but we do have a spare PC and free-bag.), and gave up. The line over was not a steering line, must have been a D, but not sure. I could make the thing act like a decent canopy when ridding in deep brakes (just steering toggle only, no flair toggles), but let up and the front corners of the main would come together. Rode it, played with it for something less than 30 seconds, informed my student that we had a malfunctioned main, and we were going for another ride!! Ironically, the guys primary reaction was that he was pissed, probably more scared, but came out as upset. I asked him to arch again, put the main drogue release handle in my mouth, let go of the toggles, and pulled the "green for go" right handle (didn't drop any handles!) I didn't bother with the left "red for stop" handle since the RSL would beat me anyway. Something like a helicopter ride dropping away from a canopy, and then a nice sky blue Precision 375 Tandem Reserve. It was quite windy, so the spot was about 1 mile upwind (I was one of the first of 6 or so tandems out), "we" decided that it would be a good idea to try and track my shit down, but not a bad idea to keep track of altitude, and landing options as well since we were over a large wooded area, and river. We landed out at the South edge of the airport like a sack of shit, fairly turbulent, and my student was around 200 lbs. He may have bruised his heel, and bumped down a bit hard on his butt, but ok. I stubbed my left index finger a bit. One of the video guys asked me if I got my $10 back. I didn't quite get it, he meant for the pack job, I informed him that it was my pack job. I was doing every other Otter, packing for my self, "training" and gearing up the student as well. So, there is a possibility that my 12 min pack job had something to do with it. We will never know for sure. Left FT Dodge around 6:30 pm, got home around 2:30 am. Good thing I plan a day of vacation, after a vacation! Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

If the 182 is going to 9,000 or 10,000' 18 to 20 loads is one hell of a long day, figuring 35 to 40 min turn time. Maybe if it's a 182 with a 300 hp engine, it could turn 30 loads in a day. Basically, for a 182 DZ to turn 40 tandems in a day, it would need to be flying more than one airplane. Especially if they were doing anything other than tandems. One of my fun jumpers told me one day that I should be paying my pilots more. My response was that I didn't really care, and would pay him $20. That being the case, her jump cost would have to go up $4 as well. Her response was "Why do I always got to pay!?!? If I had to pay $20 a load for the pilot, I would. Every cent of that cost would be passed along to the jumping customer. One thing I will say, and don't think that most jumpers appreciate is how much work flying jumpers on a long summer day is! We should all take every opportunity to thank our pilots, and let them know how much they are appreciated! Lord knows they're not doing it for the immediate pay. Hey! If you want to get rich, why not be the DZO? He's the one who's screwing everyone, while reaping in the profits, sitting on his ass all day barking orders! You don't even have to know up from down to be the DZO. Just hire out all the skilled work. Easy as taking candy from a baby! Martin DZO AC DZ Wichita Kansas Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

That's exactly what we did in Kansas a few years ago, and now Skyride has just about zero presence in Kansas. Also, all the Kansas DZs are doing as many, or more tandem/student business than they did before we started out doing Skyride. Some DZOs are simply very poor business people, lazy, afraid that the "other guy" may get one of "their" tandems, the list goes on and on. As you say, it's not rocket surgery!!! Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Oh, the "Fuck the stupid and lazy argument once again." Old story, been heard, search the many threads. Let us know when you have something new to offer. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

This is nice. Unless the theme is simply show up naked, it could be considered a bit to be announcing a theme party. I'll bring my naked outfit along just in case. From www.couchfreaks.com "Sunday - Theme day TBA" No word on jump prices. Plan on $25 plus/minus $5 and you should be cool. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

