gemini

Finally checking back in. No power as of Sunday night and no cell. I'm using a dialup connection from a friend in Kerrville north of San Antonio while in Houston, Whats a little long distance? Our area lost a lot of trees, fences, with minor home damage, It was touch and go with the flooding. I think we got about 10 inches between 2AM and noon, That sucker may have been weaker than Alicia, but it was really howling. We did not see the eye, but stayed in the western eyewall the entire time. That really sucked, I tried to put the cat out tonight, but she is still freaked out. We have a power pole that broke when a tree fell on the guy wire. No telling when we will get power back. Gas and ice is really hard to find. Thanks to the neighbors who found some this morning. Got to meet all the neighbors as everyone cooked their thawed meats on grills. Was actually kind of nice since we never seem to all be home at the same time. I heard tonight that Crystal Beach is gone. Anyone confirm this? Ok that's it. Need to save a little laptop power. Trent, Akie, Jed and Stevie are ok too. Akie has a small hole above her washer and dryer, but doesn't know what caused it. Blue skies, Jim

Power steady in Southwest Houston. Cable is acting a little odd....wait it does that all the time! Looks like windspeed is up a little and offshore bouys are showing a wave height increase again 18.7 ft after falling off to 14.5 for a few hours. Winds have not changed offshore at 22 mile bouy so eye has not passed it yet. Blue skies, Jim

About 20 min ago the winds in SW Houston really jumped up. Extremely gusty and very dark clouds. Guess all the sightseers will now get inside somewhere. A coupla' bayous off the ship channel are flowing backwards in East Houston. Huge fire in Galveston at a boat repair/storage yard. Lots of resins and fuel burning. Firemen cannot get within two blocks of the fire due to flooding. Just left Stevie, Jed, Trent and Akie. They seem to be ready for the storm. Blue skies, Jim

Hey John, time for a hurricane party! Blue skies, Jim

Damn gas prices are 60 cents per gallon higher this morning than yesterday. All refineries in Houston area have shut down. All are along the Ship Channel and expecting a 15-25 ft storm surge tonight. Blue skies, Jim

7:50 AM bouy 22 NM from Galveston is showing 17.4 ft waves. Surfside at Freeport is flooded and Galveston has waves breaking over the seawall. Streets behind the seawall are already flooded. Maximum wave height last night near eye of storm was 30.5 ft. Windspeed at a Shell rig offshore Galveston is already 86 kts. Images on tv right now show huge waves breaking on the seawall and landfall is not for another 18 hours. I sure hope everyone got out of the coastal communities. It is still sunny and breezy in Houston so this is surreal! Blue skies, Jim

As of 7AM this morning, center of projections has landfall at Freeport, TX. Red star on map is Spaceland (Rosharon, TX) Blue skies, Jim

30.5k out of Mullin's King Air at WFFC. Blue skies, Jim

LOL Thanks, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Bet you believe everything in TV commercials too! Blue skies, Jim

I disagree with this statement. If you go low and cannot get back, stay with the formation and at first wave break-off track with the first tracking group. Your pull altititude should be lower than the first tracking group. You are already lower than the first tracking group so they should be able to pick you up as they track, Practice tracking at the end of each jump regardless of the size or type of jump! If you are going to jumpw with others, you must be able to track. Blue skies, Jim

Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse you with the 4/8-way anology. It's just that the difficulty in completing goes up everytime you add a jumper to a formation. It takes more time to complete and more things can go wrong when formations get larger. Unfortunately, most jumpers at boogies are not the best of the best in freefall, although they may be the best of the best at partying! I think the organizers brought in 50 or so jumpers and then picked up around 10 from the boogie. With a group like this you probably need a lot more than 3 jumps to begin to pull it all together. Blue skies, Jim

Two Skyvans? I think I better talk to Steve..... Blue skies, Jim

The criteria is not that strict and is very similar on all big way jumps. First of all, I was not there, However, I worked for the organizers on the registration and have worked with other big way organizers si I kinda' know the procedure. What could have gone wrong? How much time do you have? Weather is the number one problem with clouds running a close second. You may be able to safely put a 20-way between clouds that you could never put a 60-100 way through. Safety is extremely important on big ways. Think of what could go wrong to keep a 4-way or 8-way from successfully completing. Now multiply that by a factor of 10 to 15. Big Ways get geometrically harder the bigger they get. Kate Cooper-Jensen told me before the 2006 TSR 150-way attempt that it would be 50% harder than the 125-way that completed in 2004. Personally I do not like trying to set records at boogies. First of all, there is a lot of commotion and distractions for the big way jumpers. Second, there is a lot of additional problems for the organizers that cannot be controlled. In 2007 we set a new POPS record in Illinois on the third attempt. In March 2008, we set a new POPS record in the 5th or 6th attempt, then barely got the POPS WR on the last attempt. Basically the same core group of jumpers and same captains. Why the difference? The mixture of people, slotting and dive planning, plane formation, altitude, heat, etc. You name it and it can be a problem on a big way. Throw on top of that jumpers going to fast, to slow, wrong grips, getting lost in the formation, lack of concentration, vision not wide enough, not watching the center, and on and on. 20-ways are fun and give you a good feel for a big way since about 20 people is all you normally see anyway. But a 60-way is substantially more difficult because of all the additional factors created by jumping a formation load. If you really are serious about attempting big ways, you need to get to a big way camp. Perris will probably be opening registration for their May camps soon. Blue skies, Jim

Jumpers who were interested in the big way registered on http://www.bigways.com. There were some jumpers who just showed up, but they were known by the organizers who were Tom Schroder, Mandy Schaeffer and Larry Clapp from Dallas. Some of the criteria the organizers used were total number of jumps, jumps in last 6 months, number of big ways, largest big way, big way camp experience, recommendations by a nationally known captain, and known by one of the organizers. Most big ways will have 12-16 attempts over a 3 to 4 day period. Since this event was held during a boogie, there may have been a limitations the organizers had to work around. Usually if you just show up at a big way you will sit and watch a lot and probably never get to jump with the formation. Blue skies, Jim

ummhhhh....I don't see their names on the roster. Did they ever pay their deposits? Blue skies, Jim

Just got it this morning. You are C-22. Blue skies, Jim

Nope, I only know about the Texas plane. Blue skies, Jim

Maybe so, but what I said was "...At my dropzone the jumper pays $23 per jump." and are based on a Twin Otter operation. They can. Have you condsidered checking with other aircraft leasing companies to compare rates? There is a wide range of leasing agreements out there. Maybe you just don't have the right lease. We only had a tiny bit of cash and I knew some bankers who were willing to take a chance on us. That's all, nothing else but hard work and perserverance. Ok so your numbers will be different. Does anyone know what they are so you can plan and make intelligent decisions, or do you just quess and hope everything comes out ok? But I would think the club members would like to at least breakeven so they wouldn't have to keep funding other people's jumps. One of the dzo's posting in this thread asked if experienced jumpers should pay a fair price and I responded yes. but if we were to charge prices that got anywhere near what you do in profit, it would be high 20s for sure. The point in that is, when everyone else around you does own a plane, we have to opt to let the tandems pay for overhead so that all the experienced jumpers dont, uh.. jump ship. Blue skies, Jim

