bbarnhouse

It was also posted in this thread

Anything above 3500 is considered a high pull here all the time. Folks just need to check with manifest if they are pulling higher. If there are multiple planes running, don't plan on pulling above 3500 unless you are on the first load of the day.

Results just in and it was exciting to watch! Arizona Arsenal takes the gold in round 6 with 58 points. Altinex takes the silver with 57 points. The bronze was won by Team Lodi scoring 41. Congratulations to all ! A huge thank you to Melissa Nelson for coming up with idea in the first place, as well as Team Mandrin for pushing it forward.

There is a third landing area proximal to the tunnel. This landing area is was created for style and accuracy. I wouldn't recommend landing there unless you absolutely have to. Its a long walk back to the hangars edited to add: Just a heads up. The policy here is that the tunnel is a no fly zone. Please do not overfly nor swoop the tunnel as this will find you grounded permanently here in Eloy. Also, there is a large photo of the DZ located at the tram area. This board will indicate jump run and ground speed. Please check it prior to boarding the tram as the information may change throughout the day

slotperfect billvon loudiamond skymonkeyone imgr2 fields mark Andrewwhyte bbarnhouse

Ok I need to chime in here. No matter how the awards are presented, someone will be unhappy. It is ultimately the competitors obligation and responsibility to read the meet information. If there were teams that needed to leave early, it would have been better to address this prior to the end of the event. NOT the day of completion. The USPA Nationals is about serving ALL of the competitors, not just a select group. I suppose that we could have completed 4-way in 5 days rather than 1.5 days by allowing only 2 jumps per day. Most folks competing in 4 way are also competing in 8 & 10 way so yes there were 3 teams that did not fall into this category. In the end, I go back to what I have said before, if competitors have concerns they need to bring it to the USPA competition committe. Only then will they affont change.

We've just completed 7 rounds of 4-way with 146 loads flown. Its was a beautiful day.

Velocity is in the line up.

Thanks for asking hon...just bring on the hugs

Craig is just a great flier all the way around. He is excited to be participating in the event.

Will do Liz...we'll miss you! And you too GQ!

This is the USPA Nationals. All images belongs to them, and there are certain agreements that have to be met to even host a meet. No one has to agree with it, nor like it but it is in the agreements. And there ya have it.

Dave, Some years ago I was the brunt of something similar here in the forums regarding the Holiday Boogie. No big deal. I considered the source and decided that these are nothing more than words on a screen.

Well think about this. Eloy actually is one of the largest "cities" by land mass. This means that the City manager makes a hefty income. Some say even more than the Governor, but I havent' researched that. Another question...if the airport was operating in a deficit, then how could the city manager possibly justify paying $72k a year for an airport manager? Umm what exactly is there to manage at the airport? The City manager hired the individual using "discretionary" funds. The city council was unaware of this hire and when the question was brought before the council, the individual was summarily dismissed. So where did those funds come from? All income generated on the airport has to go back into the airport per the grant assurance agreement. I do not see any improvements. There are items in need of repair that the city is neglecting to take care of. So here is another little tid-bit for you. The city called me to inform me that they were closing the runway to do maintenance. I inquired as to what kind of maintenance. WEED pulling. I was then told that they had filed a NOTAM informing us that the runway was to be closed and we didnt comply. I offered that we would be happy to use the taxiway while they were "pulling weeds" and switch to the runway when they moved to the other side. I was told NO.(remember that we operated off the taxiway when the new runway was being built so why not?) I was also told that if we did not comply, they would contact the FAA. Umm EXCUSE me? I then informed the city that they had no authority to close the runway. Only the FAA can do that. Only the FAA has the say over safety on a federally funded airport, and that they were once again in viliolation of the assurance program. Ummm they haven't read the assurance! The runway remained open. Skydive Arizona is not a bully, nor unreasonable. We offered viable solutions to current issues and were more than willing to work with the City of Eloy. The mayor of the city remarked that it is his airport. I beg to differ. They accepted federal and state money for this airport and it belongs to the taxpayers.

Just so that everyone is aware...Skydive Arizona has not released any information anywhere as to the "official" entries of the USPA Nationals. (GQ I am just hitting reply on your post) All official information will be listed on the USPA website and redirected to OmniSkore. Anything else that is currently out there regarding teams regeistered is speculation.

