ninjaswooper

Ya know, they've been called only once in the past 2 years by one dz for tree landings... Not sure about the other but I haven't heard any stories... Not that there's only been one tree landing, but after the last time when the Polk County officials weren't able to help, we learned how to do it ourselves.

Kelly, I know you personally and I'm really ashamed of you for having said that. I can guarantee you skydivers are not responsible for nearly as much use of emergency services as cars wrecks, or forest fires, etc.. Anyway, skydiving at both ASC and the farm brings in plenty of tax revenue to Polk county that would otherwise not exist. Anyway, you're not saying it's right so I best not get rambling.

EMPHASIS MINE Dude, people who live in glass house shouldn't throw stones. The word is "KNOWN", not "NONE". Don't flame me -- I could not care less, just thought it was ironic. one error in a plethora of posts compared to a systematic inability to spell... yep, you're right, ironic.

because Derek, he is a newbie. and is defending them blindly, just like i used to.... remember?.... so what im saying.. is ninjaswooper is just like me.... hahahaha... that should change his tune real quick.. Dude, I'm nothing like you. First of all, I have the ability to spell. But that's really a small thing that sets us apart. The truth is, I haven't said anything defending any of skyride's actions in this case, I've merely argued that goatboy has no legal standing in the state of Georgia to do anything with regards to skyride. My argument pretty much holds true assuming that Goatboy has never actually purchased anything from Skyride. And if my argument is true, then Shimmell, he's wasting your tax dollars too. I know all of this legal standing mumbojumbo may have you confused, but it will make you happy, Chuck says why don't you come down to the next round of the Florida CPC and get your ass waxed by the ASC swoopers. Oh, and Shimmell, if I changed my tune, I would be just like you, but I'm not.

Generally things which are nationwide are dealt with by the federal government, hence, you heard no bitching from me about your complaint to the FTC. I was unaware that a phone call was now none as "doing business". Did you ever make a transaction with them, or were you discriminated against by Skyride on any basis? Or did you simply get answers which you presume to not be truthful when you called for the purposes of entrapment anyway? Because, I think if you were actually a customer of skyride's and had actually spent some money at skyride or any associated venture, you might actually have some legal standing in the state of Georgia. Otherwise, I'm sure the law (in my state anyway) would find any claim you have frivolous and without standing and therefore, yes, a WASTE of my tax dollars. Thanks.

Goatboy, your profile says your from Michigan, what position does that give you to file a complaint with GEORGIA's office of consumer affairs... From the sounds of things, I would guess you personally had never done business with skyride in the first place so I guess the same question applies... if you are neither 1. a consumer in the state of Georgia 2. a customer of skyride, then why the hell are you wasting the tax dollars of my state with your meaningless little email?

I wore goggles over the glasses till I got sick of them, contacts under gators till I lost my contacts, now for the past 100 jumps or so, have been wearing just my normal glasses with some croakies to hold them on. I've found that with my particular set of specs they work in just about every freefall body position (headdown, sit, and belly are fine ) though I do get irritation from wind when i go out for a tracking dive. My lenses are small and fit close to my face, and have no nosepiece to hold them out away from my eyes.

When's the first round fly, and when's it expected to be done?

The legal system, like all other systems in our society, revolves around money. That's why monopolies continue to prosper despite laws to the contrary. So I doubt Skyride will see its demise any time soon but I guess we will see where the legal battle takes us all... but believe me, the only way to make all of us struggling to make a living in this fledgling industry happy, is if we all aggressively market our sport to the outside world. Skyride does this, if everybody did... We'd all make money.

All I can say is, AWESOME! and thanks for your support.

I wonder why we don't hear from many people who remained pissed off after having done their tandem whether through skyride or otherwise... Oh wait, no I don't. It's because they're all f&cking ecstatic when there feet touch the ground again. Rain checks, no refunds and 4 hour drives matter not when they have just been given the best ride of their lives (having awesome facilities, aircraft, gear, and instructors is only icing on the cake). I recently spoke with a young couple who are having a baby. Wife bought hubbie his first skydive it seems through Skyride no doubt... Then they thought they'd check out a DZ a bit closer (in the same state they live in even). First jump at ASC + trip to check out the local place = wife won't let hubbie jump anywhere but ASC, despite the drive. But I'm rambling now... The point is, Skyride deals with mostly first time jumpers, yet all the people screeching about how horrible it is are experienced jumpers who I suppose feel that their wallets would be much thicker if it weren't for skyride... This may or may not be true, but to use another analogy from the business world, does pepsi just sit around and whine when coke outsells them, hoping maybe one day a legal injunction will put them in the number 1 spot? No, they go out and aggressively advertise... You people all want to do something about skyride? Go out and aggressively promote your sport. Tell your DZO to get off his lazy ass and do the same thing. That's the only way you'll ever put a dent in skyride, and who knows, we might just find that the number of tandem riders is not finite and there really is enough of this pie to go around.

Hah, finite number of tandem riders? Like there are a finite number of amusement park goers too right? So Six Flags shouldn't agressively advertise because it's only stealing well deserved business from Disney World, right?? I think by now you should realize how ridiculous what you were saying is.

No, I don't see it that way - to me it seems more confirmation that Skyride is dirty... I guess if we close our eyes we can convince ourselves to see anything we want. But I see your name on these forums enough to deduce that you've seen virtually anyone else who posts on here with no info automatically labelled a troll. If you deny that, you're lying.

I believe this is the first anonymous post on a controversial topic which I have seen the denizens of dz.com fail to castigate as a troll... I guess if it's a troll you like, it's ok.

