davelepka

Unless that person had taken the time to type the answers up, and load them into a searchable database, then you're not making a fair comparison.

I'd rather have him pencil pack it, than slip through the system and get on a plane with an 'illegal' rig. As long as the paperwork appears to be in order, those responsible for checking such things are covered in case of an incident. Being safe and being legal are two different things. A shit, rushed pack job is legal if a rigger signs and seals it. A perfect factory-spec pack job without a seal is safe, but not legal in the eyes of the FAA.

I'm surprised that your battery died in less than two years. Years ago I jumped a Cypres until it wouldn't turn on anymore, and it lasted for over three years. For your sake, I would hope that your rigger knows everything about your rig, especially what's in it. Any chnages made to the rig should be noted on the data card, or in the case of a used new-to-you rig, you should have started a new card with your name and info, and the correct SNs and DOMs of the reserve and Cypres. Like I said, I don't know about the regs, but look for a rigger who's a stickler for details. This situation with your Cypres should have been recognized, and dealt with during your last repack, no excuses.

I though it was 12.25 years (12 years + 3 mos.). If that's the case you may have already jumped it expired. Why wouldn't you turn it on? How lame would it be to go in with it switched off. It's happened before. I'mnot sure about the answer to your question, but I can't see how a rigger could legally pack a Cypres that will expire before the pack job does. Maybe they could note the expiration on the card, or maybe they could back date the pack job so it expires when the Cypres does. Either way, you wouldn't have a legal pack job and expired Cypres at the same time. This is where pencil packing comes in handy. As long as you do it on your own, the rigger is safe as there won't be an entry into his/her logbook to coincide with the signature. As for the pilot, I'm know the FAA expects him/her to check that rigs are in date. I don't think they expect pilots to A) know the life cycle and legalities of jumping an AAD, or B) to check the AAD DOM on the card and use that info to calculate the age of the AAD. If the FAA has no such expectation, than the pilot would also be covered as long as your data card indicated the rig was in date.

I got news for you, the 'yawn' isn't going to help your cause any. Ever think for just a minute that the people who responded to your post have already answered your exact question, most likely multiple times? Maybe instead of taking their time to answer the same questions all over agin, you could do some 'work' and use the search and find the answers yourself (they're in there)? Keep in mind that most of these guys came up before DZ.com, or even the internet. They had to do the real 'work' to learn this stuff, and if you roll in here with an attitude of entitlement, don't be surprised to find some resistance.

That's the point when both DZs realize that they are being hustled, and hopefully see that if they both dropped Skyride, they would be back on even ground, with just each other to deal with.

Please explain to me what Skyride does to increase business volume. Passive adversting like websites does not create new busniess. It still requires the customer to seek out the business, meaning that the customer had already made the decision to jump, and is now simply seeking a location. What system does Skyride have in place to promote skydiving to new customers? How is Skyride convincing people who previously would not consider jumping that skydiving is something they should try? Furthermore, I can see how in a simple example, Skyride can be a benefit to one DZ over another. I outlined that in the post just above this one. What I cannot see it how it continues to be a benefit if all DZs accepted the certs. The advantage is neutralized, and at that point, all DZ might as well NOT accpet the certs, and save themselves the expense of dealing with Skyride (both financial and the cust. service liability you incur by working with them).

DZOs accept Skyride certs becasue they want to make money. The thought is that they will gain additional customers from their affiliation with Skyride, and this is why they are willing to accept a discoutned rate from Skyride for the jumps they sell. The increased business is supposed to offest the discounts. If you can show them that they will not be gaining any additional business, the discoutned rates become a straight loss. Nobody likes to loose. As for your 'B', there is a fixed amount of business in any geopraphic area. Seeing as Skyride doesn't advertise in any way that existing DZs already do, they are not bringing any new business into the sport. Lets say you have 100 potential tandems in an area. Before Skyride, those tandems would seek out a local DZ, and made their jump. Maybe it was 50-50 between two DZs, we'll call them A and B. Now Skyride comes, and snipes 30 of those customers via fake websites, and high placement on search engine lists. They direct the 30 jumpers to DZ 'A', where the certs are accepted. The remaining 70 tandems will still be split 50-50, but at the end of the year, DZ 'A' has done 65 tandems, and DZ 'B' only got 35. If DZ 'B' was to start dealing with Skyride, Skyride would still only have 30 tandems available in the area, but now they would be split between between A and B, with the end result being back to both DZs doing 50 tandems per year, only now, they are being paid less for the 15 that come from Skyride. There is no advantage to either DZ. Overall, if you think there's enough business out there, you haven't been paying attention. Skydiving business is down across the board, and the last thing we need now is a parasite trying to 'install' themselves into the transaction between DZs and their local customers.

