davelepka

Of course he did. You can bet that the salary of his average customer is well above 90k per year, which is why I threw that line into my post. The other factor is the cost of living. 90k in Chicago is one thing, 90k in Topeka, Kansas is another. I've heard that dog walkers in NYC make 70k per year, but that's barely enough to split a one bedroom apartment with a roomate in NYC.

But wait, there's more... The majority of minimum wage earners do not get tips. Tips in the US are generally reserved for a situation where you get personal service from an individual. People you tip on a regular basis - barber/hair stylist, bell hops at a hotel, delivery people for food or flowers (but not UPS or the mailman). The idea is that these people can improve your experience if they put out the extra effort, and the tip is for the extra effort. People you tip at Christmas - in the US some will tip people you work with on a daily (or almost) basis, but youdon't tip every time you see them. The mailman is a good example, the UPS guy if you use UPS alot and you get to know the guy, landscapers/snowplow guy, maybe your dry cleaner, newspaper delivery guy, or if you take lessons of any kind (or your kid does) the instructor. These are a cross between a tip and 'christmas bonus' but it's along the same lines. People you don't tip - fast food, most retail stores, doctors, lawyers, cops, etc. Many fast food places and every coffee shop has a 'tip jar' in the counter but it's really a 'please toss your change in the jar' and the money is split between all the employees. Finally, the waiter/waitress situation - the min wage is $7 or $8 an hour, but wait staff at a sit-down restaurant only get paid $2 or $3 an hour, the rest is made up of tips. You sort of have to tip at least 10% of the bill for the waiter/waitress to go home with about min. wage. The customary tip is considered to be 15%, and most people will go uip or down from there based on the service. If it's the basic level of service, the basic 15% tip applies. If you feel like the waiter was lazy and slow, maybe you leave 10%, or if they really did a great job and were clearly working hard, 20%, 25% or 30% is the way to go. At very cheap restaurants, sometimes the % is higher. If I stop for lunch and the bill is only $6.00, I'm not going to leave 15% (90 cents). The least I'll leave at any place is $3 or $4. At very expensive restaurants, 15% still stands as a starting point, and yes you could end up tipping a waiter $50, ut if you're going to a place where you could drop $300 on dinner, you can afford the tip. The basic idea is that tips are related to the service industry, and generally those recieving the tip don't make a very high wage. With tips included they end up making a living. Some make a better living than others, but it's always less than the people who are giving them the tips.

It sounds more like a PD 176R to me. Also, what size main does an M2 hold? If it can only fit a 143 reserve, I can't imagine that anything bigger than a 150 could fit in there. I wonder if this guy already bought the container?

It has something to do with the relation of Europe and Hawaii to the magnetic poles, they're in a tandem regulation vortex were rules and regulations cannot get it, but video and pictures can get out. There's a similar vortex in eastern Europe where any concept of conservative wingloading and planform selection cannot get it, but boxes and boxes full of Cobalt 120s can, and they hand them out to newbies like candy on Halloween.

I personally cannot. In over 5000+ jumps made on over a dozen PD canopies, I have never had one problem with any canopy, material or construction, so I've never needed to experience their customer service. I've always been pleased with my interactions when getting relines, but I would think that falls under the heading of just doing good business, and not the subject of praise. You, however, have access to the 'search' feature of DZ.com where you can see many first-hand examples of PD exceeding customers expectations, and Icarus failing to provide service of any kind. To get back to your original question, why so many Velos? See my comment above, about over a dozen PD canopies, and never one single problem of any kind? With that type of track record, why would I consider buying from anyone else? I live in a place where we only jump 7 or 8 months out of the year, and as such if I have to send a canopy in for repairs or becasue of a problem, I miss out on a part of what I consider to be a short season. My solution is to stick with the company that has a track record of producing products I can count on. I suspect that a JVX might be a faster canopy. I'm not sure how much faster, but faster. Either way, I'm willing to sacrifice the speed advantage of the JVX to get the reliability of the Velo. I know that some JVXs had a problem with the early version of the sail fabric they used. I don't know what it took to get that fixed, or what Icarus did for those customers effected, but it took more time, effort, and down time than what I put into my Velo, which was nothing. Jump after jump, year after year, PD canopies just work. It's hard to argue with that.

