BikerBabe 0 #26 November 14, 2002 Ron, I generally agree with you, as someone who plans on competing in the advanced class next year with my weekend team. However, I must correct a misconception that I hear a lot of... Quote top Airforce team...they don't pay for jumps, gear..ect. Airforce is the Intermediate version of the Knights. ACK! No! Wrong! As far as I know, the Knights don't train 4-way on top of (and secondary to) putting 1000 students per year through a 25-hour ground school/5-jump course. On top of 21-hr course loads, mandatory intramural athletics, and various military duties...When I was on the team (I did the Demo team, not the competition team), I think the Senior 4-way team got maybe 30 4-way training jumps a month on Air Force Academy time. Look at any of their logbooks...a majority of their "free" jumps at the AFA will be from 4,000 ft. The only exception was on our spring break training camp. If you look at previous nationals results, the top AF cadet team only started attending USPA nationals a couple of years ago, and until this year, they were averaging in the 7-8 range. This year's team decided to go out to Calhan on the weekends, go to the tunnel, and train using their own $ for jumps...and it shows. None of the previous years teams has done nearly as much training on their personal time (or dime). At the AFA, competiton, while a cool aspect of the Wings of Blue, is really not the number 1 priority...As a matter of fact, if I had to rank them when I was there, it would be teaching AM-490 (the basic first jump course), demos, then competition in order of priority. Things may have changed since then, but I doubt it. It's much easier to recruit applicants to the AFA from an air show audience of 200,000... Sorry for harping...it just gets to me when I hear that the AFA teams have it easy...Edited to add: they also have to train for classic style and accuracy...Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ron 7 #27 November 15, 2002 You forgot to add that they get coaching from Team Frost.I know a good bit about the Airforce team.... You said they might do 30 4way jumps a jumps a mth....Thats a lot of free 4 way jumps. I think the top Airforce team did ~150 team jumps last year. Which is more than Frost did, and almost most more than Nemesis did this year. And more than most of the Intermediate teams. The "New" guys already have 10 jumps this year, and 2 hrs. of tunnel time. Next week they are going to have a week long train up at Perris Valley CA. They will also have a Civilian coach there for the whole week. But in my comparison to the Knights it is fairly good.... It's just that the Airforce team has to do everything, as opposed to the GK's having different teams. And the AFA team might only do 150 jumps, but most Intermediate teams do around that number or less. The GK's do 1,000 jumps....Again Top Open teams do around that # or less. So in the Intermediate class...they are just like the GK's. Ron Frost 98-02 82 Airborne "All American Freefall Team" (Demo team, comp team, Instructor) 99-02 "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
