soiledblues

I suppose these new tools will also include online gear sales for the customers, online procurement for tandem/instructional gear, an online custom tshirt ordering service, online aircraft scheduling for a fleet of planes with "Proskydiving" emblazoned across the fuselage and visible in every tandem video, online access for scheduling a nationwide floating staff pool of instructors/packers/video/etc, all who are paid through your system. Right now, you're set up to take over the front door of the DZ as well as parts of the back office. I don't see it being a very far stretch where a DZO will wake up some morning and realize he has become nothing more than a franchise operator of Proskydiving.com. Welcome to McDZ..... Well, I can see some good come from this: it would be one way to solve all the USPA complaints in the industry since they'd pretty much be removed from the equation at this point... So, should we keep USPA around kind of like the UK keeps the Royal Family?

I had the wrong comparison earlier. With a few more bars to listen to, now I realize where I've heard this song before... different key, same melody -- Rod Blagojevich. "[Play the tapes in their entirety!]" I think he has had enough national news coverage so everyone on here has probably heard of Blagojevich (recently impeached and indicted ex-gov of Illinois). Despite what the Prosecutor believes, Blago's convinced in his own mind he's right about all the things he's done because he believes his motives are pure and in support of the little guy. So, in this case, do some spin on it and then "call the airport manager." As for the "due diligence" checklist, Strong Enterprises probably needs to be on that list as well.

I'll skip the Nixon one-liner I had for this Before anyone starts taking Doug at face value, it would be good to do some background research. A good place to start would be to find out why a four decade legacy of skydiving at Hinckley is coming to an end with Doug's lease expiring. Go into Google, type "Hinckley Airport" and follow the airnav.com link. It has a phone number for the airport owner on the bottom of the page. Another good place to do some research is with DeKalb County, IL. I'm sure through FOIA there is plenty to be learned.

Exactly. I'm sure we all remember the whole "freestyle" tandem thing that went on at this DZ a few years ago. Who was the DZO that sponsored this activity and kept on with his righteous indignation long after the feces hit the fan? Yup. This one. Is it any wonder he's not getting his lease renewed after this season? And now we have 2 DZs with their own separate booking services, and both these DZs aren't getting their leases renewed. Do I see a pattern here???? When you get right down to it, Doug's had a burning jealousy for years over Ben and Cary. Well, maybe this booking service is his Hinckley exit strategy -- make a million bucks with it so he can go buy some land and build it bigger and better than that mega-DZ down the road he's been jealous of since the day it opened...