grimmie

When you feel better and can drive and sit around without being in discomfort come down to Oceanside. Hang out for a day and go out to the LZ in our shuttle van. We'll spend the day watching parachutes. I'll point out the good stuff and the iffy stuff. You can help manifest and answer the phone. Or just sit and draw some cartoons

Chuck, I wasn't sure if some of the remote Canadian DZ's had to call ATC.

http://skydiveuspa.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/white-house-responds-to-petition-effort/ Caroline, USPA is fighting this on a united front with other general aviation users. I have to speak with Randy Ottinger this week and I'll ask him where this is in the overall government plan. If we had to pay $100 per flight our jump ticket price would have to go up $15 each

Nearly every North American drop zone uses ATC.

Jeff Norris, real insurance broker to nearly every turbine jump ship in America. Wingsuit tailstrikes, one every 29 days last year in America. Experience levels of wingsuiters striking tails, noob to expert. For the record, no WS at my DZ due to airspace and LZ concerns. Carry on...

Go first the next time.

http://vimeo.com/49197431 A nice view and we throw out some $20 to 13,000 days once in a while. Every Thursday and Friday you can roll in for a $20 cash jump between noon and two.

I'm working on a two day course at my DZ to cover all of the aspects of the Pro rating.

How many of those guys are you paying $50,413 annually (not including health insurance which is part of the average compensation package but not included in the total) which is the median (half more, half less) 2012 household income? I'd guess zero to one apart from tips and yourself. How many get at least $40K annually? Or $21/hour which is what I believe the real middle class wage to be (with the typical 10 Federal holidays and 2 weeks of paid vacation) after helping children in their odyssey years who are getting paid less but who we'd like to have their own apartment, health insurance, savings to accommodate temporary disability and job loss, eventual retirement, and the other trappings of middle class life? How many net at least $25K annually which nets "middle class" according to other sources? Or $13/hour with normal holidays and vacation? Having tried that 20 years ago, rented rooms in houses instead of apartments, eschewed health insurance, and forgotten about retirement I'd disagree with that definition of middle class although for the sake of argument we could consider it. Perhaps, perhaps not. Compensation is more than just the annual salary reported on your W2 forms. How good is your annual pension? Multiply that by 25 to get to the savings you'd have needed as a private company employee. If you were a private company employee who retired to run the Bent Prop before 59 1/2 that would probably have come in a year or two as a stock win which required pre-tax earnings up to 50X your annual pension (39% top federal rate, 10.3% top California rate, you might not keep half of your payday after 20 years of trying). There's a _lot_ of latitude in how you define job creation. I've created jobs with phone calls to the Hispanic Cultural Center for a few hours at $15 per including ~25% tip (although less would work I'd feel bad) very part time for a quite limited duration. I doubt any of those guys will be getting their own apartments using my pay. AFAIK my friends who created jobs on earnings under $250K/year all created jobs paying somewhere between minimum wage and $10 an hour which comes up 20% short of middle class even with zero paid vacation and zero paid federal holidays. The only people I know who created _middle class_ jobs did it because for some period they did a lot better than $250K/year and didn't loose too much to taxes to cease working for money. You're looking at the smaller picture. When we BUILT the Bent Prop, we bought material and hired construction labor, keeping local Eloy business, and the Chandler Home Depot in business. We bought advertising, restaurant supplies, food, beer and alcohol, etc. All keeping local jobs going. The REAL trickle down, IMHO. The same with my new DZ. We buy fuel, lease a plane, advertising, etc. Our jumpers stay in local hoitels and buy food and fuel in Oceanside, all good for the local economy. Small business isn't always about creating big paying jobs. Most of my DZ staff work at other DZ's. All together they make over $50K each.

Growing the economy from the middle is how it all starts out. Look at how many small business people started out with a chunk of life savings, worked hard and grew their business into a viable company that hired employees. I was a fireman. I invested my savings into building the Bent Prop Bar and Grill in Eloy. We hired 26 full and part time employees. I just started a DZ. We have two pilots, one office manager, many tandem instructors and packers/riggers. Look at your local town. Mom and Pop stores and businesses hire all sorts of people. Starting a business can make someone wealthy, but usually it is middle class Americans creating jobs. I never came close to making $250,000 per year and I have created more jobs than most politicians on either side of the aisle. That's how you grow the economy from the middle.

We have a PAC all days, unless we have an Otter

My wife helps me run the DZ on the weekends. We had the Surf's Up boogie going and did 11 Otter loads that day and it was pretty hectic for our little DZ. A lot of people were calling that day wanting all sorts of crazy tandem requests, like can they wear bikinis and speedos and other stuff. My long time pal, Doak, who some of you here have jumped with over the years and know his sense of humor, was helping me with the aircraft loading and DZ stuff that weekend. After we locked everyone out at the end of the day and were closing up the phone rang. I hear my wife say "You want to do a tandem wearing a chicken suit?" "Really"? I started laughing and told her to ask how big the head on the suit was. She asked the caller and then I hear her ask "You want the tandem instructor to go naked, wearing a wrestling mask????" At that point the remaining staff in the office doubled over. Doak was calling her from the parking lot!

Sounds like an LP morning load

65 jumpers are signed up for the beach jump. It is closed for additional jumpers. The boogie is shaping up to be a pretty good party!

How do they spot a 182 load 3 miles from the DZ?

I think we should have talent limited drop zones, Shah...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KvPk8Cz8jk Opening Day fun. Sometimes the fight is really worth it...

Well, at least I made it to the Saddle Tramp!

Revenge will be mine

Back by popular demand, $20 skydives to 13,000 august 25th. Be there!

Good points, Remi... But come out west, Eloy, Perris, Elsinore, Skydive San Diego and Tsunami Skydivers offer pretty nice jumping that time of year.

However, there was a wingsuit tail strike every 29 days last year.

I can hook you up with some pretty fun folks in Belize that will take great care of you for a fantastic price.

Just e-mail me something I can print. Everyone must be at the DZ by 8am. Beach jumps start at 11am. We have about 40 jumpers so far.

August 15th is the last day to get your USPA and drivers license to me for the August 30th beach demo.