The trouble is that it only takes one DZO to ruin it for all the DZ in a geographic area. If one guy will accept Skyride, the others are forced to do likewise, or lose out on all that business. The trick is getting all the DZOs in an area to stop accepting Skyride certs. Take the market back to legitimate competition between local DZs. At this point, each DZ needs to make a point of mentioning on their home page that they, nor any other DZ within 'xxx' miles accepts certs from a booking service. This will help to prevent the Skyride scam where they take your money first, then tell you to drive 200 miles, past other DZs, to make a jump. An interesting idea would be for DZs not accepting Skyride to offer an ultimatium to DZs who do. Either stop accepting Skyride certs, or we will start accepting them. At first it sounds counterproductive, but the idea behind Skyride is that a DZO will save on advertising by letting Skyride do it for them, and in exchange, they accept a few dollars less from Skyride for the jumps. If EVERY DZ in an area accepts Skyride, then the 'advantage' of letting Skyride advertising for you goes away, as now your competition has the same 'advantage'. The net benefit becomes zero. Now you have a group of DZs who are just giving money away to Skyride for no reason. At this point, if everyone would agree to give up the 'advatage' of Skyride, the DZ remain on level ground with each other, with everyone collecting more money for the jumps they sell. Seeing as it's plainly obvious that Skyride doesn't bring new busines into the sport (they simply snipe the existing incoming business), there is no loss in the bottom line number of tandems made in a certain geographic area.

Al Gore would shit his eco-pants if he knew the gross mis-use of we make of his beloved non-human child, the internet.

What, you think Mexicans can't afford more than one time zone?? Get off your high horse Mr. Big Shot, the world is a little bigger than Mike, Mike, and more Mike.

So you've got at least 500 jumps, 100's on Cobalts, and 150 on a 120, and you love the 105 at under 1.5 to 1. Maybe just jump the 105 and be happy. Fuck the 120, it's not for you. Maybe the line trim is off, maybe the brake settings are off, maybe the canopy hates you and is plotting against you. Who cares? You've demonstated that you can safely jump the 105, mentioned some personal limits you have that indicate you're conservative under canopy, and mentioned that you've consulted a top rated canopy coach who's seen you fly your canopy. It all adds up to you just enjoying the 105. I would suggest putting your husbands canopy in your rig, and telling him the good news that he gets to order himself a new canopy. For you, that means instant 105, no waiting.

If this is in regards to your DZO not letting film a tandem for free, that's your problem, and not something I think most of us have to deal with. If it's about the DZO getting a cut of the video money, I think you're missing a few numbers when you do your 'maths'. Who pays for the advertising that brings the tandems and students to the DZ? Who pays the office worker that collects the money from the studetns? If your DZ accepts credit cards, who pays the fees related to that? Do your DZ accpet checks? Do you get paid before those checks clear? What if a check bounces? Does the DZO take your pay back from you, or does he handle the loss on his own? Who pays the electric bill for the power you use to charge your batteries, and run your TV/computer/editing equipment? There's a lot of shit that comes with running a business. Be happy that DZOs are willing to take that shit., and just let you do your job and collect a check.

If this is your job, how about having a contract? How about taking action if the DZO breaks the contract? It's your responsibility to work out an employment agreement that your happy with. If you cannot come to such as agreement with a certain DZO, you need to move on and find a DZO who meets your requirements as an employer. I ended up getting a raise at my DZ last year. My pay remained the same, but the video consession took on some materials costs that I previously covered myself, so I saved myself that money. Maybe just find another place to work.

Are these friends clean? Do you have any dirty friends? I like it dirty. Real dirty.

