Articles

SkyVenture Colorado on Track

I'm sure by now you have heard the buzz in the Skydiving community about the newest SkyVenture wind tunnel being built in Lone Tree, Colorado. Well, the buzz is true; finally Colorado will have its very own indoor flight chamber. All of SkyVenture's latest technology wrapped in a single spectacular package and placed in the middle of The Entertainment District next to Park Meadows Mall located at 9230 Park Meadows Drive, in Lone Tree, Colorado.
SkyVenture Colorado tunnel has all the latest improvements in design. The first thing you'll notice is the building is a single fully contained facility. Behind the unique architecture you will find a massive amount of very sophisticated components making up what is referred to as a "re-circulating tunnel". This technology has many advantages. By re-circulating the air they can maintain a very comfortable 70 degrees in the tunnel even when it is snowing outside. By virtually eliminating all influence from outside wind gusts and channeling the air early on it gives the ultimate smooth as silk air. Combining extremely tight tolerances on aerodynamic design and 1200 hp they have created the finest, smoothest 160mph+ air available in the industry.
SkyVenture Colorado LLC is a private Colorado based company formed to own and operate the most technologically advance and realistic skydiving simulator in the world. A group of investors headed up by Norm Rosendale are not new to the world of entertainment. Norm was involved in the SkyCoaster amusement ride business and served on the Board for Sky Fun 1. He has flown hang gliders for over 25 years and owned and operated his own hang gliding business. Norm's mission is to create a comfortable atmosphere for the skydivers and non-skydivers to relax and interact with each other and share their dreams and experiences of flight. "If we all don't walk away with a smile on our face then we are not doing it right".
Construction is going very well for a late December early January opening. Please sign up for e-mail updates or buy now and make your reservations to be one of the first fliers at www.SkyVentureColorado.com

By admin, in News, December 5, 2005

Skydive Arizona Tunnel Construction Underway!

By axel, in News, November 8, 2004

Landing Fatalities in Florida and Montana

Panama City Beach Florida
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. Minnesota National Guardsman killed in skydiving mishap: A Minnesota Air National Guard technical sergeant was killed after landing improperly during a skydiving jump.
Benjamin A. Freeman, 31, died Tuesday after jumping from an airplane 3,000 feet high near Eagle Air Sports, a small airport near Panama City Beach.
Jennifer Collins, a spokeswoman for the Bay County Sheriff's Office, said human error appeared to have been the cause of the accident.
"The parachute deployed normally and he was doing some simple maneuvers," she said. "There was nothing odd with the plane or the equipment. He was an experienced jumper."
Freeman, a full-time guardsman, was stationed at nearby Tyndall Air Force Base, where he was part of an alert detachment of the Minnesota Guard's 148th Fighter Wing, said Maj. Don Arias, a spokesman for the 1st Air Force at Tyndall.
Ground crew members such as Freeman are on permanent status at Tyndall while pilots rotate from Minnesota. Freeman had recently moved here from Tulsa, Okla., where he had been with the Oklahoma Air National Guard, Arias said.
His wife and child were at the airport at the time of the accident.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigation and Bay County Sheriff's deputies were still investigating.
Chico Hot Springs Montana
A Great Falls skydiver who did a trick turn to pick up speed as he was coming in for a landing at Chico Hot Springs Saturday died of multiple injuries after hitting the ground.
Philip Moore, 39, and an experienced jumper, suffered multiple traumatic injuries when he landed hard in a field near the horse barn about 2:30 p.m., said Park County Coroner Al Jenkins. Moore was participating in an annual Chico jump meet.
He died aboard a Life-Flight helicopter taking him to St. Vincent Hospital in Billings.
"This is a terrible tragedy at a really positive and high-energy event, and everybody is just sick," said Colin Davis, Chico's general manager.
The accident happened as Moore was coming in for a landing, said sky diver Chris Trujillo of Casper, Wyo., who witnessed Moore's jump.
"Everything looked normal until the last few seconds," Trujillo said.
Moore was coming down under a full canopy, and as he made his final approach, he did a hook turn. A hook turn allows a sky diver to get a little more speed and sets him up for a fast approach on landing.
"He didn't recover from the hook turn fast enough," Trujillo said. "There may have been turbulence in the air."
He described the winds as "light to moderate, well within the safety range" for sky diving. He speculated that circular winds may have complicated Moore's landing.
"It's one of those fluke things that just happened," he said. "We've made thousands of skydives here."
After Moore's hard landing, two doctors, who happened to be driving by the resort, gave Moore CPR and attempted to stabilize him until emergency medical technicians arrived from Emigrant and Livingston. The Life-Flight helicopter was called.
At least 60 sky divers from throughout the nation were attending the annual event. Sky divers stopped jumping for a while after the accident, but resumed about 5 p.m., Davis said. Plans are to continue the meet Sunday.
An investigation is under way by the coroner and Park County sheriff's deputies. Jenkins said he is awaiting the results of autopsy toxicology.

By admin, in News, June 26, 2000

Jury rules against family of skydiver killed in accident

Moments after a jury cleared him of any wrongdoing in the death of a skydiver, Michael Hawkes stood on the front steps of the Foley Federal Building and pointed skyward at the Air Force Thunderbirds as they performed maneuvers.
"Hey! They're celebrating our win," Hawkes yelled over to fellow defendant Joe Herbst. "That's pretty good."
On Friday a Clark County civil jury ruled that Hawkes, the owner of Skydive Las Vegas, was not responsible for the May 1998 death of Vic Pappadato, an Emmy-award winning videographer and skydiver.
They also found that Herbst, a former teacher who jumped that day with Pappadato, did not contribute to Pappadato's death. In fact, they awarded Herbst $1, saying Pappadato caused the midair collision that led to his death and seriously injured Herbst.
The four-week trial was held in the Foley Federal Building to provide extra space.
The parents and brother of Vic Pappadato had claimed that Hawkes had a history of violating safety rules and on the afternoon of May 10, 1998, allowed a group to dive even though some of them had been partying the previous evening.
The family's attorney said those mistakes led to Pappadato's death.
Hawkes and Herbst's attorneys told jurors that Pappadato deviated from a pre-arranged plan, and his mistakes led to his death.
They also pointed out that Pappadato had signed a waiver releasing Skydive Las Vegas from any liability.
"It's been a long four weeks since the trial began and a long four years since the accident," Hawkes said. "I'm just very happy the waiver stood out and was upheld. Everyone who jumps out of airplanes knows it is potentially dangerous.
"There's been a lot of pain and suffering on both sides. I'm very sorry for the Pappadatos' loss, but this lawsuit should never have happened."
In a written statement, Vince Pappadato, Vic's brother wrote: "We accept the jury's verdict, although we do not necessarily agree with the outcome. Sometimes the truth cannot always be proven.
"This is just another bump in the road for us, and Vic Pappadato will never be forgotten for the champion he was in the sport that he loved so much, for the son and brother that he is, and for the man he became that everyone loved and misses dearly."
Vince Pappadato said his family also wished for peace for the Herbst family.
Herbst, who suffered internal injuries and broken bones in the accident, said he regretted having to file his counter-claim against Pappadato's estate. He said he went ahead with the lawsuit to clear his name.
"I have no animosity toward the Pappadato family, that's why I only asked for a dollar," Herbst said.
Herbst, who has made 1,000 dives since the accident, said the accident happened as the result of a few bad decisions made over a nine-second period.
"Who hasn't made bad decisions?" Herbst said. "I had forgiven Vic before I hit the ground."
~ LAS VEGAS SUN

By admin, in News, March 17, 2002

Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld returns to Perris Valley Skydiving

By admin, in News, May 27, 2003

Livin' on the Edge - Literally.

