Mr17Hz

JumpRun (~$1,500): IMO the most advanced application available (before realdropzonne) from the manifest perspective, 1999-2000 technology. weak when it comes to tandem registration and reservations; but capable of it. It's major downside is that it's no longer being improved upon, and it has 0 web integration. http://www.dztools.com/products.asp Manifest Master 2000 ($0) This is probably the only free application you're going to find. It is no longer supported and DOS based. It's free but very old technology. http://www.manifestmaster.com/mm.html Manifest XP: ($300) Decent. I don't have much hands on experience with this except to know that its limitations made it not an option for clients I've consulted with. http://www.digiacom.com/...anifest/MFW_Home.htm SkyWriter: ($500) Decent. I don't have much hands on experience with this except to know that its limitations made it not an option for clients I've consulted with. http://www.skydivesoft.com/ DZPro: www.dzpro.biz, i saw these guys at the 2007 PIA, not sure if they have a product ready yet. There are a few online reservation systems out as well: Tandem RS : www.tandemrs.com Dropzone CRS: www.dropzonecrs.com I researched all of these products (except DZPro) before I even began thinking about writing my own solution, let alone quitting my 8 year salaried position as an enterprise software architect in the horticulture industy a year ago to dedicate my full time efforts in the Skydiving industry. RealDropzone is a total solution; and the key to solving problems that have never been solved before, things like: How to effectivly handle business to business (B2B) availability/pricing queries, and accept reservations through a web service API that lets brokerage giants like travelocity, expedia, orbitz, and ticketmaster sell tandem skydives at a % commission, electronically. How to effectivly participate in pay per sale online advertising, meaning no upfront marketing costs to the dropzone. For a better description of where RealDropzone is headed I encourage you to check out the document "RealSkydiving Business Model" found here: http://www.realdropzone.com/Docs/tabid/62/Default.aspx Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Software that solves an Enterprise problem, rather than a departmental one. A software suite with common business applications and tools for modeling how the entire organization works. Software that solves a problem for multiple organizations working together to provide a business service. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Screen shot image sizes have been fixed to be more straight forward, and a number of questions are being answered in the Question and Answers forum. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

You need to click on the "Download" link on the lower right hand side of the file listing to get the high-res image. I'll try to make this more straight forward. Thanks for your comment. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

I made a post over a year ago about a developing a new dropzone management product. I just finished uploading the first set of actual product screenshots to it's new home on the web, www.RealDropzone.com. The product has been being implemented one module at a time at Skydive Chicago throughout the summer, and I have already begun installing the second installation. For anyone that is interested, I setup a forum where you can ask questions about the product. I don't have full documentation available yet, but I'll send out a newsletter to those who register on www.realdropzone.com as documentation becomes available. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Just because Skyride is an unscroupulous ticket broker, doesn't mean that all ticket brokers are unscroupulous. If you run a business that says: If you raise $500 and give it to me, I will donate $10 and spend the remaining $490 to buy hookers and coke - and then you do just that... THAT IS HONEST BUSINESS, which makes you (albeit, not very generous or healthy) better than skyride, because you do exactly as you advertise. I think that www.Skydive4Free.com is a wonderful idea because the exposure leads to more money being given to charity. If at any time they take more than the $45 they've declaired they're taking - then lets give them greif, but until then - Don't compare them to skyride. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

UPDATE: Due to lack of enough industry support and all of the extra time it's been taking me to keep up with Skydive Secure's integration with RealDropzone, I am strongly considering dropping the Skydive Secure project all together to focus more on the support and deployment of RealDropzone itself. If anybody was waiting for a later time to jump in on the Skydive Secure concept - this would be a great time to speak up. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

I'm not a physisist - but based on what I retained from highschool physics and coffee table physics books - this would depend on the difference between uppers and lowers... You being big and heavy with a tandem student - are going to take longer start accellerating horizontally (With the wind) - but after you're coasting at your terminal horizontal speed - it would also take you longer to slow down... Your hat is likely to catch the wind faster (it has more wind resistance so is more likely to move with the wind) and because it is light it will not have as much resistance to speeding up or slowing down quickly... so, if the winds were calm or low all the way down, your hat probably went farther than you did - because it traveled faster through the wind. but if the uppers were high (30?) and aruond 10k they dropped to 5mph - your hat would have slowed down to 5mph almost immeadiatly while you were still cruising at 30mph slowly going down to 5mph. This would give you the ability to pass up your hat because you kept the horizontal speed for longer.. I would think that the difference in wind speeds would have had to be pretty severe for you to have gone futher than your hat. on an average day I suspect that your hat would have traveled 2-3 times further than you did (partially because from 4,500 to 0 you controlled your direction, where the hat kept going its merry way). again - i'm no expert; but its fun to think about these things :) Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

If you're there on a weekend and you just want someone with a coaches rating to jump with you, you won't have any problem finding someone willing to jump with you for no charge; if you feel that you would benefit from the class and a more instruction and education oriented coach jump; then go with what they offer in the office. It all depends on what level of confidence / training you feel you would like getting recurrent. I personally recommend sitting in on the class; it can't hurt to go over the entire course once per year, it's not like you regularly experience each manfunction that is reviewed in the course. Also, having an actual "coached jump" (instead of just a jump with someone who's got their coaches rating) is beneficial to help you get back into thinking about how to improve your flying. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Microsoft Visual Studio Express is free and a great product to use to design websites - the only features that it's really missing compared to the professional version are features that make team development easier and managing very large projects easier. If you're interested in web site creation I also recommend checking out DotNetNuke at www.DotNetNuke.com for a great portal content management system written in visual studios. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

you're my new hero! Don't give me credit yet, My solves are still between 2 and 3 minutes each. Down from the 5-10 minutes it took me a few months ago, but that would still hurt the same. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

By the end of the year, I hope to be the first person (that I know of) to solve a rubix cube in freefall three jumps in a row. I challenge you to beat me to it :) Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

There are already a TON of skydiver myspace profiles and groups - it makes more sense to join a Skydiver group than it does a profile that does not actually represent an individual or organization. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Hypothetically speaking, since ther actually is an Atlanta Skydiving Center (a DZ with that name located in the Atlanta area), wouldn't misdirecting people who were searching for it be just as unethical as the business practices you intend to educate the unknowing masses about? Not defending them, just saying. Isn't Atlanta Skydiving Center the Dropzone owned by the same people as Skyride? The unethical part of Skyride's business is claiming to be a dropzone that does not exist. I don't have any problem with the fact that they own a website like www.SkydivingChicago.com, but I have a serious problem with the fact that the website contents lead the consumer to believe that it is the website of Skydive Chicago. Using keywords of other dropzones, places, events, etc, is completely ethical - an example I once gave is that outside of one of the casinos in my area is a billboard for the next closest casino. Completely reasonable. However - claiming to be somebody you're not, or selling services you're not able to offer - is both unethical and rude. By redirecting the site to an existing website that informs consumers about the risks of purchasing from skyride is, in my opinion, in no way breaking any ethical bounds - as I'm not claiming to be from Atlanta Skydiving Center. Someone who visits the resulting site will very quickly identify that I am not Atlanta Skydiving Center. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Hypothetically speaking, if I was the new owner of www.AtlantaSkydivingCenter.com, what would be a good website to forward it to that would educate consumers about Skyride business practices? Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Good question. I had a good reason for this (something was missing from OpenID) - but I forget what, give me a day or two and I'll get back to you on this. If I can find a standardized provider that allows for an easy user experience and allows for profile portability it would make sense to use it. To answer this question after re-educating myself on OpenID: The OpenId standard does not have anything in it that allows for users to allow member sites to subscribe to profile information; which is the largest advantage of Skydive Secure. I could possibly replace the authentication/authorization on Skydive Secure with OpenID - but one other thing that the service does not support is the ability to move from one site to another without re-authenticating. Also, it would cost addiitional resources to integrate with OpenId without much of an advantage, because Skydive Secure would still need to handle the profile subscription system. I am completely open to future enhancements, which would include using OpenId for authentication/authorization, however as I am currently the only consumer of the service: I can't justify the extra cost. If other organizations got involved with Skydive Secure, and the demand was present - we could go from there. Remember that the entire idea of making this a public not-for-profit system is to ad value, not spend unnecessary resources. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

I learned how to skydive at Skydive Chicago. They use AFP (Advanced Freefall Program), which is different than AFF. It is an 18 step program that significantly spreads out the training, and puts a lot of emphasis on canopy control. I really didn't know how good the program was until I met some people trained on AFF. I agree that I think that the initial training requirements needs to be extended. AFP, if I recall, is being used by dropzones other than Skydive Chicago as well. This having been said; I think this has very little to do with the discussion about banning 270 degree turns in a primary landing area. The fact is that more and more skydivers die each year from swooping, and that they are seldom anywhere near having just graduated. I haven't been to Arizona and so I don't feel I am able to say weather I agree with the ban or not - I know that in Chicago we have a HUGE landing area available, and that in order to land in the high performance area they require jumpers to have 1,500 jumps. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Good question. I had a good reason for this (something was missing from OpenID) - but I forget what, give me a day or two and I'll get back to you on this. If I can find a standardized provider that allows for an easy user experience and allows for profile portability it would make sense to use it. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Here is something everyone can do to help (un)support skyride: Go to google and search for skydive (state name) or skydive (city name) and identify a skyride site - click on the link. I've been doing some experimenting, I had three clicks paying me $1.75 through an ad service that takes 30% off the top. I have reason to suspect that those three clicks were generated by three friends of mine who I asked to go to the site and click on skyride related ads. If the value of certain thrill related key words has inflated to nearly $0.50 per click, and 1000 people followed a paid skyride add - that's $500 out of the companies pocket. At a certain point they'll hit their monthly budget - and paid ads won't get out to potential victims. It's totally legal, because the clicks are not being made by the machine and you do in fact download the resulting webpage which then has an opportunity to cause an impression. The way most ad sites work, only one click works per ip in a given period of time - so don't wast your time; but if 10 people change their defalt webpage to a google search on the skyride phone numbers plus the keyword skydive, and click a resulting ad once per day... that's around $15 per month you've taken from their efforts. - and possibly $300+ of business you've taken from them at the end of the month when the ad budget runs out and they don't get the extra business. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

