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FireMedicJumper

Skyride Dropzone Coming to Prattville, Alabama?

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You know, people who post anonymously, I don't take much stock in what they have to say. Neither does most of us regular posters. :|

Now go back to your life.

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

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OK, I'm gonna go against the flow here and say that I HAVE been to the Pell City dropzone (though its been a couple of years) and Laura and Rob (and the rest of the upjumpers there) were very professional and considerate...

I have since moved to where I don't make it to the GA and AL dzs much anymore but I would certainly visit Prattville if I was in the area...
Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

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If you want to jump at opelika fine. I just hope you dont have to rent gear. If you train there you might want to check to make sure your instructor is actually an instructor. While you're at it ask to see the pilots' lisence.

Any more dirt and speculation you guys want to bring up?

GROW UP!




Ya gotta love posts like this.
This guy chastises Billy for his accusations.....tells him to grow up....and in the paragraph quoted makes his own set of allegations against a competing dropzone.



haha skydive opelika isn't even a competing dropzone. they aren't there to become better jumpers but to hang out with each other and talk about how awesome buddy blue is. if you want to ACTUALLY jump you can't go there. that guy treated me and my friend like crap. he's an arrogant man. we just kept our mouths shut the whole time...which took a lot of hard work. i mean seriously we didn't even have to say anything for him to belittle us and talk about how awesome he was. and i would question the safety of his operation. example: he sold a 120 to like a 150 pound dude with like 40 jumps.

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The only time the FAA has talked to the staff at our DZ was when these ultra safe local pilots had a mid air collision. The FAA came to us looking for witnesses.



not true, I was there during a ramp check by the FAA, we were grounded for a few hours then we were able to jump after the paperwork was straightened out. not a big deal though, just a typical ramp check. I just wanted to point out, you don't really know of what your speaking of.

p.s. rob an laura are VERY good friends of mine.

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You are a liar!!!!! just like skyride huh? People who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.



speaking of throwing stones.:P you are in a glass house.:|

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BillY:

the only additional insight I can offer at this time:

"If you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy!"

Think about it.




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First off, I think we both know that Pell City has never liked having skydiving near their facilities.



I'm not slamming Rob's ability to manage a DZ, but I do think the airport soured on the whole skyride deal. I jumped at Pell City for a long time, from 1995 to just after skyride took over a few years ago. I have made a few jumps there since then, but mostly for demo practice and one tandem involving a group from the deaf school. Not once in all that time before skyride took over did anybody say the airport was having problems with us, even going back a couple owners.



I was reminded of another thing yesterday while at a birthday party for a deaf friend's one year old girl. His neighbor is a private pilot in the area. I was wearing a skydiving demo team shirt, and he started asking me questions. I'd never met him before, but we got to talking about skydiving and flying. Apparently he knows all about the problems the Pell City airport and other private pilots have had with the way the DZ's pilot handled the jump plane there. He even witnessed himself, dangerous maneuvers by the jump plane pilot. He even used the word "dangerous" in describing the pilot's behavior.

Now, I didn't get a chance to go further into details so I don't know how recent his experience is, but I DO remember that the FAA went out there and had the entire DZ staff out in the field to talk to them about their operations a few years ago.

And of course, there was the business license, or lack thereof, oversight where the police showed up asking for proof. When they couldn't provide proof, they were shut down until one was obtained! The manifest lady at the time lied her ass off to the cops "oh we have a business license! it's at the Cedartown DZ in the file cabinet, we can fax it over!" Fact is, there never was one. Cops don't like being lied to.

In all the years I had been skydiving at Pell City BEFORE skyride took it over, there were never problems like that.

Maybe the DZ has improved the way they do business recently, but obviously they convinced the airport management otherwise. If they set up at Prattville, I hope for skydiving's general image, they don't do the same bullshit there.