This could cause the Atlanta boys some problems in Tn. I did a quick google search, and there are still paid adds pointing to "drop zones" who's contact information is nothing more than a 1-800 number. http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/currentga/Chapter/PC0873.pdf PUBLIC CHAPTER NO. 873 HOUSE BILL NO. 3834 By Representative Phillip Johnson Substituted for: Senate Bill No. 3418 By Senators Johnson, Marrero, Burks, Kurita AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 47, Chapter 18, relative to misrepresentation of geographical location. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE: SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 47, Chapter 18, Part 1, is amended by deleting Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 47-18-103(7), and substituting instead the following: (7) "Local telephone directory" means a telephone directory that is distributed by a telephone company or directory publisher, or provided as a service to subscribers located in the local exchanges contained in the directory. “Local telephone directory” includes: (A) A classified advertising directory, commonly referred to as the yellow pages; (B) A directory of individual telephone listings, commonly referred to as the white pages, whether identified as "business listings" or combined in listings of residences and businesses in a directory which does not have separate residence and business listings; (C) A directory that includes listings of more than one (1) telephone company; or (D) A directory assistance database or similar service, commonly used by dialing "411" and speaking with a live person or through an automated system; SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 47-18-104(b)(32), is amended by deleting the subdivision in its entirety and by substituting instead the following language: (32) (A) The act of misrepresenting the geographic location of a person through a business name or listing in a local telephone 2 directory or on the Internet is an unfair or deceptive act or practice affecting the conduct of trade or commerce if: (i) The name misrepresents the person’s geographic location; or (ii) The listing fails to clearly and conspicuously identify the locality and state of the person’s business; and (iii) Calls to the listed telephone number are routinely forwarded or otherwise transferred to a person’s business location that is outside the calling area covered by the local telephone directory, or that is outside the local calling area for the telephone number that is listed on the Internet; and (iv) The person’s business location is located in a county that is not contiguous to a county in the calling area covered by the local telephone directory, or is located in a county that is not contiguous to a county in the local calling area for the telephone number that is listed on the Internet; and (v) The person does not have a business location or branch, or an affiliate, or subsidiary of the person does not have a business location or branch, in the calling area or county contiguous to the local calling area. (B) This subdivision shall not apply: (i) To a telecommunications service provider, an Internet service provider, or to the publisher or distributor of a local telephone directory unless such act is on behalf of such Internet or telecommunications service provider or on behalf of the publisher or distributor of such local telephone directory; or (ii) To the act of listing a number for a call center. For purposes of this subdivision, "call center" means a location that utilizes telecommunication services for activities related to an existing customer relationship including, but not limited to, customer services, reactivating dormant accounts, or receiving reservations. (C) Notwithstanding any other law contrary, and without limiting the scope of § 47-18-104, a violation of this subdivision shall be punishable by a non-remedial civil penalty of a minimum of one thousand dollars ($1,000) to a maximum of five thousand dollars ($5,000) per violation. Civil penalties assessed under this subdivision are separate and apart from the remedial civil 3 penalties authorized in Tennessee Code Annotated § 47-18- 108(b)(3). (D) This subdivision applies only to information supplied to a telephone directory published after July 1, 2008, information that is published on the Internet after July 1, 2008, or to information supplied for entry into a directory assistance database after July 1, 2008. SECTION 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2008, the public welfare requiring it. PASSED: April 21, 2008 APPROVED this 6th day of May 2008 Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I had one fellow who I had asked several times to pay with something other than plastic. Cash, don’t carry cash. Check, don’t carry a check book. I even offered to keep his check book at the DZ. To easy to keep track of my transactions with the card. The very day I started passing along the cost of processing a card to the jumpers, primarily due to the one guy, guess what. It all the sudden became convenient for my fun jumper to carry his checkbook. Draw your own conclusions. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Where's your rig? Put a little more weight in the milk crate, and you could ride a wheelie the whole way! Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Additionally, I'm no conspiracy kook or anything, but I do like the anonymity of a cash transaction. Every time you use a credit card, there are records on all kinds of data bases. Hit the ATM, get some damn cash people! Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I hate plastic! Unfortunately credit has become a way of life, so I have a machine sitting on the counter. The processing company debits my checking account a few hundred dollars a month, and I'm just a small one Cessna 182 DZ. I maintain a land line phone line because of the machine, and pay something like $40 a month if I process nothing, so around $100 a month just to have the machine sitting there. You're not happy about your 3% up-charge, my policy is 5% rounded off. As the guy who has to pay the processing fees, from my preservative when you hand me a credit card you're saying "fuck you," so I simply return the sentiment, in the form of "full price." To my knowledge it is not illegal in the state of Kansas to give a cash discount, which by the way you get if you write a check, or even use a debit card (it costs me a flat fee of $.40 to process a debit transaction.) No Wal-Mart does not charge you to use your credit card, but I'm not Wal-Mart! Small businesses, with a relative low amount of credit transactions pay the highest fees. Wal-Mart is large enough that I'd imagine they're their own bank/credit processor, so it's apples and oranges. I may be a bit old school, I am in my 40s. I feel almost naked if I don't have a little cash in my pocket. It's simply foreign to me, and I'll say stupid when I see people who don't have as much as pocket change, and will use plastic to buy a candy bar. Yes, this subject if a pet peeve of mine. Visit the ATM, and carry some good old fashion Cash!!! http://www.aircapitaldropzone.com/prices.htm Have a nice day. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Jen was using uplinkearth, but they sold out, and now customer service comes out of India. She decided to move away from Uplinkearth to Godaddy, and dzos.net is simply not top priority. She'll get it going when she gets to it. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Who's been around long enough to remember the naked load that upset the Ft Dodge Mayors wife, and made Paul Harvey? What year? I remember, I was on it. I had less than 100 jumps at the time, and it was interesting to me when I got to work the next week. I heard from several people "I heard on Paul Harvey about a bunch of naked people skydiving in Iowa..." Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Guess you'll have to settle for naked day jumps with your eyes closed. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