I jump at Skydive Chicago. The instructors here are some of the best you'll find in the world. You'll be find on a tandem or two, and after that you'll have an idea on if you're ready to move onto solo jumps. In the end though, listen to the advice of BOTH your doctor and your instructors. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/People_with_Jobs_in_Aviation%2c_Airlines/Salary the facts are in images or i'd cut and paste the text, but here it is: Aircraft pilot - corporate jet median salary: $64,945 Chief pilot median salary: $68,861 Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

No developer’s laptop has a copy of the live database. Furthermore, no unsecured copy of the database exists. Fields are encrypted before data even hits the database engine. Even if somebody did steal the database off of the live server, it would be useless without the appropriate keys. No credit cards are being encrypted anyway – SkydiveSecure does not and will not ever have the need to remember a credit card, as it does not sell services and remembering credit card information in a global database just isn’t worth the risk. RealDropzone is a different story, which isn’t being discussed here, but financial information does not and will not hit the SkydiveSecure servers. I’m not a new kid on the block, but thank you for your concern. Don’t be ignorant. Website and database security have very little to do with the platform their running on. Security has 100% to do with the particular implementation. Windows gets a bad wrap because they make it easy for a non-professional to do things without understanding the technologies – but when it comes down to it a professional who understands the technologies can lock a windows system down to be no less secure than any other platform out there. What are your credentials to be making such claims? Just because the SkydiveSecure servers run windows software doesn’t mean that consumers of the service are required to pay any kind of licensing. You’re clearly not educated in this area or you wouldn’t be making such claims. SkydiveSecure services are exposed through the SOAP protocol which is a platform independent standard used to expose XML based web services using secure http as its transport protocol. I’m working with two different well known industry websites right now who are both interested in using SkydiveSecure and running completely open source software. I pay Microsoft license fees because the value of their product saves me a considerable amount of time. If I were to operate my business using open source software my operating costs would be hundreds of thousands of dollars a year more than I see now. Just because I use the Microsoft platform doesn’t mean you have to. There are many situations when using other solutions makes more sense, however rapid application development is not what I would consider to be one of them. This is the entire reason why the service will become a not-for-profit consortium. In the event that fees would ever need to be charged, it would be consumers of the service themselves who would have to make that happen. SkydiveSecure will never charge any service fees for as long as it is operated by RealSkydiving. I’ve got news for you. Businesses running software with nice easy records have a much easier time when the tax man comes by. Cheating on taxes is never worth it, you can write a whole lot of things off when you’ve got the records to support it. This isn’t an issue anyway, because I don’t waste my time doing business with companies that do unscrupulous things like cheat on their taxes, or accept skyride gift certificates. I do what I do because I love it, if I did it for the money I would be in a different industry. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

This is the key point. Working for a great place, with great people ALWAYS adds value to a job. A DZO can get away with paying less 'cash' but when it comes down to it that DZO is still giving in other ways. The original reference to a DZO who's been looking for a pilot for a long time and hasn't found him - may not have a reputation high enough to allow him to pay lower rates. Running a business isn't easy work. Running a sucessful business is even more difficult, and running a sucessful business as a dropzone may just be one of the most difficult challenges. Starting prices are based on supply and demand - just like ANY JOB. Loyalty and devotion can set you apart from the rest, but only when you're working for people who run their business for pride. It is absolutely a life style. "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward." Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

Are you kidding me? After paying labor and marketing fees - what's left? If you're thinking that dropzone staff works for cheap, consider the free jumps that it takes to keep most of them on staff. You could take $1,000,000 and buy two nice $500,000 rental buildings with 8 units each, rent them out at $800/mo, spend $35k a year for a full time caretaker, spend $15k on misc expenses, and still take home $100,000 - or 10% on your money - all for a lot less work than it takes to keep planes flying. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

To any of those who didn't like the previous sign on; I've changed it around so that only the following feilds are now required: First Name, Last Name, Email, Username, Password - everything else is optional. if you're interested in checking it out but already have an account - create a new username that starts with 'testuser' so that I know to delete that user after a few days. Matt Christenson [email protected] http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.