Simply put, we are running out of airports to skydive at, and I do not want skydivers and jump pilots being assholes and screwing themselves out of airport access due to their stupidity. It has also happened to the Yazoo City Skydivers DZ in Mississippi as outlined in Parachutist.

Good luck in Prattville, hope you guys learned some lessons along the way and be nice down there.

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[replyhaha skydive opelika isn't even a competing dropzone. they aren't there to become better jumpers but to hang out with each other and talk about how awesome buddy blue is. if you want to ACTUALLY jump you can't go there. that guy treated me and my friend like crap. he's an arrogant man. we just kept our mouths shut the whole time....



Just like you and your 89 jumps should do here.

You have no credibilty and are belittling someone who has been in the sport most of his life ,to defend the skyride assholes ????
I think there was probably a reason Buddy treated you like shit. You probably earned it with your smartass attitude.


bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

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We all know my position regarding skyride.:|
What I want to address here are the remarks about Buddy Blue which are quite close to being personal attacks. Personal attacks are not allowed in the forums.
Whatever your feelings may be toward Mr.Blue, please direct them to him. I seriously doubt that you will find support of any kind bashing him here.:|
Kind Regards,
B2









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Well after wading thru all the crap in this thread, it would seem to me that there are more people I have personally met and done honest business with over the years, who all seem to say the same thing. And that would be that Ben and Cary along with their skyride scam are a bunch of lowlifes and crooks, and while that may appear to be a PA, it would seem to me that there is more then enough documented proof that it is true they are in fact crooks and liers and cheats and have done a great disservice to the industry.

I don't know RRR or LLL, while they might be nice people, they work for and support crooks and that makes them and the rest of the staff scumbags too who help crooks give a big black eye to our sport.

If the owners of skyride were such great guys and the dz's they own were such great places to spend our money, why is it then that only a handful of staff members or lowtime retards are on here trying to tell us how good they are, I mean one would think there would be at least 150 to 200 or more jumpers who would step up to defend them and the 3 dz's they own.

Being a northern jumper myself I have no interest in skydive ATL or the farm or buddy Blue's dz, I have been to the farm and I have been to Trey's place, now those are real dz's run above board by honest business men and they have a real landing area, where as ASC is a joke for a student op and I base that just from seeing the landing terrain they call a landing area and the many fake websites accross the country, after all it's the home of the eastern US skydiving championships, talk about your world class dz.

Those of you who support such lowlifes are just as bad and when they ruin airport access and rip off the wuffo's who buy tandems from them who then feel ripped off from driving 300 miles, it make's the sport as a whole look bad, you as staff members and jumpers who keep these morons in business are doing your best to help make the sport look bad and I can't understand why you would be so stupid. Must be your addiction getting the best of you and WTF most of you won't be around ten years from now anyway, so who really cares if you leave a big black eye on the sport.

So firemedicjumper you can be one of the people who have no class and are part of the problem and would be more then happy to help some crooks rip off the public and help to do your part to make the sport look like it is nothing but con men, or you can be a jumper who don't care to support two of the biggest scumbags to come along in a longtime, it's really your choice in the long run. Just remember all those people who have filed reports with the BBB and news chanels all accross the country aren't just making up a ton of bullshit because they don't have better things to do or don't like the two crooks, their pissed off about getting ripped off by the likes of those who defend Ben and Cary and helped to rip them off.

Hey if it looks like a turd, smells like a turd, and floats like a turd, safe bet is, it's a TURD! but then again it might be a babe ruth bar.......:P

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

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sorry, didn't mean to personal bash. got a little carried away. and i know where i am at skydiving. i'm not building myself up in anyway cause as you said i only have 89 jumps. i try to humble myself as much as possible in this sport cause i know almost everybody has something i can learn from them. and i'm not bagging on buddy blue's skydiving skills or whatever cause i don't know (and i only have 89 jumps!) i'm just saying we did nothing to deserve the way we were treated. i would take skydiving advice from him all day if he wanted to lend it out to me. but if i had to talk to him other than that i would keep my distance...personally. and i'm not defending skyride at all. i don't agree with their practices either. the people over at pell city are amazing though and aside from it's affliations with skyride i think it's the best dropzone i've been to. go there and they will treat you like family.

