gas prices

[keithbar 1]

I filled up the truck for $ 1.62 a gallon this morning. What is everyone else paying these days ?

i have on occasion been accused of pulling low . My response. Naw I wasn't low I'm just such a big guy I look closer than I really am .

[turtlespeed 212]

keithbar

I filled up the truck for $ 1.62 a gallon this morning. What is everyone else paying these days ?

Fuel cost is way down, shouldn't jump prices go down too?

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[Phillbo 11]

Last tank of Diesel was $2.19

[normiss 622]

I've gotten some at 2.02 and 2.05

[turtlespeed 212]

Replying to myself . . . But this is an interesting little rid bit of info.

So I ask again, shouldn't jump prices be going down, or are DZOs just greedy?

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[TheBachelor 4]

Southern California: $3.00+ per gallon.

There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

[BillyVance 34]

Alabama may be seeing gas prices near $1.00/gal soon.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[justme12001 0]

Gas is about $1.60 a gal and diesel is about $1.90 a gal here in South Carolina.

[billeisele 122]

just paid $1.58 in Columbia SC

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

[gowlerk 1,912]

About $3.50 CAD pesos in frozen Winnipeg tonight. (.92/lt.) That's $2.46 in real money. And we like it. The difference is taxes.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[Anachronist 2]

About $2 per gallon in central FL (+ or - 20 cents depending on the day or location).

As for jump prices going down, no. Gas stations use their fuel prices as marketing (the owners really only make money from inside sales) so they sell gas at the bare minimum the market can sustain. Price goes up the further the fuel has to travel and in cities because taxes are higher, land costs more, and everything in cities is more expensive.

The following was explained to me by a medium size DZO with a Caravan as it's primary jump plane, plenty of fun jumpers and tandems. Feel free to correct me.

For medium to small DZs running turbines, fun jumpers are a luxury afforded by the presence of tandems. If tandems disappeared, so would virtually all of the factory DZ's or those without a large and consistent fun jumper or military population.

For numbers sake, at the time of explanation, 7 was the break even for the Caravan. If 7 went up the DZ made $0. For every jumper after that $24. So a full load (12) of fun jumpers would only bring them $120.

(Actually less because the time to altitude increases because of the weight and thus more fuel is burned, which is about a gallon a minute, which happens to be about the climb time each person adds.) Talking about a Caravan operating at sea level here and Jet A at about $5 a gallon. So on a full load of fun jumpers each one is only giving the DZ a profit of about $7. If it is hot or the plane isn't running efficiently, time and fuel burn rise more. Also, the DZO quoted less profit per jumper, he said $4-5, perhaps other costs I'm not aware of or just Jet A at the time, the $7 figure comes from rough math in my head.

Not included in the "break even" was the hangar fee, electric, paying people, maintenance on everything but the plane, and all the other expenses of running a DZ. A few grand a month. Not to mention bad weather when they make little or no money but fixed costs remain the same. Also, two passes on jump run (including hop and pops if they reduce the climb), having to wait for jumpers or other planes on the ground, it all adds up to less money for the DZ.

So jimmying with jump prices a dollar or two because of fuel prices isn't worth the time for anyone, especially for fun jumpers if they went up when fuel gets more expensive or it is really hot on the weekend.

Not to mention the competition isn't as high, there aren't 10 DZs in a single small town like there are gas stations. So the business lost to a DZ because another one 2 hours away has $1 cheaper jumps would be non-existent.

Jump prices have been very stable for several years despite everything else getting more expensive.

So, quit your bit**in and be grateful because the only reason most of us have a DZ to jump at is because tandems pay for it to be there.

[Anachronist 2]

Also worth mentioning, I've heard, and cannot confirm (before my time and not disclosed to me by first-hand sources), but many DZs and aircraft operating today were paid for thanks to illegal activities in the 80s and 90s. So we also probably owe the existence of many of the planes we jump and establishment of several DZs to those activities. If it was all paid for with "honest money" there would be fewer turbines to jump from and DZs to jump at.

The prevalence of jumping and low price of jump tickets in the US is a bit of a lucky break.

Also worth considering is a Caravan is about $750,000 - 1mil. For the amount of money earned on such a huge investment, it is really a poor business model (owning or leasing the plane). There is little money in aviation for most operators in most sectors compared to the investment in equipment. For example, commercial airlines operate on a 2 to 3% profit margin.

[keithbar 1]

in the early eighties at Fort Campbell Kentucky I used to pay $10 a month club dues for all the helicopter jumps I wanted to make but those days are over just saying

i have on occasion been accused of pulling low . My response. Naw I wasn't low I'm just such a big guy I look closer than I really am .

[Anachronist 2]

Yeah it is a different time. Apparently the reason Lodi has $15 jumps is because they bought long term fixed price fuel leases (is "lease" the right word?) in the 1980s during the fuel price collapse, so they are still paying 1980s prices for Jet A.

I heard recently the DoD was thinking about switching (or maybe did?) from JP-8 to Jet A-1 which would save tens of millions of dollars a year. A couple cents a gallon adds up when you burn a few billion dollars worth a year

[akarunway 1]

TheBachelor

Southern California: $3.00+ per gallon.

When a barrel was 140 I paid 5 bucks a gallon in So Cal. SO. Now it's 35 ish.Why am I paying over 2.50 ish a gallon. Markets are rigged. Feds keep printing fiat money. Donno. Ask Bernake or Yellen fuckin thieves or we can go back to 1913. Or even further.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[Squeak 17]

keithbar

I filled up the truck for $ 1.62 a gallon this morning. What is everyone else paying these days ?

I pay 1.60 per LITRE

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[JohnMitchell 14]

$2.25 here in Lacey, WA at the local Costco. Anything around $2 a gallon keeps me happy.

Washington State has the 2nd highest fuel taxes, 44.5 cents + 16 cents federal, beaten only by Pennsylvania, at over 50 cents + federal.

[Anachronist 2]

akarunway

***Southern California: $3.00+ per gallon.

When a barrel was 140 I paid 5 bucks a gallon in So Cal. SO. Now it's 35 ish.Why am I paying over 2.50 ish a gallon. Markets are rigged. Feds keep printing fiat money. Donno. Ask Bernake or Yellen fuckin thieves or we can go back to 1913. Or even further.

Fixed costs my friend, the gas doesn't magically appear at the station. Transportation, refinement, inspections, equipment, insurance, payroll, maintenance, etc. If a barrel of oil was free it would still cost money to get it to your car/truck/plane.

[Lujako 0]

$1.52 this morning in St. Louis.