Dean358

Groupons are basically a way to attract new customers, but like most marketing techniques, it has to be worth it for the participating business to pay for them. Groupons typically offer at least a 50% discount on a product or service and of the reaming 50% of revenue they take at least 50%. Thus a DZ which normally sells tandem skydives for $200 each would have to be willing to sell them for $50 or less each. Now for some businesses this is worth it: businesses with excess capacity that have very little incremental per-unit costs, such as a boat tour operator that has empty seats, or a sporting event that’s not sold out. Or, businesses that hope to attract people that they can convert into repeat customers, such as a new restaurant, use them even though they lose money on each Groupon sale. Also, at least for the non-skydiving world, the redemption rate on the Groupons is 90% so don’t count on making up for the cost of using Groupons that way. Does this make sense for a DZ? Not sure. If the DZ loses money on each Groupon redeemed and the low conversation rates from tandem passengers to students and/or repeat tandem skydives I don’t think so. There’s a series in the NYT that’s been examining this issue. I recommend reading this one: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/doing-the-math-on-a-groupon-deal/ www.wci.nyc

I wanna come back as a Ruskie in my next life! www.wci.nyc

My suggestion is to go take an introductory glider lesson. (The terms “glider” and “sailplane” are used interchangeably.) This will give you a real sense of the atmosphere, first hand experience of how pitch, roll and yaw work and have you fly a precision, non-powered landing pattern. A 30-minute lesson is in the $65 price range, and you’ll have a certified flight instructor sitting behind you the entire time. You can find more info and the nearest glider port here: www.ssa.org www.wci.nyc

I also prefer a digital altimeter, so when I had to replace my aging Digitude I purchased an Altitron this spring. Based on my experience I would NOT recommend this product. Specifically: 1. The ONLY thing I want an altimeter for is to accurately display how high above the ground I am – I don’t care about data logging features. But as the Altitron has these I decided to look at the data it was capturing, just out of curiosity. Guess what? The data is out to lunch, typically recording values such as: exit: 16,987 feet, average speed: 297 MPH, top speed: 157, pull altitude: 66 feet. As the data on the main display seems OK in the air, I suspect the data logging errors are a result of not averaging out transient data spikes. I tried another unit, same deal, and my gear store folks spoke to the Altitron USA rep: the answer: “We’ve never heard of that.” No follow up. Makes me wonder: if the manufacturer missed this little issue what else did they miss?? 2. When riding to altitude, the Altitron is plus or minus 80 feet to my ditter chimes that go of at 1,000 feet AGL. The Digitude, by comparison, was almost exactly in sync with my ditter, on every jump. Also makes me wonder. 3. But here’s the big one: although the Altitron’s display has larger numbers than a Digitude, it has less contrast, so it’s actually harder to read in freefall! In summary, I do not recommend you purchase one of these. www.wci.nyc

Are you using a "protractor" or a "plotter?" A flight plotter has millage scales on the bottom which are very easy to use. And while it may seem like it's old fashioned using one on top of a sectional to calculate distance and radial I'd argue there's actually much to be said for "old school" flight planning! Cheers, Dean Edited to add: here's a fancy-schmancy one: http://sportys.com/PilotShop/product/9284 www.wci.nyc

You must be kidding, right? www.wci.nyc

cool answer, tnx Bill. But why is it filtering out the transients on the realtime display but not in the data it captures? And if doesn't handle pressure transients correctly in it's captured data isn't this something the manufacturer might have noticed? Which leads to the obvious question, "what else didn't they notice or test for?" BTW, I agree with you -- the ONLY thing I want an altimeter to do is to accurately tell me how high above the ground I am! But as the unit has jump log features I went though the menus just out of curiosity. www.wci.nyc

Hi All, My Digitude altimeter having finally died I purchased an Altitron Digital Altimeter. I like the big display but I'm having a problem with it's data logging. Although the AGL readings it's displaying on the plane and during a jump appear to be OK, on 6 out of 7 jumps the data logged by the device is corrupt. E.g., it will show I exited at 16,987 feet, my average speed was 297 MPH, top speed was 157 MPH and that I pulled at 66 feet. (This is just one example, there doesn't seem to be any consistency or pattern to the erroneous data.) I've tried a second unit, I've tried moving it from wrist to hand and I've tried reinitializing it -- no change in results. The USA distributer says they've never heard of this problem and the folks at my excellent local gear store are baffled. Any suggestions? This does not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling about continuing to use this device :-) Tnx, Dean www.wci.nyc

Very sorry for your loss :-( Judging from the pics and video you clearly gave him 15 wonderful years. Blue Skies above and lots of Greenies to eat, Bennie. www.wci.nyc

Wow! That's some serious flying, especially the pilot flying inverted. Tnx for posting this John! P.S.-- Good they did this with metal gliders instead of delicate glass (composite material) ships :-) www.wci.nyc

Certainly true but NOT something I would bet my life on. I’ve seen hangliders and paragliders circling above the dz runway, seemingly unaware of the skydiving operations in progress. Then again, I’ve seen a Bonanza land --after two attempts -- on the dz runway while skydivers were landing. (The pilot thought he was landing at a nearby airport – all the pretty canopies in the air didn’t seem to register.) My point being, you really can’t depend on the “it’s a big sky” theory to keep you safe jumping though clouds. And the white puffy clouds can be especially dangerous to jump through, as there can be aircraft circling below them for long periods of time. www.wci.nyc

