DPDonovan

Wayne has arranged for 4 food concessionaires this year to be on the property plus a full bar run by Fat Boys restaurant and bar.

1.No ferry fees aren't cheap----THEY HAVE BEEN FREE HERE FOR 20 SOME YEARS BECAUSE OF LARRY'S GRACIOUSNESS 2.Last year you got free beer compliments of Wayne Cross---he paid for it all--every bit 3. You got free shuttle rides on Wayne Cross's trailer 4. Fire wood came from the bar. Sorry I spaced out the Load Organizers

Mosquitos

Skybytch, I am going to try to stay on the mild side of the dickhead scale. Like the old John Wayne poster says, “Life is tough---it’s tougher if you are stupid”; now where the poster came up short is that it didn’t address that life is really the toughest when a person is ignorant. Stupidity has an excuse, some people are just born with an inability to comprehend situations in life, but when one is privy to the facts and has the facilities to understand them---yet chooses to ignore them---that’s what makes life real tough. Now I am not calling anyone names---just imparting a little information. Now let’s start with the Lost Prairie Airstrip Inc. I think there are about 150 shares of airport stock that are split between somewhere around 10 people. These are the OWNERS of Lost Prairie Airstrip Inc.(NOT Skydive Lost Prairie). The person who has run the commercial operation owns roughly 25 to 30 shares or about 1/5 of the shares---but in fact does NOT own the airstrip. Now the other (let’s say 9 people, in addition to the commercial operation) that own part of the airport have to pay out of their pockets for the upkeep (paving, mowing, surface repair, plowing, gopher removal) of the airport (roughly about $13,000, or just a little over $100 per share). In all actually this airport is a business---and when these people invest in the airport they expect a return for their dollar. Now in the early 90’s the boogie thrived with as many as 700 registered jumpers (pre-paved runway days), and kept a fairly good population of jumpers (say 350-450) for a few years. A jumpmeet of this size had the potential to alleviate some of the financial contributions by all parties involved in the ownership of the airport. For the last 5-10 years the boogie has struggled to pull in 200 to 300 jumpers (mostly in the low 200’s for the last few years). The jumpmeet was originally some smaller planes, then in about 1986 or so it bumped up to a couple of twin beeches---followed soon after by Skydive Arizona’s Westwind turbines----then onto 1992 (25th annual boogie) 4 Twin Otters, a Skyvan and a DC-3. The last few years there have been days where it was difficult to keep an Otter busy---let alone the two that have showed up at least on a regular basis. Now if the owner of Skydive Arizona can’t make enough money (he shouldn’t have to pay out of his own pocket for your fun) to justify bringing quality aircraft up for the boogie then it’s not a skydiving boogie---it’s just camping. The boogie has been going downhill and someone has to be accountable. As Donald Trump would say, “Your Fired.” Now in the immortal words of UPS, “Let’s see what brown can do for you” (brown is the commercial operator in case you don’t figure it out). As a jumper in past years you’ve paid anywhere from $20 to last years high of $35 for registration at the Lost Prairie Boogie. For that registration money you got---let’s see 1. Your gear checked by an unpaid volunteer licensed rigger 2. Showers that are available 24 hours 3. Pack on a UNWATERED brown, dusty, dirty lawn 4. Porta-potties 5. ---------------------------I can’t think of anything else (fill me in if I missed something) No plush green packing area, no beer, no Saturday night meal, no T-shirts (what has brown done for you?)-----really not much of anything. Boy, after running a large boogie like this for 25 years, you would think that the commercial operator would at least invest in himself to some degree and would at least put in a sprinkler system (total cost between $1500 and $2000) on his ¾ of an acre on which you were packing on year after year in the dust (show the jumpers some appreciation, make it a place that is nice to come back to). Now some things that have transpired up at the Prairie are just things that happened---no fault of anyone. This last year the Lost Prairie Lounge was sold at a sheriff’s sale. There were supposedly unpaid bills by the owner and the bar changed hands---end of story. Not much could be done about that situation. The landing field was sold about 5 or 6 years ago and the supposed lifetime easement to skydivers was found to be in error on the land title. The easement listed the wrong section of land and thenceforth the airstrip lost the right to use the field as a landing zone. Now something was done about this situation. One of the Airstrip owners stepped up and made a reasonable offer for the landing field---the commercial operator (who stood to gain the most from this property did not make a reasonable offer {or possibly failed to make an offer at all!})---once again a failure to invest in oneself. Now all that is happening at Lost Prairie is a transition. If you haven’t noticed things change in the world all by themselves at times. The new boogie operator doesn’t have a bunch of malice towards the old commercial operator (in fact he is allowing him to run the tandem concession at this years boogie, which is where ALL the money is {200 tandems @ $249 =$49,800 minus 400 slots (200 tandems@ $50 for two) $10,000= $39,800. Subtract the jumpmaster fee of $35 plus $10 for packing ($45 x 200=$9,000 for a grand total of $30,800---not bad for answering the phone for 30 days and showing up for 10 days---Sometimes they have done close to 300 tandems, you do the math! )---the new operator just wants to be able to walk out his door and make a skydive, not sit on the ground all day and wait for tandems. He would like for skydivers to be able to come out and make a few skydives and enjoy being at the Prairie and keep coming back to the Prairie. If you want to go buy a little valley in Montana and have the commercial operator run it for you, be our guest. I have a few stories that I would like to tell you about “the commercial operator” but it wouldn’t really serve any real good purpose. All I can tell you is that he suffers from the same financial fears that a lot of other people do which cause him to act in ways that maybe he shouldn’t. I understand it because my father (like his) was brought up during the depression of the 30’s and still pinches a penny today (crap the parents do rubs off on you) ---I remind my father to this day that that depression got over with about 70 years ago. But until people decide to have an open mind and see things differently they generally continue to experience a walk on a tougher road. The new operator wants to make things better for the skydiver---it won't be perfect this year but it will be a good enough start to run stronger every year. Like any successful enterprise you have to have a quality product for the people to show up---that's what has been missing at this boogie for quite a while. Like Tall Guy says "it's about the people". When things are better for the jumper---more people show up, you have the opportunity to meet more friends, have more fun, and make good skydives.

Seriously there were a lot of skeeters still a week ago but they are on the decline---once the hay is cut in the landing and camping field they will have less place to hide in the long grass. They will turn into creatures of "opportunism" and head for the cow herds to the north and south of the dropzone---just a few hot days will drive them out of the short grass and the weather sounds like we will get that this coming week.

Right you are, two nights I unzipped my zipper and the mosquitos drug it out for me-----contrary to my belief it didn't take a lot of them to do it-----but the mosquitos are bigger than they appear.

So you are flying into Missoula and then taking the bus to Kalispell?

I am currently living at the Prairie. I have a large spare RV trailer that should not have anybody in it for the first four or five days if you want to stay out of the cold for a few days. It's about a 5 minute walk to the DZ. There is no water in it but you can just walk across the lawn and use the house for everything else. Tell me if you want it.

QuoteRafael, I live out at the Prairie, if you are coming all the way from Uruguay, I will pick you up at the airport just get me the flight number and time it gets in and I will pick you up.