New School Flight Camps Blends Training
New School Flight camps blend all the major disciplines into to one training session over a four day period. Freefly, Fundamental RW, Tunnel, and Canopy progression camps dedicated to producing a more complete skyjumper. The camp includes 20 videoed coach jumps at The Florida Skydiving Center, one hour of coached wind tunnel time, and 4 nights stay at the Best Western Hotel right across the street from Skyventure, Orlando. A free video is also included.
"These camps are perfect for any level. We concentrate on getting better fast and having a lot of fun. We concentrate on flying every surface: belly, back sitfly, head down, and tracking. The camp is a really good way to improve any landing approach you do while working on the rest of the skyjumping game. I supply a one on one coaching atmosphere to make sure the student gets the most out of the camp, " says Medal Winning Head Coach Steven Blincoe.
Skyventure has revamped their windtunnel to produce 150 mph wind speeds. Perfect for freeflying. The tunnel went through various other renovations to produce a smoother air colom.
The cost of the camps are $2990 and require a deposit. Camps consistently fill up 6 weeks in advance.
Feel free to contact Steven Blincoe with any questions, 530-412-2078, [email protected], or blincoe.org.
Steven Blincoe has more than 3500 skydives and 150 hours of wind tunnel time. He has coached thousands of students world wide. He is the President and founder of The New School Flight University in Lake Wales Florida.
New Name for Relative Workshop
The uninsured Relative Workshop will commence trading under the new name of the Uninsured United Parachute Technologies, LLC from 1 October 2006.
This change will allow Bill Booth to gather his many existing companies under one name, and will allow the company to implement a new business model more inline with modern day business practices, which in turn will fulfill our future needs for growth and diversity. This change will not affect our day to day business with our customers, apart from a change in website address and email addresses which will be advised at a later date.
New iFly Indoor Skydiving Center Opens in Dallas, TX
iFLY has continued its global expansion of vertical wind tunnel centers with the opening of iFly Dallas this week. The company, who now operate 27 facilities around the world, cut the ribbon on the new North Texas on Monday, 18th November 2013. The center is located at the Stonebrier Center Mall in Frisco.
The company has claimed that the center boasts the world's most advanced wind tunnel with wind speeds of up to 175mph. The tunnel measurements are 14’ in diameter and 48’ in height. It will cater to persons aged 3 to 103.
Whether or not we will see the iFly Dallas center hosting any competition in the near future is left to be seen, and it does seem that given the location and the focus of the press release, that the Dallas center may be catered more towards non-skydivers who are looking for fun, as opposed to other tunnels that tend to focus more on competitive training. Never the less, the center will still be open to competitive skydivers and will also no doubt expand the already explosive growth of indoor flying.
Over the past decade tunnel flying has become an imperative part of freefly training and is now an almost mandatory aspect of competitive training. The expansion and increase in accessibility has also seen an entire new wave of tunnel flyers emerge, as children under the ages of 10 have become proficient flyers. The impact that this may have on the growth of the skydiving industry will be seen in a few years. With these children already skilled in freeflying, it will no doubt give them a large advantage should they take up skydiving and begin doing it competitively - particularly within the freeflying discipline.
iFly is largest indoor skydiving company in the world with 27 tunnels across several continents. The company has plans of further expansion and will see more tunnels being erected in the coming years. The company opened their Orlando center in 1999, and 10 years later, at the end of 2009 iFly had 18 centers up and running. In 2013 alone, they have opened up an additional four indoor tunnel centers.
New DZ in Arizona
This is just a note to let all of you know that a new DZ has opened up in upper AZ.
Dan Bachelor has opened a new DZ in Cottonwood (close to Sedona about 1.5 hour drive from Phx). They have a Cessna 206, and the view from the plane is spectacular (snow-covered San Fran Peaks to the north, the red rocks of Sedona, and the north side of Mingus Mnt.)
The DZ is right off the regional airport, and is in town, so quick trips for food and drink are quite handy.
Skydive Cottonwood has been doing mostly tandems, but Dan would love to see more experienced jumpers show up and have some fun.
The manifest/packing area is beautiful, and there is room for several people to pack in the air conditioned building.
