stratostar

Good I told to do the same thing and that's a real good deal. (place to stay close by) Keep on him. Duck tape.... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

How about free!, I have yet to go to a DZ anywhere in the USA that I couldn't find the needed tools,hardware,lumber or other solid support laying around to build one with in a few minutes time,1 hour max. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Dude, SHUT UP already! So when you ya going to start working on your rigging ticket so things don't get bent anymore? you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Cool I will have to get one for riley and see if she don't spaz out, you know how 2yr old lab's are. PsychoBob and the rest of you posters who have lost your best friend of many years in recent times, I'm truly sorry to hear of your loss and totally understand what that is like, having just gone through the same thing just after adding riley to our family, I had to put down my best friend of 15 years as well, had it not been for my new little friend it would have been much harder to deal with the loss of a great dog who went EVERY WHERE with me for 15 years. It sucks we only get their company for a short time. Best wishes to all of you. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Yea the guy never shuts up, just bla, bla, bla all day long. Anyway I can't fault for doing as your DZO has stated is his rules, or you could be out of a job by not following them. That is the same I was saying (that I got scolded for) our DZ policy is you pack you do the whole job or you do nothing at all. P.S. glad to hear skinny has been taken under wing, he is a good kid even if he won't shut up. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Me personally I wouldn't get "attitudy" unless it was recived first. The packers we have (I'm one of them) I don't use them, I'll do it myself because I want it done right, that aside I can't make money if there is no TDM or student rigs packed and they have priority over anything else. (bread and butter of DZ) If you know Skinny all you have to do is ask him if what I say is true, even if he is a lier. I see many people who think their not replace able, packers are a dime a dozen and there will always be a young jumper like Skinny who comes along and is more then happy to work their ass off packing and will do the whole job and do it right to earn jumps and extra cash, Kyle is a classic example of what I'm talking about, he is two years into his skydiving now instead of two more years of dreaming about it and he earned everything he has by working his ass off for it, because someone said "hey kid, you really want jump but have no cash flow, I'll hook you up" and now were stuck with him, wait, I mean you guys are now stuck with him, sorry about your luck...... P.S. not once did I hear Kyle cry about having to set brakes, unstow sliders and cock PC's he always did a good job and with a smile and desire to learn. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Nice, I need to get a back pack for riley, how did you dogs handle it the first time you put on the pack? you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

What deal a team makes with their hired packer is their deal. Most teams have packers who pack only for them. I talking about hired guns who pack everything on the dz. Packers for the most part only wear the one hat. When people like myself wear a dozen hats at a time in any given hour of the day from, answering phones, video jumps, editing, stills, radio controled skydivers, teaching AFF,S/L,TDM, packing, rigging, taking out the trash, fueling planes, shagging students, AFF jumps, dropping S/L's, debrefing and filling out paper work, S&TA duties, processing incoming students, and supervising packers under my ticket, if I drop my rig or I should say lay it out stright, I don't want to hear some packer crying about taking 2 minutes to do a part of a job their getting paid to do when I have way more shit on my plate to keep the DZ running then they do and thus bringing in more packing dollars to the packers. Seeing how 75% or more of packers don't have a rigging ticket and have to work under the supervision of a rigger, this rigger says, if you want to pack here for money, then you do the whole job or you can go find some place else to put up with your shit, if I can do all the jobs I do on the dz and still find time to pack every one of my rigs and make back to back loads, then they can find the time to what there getting paid to do or hit the fucking road and don''t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out! you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Gators in the swoop pond..... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I wonder where you learned to provide such good customer service. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

And that is why I don't hire packers. I guess I need to start making my rigging clients inspect their own reserve canopy and set the brakes too and still charge them the full amount. I have yet to see tandem masters setting breaks as well, it's the packers job and they get paid to do so. If packers don't want to do the compleat job then they shouldn't hold them selfs out as packers for pay! you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Nope, if I'm paying to take chance with a packer, that is part of the pack job I'm paying for, so earn your money and do the whole job or don't it at all! you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Yea right, if you only knew how many EXP. jumpers get tripped up during a ratings course on the friken gear check when all kinds of easy stuff is messed up and it should be found by them, and they don't find it. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Yep and had this girl not been looking down but doing a BR, she wouldn't have made it, but she did make it, close as it maybe, because she was able to turn away when someone dumped under us with no wave off. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

That's a good question, Truman. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Hook, Please don't take my post as a "your wrong". I also saw the second paragraph and had to triple take it, but then went back over the whole thing. So my take on "their words" was as I posted. So as we all can see, I read it one way and you read it another, interesting, the whole issue is FUBAR! Back to regular programing...... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Interesting your take on the email, my take on the above was as long as it was noted and signed off by a master rigger (who removed it of course) that is ok for a SR to repack it. I guess it all in how you read it. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

True. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Good time to get your own ticket, then. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

***What we later learned was a little disturbing.The pilot told us that he went into shock and froze for the first 5 seconds. All he could think of was that we were all going to die.*** So you find that only a "little disturbing".? I would find that a lot disturbing! Sounds like a rookie if you ask me. I would advise anytime you go to a new place if you don't know the pilots go get to know them before you ride with them, it might just save your ass one day. (sure there are lot of good jump pilots around, when you go to Z-hills lets say, it is good bet their pilots are not rookies, but you never know, so go talk to them and interduce yourself and find out a little about who your flying with, a good seasoned pilot won't mind you asking) you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I don't see myself ordering another-now. I also don't see myself reinstalling my RSL till I sell my J-1. The way I see it I would have been jumping with another snag hazzard for the last ten years, yea I could hand tact the snap some place, but that sure is more of a pain in the ass then just peeling some velcro. I plan to send an email this week to Pat Tomas stating my view and how they have just lost a long time customer over something stupid! Not that they really care I won't buy their product anymore. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

It's nice and all but not a nice as Walt's office. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Can't speek of the D-80 or other Nikons, but I don't think you would see much difference between two 8x10's taken with each model, with your naked eye. As for lens, yes the 18-55 kit lens will work, you will have to fly for it, but I would think you would be happier with a wide angle lens doing those jumps. I like both the sigma 15 mm and the 20mm fixed, but thats me. I think you won't really know what you like best till you do some dives and try out the lenses, it might be best to see if anyone has a wide you could jump a few, but that would depend on what camera you get. You will find more cannons in the field and lenses that mate up to cannon then nikons. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

My favorit spot was, Johnny Stewart opened the door and looked and looked and looked for a hole, then looked back inside and said " I saw a cow, 5 right and cut!" Yes indeed it was the cows next door. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo