dzswoop717

What does this mean in terms of when you think you will recieve the final stc? I have been following your progress since your first post with great interest. You are on the right path. This will be the perfect airplane to replace 2 or 3 Cessna 182's at a small drop zone or the perfect week day tandem machine at larger drop zones. Keep up the good work.

If your dz allows dogs, clean up after them!!!! I am a dog lover but hate to step in crap with my booties on.

I think Skydive Rick's in Ohio has latches like that on his planes. He might be able to help you.

Joe Smith was one of my heros. I met him when I was 5 years old when he jumped at York Sport Parachute Center in York PA in the late sixties. I was a DZ brat and Joe was a leader. He always had cool stuff and was constantly tweaking and modifing parachute equipment. I bought my first rig from him. But what he was most famous for was his conection to that Hossenfus guy giving arms to the Contras. I never did hear the real story from Joe, but the Feds were all over Joe after Hossenfus's plane went down. It made the headlines world wide if I remember correctly. Ollie North probably knows the truth.

Anybody know how they performed for skydiving operations. Same engine as a beaver with a smaller lighter airframe. How many jumpers did they carry? BEAUTIFUL AIRPLANE IN THE PICTURE. Can we jump it?

If you read the first post, he says that someone told him that if there is a problem, that the instructor will cut the student loose. Meaning that the passenger (student) falls to his/her death. I have never seen or heard of a standard tandem rig with a release system to drop the student to his death. Yes there are handles that the student can pull to release the drouge, but that was not what I was refering too.

Well, my Sigma had a student drogue release. The Strong Dual Hawks have student drogue release.

If you have time to hang out at the DZ, why not talk to the owner to find out if you could work for jumps. Be ready to do almost anything and for very little compensation. Have a good attitude and work ethic and you may be a licensed skydiver before you know it. Good help is hard to find and any DZO will appreciate a dedicated, hardworking young person. You may end up working as a Tandem Instructor for him some day. First impressions are everything. also, THERE IS NO STUDENT RELEASE SYSTEM ON A STANDARD TANDEM RIG!!!!

I agree with you that if not given the time and good instructors Tandem progression can be less than perfect. This is true with any teaching method. I made an error in my earlier post, after the tandems we did IAF. Instructor assisted freefall. not IAD. Our tandem progression was a little out dated even in the late ninties. We did 5 tandems and 5 single instructor assisted dives. The program had coach jumps and all the necessay training to get a student to their A license. Most of the TI's thought that 5 tandems was to many but It was the owners teaching method so we made the best of it. On the last tandem I could let the student do every thing except throw the drouge and release the brakes (because they couldn't reach them). One on One canopy control teaching can't be beat. I would explain every phase of canopy flight and even stalls and brake turns. Some even got some emergency procedure training when we had malfunctions. All in all it was the best training method that I taught and I had done straight Aff and static line for 13 years before getting my Tandem rating and teaching tandem progression.

I dissagree with it creating dependency. I taught the tandem progression method several years ago as TI and AFF I. The instruction you can give a student in free fall and under canopy can't be equaled by hand signals and radios. Most of our students needed very little radio input when they were under their own canopy for the first time. When you take flying lessons, you don't take a ground school and SOLO on your first flight. The tandem jumps built the confidence of the student because on their first IAD jump they had already learned altitude awareness, turns, practice pulls. forward movement. and canopy control. They had experienced freefall and nothing was going to surprise them. If I ever get back into the DZ business I would use the tandem progression method for sure. Best one on one training possible. Add some tunnel time and it would be the perfect training method.

I ran a free add on Barnstormers.com and found a cessna 206 door spoiler in a couple of days. That was just a few months ago. When ever I need a part for one of my airplane projects I use Barnstormers.com. I have over a 90 percent success rate for finding what I need on their web sight. Good Luck

There are no tandems and no packers. This is not a Drop zone. We are a group of 4 people who want to make a couple of jumps every other Sunday. Like I said earlier, these pilots have been our friends for years, they have been flying for free. I just wanted to get an idea of what a Cessna pilot earns in the year 2013. I had no idea what to pay them, I didn't want to offend them with my out dated pay scale. I sort of wish I wouldn't have posted this. Exactly why I don't jump at a DZ anymore. We don't have to put up with the BS, smart asses and know it alls!!!!! Just jump for fun like the old days.

Loss of airport access. airports being sold to developers with the end result being the closure of the airports. One case, we were renting a private runway and the landlord's insurance company threatened to drop him if we didn't stop jumping, we couldn't secure insurance to make the landlord happy. 2 cases were just burn out. The best chance of staying in business is airport ownership but even then it isn't gaurenteed. Just ask Jim Nipper in FL. If you are on a public airport keep control of your people. Don't cause any unnecessary conflicts with the local pilots or community. You can't have a DZ with out an airport.

The closest lives 8 miles away and the farthest has a 15 mile drive. All have been our friends for many years. One got many multi engine hours flying for me in the eighties (now has 13,000 hrs and is an airline pilot). They are top notch pilots that have flown us for free and say they love doing it. I just want to compensate them for their time and show them how much we appreiciate what they do for us. In the eighties and ninties I paid a buck a head. Half my pilots wouldn't take the money at the end of the weekend, they just had fun. Times have changed and I don't want to take them for granted. Thank you for you comments.

York Sport Parachute center. Pennsylvaini 1966-1987 Extra Fine skydives Inc (EFS INC.) Hanover PA 1987-92 New Oxford Skydivers. Pennsylvania 1992-1997 The Skydivin' Place pennsylvania 1997-20010 Carolina skysports NC United Parachute club PA ( The Herd)

The guys flying for me so far have been airline pilots. with former jump flying experience. I talked to my local FAA and they said it was ok to use a private pilot to fly the plane but he would have to pay his share of the fuel just like the jumpers would. I don't have any private pilots around here that I feel comfortable to let fly my plane right now. There are a couple of private pilots in the area that are great pilots but they have no jump pilot experience and for right now I would rather stick with the professionals. Is 10 dollars per load a fair pay considering we only do 3 loads a day a few times a month.

I have been out of the business end of skydiving for over 10 years. I have recently purchased a Cessna 206. I am making some jumps at our friends private airport and would like to know What the going rate for a Jump pilot should be. This is strictly for fun and there are no tandems or students. We like to make 3 jumps starting at 10am and we are finished by 1pm. There are just 4 of us that jump together so we are splitting the fuel and pilots pay. The pilots that fly for me live within 20 minutes of the airport and We all help with fueling and moving the plane in and out of the hanger. Most of the pilots would fly for free, but I want to compensate them for there skill and time. What is a fair wage?

I am trying to locate Terry Hoffman to invite him to a skydiver reunion. He jumped in Pennsylvania until the late Eighties then moved out West. He Is an excellent Videographer and flew camera on many CRW big ways back in the day. He played French horn and did music production. If anybody knows his contact info, please let me know. There are about 150 of his old friends that would love to see him again. THANK YOU.

The answer is in the question."Fun jumpers" Have FUN! Without fun who would want to keep jumping. If you grow your own students into Tandem Instructors you can train them along the way and know their strenghts and weaknesses. Cultivate the outstanding ones and mold them into excellent TI,s. Otherwise you put an ad on dz.com and take all the other dropzones rejects. The very best TI that I personally took from AFF to TI now has over 10,000 tandems and has trained dozens of todays TI"s. He started out as a FUN jumper and became the back bone of the DZ. Try doing that with out FUN jumpers!

We are planning an ash dive for Gene Weaver on August 24th at Lazy B airport in Dover Pa. Any friends of the Weaver family or Former York Skydivers are invited. Please Email me so I can send you information about the event.

If there are a couple of tandem mills near you that don't offer any further training, Consider a commision type deal with them for the first time tandems that want to continue in the sport. Have your lititure in the first jump packets at the tandem mills offering continued training. Give the tandem mill X amount of $ for every IAD student they send you. WIN-WIN for everybody.

Started jumping in 1978 at 16 years of age. Dad flew the plane so everything was FREE if you don't count, Washing the airplane, chasing down students and field packing for them, Packing T-10's, retrieving WDI's, ground crewing on demos, plus a bunch more jobs that go along with getting FREE gear and jumps. I forgot to mention that I spent 12 years on the dropzone before I was old enough to jump gradually learning these tasks and working for free because I loved it so much. I finally bought my own rig at age 18. Went to Joe Smith's shop in the old post office building in Lewisberry PA. Walked out with a brand new TOP SECRET container, Seirra light main, 26' Joe Smith researve, earthtone Silly Suit, Atimaster altimeter and some kind of funky helmet, all for 800.00. Went straight to Maytown and jumped it.

Ruthie, Great to hear from you. We sure lived life back then. Send me an email ,we only live an hour apart. My wife and I are planning an ash dive for my Dad, he died 3 years ago and this is the first year my family could all be together. Todd Cudski and Kevin Klunk will be there. I hope you can make it also. Todd and I went to Gene Paul's celebration of life earlier this year and Todd Lorenzo was there, he hasn't changed a bit. I saw your brother Bill and it was an emotional reunion. Paul is missed by so many people. Cliff

We were invincable in our youth. We did crazy things on a daily basis that could have killed us. We pulled low, drank and jumped, drank and drove, Played bumper cars at night with the lights out at 60+mph, held downplanes to telephone height, Built 4 stacks after exiting a cessna at 1100 ft, Tri by sides, gorilla down planes, High speed car transfers on chicken rd, Bar fights, hook turns, swooped the trees, Got in Twin bo's with 12 jumpers in them, The list goes on and on. When ever I was involved in this madness, Paul was there smiling and loving every minute of it.Our actual time spent togeather was only 3 years, several hundred jumps and many adventures. 25+ years later I look back on it all as the best 3 years of my life and Paul was a big part of it. We were like brothers and I miss him. Whit, I tipped one back last night and remembered those crazy days.

Quote Gary, Sorry to hear about your medical problems. I am planning an ash dive for my dad sometime this summer and might make it into a York Skydivers reunion. I hope you can attend. Take care, Cliff Weaver