Dean358

I could not disagree more. It is NOT the responsibility of the OP. This is the ongoing problem everywhere. The people who made the mistake want to put the responsibility/problem onto the customer. What a great business plan. +10000 Unbelievable. Even if what the OP has said isn't accurate -- which I have no reason to suspect is the case -- then "sorry, we're off playing so we can't help you" is the worst excuse I've ever heard for not helping a customer. In any case, I'm not sure how things work in Europe but in the USA protecting customers from these types of biz practices is one of the key services the credit card companies provide. I had a similar problem to this once from a furniture manufacturer. As I had paid for the items with my American Express card I called up Amex and they credited my account on the spot. Amex then refused to pay the vendor until I was satisfied with the result. This is a good reason to always use a credit card -- not a debit card -- for on-line or remote purchases. www.wci.nyc

Or, at very least add in a discussion concerning whether or not they have enough jumps to be wearing GoPro cameras www.wci.nyc

Wait! This happens to me now. Does that mean I should start jumping with a camera? www.wci.nyc

Or, think about gliders happily circling around right under those white puffy clouds, as that is where the lift is. There are two sailplane (glider) operations, a hang glider operation and a paraglider operation within a few miles of our DZ. IF they are flying with a radio they're most likely on their own frequency. And, as you know, while it may not be smart to be hanging out under clouds below a jump plane it's perfectly legal in uncontrolled air space. Whether or not this affects the FAAs answer it's certainly something to consider when looking down on those soft, friendly looking big white puff balls. www.wci.nyc

Not that I’m in any way, shape or form justifying Groupon, as they’ve morphed into something generally pretty shity for businesses and consumers, BUT……. Remember that the original idea behind Groupon was that it was supposed to be “pay-per-click web advertising meets the real world.” For example, a business could spend $10K on radio ads and hope some customers showed up, or, they could spend $10K losing money on their sales with Groupon and be guaranteed to have x number of customers show up. That, at least, was the theory. Might have worked too, had Groupon not tried to scale their business to an unmanageable and unsupportable size. www.wci.nyc

http://www.amazon.com/JUMP-Skydiving-Made-Fun-Easy/dp/0071410686/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323526116&sr=1-4 "JUMP! Skydiving Made Fun & Easy" written by Tom Buchanan. This is a great introduction to the sport. The SIM is very thorough but this is a more fun read. www.wci.nyc

Great advice given by all above. I would only add that what ever you decide to use as your preflight inspection routine, do it exactly the same way and in the same order every single time. This really makes it a habit and reduces the chance of skipping an important step. www.wci.nyc

http://occupyflash.org/ at least they have a defined, coherent goal :-) www.wci.nyc

Please re-read wmw999's post above. www.wci.nyc

I call bullshit, as it's easy for you to say,since you're not here. The bathrooms at all the local biz are for customers. The protestors felt they had the right to take them over, overload their capacity, make them filthy with no compensation to the owners. And when that became an issue the protestors expnded, e.g., one or two used the vestibule of the lobby in our residential building as a toilet. That's not my definition of enlightened human behavior. www.wci.nyc

My wife and I live three blocks north of Zuccotti park, where the protestors have been camping. While we're of course sympathetic to their cause what was going on in the park needed to end. There were major sanitation issues in and beyond the park (I'll spare you the details, but yikes...) the local restaurants and businesses were being abused, e.g. all their bathrooms were being trashed by the protestors and there was a general lack of respect shown for people living in the 'hood. We have rights too. Although I wasn't there last night, my direct observation of the NYC cops is that, with the exception of a couple of rouge officers and isolated incidents, they showed amazing restraint in dealing with the protestors over the past two months and treated them respectfully. Certainly more respect than the protestors showed those of us who who live here. www.wci.nyc

Tnx for posting the video, please do listen to what Linda and John are saying, you REALLY should consider not flying with a camera for the next few hundred jumps (really!) and, FWIW, I found your music selection in the video to be genius. www.wci.nyc

I was playing golf last week with three buddies: one is a doctor, one is a priest and one is an engineer. The foursome ahead of us was insanely, crazy slow. It got to the point where we called the green's master over and demanded to know WTF was going on? He looked a bit embarrassed when he explained to us that the foursome ahead of us were decorated combat veterans who served in Iraq, and all four of them were blind. Needless to say, we felt like shit for making a fuss. The doctor in our group felt so bad he offered to see if there was any treatment he could offer them for free. The priest offered to go pray with them right away. The engineer paused for a moment, looked down and then said, “well, why don’t they play at night?” Moral of this post: a sense of humor will make your life much more pleasant than all the time you spend making ridiculous postings on DZ.com www.wci.nyc

I started skydiving when I was 42. At the time a good friend of mine was a hard core jumper at The Blue Sky Ranch and I was flying sailplanes from a nearby airport. We used to argue endlessly about what a stupid activity jumping out of (I won't say it) airplanes is. Then when I started flying my own glider I wore a Mini-Softie emergency parachute. I figured I should go make a skydive, just to be prepared in case I ever needed to bail out of my glider and do something with that odd looking silver handle. Cut to: today. Glider sold, The Ranch is one of my favorite places to spend the weekend. Sometimes it's great to be wrong! www.wci.nyc