About 2500' feet above the floor of the Grand Canyon.
Tied in with 5/8 rope, bits of aluminum and steel cable holding five cameramen in place on sheets of ice/soggy snow, we're shooting the Performance Design Factory Team (PDFT) as they become the first terrain swoopers in the world flying inside the Grand Canyon. The Factory Team are the most experienced and talented athletes in the skydiving world, having won world event competitions as a team and as individual athletes.
Our task was to shoot in places no camera has ever accessed, and this project was a techno-marvel at every twist and turn in the several miles of dirt road (and sometimes virtually no road) it took to arrive at shooting locations.
Unable to physically scout the area, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems were used in conjunction with specific areas that were discovered, chosen, and mapped out using Google Earth Plus by the Factory Team members. None of the five jumpers had ever been in this remote area far from the beaten path of tourists. Satellite phones were used for general and emergency communications, as there is no cellular coverage (or power of any kind) on the site. Base camp was established at the Cameron Trading Post on the Navajo (Dine) reservation in north central Arizona with a 2.5 hour drive to each shoot location. The nearest airport is Tuba City, AZ to the north, and further to the south in Flagstaff, AZ. The video aircraft based themselves out of the Tuba City airport.
The shoot is in a remote area, miles from the nearest power outlet or electronics store, temperatures are hovering just below freezing at noon, and zero/single digits in the early morning and late afternoon. We needed cameras that would be capable of moving 120mph and manage fast exposure changes from bright sunlit sky and clouds to the dark recesses of the Grand Canyon, that could manage the cold and wind. No stunt nor camera setup could be rehearsed, as helicopter time is exceedingly expensive for this no/low-budget project.
The stunts the skydivers performed were dangerous enough on level and familiar ground. Flying wings of nylon and string at speeds approaching 100 mph while skimming the rocky soil for distances of up to 150 feet, then at ground level, executing a nearly upside down barrel roll only a couple of feet from the edge of the Grand Canyon would be considered an extreme act of athleticism. Place cameramen with shoulder cams directly beneath them that need to avoid the canopy pilots, and the canopy pilots need to avoid the cameramen; even the slightest strike could easily kill the canopy pilot and toss the tethered camera operator over the edge.
Due to the budget, location, availability of crew, and the speed that setups had to happen, we chose to use HDV camcorders on this shoot. The Factory Team was already prepped up for the HDV format, as they currently all fly Sony HVR-A1U camcorders on their camera helmets. Each member of the team flies a camcorder to shoot POV, while team photographer JC Colclasure flies over, under, and around the team to capture an overall perspective from the air. All aerial camcorders are fitted with Raynox HD wide angle lenses, while the helmets are fitted with CamEye and Brent's Sights camera indicators and sight rings.
Four Sony HVR Z1U, three HVR V1U, and eight HVR A1U camcorders were used on the shoot, plus two Canon XLH1 camcorders used for long shots using a variety of lens lengths. The lighter camcorders were critical, as they needed to be quickly rappelled into the canyon strapped to our backs, quickly set up on canyon ledges when positioned by helicopter, and able to be flown on lightweight jibs over the canyon.
Dave Major aka "Clem", a Hollywood stunt coordinator and stuntman managed the harnessing and safety tie-downs; Jack Guthrie, a DZO (Drop Zone Operator) and safety officer oversaw all safety aspects of the shoot, managing the cameramen on the rim of the canyon and the cameramen flying in the Cessna 185 aircraft and helicopter. Each on the shoot was required to wear a harness at all times, and be secured from at least one point for each shoot position. Cameramen Matt Wimmer, Joey Allred, Dave Major, Jack Guthrie, and boom operator Benjamin Bressler are all accomplished skydivers, some with great BASE (Building, Antenna, Span, Earth) jumping skill, which was of great benefit when consistently 2000 feet from the ground. The Performance Designs Factory Team all wear Skysystems or Wes Rich camera helmets, Bonehead ShuVue (foot camera mount), and belly cams to capture a variety of air-to-air angles. Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo, Jonathan Tagle, Jay Moledzki, and JC Colclasure are all not only world record canopy pilots; they're all very accomplished aerial camera operators, and have flown for a wide variety of television broadcasts as aerial camera persons.
We used lightweight tripods with Bogen 516 and 526 heads were used on a variety of sticks, but at all times, the kit was kept exceptionally light. The tripods were used for the long ground-to-air shots, as the lenses were fully extended, and needed to be kept tight on high speed objects, virtually invisible to the naked eye. Upon reaching a preset altitude of approximately 3000' AGL (Above Ground Level) the pilots would pop skydiver smoke, allowing them to be more easily seen and tracked. We also used the Gorillapod camera grippers/mounts, wrapped around rocks, scrub, and lighting poles to capture unique angles without being seen on in the frame of other camcorders. Audio Technica wireless and microphones were used mounted to KTek Graphite boom poles. We chose the wireless system as both receiver and transmitter were battery operated, and the KTek Graphite pole was chosen for past performance in exceptionally cold environments such as the Sundance Film Festival and various snowboarding competitions. Aluminum boom poles become loose, and are exceptionally cold to hang on to for any length of time.
Gear planning easily became the greatest apparent hurdle. Being as remote as we were, batteries were critical for lighting, sound equipment, camcorders, wireless systems, radios, and satellite phones. For this reason, we choose to carrry four LitePanels and lightweight stands, we planned on weighting the stands with stones slung in canvas bags. Water could not be carried to the cliff ledges for reasons of weight and safety. Stones were also chosen to weight down the jib assembly used over the edge of the cliff. RedRock Micro MicroFocus' with 18" whips were used for tripod mounts on both dolly and tripod setups, adding in speed of focus during pans. We also needed to be assured of on-site monitoring, and Adobe/Serious Magic DV Rack HD served the purpose quite well. Cameras above or on the rim in sunlit areas were fitted with 4X4 polarizing filters for shooting against the sky, into the sun, and for intensifying colors against the sunlit canyon walls, causing the parachutes to brightly stand out.
Other challenges were picking up great field audio. Everything in the canyon echoes and rolls, and distances ranging from over a mile to mere feet made levels a challenge to control without using automatic level controlling. We didn't want to allow auto control, as the noise of the helicopter constantly triggered auto-level controls boosting noise as the heli flew farther and closer to our microphones. We used Audio Technica 4073 mics for rim-edge placement, hanging microphones off the rim into the middle of the canyon to capture the crack of opening parachutes and the sound of rushing cloth during wingsuit jumps and canopy deployments. We also wanted to capture the very distinctive sound of swooping canopies at high speed, both at near and far distances. For the near distances (less than five feet), we used Audio Technica 4053 hyper cardiods to block as much helicopter noise as possible.
Camera operators are staged at three points in the canyon. Covering the landing area, in-canyon flight and terrain stunts required helicopter placement, as the bottom of the canyon and mid-points in the canyon could not be rappelled or fast roped, and while we could have BASE jumped into the bottom of the canyon, extraction still required heli time. At many points, the cameraman had to free-step from the helicopter to small rock areas, due to the helicopter not being able to set down in small spaces. This added to the importance of highly portable camera kits. The overall scale of the canyon is not to be underestimated. For this project, we all underestimated the scope of distance, and even though we had our longest lenses in place, shooting 2000 feet even on a rock-mounted and weighted tripod could become an exercise in hunt and peck to locate the skydivers when they were 5000 feet in the air moving at exceptionally high speed. There were occasions where we were separated by as much as 8,000 feet between the exit point and landing areas.
We set each camera to capture a specific range of action, given the speed at which we had to capture the moving canopy pilots. The canopy pilots gave very accurate space limits within which they'd be flying, but no aerial stunt or precision flight could be predicted to specific marks due to winds. However, once near the ground, the canopy pilots flew their wings within millimeters of mark points. Cameras set to capture at full extension, super wide, tracking, and fixed closeups were designated prior to the jump/stunt. This makes for a wide selection of camera angles for the multicam edit, offering anywhere between 6 and 14 camera angles per stunt. VASST infinitiCAM in Sony Vegas 7 software was used for cutting dailies to get a glimpse of what we had in the can each night. Ultimately, we brought home more than 100 hours of footage between all of the camcorders on the shoot, in four locations over 6 days. Logging was managed with the Sony Media Manager for Vegas, allowing us to mark all dailies, access similar scenes, search by logged keywords, and create stunt folders.
On site storage for dailies was captured to Western Digital "MyBook" 500GB external drives, connected to a laptop via 1394 connection. Only key scenes were captured for immediate review at various angles, to save time on the ground.
Mornings started before sunlight, and the shoots ran straight into night, squeezing the last moments out of the golden hour, to create as many romance shots as possible. During one late afternoon stunt, the winds at 4000' AGL were significantly different than winds measured at ground level, and winds generated by the cooler air in the canyon. The canopy pilots were significantly blown off course by rogue winds, causing them to not only miss their pre-assigned marks, but put them at risk of not being able to generate enough drive to fly over and subsequently into, the Grand Canyon area. This added risk cost us a few camera angles since only two of the canopy pilots entered into the sight picture and frame boundaries. These sorts of challenges are common when working with unpredictable high speed sports, and camera operators need to be prepared to improvise if anything is to be captured at all.
At the end of this segment of a much larger project, everyone was exhausted from the long hikes carrying gear, shooting in very cold conditions, and the long hours. As skydivers often say, "we had fun and no one died." That sums up the project quite nicely; we had a great time under adverse conditions, captured some incredible footage (have *you* ever seen a parachute fly upside down at ground level?), and put to bed the second segment of one of the most exciting chapters in this forthcoming feature-length project. For me personally, the greatest part of the entire experience is hanging out with my heroes in the skydiving world, learning new canopy techniques, and the opportunity to join my videocraft with my passion for skydiving. From my viewpoint as a videographer that skydives, , these two weeks have been similar to hanging out with Spielberg, Cameron, Coppola, or other great director. Except these guys fly.
The great achievement wasn't just that we succeeded in capturing a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but that we pulled it off using small format gear, easily carried and packed from point to point in short periods of time, trying to pace the flights and lighting .Thanks to the light weight and maneuverability of the small-format camcorders, livin' on the edge may be dangerous, but missing the shot was never a worry.

