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I know how I would investigate it. It might upset some people, but this person shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. And they would thank you if you managed to get their stuff back as well. Blue skies, Jim

I have always wondered why people do this. Is it insecurity? When I was in a position to hire, I always wanted to hire people who could take my job. Because, if they can't do my work I can never move up! I was never worried about being jumped over either. I always felt good when someone I hired was promoted into another department at a level above mine. Gave my bosses confidence that I was bringing in good people. I just did my job the best way I knew how and left the other issues outside in the parking lot. Blue skies, Jim

I saw in a thread today http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3246356;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread where a few jumpers were bashing Skydive Spaceland for long waits between loads, being a tandem factory, etc. We at Spaceland are sensitive to these issues and have been working to correct these problems for quite a while. What a lot of jumpers don't know is that we got ourselves into this fix by trying to help Greensburg out after their Caravan accident. Normally we try to keep two aircraft dedicated to Spaceland's use during the Spring, Summer and Fall. This year we decided to hold back two Otters instead of an Otter and a Caravan. Two Otters would have been just right for our local operations. After the crash of the Greensburg caravan, we were asked if we could provide an aircraft to Greensburg. Greensburg had a large volume of tandems scheduled and really needed an aircraft. The Spaceland schedule at the time led us to believe that one Otter would be sufficient at least for the short-term. Unfortunately we ended up with 3 - 4 4-way teams, an 8-way team, two 11-way teams competing in a speedstar competition, some fun jumpers, and 160+ tandems the next weekend. Yes the wait times were intolerable for everyone, not just the fun jumpers. But with a fellow DZO in trouble, we might do it again to help him out because it is the right thing to do. In the past we have even assisted our competitor, Skydive Houston, numerous times when their Otter has been unavailable and several times this assistance had an impact on our jumpers. Is Spaceland a tandem factory? No because we do not discourage team or fun jumpers. In fact this year we have more teams than we've had in a number of years and significantly more fun jumpers. What we do have is a sudden, huge increase in tandems over last year which had been our best year. I don't know the percentage increase, but it has been noticable! The dz has added more instructors, videographers, tandem rigs and student rigs to meet the increased demand. Manifest procedures have been changed to allow tandems, teams and fun jumpers to get on each load and maximize aircraft loads. Last weekend, still with one Otter and only the two speedstars teams missing, no jumper except tandems waited more than 30-50 minutes for a load. Cudos to the manifest staff for getting the new procedures to work. Finally, we are adding two more twin Otters to the jump fleet with one earmarked to back-up the primary Spaceland Otter. This will give us a the minimum of two Otters at Spaceland. This will allow us to meet our committment to our teams and fun jumpers to minimize their wait time for a load and maximize the number of jumps that they can make in a day. The additional aircraft also gives us one more Otter for our rental fleet which we have needed as well. This brings our current aircraft fleet to 5 Twin Otters and 3 Caravans plus a Cessna 172 used by our flight school. I don't know how many of you have purchased twin Otters recently, but these birds do not grow on trees and are very hard to find. We continue to watch for available aircraft that meet our specifications, pass an independent inspection, and have no damage history. Aircraft safety and the safety of our jumpers is a high priority for us. The success and growth of Spaceland is due to hard work by many people and that success has been much more than we could have ever imagined. We have growing pains and are trying to minimize the impact on all of our jumpers. We do listen to jumper comments and complaints, but sometimes it takes us a while to correct the problem, raise the cash, find aircraft, get tandem rigs, reopen the restaurant, double the size of the a/c packing area, etc. We will continue to take those steps necessary to make Spaceland a success and to ensure that our jumpers have a pleasant jump experience with us. We will continue promoting 30-150 way big ways, supporting the TSL, promoting freefly formations, and offering formation loads and high altitude jumps to fun jumpers. The new restaurant is finally open and has great food, friendly people, and will get even better. The contract has been signed to expand the a/c packing area by 100%. We are and will continue to grow. By boosting our jumper volume including the tandems, we can hold our jump prices by taking advantage of larger, more frequent fuel purchases and spreading the dz overhead out over more jumps per day. We're trying guys. I can't promise we won't make any more mistakes in the future, but we are listening and learning. Blues, Jim Alkek

Look at the team jumpers at your dz. What are they wearing? Ours wear BevSuits mostly. I have one (my second suit) and it has worn well and still looks great. Bev replaces the booties upon request at a reasonable cost too. Suits come in three fit types: Slow for the big jumper, Average for most jumpers, and Fast for the competitors and small jumper. Blue skies, Jim

Spaceland has set the dates for the 3 day big way camp on November 5 - 7, 2008 and the 2 day big way invitational on November 8 - 9, 2008. Captains are Tom Jenkins, Kate Cooper-Jensen, Larry Henderson and Scott Latinis. Requirements for the big way camp are a minimum of 300 jumps or the specific recommendation to participate by one of the captains. Registration is now open at http:\\www.bigways.com, Contact [email protected] or [email protected] for additional information. Blue skies, Jim

I have had Altimaster check my altimeter each time I run into them at boogies. It reads correctly less than 500 feet. Then it is off by 20-50 feet up to 3000 feet. Over 3000 feet it is off by 100-200 feet and over 6000 feet it is off by 300 feet all the way to 13.5k. If I compare my altimeter with someone else on the plane it will be off. If I adjust it, it will be correct at that altitude, but off below 200 ft which could be a very bad thing! I have broken from big ways early when I didn't reset my protrak. Not a good thing to do, every in a big way! In a lot of big ways the break off waves go on dytters.... Blue skies, Jim

the 84 way is july 4th weekend Blue skies, Jim

I can't believe this! Kelley was so full of life. She started jumping while in Houston and assigned to the Rice U ROTC. She has many friends here and she will be missed. Fly with eagles Kelley. Blue skies, Jim

