stratostar

No your mistaken, it was and has NEVER been that way for years, we camera flyers were able to sell our stills for the market rate on top of the video, and the DZ DIDN'T GET SQUAT BUT FREE ADVERTISMENT. It wasn't till just in the last few years that once everyone started strapping on cameras and calling themselfs "photographers" that only the retards in the sports let mangers and DZO's shit on their dinner plate and the fools dug in spoon full after spoon full, to the point now, where people like you think it's S.O.P. to get 40 bucks for both. The standared rate of pay industry wide has been 35 for video alone. Stills ranged from 15 to 20 an 8x10 depending on who took it, and a disk of digital stills in high res 35 to 60 usd, depending on where in the country your are. Funny thing is the cost to get in or stay in the game keeps going up and the rate of pay keep going down, and you can find a ton of fools wiling to pimp out their ass and take it without so much as a reach around or a peck on the cheek, and they get on here and tell you how much money they made by taking such a huge pay cut and how good they have it today because of great mangers and DZO's. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Don't be picking on the xTrEmElY old guy, maybe his eye sight is going..... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Well that's you, don't apply your skill set and abilitys to everyone else. That's why it's called training, and jumpers regardless of age should be trained in on going manner and for each jump while on student jumps. Skydiving is not for everyone and it should be based on their performance in the FJC and not on their age, 16 is as low of an age as I personally feel should be allowed IMO, however had my dad let one DZO who wanted to let me jump @14, I would have done so in a second. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

If you were to spend some time trucking you might see it in a different point of view. When I ran the left lane, you wouldn't have been able to pass on the right, unless your doing close to or above triple digits, it's called a "large car". One thing that a lot of stupid people who operate 4 wheelers don't seem to understand about 85% of the trucks on the road today is..... The big name companies all use fuel flow controls, this will limit the top end speed for the tractors, some as low as 62, 65 MPH, Schnider use to have theirs set to 58. With qualcomm installed, dispatch can set the fuel flow for the state the tractor is running in by remote, they can turn it up or down, so you find yourself stuck behind J.B. Hunt trying to pass SWIFT (sure wish I had a fast truck) and those two guys seem to be in a slow race to get to nowhere. They trade off back and forth a little incline, not much needed and 80K loaded will take a few miles to get around and complete the pass. Maybe you could go spend a month or so out trucking and you have a little more respect for what it takes to keep the rubber on the road while dealing with morons behind the wheel of 4 wheelers who pass on the right or shoulder, then you have the death wish retards who get pissed off, pass and get in front and then slam on the brakes in front of that 18 wheeler. I've seen all in 20 plus years of trucking. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I always loved the runway that crossed the county road, even had airplane crossing signs too. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

The only vintage images I have are in the air & an old Topeka newspaper story from 1976 and I don't think it would scan well and I would have to find it. I know people who might have some old images on the ground, but that would be like hearding cats to get copies. You'd be surprised to find that a lot of the members these days don't even know about the years spent there and they act dumb founded or like they don't believe ya if you talk about it. But I was there and lived it and trained many a K-state jumper there, I used to have a lifetime membership card, but it was lost in CA, when my wallet was taken, now days they don't have them. That's ok, Rock Chalk Jayhawks! Yep, Topeka, for a few days seeing some old friends before returning to the road. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Really, I'm not dead yet, 16 is a fine age for young people to start jumping and we been doing it for years in the sport, known a lot 14 year olds too who went on to be high time jumpers, they all did canopy flight just fine. FYI-You can solo a glider @ 14 too! you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

You know how these days you hear people bitchen about DZ's and their lack of swimming pools, bars, AC packing areas, and all kinds of other crybaby shit. Well here are a few photos of Mesa Dirty DZ (Topeka Skydivers & KSUSPC) for the new kids to get an idea of what a lot of Cessna DZ's all across the US were like back in the day 60's & 70's, nothing fancy, just some rigs and a 172 or 182 (if your lucky) and grass strip. #1. The view from the where the peas were located. #2.The packing area view, (over grown now) some one once tried to correct me talking about a "flower pack" and thought I couldn't spell "flour", No I ment flowers, dirt clods, dust, rocks and some pea gravel for shits and grins, that other stuff always found it's way in when grass/dirt packing. #3.The classroom, well, ok, it was the class room after you pushed out the 182. This also was the clubhouse, shade tent, manifest, rigging loft, bar, cafe and gear room. #4. The hanging harness was hung in this location, at that time there was not any metal in place. 5. The old gear locker is still there much to my surprise and so bad not even the racoons want to live there. #6. That is the place you would go if you had to take a dump or a wiz, if your lucky you might have some TP to wipe with or napkins left over from the lunch run, however with crop dusters on the strip you always steal the "auto flager" maker tissue or WDI tissue, but it leaves yellow streaks on your ass. Hey it was a long drive to town to take a shit. Anyway the next time you hear people bitchen about how bad some place are today, well then they haven't really see a bare bones DZ. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Hillary Clinton......So cold everytime she opens her mouth and little light bulb comes on. Bill Clinton-98 you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

