kcskydiver

According to my logbook, I was jumping N8779T 20 years ago?

The Beech and The Legend all at the same boogie! That's the shizzle my nizzle!!! I can't wait to jump that Beech again.

Since when does local zoning laws have jurisdiction over what occurs in the airspace over a specific property? Are you telling me that if you were to fly your commercial aircraft over a property not zoned commercial, your business would be shut down? The DZO stated earlier in this thread, as well as at previous board meetings that they will not begin construction of commercial facilities, nor conduct commercial operations on their property until they get the permits that they need. The city council has made it very clear that the DZ will be opening April 1st, and that there was nothing they could legally do to keep them from operating at the airport. The only decision that they had to make was whether or not to lease them office space. I missed last night's meeting, so I am curious as to what it was that the DZO's weren't able to get. I know that the other DZO's in the area had urged the board to require $1,000,000 in third-party liability insurance. Were they not able to obtain that? -Tooth

To me, this sounds like Chris is actually defending the DZs existence at Harrisonville. This was the same arguement we used last time when they kicked Horizon off the airport. The city had said we were unsafe and we said only the FAA could determine if any FARs were broken. Also, we were not required to be inspected at any time by the FAA before operating like a charter Part 135 would. Diverdriver, you're getting pretty selective in the quotes that you pull from that article. Sure, that paragraph makes it sounds almost as though Chris may be supporting The Kansas City Skydiving Center, but the paragraph before that most definately does not. "Chris Hall, a safety and training adviser for the United Sates Parachute Association and the operator of a skydiving facility in Butler, expressed his concerns about the compatibility of the airport for a skydiving center, the Eriksmoens’ qualifications to operate a center and the city’s interpretation of FAA regulations, as well as statements made by Dianna Wright to The Democrat Missourian. " Tell me how that possibly "sounds like Chris is actually defending the DZs existence at Harrisonville." I was at that meeting and I can say, with absolute certainty that neither Chris nor Tommy were there to defend this dropzone. The other things that Chris said were that the USPA requires automatic openers for students, and that KCSC would be unsafe in not requiring them for fun-jumpers. He also said that every other airport in the country that had a Medivac operation and a dropzone, were small airports, and all of the DZ's were small Cessna dropzones, and that an airport of this size could not support a large DZ. He went on about how the Ericksmoen's were inexperienced skydivers. From what I've heard, Paul has over 5,000 jumps and has worked at one of the largest dropzone's in the U.S. Also, Justthefacts said that "Mr. Eriksmoen also stated that a S&TA rating meant very little and anyone could get this rating with a simple call to uspa." I don't know what meeting that you were at, but he definately did not say that. The only thing I heard Paul say was that Chris was also the owner of Skydive Kansas City and that in this area the DZO is typically also the S&TA. As far as I know, all of the DZO's in the KC area are also their DZ's S&TA. Paul definately never said that anyone could get this rating with a call to USPA. It seems to me, Justthefacts, that your username should be "Justtheliar". -Tooth

Awesome job! Congrats to everyone involved!!!

I can probably give my view on how Tommy Dolphin and Chris Hall feel about this new DZ. I have been following the progress of this DZ since I first heard about it. This DZ is going to be a major improvement over all of the DZ's that have been in KC before. Many fun jumpers here have either stopped jumping, or travel all the way to St. Louis, in order to avoid the petty politics between the current DZ's. After Chris Hall learned of the opening of the Kansas City Skydiving Center, he went door to door, late at night, in the city of Harrisonville. He told neighbors that skydiving would be terrible for the community, that the DZ would be having hot-tub orgies, and that people would be dying left and right in their back yards, and that the property-owners would get sued when that happened. He also went to the nearby church, and told them that they would be unable to hold Sunday services anymore, due to our extremely loud aircraft. If someone wasn't home, he left a flier in their door filled with flat-out lies. He tried to pass himself off as a local concerned citizen, but what he didn't tell anyone was that he was the owner of a competing dropzone. Fortunately, the local newspaper ran an article, stating that this flier contained incorrect information. Last night I attended the city council meeting, at which the council was going to vote on whether or not to lease the KCSC some additional office and hangar space. The first person who spoke was a local business-owner who emphasized that the community needed new, younger business, and that the KCSC would be great for the community. After she spoke, Chris Hall stood up to speak. He represented himself as a Safety and Training Advisor, and a representative of the USPA. He then went on and on about how unsafe this operation would be and how bad it would be for the city and community. He even called the city administrator a liar, which didn't go over well with the entire board, while he spewed lie after lie. After Chris spoke, Tommy Dolphin stood up and went on and on about how bad a dropzone would be for the local economy. He spoke in detail about the plane crash in the 90's in Independence, MO, that took 6 lives and that the board with have to live with themselves if this happened again. He also talked about insurance, and told them that they would be inadequately covered against an accident. After they finished speaking, the mayor asked them, "if skydiving is so bad for everybody, then why are you in that business?" The city administrator also reiterated that their motives were most-likely competition-related and not safety-related. She also reminded everyone that the board was not there tonight to vote on whether or not to approve skydiving, because this approval had already been granted. The only thing the board was there to vote on was whether or not to rent out additional hangar and office space. The board decided to table the issue until the February 21st, so that they could speak with some unbiased experts. I look forward to seeing what Chris and Tommy pull out for that meeting. Also, though they didn't speak, there was a husband and wife there with Tom and Chris, both wearing "Skydive Kansas" jackets. I think they were the smartest of the group, not making a fool out of themselves to talk about why skydiving was bad. I, personally, think that Chris and Tommy did a dis-service to skydivers everywhere. For two DZO's to stand up in a public forum and bash skydiving, as well as the effect that it has on the local community seems against everything that a DZO should stand for. I, personally, will never jump at their DZ's. That's my two cents. Tooth

I have to add Missouri River Valley Skydivers to that list. If it weren't for them, no DZ in the KC area would take their certificates.

Unairworthy Sabre 107 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1522151

Does anyone know if they are getting out of the DZ business or opening another DZ, and if so, where? I jumped at Santa Rosa a couple of years ago and really liked the people and the DZ. It's a shame to hear they're moving.

8 in one day was my best. I packed all of those.