Well Mr. Hill does have other options. As he owns 380 acres of land some of which are on both sides of the airport, he could close the operation and do nothing. He could let the land sit and just pay his property taxes. No new development...no new tax dollars. He could sell off a piece of the land, make a few million and just operate the tunnel on his private land. He could sell everything and open up somewhere new. He could close up shop and take in aircraft for maintenance in the hangars that belong to him. Or he could take the City to court for breech of contract and cause trouble for the city through the non-compliances of the grant assurances. Let's all make some pop corn shall we? No I think we got it straight by their own admissions. I do realize that hired guns will put out what you pay them for. In the end the truth is what matters. It would be interesting to see what happens when a couple of tough questions are asked about the airport funds being redirected to the general fund. OOPS grant assurance problem again

I have lots of comments. This is a long read, but an important one. A wee letter to the editor In the matter of the city of Eloy seeking to charge Skydive Arizona fees to use the airport, there are some facts that need to be stated. The city manager and the consulting firm first proped that Skydive Arizona pay $16,000 a month for access to the airport. They have stated that such fees are reasonable. In fact, the opposite is true. The suggested fees are completely unreasonable, violate exisiting contracts, and can not be justified by any logical or legal argument. The main point made by the city manager abd the consulting firm is that Skydive Arizona has a "through the fence" (TTF) operation, and some FAA and state DoT documents caution airport proprietors about possible abuse of this situation, The suggestion in those documents is that a TTF may be using airport facilities in such a way that on-airport businesses are put at a disadvantage, or that the TTF operation masy not be paying its full share of the cost of using the facilities. No doubt such situations may exist at other airports. However, they do not apply in this matter. The first case, that of putting on-airport operations at a disadvantage, is not applicable. Skydive Arizona provides skydiving services. No on-airport facility does so. Skydive Arizona does not sell fuel. It does not maintain,paint,upholster, build or repair aircraft or avionics. It does not provide flight training, charter flights, or other aviation services. In other words, there is no business on the airport that stands to lose any revenue (and therefore deprive the aiport of income) through the existance of Skydive Arizona's TTF operation. To suggest that Skydive Arizona is a burden to the airport by reducing revenue is obviously false. The nest question is whether or not Skydive Arizona is paying its fair share for using airport facilities. The consultants hired by the city manager state that the Eloy airports FY '05-'06 budget shows income of $73,636.04 and expenses of $181,450.00. This leave a shortfall of $107,813.96, assumming that the expense figure is accurate. Of those expenses, almost none are for services or facilities used by Skydive Arizona. Skydive Arizona uses the aircraft taxiway and runway. It does nto use the buildings. It did not need to buy or lease land. It did not pay for the training andf travel of city employees who do not provide it with services. The list goes on and on. Almost nothing that the city spent money on is a part of the airport used by Skydive Arizona-or other TTF operations for that matter. The city should consider how to better manage the facilities in orderti reduce expenses or increase income from businesses that actually USE the facilities, not look for the nearest "deep pocket" to releive their deficit. WhatSkydive Arizona does use is the taxiway and the runway. This was a major expense, including $50,000 tomatch State and Federal grants to improve the facility (more on that later). Airport improvement grants are based on the number of operations at an airport and funded by state and federal taxes on fuel. In 2005 Skydive Arizona paid $79,977.69 in such taxes abd provided the majority of operations that allowed for the grant to happen in the first place. During its time in Eloy, Skydive Arizona has paid over $1,000,000. in fuel taxes, about two thirds if the total cost of the entire runway improvement project. the suggestion that Skydive Arizona is not paying for the runway and taxiway use is without merit. Finally the city argues that Skydive Arizona should have a contractual agreement with the City that establishes fair compensation for the use of the Eloy airport. Well...such an agreement does exisit. Itwas formed withthe City of Eloy in 1990, when Skydive Arizona first agreed to come here. The gisst of the agreement was that Skydive Arizona would be a viable business to a community deseratley in need of these. In exchange, Skydive Arizona would have TTF access to the airport at no charge. Furthermore, since 1983 the Mid-Arizona Air Plaza has been a part of the City of Eloy's development plan. This air plaza is guaranteed legal access to the airport through the fence at no charge. In other words, not one but two contracts signed by the City of Eloy guarantee TTF access at no charge to occupants of Mid-Arizona Air Plaza, including Skydive Arizona. Skydive Arizona has more than kept up its share of the agreement made in 1990, bringing business to the airport and to Eloy. In 2005, the company paid $162,000 in sales taxes and $65,000 in property taxes. Other businesses, which would not exisit but for Skydive Arizona, added to eloy's income tax. Finally, Skydive Arizona paid employees and contractors nearly 2 million dollars in 2005, much of whcih was spent in the local area. By any economic standard, Skydive Arizona has provided a bonanza to the City of Eloy. The most conservative economic evaluation tequniques use multipliers in the neighborhood of 2.0 to 4.0 to estimate the economic benefits of businesses such as Skydive Arizona. In other words, when the amount of money spent at a business is added to the payroll and purchases of that business,one can assume that for every dollar involved, one to three more dollars in the economic activity is generated. Sales of lift tickets alone generated about two and a half million dollars in 2005. Instructional fees and other services add to that. Acillary services such as parachute rigging,packing,and repair increase the number. using the multiplier of just 2.0, Skydive Arizona injects a minimum of ten million dollars worth of economic activity into the region annually,much of whcih remains in Eloy. This doesnot take into consideration money spent off the facility at area grocery stores, gas stations, motels and so on bySkydive Arizona's customers, who come from all over the world to visit Eloy. Given that Skydive Arizona provides a tremendous economic benefit to the city at virtually no cost to the EloyMunicipal Airport. whatwould motivate the city to suggest that Skydive Arizona should pay a fee one hundred times higher than those proposed for other TTF businesses? It becomes clear when one looks at the history of the current city manager and his consultants. This is not the first time that Skydive Arizona has been the target of attempts to extort money to pay for improvements or services it has never requested and will never use. The City is proposing to make one successful business pay for the prospect of attracting other businesses, which may or may not generate income to the airport. The consulting firm admitted in open city council that their studies are a result of what they were asked to provide. They freely state that in forming their reccomendations, they did not examine airports and businesses with economic situations like Eloy's, contending thatmuch larger airports with many viable on-airport businesses provide an appropriate model. The consultants did NOT look at a single airport in Pinal county during his consultation. He did NOT look at a single airport with aomparable levels of activity. This is nothing less than incompetence. In reality, Eloy bears little resemlance to Scottsdale,Kingman, Yuma, or Mesa-just a few of the large regional airports used by the consulting firm for their analysis. The city clearly hopes to improve the Eloy Airport for future clients by attempting to pass exhorbitant user fees on the one business that could conceivably generate somee funding for these projects, even though that business will never benefit from any of those improvements. The consulting firm stand to benefit by being retained by the City. Skydive Arizona has no intention of paying any fees proposed by the City manager. A contract already exisits, and Skydive Arizona has never breached it. Should the City choose to breech the existing contract and attemtp to charge unreasonable and unwarranted fess, Skydive Arizona is prepared to bring the matter before the court. Before events proceed, Skydive Arizona has suggested to the City Council that they investigate the TTF situation at the Casa grande Airport, where the exisiting TTF agreements were upheld in court. Skydive Arizona has also asked the City Council to consider this: on two previous occassions the consulting firm and the city manager gave false information to the council about projects related to the Eloy Airport. The falsley stated that the FAA would not approve the SkyVenture wind tunnel or allow aircraft to operate on the airport taxiway while the runway improvements were underway. The Eloy airport is a federally funded airport, and with that comes the grant assurance program. If the City of Eloy is found to be in non-compliance the federal government has the right to ask for all the monies back. So far I have found 5 instances where the city is in non-compliance. Problem is...they havent even read the grant assurances. In the end folks..the City's actions may very well cost the City huge legal expenses and cripple one of the more successful businesses. Then again... If you made it this far...good on you! Thats about all I have to say

For information on Project 500 contact tony@square1.com

POPS scoreboard

We have several Russian teams that have entered as guests including Black Cats! It's going to be good!

Happy Birthday Sangiro!

More cow bells...more talk about boobies and turds. umm sex...yes lets talk about that...I mean goodness sakes its not like its something that the world just discovered...and ummm is that an AN-2?

Well I remember when the forum was locked down for awhile because it was nothing but more of the same...is that what you are referring to?

AND Melissa Nelson will be here to add to the dailys

Ohhhhhhhh I received 5 bars of Lindt Edelbitter Mousse Suerkirsch-Chili. (transulation...cherry chili chocolate) I know it doesn't sound good...but trust me it is the favorite in manifest. Yep I am going to share I also recieved a large stuffed sunflower...life is sweet.