From the get go, if you are teaching the FJC, you can slip it in with the "about us/you" part. Very much like Tom B. posted. "Your going to be learning a lot today in this class and it's my job to convay all the infomation to you that you need to know to deal with any EP that MIGHT come up, be sure to feel free to ask any questions you might have, the only stupid question is the one you don't ask. We've made a lot of changes over the years to help make the sport safer and here are a few things you need to know about and understand how they work...... (show AAD & RSL) ETC. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Tell the truth and point out what the jumper may have done to cause it, such as fail to take the right actions at the right time, and instill in them this is why you just sat through a 6 to 8 hour ground school and hanging harness to learn how and when to act. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

The only guy I've ever known to be banned from a whole town. (up north) (but really it wasn't ALL his fault.....) you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I'm an extremely extreme skydiver, all my lift tickets stay rolled up, I pull low on every jump, one foot lower then Carbone, I jump gear way older then 20 years old (1964) while drinking all day, I wear my left shoe on my right foot and set my altimeter for an extra 1000 feet high for longer free fall time, I still have a frap wrap on my reserve, I use bent pins, I do 180 hook turns @ 75ft. @ shoot my landings downwind so my dobbie don't go out, I jump with my cypres batteries in backwards & upside down, I haven't repacked my reserve in 5 years and store it in my trunk year round for the last 25 years, you young pups wouldn't know extreme if it bitch slapped you in the face with a Mt. Dew 12 pack. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

They get sued for S.H., just ask one former owner of the Carolina institute of skydiving. That BS is so early to mid 90's and any TI or DZO that still dose that crap needs a swift kick in the ass, or sued, call your lawyer, you'll win easy if you have video & stills. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

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

Um, complete with a kiss pass too, I see. Or is that blow'n smoke? you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Don't forget to flex the butt cheeks tight, too much butt cheek flap will slow you down & make a bad airflow behind you. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Don't forget the Kaw Valley Skydivers, to the best of my memory, were jumping in and around KC-Topeka in the late 60's. This club later became the Topeka Skydivers and was located north of Topeka @ mesa verda airport, or mesa dirty as us locals called it. This dz was host or home to KUSPC for many years 1976 to 1982 or 83 when Rick Estrin sold out the Topeka Skydivers gear to KSUSPC and they moved to the current location. (Topeka Skydivers operated under a number of names from 1970 to 1983) you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Yes your confused, the people I'm bagging on, not the people I praise. Sorry, love to stay and chat more, but I got to go drive 700 miles to fun jump. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

There's always pimp'n..... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

The people I'm talking about you won't find @ PVA. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Yes I have and done a number of fun jumps with them while in Perris, and when @ The Farm I get on Stone loads or Andy ways. There aways good fun jumps. To get on good fun jumps I travel to places where you don't have to deal with any "bowling league style" wannabee's who all think their the next airspeed in training who show up and prance around expecting a whole dz to kiss their ass and worship the ground they walk on with all their special needs, like opening the dz early, passes @ 10K, debreif rooms at a dz that don't have that shit, setting up league meets at 182 dz's without informing them till the last minute and then, when two dzo's move around and do a bunch of shit to provide a turbine AC the 3 or 4 team decide the door on a beech 99 isn't good enough for them to run the meet, and they all pack up their shit and leave without regard for any of the bullshit people went through to get them a plane, let alone the other jumpers who showed up to jump a turbine and got watch the plane leave because the min. just walked out the door for a tail gate. It's fucking jumping out of a plane, society as a whole could care less how many points you can turn, you make no major contributions to society, like a cure for cancer or AIDS. If asked to drop a student @ 3.5 k to help the dz out you reply " I have to concentrate" and then get pissed when someone dose a woohoo on take take off and spend the whole ride taking invisable grips and giving the evil eye to those who are having fun and bitch about the camera men who are in back filming tandems. Got news for you, no one gives a fuck about your special needs other then those DZO's who kiss your ass and stroke your ego. It's people like this who are a major turn off to lowtimers and staff who have to deal with your "little league" meet for the day while you strut around acting like your hot shit, when in fact most will never medal at nationals or ever be the next airspeed. Many of those I speak of could learn a lot from the Anthony Stones or Mark Browns, Darryld Light, Bob F. Bob Strum, Larry Henderson, Scotty Carbone, Popsjumpers of the skydiving world. This one reason you see so many students get an A and want to hang with the free flyers and not want to do RW at a lot of dz's. People work real jobs and put up with uptight anal retentive pricks all week long and they go to the dz to HAVE FUN and make a few good jumps, swap a few lies over beers blow off all the bullshit of the real world, not bring it with them to the dz or deal with those types while there. Yes there are still those places where fun jumping can be found and no one will cry about a wrong grip or someone going low or flying the wrong slot, but there getting harder to find in places with friendly faces. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Fun jumping belly flying is dead, if you want to belly fly you have to be into being one of those team weenies, you just can't show up on a nice weekend day anymore and get on a FUN 6-8-10-12-150-20 way, unless you jump at one of the big maga centers and even then you'll be hard pressed to get on a load. Just look at this fourm & thread, 99% nothing but team bullshit. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I hear the donkey show down in TJ is worth the drive..... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Can give him the good stuff yet, he spits up too much..... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo