ChangoLanzao

There is always a severe shortage. I've given more than nine gallons of blood. I used to go every 56 days for many years. I stopped going a few years ago because I was doing a lot of travelling to Mexico and I got VERY tired of all the stupid questions (more and more every year). They deferring me a few times because I travelled through rural areas in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Costa Rica.

That's been my experience too. I never try to talk anyone into doing it. Even when people start asking questions and SAY that they would like to do it, I don't waste any time encouraging them. The people I know who have done skydives did not need any encouragement to go ahead and do the first jump. I think that in most cases it's sufficient to let people know that there is a dropzone nearby and that local people skydive on a regular basis; those who really have the desire to do it don't need much more than that. I jump with Illinois Skydiving Center, here in Champaign / Urbana. Even though Our dropzone recently relocated, it's amazing how many people just find us! We routinely have people showing up who live near Chicago and various places in Indiana, 2-3 hour drives! These people obviously needed no encouragement, and they are more likely to become regular jumpers. We are a small DZ, with only a couple of C-182's, but we have no problem keeping them up in the air on a nice weekend doing tandems and fun jumps. We can't really afford to advertise in the media so people are finding us through word-of-mouth, our website, and from posters and business cards that we periodically post on bulletin boards around the University of Illinois campus (we're only 15 minutes away from the university). I think if we really advertised, we'd probably get more business than our C-182's could support

What a great idea! Especially with tunnel time involved. It might actually be pretty interesting

Niles East Community High School in Skokie, IL I'm so old, that high school doesn't even exist anymore!

Yeah ... speaking of that proprietary 4-pin connector ... does anyone know where I can get one? I have an MC-DC1 which I wired up to a microswitch to make my own tongue switch. Very easy and cheap. I wired it so that the switch operates the shutter only and it works nicely with my D70s. I would really like to know where I can get the four pin connector that Nikon uses on the MC-DC1 though

Man! That's creepy!!

If you're looking for one with a soldered bail on it, my wife sells them HERE.

Windows Movie Maker works pretty well ... try it out first ... it's free, comes with XP. I use it for quick NLE and Premier Pro for the advanced stuff. XnView is free and really good for photos.

Here's how I do it. My photo galleries are here. When the user visits and views a picture they like, they can click on the "Order Prints" link. That will take them to my sales web site, which has a simple ordering page where they can place an order and pay with credit card. The credit card processing is handled through paypal (the user does not have to have a paypal account). My storage requirements are minimal since I only upload low resolution images (~640x480). When an order is placed, Paypal emails me the details. I can then make the print any way I want to ... my Epson R2400 or Shutterfly and have it shipped to the customer. This works for me because I administer my own server, and web sites and I don't sell high volumes of photos. For me, the advantage is that I have total control of the print viewing and ordering interfaces and I can keep them simple. Actually it's VERY smple at this point since I just set it up recently and haven't added any "features."

I used to use Shutterfly Pro gallery, but now I'm using my own server. I can now sell my photos without the middleman taking a huge chunk.

There are two kinds of idiots. The sue-happy idiots and those that need "reminders". We don't need either of them to be skydiving

Illini Beer. The last time the University of Illinois football team went to the rose bowl, somebody took advantage of the mass hysteria here, locally, in Champaign-Urbana and marketed a beer they called "Illini Beer". It was by far the worst horse piss I have ever tasted. No matter how cold I got it, it still tasted like warm beer

My wife bought a FlowBee after watching an infomercial about it a few years ago. It's great. Does a very nice job!

Sure you can! Think about it? It'll only be a matter of time before no checked baggage is allowed on passenger flights anymore.

It's easy bash someone who decides not to jump. It's nice ego self-stroking. Let me ask you the question you asked me in a different way. Do you find someone that reads a contract, asks intelligent questions about the contract and then makes an informed choice (one way or the other) based on their clarified insight of the contract to be "stupid"? Well, they were too stupid to understand that the real purpose of the contract is to weed out stupid, litigous, slimeballs Smart people don't read those things, they just initial everywhere and sign because that's what they're for. I don't feel disdain for any of them. They can still sue, but at least by signing it, they are the kind of people who are willing to assume some responsibility for their actions and decisions. Edit: After reading the rest of the thread , I have to add that my comments do no include those who are using the waiver as a good excuse not to jump because they are really scared, or don't really feel like jumping.

Not in my case ... I gained WAY more experience on jump #833 than on any of the previous 300 or so jumps

Me too. I'm anal that way, I guess. Ditto. Mine are actual jumps since I did my first jump in 1988.

No tandems, as far as I can tell. Turnout is lighter but I hear that we're up to around 800 now. The weather is absolutely great!

Thanks! I used a Nikon 10.5 mm wide-angle lens.

Dayum!!! This was awesome

I will be right across the street from the Roaming DZ/Karnage Crew tent (according to the map that The Tent Boss showed me yesterday), so we'll be in touch. I'll be happy to store whatever stuff is left over for next year. Our new DZ is now located only 4.5 miles from the Rantoul airport, so it's no problem storing stuff.

Hey you guys! I spoke with The Tent Boss yesterday, and he doesn't have a Dropzone.Com tent on his map. Maybe he has it listed under a name I didn't recognize or something. Anyway, I'll be setting up my camper at the ISC/Pathetic Losers DZ row tent this afternoon ... I'll have all of the DZ.COM tent supplies with me, so if anyone finds the DZ.COM tent let me know

mine gets several, including two pictures of a dog I'm not surprized Edit: I'm searching on my real full name

That analysis is seriously flawed on so many levels.

Illinois Skydiving Center doesn't have a logo, but it's the home DZ of the Pathetic Loser Skydiving Team. Here's our logo