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sorry, didn't mean to personal bash.
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Your mistaken my friend I didn't take it as personal.

I don't know Buddy Blue he might be a major asshole for all I know, it wouldn't be the first time a major asshole ran a dz. I know his son though and I like Chuck and respect him so Buddy did something right.

***go there and they will treat you like family.



While they may treat me like family, I don't support and I won't support two lowlife crooks who own the dz and the plane, every ticket you buy puts money into the pockets of the fucknuts and your supporting their actions with your wallet to help them keep ripping off not only the public but other honest businesses, and seeing how you think it is the best you have ever been to, I guess you don't get out much, you should travel around a little more and open your eyes.

If your mom or other family member was ripped off and had to drive to another state some 300 miles away (when they could have gone 40 miles to a local dz) and weathered out from the jump and was told some crap about how they diodn't buy weather INS, how would you feel about that now that your a jumper?

Or how would you feel if you log on to a website and saw your copy righted photos or had your website ripped off?

You want to support those clowns go ahead and join the ranks of the rest of the scumbags who willing help give this sport a black eye, most likely you'll be done and selling your rig in only a few years anyway and your HEROs will on a shopping spree with all the money they ripped off..

And if you do stay in the sport and find in your local area there are not airports that are willing to let a dz operate on because some lowlifes soured the land don't cry about it because you helped it happen.

One day the cash cow will dry up and those to losers will be long gone and the damage wiill be the only thing left from those two. If were lucky they'll get what their due and justice will be served for the masses.
you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

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and i'm not defending skyride at all. i don't agree with their practices either. the people over at pell city are amazing though and aside from it's affliations with skyride i think it's the best dropzone i've been to. go there and they will treat you like family.


i'm just going to assume you didn't get to that part of my post and i don't doubt you that his son is a nice guy. and really how much of my $20 jump ticket goes into their pocket and not into gas for the plane? i don't know so i'm really curious.

and i've been to a couple different dz's...big and small and none of them made me feel so at home and provided me with so much opportunity to jump as at pell city. thats my reasoning behind my statement for the best dz i've been to if you were wondering.

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I got that part of your post, but people don't open up DZ's and buy king airs and twin otters to lose money and operate at a loss all the time now do they.

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and really how much of my $20 jump ticket goes into their pocket and not into gas for the plane? i don't know so i'm really curious.



I wouldn't know I haven't been there to see the OP and I doubt the books are stright anyway, as with most crooks. But I'm sure that one of the honest DZO's who post on here could give you a better idea.

It's nothing personal dude, we just don't see it the same, but maybe one day you or some one you know will be one of the many burned. Oh and you don't find it kind of funny that Hans and Mike G are listed as staff at both ASC and Pell's website? Damm those dudes sure get around a lot seeing how they have their own busy dz and loft to run.

So are you signed up and have you sent in you money for front row seats for the eastern US skydiving championships?, if not you better hurry up they are starting next month at both DZ's and at the same time too.

You can keep making all the excuses you want, but the owners of your DZ are still crooks and anyone who works for them is also a crook!

Kind of like if you and I walk into a bank and you hold it up with a gun, but I only drive the get away car, I'm still getting charged with bank robbery. But I guess you just can't see it that way because it's only skydiving! It is this kind of thinking that has lead to many people looking the other way with corner cutting DZO's who fly aircraft held together with duck tape and bailing wire.
you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

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I wouldn't jump a Skyride DZ even if my mother ran it. I would disown her.

Doesn't matter how "cool" you are.
Doesn't matter how nice your facilities.
Doesn't matter what planes you fly.

YOU're Skyride lining B & C's pockets while doing damage to the entire skydiving industry. Period.

