gemini

Great point. Many dzo's have "marketing myopia". In other words because their gross margin is much greater on a single tandem over a single fun jumper, they will ignore their fun jumpers for the tandems. In reality, their fun jumpers generate their long term profits due to volume of jumps all year long while their tandems generate their quick short term profits over the peak season. A fun jumper doing 5 jumps in a day, paying a packer, eating at the dz, and partying at the dz generates as much or more gross revenue for the dz than most 2nd jump tandems since the tandem will usually only do the one jump, watch the video and then leave. Throw in tunnel time and 10 jumps a day and a dzo would be crazy to bump a fun jumper for a tandem! I wouldn't be surprised if most of the larger dz's gross revenues deviate much from 1/3 tandems, 1/3 fun jumpers, and 1/3 students and other (gear sales, etc.). If they were able to survive only on tandems there would be more tandem only dz's and they wouldn't go out of business so often. Basically by running fun jumpers off, the dzo is giving up at least a third of his gross revenue. How many business can survive that? Blue skies, Jim

No I'm all for cleaner technology, reduced emissions, etc. I just don't think all the screaming and squaking will amount to much. We may slow down the change, but the damn change is coming. CO2 levels are increasing, but the temperature data is far from conclusive. In a lot of geographic areas around the world, the temperature changes have been almost flat except in the major population centers. Why would the temperature be increasing in one area, but not another when the CO2 levels are uniformly higher around the world? Something doesn't fit scientifically. Blue skies, Jim

I'm so confused! I've been trying to find out who Them are for years. Them bastards been causing all kinds of trouble and always get away with it. Blue skies, Jim

No we don't like it either, but unfortunately for us you use gasoline and petroleum products and won't let us move the refineries to your town! ...and there's no wink after that statement either. Blue skies, Jim

Ummmhh...Bill it has already been 10,000 years since the last ice age. What if we are already witnessing the natural change coupled with the CO2 hydrocarbon induced changes by man coincidentally occuring within the same era? Maybe 100 years is all we have left regardless. Blue skies, Jim

Strange. I though to have a double standard you had to make a statement one day, and the opposite or contradicting statement later. If the same people aren't making both statements how is there a contradiction? You're not lumping all Republicans into the same bucket are you? Even the Democrats have different levels of conservatives, middle of the roaders, and liberals. Why wouldn't the Republicans be made up of a cross section of society even with a conservative majority in their party? Who are these people who are contradicting themselves specifically? Blue skies, Jim

What if... Now I know this may be a stretch for some, but what if we are seeing a normal planetary climate change. After all the last ice age was what? 10,000 years ago and according to some scientists we are overdue. Who's right? If the Gulf Steam has dramatically slowed as recently announced and Europe begins to have cooler winters is it because of something man has done or a normal cyclic process? Blue skies, Jim

Wow! I didn't know the people at the White House who called WP a WMD when Saddam used it were the same people at dz.com who now say it isn't a WMD. Damn are the skydivers too! Blue skies, Jim

Don't wear a T shirt and jeans unless it is a software company, be polite, remember your manners, speak clearly to the interviewer, make eye contact, and if the interviewer wants to talk let him/her. Ask questions related to the job or the subject the interviewer wants to talk about, but hold all benefits questions till the interviewer brings them up or the near the end of the interview during the wrap up. Blue skies, Jim

Usually bogus checks, money order and bank drafts that will not clear for several weeks. By then you have shipped the goods and can't get them back when your bank reverses your deposit. Blue skies, Jim

A man noticed he was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. Not wanting to let the crazed woman push him, he stopped at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by flooring it. The tailgating woman slammed on her brakes, then her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection with him. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell. After a couple of hours, the jailer approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. "I'm sorry for this mistake," he says. "You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping the guy off in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk." "Yeah, so?" she says. "Naturally," he concluded, "I assumed you had stolen the car." Blue skies, Jim

