SkymonkeyONE

Pencil-whipping it, pure and simple. There are plenty of dropzones out there that do not let their students even see the A-card. This is also true at dropzones that pass their 7-level geniuses off onto their "advanced schooling" vendor to get them their licenses. On at least one very-prominent turbine dropzone they allow "outside instructors" to run their own programs for simple cost of lift tickets. My wife graduated seven levels of AFF from one of these guys and was hapilly sent on her way. She had no idea what an A-license proficiency card was when she arrived at Raeford. Who is "we?" The SIM is a great student reference, but we do not give every single student a copy of it. We teach our FJC off of a sylabus which we put together in the same, logical order as the SIM FJC, just with more detail where we thought it needed it. For what it's worth, we do not give every student a copy of that sylabus either, but gladly do so to any student who asks for one. It takes us an average of six and a half to seven hours to get through our FJC prior to turning the student over to instructors for Cat A ground briefing/training. Chuck Blue D-12501 AFF/SL/TM-I, BMCI, PRO

Actually, these days I know quite a few people (with a lot of money) who have many thousands of skydives and no ratings at all. Bryan Moffet has over 5000 and no ratings. Stephen Lee (here at Raeford) has over 4000 and no ratings. It fascinates me that I have friends under 30 years old with over 10,000 skydives who either do not have or do not directly use "real" ratings. It has taken me 24 years to cumulate 4200 skydives, but then again I was in the army for 21 of those years and "grew up" on a Cessna DZ.

Total thread drift perpetuation, but I had a '74 MGB (british racing green with tan interior). Last year with the small chrome bumpers.

hmmmm, I may have met you there, but I can neither confirm nor eny anything that happened at ZHills on New Years. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

That was fucking bad-ass.

Clint is a premier member and can post whore all he likes.

Yo, Izreeeeeeeel, you need to work that out, fool!

Katie has both Ice and Batray frames. They both look great on here. I think Demoras are too thin top to bottom for any face.

Right. He caught me a couple hundred shy of the cutoff.

I started before Tonto Wendy W. So did I.

Info for Raeford, NC 1. packers here make ten dollars for tandems and five for student, rental, and up-jumper rigs on your own time. Pay is monthly for school stuff. Work is heavy on the weekends and sporadic during the week. Packers work for the school. There is a very-lucrative packing contract with the Golden Knights, but there are no open slots for those jobs as far as I know. The highest paid employee on this dropzone is the lead packer for that contract. 2. riggers are a dime a dozen here. Nobody gets more than $35 a repack 3. coach jumps pay $10 at the school, but there are a lot of people who do it for slot 4. tandem Instructors get paid $30, plus the extra $10 if they want to pack it. Busy on weekends, but sporadic during the week. 5. AFF instructors make $30, either side. Busy weekends, sporadic weekday work. 6. Jump Pilots do not make dick here and start out with a year of Cessna flying regardless of ratings or past experience when it comes to the skydiving side of the operation. We have a CASA 212, two Otters, a Twin Bonanza, and a wide-body C-182. A turbine-rated A&P with both Garret and P&W quals could probably do OK here. There is no "staff" lodging here, but our RV park rates are incredibly affordable. We have 20 30-amp slots with water, sewer, and wireless internet. $60 a month total! The cost of living is quite low here in NC. There are no benefits paid for any position on this dropzone. If you plan on working full-time on a dropzone you need to know that, for the most part, it is a very spartan existence. The less qualifications you have, then more ramen you are going to eat. It is not a glamourous lifestyle and unless you have some other form of income then you had better be happy living in a beat-up trailer, or shacked up with five of your co-workers. Go to the biggest dropzones in the world and you will find the best, most world-renowned jumpers living in the RV ghetto in a beat up camper. Seriously. Chuck

Gary, turn your private messages on and I will be glad to give you at least two examples of major turbine dropzones which teach seven-level AFF and then "set them free". Chuck Blue D-12501

They work "four twelves" at Sunpath, so if you called on a Friday you are out of luck.

I am sure there are more than a few of us who have put tons of jumps on containers that were built in garages by people working on Master tickets. I know I jumped a Roger Pickett-built faux Centaurus for two years in the late 80's.

You can say that again!

You missed him at PIA? I didn't. Nice seeing you again, Brian.

Not to incriminate myself or anyone else, but I know more than a couple of tandem masters who have jumped with their passenger facing them.

I agree with you, pardoning current tangible certifications/qualifications. Do you not have a PRO rating in the UK? I really don't know; that's why I am asking. That is how we in the US prove we are capable to jump demos. Likewise, a current PST/IPC canopy competitor is certainly qualified for what will be your CP2 rating. Note that I said "current." PST ratings are null if you go a year without competing.

That's from "Say Anything", one of my favorite movies of all time. Here's a song from that movie: "Lloyd, Lloyd, all null and void, he's wiggin every day, wiggin every night, he's WIGGIN!" Chuck

Good. Beat it.

Chuck is stuck in your nose? What did you do to get him in there? I am not stuck in Rainbo's nose.

Ah! Mister Sanders I presume! If you find yourself in Bangkok and anywhere Venus Jewelers please send me a PM. Chuck

His very-incomplete profile says he currently jumps a Stilletto 150.

Don't be a homo, just bust it up over the airplane like you know what's up! Give it hell, Aubrey.

Annie and Olivia filmed some of the larger ones from the ground, out in the parking lot. I am sure they took stills too.