This (below quote) was sent to me in a PM. I normally would not cut/paste a PM, I'll leave it anonymous , and I don't see it as anything stated that would cause any issue. It had not occurred to me that when base jumping, a malfunctioned pilot chute more than likely means your on your last jump. Base and tandem drogue deployment do not totally equate in my mind. When throwing a tandem drogue, if you put it out at arms extension, and don't REALLY rush the throw, I'm thinking that the bridle will be in the air in a large "horse shoe" from the drogue up and down to the three ring/disk. I'll admit to potentially rushing a throw, or being lazy, not putting it to arms extension. Lessons: Drogue packing does matter. Lazy/rushed/less than arm extension throws can cause a malfunctioned drogue. I attached the only picture I could find of a drogue throw. Nice scenery, but not a very pretty drogue bridle. Martin "Just a quick note on PC (Drogue)/bridle entanglements from a BASE perspective. I'll use PC, though I know in this instance you are talking about a drogue. In BASE, these are fatalities, so a lot of thought goes into preventing them. Three main causes: First, folding the bridle on top of the PC rather than inside the mesh bottom causes your PC to have to pass through a wad of bridle as it opens. It may not be practical on a tandem drogue to Mushroom pack or pack the bridle inside the mesh, but we do that to prevent this very thing. Second, flipping the PC. After you are packed, put your rig on and pitch your PC. Betcha a donut you flick your wrist, which flips the PC over backwards and causes the bridle to unfold in front of the PC. Again the PC must pass through the bridle. Reversing your grip and throwing your PC straight out may help prevent this. Finally, lazy throws. Skydiviers get used to the wind taking their PC away from them. BASE jumpers are taught to pitch with authority. "Pitch like your life depends on it. It does." Is a common saying. I see many skydivers not throwing their PC to bridle stretch, or even worse, pulling it out and holding it for an instant before releasing it, which causes a greater risk of this malfunction. I don't claim to be an expert, just sharing what I have learned in a similar sport that spends a heck of a lot more time worrying about PC packing and deployment than is generally necessary in skydiving. " Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

Since it is Dollar Dayz/Couch Freaks, and after dark, to hold with tradition, lets do it naked! I'll be right behind you Aubrey! Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

The first time I had this, the first thing to flash into my head was 'reserve!' Cooler mind prevailed thinking 'not yet, release the drogue and see what happens' The one Saturday provided very little drag, and the time from drogue release to hard opening was a fair bit, things are moving fast so hard to say exactly how long, maybe 2 to 3 seconds, just barely enough drag to make it happen. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