This is the only DZ in northern AZ so if you're anywhere near the area, stop on by and help Dan get things hopping. We can always use another DZ, and it's a beautiful location to visit.
If you would like to contact Skydive Cottonwood give Dan a call at (520) 649-8899, tell him Gordon said "Hi".
Navy SEALs Injured In Parachute Jump
Two U.S. Navy parachutists were injured Tuesday when a training jump went awry, sending them crashing to the ground in a field near the U.S.-Mexico border. The SEAL team members' hard landings occurred shortly before 12:30 p.m. near Otay Mesa and Alta roads, east of Brown Field airport, a Heartland Fire Department dispatcher said.
The members of the Navy's elite Leap Frogs skydiving unit reportedly got tangled in each other's equipment while taking part in an exercise at the Trident Jump Center in Otay Mesa.
The parachutists were performing what is known as a corkscrew maneuver. They began the jump at 12,000 feet. As they parachuted toward earth the team members were connected to one another. The problem came when they were unable to disconnect.
After the landing, medics worked to stabilize the patients for about half-hour before loading them into ambulances.
The parachutists were transported to Sharp Memorial Hospital, the dispatcher said.
The two patients suffered abdomen bruises and back pains. They were both listed in stable condition and were expected to fully recover.
About The Leap Frogs
The U.S. Navy Parachute Team is a fifteen-man team comprised entirely of U.S. Navy SEALs -- Sea, Air, and Land commandos.
Each member comes to the team for a three-year tour from one of the two Naval Special Warfare Groups located on the east and west coasts.
On completion of the tour, members return to operational SEAL Teams.
National Skydiving Museum Weekend Honoring Joe Kittinger
A mid-summer skydiving celebration honoring the "first man in space" is the centerpiece for one of the biggest fundraising events yet planned for the National Skydiving Museum. Fifty years ago, Air Force Capt. Joe Kittinger exited at 102,800 feet from a helium balloon over New Mexico, reaching a speed of 614 mph during a four-and-a-half minute free fall. The record still stands today, although there have been several attempts to better it.
The "National Skydiving Museum Weekend Honoring Joe Kittinger" will be held in DeLand, Florida the weekend of August 13-15. Kittinger’s jump was on August 16, 1960. Kittinger, who retired as a colonel and is now 81, plans to attend, as well as other skydiving luminaries. There will also be several activities during the weekend benefiting the Boy Scouts of America, another cause Kittinger supports, to commemorate their 100th Anniversary.
Joe Kittinger outside the gondola from which he took his historical jump.The Saturday evening dinner will be devoted to honoring the initial class of inductees into the National Skydiving Museum Hall of Fame. A special committee carefully selected eleven honorees, culled from a list of skydivers who made major lifelong contributions in equipment design, free fall techniques, and those who excelled in national and international competitions.
This fundraiser is part of the National Skydiving Museum’s $5 million capital program that will raise the necessary funds to build the museum in Fredericksburg, VA. (story contributed by Doug Garr)
Show your support and join us!
Skydiving Activities and Exhibitions...
Here are just a few of the events that will honor Joe Kittinger and celebrate 50+ years of skydiving history including giving special recognition to other pioneers for their contributions to our sport. (schedule subject to change)
Jumping for Joe 50-Way Formation Skydiving Exhibition
This 50-way formation with some of the best skydivers in the country will celebrate and symbolize 50 years since Joe Kittinger’s record breaking jump. Canopies opening in an almost simultaneous rhythm will have the audience cheering until the last skydiver lands.
Swooping Exhibition
Swooping truly shows how far parachute equipment has come over the years. Swooping is gliding a high performance parachute across the ground or water for long distances, generally a slalom type course, to show the skill of the canopy pilot. The exhibition will have some of the top swooping demo jumpers in both individual and team exhibitions.
Accuracy Competition
Accuracy goes way back in our history but didn’t get the recognition it deserved until the Sixth World Parachuting Championships held for the first time in the U.S. at Orange, MA. Accuracy canopies in those days were modified military surplus equipment with very little steerability. Today, high performance accuracy canopies and the skill of jumpers make for exciting and competitive accuracy contests.
