Skydive Palatka (B)logbook

Topic: Pac750

Hey Everyone,

Thanks to all who came out and supported the PAC this past Saturday. It will be out again this Saturday! So come out and help us keep the plane in the air.

Blue Skies,

Art

Topic: New Website

At last! The new and improved Skydive Palatka website is active! Please take a minute to check it out. As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please email webmaster@skydivepalatka.com

Blue Skies!

Skydive Palatka

Topic: Plane for Saturday, February 7, 2009

As many people have heard, the Caravan is gone for several weekends as it is
getting a new paint job. The PAC750 from Deland will be here on Saturday for
everyone to jump! Please come out and help us support bringing this plane up
for the day!

Blue Skies,
Art

Hey Everyone,

Hope everyone is having a safe new year!  Although things have been a bit slow at the DZ, we are still making 15+ loads a weekend when the weather allows us the opportunity.  We have already made more jumps this year than we had made through the end of February last year.  Thanks to everyone for making this happen!

Some things on the horizon:

The Caravan is going in for a new paint job on Monday.  It will be down for 3-4 weekends.  Right now, I am not sure what aircraft other than the two Cessna 182s we will be using at this point, but I will keep everyone posted.

Chris Spence is going to be putting on his annual St. Patrick’s Day Boogie in Fitzgerald, GA, March 19th through the 22nd.  We are going to take the Caravan up on Thursday morning and staying through Sunday night.  There are a very limited number of slots on the plane for anyone interested in riding up. I am not sure what the cost will be yet, but I will keep you informed.  As in the past, if there is any interest, the DZ will be open and flying one of the Cessnas, but there will be no tandems or student jumps in Palatka that weekend.

Thanks to everyone for keeping safe at the DZ.  We haven’t had any major injuries in 18 months; let’s keep that streak going.  With the winter time weather, please be aware with extra clothing as your rig may sit on you a bit differently.  Stay aware of where your handles are since the extra clothing may hinder your ability to reach them or use them.

Thanks again for a great start in 2009!

Blue Skies,
Art

Hey Everyone,

First of all, it seems my e-mail account, art@theartofskydiving.com is not working at the moment.  Please, if you need to send me anything, use artofskydiving@msn.com , thanks.

We had a great New Year’s Celebration at the DZ for those of you that missed it!  Although the midnight jump scattered the jumpers all over the the airport and then some (my fault).  We gathered everyone up and brought in the New Year with a bang.  The Falling Gators followed that up with their boogie, maybe not as big as previous years, but I think everyone there had a great time.   Mike Hare organized large jumps with lots of jumpers earning their Star Crest awards.  The big ways at the end of the day, followed by landings for the chugging contest made for great fun!

Some things going on this weekend.  Right now it doesn’t look like we will be open on Friday as most of the people who jump that day are heading down to Clewiston for a swoop meet.  If enough people contact me about jumping, I will get a pilot out there for you.  We will be open on Monday, as it is a National holiday and there are several tandems already scheduled.

Along with the new year, there have been some changes at the DZ.  Thanks go out to Eric for all of his extra work these past few weeks.  The gear closet, painting and the new website are all projects he has done during his holiday break. There have been some pricing changes, all of them small, to the tandem, student and coach jumps.  Also, if you haven’t found out already, no more packing on account.  If you want to use one of our packers, either buy a ticket at manifest or pay them cash.

On a safety note, some things happened over the holidays we need to stay aware of in the future.  The first was my fault.  When we taped over the lights for the midnight jump, from another angle in the plane, it appeared the green light was on when it wasn’t.  Because I was saying go, the jumpers in the door went.  Luckily, we found everyone, but it could have been a lot worse.  Please, don’t be afraid to speak up and say the green light is not on.  The other thing is we had 5 cut-aways in nine days.  Everyone performed their emergency procedures properly and there were no issues.  So, let’s make sure we are reviewing our procedures on every jump so that these stay pretty much non-events.

Everyone be safe and see you at the DZ!

Blue Skies,
Art

Hey Everyone,

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

There are lots of things changing at the DZ as the New Year starts this week.  The building has been getting a facelift on the inside, with the outside of the building to follow soon.  Thanks to Ali, Eric and all the others who have pitched in to clean the place up and put on a new coat of paint.  We are continuing to accept pictures to put on the newly painted walls.  Others projects to expand the building and packing area are going through the approval process.

There are also going to be some new pricing, manifesting and procedure changes that you may begin to notice as we welcome in the New Year.  The biggest one is that we are going to begin using tickets for packing services now.  If you want to use one of the packers, you can either buy a ticket at manifest or pay that person directly.  We will not be putting pack jobs on account any more.  Also, loads will be put on call as soon as they are filled, the time will be flashing on the manifest screens.  We have done it by announcing it in the past and there will still be a bit of that, but we are going to use the timer on the screen.  Also, the aircraft unicom will not be broadcasted over the speaker system, we are going back to playing music over the speakers.  So, please be aware of when your load is to meet the plane.

There is a new website in the works!  It should be up and running in the next couple of weeks.  There are many new features to be included!  Until then, the calendar, may or may not be entirely accurate, so if you have any questions about opening times or events, please call the dz.  On the calendar note, we will be open Fridays for all of 2009.  We have been having quite a few people coming out, especially lots of the swoopers.  So please come out and join the fun on Fridays!

This week, we will be have out annual New Year’s Eve jump at midnight on Wednesday.  The load is nearly full, but please call if you are interested in jumping with us.  As always, all of the normal rules for night jumps apply.

The Falling Gators are going to start their annual Collegiate Boogie on Thursday (Jan. 1st) and run through Sunday.  This boogie is open to everyone!  Come on out and enjoy some good times, fun jumps and a great party!

Finally, I want to thanks everyone for a wonderful year!  We made over 14,000 jumps at the dz this year, got real close to 15,000.  With that in mind, in 2009, the person who makes the most non-working jumps, will receive a $100 jump credit for 2010!  Thanks again for a wonderful year and see everyone again in the New Year!

Blue Skies,
Art

Welcome to the Skydive Palatka (B)logbook! This site is currently undergoing metamorphosis so please be patient. Expect the first official blog from DZO Art Shaffer very soon!

Blue Skies

Webmaster

Hey Everyone,

Well, we had the first weekend of blue skies in quite a while. The caravan was flying pretty much non-stop on Saturday. Sunday was our usual slow day, but we did fly seven full loads. Thanks to everyone who came out! 

There couple of things on the schedule in the coming months. 

First is the safety/staff meeting this Saturday (September 13th), starting as soon as the jumping is done for the day. The DZ will be buying pizzas for everyone. This is your chance to speak up about and issues, good and bad, that you may have. If you have something you want brought up and are not going to be there, please send me an e-mail. 

Next is the tandem special for the Falling Gators. This is going to be October 3rd, 4th and 5th. This has always been a fun weekend! 

Of course the Hog Flop is going to be October 29th through November 2nd. The Skyvan is coming on Saturday and Sunday. The Dirty Sanchez Team has lots of festivities planned for the weekend. If you haven’t been to a Hog Flop yet, it is a good time to meet lots of new skydivers from other dzs. 

The Falling Gators have moved their boogie to January 1st through the 4th this year. More to follow as it gets closer. 

If you are coming out on this Friday, please call or drop me a note. We may not have a pilot until 4:30 unless there is enough interest. 

Be safe and see you at the DZ soon.

Blue Skies,

Art

Hey Everyone,

Well it was a wet weekend, but even with the long weather delay, Big Mike made all thirty jumps to celebrate his birthday! Also, Lauren got her A-License. Thanks to everyone who came out to help Mike and stuck out the weather delays!

Gary’s Birthday Boogie is this weekend. Jeff from Tony Suits will be organizing some flocking dives. Our own Tom Hayden will be organizing the freeflyers. We will be using our caravan all weekend as the cost of bringing another aircraft in is very cost prohibitive right now. Beertruck will be providing a few kegs and we will be getting Sonny’s to bring over the food. Come on out and help Gary celebrate another year.

We will be open on the Fourth of July for anyone interested in coming out. There are several demo jumps going on this weekend involving several of our jumpers and aircraft.

Safety issue of the week. We had a jump this past weekend where we didn’t do a good job getting the word out on landing direction. Please listen up in the plane and let’s all decide on a direction and stick to it. Thanks.

Everyone have a safe week and we will see you in the air soon.

Blue Skies,

Art

Hey everyone,

Well the new plane is up and running and we are definitely making the best of it. We got 20 loads up last weekend, even in the sweltering heat! Congrats go out to Yumi, Karen and Scott for getting their A-Licenses! If you missed it, we also had a little ceremony for Jack Lalond getting his 6,000 jump wings from USPA. 

On the 21st, Big Mike is going to be making 30 jumps to celebrate his birthday. He is also having a couple of kegs at the end of the day to help celebrate the event. Come on out and cheer him on! 

We are going to have a boogie on the 28th and 29th for Gary’s 61st birthday. Jeff from Tony Suits is coming up to lead the wingsuiters. The Tom Hayden will be organizing the freeflyers. The Falling Gators are also running a tandem special that weekend. It should be a fun filled weekend, so come on out and help Gary celebrate another year. 

Now for the bad news. The price of Jet fuel (which the caravan burns) went up $1.50 last weekend. If you don’t know, it takes about 1.3 gallons of fuel per jumper to get to altitude. This being said, the jump prices are going to have to be raised one dollar starting this weekend to cover this increase. We also need to be more aware of this when we are boarding the aircraft. Please help us keep the plane idling down to a minimum. Even at idle, we are burning almost a gallon a minute. The prices for tandems and AFF jumps will also rise accordingly. 

On the safety side. The heat is on! Please stay hydrated when you are out at the DZ. Use sunscreen to protect yourself from the sun. If you are starting to feel the effects of the heat and sun, take a break and sit down inside the ac and recover. 

Be safe out there and we will see you in the air!

Blue Skies,

Art