Going through the door. www.wci.nyc

In addition to all the great topics listed above, I recommend covering "hazardous pilot attitudes and their antidotes." This link is a good treatment of the topic (even though it's written for hanglider pilots instead of skydivers): http://www.oregonhanggliding.com/awarenessthree.pdf www.wci.nyc

Please look at what JimmyT wrote up thread: there is no "exact altitude" at which one should execute a turn from downwind to base or base to final. Instead, there are number of factors that go into that decision such as winds, traffic, the initial point you started your pattern from, etc., etc. You should enter the pattern with a plan and adjust it as conditions warrant. Or, as my glider instructor used to say about landing patterns: "You're either too high or too low, figure out which and adjust." Next please read what Davelepka wrote just above about the difference between pilots and skydivers. While you're at it, take a peak at what AggieDave wrote about what he has SEEN happen. Did you "fucking read" any of the posts in this thread ???? For the record, I do get the value of having more data under canopy than an analog altimeter can provide. I've been jumping with a Digitude on my wrist since my student days, as it allows me to glance at it and confirm the sight pattern vs. altitude. It was a really helpful learning tool for me in getting the hang of flying something with such a tiny glide ratio. The key word being "glance." But all of this pales next to what I consider the bigger issue: the Yahoo notion of just chucking oneself out of a plane without putting in the time to learn proper airmanship. As in, "hey, why do I need to study the winds and plan a precise landing pattern -- I'll just turn when the beeps go off." I believe this is what Chuck is referring to and why I so strongly agree with him. www.wci.nyc

+1000 ! www.wci.nyc

Just finished: "Just Kids" by Patti Smith (great follow up to the Keith Richards book) "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalup (2010 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards) Cued up: "Starman - The Truth Behind The Legend Of Yuri Gagarin" by Jamie Doran & Piers Bizony "The Wizard Of Lies - Bernie Madoff And The Death Of Trust" by Diana Henriques www.wci.nyc

From the NY Times 4/12/2011: Intrepid museum officials have said they plan to house the shuttle in a building they will construct on Pier 86, next to the decommissioned aircraft carrier that houses the museum. They have estimated that the shuttle could draw as many as a million sightseers to the city. To make room, the museum would probably have to move a retired Concorde supersonic jet that now sits on the end of the pier, which juts into the Hudson River. Now comes the hard part: raising the money to pay for the Enterprise. The space agency’s latest estimate of the cost of preparing and delivering one of the used shuttles was $28.8 million; the Enterprise, which is already on display, should require less work. Intrepid officials have not yet identified any sources of funds for the project and city officials have indicated to them that the city is in no position to offer much financial assistance. www.wci.nyc

Here's a link to a camera that was mounted on one of the solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle Discovery's recent launch: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=68551231 Hell of a ride to altitude, eh? Do you think there was big internal debate at NASA to determine if mounting a "GoPro" on the SRB was a distraction for the pilot? www.wci.nyc

I've never seen one of these in the sky but it's a fun clicky: www.clusterballoon.org www.wci.nyc

Something you may want to consider is that your perception of what was happening in the plane might have been altered due to altitude. Even mild hypoxia can be very disorienting if you’re not used to it. Not saying there is ever any excuse for not acting professionally with a student. Just suggesting it’s worth considering. www.wci.nyc

What seems to be getting lost in discussing Groupon is that – for better or worse -- the original model for their Groupons was not to make money for the participating business. Rather, it is a “pay-for-performance” advertising model. Much like Google’s Ad Words are a "pay-per-click" model for the web, Groupon is a "pay-per-customer-who-shows-up" model for the real world. I believe that’s a big component of why Google is interested in purchasing them. Consider: a small business could hire an agency, creates some ads, buy some media time and hope that new customers show up. The total cost of the advertising divided by the number of new customers = the cost per new customer. And the business doesn’t know what this will be until after they’ve invested their money. With Groupon, the business knows up front what the cost per new customer will be. What makes this controversial is: 1.) What’s the quality of the new customers that show up, i.e. will they become repeat customers or are they just there one time because of the Groupon? And 2.) This model only works for certain types of business. In their pursuit of growth, Groupon has expanded into high cost per unit businesses, such as aviation, where their model may not work very well at all. www.wci.nyc

Do you know the details of how a business can structure their offer? It doesn't matter what is "typical" if a DZ can offer whatever discount they want. As I understand it, you can't do a Groupon deal for less than a 50% discount (might not apply to Skydiving?) From the NY Times article: For those of you not familiar with Groupon, the company partners with local businesses to send a daily coupon e-blast to its members. The members who buy the coupon get 50 to 70 percent off on a product or service, and Groupon splits the proceeds with the retailer — usually leaving the retailer with about 20 to 25 cents on the dollar of retail value. www.wci.nyc