As a TI, you know you might have made a mistake in planning your tandem when you have to wave off five times before releasing your drouge. Either those guys got out at 4100ft, or that alti was reading in meters, in which case they're probably in Europe somewhere. Everyone knows that any sort of rules or regulations involving tandems don't apply in Europe or Hawaii.

You're crazy if you think that's true. First off, they've never made any moves to create a monopoly. They've never run another company out of business, and they've never bought another company to eliminate the competition. What they did was run their company the right way. The built quality products, offered superior customer service, and obviously watched their costs to keep the accountants happy. What about Icarus? They introduced the Z-po x braced canopy, the FX years ago. Then they had the VX and the Crossfire. All we're hugely popular, and they had a shot at a good slice of the market, but they blew it. Somebody bought this company or sold that compay, then there was 'Icarus here' and Icarus there', and the customers have been suffering ever since. I would be willing to be that if Icarus had opened a US office, where they build, sold and servied their products, they'd have a much bigger piece of the pie. What about Flight Concepts? They made the Manta, which used to be the gold standard for student canopies, and they had a line of successful Crew canopies, which was great, but where was their Sabre or Sabre2? What did they have to compete with the Stiletto or Spectre? The answer is nothing. Maybe if they had stayed with the times, and invested in R&D, they might be on par with PD today. PD just did everything right, and the market responded. Years ago a recent AFF grad was asking one of the instructors about buying his first rig, and mentioned some sort of Icarus or Persicion canopy he read about, and the instructor told him, "If PD don't make it, you don't need it". I agree 100%.

Well, it does take two to tango, so for every instructor being paid under the table, both foriegn and domestic, there's a DZO who's willing to oblige. Are you aware of the payment arrangements between the DZO of every DZ you've ever jumped at and every employee of that DZ? There may very well be staff who are skirting their fiscal responsibilities and a DZO who is complicit, and here you are spending your money at said DZ. If you lie down with dogs, what does that make you? I'm pretty sure that the IRS gives you a pass on any job you have where you make less than $600 per year, so at $30 per tandem you could do 20 tandems before you're subtracting anything from the coffers of the IRS. If you're going to rally against the outrage of tax cheats and immigrant labor, I hardly think that a kid from Europe who wants to get his TI rating and see the states for a month or two is the place to focus your attention.

After I wrote this - - it occured to me that it might be taken the wrong way. When it references a 'deserving' local staff member at a DZ, that is not to say that only local people are deserving, and that all foriegners are not. What it means is that any visting DZ employee, especially one who comes in mid-season, is not going to take work away from a local staff member who 'deserves' his slot on the rotation due to his dedication and reliability as an employee. A visiting instructor may indeed take work away from a local instructor who is an alcoholic dirtbag that the DZO uses only when he is 100% out of other options. In that case, the local doesn't 'deserve' his slot anyway, and you can't blame the visiting jumper for taking work away from them.

There's nothing wrong with what you said, but I don't think that this situation is representative of what you said. You're talking about an established, rated, TI coming from overseas to work for the season. These guys will call ahead, and have a slot reserved for them at a DZ where they will be a full-time staffer, and probably spend very little money. They will take work away from the locals who have 'day jobs' and only work weekends at the DZ. I'm not a fan of those guys either. The OP is talking about coming to the states to get a rating, which involves spending upwards of $1000 on just the course and the jumps. After that, he wanted to spend a couple of months trying to use the new rating. The differences are that he's comining into the work market mid-season. The only place he'll find work is a DZ is understaffed. The opportunity for US citizens to work at such a DZ was present at the beginning of the seaon when the OP was still in Europe with no rating. If they didn't take advatage of the opportunity at the beginning of the season, then the work is up for grabs. Beyond that, if he does find a mid-season slot, there's no way he'll be taking work away from the local staffers. We all know how it works, the full timers, and jumpers with seniority get the work when things are slow. There's no way that an out-of-towner, who shows up mid-season, with 12 paid tandems to his name is going to get work over a local staff member on a slow day. The guy is coming to the US to spend money. If he wants to look around and see if he can pick up some scraps at a DZ somewhere, so be it. He's not looking to secure a slot for a full season, and he's not offering to work for $15/jump. Maybe he'll get something, maybe he'll get nothing, but there's no way he's going to take work away from an established, deserving, local staff member.