The jumps on Friday and Saturday were spectacular! The 60-ways had 2-0ut (which kept a few others from docking, but in their slots), 1-out, 1-out, 2-out. The 20-ways and 30-ways completed as Wendy indicated all from less than 10k. Formations were flat and without tension. Included 2 30-ways each from 3 airplanes which was really a lot of fun. The 63-way on Sunday morning did not go as well. After a weather hold due to clouds, we got to go to 18k and it looked to me like people over amped. We had a coupla' bumps that put people low and had a base funnel that slowed the speed which caused people to go low. On the 2nd jump a 62-way, a pilot error caused the left trail to miss the exit and not make the formation. The formation looked good with the jumpers from the lead and rigt trail plane. On the third jump a 62-way, people really over amped knowing it was our last jump. Had a few more low and the whackers were really moving around and floating. Many thanks to all the jumpers who attended the event and to the captains Carey Peck, Tim Wieble, Scott Elmer, Harry Hopkins and Kimbo Godwin for a great event even with the weather issues. Next we are all on to Illinois. Take it John! Blue skies, Jim

Jumpers are arriving and making fun jumps. About 15 or so POPS on-site this afternoon. It is looking like we will have a very good group this year. Stay tuned! Blue skies, Jim

And now that you've been to the camp and want to do more big ways, remember to register on http://www.bigways.com to get on the big way database mail list. Enjoyed meeting all the new big way jumpers and renewing old friendships. Cudos to Kate, Dan, Tony, Larry, Doug and Tom for handling 300 jumpers over two weeks. It was a lot of fun and as always, learned a lot more! TEAM 2 BASE ROCKS! Blue skies, Jim

???? Boy you guys sure have gotten spoiled over the last few years... Formation is complete and slotted just not published while I am in Perris. Blue skies, Jim

I am trying to get a formation published, but since I am in Perris right now I am having trouble getting the formation to load. Blue skies, Jim

About the only thing you can do is run the seat belt through the harness legstrap. I sure wouldn't leave a lot of slack in it though. Blue skies, Jim

The only dropzone in Houston that does formation loads! Spaceland...of course. Blue skies, Jim

I could be that your partner is not holding still or moving toward you as you apprach. If he turns slightly and you turn slightly, it will result in both orbiting each other. Not an uncommon problem. Use better pre jump planning and try having him turn 90 to you and you side body him. Then you turn 90 to him and he docks. This will help reinforce that only one moves at a time. Blue skies, Jim

This is not necessarily true at turbine DZ's although a lot of DZO's think so. If I have 10 tandems at average of $150 each, I collect $1,500. And if I have 15 up jumpers doing 5 jumps each at $20 I collect another $1,500. Remember most tandems do one jump, up jumpers will do 100-300 per year. Sure you have to incur more costs to get the same gross revenue, but it's something that I would not ignore if I was a dzo. Besides that the up jumpers add the personality and atmosphere to the dz that will make some of the tandems want to come back. Blue skies, Jim

Formation is drawn, jumpers slotted, aircraft standing by, and the new on-site cafe will be open. This is shaping up to be another stellar event. If you are in the Houston area May 16 - 18 come on out! Blue skies, Jim

Hey never did get to thank you for the formation with names. Added it to the handout/booklet and told all the captains it was from you. thanks again Blue skies, Jim

Scooter: Sorry you lost your sunglasses. They may still pop up. During the 100-way Diamonds, I found my car/house keys that had been missing for four months. Go figure! Blue skies, Jim

It is exactly the same problem! By removing the stiffner from the tip of the main pin cover flap, it allows the mid flap to flex more which will move it up and away from the D bag at deployment. This reduces the chance of a line snagging on the mid flap. With the original stiffner in place, the mid flap could not flex out of the way and extended over the D bag. As the D bag deployed, it was moving past the mid flap and the lines would pull past the mid flap as well. The mid flap is the part of the container that holds both the reserve and main pin. The main pin cover flap is the part that folds up and over the main pin; tucks into the mid flap slit. The main pin cover flap is part of the mid flap. The lines were snagging on the mid flap not the pin cover flap. It looks like a good fix. Note that it applies to the smaller container sizes. Blue skies, Jim

As the bag left the container one of the lines looped around the main flap. There was a small gap between the seam that held the main flap to the container and where the stiffener in the flap started. The line caught between the seam and the bottom of the stiffener. When the canapy started to deploy it put tension on the main flap and tied the loop to the flap. Reserve was cleanly deployed past the trailing main both times. Jumper has over 5,000 jumps and has not had any packing issues. Long time wings user with multiple wings canopies. Blue skies, Jim

I'll be in SDD on Saturday for the Henderson LO seminar. Flying up with three other jumpers. See you there. Blue skies, Jim

You bet! Got a coupla' "new"er jumpers who have been trying to beat me for a year. Hoop and Trent are always up for a good tracking competition dive too. Let's have some fun! Blue skies, Jim

A good flat track is not always the most steamlined body position. If I can fly flatter than you, I can stay in the air longer and out distance you even if my horizontal speed is not quite as fast. Blue skies, Jim