Skydiving Demonstrations
Precision skydiving demos the world famous Army Parachute Team (Golden Knights) and the Air Force Academy Parachute Team.
Wingsuit Flying Exhibition
Grand finale and tribute to Joe Kittinger wingsuit flying truly exhibits the dream of human flight. Ten to 15 of the premier wingsuit flyers in the world will fly formations across the sky with smoke to add to the effect of this spectacular jump.
Source - http://www.skydivingmuseum.org/
Mystery surrounds skydiver's last jump
Almost exactly 20 years ago, Charles Bruce was crouched in the belly of a Hercules C-130 flying low over the south Atlantic, contemplating one of the most treacherous parachute jumps of his life. It was not merely that he was planning to leap into the surging southern ocean; even in perfect conditions the jump, which required pulling the ripcord at a mere 200 metres, was "a real bottle job".
There was no guarantee the chutes would open before he and the rest of his British Special Air Service (SAS) squadron, of which he had been a member for one week, hit the water. The slipstream, he knew, was often so volatile on exit that people could flip over and lose their balance, and the low altitude would give them no time to recover.
Despite being "the new boy", Bruce was by far the most experienced skydiver, having made several thousand jumps compared with the hundred or so of his colleagues, so his opinion was sought on the viability of the jump. "I don't believe in practising something you can only f--- up once," he said to grim nods. They decided to go for it.
Last Tuesday, Bruce, known as Nish to his SAS colleagues and everyone else, made his last jump. He and his girlfriend had been in Spain taking part in a skydiving display, and were returning to Northamptonshire after a brief refuelling stop in France. Judith Haig, Nish's partner and an experienced skydiver, was flying their jointly owned plane. Nish was in the passenger seat.
Exactly what happened next is unclear; even Haig may never be able to account accurately for her passenger's actions. But somewhere over Oxfordshire the plane got into difficulty, and Haig asked for permission to make an emergency landing, due to severe icing on the wings of the plane.
Sixteen kilometres from the base she radioed again. Nish had apparently slid his seat right back and undone his seatbelt. Haig reached over to grab him, a source in the investigation said, but he pushed open the door of the aircraft without warning and tipped himself out headfirst, his weight pulling him beyond her desperate, screaming grasp.
What leads a man like Nish Bruce, handsome, successful, well respected and well loved, to step into a winter sky and drop himself into oblivion?
Bruce's elderly mother told reporters that she did not believe he had been depressed, but friends are not so sure, and if it does indeed prove that Nish took his own life, those who knew him cannot claim to be entirely surprised. Charles "Nish" Bruce was no stranger to demons.
A former soldier in the SAS and member of the Red Devils parachute display team, he had seen sights, he later said, that "most people would not believe". "In the Falklands I saw dead men so deformed that their own mothers wouldn't recognise them - boys of 18 who had tried to slit their own throats because they had been so badly burned." In 1994 he had a complete breakdown, attempting to kill his then girlfriend.
Bruce was born in 1956 into a comfortable, middle-class family. His father and grandfather were both military men, and growing up he was instilled with awe for military endeavour. He joined the Parachute Regiment at 17, and a year later, in Northern Ireland, saw his first dead body. A year after that he married, his son Jason following in 1978.
In 1981 he joined the SAS, but while he made it through the gruelling training course that supposedly proved he could withstand extreme trauma, he found the process dehumanising. Seven years later he was discharged for "not being a team player".
In 1994 the bubbling anxieties finally, violently, surfaced. After the breakdown, he would separate his life into "the time before I went mad" and everything else. In 1998 he wrote Freefall, a startling book about his military service and his breakdown, told with excoriating honesty.
It is clear that his experiences in the special forces were never going to lead to an easy life after discharge. "We shouldn't be surprised by what happens when men experience what these men have experienced," says Bruce's friend and literary agent, Mark Lucas. "They are trained to survive in a landscape in which the dividing line between life and death is extremely thin."