No, I'll put it this way - if another skydiver from anywhere in the world works his way to being qualified to become a TI, and then wants to travel to the US to spend the time, money and effort to earn the rating, then I have no problem with them hanging out and hauling some meat for the rest of the summer. This is a small industry, and if they can find a DZ in need, then I'm in full support of them doing the work. We're talking about fellow skydivers who are looking to spend a couple of months in the states and make a few bucks. What will it amount to, $3000? If one of them orders a rig from UPT or Sunpath, the money comes right back. If you want to turn this into something else, and compare it to a much bigger problem that impacts the US economy, then knock yourself out.

I think the problem you'll have is finding work mid-season, and then only for a few months. Most of the seasonal DZ tend to look for staff who will be there for the whole season, say from April thru Oct. Once they have their satff in place for the season, those jumpers will get first dibs on all the work. There are DZ that don't hire (or can't find) enough staff, or who get much busier than they expected and will need additional help. You may be able to lock into a few months of work at a place like that. This is where a work visa will help out. If you're limited to looking at only those DZs that will pay you cash under the table, now you have to find a DZ that is both understaffed and will pay under the table. If have the work visa, you'll just have more choices. Another idea is to look for packing work. It's easier to find, and easier to find where they pay under the table. You'll be working on a DZ, making money to jump with, and if you're there with a tandem rating and somebody calls in sick, or they have a busy day, they can pull you out of the packing room and get you in the plane.

My guess would be he happened across the first one, and then went looking to see if that was just a bad example, or their standard operating procedure. As we all know, it proved to be the latter. To turn the spotlight around, I'd be interested in your thoughts on the content of the videos? Do you find this to be an issue that should be brought to light, or should the 'safety police' just let them off with a warning? I guess I don't fully understand the focus on the OP, and what he or his actions have to do with the subject matter at hand?

Check out the first pic in post 15 of this thread. That what I was talking about. When both jumpers are facing the camera head-on, the pics look pretty good. I think the pic he posted was just before he released for deployment, so the one guy is facing the wrong way. It's not an easy slot to fly, you have to get the exit right because if you funnel, you'll never get your grip on the flag back. Once you unfold the flag, you have to fly slot perfect, and not hang on the flag or let it move you around. The other two pics of the deployment are great examples of hwo to do it. Size the flag so that it can't really reach much further than your risers or just above, and hold it out to the side when you dump. Jump a forgiving canopy that opens clean with no input from you. Anything that likes to spin or get silly is out because there's nothing you can do about it with the flag in your hand. Really, don't attach anything to yourself in freefall.

That was a joke based on the 'twin' in the name, and the 'evil twin' motiff employed by soap operas. I know it's the DZ they say it is.

Whatever the math works out to, I just want to bring up the fact that tandem reserves are designed to open slow in case they need to be deployed at tandem terminal. As such, all tandem decision altitudes are significantly higher than for sport rigs. Another tidbit you may have missed, starting around 6:10 you can see two other canopies flying in close proximity in the background of the video. They're higher than the tandem featured in the video which means to me that it's another tandem who exited after the featured tandem pair. End result - there are more than one camera flyer / TI who engage in this type of behavior at this DZ. Now to be fair, this is Skydive Twin Cities, so there's a chance that these videos are all from the DZs evil twin brother DZ, who does this stuff to make the good DZ look bad. It happens all the time in soap operas.