*Warning: Opinion Statement*
People that work for them are self-serving fools...same as B & C. All-about-me and skydiving be damned.
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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BillY:

the only additional insight I can offer at this time:

"If you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy!"

Think about it.



No... YOU ARE the enemy, by supporting Skyride. Are YOU going to reply to the other people who have posted after that or are you just going to pick on me?

That said, Rob and Laura are good people, they just support and get paid by the wrong people. I wish they would just cut all ties to Ben and Cary, but even then, they are going to have that strike against them, having been under Ben and Cary's thumb. Like you.

:|

I will not support any skyride DZs or DZs that were built up with blood money. :|

Edited to add:

And Matthias, NOTHING you say is ever going to change my mind, all its gonna do is fall on deaf ears. And I don't mean that just literally. :P

YOU are in the very small minority. You made your bed and you're stuck with it. Deal with it.
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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This might surprise some people, but I think it's great that there is going to be a turbine closer to Opelika/Auburn/Montgomery. If the stars had alligned perfectly there would have been a -20 Twin Otter in Tuskeegee in March 2003. It would have made a ton of money (I would have assured it). Alas, it was not to be. There will never, ever be a turbine on that airport. Not for as long as my dad runs his business anyways. It's simply not his style. He is perfectly content to run a two-Cessna operation. No, you are not going to make alot of jumps at such a dropzone, but there ARE many, many benefits to jumping at such a "club" operation. If my dad, Buddy Blue, was in your ass it's because you either were a prick or you smelled like pot. He hates stoners and it's impossible to "out prick" D-597. If you show up, have an interest in learning, are not in a rush, and want to be a part of a "family" then it's a fantastic place. If you want to make ten jumps a day with newer gear and pay the premium that comes with "professinonal coaching" and all that stuff, then just go to Thomaston or any of the other larger, turbine operations.

Again, I think it's cool that there is going to be a turbine closer to I-85 and that part of Alabama. And personally, I don't care who is running it. It's funny that they are setting up at Elmore County Airport! I made my 6th, 7th, and 8th jumps there on March 14th 1981. I landed right in a swamp just off the runway on my last DRCP under a 28' 7-TU and made my first freefall under a Papillon. The original sign that they used to have in front of the airport which read "Montgomery Skydivers" is still in my dad's garage in Opelika. A friend of his took it down when they closed the operation there many years ago.

Chuck Blue, D-12501
AFF/SL/TM-I, PRO, BMCI-4, S&TA
Performance Skydiving/Z-flock wingsuit school
Z-hills, FL

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Hi Chuck, Bozo, BB,

In my opinion this shit is spreading like a cancer, from one thread to another.

You all know the real deal, why worry about what the DZ baby groupies, and the phantom posters are saying.[:/]

Personally we're located on the west coast, know some of the background from DZ.com and find the continued mud slinging very immature, but I guess thats to be expected since new DZ groupies are being created every year.

What the hell am I talking about:$, I read some of this crap:S. It's past the point of being entertainingB|

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DUDE,

I really don't know how reliable they are gonna be. As far as the staff most of the photos were taken at the other ASC in Cedartown,GA. the reason I say this is because I jumped there from July all the way to October of 2006 so I know how the place looks and unless this Alabama Skydive Center's building's are exactly like the one in Cedartown then the answer is NO they don't work there. As for "FAST EDDIE" Grantland I know for a fact that he works over in GA So my advice is to be careful and if it is genuine then have as much fun as you can while being safe at the same time.
EXPECT THE WORST, HOPE FOR THE BEST!!!

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well after wading thru all the crap in this thread, it would seem to me that there are more people I have personally met and done honest business with over the years, who all seem to say the same thing. And that would be that Ben and Cary along with their skyride scam are a bunch of lowlifes and crooks, and while that may appear to be a PA, it would seem to me that there is more then enough documented proof that it is true they are in fact crooks and liers and cheats and have done a great disservice to the industry.