Putting aside the issue of wether it's OK for a skydiver to decide if the FARs apply to them or not (sigh) there's another reason not to jump through clouds: there can be a LOT of traffic under them. You know those white puffy clouds that fill the sky on a beautiful day? They're generally created by a rising column of air, i.e. a thermal. Those of us that fly sailplanes, paragliders or hangliders ride those thermals to stay aloft. So we spend many hours in the sky CIRCLING DIRECTLY UNDER THOSE BIG WHITE PUFFY CLOUDS. Please remind the people screaming at you to get out about this next time they want to blindly drop through one of those big cotton balls below the jump plane. www.wci.nyc

http://www.knowyourmeme.com/memes/three-wolf-moon www.wci.nyc

The Ranch recently added a Caravan to it’s fleet of Twin Otters and Pilatus turbine jump ships. I had the privilege of jumping out of it this weekend. For some of us, myself included, this was the first time we’ve ever exited from a low tail turbine aircraft. Know what? The USPA Safety Day Advertisement was posted in the aircraft, right_next_to_the_door, with a note alerting jumpers to the low tail. While the pilots configured the ship correctly for exit on every pass – even low passes – having the ad there as an added reminder was genius!!! On every single jump run, everyone on the plane told everyone else, especially the wingsuiters, to be aware of the tail. While some posters here found this ad controversial, I gotta tell you – I really, really, really appreciated looking at it before exit! Perhaps other drop zones might want to consider using the ad in this manner as well. Cheers, Dean P.S. – Yes, I’m well aware of what all the “firsts” referenced in this post require :-) www.wci.nyc

Actually, it might be useful to communicate a students altitude to the radio operator on the ground, much the way an aircraft transponder does. This might be helpful while talking students though their landing patterns, especially if the ground receiver had multiple displays so several students could be monitored at the same time. While I can't imagine making this affordable enough to be practical, it does strike me as a cool academic engineering project worth a few credits at Georgia Tech. Good luck! www.wci.nyc

I believe the ethics of this situation can be summarized as: “What causes the least harm to the person you care about?” While I’m never dishonest with my parents I do omit certain details concerning my aviating. For the sake of argument, let’s say these "sins of omissions," as Andy called them, do contain a small component of dishonesty. Now, I absolutely know that telling my Mom about my skydiving will cause her a lot of pain and discomfort. So which choice causes the least harm? Regarding getting hurt: if it’s a minor injury I’m not sure what I’d do. If it’s a major, life-threatening injury than this is the least of my (and her) concerns. I like hookitt’s suggestion: don’t get hurt. (note to self :-) www.wci.nyc

With all do respect, Skymama, I must disagree with you, at least for me. I have a very good, “adult” relationship with my Mom. So much so that I don’t see the need to cause her lots of unnecessary stress and anxiety. And talking about the fatality rate??? You jest, no? First hand experience with this topic: in 1991 I was hiking to get to an untracked chute and I fell off a cliff above Alta, Utah. After I got out of the hospital I spent some time recovering at my parents house. They were great, but my Mom ran around saying (please read this quote with a Jewish accent): “It’s a plot to kill the mother! It’s a plot to kill the mother!” To this day, every time I go skiing she gets way, way nervous. Why put her though that every weekend? www.wci.nyc

Nope! I'm 52 years old and my parents still don't know I skydive. They do, however, know about my other aviation hobbies. I've even taken my dad up in a glider and he wants me to take him for a helicopter ride. That's handy, because I can tell them with a straight face "I had a wonderful time flying today." I even told them about a fantastic ride I had in a B-17. I just, um, sort of, left out the part about stepping though the bomb bay doors :-) www.wci.nyc

The initial reports of this being a Cirrus were incorrect. It was actually a Piper Cherokee PA-28, which means he could barley see out the front anyway. OK, bad joke, but this does suck for General Aviation and Skydiving. Don't you just hate deranged engineers? www.wci.nyc

Try contacting some of the folks here: http://ssa.org/sport/wheretofly.asp BTW, I’d say it’s a remarkably efficient way to get to altitude, as it consumes very little fuel! :-) www.wci.nyc

Yes, it’s hard to imagine this happening and I sure as hell don’t want to find myself in this situation. But, as we know, one day everyone of us will find ourselves in a “hard to imagine, WTF am I doing here?” skydiving situation (I certainly have). And often, e.g., pilot chute in tow, there is no one correct answer as to how to respond. I believe the best lesson from this thread is to think about this – and everything else -- on the ground, and decide what you’ll do if you ever find yourself facing this in the air. That way you’re not figuring it out up there! Cool thread Swoopfly, tnx. www.wci.nyc

tnx Andy, that's the best laugh I've had all day !!! :-) www.wci.nyc

tnx for the feedback. And all this time i thought it was a skydiving rabbit. www.wci.nyc

Bump….. I get that everyone feels passionately about this subject and that the Skyride morons did a lot of very bad stuff. But I wonder what is ultimately to be gained from threads like this one? Jaron Lanier, one of the original virtual reality pioneers, just published a book entitled “You Are Not A Gadget.” In it, he discuses what’s gone wrong with web 2.0, not the least of which are nasty exchanges online. To quote: “I’ve also found that I can be drawn into ridiculous pissing matches online in ways that just wouldn’t happen otherwise, and I’ve never noticed any benefit. There is never a lesson learned, or a catharsis of victory or defeat. If you win anonymously, no one knows, and if you lose you just change your pseudonym and start over, without having modified your point of view one bit.” Just something to think about. …end bump, please continue www.wci.nyc

Long before I started spending my weekends up in the sky I used to spend them in TV control rooms, stealing time to create abstract video art. (Don't ask which is more dangerous :-) If you're really, really bored please check out some of that work at: www.youtube.com/user/dean358 Cheers, Dean www.wci.nyc