Here's what you do, make your banner a rectangle/squarish shape, along the dimensions you were thinking already. At each lower corner, construct a nice handle, maybe with some Type 17 webbing and reinforce the attachment points, and the corner of the banner. Take two jumper, each on their belly, each holding a corner of the banner. Remind them to smile. At break off, the jumper holding the banner with his right hand releases his grip, and the jumper holding it with his left hand will hang on through his deployment. Actually, he'll try to hang on, but if things get wonky, he'll just release the banner. Maybe you find it, maybe you don't. I would avoid attaching things to your body for the purpose of freefalling. Cutaway system or no cutaway system, it just seems like a bad idea.

Don't be fooled. None of that takes anything more than basic canopy flying skills. The TIs are doing nothing but sitting there, and the camera guy is just docking on a stable base. It's the RW equivilant of docking on a coach laying a stable base. Might look cool to a bystander, but a skydiver knows that it's nothing special.

How 'bout the way the TI spirals the canopy while still facing backwards? That's a canopy collision waiting to happen.

Bonus points for NOT getting one frame of footage of what had to be a sweet wingover after the tandem left the Otter. With the sun low in the sky to boot, those would have been some nice pics. I also liked when he got his top mounted camera stuck in his slider down near the ground. The really scary part about all the hijinx is that you can tell that wasn't the first time they put on that show. That routine probably happens on a pretty regular basis, which means that at least two TIs, one camera guy, a DZO and an S&TA all seem to think it's ok.

It's not their 90s they need to perfect, it's putting a 90 through the gates. Every one of those guys may be able to 10 for 10 on a clean 90 out in the middle of LZ. When you start aiming for a specific spot to plane out, that's when it gets complicated. I'll even go as far as saying that putting a clean 90 through the gates might be tougher than doing it with a 450 (provided you can do both a 90 and a 450 without a gate). When I do a 450, I spend some time going into the wind, some time running with the wind, and in general spend a good amount of time in the turn. The point being that I can do some 'fine tuning' during my turn to make up for any mistakes in the set up. I can run one leg a little longer or shorter, or I can adjust the dive to fly further into or away from the corner. I have options. With a 90, you don't really have those options. The overall turn is so much shorter that you're very limited in the adjustments you can make so the set up becomes more critical. Blow the set up, and you're going to lose alot from the turn trying to fly to the gates. I'd be willing to bet that if they hold another comp, the locals will run away with it. If all they can do are 90s anyway, they can practice on every jump they make. I guess I could practice 90s too, but I'm allowed to do whatever I want where I jump, and it's not 90s.

I think one of the problems with a comp where you can only do 90s is that jumpers who have only progressed to 90s typically wouldn't have much experience in 'hitting the gates'. Trying to swoop to a specific target, such as a set of gates or the edge of a pond is a skill all by itself, and one that needs to be developed over time. Without putting in the that time, you get a lot of low turns because the tendency is to set up too far away, and once you make it to a reasonable initiation point, you're too low for the turn. 'Target fixation' can take over, and fly you right to the target without watching your altitude. I don't think that non-swoopers understand the differences between 'beer line' swooping and competition swooping. The higher degree of accuracy needed for competition swooping makes it a seperate discipline.

Registration seems a little steep. Any idea what's included in the $600?

Looked like a fun comp. Too much stabbing out of low turns and rear riser stalls for me though.

I vote for Z-hills. Last time I was there they had trailers you could rent real cheap and stay on the DZ for a few days and just jump. I would hold off on the tunnel time. Unless you want to just for the fun of it, but otherwise see how the jumps go. If you have trouble, you can always make a trip to the tunnel. They do alot of tunnel training in the evenings, and sometimes you can find a group or coach to drive out there with. Also, I wouls suggest holding off on a rig until you get back for a longer period of time. There's a lot of good used gear out there, but it may take you a coulpe weeks of searching to put something nice together. You can start looking online before you get back, and pull the trigger on it when you're back in the states. Besides, the rig will just sit while you're back in Iraq anyway. Above all, contact Z-Hills and explain your situation with your jump history and what you want to accomplish while on leave. The guy who runs the show at Z-hills posts on here as 'tkhayes', and you can send him a PM, and see what he thinks.