All photos in this article shot by Justin Carmody, Performance Designs photographer using Canon 5D and a bag of lenses. Screen captures from Sony Vegas 7.
Additional video camera assistance and aircraft piloting from David Major, Michelle Knutsen, Jack Guthrie, Debbie Zimmerman, Mannie Frances, and Ryan Crissman.

By admin, in News, March 1, 2007

World Champion Freeflyers Make Sebastian Home

Skydive Sebastian, in Sebastian Florida has just stepped up it's efforts to be the number one destination for skydivers on the East Coast, and in doing so has now attracted the world's best free flyers to instruct, coach and organize on a daily basis. The Free fly Training Center (FTC) has just opened at the DZ located centrally on the east coast of Florida. "Our mission as The Free fly Training Center, is to lead the free fly scene at Skydive Sebastian in the most efficient way possible. This will allow each and every individual flyer to progress at their desired learning curve. We are doing this through extensive coaching, events every month, and free load organizing", says Mike Swanson, instructor for the school and current Free fly World Champion.
The FTC has 4 instructors on staff who are already involved in organizing on a daily basis, helping to expand free flyers in aerial awareness, communication, flying skills and dive planning in a safe and controlled manner. This program aims towards flyers who are used to visiting DZ's where it's hard to find anyone to jump with, and end up spending their vacation doing solos. " We wanted to get away from the typical situation where intermediate flyers never get a chance to jump with someone who is more skilled than themselves. Our program adds to EVERYONE'S learning curve, and gives us more capable flyers to have fun with during events", reports FTC instructor Dave Brown.
The FTC is the end result of all of it's members giving a combined effort in looking to start something which will benefit ALL flyers in the end. The FTC members are: Mike Swanson, from the First School of Modern Sky flying Instructor Staff, and Rook Nelson, of Free fly Chicago, which together are the current Free fly World Champions. They will be training all season long at Skydive Sebastian, hoping to defend their title in the 2003 Free fly World Championships. Addition FTC members are David Brown, also of the First School of Modern Sky flying Instructor Staff, and Rob Silver, formerly of Sebastian Free flight. Together they ensure that the quality of free flying at Skydive Sebastian will be extensive, and without a doubt, educational.
Coaching programs are available for individuals who are looking to excel past their current flying ability, OR towards specific goals. All of the instructors are highly experienced and capable of teaching all facets of free fly, in a unique and efficient atmosphere. This allows the flyer to advance and become proficient in all areas of three dimensional flight. The FTC has no minimum on the number of instructional jumps that one must purchase. HOWEVER, they recommend that any student should participate in AT LEAST five instructional jumps, to attain the most out of the program. At the end of each coaching session, the instructors will evaluate the student's progress, and give advice for the future, so as to continue the process of education and guidance after the student returns to his/her respective drop zone. With the already increased interest in their programs, the FTC has worked with DZ management to get price breaks on block ticket jumps for students who come to the DZ to do at least 25 instructional jumps or more. The FTC instructor rate is discounted with this package as well, offering discounted coach rates with the purchase of 25 jumps or more.
Since the beginning of October, the FTC's events calendar has started rolling with the Halloween Boogie, the Keys Boogie and an influx of regular and visiting jumpers doing coached and organized jumps. Both of the boogies were great successes, lots of high quality and safe jumping. Each month the FTC plans on having events focused on different flying and learning. The event which has drawn the biggest response from flyers thus far, is the FTC's "Pure Progression Program", where students are engaged in a 30 jump minimum course held over a period of 7 days. This takes them to the next level of human flight. The weeklong course includes seminars in three dimensional flight, canopy piloting, and camera flying. During the week, students will visit the Sky Venture Wind Tunnel in Orlando, and participate in the FTC's Wind Tunnel Program, focusing on head up flying and dimensional control. There are also two "Big Ways" camps, a Weekend Skills Camp, and The All Axis competition. The FTC hopes to draw flyers nationally and internationally not only to have fun, but also acquire as much knowledge as possible this season.
If you are interested in any of these programs, or want to get in touch with FTC members contact [email protected] or go check out the FTC's website at www.freeflytrainingcenter.com, the web site is currently being built and will be up and running soon. Also check out Skydive Sebastian's website at www.skydiveseb.com for the latest information on boogies, skills camps and coaching info and prices.
All photos of Dave Brown and student Dan Labelle by Rook Nelson
Written by:
Erin Golden

