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30,500 ft out of Mullins King Air at Rantoul 2005 Blue skies, Jim

??? Then how come small airlines around the world will pay $2 million US for a -300? Regional jets are great, but they are not STOL don't like gravel or grass runways, and the maintainance per hour is a ummhh just a little more than the Otter. Blue skies, Jim

Skydive Spaceland is proud to again host the Lew Sanborn Accuracy Meet April 15th and 16th. Come out and watch or jump with World Class accuracy jumpers from the sport and military communities. Amateur class for jumpers who want to test their accuracy skills. Contact Conrad Jones at conradjones@houston.rr.com or 832-515-7275 for additional information. Blue skies, Jim

Spence was just telling you where your post would have been more effective instead of in this thread. ...unless your real intention was to hijack the thread! Blue skies, Jim

All twin Otters were made starting in the early 1960's and ending in the early 1980's. Amost all skydiving Otters are DHC6-100 and 200 models which limits them to the 1960's and 1970's. Some parts are still available new like the gear assemblies, wings, and engines. A lot of the smaller parts are rebuilds only and very expensive. With or without the FAA, the fleet will eventually get to expensive to operate or will be more expensive to operate than an alternative and the fleet will change again. Blue skies, Jim

What a waste! If I had an Otter, I would let others play with it.... Blue skies, Jim

Is this before or after we finish off the Ba Mui Ba? Blue skies, Jim

Having a severe injury then coming back to jump is a little different, but causes the same anxiety. After my injury and 5 months of recuperation and PT before the MD would give me a release, I went from looking forward to my next jump to asking myself "Why am I doing this?" Think what made it easier for me was the days I spent at the dz and encouragement I got from everyone including other jumpers who had come back from an injury. Of course the anxiety was still there the day I got on the plane and rode to altitude...you know the sweating, nervous laughs, wide open eyes...and then the door opened! I climbed out and felt the wind and everything was fine again. When it came time to deploy though, I cringed and tensed up badly in anticipation of another hard opening. It took another 10-20 jumps to realize slammer openings were relatively rare. As for my recurrency jump, doing a 20 way competition jump is probably not a good way to start back! Really don't know what I was thinking and wouldn't do it again.

Hey Shane did UPS deliver the helmet? I would hate to have to buy a third one.... Blue skies, Jim

Hey Spence, go over to the airline unclaimed luggage warehouse. I'm sure you can find my old Z-1 and new jumpsuit there! Blue skies, Jim

We have "Dot" like in "dot your [eyes]. Seems like he gets dotted when he goes out! We have "Hoop". He's got hoops in places that are very sensitive! "Iceman", ask Kate about that one. "Divot" because of what he used to make in the landing area. "Chewy" I don't know how he got this name. Any LA folks know? "Fat Boy" 'cause he's a big guy.

Present - CPA/Consultant & Otter Owner Web & Database Programmer VP of Chemical Company VP of Software Company VP of Engineering Company Owner of Computer Service Company VP of Real Estate Company Tax Manager of Oil Field Equipment Manufacturer Public Accountant Accountant in Bank Trust Dept (College) Computer Service Librarian (College) Convenience Store Clerk (College) Liquor Store Clerk (College) Partner in Fast Food Business XO 502nd MI Detachment, 2nd Armored Division Phoenix Officer Vietnam Military Advisor Vietnam Heavy Weapons Specialist Infantryman (Leg) EMT Newspaper Job Shop Gofer Gas Station Attendent Lifeguard Hamburger Flipper Lifeguard Newspaper Boy Phew! I can't keep a friggen job....