Bruce's 1998 autobiography now looks like vivid evidence of what some had already begun to call the curse of the SAS. In several of the pictures, Bruce is accompanied by a close friend, Frank Collins, another former special forces soldier. Now both men are dead; just as the book was being published Collins had gassed himself in his car, a well-thumbed copy of War and Peace at his feet.
It is easy to conclude that Bruce, who was deeply affected by Collins's death, was a victim of the same post-career anticlimax. Certainly he was a thrill-seeker, climbing Everest after his discharge and becoming a professional skydiver. At the time of his breakdown he was training with the Russian space agency for an attempt to break the world altitude freefall record, leaping from 32 kilometres up on the very edge of space.
Lucas believes the extremes to which he pushed his mind and body during the training may have contributed to his collapse, but says in Bruce's case it is too simplistic to conclude the SAS was inevitably to blame.
Perhaps, the much-loved ancient pull of the sky to Bruce's troubled head became, at his end, just too much to resist.
"Nothing else comes close to those first few seconds after leaving the plane," he wrote in his biography, "because once you take that last step there is no going back. A racing driver or a skier or a climber can pull over and stop, have a rest, but with parachuting, once you cross that threshold, you have to see it through."
- Esther Addley in London for The Guardian
my fiction story
The sand scratched at her toes as Bailey tramped down the beach, attempting to keep herself upright on the uneven surface as she clutched the hem of her maxi-dress in one hand and allowed her heels to dangle from the opposite hand’s fingers. She was drunk already, after only her third flute of champagne. She’d always been somewhat of a lightweight; her mother even teased her about it, endlessly.
Another flaw to add to the list, she thought bitterly. Unmarried, childless, starving artist….gay. Her mother could never truly accept that last part. She’d thrown a fit the night Bailey had finally shoved her way out of the closet after the tenth—and final—attempt at a blind date. She just couldn’t take it anymore.
Mom had acted exactly as she’d predicted, thrown Bailey out of the house, screaming while her daughter sobbed. The scared teen girl had taken a cab, and what little she could carry on her back, to her father’s place in the hopes that he wouldn’t react as badly. Surprisingly, he didn’t and welcomed her in with open arms to his studio, surrounding her with drying paintings of the sea and mythical creatures.
“There’s not much room,” he’d said, as if apologizing for his kindness, “but we’ll make some, huh?” He’d used the self-made corner kitchenette to prepare them both a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and hot cocoa. Then he spent all of that night telling her stories of the mythical sea creatures he loved to paint. About the lonely Loch Ness Monster and the spiteful sirens; the stories reminded Bailey of her childhood and she soon found herself drifting to his voice. Like a lullaby.
When she’d woken up the next morning, she had twenty six messages from her mother; half of them were of her frantically asking where her darling daughter had gone, as if the previous night hadn’t happened. The rest were half-hearted apologies that she never acknowledged thereafter.
Bailey wouldn’t have gone back if it weren’t for her father’s insistence.
“You’ll never forgive yourself if you don’t try to work things out, Bay,” he’d said, using the childhood nickname that her mother had always hated. “I know I do.” Bailey didn’t know how that was possible, but his words were sincere and so she went.
Upon her arrival home, her mother wrapped her in her arms and pressed kisses all over her face. She rubbed her back and rocked back and forth on her feet and whispered her love in Bailey’s ear, but all Bailey could hear was the lack of apologies on her tongue now. Even the simplest ‘sorry, honey’ would have made everything better. But it never came.Mothers never had to say sorry, she guessed.
That was over five years ago, though, and now, as Bailey walks down the beach, away from her youngest sister’s wedding—which came far too early, in Bailey’s opinion, considering Lydia was only 19 and still foolish—she wondered if the look of distaste her mother gave her when she talked to anybody of the female gender was intentional or not. Whether the lack of interest in Bailey’s first showcase—a series of paintings inspired by her father—was because she was too distracted showing off pictures of her first grandson and doctor son-in-law or because she really did not care for Bailey’s chosen career, so similar to her ex-husband’s.