200 jumps - don't forget that you're skydiving first, shooting video second. With that in mind, watch a few videos from the video staff, and figure out who has the best footage. Get that guy on your side. Pack for him, pay him or blackmail him, whatever, but get him on your team. Have that guy review every video you shoot and tell you what you did wrong. Ask him not to sugarcoat it. You're not looking for encourgement, you're looking for a technical analysis of your work. If you need a cheerleader, you might be in the wrong place. If you can't motivate yourself personally to achieve and overcome, than this is not for you. A related point, the only thing that will get you producing the killer footage you want is your own perseverence and skill. Don't turn into a gear fag. No amount of 'stuff' on your head will help you if you suck at camera flying. Spend your time and money on jumps, not the latest and greatest cameras or helmets. There are maybe 100 guys out who can out fly a basic camera helemt, and will porduce better footage with better hardware. You're not one of those guys, and won't be for a loooong time. 50 jumps - forget about camera flying. Just skydive now, and worry about what you'll be doing 150 jumps later after you make 150 jumps. Enjoy yourself, and see where the next 150 jumps takes you. You may actually be a shit-hot 4-way guy, or a CREW dog. This is when you find out about that stuff. Focusing on something that you think you might like to try in a year or so is a waste of today.

This was the thinking the first time they dumbed down the AFF cert course. Not enough people were passing, and in turn not enough were even attending, leaving a shortage (or the possibility of a shortage). I guess tunnel time should be coutned, they don't seem to consider your flying ability anyway, or your attitude, or your judgement..... Just to be clear, not all instructors certified under the new course are inept and under qualified. Just about 75% of them are, the 75% that would have failed the old course.

Can we take your response to the query as an ackowledgement that customers are pissed off and being screwed by Skyride?

What in fact are they doing that is so helpful? They're not advertising any differently than a regular DZ would. If they were, then yes, they might be bringing new business into the market. It seems that all they do is create fake websites, and optimize their results from search engines. The people who end up with Skyride are already looking for a DZ online. If Skyride wasn't cock-blocking the real DZ websites, these people would simply find the website for a legitimate DZ in their area. They would then receive better service, and get their jump for a lower price. This is where Skyride is a scam. They don't bring anything to the table, they just take things away from the table. If they were running some national TV spots with a cute dog or a garden gnome, then yes, they would be doing something helpful, but that is not the case. How do we now or in the future benefit from this?

Buy a used one. They're cheaper and easier to pack.

Here's a few other thoughts - Where I jump, when we book a tandem, if the weather is going to be bad, we'll call them and advise them of this. Can you do this for your 'customers'? Lets say the weather looks like it will break, adn we expect to start flying, we'll call them back, and advise them of this. Can you do this for your 'customers'? Also, one thing to keep in mind as you try to justify your business practices - Skydiving is not an emerging market. There is no breakthrough that will suddenly cause the market to grow tenfold. We're dealing with a limited number of potential customers, and therefore a limited number of dollars to be made. Long before Skyride it was no secret that running a DZ is not a big money maker. Especially when you consider the cost of AC, and gear, and the number of hours needed to run the place. Where is it that you think Skyride fits into that? You guys are using business practices that you may be able to apply to an emerging market, a situaiton where the customer demand is pushing the limits of the supply. Even then, you're on thin ethical ice with the way you operate. Like I said, this isn't that market. Skydiving is a cottage industry which doesn't have room for the antics you guys are trying to pull. How long do you personally expect to keep jumping? Longer than Skyride is in existance? Do you really want to openly associate yourself with them? Don't be surprised to find youself less then 'welcome' at soem DZ in the years to come. Skyride won't be around forever, but the memories will go on and on.

