LindaLu

Don't get your hopes up TOO much. Skydive Chicago is not very crw friendly. Rook might let you do crw if there is only going to be one plane on the ground. Or maybe the first jump of the day or the last one. But - good luck otherwise. I know Bob Felt will be there. He may have a spare canopy on him. But that won't do much good if they won't let you do it. We've tried the last three years and had to really work it to get up. Bring you RW canopy, too! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

HEY NOW! We don't get snow in Wisconsin until Halloween! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Excellent, as usual! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

I'm not really sure how many there were from the bench on the 1st 100-way, though I don't think there were many. After the 100-way was successfully built however, 14 were moved in from the bench to try it a second time so more people could get their name on the record. All 100 docked, but it was not official because of a bad grip. But hey - they can still say they docked on a 100-way, even though it's not an official world record! Still quite an achievement! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Soooooo........ how did it go? Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

There are some exceptional close-ups of people in this batch of pictures. Nice job, April. (and Razz?) Some of these should be printed up and framed! They should use these for world record ID badges, too. Better than those mug shots from the last one! :-) Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

How do you know balut? And San Miguel beer? You must have been to the Philippines, too. Terribly offensive to smell and eat. I can imagine that the effects would make even a pilot jump out. Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

That would be great to bring to a crw camp! Bored crw dogs on a weather hold - I can see it now. Bring two - we can have races! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

In an email from Raul (I know of 2 who had to cancel that I noted below. There have been airline sales going on to San Juan - it's not too late!!!!) ---- CReW Dogs, Just a reminder that the Puerto Rico boogie is coming soon (Feb 7 to 11). The DZ is expecting a big crowd this year and the DZOs are very much looking forward to having a good CRW group there. Check out their web site if interested (http://www.xtremedivers.com/). The experience last year was fantastic with lots of good jumps, good planes and pilots, great weather, beautiful views, fun parties, and terrific CReW Dogs. The list so far: Raul Ramirez Mike Lewis Bob Felt Linda Ruiz Damien Vince Eric F. Paul Katee W - canceled Chris Warnock - canceled Shannon Jim Rass April Reger Susanne Hoening (Sanne from Germany) Mike and I are looking forward to planning and organizing fun and challenging dives and to enjoying this Caribbean paradise with our friends. Anyone else that want to join us, just add yuor name to the list. See you there! Raul Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Here's another one! Linda __________________________ Hello again my fellow canopy fliers! It is time once again to update the list for the first training camp at Lake Wales. We are now over 40 strong! Boy I would not want to be the one at home wishing I was at Lake Wales doing CRW - looking out the window at the snow - minus 20 - but hey I am sure you thought it was worth missing - right???? NOT! Come on down to the sunshine state - its guaranteed warmer than any of them Yankee states in March! As a reminder we will be in Lake Wales on Feb 28th and March 1st for anyone who wants to get the winter rust out. The Lake Wales List: (as of 19 January) 1. Mike Lewis 2. Chris Gay 3. Brian Pangburn 4. Shawn Vineyard 5. Dave Bassinger 6. Jon Sikorsky 7. Jackson Hoffman 8. Marc Van Apern 9. Jim Walton 10. Dave Hillebrandt 11.Bob Felt 12. Linda Ruiz 13. Damien Ristaino 14. Ernie Pliscott 15. Kevin Keenan 16. Lyn Hannah 17. Shireen Khavari 18. Cliff Dobson 19. Jeni Gordon 20. Fiesty 21. Eric French 22. Don Bromley 23. Yuliya Korkh 24. Holger Gnoth 25. Alexander Bosel 26. Eric Gallan 27. Tim Vogl 28. Kirk VanZandt 29. Paulo Assis 30. Chico 31. Allen Gutshall 32. Mike Goodin 33. Liz Godwin 34. Dave Holmvik 35. Chuck Backus 36. Roger McClelland 37. (The legendary) Ken Oka 38. Terry Ross 39. Bill Clement 40. Frank Matrone 41. Alan Rissler 42. Steve Cannistra 43. Viktor Krause Training/Try-out Camps: March 2, 3, 4 @ Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, Florida May 11, 12, 13 @ The Parachute Center in Lodi, California May 26 – June 3 @ Empuriabrava, Spain July 4 – 8 @ Jumptown in Orange, Massachusetts August 10, 11, 12 @ Carolina Skysports in Louisburg, North Carolina October 12, 13, 14 @ Perris Valley Skydiving in Perris, California 100-way Canopy Formation World Record Attempts: November 17 – 25th @ Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, Florida If you have any questions please contact myself or anyone on the committee. Thanks! Brian Pangburn 2007 Canopy Formation World Record Committee Incidentally, these camps are open to anyone who wants to try out for the 100-way we are planning in November 2007 or anyone who wants to work on their CRW skills. Everyone is welcome. Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