Her father had not made it to his youngest daughter’s wedding. His poor heart hadn’t been able to make it this far and he’d passed on some thirteen months before. He’d left the majority of his paintings to her and a few select ones to his three other children; a fairy in a jungle of overgrown daffodils for Kate; a dragon flying over the sea for Sean; a beautiful sorceress for Lydia. They all had theirs framed and hung in their family homes, but Bailey’s remained in the studio. For now. Until the lease ran out two months from now.Then she had no idea where to put them.
It was the one thing she’d been stressing over all night, as she watched Lydia say her vows to Vincent, her boyfriend of a year, and denied three young men dances, as her mother glared at her while she talked to one of Vincent’s sisters, who was married anyway. She’d barely given any thought to marriage or children of her own until the Best Man made his speech and it hit her just how far she was from either of those things. Then she’d drank three glasses of champagne and snuck away from the festivities. She doubted anybody noticed, anyway.She must have walked a mile down the beach before she reached a dock that stretched a few hundred feet outward. The wood was warm as it met the sanded skin of her soles and she reveled in it as the ocean breeze blew through the straggly strands of her sandy blonde hair. She’d always been complimented on her hair, and her cornflower blue eyes, by everybody but her mother who detested the length Bailey preferred.She clenched her jaw and shut her eyes against the thought of her mother; no good came from that. When she opened them again, she was at the end of the dock, her toes skirting the edge of the rough, splintered wood. There was no guardrail and for a hopeless moment, Bailey thought of jumping into the dark blue depths to see where they would take her. Anywhere was better than here.
But she didn’t. She stayed on the dock. She sat down, allowing her shorter than usual legs to dangle below, feet barely submerged in the comforting coolness. She took a deep breath and allowed her muscles to relax for the first time in hours.But when she felt something brush against her toes, she tensed once again, her feet immediately retracting from the water until her knees were pressed to her chest. She watched the water with wide eyes, and her heart pounded when she noticed a shadow in its depths. It didn’t move for a long while, but then it did.A crown of white hair rose above the surface, a pair of dark green eyes appearing beneath the wet bangs. Then there was a nose and then a pair of think green lips. The creature’s skin was a pale—but not sickly—green and its cheeks were rounded, the chin pointed slightly. Not of it was unattractive. It, in fact, looked like a she.This was confirmed when the shoulders and torso also emerged. Bailey looked away, embarrassed as she discovered this beautiful…woman (?) was topless. The naked woman tilted her head at that.
“I’m so sorry,” Bailey said, shielding her eyes. “I didn’t know you were here; I should…I should go. I’ll give you a little privacy.” She began to stand.
“Privacy?” the woman asked, her voice lyrical and carrying a strange echo-quality. “What does this word mean?”
That’s odd, Bailey thought to herself. But she’s probably a foreigner. “Privacy,” she explained, settling back down, “is when you want to be alone.”
“I do not,” the woman said. “Nobody wants to be alone. That is absurd.”
“Why?” Bailey asked. After all, she wanted to be alone. She usually was alone.
“Because when you are alone, you are likely to be lonely,” the strange woman told her. “Nobody likes lonely.” Bailey had no argument for that.
So she changed the subject: “Why are you swimming out here naked?” she asked.“Naked?” the woman asked. “What is this word?’
Bailey sighed. This woman, though her voice was strange, was obviously not unfamiliar with English; she should know this word at least. “When you don’t wear clothes,” she sighed, exasperated. “Where are your clothes, by the way?”
“I know not what ‘clothes’ are, nor do I believe I have them,” the woman said, squinting her eyes a little. “Your tail is strange.”
Bailey’s eyes widened at that and turned her head to stare at her bottom. She didn’t have a tail. “What are you--?” She practically fell into the water at the sight of a large, scaly, navy blue tail that appeared just next to the woman, her heart pounding as she realized what, exactly, she was dealing with here. “Are you a…?” She couldn’t even finish her sentence as the tail swished, almost appearing to be involuntary and she shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut tightly.
This cannot be happening, she thought to herself. Sirens don’t—
But then she opened her eyes at there she was, a siren looking right up at her, tail still swishing behind her, head tilted and hair beginning to dry in the hot summer air.
“I am Serena,” the siren informed her. “My name is ironic, I know, but I was named by my human mother before I received my tail.”