'58? Young pup! Blue skies, Jim

It was really busy at spaceland today so I am glad you got to jump! When I left at 5PM they had done 71 tandems had a plane up and the sunset load waiting. Blue skies, Jim

Thanks John. That will come in handy. Blue skies, Jim

ummhhh, first class or coach? Blue skies, Jim

good luck! was stationed in DC for several months and went every afternoon for several hours and never did finish... Blue skies, Jim

Most of the larger dropzones make about a third of their money from tandems, a third from other students and a third from fun/up jumpers. In reality it is probably a lot more. For example, how many tandems only do one jump? So the dzo grosses $189 before video, pays the instructor $40-45, pays the aircraft $11-14 and nets at most $138 one-time. A fun jumper does say 300 jumps per year at $20 each. That's $6,000 gross less $11-14 per slot. So worst case the dzo makes $1,800 on the fun jumper, but it takes a little longer. Without fun jumpers at a dz, there is limited activity, fewer people to talk to, fewer things to watch. less night life....in other words nothing to keep the tandems and students interested, no new friends to meet, no hot girls/guys to watch, etc. Tandem shops will do really well initially and then seem to wither away barely wimpering as they go. Blue skies, Jim

Hey I failed several levels too! Didn't think I would ever get comfortable in the air. I kept trying to push on the air for support. When I finally relaxed I was amazed at how smooth and comfortable it was. Analyze why you failed and move on. Don't let your anxieties about jumping build up and hold you back. Use each jump and learn how to fix those things that need fixing. Close your eyes on the ground and visualize yourself performing the exit and in freefall. See yourself doing the specific things you need to do to make the jump successful. It will really help. Blues, Jim

2.25 - 2.5 miles from 13k with booties at Spaceland. Highway 521 West of dz was exit point and deployment above 2k was 1/8th to 1/4 mile East of Highway 288. Measured by auto odometer. Slowest vertical fallrate was 83 mph. Blue skies, Jim

Fortunately he came with an Otter leased for the TSR. Never had to fly with him again. Kinda' reminded me of the overaggressive canopy pilot attitude...you know "i'm the best ever, learn faster, know 100% of everything, never gona' happen to me" pilot. Blue skies, Jim

Yep been there and have friends who went to school there. Are you saying I ummmhhh don't know what I'm talking about or somethin'? Come on spit it out. Blue skies, Jim

Nope, just a biased sample. It is difficult to get an unbiased sample most of the time. Why did you immediately go to "conspiracy"? Gotcha' Your bias is showing. Blue skies, Jim

I'll bet there is almost to much bias in the "sample" to derive a valid conclusion. Not only is Berkley liberal, but the community is liberal, and the state as a whole is pretty liberal. Kids growing up under those circumstances will probably be more liberal too. Especially considering the peer pressure to be "normal" as discussed in another thread. Normal will be more liberal. Abnormal will be conservative. Hence the whiney, withdrawn kids may be the conservative kids while the popular, outgoing, successful kids will be the liberal kids. Remember the teacher who told her class that brown eyed kids were inferior to blue eyed kids. The performance of the brown eyed kids went down measurably. Then after some time, she said she had made a mistake and the brown eyed kids were actually superior to the blue eyed kids. Brown eyed kids performance went back up and the blued eyed kids went down because one group was supposed to be better than the other. I wouldn't trust the professor's conclusions in this one at all. But hey, that's just my personal opinion. Blue skies, Jim

This brings up an important point that I forgot to include last night. Once before I started doing big ways, Spaceland had leased additional Otters for a Texas State Record attempt. I was jumping 4-way RW and we were in one of the leased Otters from another Texas dz. As the red light came on, we looked out and were way off the dz. When the green light came on, we were still downwind of the dz by quite a distance so we held up our exit. The pilot and everyone on the load starts yelling at us to go! We hold our ground and exit at what we thought was the proper time; still had to open higher than normal and barely made the dz property line. While standing in the hanger killing time till our next load and watching the TSR jumpers dirt dive the pilot from our last jump came over and chewed us out for not trusting him and the gps. He said if we did it again there was going to be hell to pay. Sure enough on our next load we were on the same plane, but were the second RW team out. The green light came on and the first team climbed out and exited. We immediately climbed out and exited too! Nope we never looked. We were almost two miles from the dz and 10 or so of us landed off. When I asked the dzo if he thought the pilot intentionally put us out early, he replied "I don't think so. His GPS is not working and he really wouldn't know exactly where your exit point should be. You guys need to spot yourselves when you're in his plane." Don't put all your trust in one man or single piece of equipment. Blue skies, Jim