Look dude, call it what you will, but if you ran an honest business, you would have four websites. One each for your actual dropzones, and one that is CLEARLY and OPENLY a booking service, that includes a page of all DZs that participate in your program, with their actual locations. Someone mentioned Expedia, fine let's use that example. You go to Expedia, and they tell you straight up what hotel they can book you into. They tell you where it is, and everything about THE ACTUAL HOTEL you'll be staying in. Expedia buys their rooms in bulk, and can offer a rate that is less than the hotel will offer you if you call them directly. That's where they make their money. Adverstise the piss out of it, make it easy for the consumer, and save the consumer money. What you do is different. You have to trick the customer into buying a jump at DZ that you just make up for the sake of getting the sale. True, you may have a DZ in the area you can route them to, but you do not reveal this until AFTER you have their money. The reason being is that you charge more than the DZ would charge on their own. For this reason, you cannot reveal the actual service provider for fear the customer will deal directly with them. If you follwed the traditional bookign service business model, you would be buying your tandems in bulk from the DZ, and reselling them for the same rate (or maybe less) than the DZ. No amount of semantics or side-stepping will change what you do. If it was above baord, then you wouldn't have lawsuits against you. I run a business, and I have competitors. We go after the same customers, and sometimes I get them, sometimes not. Sometimes I even manage to take a customer away from my competition. Whatever happens, it's all ETHICAL and ABOVE BOARD and for that reason, nobody is sueing me. The long and the short of it, if you want some of the skydiving dollars in a certain goegraphic area, OPEN A DZ AND DO THE WORK. Otherwise, leave that area to people who are willing to do so.

How about the one you have, you fly, you love? *** Thats a great point. I flew a Stiletto 107 for 3000+ jumps (I went through two of them), and I loved it. I had no complaints of any kind. Then I flew a Velo. Then I sold my Stiletto. Before I flew the Velo, I would have said the Stiletto was hands down the best canopy ever made. It would have been invalid though, as I had not jumped every canopy ever made. Sure enough, once I jumped a Velo, I realized that the Stiletto was slow, and couldn't dive very well. Like I said, the whole premis of this post is flawed, so a worthwhile discussion addressing the topic is not likely. In case you didn't notice, the Velo gets my vote for what goes in my container. If it had to be a nine-cell, I'd go with the Katana, but I haven't jumped many of the HP nine cells out there, so thats not an informed choice.

They're operating in a grey area of the market, the internet. Just because federal law makers haven't caught up to the scammers in regards to internet business, doesn't make it right. Look at the classifieds here on DZ.com, or think about e-bay. They both have a system in place to deal with, and expose fraud. The reason they have to handle it themsemlves is because the lawmakers can't keep up. The scams change everyday, they're interstate or international, and the sheer numbers all add up to an area where crooks can operate freely. What Skyride does is not a case 'good business' that it's competitors are jealous of. What they do can hardly be considered 'business'. It's actually closer to organized crime if you think about it. They come in, use deceptive advertising practices to lure your customers into their fold, then hold those customers hostage and force the DZ to cut Skyride into the profits those customers will generate, or they will send them elsewhere. I could see if Skyrie actually owned a DZ, and was willing to do the work themselves, then it would just be their superior advertising that earned them a customer, that would be good business. But the fact is that they don't have a DZ (in 99% of the cases). They sell a product they cannot deliver on, and then bend the actual service providers over a barrel in the aftermath. DZs are forced to either accept the certificates, or watch customers in their area drive past their DZ to a location that will accept them. It really is some straight up gangster shit. I could see if this was a huge market, like cell phone service, or garbage pick-up, services than almost everyone needs creating an endless pool of customers. But that's not the case, DZs have a limited number of customers to pull from, and they need each and every one of them to remain solvent. Ever heard of Skydive Chicago? Crosskeys? Mayeb Perris Valley? Sure you have, those are huge DZs. The secret to their success? Easy - Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles. They have the population to draw from to grow into the mega-DZs they are today. Ever heard Skydive South Iowa? Or how about East Nebraska Parachuting? Me neither, actually I just made them up, but I know there are DZs just like that all over the place. The real problem is that Skyride poaches customers just as hard in those places as they do in the big cities. It's all web based so it's cheap and easy create a website that covers EVERY geographic area possible. How many tandems do think that Skdive South Iowa can afford to loose each season? My guess is very few, so they are backed into a corner - either deal with Skyride or go out of business, and that's fucked up.

This question is stupid, and really is only good for generating smart ass remarks. It's stupid because every jumper is looking for different things out of a canopy. Maybe if you defined what parameters you thought were 'good' , and wanted to know what canopies were good in that area, you might have something. For example, the guy who voted for the Sabre 2 doen't have the same requirements for swooping that I do. I like to go far and fast, and would have to vote for the Katana for myself. Which brings me to the other reason this is stupid, most of the answers are from unqualified pilots. No offence to any of them, but unless you've jumped most of the HP 9 cells, you really can't have a valid opinion as to which one is 'best'.