I don't know RRR or LLL, while they might be nice people, they work for and support crooks and that makes them and the rest of the staff scumbags too who help crooks give a big black eye to our sport.

If the owners of skyride were such great guys and the dz's they own were such great places to spend our money, why is it then that only a handful of staff members or lowtime retards are on here trying to tell us how good they are, I mean one would think there would be at least 150 to 200 or more jumpers who would step up to defend them and the 3 dz's they own.

Being a northern jumper myself I have no interest in skydive ATL or the farm or buddy Blue's dz, I have been to the farm and I have been to Trey's place, now those are real dz's run above board by honest business men and they have a real landing area, where as ASC is a joke for a student op and I base that just from seeing the landing terrain they call a landing area and the many fake websites accross the country, after all it's the home of the eastern US skydiving championships, talk about your world class dz.

Those of you who support such lowlifes are just as bad and when they ruin airport access and rip off the wuffo's who buy tandems from them who then feel ripped off from driving 300 miles, it make's the sport as a whole look bad, you as staff members and jumpers who keep these morons in business are doing your best to help make the sport look bad and I can't understand why you would be so stupid. Must be your addiction getting the best of you and WTF most of you won't be around ten years from now anyway, so who really cares if you leave a big black eye on the sport.

So firemedicjumper you can be one of the people who have no class and are part of the problem and would be more then happy to help some crooks rip off the public and help to do your part to make the sport look like it is nothing but con men, or you can be a jumper who don't care to support two of the biggest scumbags to come along in a longtime, it's really your choice in the long run. Just remember all those people who have filed reports with the BBB and news chanels all accross the country aren't just making up a ton of bullshit because they don't have better things to do or don't like the two crooks, their pissed off about getting ripped off by the likes of those who defend Ben and Cary and helped to rip them off.

Hey if it looks like a turd, smells like a turd, and floats like a turd, safe bet is, it's a TURD! but then again it might be a babe ruth bar.......:P



Just to clarify, I have no interest in supporting crooks or lowlifes, or in damaging the sport I love in any way. I simply wanted to get others who were knowledgeable to chime in concerning the staff at the Pell City DZ.

If anyone cares to look at my profile, they will see I have my home DZ listed as Skydive Opelika, Buddy Blue's DZ. I have made jumps at several other DZs, but this is home. Truth be told I probably wouldn't be jumping if it weren't for Buddy's DZ. I learned on static line and probably wouldn't or couldn't have afforded AFF at the time.

As far as Buddy himself is concerned, he can be a crusty dude to deal with sometimes, but he got his crust honest. He has always treated me more than fairly. Buddy doesn't put up with any shit thats for sure, and you always know where you stand with him, but I don't think he treats people unfairly.

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perhaps i caught him on a bad day... i dunno. as soon as he found out we lived in the area and drove all the way to pell city to jump and that we had been at the farm the day before and not to tuskeegee to jump at his place he became pretty bitter towards us. i thought he was joking at first but then i realized he was genuinely pissed at us and from there it was all downhill. i could understand if you want a dz to just go to and chill with people but we really wanted to jump when we go jumping. but that said and done lets all be happy. conclusion to the whole thread is that everyone hates ben and cary...as mentioned a billion times in the past

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Buddy can have his days just like the rest of us thats for sure. I know he is no fan of Ben and Cary and thats putting it mildly.

I sometimes make the drive up to Skydive Alabama. If you're looking for a friendly professional turbine DZ that you can crank out a bunch of skydives at, it's a great place, and they are not connected to B&C at all. I'm pretty sure that Curley hates them just as much as everyone else.

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...we had been at the farm the day before and not to tuskeegee to jump at his place he became pretty bitter towards us...



How did The Farm get into this? Does he have "thing" against the Farm, too????????
http://www.skydivethefarm.com

do you realize that when you critisize people you dont know over the internet, you become part of a growing society of twats? ARE YOU ONE OF THEM?

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