They're Eclipse rigs which are pretty much a clone of a Vector II, and this was a Vector drogue. Your drawing depicts how we pack drogues, with a slight difference. I'll emphasize keeping the bridle away from the edges with everyone. Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I've never tried to "out-muscle" a student. Martin you don't need to, you are like 8 feet tall and have more "rudder" control with your leg then I do with my whole body. I have taken students that where so much larger then me that they could have easily been in control of the skydive, but I go over the exit with them and so well that it never was a problem and yes i arch big time! But with martins height i don't think there would ever be a student that he can't get some type of flight surface out past the students, must be nice! Joe [off topic] I did a tandem in front of Jen Sharp. Jen's 5' 4", and I'm 6'8." The skydiver in me couldn't help but to fly the tandem (fly the exit, turn to the vidiot, etc.) regardless of what she may have been doing in my wake. [on topic] I know that she arches, and does a great job of flying, and working with her students. [off topic] It's a rare thing for me to strap on someone my height, but there have been a few. Funny also how folks think that it's hard or impossible for someone 6'8 to do tandems out of a 182, let alone with a 6'8" plus basketball player in front of me. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

We recently lost our primary packer to a real world job, so have a 3 skydivers packing. How we pack the drogue is to fold quarters into the center, then in half, S-fold the bridle on that (top fabric), then sides in thirds and roll up. Bridle comes out the bottom, and goes into the pouch. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I searched around, and couldn’t find anything on this “problem.” I had an malfunctioned drogue Saturday, caused by the drogue bridle half hitching around the edge of the drogue, quite affectively turning it into a next to zero drag rag. This has happened to me twice in the last two months, zero in the preceding 2000 tandems. Once can be chalked up to freak thing, but twice in as many months virtually has to be attributed to packing. We reviewed how we prefer to pack the drogue with everyone, so hopefully we can go another 4000 tandems without seeing this again!! I’m curious how common malfunctioning drogues are, in particular caused by bridle knots. I shot a couple of pictures of the drogue once on the ground, but they’re still at the DZ in my Sony PC, so not attached. Here’s the story: We leave the airplane and I throw the drogue, but damn if we didn't keep accelerating! So, time to start pulling handles in order (curios if anything thinks that it would be appropriate to go directly to the reserve), I pulled the drogue release, and after a couple of seconds we were nailed by main canopy deployment. My student even lost a shoe, but they were slip on, so not tight shoes. We were something above 6,000, but I think we were down to around 9,000 by the time we exited, I figure I pulled the drogue release within 10 seconds off the airplane. So, good main! Not really, I'm looking at about 10 turns of line twists now, the bag must have been twisting around under that rag of a drogue. We start working on the line twists, which really was not going well at all. I had the student trying to help, but we'd get it going, get one turn, then stop again. Something I had read on dropzone.com reminded me that we were trying to turn against the "wind vain effect" (dropzone.com may have saved me a reserve ride!). With a canopy in full flight (Icarus 365), and especially since my student was over 200 lbs (475/485 suspended), our knees/legs were keeping us from turning out of the twists. So, by about 4,000' I asked Jorge to try to "stand up" in the harness, and I did the same, to get our legs out of the wind, and finally we got it turning out of line twists, and cleared by 3,000'. I would have liked to have chopped above 3,000, but it was apparent that we were going to clear the twists and be fine. The first time this happened to me, the drogue was producing enough drag that I felt it stabilizing us, had hand cam, but went to my primary function and didn’t get good video of the drogue. You do see the main bag almost bump me on the back of the head as it very lazily “launches.” The second time (Saturday) I could tell there was something above us, but very little stabilizing drag. My fear is that there wouldn’t be enough drag to deploy the canopy, hopefully enough to make the three rings let go. I really don’t want to be standing up in freefall with a student, and trying to make the three rings let go by hand, possibly having the RSL deploy the reserve, with the main bag in tow still with me. Am I over analyzing this? Thoughts? To date something like 2500 tandems (need to catch up my log book), and zero reserve rides. Two malfunctioning drogues, and a few other “glitches” but nothing I cut away from as yet. Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ

I have the student grab their harness, as long as they're hanging onto their harness, I figure they can't get us in trouble. Hadn't thought of it until now, but you suppose this potential issue is why many TIs have the student cross their arms? I did have a student a while back while under canopy grabbing around for something to hang onto (I steer from 1500' or so). She got scary close to the main release handle, it didn't take me long to guide her hands to something safe! Martin Martin Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else. AC DZ