AndyMan

I've never heard of anyone using anything but the Cypres supplied goo. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

An odd example, since I know of a few very large Strong tandem centers that use Sigma harnesses. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I don't think 3 times - not 90 pounds. I know of tests that show up to 70 pounds, but ultimately it'll depend on airspeed. On hop-and pops, it'll be much less than 70. Anyways, to the original poster - as long everything is in good shape and packed correctly, the pin will come out. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Likely, of course it depends on how much your DZ is charging now. Where I jump, when the DZ sold jump packages to lock in jump prices, he added a fuel rider this year in case prices went up. Given the way the year has gone, I imagine he'll add a buck. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Some people like a power tool because the metal bar is easy to grab onto, and doesn't tear on the skin like a pullup cord can. It has nothing to do with closing loop length. Closing loops should be shorter, to make the packjob tight. It's pretty tough to have a loop that's "too short", as long as you can close the rig. When falling at terminal speeds, a pilot chute will put in excess of 30 pounds of force on the pin. The curved shape of the pin makes it easy to come out when pulled in any direction. Things to check for: 1. Smooth pin free of any dings or significant scratches. 2. Proper routing of the bridle. 3. Cocked pilot chute in good condition As long as those 3 items are met, its almost guaranteed that the pilot chute will pull the pin, every time - even with a tight closing loop. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Some of my friends value having a trusted relationship with their rigger. I'm happy that of their many choices in the area, some people are specifically asking me to maintain their gear. Of course, I'm happy to do it. I'm surprised other riggers in the area don't try to build relationships with their clients. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I fine point that I think other people missed - I don't think people ever took mains and packed them as reserves. You would not put a few hundred jumps on mains, then decide to use it as a reserve. There aren't any TSO'd mains anymore, even if there were I would not deem a one with a few hundred jumps as airworthy for a reserve. Also, I don't think that ever actually happened. You could do the opposite, take an old reserve that had 10 jumps on it, and set it up as a main. That was done. Sometimes often. Of course like others have said, canopy designs have changed a lot since then, and the kinds of canopies that we use as reserves are very different then the ones we use as mains. You simply wouldn't want to do this. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I think when learning, it's very difficult to not depend on instruments to accurately judge your altitude. As you become more confident, the instruments take a back-seat to "the sight picture". It takes time to train your eyes to know what you're looking for, and instruments - both audible and visual, are key to learning. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I haven't heard anything about prohibitions on anyone, from teaching anything. I have only heard that USPA is considering curriculum to be taught by their potentially licenced canopy instructors. Sort of how USPA creating the coach rating did not stop the guys at Skydive University from offering their curriculum. If the USPA does their job right, then what you do will become less relevant, just as Skydive University is not what it used to be, either. If it all works out, that'll be a good thing. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It is true that I only missed one day out of the course due to illness, but I certainly don't remember spending much more time than others in finishing the course. I'm not sure how this affects the fact that I found some people abrasive, abusive, - and simply inappropriate. This is the first I've heard of any changes. If true, then great - I'm sure the course will be better for it. Also, it sounds like I'm not the only one to feel this way. Ultimate, anyone who runs their business has to be responsible for the people that represent him. I did send my comments to Dave very shortly after the end of the course. If I'm going to give someone a recommendation it's got to be one that I am willing to stand by. In my experience, Dave is technically gifted and has an unmatched pool of knowledge, but if one is going to pay a large amount of money there are people that are more respectful of the time and money being committed their students. MEL, you're a good guy and I appreciate the wisdom that you pass along. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I did mine with Dave DeWolf, and learned a ton. However, I don't recommend the course because of the attitude of some of the instructors who assisted him. Many seemed to think it was their job to harass, insult, and general 'fuck with' the students. Given the amount of money I was paying to be there, it was just unprofessional. Right now I'm a big fan of Chuting Star, and if (when?) I go for further ratings I'll probably head down to Atlanta. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Florida is a big state! Depends where you live! __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Dumb question, but UPT's website is giving me nothing. What's the actual difference between a standard Sigma and Micro? Canopy size limits? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Find somewhere else to jump then... Where do you live? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Airplanes can be built for horizontal speed, or climbing rate - tough to do both. Cessna Caravans were built for hauling freight for Fedex over long distance. You can see some of this by looking at the wing - a very narrow leading edge. Caravans fly relatively fast, can carry a relatively high load, but don't climb all that fast. Same thing with King Airs - if you're flying point-to-point, they're plenty fast, but don't climb all that much. Twin Otters were build for taking off on short runways in the bush of northern Canada and Alaska. Big huge wings provide great lift but also tons of drag as speed increases. They climb like a homesick angel at low airspeeds, but as airpeed increases the drag off those wings have a bigger effect. I don't have the numbers but it's easy to understand that a plane that's built for climbing is very different than one that's built for high speed point-to-point travel. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

There's a lot of dropzones in the world where you exit over serious obstacles including water, railyards, Interstate highways, and even right beside the Mexico border. I just plotted a mile in google maps and I can honestly say that I have never landed anywhere remotely near that far away from a landing area. In 10 years of skydiving I have seen a student land that far away only once, and she flew into power lines. Like I said, I would not have any problem jumping, nor doing student jumps with a known obstacle 1 mile away. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My understanding is that that wind turbines have to be extremely close to be a problem. Something like the turbulence extends only a few times the diameter of the blades in most wind conditions. In wind conditions for them to be a problem, it'd be so windy you weren't jumping anyways. In Illinois, they're very large, and about 2.0 miles from the Hinckley DZ. They're very far spaced out and you could even land between them if you had too. There's probably 20 in the neighborhood. I wouldn't have any problems jumping a mile from a turbine. If you're only talking two turbines, then it sounds like a pretty manageable obstacle no worse than the River at Skydive Chicago, or the Ocean at Sebastian. I know in Ontario there's a lot of popular support in opposing wind projects. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It's the Midwest, near Chicago, and they have what may be the single nicest Twin Otter in skydiving, in additional to a PAC. They're open 7 days a week come summer, and often do 30+ otter loads on weekends, and 10+ PAC loads most weekdays. No Bus. How many jumps you do is only dependent on how quickly you can pack. Last year one guy did in excess of 600 jumps. Average cost $6 each. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

See the post in this forum about the 'All you can jump package at CSC'. Then move to Chicago. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

CSC had a guy move from England last year to take part, so you can easily come up from California. He did 600something jumps at an average price of $5 each, I think. Don't be so dismissive! :) Seriously, all you can jump for $3600 is pretty amazing, and now they're talking about doing installments. It'd make it like gym membership - $300ish a month all you can jump. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I had 4. One of them was myself. Another was a radical spinning malfunction and cuttaway resulting in a very low Cypres fire while the jumper was still spinning on his back. To this day I am amazed the canopy opened straight. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I've said this before, so I'll say it again, only more bluntly. Neither Rook Nelson(chicago), nor Doug Smith (chicagoland), nor Keith George(midwest) are in the business of selling tandems at a loss. They don't do it. Period, end of story. I don't speak for any of the DZO's, but I'm pretty sure every tandem sold on Groupon for all three DZ's has been profitable. When the volumes have come in, it's been tremendously profitable. And just in case you're wondering - Midwest doesn't own their airplanes. Every Groupon tandem they do makes money. If they don't make money, all 3 men are smart enough to stop doing it. None of them do tandems for charity. If Chicago, with its 8 month skydiving season can somehow make money on a cheap tandem, you can bet your firstborn the biggest DZ in south Florida can too. Same goes for Texas (yup, successful there too), and So-Cal. The explanations have been made frequently - including the high no-show, the high full price tag-along, and the video sales. I really can't comprehend why people are ignoring this. Do you really think the collective owners of 3 of the country's busiest tandem dropzones are doing this at a loss? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The DZO of Chicagoland Skydiving Center tells me that since starting with Groupon, the number of people paying full price has gone up. This is secondhand, so take it for what its worth. The PIA conference will be interesting for sure! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

For the record, those of us who haven't replied? We've had enough of your nonsense too. This thread got boring a long time ago. Catch up. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Groupon has been wildly successful in the Chicago market. All 3 local DZ's are now taking part, Groupon seems to rotate through the 3 dz's depending on time of year. Yah, you quickly sell 2500 slots at $110ish each. People are so quick to buy Groupons that you end up seeing some people buying multiple certificates. Don''t be afraid of the $109 though - you really do need to understand that about a third of the jumpers don't show up. This helps your margins since you're getting their money anyways. The numbers that I've heard (distant rumors....) is that a DZ typically books somewhere around $150 revenue for each tandem. Sure, it's not full price, but christ - you've got 2500 guaranteed tandems in the few months following the sale. And, these are new jumpers who you probably weren't reaching in your marketing already. These are tandems that are showing up on TOP of your existing business. This is revenue that's showing up AFTER you've paid your fixed costs. That's known as profit. As for pissed off customers, I haven't seen any nastigrams on Yelp or here on dz.com for participating DZ's, nor have I heard stories around the DZ. People clearly know the deal when they sign up, and if they get pissed off it tends to be at Groupon and not the DZ. The caveat is that you need the facilities, you need the packers, the rigs, the airplanes, and the staff to handle the jump in business. Many small DZ's just can't ramp up that quickly. Somone like you TK who's already got all that in place already? Sounds like pure profit to me. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.