Is that before or after the "Big Plane" fee? No big plane fee, but there is a whining little bitches fee, which, I'm sure you get charged everywhere, so... oops... just kidding, that was my alter ego speaking... Seriously, if you're gonna be anywhere near the area, "drop" in and have some fun!

Just wanted everyone to know, Atlanta Skydive Center is having a Valentine's Boogie. $14 jumps from 14 thousand feet, yes you heard it right folks 14 bucks to 14 k, all weekend, friday through monday... If you've yet to introduce that special someone to the wonderful world of freefall bring them out for a 119 dollar tandem skydive. The weekend should be great fun, with free beer and food saturady night, and of course a weekend full of awesome jumps with Kenny Pugh (free v-day kisses for the ladies) Tyler Lawson and the infamous Phone Throwing Gruwell! Hope to see you there!

I'd like to know when the schedule is going to be available... I read at the CPC website that you needed 200 hundred high-performance landings to compete, I might like to set a goal of entering something midseason if I knew when midseason was.

Quote Personally, I recommend to anyone that has to pay more than $5/pack to find another packer. [/reply} Personally, I recommend that people only pay what they think nice, consistent openings and being able to make any load they want without busting their own ass is worth to them.

The question is Bush right, assumes that democracy in Iraq was Bush's primary goal in Iraq. However we know he sold the war to the American people not by stressing the benefits of a free Iraq, but rather by warning us of what horrors awaited us if we allowed that "madman" to remain in control of a massive arsenal of WMD... why they could even deploy them against American interests in 45 min. or less. Even if you disregard the fact that the premise for war Americans were sold on was totally false, it's still a bit early to declare that democracy has taken hold in Iraq, particularly when said "democracy" continues to be propped up by an invading foreign army. My guess is that we may be staring another "mission accomplished" moment in the face.

Umm, some DZ will obviously get the income from the tandems sold by skyride and then would logically be able to afford the facilities we all like (turbines, a/c packing, lots o loads, organizing, etc.) So, an analogy of sorts... You like to shop at store A, it's a sweet little store in your mind. But it just so happens that shop B does a much better job of marketing, whatever, and eventually shop A's business suffers so that it can no longer provide you with the services you require (say you only buy chocolate, but the real money's in selling soda pop and it just so happens that's what your shop really sucks at) Now, being the chocolate lover you are are you going to stop buying all together, or get a fix from shop B? A friend of mine once told me "jumpers are like whores, give them the right planes and right facilities, and they'll come to your DZ" Seems appropriate when I can certainly say that I've personally seen the faces of some of ASCs detractors jumping from our very own twin-otter in lovely Cedartown, GA.

Ha, I'm pretty sure this post is tongue-in-cheek.... But charging an extra dollar is communist, i'd say that the extra weight, and yes, extra time an extremely large parachute takes me to pack is probably worth about a 5th of a normal size pack job in opportunity cost. In the extra time I spend with that huge mfer... i could be a fifth of the way into a smaller pack job making the same 5 bucks... If I pack a large one at the cost of getting another small one, I've cost myself money. It's simple market economics, i.e. capitalism, not socialism. Unfortunately I'm a little bitch working for the man, so all my sport rigs pay 5 bucks. Sounds more like fascism to me. As for the cock this, unstow that bs, I'd prefer you leave it to me since I'm going to have to check it anyway.

Huh? Now that's funny, I don't care who ya' are. Sorry, but I know packers that can walk away with $1000 a weekend. I'm sure a grand a weekend is possible, but I know AFF/tandem/video people who have managed to make close to 75k a year.... Now, for a packer to achieve this amount it would take 15000 sport packs, or 7500 tandems... let's stick with the sport jobs... assuming we have perfect weather every single day, that's 41 pack jobs a day...

I'm aware that this is required by some packing concessions, I'm simply stating that in most cases mals are not so clear cut as to be directly attributable, and that a packer, though taking pride in his work, should not operate at all times under the spectre of fiscal responsibility. There's enough stress as it is and this is probably the lowest paying/ least appreciated/respected jobs at dropzones. Asking someone who makes a 6th of the money for a zillionth the fun to take full financial responsibility for the results of what could only be described as a rather chaotic situation is ludicrous.

If as a governing body, they build a case against, then decide on the merit of the case, and any forthcoming punishment, then yes, they play those roles... I guess you could really just get rid of the jury because a judge can decide the meirt of the case, and you could argue that the prosecutors are the complaining memebers but at least in our own system of government prosecutors are ideally disinterested parties with no conflicts of interest, which you could hardly say is true in the case of complaining Group Member DZs. Once again, if laws are being broken, complainants should take the cases to the respective attorneys general. The USPA has no place here, when helping one skydiver could hurt another skydiver. Though, I don't really care, I'd prefer the organization whither into nothingness, I'd rather not pay 60 bucks a year for a rather lackluster rag.

Great advice on the being a good acker Dave, but "understand that if you pack a mal that you should pay for the repack?" Are you serious Dave? You're throwing some fabric and lines into a 120+ mile per hour wind and expecting any possible outcome to be solely the responsibility of the person who stuffed it in the bag? This assumes that we could even determine with any certainty what the specific mal was and it's cause. But as we know virtually the only mal completely pointing a finger at a packer is a misrouted bridle. Then again, it's the responsibility of every jumper to check bridle routing, pilot chute cocking, etc. OK, so your main blows up because somebody didn't unstow the slider, packer should probably be held responsible. But I think the point I'm making is clear, a packer should not feel that he/she should pay for the consequences of a mal, regardless of whether or not they are required to.