Made my last post while you were writing yours. Sorry. Yes, but I get tired of hearing "I make no money off fun jumpers!" Would it not be prudent or an excercise in common sense for the DZO to minimize the problems by not antagonizing his customers? Excellent question. I think many DZO's are to close to their customers which is reinforced by your comment "...it is US!" The DZO is a businessman who should be trying to provide services at the best cost to his customers while maintaining a reasonable profit margin. In skydiving we also have to include "and maintaining recognized safety standards." Without a profit you are done. Without customers you are done. Without safety and maintainance programs you are done. Yep we are exactly the same on that point. Where we differ is that you want to get rid of the problem as you see it, and I see it as an area that needs help and improvement. If I can help one DZO improve his business in some way, I am a happy camper. Wrong attitude in business! Rule number 1 is you have to make a profit "on everything you do". No don't get me wrong. I like to do things and give some of them away too! But I have to know what I have made first, and what I'm giving away will cost me second, before I can make a decision to do it for free or at a discount. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE PLANS FOR REIMBURSEMENT. You can give it up later if that's what you want to do. I would put them on hold, or look for alternatives, look for help, etc. I have to always remember that my plans are not the only plans and, believe it or not, I am not always right. Sometimes the most profitable services are those that are the most difficult, or those that cause the most turmoil in the organization. You should determine what those "difficulties" cost you before you make a decision. Of course! But do you know what that fair price is? Do you fully understand your costs per jump and the amount you are loosing? If you do not, how are you going to explain it to the experienced jumper when asked? You just can't say "I'm loosing money on each jump" anymore. How much? Why? What changed? Sometimes, at a turbine dz, the solution is simple; like raising the minimum load by one more jumper. Do you have established manifest rules that everyone understands? I bet not. A lot of complaints arise when jumpers can't manifest, the next open load is 70 minutes away, or a jumper gets bumped. As I said earlier the best load is a mixed load of tandems, students and fun jumpers. The goal is to fly full. If you have one empty seat and the plane takes off, you make less. Concentrate on maximizing the loads, and the number of loads you fly during the day. That may mean a max of 3-4 tandems on an Otter, and the rest students and fun jumpers. If you have no tandems that day, get the fun jumpers and students in the air. If you have only a few fun jumpers, add more tandems, but keep the fun jumpes you have flying. That's a few extra dollars and if it causes you to fly 20 loads one day instead of 18 (because they all got mad and left early) you come out ahead. Amen! Unfortuantely we will always have complainers and those who want everything for free or at a discount. Most business problems are caused by 10% of the customers and employees, sometimes you just have to send them to your competitor! But don't cut-out an entire business segment because of the few rotten apples. I don't know you and you don't know me. However, I am glad we get to air our differences because it benefits more than just you and me. The things I say, I believe in and have put into practice at a large number of businesses including skydiving. If you are working by yourself, you cannot possibly do everything you want to do, or even needs to be done. Tackle one thing at a time and fix it. At the end of the month, step back and reassess what has been done and what comes next. I sincerely wish you the best of luck and much success. Blue skies, Jim

Wow! Sounds like you need a break to recharge. If it's not fun anymore, makes you angry at everyone, and apparently not profitable, why do you do it? Blue skies, Jim

I know. Don't you just love that Pakistani Light??? Blue skies, Jim

I agree too! But that's not what I said! Listen again....No business can afford to give up 2/3 of it's revenue unless it is running 100% with other more profitable services. That 2/3 is fun jumpers and students. Likewise and where we agree is that no business can afford to give up another 2/3 or its business to wholly support fun jumpers. In today's skydiving business you must be a full service dropzone which includes tandems to bring in the quick cash, students for gear sales and rentals, and fun jumpers to bring the tandem's back and keep the students after they graduate. DZO's are quick to jump on fun jumpers as the cause of all their troubles and woes. I'm saying if you do it right, they can carry their share of the load and make the dz a better place. You guys like to bust fun jumpers because they bitch and complain, return gear purchased, argue about safety rules, demand better facilities, etc. AND you make less dollars per jump with them. If you look at your true profit margin per jump and have the volume to spread the overhead, it may not be your least profitable area. And don't forget that fun jumpers bring friends to do tandems, talk people into becoming students, and will buy you a beer or two at the end of the day. Blue skies, Jim

That's about right. I've seen $45k - $50k in cc fees. Blue skies, Jim

The latest complete AID summary I can find was a CRS Report from 2004 -2005 which lists US Aid Recipients (Most to Least) as: Iraq (2004) Israel (2005) Egypt Afghanistan Colombia Jordan Pakistan Liberia Peru Ethiopia (Includes Special Aids Pandemic Assistance) Bolivia Turkey Uganda (Includes SAPA) Sudan (Includes SAPA) Indonesia Kenya (includes SAPA) Not include above is emergency humanitarian relief efforts which are not budgeted, food assistance programs, and military assistance programs. Blue skies, Jim

Yep 5 Aussies and 18 Texans! This should be a lot of fun (if I can survive the Bombshelter each evening). Blue skies, Jim