The time for Puerto Rico is growing near! I heard the list is going to be posted soon - not sure how many are on it right now. Mike is organizing, and so far I know of Mike, me, hairy Bob, Razz, April, Reger... I know there are more but I haven't seen the list. Perfect weather every day - c'mon you guys - lets go! I see some beach landings and evening beach parties in your future! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

UPDATED LIST!!!! 1. Mike Lewis - organizer 2. Linda Ruiz 3. Bob Felt 4. Don Bromley 5. Kevin Keenan 6. Mike Fedak (maybe) 7. Martin Clennon (will try...) 8. Damien Ristaino 9. Ernie Pliscott 10. Mike Goodin (if not working...) 11. Dave Hillebrandt 12. Dawn McClendon (if not working...) 13. Bill Clement (maybe) Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Hey Dawgs and Dawgesses and puppies, Z-Hills is the place to be January 13 -15 for a weekend of CReW! Mike Lewis has agreed to organize on Saturday and Sunday. Me, hairy Bob and Don will be there on Monday the 15th also because of the MLK holiday, for anyone else who is around. Sorry for the short notice. Hopefully there will be a good turnout - at the least some Florida Dawgs and pups who can show up for one or both days. There are two coming from Wisconsin already! Any other states? I've already heard from some people - lets gets some more! Let me know and I'll add you on. THE LIST 1. Mike Lewis - organizer 2. Linda Ruiz 3. Bob Felt 4. Don Bromley 5. Kevin Keenan 6. Mike Fedak (maybe) 7. Martin Clennon (will try...) 8. Damien Ristaino Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

One of the less expensive choices is the Hotel Villa Real. Not real fancy, but it's nice and close, and cheap. It's good enough for Jason and Viv! They stayed there last year, too. Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Wow! There are already 88 people on "the list" ! You guys work fast! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Well I for one wish I would have started a lot earlier than I did. I sure wanted to! I like Wendy's approach with a docile canopy, and then moving up to a Lightning and bigger/better/scarier/more fun things. I think it's a great idea. Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

I believe that the only people who are getting these announcement emails are the people who were on the 2005 world record participant email list. I've seen them because Bob gets them but otherwise I wouldn't have. That's my guess, anyway. Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Oh! Sorry. I never look in any forum but this one. I'll take a gander over there. Thanks! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Have you dogs out there at nationals seen the local news? I'm posting this news link, because I received an email of another news item about Eloy's new financial threat. Maybe a bunch of you out there could talk to the press and get them to flood the papers with it. Eloy, AZ Letter I received (sorry - it's long): Guest Opinion - Bryan Burke Eloy airport economy could crash I read the recent story on airport fees (Eloy Enterprise, 12 October 2006) with dismay. There is a lot more to the proposed fee of $6,000 a month for Skydive Arizona to operate than most people - including the Eloy City Council - seem to realize. I urge the area papers to give this matter more exposure so the citizens can see that an economic disaster, if not a real crime, is about to take place at the Eloy Airport.Fifteen years ago I did some of the construction work when Skydive Arizona moved to Eloy. Once or twice a day I had to set down my tools to pump $30 worth of fuel into a plane passing through. The airport was virtually dead. Then Skydive Arizona opened for business. Along with thousands of other skydivers, I've been coming back every year. Since I help out during some of the big skydiving events, I'm pretty familiar with the operation and I know owner Larry Hill well. Furthermore, I work with skydiving businesses in several other states. I'm used to seeing cities try to drive small, marginal businesses off their airports or impose stifling fees on the successful ones. But when I learned that Eloy was planning to slap a whopping $72,000 annual use charge on Skydive Arizona it came as a shock - and made me wonder what was going on. Why would the City of Eloy vote to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? It is no secret that the skydiving center pumps a tremendous amount of money into the area economy. Last year, along with associated businesses, they paid employees and contractors around $2,000,000 and put another $225,000 in property and sales taxes into the government's hands. Several thousand skydivers a year visit the facility, and they spread a lot of money around. Casa Grande benefits as much from the purchases made by skydivers as Eloy does from the tax revenue. It is also no secret that the business has operated for fifteen years on an understanding with the City that it could use the runways for free in exchange for that economic benefit. During that time Skydive Arizona has paid over a million dollars worth of fuel taxes into the federal fund that paid for most of the recent airport improvements, so "free" is a relative term. Until James McFellin became the Eloy City Manager, the arrangement was seen by both the city and the skydiving business as a win - win situation. Suddenly the City Manager came to the conclusion that use of the Eloy Airport by Skydive Arizona was worth several thousand dollars a month, and if the new fee stands, Larry Hill plans to move his business elsewhere. How did this come about? The manager claimed that the airport was running at a loss and that the users had to make up the difference. If it is that simple, the airport budget and management plan should tell the story. And what a story they tell! Mr. McFellin hired a transportation consultant who has admitted publicly that the "consultation" was to say exactly what Mr. McFellin wanted - and I guess he wanted a lot of money. That "consultant" looked at eleven airports in Arizona to determine what a reasonable fee for airport use would be. The trouble with his research is that he looked at airports where people actually get something for their money. All of the eleven airports studied have much larger runways than Eloy, most of them at least twice the size. Eight have modern terminals. All but two have control towers and secured fields. All but one has at least one airline, and all of them have computer weather service and rentals cars. All of them have lights that work. In other words, they don't have anything in common with the Eloy Airport, which lacks every one of those amenities! Just in case you don't believe me, I have enclosed a copy of the study's cover page and the "selected airports" table. I'm a little astonished that the author was bold enough to claim that Eloy compares to someplace with a 12,000 foot runway, emergency vehicles, functional navigation aids, rental cars, airlines, terminals, weather services, police, and complete fencing. Those might be worth a few thousand dollars a month - to a business that needs them, which skydiving does not. Mr. McFellin's "pay their fair share" argument is obviously malarkey, so something else must going on. I turned a few more pages of the study for a look at the airport budget numbers that were cited to justify the huge rate increases, thinking they might reveal something interesting. Boy, do they ever! Let's look at the airport budget for Fiscal Year 2005-06 as shown in the study. Revenues were $73,636.04. Expenses were $181,450. What? $181,000? Given the humble nature of the Eloy Airport, something seems wrong with this picture. Let's look closer at the expense list, a copy of which I enclose. $75,400 was a grant match for improvements and a lease/purchase expense for land. That's easily covered by the annual taxes Skydive Arizona pays already, and it's an expense the City will not have every year. The rest of the budget is for annual upkeep costs. Believe it or not, employee costs, vehicle, building, grounds, and equipment maintenance, and other expenses added up to $94,500. $60,300 of that was for the employees. I'm sure the tenants of the run-down hangars would be shocked to learn that it costs $94,000 to mow the weeds three or four times a year, which is about the extent of the City's attention to the airport. The insurance ($6000) and utilities ($3,500) might be accurate, but the rest of the expenses appear to be very heavily rounded up. Then there's $2,500 for "Travel and Training." Since the airport has no staff, maybe that was meant to be "Travel and Dining" for the Airport Manager, who happens to also be - surprise - the City Manager! The projected budget for the next five years is even more interesting, forecasting a yearly deficit of $227,264! Yet the costs of maintenance and repair stay the same, as do insurance and utilities. So does the land purchase and grant match. What could possibly drive the cost of operating the airport up by 60% in one year when there are no plans to make any improvements to the facilities or do better maintenance? Well, the budget for employees (and here the report specifically says "including the airport manager") goes from $60,300 to $135,000! That's more than double the 2006 budget, which already strains credibility to the limit since city employees rarely visit the airport and apparently don't know or don't care that the navigation beacon (the biggest, most obvious light on the airport) has been broken for months. The two other items that increase are vehicle fuel/oil, going from a modest $250 to an unbelievable $20,000! I know gas prices have gone up, but not that much. Oh, one other item goes up, from $2,500 to $3,000. That's the travel and training budget. Maybe the Airport Manage wants to put a few lobsters on the menu. Here's another striking thing about the budget numbers. Those that remain unchanged are numbers that are public record: Insurance, grants tied to federal and state funding, etc. The ones that change are discretionary numbers that the City Manager controls. Where does the money really go? Where would the new fees go? All the evidence suggests the City Manager is doctoring the books to raise money at the airport that will then be diverted elsewhere, just as it appears is being done now on a smaller scale. The fake budget is necessary because it is flat out illegal to divert money generated by the airport to the city's general fund, or any other city expense for that matter. It has to be spent at the airport. The numbers are right here in black and white. I wouldn't have believed them either, until I saw the study. Here's another weird thing about the study's numbers. The initial proposed fee for Skydive Arizona's use of the airport wasn't $6,000 a month. It was $15,000! That would be an astounding $180,000 a year from Skydive Arizona, and other businesses on the airport would have to kick in another $68,000 above their current rates. I guess even McFellin realized that was a little too bold. Supposing the fees didn't instantly drive every business away, there is still the fact that hiding $70,000 is a lot easier than hiding a quarter of a million dollars. Imagine how much "gas" the city would have to buy to hide that much money! Why, it would take at least three fictional airport managers to conceal it all! It's enough to make one cry. First, the City Council spent money for a totally bogus airport study, which delivered exactly what the City Manager asked for and offered no alternate proposals. (If you look at the entire study, the first 18 pages are large print, double spaced explanations of how the airport needs to bring in several hundred thousand dollars a year for imaginary expenses. The final half is copies of a lot of Federal Aviation Administration documents on airport management and fees, added to bulk up the study and give it an official look. I wonder how much the City paid for that!) Then, they bought the story that the airport is running at a loss, apparently because they never even glanced at the budget figures or checked to see if they were remotely realistic. Finally, they voted to do one of two very bad things: either drive a successful business out of town or commit a crime, depending on whether Larry Hill packs up and leaves or pays the fee. Why the City Council can't see they are being used by an unscrupulous bureaucrat is a mystery. The Airport Study is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who reads it, but apparently McFellin calculated correctly that almost no one would. I urge the press to take that trouble for them, talk to the players involved, and report honestly to the people. By the way, this is the third scheme (that I know of) Mr. McFellin has come up with to try to squeeze money out of Larry Hill. The first two were proven to be illegal and were dropped. It's getting to be an ugly pattern. If he succeeds this time and Larry Hill moves on, the City of Eloy (not to mention all the businesses in Eloy, Arizona City, and Casa Grande patronized by skydivers) will lose - big time. Bryan Burke, Bellingham, WA Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Yep! That's the one I'm bringing! Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

I'll be there! So will Wolfman Bob. Linda Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

I think we should do another one! I'd like to do some night crw. I heard about one that everyone had lights for and was well lit up. How about at Thanksgiving time? Anyone interested? Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Summerfest felt more like Eloy weather! Bob and I will be in East Troy, also. Any more midwesterners? Annie? Dave? Linda Lu CRW Diva #73

Below is off of Wendy's calendar. They may have more information at Perris's site: http://www.skydiveperris.com/expert.html Crazy CRW DATES 9-10 Sept - Perris Valley Skydiving - Perris CA Organizers Ken Oka & Frank Lupica This will be the 8th Annual Crazy CRW week end at Perris. As in the past this will be a camp for beginners and experenced alike. The beginners will sit thru a CRW safety briefing then do one on one with an experenced CRW Dog. As the beginner progress' they will move up to bigger and more challenging dives. Often many beginners earn their USPA 4-Stack and some their 8-Stack Awards. The experienced Dogs will be doing challenging dives including but not limited to: flying pieces, pull out dives, rotes and whatever else they can think of. START TIME: will be 8:00 both days. ATTENTION: Beginners must commit to a minium of three jumps to participate in Crazy CRW. There will be a mandatory CRW Safety briefing for the beginners 8:00-9:30 each day. CAMP COST Registration fee $25.00 Jump ticket $23.00 (current Perris prices) As in the past Crazy CRW leads to: BIG WAY SKILLS CAMP! DATES 14-17 Sept - Perris Valley - Perris CA Organizer- Mike Lewis This will be a camp designed to learn/improve/retain our big way skills, learn new techniques, find out what works and what doesn't. This camp always has some very innovative and technically challanging dives, don't be on the fence for this one. START TIME: 9:00 14 Sept. CAMP COSTS REGISTRATION $50.00 JUMP TICKET $23.00 If you are planning on flying in the nearest airport is Ontario appox 45 min from the DZ. There is also LAX and John Wayne, both are about 90 min. away. There are plenty of motels around the DZ a few are: Days Inn (about 1mi. from the DZ) 951-943-5577 Week days $59.99 single $69.99 double Week ends $69.99 " $ 79.99 " Best Value Inn (about 5mi.) 888-672-1861 Week days $43.00 single $48.00 double Week ends $60.50 " $60.50 " Roadside Inn (about 5mi.) 951-242-0699 Week days $74.99 single $84.99 double Week ends $74.99 " $74.99 " On the DZ there is the bunkhouse $8.00/nite on the IHOP $12.00/nite Get with the DZ on availability of these at SkydivePerris Linda Lu CRW Diva #73