TMFSTX

I think this is the first post I have written on DZ.COM and am only doing it because my Son is the individual that was taken on the tandem. In September of 2006 I created a program called Dreams of Fastrax. I commissioned my friend, skydiver and artist Kelly Green to create a piece of artwork that depicts a young child sleeping and dreaming about participating in our great sport. I contacted United Parachute Technologies and was granted permission to take children 12 and older with a terminal illness for a tandem skydive as long has they were strong enough and meet weight and height requirements. I contacted SkyVenture XP and asked if they would participate in this venture for those children that were not strong enough to handle freefall. Our posters of the artwork Kelly produced are now sold across the country at Children’s Hospitals raising money for their hospice organization. Our Caravan is used in the Mercy network to take these children on plane rides or travel to the wind tunnels to experience the gift of flight. Dreams of Fastrax are making the dreams of children come true with the gift of flight either in freefall, a wind tunnel or our aircraft. Their parents have all said that it seemed to give their children a renewed sense of energy and that they watch their videos over and over. Several of these children have since passed and we have received letters from their parents telling us how much this experience meant to them. So what does this have to do with the 12 year old tandem? Since a friend of mine decided to send pictures of my 12 year old son to all of the USPA Board members and with so many people out their speaking untruths, I felt compelled to set the record straight. My Son, my beautiful 12 year old Son, my hero in life motivated me to create Dreams of Fastrax. I have been blessed with the time I have with him and as a Father will fulfill every dream he has until the good Lord calls him home. On a Sunday in August around 6:00 in the evening he approached me and said “Dad I want to skydive today? “ My Son is 5’10 195lbs and still strong enough to handle freefall, I looked at his Mother and she smiled and said it’s his dream. The rest is history! There were no dates falsified because no waivers were submitted. This was not a clandestine event as it was documented on video. Had there been time, I would have filed the waiver, but at that moment and that time these were the actions of a Father fulfilling the dreams of his child. My Son is now fulfilling his dream with his formation with Christ. Kip without hesitation knowing the risks performed this favor for me and I will forever be indebted for this special moment Blue Skies and God Bless!

Hello everyone! I rarely make post but wish to inform everyone about the portable tunnel. There have been several great attempts to build portable tunnels for body flight. Unfortunately they have all been extremely loud and the air to violent to fly in. For the past year the Fastrax project has employed Aero engineers from Wright State University and the University of Dayton to perform CFD studies for the perfect portable wind tunnel. After building and testing sesveral 1/8 scale models we found a design that will be quiet enough to park in a library parking lot and provide 150mph winds. The air column will be square providing a greater flying surface and will either be 11'x8' or 8'x10'. The quality of the air will be even and non turbulent allowing it to be used as a realistic training aid. The tunnel itself should be on the road by March 1st premiering at several NASCAR events to promote our great sport. It will be stationed at our new training DZ Startskydiving.com at the Warren County Airport in Lebanon, Ohio. Blue Skies and hope to see you at the DZ.

It has more to do with the landing than anything else. I will be at PD next week and can get the complete details from Rusty and post them for you. The original question was could a Spetre be used for CRW and terminal oenings if relined and the answer is yes. It is very stable canopy and has exceeded our expectations for vertical and offset formations for demo purposes. Is it a competition canopy, no. The elimination of the cascade lines does seemed to increase the angle and the rate of descent and the flare is more of a two stage when you have minimal landing speeds.

The demo team of Team Fastrax just recently had ten of our Spectre 170's configured for CRW and we are very happy with the performance. The openings are the same at terminal and the flight characteristics are similar to the lightning without the steep approach. Ask Donna at PD for the same CRW reline that the Fastrax Demo Team had performed on our Spectres. Note: PD is developing a new CRW canopy that is less aggressive compared to the Lighting but it is in the test mode and no release date is available. Hope this helps.

Hello all, I have never made a post on Dropzone.com but felt compelled to share our recent experience at the Bodyflight Bedford tunnel. On May 16, 2006 Team Fastrax crossed the pond to visit our brothers in the United Kingdom. We had heard comments from a team that visited the Bodyflight wind tunnel; they said it was no different than the tunnels in the United States. We wanted to find out first hand so we scheduled a camp to the UK. The Bodyflight tunnel is located within an old military research compound that was built in the 50’s and used for testing aircraft spin rates, it was built to create turbulence free airflow. The perfect air! Over four days we spent seven hours flying in what is known as the largest freefall simulator in the world. The trip started by flying non stop from Cincinnati, Ohio to Gatwick International Airport south of London. The airfare was reasonable at $663 round trip. We landed and were able to purchase and board the train for Bedford from the airport itself. The train to Bedford runs every 20 minutes, 7 days per week and cost about $50 for a round trip fare. We arrived in Bedford after a 70 minute ride through scenic London and some beautiful country side. You can stay at the Shakespeare Bed & Breakfast which is about a 5 minute walk from the train station for $75 per night; the cost includes a great English breakfast. The B&B has a nice Pub and Restaurant with free wireless available to guests. You can also choose to stay in the bunk house located at the tunnel itself. The taxi ride to the tunnel is about 7 minutes and cost around $10. I would discourage renting a car as the traffic is congested and locals drive like formula one driver’s. When we arrived at the tunnel we were greeted by the owner Paul who lives 24-7 at the tunnel, just kidding, but it sure appears he does. We received a complete tour of the facility, were asked if we had lunch, as they would order food for us if we hadn't. At first I thought they were treating us special, but over the course of five days we found that they treated everyone special. The facility has changing rooms with lockers, a large creeping area, conference room and large reception area filled with bean bags and sofas. In the reception area there is multiple 36” plasma TV’s for debriefing your dives, if they are being used there are multiple computers for team use. Paul informed us that they were improving the sleeping quarters and adding a gym and dinning facility. Currently there is a caterer that stops by and sells sandwiches, chips, salads and desserts. The tunnel has six custom built tunnel rigs that can be used if booked with your tunnel time. The tunnel itself is 16’2" across, perfectly round with three different camera angles, one of which is located dead center with a high resolution. The angles are the best we have seen for viewing and debriefing your dives. Another great feature is the configuration of the tunnel it allows you to exit anytime to get something to eat, drink or to relieve yourself without shutting the tunnel down. The air itself is pure and turbulence free. During our seven hours of flight it never choked once and our levels never fluctuated. We were able to perform 2 minutes of great skydiving because the air was always dialed in. It would have taken us ten hours of tunnel time at any other tunnel in the world to accomplish the quality of training we performed in seven hours in the Bodyflight tunnel. Every part of the design is about efficiency, getting in and out is easy and there is plenty of space to dirt dive the next session. We were able to turn every block in the Bedford tunnel. Block one was a little cheated, other than that we could perform every variation of a draw possible. The staff itself is incredible! They never missed a beat and accommodated every request we made of them. We truly felt special. Team Fastrax recommends that any four-way team looking for the ultimate tunnel experience book time in the Bedford tunnel. If you contact us we can arrange the best rates possible and schedule coaching around our camps or dates independent of when we train. We will soon have some video of the tunnel posted on the site and will be happy to answer any questions you may have. [email][email protected]

Eric Gin, John Hart, Niklas Hemlin and Doug Park will be at this camp. You can visit our web site for more info. http://teamfastrax.org/newsArticle.aspx?id=5