Slyde 0 #1 October 7, 2008 Military parachute exhibition teams are fairly characterized as "exotic" I believe, because they are so completely unlike the every day civilian performer. Every person making a demo jump is a performer whether or not she sees herself as such. You wrote of you attachment and experience with one of Uncle Sam's marketing devices at the Military Academy. That's all. Nothing personal from Texas, sir. I make no argument with any assertion that rehearsals are valuable to any type of performance. My objection is with the notion that practice jumps onto actual demo targets are realistic, practical, affordable or, for the most part ever necessary. For the most part, they are not. Furthermore, I'll add that persuing any change to this reality by promoting live practice jumps can be a ball and chain on a fragile fledgeling industry - entertainment skydiving. I'm picturing the scoffs and smirks I believe I would see on the faces of event producers I have worked with for decades if I were to suggest that practice jumps should begin happening as prerequisites to their event. What a spectacularly handy excuse for simply removing the pesky, risky, and ever tentative skydive from the script altogether. Please, please, please! Let's NOT make that any more attractive to our tiny client base than it is at present. Do the math you say!? I must say sir, Uncle Sam has you in the dark if practice jumps cost anywhere near a measily $500 in your world. Mine's a bit more expensive to say the least. I love math. Forgive me if I'm unclear. I see neither a "new problem" nor "old thinking" here. Quite the opposite me thinks. My appologies for looking up the name attached to your public profile and using it here, sir. I'll get busy forgeting that right away. I spend scant little time on these forums so my etiquette might suck. Sorry. And Bill might suggest this discussion move to a different forum. Heckifiknow. Demo Academics is my attempt to improve and enlarge the quantity and the quality of the numbers. The numbers are performances, AND performers. We need more of both. Lots more me thinks. In the wake, I believe changes you also desire will follow. As boats, all numbers will rise with the water level. This includes incidents. By managing the relationships between the numbers, we define our progress. Just imagine the day, Mr. inextremis when we can ponder the incidents per thousand. When can that be? Demo instruction is an investment, not a revenue stream. I doubt the payoff will really arrive during my career, sir. (The fun part is that it's exercising my MS training from Purdue designed toward a career in academia.) Time wise, I would need class sizes in the hundreds per year before this effort would approach the profitability of demos for a living. So far I've completed one class of ten candidates - for my investment of a few hundred hours. Worth every second, ladies and gentlemen. Please come see.A Peace Prize within minutes of Bombing the Moon. Coincidence? "Beware the Military Industrial Complex." You GO Ike! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
inextremis 0 #2 October 7, 2008 I think we're in agreement on most points. I'd love to bring you to West Point at some point to do some coaching for our demonstrators. Thanks, TAK Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