By admin, in News, November 17, 2001

Michel Fournier aims for the Stratosphere

Somewhere high in the skies above Saskatchewan, Canada this week, a retired French army parachutist will jump from a height of 40,000 metres in a freefall he hopes will propel him faster than the speed of sound. If 58-year-old Michel Fournier is successful, his stunt will shatter four world records: the highest, fastest and longest freefall jump, and the highest balloon ascent.
Mr. Fournier and his team, who have dubbed this death-defying exercise Le Grand Saut or The Big Jump, were planning to take off in a massive helium balloon yesterday, but called off the jump because of high winds.
"The team is ready for this and will every day now be checking the weather until conditions are just right," said Diane de Robiano, spokeswoman for the project.

If the wind abates, the jump may take place in the next 24 hours, or possibly later in the week, she said. The exact location is being kept secret.
This experiment into how the human body responds to breaking the sound barrier is to be conducted by freefalling from a height where the earth's atmosphere meets space, a distance the project's Web site depicts as 4 1/2 Mount Everests stacked on top of each other.
The bizarre international venture has consumed the energies of more than two dozen scientists, physicians and technologists for more than a decade and has cost about US$3.4-million so far.
For Mr. Fournier, who has embarked on a relentless personal training regime that has included more than 8,000 jumps and periods of meditation, the leap would be the realization of his life's ambition.
He sold most of his personal assets and spent several years lining up international funding for the venture, which began as an unusual assignment when he was still a colonel in the French military.
"What attracts me most is the extreme challenge," Mr. Fournier said in a press conference earlier this summer.
The last attempt to break the highest freefall record proved to be fatal. In 1965, Nick Piantanida, a New Jersey truck driver, encountered equipment failure when his face mask blew out and the lack of oxygen caused such severe brain damage that he went into a four-month coma and died.
The current record for longest freefall was set in 1960 by Joseph Kittinger, a U.S. army captain, who dropped 25,820 metres from a balloon and reached a maximum speed of 1,006 km/h, slightly faster than the speed of sound. He fell for four minutes and 37 seconds before his parachute opened.
Mr. Fournier hopes to reach a maximum speed of 1,600 km/h, about 1 1/2 the speed of sound. His freefall is predicted to last about six minutes and 25 seconds.
The team involved in Le Grand Saut is relying on a wide range of state-of-the-art technology: a specially manufactured, remote-controlled balloon; and an air-tight and ultra-low temperature space suit designed to withstand temperatures as low as minus 100C for as long as 10 minutes.
The aim of the project, according to its Web site, is to simulate a full-scale rescue of a team of astronauts after reaching a critical high altitude.
"Studies of the new questions posed by this world premiere event, such as the issue of how to protect the skydiver from the bang of breaking the sound barrier, have mobilized hitherto unknown scientific techniques," the organizers boast.
What seems to be most worrisome for the team is the prospect of Mr. Fournier going into a spin at the beginning of his jump, which would make it virtually impossible to stop the rotation "because of the density of air at this altitude," said Henry Marotte, of the French Aerospace Medical Laboratory.
"That is the most worrying scenario from the medical perspective," he added.

By admin, in News, September 9, 2002

The AFF Two-Step

Receiving an AFF Instructor rating is one of the pinnacle points of a skydiver’s continuing education and experience in the sport skydiving world, and has been a personal goal of mine for approximately two years. I was sure that the moment I had six hours of freefall time and my C license, I'd be able to knock this thing out fast.
How wrong I was...