Good idea Bill! Blue skies, Jim

WP has a distinctive flowering pattern when it explodes unlike a smoke shell. The thing most of you are missing is that whenever you are caught under WP or airburst HE rounds you usually die. The difference is that WP will usually roust you out of your hiding place while steel makes you hunker down into your helmet. Raining down particles of WP or very hot pieces of steel is gona' kill you or hurt you badly in a similar fashion. What differentiates WP from a true chemical weapon is that after the initial burst and burn it is over while the chemical weapon may hang in the air or in low spots and continue to kill anything that wanders innocently into the area. In almost all cases WP is not used as a primary weapon. It is a marker that can be delivered by an airborne spotter, an air to ground attack aircraft, or artillery to mark the enemy target area so that the fast movers (jets and high altitude bombers) will have a very visable target. If the goal is to be accurate and minimize non-combatant injuries in a poorly defined target area, use of WP is sometimes called necessary. Most of you won't agree, but napalm is not considered a chemical weapon by the GC either. Or what about an airburst fuel bomb? Closest thing you can get to a nuclear blast without fisson or fusion. Blue skies, Jim

For glove liners you can also use non-latex surgical gloves. They block all wind to your hands and help keep the heat in plus they are thin enough not to change the "touch" of your gloves on the hackey and handles. Blue skies, Jim

Ummhhh....ADA is a federal law, but sales taxes are state laws. I seriously doubt if the feds have gone that far yet! Blue skies, Jim

HUD display in my helmet with a line of flight direction and dz gps/direction for days like yesterday! Blue skies, Jim

I thought that was covered here: Blue skies, Jim

You and Bill are correct. When you get out on the extremes, the general rule does not apply. But for people considering their first canopy purchase or if you are a conservative jumper, the general rule is main and reserve should be nearly the same sizes since you are trying to match the flying characteristics of the canopies. Bill is also correct that it is imperative to determine how each canopy will fly before making a canopy purchase decision. For example, an small, hot, aggressive canopy may fly better with a different sized F-111 reserve because of the specific flight characteristics of each canopy. Then there is Nicks problem of extremely small main and decent sized reserve. It may be a problem and the jumper needs to be aware of it so he can make the proper decision in time if necessary. I believe that if you mentally plan for a two out situation and a resulting downplane you have a better chance to react properly. What you want to avoid if you can, is mixing a faster flying canopy with a slower flying canopy. One will tend to try to fly ahead while the other will tend to drag behind. A downplane still may not occur, but the chances seem to increase as the flight characteristics diverge. And as we all know, you could even have the canopies perfectly matched and still go into a downplane. None of this stuff is really simple to state when you consider all the variables in canopies out there today. Hope this clarifies the rationale behind my "rule of thumb" statement. Blue skies, Jim

Dunno, but if you hand around a dz long enough and listen to the old guys you can pick up some amazing "lessons learned the hard way!" tidbits of info even from the crazy ones! Blue skies, Jim

Another consideration when ordering a main and reserve is "How will they fly together?" If you have a two out situation with two different canopy sizes, they may have a tendency to go to a downplane rather than fly side by side or front to back. Rule of thumb is main and reserve should be nearly the same sizes. That slightly smaller container you're after may not be worth the additional risk. Blue skies, Jim

There are a lot of Skyfester's looking really worried right now! Blue skies, Jim

Reminds me of a gym story.... My wife and I used to work out a Bally's. One evening after I had finished, I went down to the dressing room to get my wallet, keys and gym bag. It was cold out, so I decided to take off the sweaty shorts and put on the pull-over pants. There were a coupla' other guys who had just gotten out of the showers. One was sitting on the bench and the other was behind me drying himself. I am facing the dressing room door.... A young woman walks in and stands in the doorway. She looks at each of us slowly, one at a time then turns and walks out. I look at the guy on the bench and he is standing with his socks and shorts in his hand. I turn to the guy behind me and he is standing facing the door with the towel stretched out behind him as he was drying his back. They both looked at me and shrugged "oh well!" I was standing there with my wet shorts in one hand and my pull-overs in the other. We never said a word to each other and never saw the woman again in the gym. I never felt so much like a piece of meat! Blue skies, Jim

How about: Don't laugh at the guy who is more out of shape than you! You won't remember him, but he may remember you and kick your ass when he gets in better shape! Blue skies, Jim

There was no way the knot was going to clear where it was and how it was twisted around the toggle, but your point (and those similarly made by others) is valid and I worried about it prior to seeing how the knot was made. Blue skies, Jim

Ah the old hook knife! Unfortunately in the chain of events, I removed it from my chest strap because I carried the rig on board the aircraft when I left Houston. Of course, I failed to put it back on when I got to Eloy starting the whole chain of events. Blue skies, Jim