“R-received?” Bailey asked. “You mean…you weren’t born with a tail?”
Serena shook her head. “Sirens are rarely born; there aren’t enough males to fertilize us.”“Then how…?”
“My mother passed when I was a toddler—I do not even remember her name or her warmth—and my stepfather, who they tell me was a heartless man, brought me out to the ocean to drown. My adoptive mothers saved my life and gave me a tail so that I could survive with them in the ocean. It’s the way most of us are made.”
“Mothers?” It was a stupid thing to get stuck on, truthfully, but it was the thing that rang most loudly for Bailey. “You had more than one?”
The siren nodded. “Of course. With very few males to populate us, sirens often mate in pairs of females, if at all. Female mates bond for life and raise their adopted offspring together. Only sometimes do you see a male and a female siren with natural-born siren children. But that is not how I was raised.”
Bailey’s entire body began to tingle at that. She had never once considered the possibility that she...that sirens…that…
Her mind with swimming with the information she’d just received.
“How do….is it possible…can an adult human become a siren?” she asked. She had not expected those words to come tumbling from her mouth, but they did. It was also at that moment when she discovered that that was a question she was very interested in knowing the answer to. She leaned forward, her dress falling down her thighs as she waited for Serena’s answer.
The siren frowned. “I don’t know,” she said, deep in thought. “I don’t recall ever meeting a human before this day. Usually, we are not allowed to come above the surface.”
“Usually? What changed that?” Bailey asked.
“You kicked my head,” Serena informed her with a slight glare.
“Sorry,” Bailey said.
“I am unharmed,” Serena assured her, “but I do not know the answer to your question. I would have to ask my mothers. Will you be here again tomorrow?”
The beach was far out of her way—the studio and her apartment were both on the other side of town and it would take at least a half hour to get here at any time of day—but she nodded, anyway. “Yes,” said Bailey. “I will be here.”
The siren nodded. “Then I will meet you when the sun is highest in the sky,” she said.
Noon, Bailey’s mind supplied for her. I can do noon.
“Deal,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Serena.”
“I will see you tomorrow as well, Human,” Serena replied and disappeared beneath the surface.
“Bailey!” the woman shouted after her. “My name is Bailey!”
Serena surfaced a dozen feet away. “I’ll see you soon, Human Bailey!” she called, then waved and dove under once again.
Bailey watched for a few moments, as her shadow moved farther and farther until it was gone, the setting sun glittering over the horizon. Her entire body continued to tingle in excitement as a smile spread across her lips.
By dorkwriter, in News,
Murder inquiry into skydiving death
The death of a skydiver whose parachute failed to open over an airfield in North Lincolnshire is now being treated as murder. Stephen Hilder, who was 20, fell 13,000 feet to his death while he was taking part in a jump, at Hilbaldstow Airfield, on Friday.
Detective Superintendent Colin Andrews, who is leading the investigation, said parts of Mr Hilder's kit had been tampered with, so neither his main parachute nor his reserve could open.
He said "It is an absolute fact that both parachutes were deliberately tampered with and on the basis of that we have to strongly suspect that murder was the motive."
Cords cut
Mr Hilder, an officer cadet who had completed more than 200 parachute jumps, was found dead in a cornfield.
His family, from Hereford, paid tribute to a "wonderful son and brother."
Humberside Police carried out forensic tests on the parachute pack used by Mr Hilder and say the cord which deployed the main chute and the strapping to the reserve chute had been cut.
DS Andrews said: "We are entirely satisfied that Stephen's parachute was deliberately tampered with and what we need to find out is who did that and for what reason."
He said Mr Hilder was an experienced skydiver who was safety conscious.
Video footage
"It is a tragic waste of a young man with a bright and promising future and it is a particularly horrendous way to die," he said.
The parachute equipment had been checked on Wednesday - the day the jump had originally been due to take place - and "stored in good working order".
Mr Andrews said the parachute was kept in a store that was locked overnight but was left open in the day.
Police say a fancy dress party was held at Hiblestow Airfield on the evening of 3 July which was attended by a number of people, including Mr Hilder.
Many of the people who attended took video footage and photographs of the party and police are appealing for them to get in contact.
They are also examining video footage of the actual fall which was filmed by people at the site.
Mr Hilder was one of eight people who took part in the jump but no one else was injured.
'Wonderful son'
The airfield has re-started parachute jumping and security has been reviewed.
Meanwhile, a skydiving expert said it would be relatively easy to sabotage a parachute jump.
Dave Hickling, chief instructor with the British Parachute School based at Langar Airfield near Nottingham, said: "You don't need a lot of knowledge to cut things.
"Once you have been on a basic parachute course and you have seen how the parachute deploys, you would have enough knowledge."
In a statement Mr Hilder's family said: "He was a wonderful son and brother, whose place in his very close-knit family will never be filled."
skydiving had "quickly become a total passion" for him after he took it up at Bristol University, they said.
He continued skydiving when he transferred to the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, last year, where he helped revitalise the college's skydiving club.
Multiple injuries
"He made over 200 jumps in the UK, France and South Africa, including freefall and formation diving and his absolute love for the sport never faded," they said.
Mr Hilder was born in Hereford and went to school there before studying for his A-levels at Welbeck College.
The statement continued: "Throughout his time with the Army he kept his love of theatre and music.
"He was a talented percussionist and amateur actor, who loved reading and listening to rock music.
"Steve had a tremendous sense of humour and made friends wherever he went."
A post mortem found Mr Hilder died of multiple injuries.
Monkey around with Monkey Claw
The Monkey Claw Freefly Team and Freefly School had a busy 2001 season and it preparing for an even busier 2002 season. The Monkey Claw Freefly Team is based at Skydive Cross Keys, in Williamstown, New Jersey. The Team consists of Glen "Stuey" Newman, Tim Miller, Adam Rosen, Heath Richardson and Bert Navarette. They train at their home DZ and run a school where they instruct freefly students of all levels. On a regular basis they load organize freeflyers of all skill levels at Cross Keys.
The 2001 season included their Annual Monkey Jams over the Memorial Day and Labor Day holiday weekends. At these events freeflyers travel from across the globe to participate in big ways, tracking dives, tube dives as well as some one on one coaching with Monkey Claw. Every night there is plenty to entertain the hundreds of skydivers registered for the event. There is free food, free beer and fun activities that are always kept a secret until the last moment. Last year someone lit himself on fire (this year it was on purpose), there was a bungee racetrack and a psycho swing. All of the other amenities at Cross Keys are available as well, the Long Delay Café, the Tiki Bar, the swimming pool and the Booze Cruise.
Away from Cross Keys the Team traveled to many events and DZ's for coaching and load organizing. Some of the places included Lost Prairie, Quincy, Skydive Delmarva and Chicagoland. Chicagoland will also be the home of the first Monkey Claw Satellite School run by Brandon Park with visits from the rest of the team throughout the summer.
New for this season Skydive Cross Keys has its own fleet of aircraft's for all jumpers. At Cross Keys you have your choice of jumping from a Caravan, Skyvan, Super Otter, Biplane, Helicopter and of course a Cessna. Square 3 is located right on the DZ for all of you equipment needs. There are hot showers, bathrooms and plenty of camping areas on the premises. The Long Delay Café keeps jumpers fed throughout the day and the beach, Tiki Bar and Swimming pool are located right next to the landing area.
The Team just returned from the 2nd Freefall Festival in Puerto Rico where they were coaching and load organizing throughout the boogie. Over 200 skydivers from around the world attended the event and records were broken for number of registrants, loads flown and skydives made.
For the upcoming season the calendar is still being put together. Of course there will be the annual Memorial Day and Labor Day Monkey Jams and the theme for the first Jam has already been chosen. The team will be traveling to Chicagoland as well as Lost Prairie for the Voodoo Rendezvous. There are a lot of other events that are still being finalized at the moment.
If you want to learn more about Monkey Claw you can visit their website at www.monkeyclaw.com. At the site you can find photos, videos, a list of events and you can contact the members for more information.
Adam Rosens Monkey Claw GalleryAll photos by: Adam Rosen