This badge is likely the most expensive badge in the
skydiving world
When I first began skydiving, I was presented with the opportunity to spend some time in the tunnel at Perris, CA, with Ed Dickenson and Jay Stokes. I immediately took Ed up on his very generous offer to help me in my progression towards being a camera flyer. At 27 jumps, I entered the tunnel to learn some of the techniques I’d later use to fly with tandems, four-way, and fun jumpers. The video is hilarious.While I waited for Ed, we hung out at the school in Perris, and I overheard many conversations taking place between students and instructors. It was at that point I decided to become an instructor. Jay Stokes, Ed Dickenson, and Jack Guthrie all encouraged me to look towards that goal, yet six hours of freefall and a C license seemed so far away at that point, it quickly fell off the radar. I was having a hard time waiting for my 200th jump just so I could put on a camera anyway, let alone being an instructor.When I hit 200 jumps, I immediately got my coach rating. Alright! I was prepared to be unleashed on unsuspecting just-off-AFF-students.My first coach jump went great and filled me with a confidence that I had never before experienced. My third coach jump didn’t go so well with me finding myself very low, opening at an altitude that got me grounded for the weekend. Little lessons seemed to constantly present themselves. Although most of my wingsuit coach jumps have gone well, I once took a student with only 160 jumps. Bad decision; he had a cutaway (on a rig he'd borrowed from me) and I'm grateful that's all that occurred. I grounded myself for the weekend, and learned that lesson the hard way.It seems like most of us have stories like that; this one was my moment of enlightenment.
Over the next two years opportunity to teach, be taught, sit in on teaching experiences, and grow within the sport continually presented themselves. Like many skydivers, I surely thought I “had it all” in the 500 jump range when in truth, I was merely beginning to understand how much more there was to learn. As one skydiver repeated over and over (and over), “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Well…he’s right. I was discovering how little I knew, how far I had to go, and I was finding myself on the road of discovery.Being part of the qualification process for the 71 Way Wingsuit World Record opened my eyes to what good wingsuit instruction could be. I gained information over the last year that is integral to the first flight process as well, taking instruction from Scott Campos, Scott Callantine, Sean Horton, Justin Shorb, Jeff Nebelkopf, Scotty Burns, and several other very experienced wingsuit coaches. Like most skydivers, I've experienced great coaching and not-so-great coaching in my skydiving progression.
Being present when a friend was part of a tragic incident at the start of the year convinced me that I needed to know more about instruction, and I began looking at available AFF course opportunities. At the PIA conference, USPA President Jay Stokes informed me that Certification Unlimited (Jay’s instructional entity) was putting up a Coach and AFF course at Skydive Arizona in the following weeks. Timing was going to be tough, as I had some minor surgery scheduled, but I was excited to take advantage of the closeness of the opportunity, at one of my favorite dropzones, and in warm weather while it was freezing back home.

Image Left to Right:
Alex Chrouch, Jay Stokes, Craig Girard, Kelly Wolf, Nikos, Eliana Rodrigues, Douglas Spotted Eagle

