NWFlyer

As can Northern California. You might get 8 days of great weather or you might get 8 days of dreary (and we've had a LOT of dreary this winter). Second the recommendation for Southern California (or Arizona). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

The OAK-BUR crews that I see most of the time are pretty straight-laced, but when we flew to PHX for the holidays we had a real comedian giving the announcements. b/c it was a free ticket we had a routing through LA so we got to hear his announcement twice (and he did mix it up a little). He also did "truck races" where he took two matchbox trucks that were glued onto a large button for stability and set them at the front of the cabin just before takeoff. Of course once the plane takes off, the buttons slide down to the back of the plane and each side of the plane cheers for its truck to win the race. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Agreed. Before I moved to Oakland, I had a bad impression of SWA from about a dozen years ago. Knowing that Southwest was the dominant carrier out of Oakland, and a preferred carrier for my employer, I was dreading having to fly them all the time. I couldn't have been more wrong. In the last 18 months, about 95% of my travel (and 100% of my business travel) has been on Southwest. I've made probably 30 trips and can only remember a couple times that the flights were meaningfully late. Southwest has an amazing corporate culture and it's reflected in the attitudes of its employees, which I've found to be uniformly great. People "LUV" to work for Southwest, and it shows every time you interact with them. The boarding process is vastly improved from years ago, with online checkin allowing you to get better boarding cards without having to show up early at the airport (and now that I'm on the "A List" I don't even have to worry about checking in early). Of course, most of my flights are about an hour long so even if I do make a last minute change and end up with a middle seat, it's not a huge deal. The fact that they 1) don't charge for bags and 2) don't charge change fees makes it an airline that's ridiculously easy to use. My business travel plans change all the time, and the flexibility that a lack of change fees gives you is awesome. Reading the WSJ in the hotel earlier this week I saw an article about how two airlines (Continental and someone else, I think) were raising their baggage fees again and I thought "they just don't get it, do they?" There's a reason Southwest is profitable, and it's not from nickel-and-diming, it's from smart pricing and efficient operations. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

http://failbooking.com/2010/01/15/funny-facebook-shhh-nelly-or-taco-bell-fans-will-lynch-you/ "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Apparently that rumor is false: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/14/twitter.hoax.haiti/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

I'm sure Remster will chime in since he and his wife were just there during the earthquake. He told me today that the DR was unaffected (at least where they were). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Didn't cost me much so I figured better safe than sorry.

Are we there yet?

Actually I was responding to the original poster. What's your point? Perhaps some people are interested in seeing the additional details in the USPA blog post. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Just asking for specificity because it's actually an interesting question that I'm trying to understand better. I realize my original response was a little tongue-in-cheek, but it also raises a question - if, in applying for membership I don't specifically agree to be bound by the rules of membership, am I bound by them? Perhaps I'm being a bit pedantic, but hell, I'm bored. The governance manual does contain the "constitution and bylaws" section that outlines disciplinary actions and reasons that the board might take disciplinary action against a member, which does include action against a member who "Willfully, flagrantly, or continuously violates the USPA Basic Safety Requirements." So I suppose that's grounds for initiating disciplinary action. But really, if what is causing the concern in this specific case is the aircraft and the operation thereof, is it more appropriate to let the feds do their thing first since they actually have the force of law/regulations behind them? Seems like that's a much bigger stick than the revocation of an individual membership that Bill might not even need anyway (I say might because while he doesn't need the membership to jump at his own dropzone, I don't know which instructional privileges he holds/exercises). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

To be honest, I think a lot of it has to do with the time of year in Northern California. I think it's just damned tough to predict weather patterns right now. As I'm sure you've noticed, we've had a lot of clouds and fog lately, and it's really tough to tell which fog's going to burn off by noon and which fog is going to sock in and become a cloud bank that keeps jump planes on the ground all day. I don't know that usairnet is any better or worse than any other site, but the fact that they're trying to be more precise re: cloud cover and ceilings than the "general purpose" weather sites means that when they're wrong, they can seem more wrong than the sites that were more vague with their predictions. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Okay, I'm obviously having a blonde moment here. What rules relating to the running of a dropzone did Bill agree to when he joined USPA as an individual member? Or what specific rules do you think he's not playing by now? Because when I look at the USPA membership application form I don't see where the applicant is agreeing to anything other than allowing his/her credit card to be charged. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

The Parachute Center doesn't have a group membership to give up (at least according to the USPA web site, which I have to assume is still accurate). Are you suggesting Bill give up his personal membership? "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Team members are on this page (click on the "participants" link for each category). Haven't seen any results here yet but maybe they'll also post them on the site. http://www.emiratesaviation.org/dubaiteams.html "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

PAC 750.

USPA just put out their report - they say 16 civilian fatalities in the US for the year: http://skydiveuspa.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/skydiving-fatality-stats-for-2009-at-40-year-low/ "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Sounds like things got pretty funky. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

That rumor seems to start every year and for 42 years now it's proven not to be true. I'm going to go with "not true" again this year for #43. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

In the bag that you're carrying it in. I know some people swear by carrying their rig on without a bag but to me that's just 1) asking for attention (and really, I'm totally over getting whuffo attention about the fact that I'm a skydiver) and 2) asking for abuse. Have you seen the way people throw shit around in the overhead bins? Yeah, you can put it under the seat, but that makes it susceptible to whatever's on the floor or whatever gets spilled by the person who's sitting in the seat above your gear. (I've ended up with gum on my socks from the underseat area - I don't really want to chance having my rig under there unprotected.) That said, I suppose if you're going to send it through unprotected, pins down would probably be the least likely to cause a problem as long as you carefully fold your leg straps over the top. If you can fit it in one of the bins, probably an even better solution is to drop it in there. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Oh yeah, I guess that's something I should have added. ALWAYS stick to your rig like glue. Put it through last so that you can gather up all your other stuff while they're looking puzzled at the x-ray image. By the time they grab it and say "Whose is this?" you're ready to be there with it and nicely ask them to handle it carefully and ask if you can help them to understand what they're looking at. I've never had any screener treat my gear with anything less than total respect - most of 'em understand that they're looking at a parachute rig and that mis-handling could have negative consequences so if they don't understand it, they're really tentative with it rather than poking indiscriminately at it. Sorry you got a bad one, but they're mostly not like that. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

Roger, sorry to hear you didn't feel any better after a couple days on the ground. I'm fortunate my sinuses waited till late last night to start acting up. Once again, thanks to SDAZ for putting on a great holiday boogie - I hope the rest of the boogie goes as well as the first four days ... looks like you've got the weather for some fantastic jumping! Great to meet a lot of new folks and catch up with old friends. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

You arrange the clear skies, we'll be there phreezing with you (well, unless my sinuses keep kicking my ass). "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

As far as I know the changes only apply when you're flying into the US. I flew back from Phoenix to Oakland this morning and it was business as usual. The TSA agents in PHX didn't even blink an eye at the three rigs my boyfriend and I sent through. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1906126 for some info on how it could happen. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

We were in the loading area at Eloy when one of the Otters rolled in with a flat tire. Took 'em a couple minutes to bring the air tank out to inflate it enough to get it out of the way and tow it back into the hangar for a proper repair, and a couple more minutes to get another Otter out of the hangar for our load (meanwhile, I think a Skyvan and another Otter were already in the air). It sure is nice to jump at a place where there's plenty of spare planes just waiting to be jumped. Sounds like it was cold for Christmas at both DZs, though. Brr... I think I'm still warming up. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke