mdrejhon

Yep. Around here, about 50% more. That means for a salaried $15 per hour job, pay $22 per hour for a self-employed contractor. I once more than doubled my income from 1997 to 1998 when I quit my job and became a contractor. (Normally it's more like 50%, but got a 125% increase in year-to-year income because I went from a low-paying job to a dot-com boom contract) You have overhead: Pay your own benefits, no vacation pay, no sick pay, you do your own accounting, you have more complicated taxes. Also, because of various overhead costs (from taxes to paperwork to unions), sometimes it's cheaper in some cases for the employers to pay $22 per hour to a contractor than $15 per hour to a salaried worker. It does help if you are a registered business though (Especially if it is a sole source or a major source of income). I also agree with BIGUN:

For many people, even $30 per hour is very cheap. NEVER underprice yourself. Not knowing more details, one big mistake that is made is people underprice themselves too much, then get too stressed out, quit, and work at a better job or get employed instead of self-employed. In the IT industry, typical consultant "per diem" rates start at a minimum of $250 per day around here in this city (that's more than $30 per hour), and go up quite a bit from there. Again, it depends on what your industry sector is, and what the going rate is -- but consultant rates are typically higher than salary. I'm not that good at negotiating, but if you are going to be self employed, don't make the cardinal consultant mistake of underpricing yourself. Seeing you're new, that does affect the price somewhat, but where salaried workers are being paid $15 per hour, asking $20 per hour for self-employed work isn't at all unreasonable "to start with" and they would probably still find it a whopping bargain. (Even if you feel you feel like you're overchargng) If it's simple data entry, it may be excessively priced, but if it's real hard work with lots of study, math, etc, then it is worth well more than that. And yes, since you're new, try to get them to quote a price before you do. There are many ways to do that cleverly and discreetly, but that's a job best for a book at your local library or Borders bookstore (try looking at recent business-negotation or "how to be a consultant" books, for example, and pay particular attention to the "negotiation" chapter). "How does $XX per hour sound?" might be more than you expected.

Did he jump out at the last minute? Would would be less than 12 seconds of freefall before landing on the snow? If so, it was not a terminal velocity impact, but still a very dramatic story.

This obviously needs clarification. It only provides slightly longer tracking time (i.e. 1.5 seconds or so), but provides an extra second to do a proper non-rushed stable waveoff and pull, and to avoid having to pull while still in a track. The rushing was what put me into linetwists. (500 feet equalling approximately 2.5 seconds) That was jump 60. Now I'm at 140, so I'm ready to try again -- however, everybody around here have standardized on a 1500 feet difference, so I haven't been asked to do a 1000 feet difference again...yet.

And the three three's. Three rings, three handles, three buckles, checked three times. You knew that, but other fellow students should be reminded about this too.

Experienced is right for a 4K breakoff and 3K pull. For someone like me, having only 1000 feet difference between breakoff and pull is tricky at first, I went into my first spinning linetwists when breakoff and pull altitudes were only 1000 feet different. I was less than 100 jumps at the time... I still stick to a 1500 feet difference in altitude for now. I think I can easily do a 1000 feet difference now, but at the moment I'd rather not if possible. (Much like I've pulled at 2500 before a couple of times for the valid reason of clearing my airspace in a 20-way, but I'd rather not)

Brian, I think I notice an error in your chart. Look in the square for Jump 1 for a 110lbs Exit Weight. Why do you recommend a bigger minimum parachute for a 110lbs jumper than for a 121lbs jumper, for Jump 1? Other than that, this chart makes a lot of sense.

In several jumps in the fall I have noticed that I look at the ground, and thought I didn't need to check my altimeter until after the next point or two, continuing my activity. (i.e. I'm 9000 feet, only 15 seconds after exit, and I clearly see I'm nowhere near pull time yet.) Especially tracking pratice solos, where it's a bit hard to glance at a hand-mounted altimeter too often, even though I mount it on the palm of my hand during tracking pratice to make it easier. I seem to look at the altimeter quite a lot under 6000 feet though. Yeah, I know what people mean about the internal clock. You do develop one over time. Sometimes during busy RW sessions, a lot of the time, the first wrist altimeter check (instead of ground check) is almost halfway through a skydive, followed by successively more frequent altimeter checks thereafter. Some people don't even need an altimeter at all, but I'm too newbie for that! (And I'm aware I need to recalibrate my clock if and when I start freefly...)

Hi, I asked about gloves and two of the DZ staff said to go ahead and use my ski gloves, but at my experience levels I chose to go with my Newmann RW gloves, since they were much less slippery on my hackey and cutaway handle. Having no cutaway experience and feeling uncurrent (no jumps for 2 months), I went for frozen fingers, but even that didn't happen either. But it wasn't that cold -- the freefall was pretty surprisingly comfortable. Someone even did a freefly too that day (more windchill -- BRR!). It was still above freezing almost all the way to altitude, apparently! When I landed, nothing was frozen, I was actually already starting to sweat, so I unzipped my jumpsuit almost right after landing. 6 degrees above zero and a mostly black jumpsuit, does kind of prevent freezing my ass off... My fingers were the coldest part of the body, but never went numb. I didn't even wear a coat or jacket, just about three layers. longjohns + gym pants + tanktop + shirt + pull on sweatshirt + two socks + jumpsuit on top over everything + neckwarmer band + full face. Layering did the trick that day...

I've havent ever done contact CRW yet, but a portion of the videography in this 81-way is more impressive than the one in the 85-way. Particularly, the flyby swoop around the formation. One of the best skydiving videos I've seen! (And I've seen quite a few amazing ones already - the rocket birdman flight, several Cani videos, several Loic videos, etc.)

It looks like he arched and then fell like an anvil unexpectedly. Did you all funnel after you did handstands (it sure looks close to that) and if so, what happened to the student after that? Just curious about details.

I did it. - This Saturday was good this time around! My first two snow jumps. This time at Mile High Parachuting, not Paramax as the plane is still being looked at. Temperature skyrocketed to +6 degrees C (43 degrees F). Clear blue skies, sunny and only medium-low winds at ground. It was still above freezing at hop-and-pop altitude. Good forgiving snow for lovely foot-slide landings. Even my 40 second freefall from 11K wasn't that chilly, but I had my fullface helmet and 3 layers. It was even warmer than some of the April and Octdober jumps I've done. It was just 2 jumps (1 full altitude, one hop-n-pop). I was ready to do a 3rd, but there wasn't enough time in the day. I stayed after sunset and had unexpected filet mignon barbecue dinner and beer. Mainly dropzone airport staff. It was a nice hangar lounge at the airport in Arnprior. Now I owe them. I guess I have to bring beer pre-emptively for my water landing pratice there next summer (At least that time, I have an excuse of a "first"!) Now this will have to satisfy me until the next snow jump, or maybe the Easter boogie at some big dropzone just south of the border. (Which I recently learned is within driving distance).

We've already got that right now in Canada. Well, the equivalent thereof. Sorta. Minority goverment with 4 parties bickering. (no party having more than 50% of the Parliament) There's precedent though, that Canadian minority goverments are peoples' goverments though; historically while unstable and full of venomous politics, generally get things done "for the people".

The student rigs at my dropzone had a SOS style system on one handle, but the other handle still existed. It's been a while, but I think it was the cutaway handle that would also deploy the reserve. However, there was also the option to go straight to silver if I have nothing survivable above me at 1000 feet, for example, and for emergency airplane exits at lower altitude. I suspect two-out would be a bigger concern for these rigs, but properly drilled EP's avoids doing this by accident. That's the advantage, I had no need to change EP's when I went off the student rig...

Great Scott! (Emmet Brown style) Yes. Percentage of posts in Bonfire and Speaker Corner, along with 1.21 gigawatts, needs to be factored in the Doomed Skydiver Ratio.

We need a D.S.R. statistic to be displayed in skykdiver profiles. D.S.R. = Doomed Skydiver Ratio. The mathematic formula would probably be: Doomed Skydiver Ratio = (Posts x WingLoad x 100) / (Jumps²) This means people with more posts or a higher wingload gets a higher ratio, but that increasing number of jumps lowers this ratio nicely. Very simple. Could work. But. Mind you, I have more posts than jumps, so I may be at a disadvantage. But then again, so are wonderful skydivers like airtwardo, who probably wouldn't appreciate it

The PC in my used low jump Vector 2 rig (~200 jumps when I bought it, 1993 manufacture) came with an indicator segment (green colored line) that tells me whether or not the PC is cocked, during a quick pin check. Assuming I am still using the original PC that came with the canopy (175 jumps, 1996), I think this is a technology that's been around for a long time. Maybe Bill Booth can add a comment about the innovation of the indicator "window" (This reminds me, it's almost time to replace my PC during my next reserve repack.)

Good luck... I dont know you well except for a few postings but I really do hope you get to get back into the sky! It is an emotional story...

Here's something else for thought too -- You know those women who says "why are all the best looking guys gay?". Those guys don't even match any of the "man" descriptions you are listing. Good smelling, curvy, muscular men that women adore. Of course, it's a stereotype, but not more so than lusting after a good looking woman. (Some like skinny, some like meat, taller or shorter, fair-skinned or dark-skinned, etc.) We all have variations of individual preferences.

I had a 400+ day uptime on my Linux box without a UPS, and the only reason I didn't exceed that was because I had to move between two apartments.

True true, But it was only a few degrees below freezing, nothing was wet, and there was a good snowstorm the day prior so it was all nice soft snow. I was triple layered inside jumpsuit, two neckwarmers and my full face helmet. I could probably survive the 120mph windchill briefly, but everyone else was mainly doing hop and pops at 12500 feet instead. Either way, the first thing to freeze probably would be my hands with the Newman tackified gloves, since I wasn't about to use dangerously thick ski gloves to fumble with my PC at pull time!

This bears worth mentioning again. It's the price of windtunnels that is currently at an equilibrium of the lack of windtunnels in North America, the skydiver clientile, and them being booked nearly constantly. It's better to keep prices twice as high and have 80% capacity, than to have prices half price and have 100% capacity. I have a friend who regularly did the Aerodium wind tunnel in Quebec in 1979 -- yes, 1979 -- I understand this was the first VWT in North America. He told me he and his friends spent a shockingly expensive $25 per hour for the use of this outdoor windtunnel. I told him it costs at least $600 per hour, minimum, nowadays. Needless to say, I had to pick up his jaw from the bottom of the crater in front of him. Once the windtunnel capital is paid off, there is still room for windtunnel profit even at a 50% discount -- the electricity isn't that expensive yet (at least during off-peak). Most people are only eating half a megawatt, even if the motors can run at over a megawatt of electricty. Motors could get more efficient in the future, and maintenance requirements is going down. More reliable, less money to run. Once the costs are really established over a decade, windtunnels will be more comfortable at reducing prices slightly if there is a market oversaturation. On the other hand, prices could go up with inflation and electricity prices if the market is still insatiable, like it is in some areas, despite the large numbers being built. What happens next is anybody's guess. My wild uneducated guess is that prices may fall about 20% or 25% gradually in the next decade if there's a saturation of windtunnels in North America eventually, especially smaller lower-powered models (8 or 10 feet diameter shopping-mall models, maybe) and multi-level models (2 or 3 levels, separated by netting) that doubles or triples whuffo traffic. Price cuts are much more easily justifiable with these models. This will entice a few more people to take up the tunnels, bringing them back to 75-80% or more capacity on a continent-wide average. Yes, some of them will idle part of the time. But that's to protect price erosion which is sound business practice. One tunnel provides a big enough discount, there is pressure on other wind tunnels to reduce prices. These things are fiendishly expensive. The capital needs to be paid off. There can be cost overruns in many construction projects. So keeping the prices the way they are and still having 80% capacity, is still a reasonable business model. The $25-per-hour windtunnel days are over, but there's a massive untapped market to recruit. I think there could be a profitable industry of 100 windtunnels in North America alone, within 10 years from now, the market should be big enough provided my assumption of enough flexibility to reduce prices, is correct. Not a big wholesale price reduction, just a few percent at least. (One example -- $19.99 for a 2 minute introductory flight, could easily quadruple whuffo traffic compared to the typical almost-$40 for a 2 minute introductory flight -- and still bring in $600 per hour, perhaps enough to pay for the costs of a capital-already-paid-off windtunnel. Anyway, education on the economics of selling stuff, show a cube relationship of some kind -- half price causes quadruple sales with certain kinds of items) I say, there's plenty of room for expansion. Yes, you actually see certain McDonalds go out of business occasionally and reopen in other locations -- so there may be a rebalancing of the market in a decade from now, who knows, hopefully not -- but I think the market is going to continue to be very viable. I think North America is a big enough market to keep more than 100 windtunnels fully profitable, provided they are opened in the right locations and operated properly. Also, UK tunnels are much more expensive (Twice as expensive, I think -- something like $1000 per hour! Ouch, ouch, ouch!) and they're often fully booked. So prices could go up, who knows. Anyway, I don't expect prices to change much for the rest of the decade. Next decade, who knows? I just think there's enough healthy economics in a modern reliable low-maintenance windtunnel, even at only 75% utilization, to allow a lot of market expansion. It may hurt a tunnel or two, here and there, but most of the eventual 100 windtunnels in North America should be very viable for a long time -- most are not even advertising to the fullest extent because they are still maximizing capacity sufficiently enough. Supply and demand will adjust the prices, and probably weed out some of the weaker capitallized people who nearly went bankrupt paying for the construction of some of them, but the profitable ongoing operation of a windtunnel would ensure that they stay in business for a long time to come, even during any future price erosion...

Hi, For the first time in a while, a sunny winter day with low winds and not too cold, a group of local skydivers went for winter jumps at Paramax Skydiving in Alexandria, Ontario. Two plane loads flew. Plane broke down on the ground (starter? -- wouldn't start up again, I heard -- could be wrong). Didn't get a jump in! It would have been my first snow landing. Oh well! We enjoyed watching some videos, including the 2005 "best of" from our normal home dropzone (Skydive Gananoque) Maybe next time!

I'll have to admit I like the ridiculous sweet alcoholic concotions they dream up nowadays in today's dance bars. Beer seems to put me to sleep too quickly (especially the cheap domestic kinds). I've got a friend in Boston that I may be able to bunk at, but he may not always be available. Do I get maid service?

Excellent skydiving history -- this is worthy of the History Forum. (I always enjoy reading these -- including airtwardo's very interesting stories. We newbies are quite spoiled with today's equipment)