Arriving in Eloy on a Saturday, I was completely pumped to start my education then and there. After all, I have 1300 jumps, 19 hours of freefall time in a couple of years, so this was going to be a fun cakewalk, right? I mean, I’ve got more than three times the requisite hours, lots of experience teaching, how hard could it really be? I’d taught parts of many First Jump Courses, taught many wingsuit students, and sat in on several courses. I knew I was ready.
How incorrect my thought process would prove to be.
Jay began with the syllabus and schedule for the course. It was daunting, but still appeared to be not insurmountable.
We did a bit of class work that night but the real class began in earnest Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. with the dew wet on the grass, sunrise barely behind us, and no coffee in sight, Jay smacked the class between the eyes with a number of videos that showed why the AFF program is so important, why the training would be very precise, and why each jump would be rated with “Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory” with no grey areas. “I’d bust my own mother if she wasn’t doing it right” is something we’d occasionally hear. And I believe it, but wasn’t intimidated by the concept. In fact, the only thing that had me intimidated was learning that repeat World Champions Craig Girard and Eliana Rodriguez were in my class. It’s somewhat difficult for a Hyundai to shine when parked between two Ferrari’s, right?
I knew I’d nail this stuff in a heartbeat. The written test was a cakewalk, just missing one question. And that question used math.
To say “I suck at math” would be akin to suggesting that “Omar is an OK skydiver.”I use a calculator for two plus two. True story. The ground training process is specific, but I’m used to this stuff, it’s pretty basic if you have the program down (thanks TDog, for providing some good pointers).Passing the written test indeed was a cakewalk compared to what came next... the in-air practicals.
Game-on, kids….We were assured the first jump would be our one opportunity to experience a “good student practice jump” where the student would behave and do essentially everything instructed, exactly as instructed.True to his word, Jay jumped like a perfect student. I was on the main side, Alex on reserve side.The jump went well from the Otter; no exit problems, the student responded perfectly to my signals, even if I was a little amped and anxious on this first jump. I thought Alex and I were a solid team. Suffice it to say that Alex did an outstanding job of flying his slot, keeping eye contact with his partner (me) and of doing his part in keeping our “student” corralled.Next jump, Jay paired me and a different partner with Kelly, a newly-minted AFF Instructor Evaluator.She went out the door with legs both bent forward at unique angles, arms in every direction but straight forward, and the only guarantee we had was that she wouldn’t roll onto her back during this practice jump.
Manhandling her into a level position without punching her required a great deal of strength. My partner lost his grip, floated up, and next thing I knew, I was alone with my student. I wasn’t going to let her go, except I was required to. And did so.She flew away, turning like a propeller just starting up and gathering speed as she backslid, turned, and orbited. I knew I had fewer than 15 seconds to catch her (which sounds like an eternity, but in truth, it’s the blink of an eye for the second jump as an AFFI Candidate). I caught up and had her blocked in a few short moments, but those same moments seemed like an eternity in themselves. She grinned and decided to go the other way. I think what troubled me wasn’t that the grin was mischievious; it was evil, clearly payback for what she had been subjected to as an AFF candidate. Cruel, cold, calculated evil. But we were having fun, right? My partner was floaty, at least 20’ up and 20’ out from where our student was spinning, but he did eventually make it most of the way back in. I ended up on the reserve side after her spins and subsequent blocks, and so the dance at the bottom was a little different; it was my first experience with dancing on the left. I pulled the handle, deploying my student and she looked at me with a grin that made the previous evil smile appear to be innocent; I’d failed to ride through the actual deployment. The triumph I’d felt at properly feeling the rhythm and cadence of the dance evaporated like palm sweat in a 120 mph wind.
Moving on before I exaggerate more than I already am….let’s look at the third jump of the afternoon.
It was beautiful. Stunning. The sort of sun and sky that Eloy is famous for, and it was about to be spoiled. This time, I had no partner and no one on whom to place blame for the carnage that was about to occur. Combat Wingsuiting, combat RW could not have prepared me for a single, main side exit in which my student extended arms straight forward, legs nearly as much so, almost as if she’d been laid over top of a fence to dry, face down. I muscled her so that she remained belly to earth and she obviously didn’t like that action very much. She immediately pretzeled her legs with the right leg looking like it was flying over a hurdle in a heat, and the other leg bent 45 degrees forward and bent again at the knee. It was like she was performing a classic freestyle position but on her belly instead of her toes pointing straight down. Arms were practically folded above her head, and it was all I could do to force an arch. Duh…throw a hand signal and there might not be quite so much force necessary….
Thumb down, she arched like a pro. “Today’s skydive is brought to you by the letter ‘U’” as she arched so hard that she plummeted. Thank heaven I hadn’t asked her to wear the lead. I don’t like lead much, and my fall rate range is pretty broad. All those tandems and AFF videos have helped.
OK, she’s settled out. Calm, flying great, she gets a thumbs up and a terror-laced grin from her instructor. I give her signals to do a practice pull and toe taps. She does great and so therefore has earned a release. I released and she backslid from the moment I let go of her harness. Damn, that girl is fast, but so am I. I chased her with a side-slide, threw her a legs-out signal. Wow….look at her move forward! Faster than she was going backwards. Now, I’m orbiting and don’t even realize it until I’m looking at her butt in my windshield. So…forward I go, and out goes the hand signal for arch; I was behind her. She didn’t have a rear-view mirror so my only option was to slide sideways, slide my left hand under the BOC as I started to slide past, and toss her another “arch” symbol. Whew! She settled out….Mr Toad couldn’t have had more of his way with me than Kelly did on that skydive.
And that was just the first day….
Variations on the theme make for a colorful tale; the ground experiences as we prepped to get into the aircraft were equally interesting but it would spoil the movie if I share too many of the instructor’s tricks as they acted the part of wayward students. Suffice it to say that they’re there to help you succeed, but also there to allow you to fail if you’re not on your toes and looking out for the best interests of the student at all times. The dives aren’t about you, they’re about being sure your student is getting the appropriate attentions and instruction at all times.
I won’t bore you with further details of the skydives because they’re all about the same sort of story; carnage, deceit, evil appropriations of an examiner that demands you be able to drive forward in a sideslide while dropping like a stone to do an assisted rollover as they’re spinning with a maniacal grin, laughing at the poor sap chasing them. It’s like “Hare and Hound” with Dr. Dimento as the wily rabbit, always one step ahead. Just as you catch up, they cooperate. In the moment you breathe a sigh of relief, they’re on to the next trick. Carly Simon going through my head with “Anticipation…”
Lest you think I exaggerate too much, grab any AFF instructor who has had Jay’s program or anyone who Jay has taught. They’ll tell you I’m not kidding and if truth be told, I’m underselling the experience.
Lemme share a small story; If you deploy your instructor/student “for real” by pulling their hackey, it’s an automatic Unsatisfactory and regardless of whether you did everything previous right or not, you weren’t successful on this skydive due to that one fairly significant factor. “Students” wear a simulated hackey that AFF candidates are required to pull at a specific point in the skydive. AFF Candidates will hold the simulated hackey handle til they meet up with the instructor on the ground.Jay didn’t care for the fact that I kept stuffing the hackey handle down my pants when it came time for my own deployment. On my last skydive, we’re standing in the door of the aircraft and my ‘student’ is going through “check out” and in his up/down/arch mode when I realize there is no simulated hackey visible on his main-side lateral.I’m screwed. I absolutely must deploy my student at the bottom of the skydive. I must pull the simulated hackey and show the instructor that I pulled and that I rode through the deployment. That small handle is the proof in the putting that I did exactly as I was trained to do.
In other words, those handles are important.
What to do, what to do?
Worry hammered me throughout this skydive, my last in the series of eval dives. With a “Satisfactory” I’ll be able to catch my flight scheduled to leave Sky Harbor in about two hours. If I get an “Unsatisfactory,” I’m not going home and believe me, the price for that would be very high. I have commitments outside of skydiving, y’know?
The point of do or die is one that lasts for about three seconds or 500 feet. I make my decision and dammit, I’m sticking to it. Maybe.
I reach for my student’s leg gripper, look at my altimeter and begin the process. I’m counting down. By now, the “dance” is so freakin’ ingrained in my head that I’m doing it in my sleep, so much so that I’m convinced I did it perfectly on this skydive even though video shows I didn’t.
Reaching over to where the simulated hackey was supposed to be, I spied it turned behind the lateral.
Gave it a yank at the last possible moment, and proudly raised the simulated hackey as I ducked my head beneath his deployment hand (the last thing you want to experience is a bridle wrapping around your neck, or having the deploying hand knock you in the side of the head; it might be construed as interfering with the student).
And rode out his deployment. The last thing I remember seeing as my instructor lifted above my head was his look of wide eyes, pointed finger, open mouth, and the smile on his face. We got to the ground, I watched my student land, and debriefed the skydive.Mirth in my instructor’s eyes, he says “Nice job. Now tell me what you didn't like about that skydive."A grin crossed his face told me he was well aware of the location of the simulated hackey. And, I knew I’d passed the program at that point.A wave of relief passed over me and I felt like falling to my knees and crying myself dehydrated, but I doubt any moisture would have come forward. I’d forgotten to rehydrate in my excitement of this last day. I was drained. I was pwn’d. I was reduced to jelly and tissue in this last moment. No way, no how would I have signed up for this experience had I really known what was in store for me, of this I was sure. All week.
But…
At the end of the week’s worth of mental, physical, and emotional torture, after hearing Lou Gossett in my subconscious screaming “I WANT YOUR D.O.R.!!!,” I’m a better skydiver. I’m a better person, and I’m a more informed instructor. I now know a little more about what I don’t know. As I said before, I'm now firmly on the road to discovery. "SATISFACTORY" or "UNSATISFACTORY", anyone who endures the process will come out a better person on the other side of the hellfire. I promise.
I now have a new respect for those that have undergone this process before me. I understand why they are looked to with a unique sense of appreciation at every dropzone, I understand that the program is as much or more about teaching the next step in the educational process of qualified skydivers as it is about providing a license to teach the uninitiated. The AFF rating is a license to teach but it’s more a license to learn. In roughly 18 skydives, I learned a lot about what students can and will do. I learned how to best manage those situations with my new found abilities, and learned that if in 18 controlled scenarios I could learn this much, how much can I learn in a year, two years, five years of teaching a variety of students? I’m excited at the prospect.
Respect and appreciation is due where it’s due, and I’ll take the opportunity to point out that as skydivers, we all have foundations made up of the bricks of those around us. Jack Guthrie, Jay Stokes, Ed Dickenson, Norman Kent, Mike McGowan, Debbie Z, Lance B, Kelly W, Joey, Chris, Phil, Blake, Craig, Eliana, Alex (I’ll jump with you any day, kid), Nikos, Jeff, Justin, Scotty, Scott, Chuck, friends on dropzone.com…and so many others are the bricks that have helped pave the road on which I have driven as a skydiver seeking more knowledge. I don’t know how to thank you all for the inspiration beyond paying it forward and being the best instructor I can be as you have been great instructors in my life. OK, enough lovefest. Thank you.
It's the little things that make the difference on a skydive whether for the better or worse. Taking instructon from Norman Kent's camera course that taught me to anticipate movement, taking instruction from Ed in the tunnel that helped me develop a very high range of fall rate for a heavy person, and being part of numerous FJC and FFC courses helped me develop a comfortable ground patter and rhythm. All the pre-AFF prep you can do, I recommend you take the time to do it. You'll be glad you did.
Whether you went through AFF, Static Line, IAD, take a moment to thank your instructors; they worked hard to get to where they are, to be at a point where they can intelligently and safely teach others, including yourself. It’s a big, dangerous world out there and instructors walked just a few feet ahead of you, checking to make sure it’s the best environment within which we all learn. Buy em’ a beer, give em a smile, even if it’s been a long time passed by.

Receiving my rating from Jay Stokes, Certification Unlimited (and current President/USPA)

In the event you’re wondering by now, students are a little less safe; I squeezed through my AFFI course. It’s an expensive patch and logbook endorsement, but one I urge towards anyone with an inkling to teach.
I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.
Blue skies and puffies....
~dse

By DSE, in News, March 2, 2009

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

By admin, in News, January 13, 2002

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