crutch

Okay everyone, we are going to put on a quick event here at Skydive Palatka. Deland's Skyvan will be here Saturday morning as soon as we have a load together and will stay until sunset. Plenty of fun to be had by all! We will also be flying the cessnas for all of the swoopers to seperate them from the pattern. Also, Friday night, we will being doing night jumps. Anyone interested please drop us a note so we can schedule an extra pilot if enough interest dictates it. Everyone please make sure you have proper lighting. We do have a limited number of strobes availiable upon request. Hope to see ya'll there! blue skies, art

for anyone interested, we will be flying out of palatka at 11:30am on friday for the service. we will be returning sometime that evening. anyone interested in riding with us, please contact me. blue skies, art

i am not really sure when i first met bob, it was one of the times we were in deland. we ended up making quite a few jumps together, although a large number were "working" jumps. one of the most memorable was in myrtle beach for senor frog's, vladi had us all wearing frog costumes in the 100 degree heat, but we all had a great time! blue skies, art

We flew in to Dublin in our caravan on Wednesday with a dismal weather outlook for the rest of the week. Thursday turned out to be a beautiful day! Two wingsuit jumps with Chuck and Kaydie, a freefly jump with Tom, a rw load with Carl and a tandem with a wonderful lady celebrating 60! Friday brought the rain, but it also brought time to see old friends and meet new ones. Saturday was a bittersweet day for me....it brought me hope and joy when someone that i cared deeply about had a heart-to-heart with me. Then it brought the tragedy of the weekend. But you know the greatest thing about us as a community came through....we all got together, picked each other up, picked up the pieces and moved on. Thanks to Bethany, Turtle and Hushpuppy for one of the most fun tandems i have done in a while! Hang in there guys, we will get through this! To Pyscho Bob, you are always great to talk to. Skymama, one of these days we may actually jump together. Mouth, thanks for everything, you are the best girl! My son for the wonderful pack jobs all week. The whole Skydive Palatka crew for watching out for me and making sure i was okay (the beer at the FBO was much appreciated). And most of all to Tammie for taking the time to talk with me, i really appreciated it. Most of all thanks to Spence, Julie, Don and the whole crew who put this event together. This is an event that dz's in the southeast close up for and go to and rightly so. It is one of the best run events i have ever been to, so if you haven't been, circle the calendar for St. Pats Day next year and join us!

huge difference here between the autobahn and this discussion, where the speed is unlimited, there are no turns in the road, they are pretty straight shots. second, rear view mirrors play a huge part, when you see the lights flashing, you move to the right. couple of things here to dwell on. one, if the landing areas are any where near each other, say a hundred yards, there are days when the patterns are going to cross (depending on the winds), especially the swoopers coming down very quickly from upwards of 1000' when they are entering their turns. second, the whole problem with swoopers is tunnel vision. think about it, you need to focus on entry and exit points, a get a little adrenlian shot from doing it (that is why we do it) then you start pulling some g's as you are doing the turns. all of these things cause a loss of peripheral vision. if you want to do hp landings with more than a 90 degree turn into your landing, then jump by yourself, pretty simple. think about that also, you will be the only one in the air so you have the attention of the spectators to yourself, that is why we swoop right? if you want to do rw/freefly jumps with other people, no more than 90 degree turns in the landing pattern. that is what is going to happen here. on top of that, pattern education is going to be high priority for ALL canopy piiots. blue skies, art

ian, it is not just hp canopies. i have a guy with a 170 who spirals right down through the middle of the traffic pattern every jump. won't happen again here! tired of being a nice guy about it! i am a dzo who is going to put an end to it at our place. if you do not want to follow a preset traffic pattern, jump somewhere else. if you want to do a 270 before you land, go for it, but there better not be ANY canopies in the air when you do it here anymore. someone has to step up and set rules before we kill a few more people. high speed manuevers makes one focus on the entry point, not the other canopies in the air, exactly what happened in dublin. the adrenlian of doing it, plus the g-forces (although small) and the focus contribute to some tunnel vision, loss of peripheral vision. we can't have that in traffic situations! it is simple, you want to do it, do a hop-n-pop, you have the stage to yourself for the "wow" factor of the crowd. if you mess up, you have no else to blame and you don't carry anyone with you!

Bethany, jumping with you, Turtle and Hushpuppy was the most fun I have had in a long time...thanks! blue skies, art

we can get my son to drive, he is too young to drink

your on! what night is this happening so i make sure one of my so-called friends keeps an eye on me. oh, do you want to do a moonshine shot , i can bring some along!

Hey bob, what is the deal with geeting a rodrquez brother #. Do i need to find a girl who is a member to do a body shot on me or something? Also, the orfun thing, except i saw skymama break the paddle on someone.. i want to start getting/joining some of these organizations, thanks blue skies, art

Hey Bob, we are flying up on Wednesday, should be there around one or so. Problably jumping in this year, I hope! Blue Skies, Art

I will bring my rig with me then! Blue skies, art

Thanks to everyone for your help, researching all of them right now! Blue skies, art

I am going to be in Spokane, Washiington near the end of March. Could anyone recommend to some places to go snowboarding? I am new to it and just learning, so a place with good instruction would be even better. Thanks Blue Skies, Art

First off, i am taking no credit for the great weekend! Max, Jared and all of the Falling Gators did a GREAT job putting on a GREAT boogie that should continue to grow as word gets out! Thanks to Jess and Jeff and everyone else on the staff for keeping things going. PD and Mirage both deserve a big thank you for being so willing to help all of the jumpers with advise, demos and coaching jumps throughout the weekend and on into monday. The canopy and packing seminars were very helpful to jumpers of all experience levels. let's see, there were 20 skyvan loads (with us not jumping both saturday morning and until three on sunday due to weather), 17 caravan loads, 15 cessna loads and of course 10 helicopter loads. the total number of jumps was right around 750. again, it was a great boogie with something for everyone from rw, canopy skills, freeflying, wingsuiting and just some plain fun jumps. we will see eveyone back next year!

adventurechick andy_b Chaoskitty Chris Meng crutch CSpenceFly falling.gator - UF Isaiah McCauliffe jarrodh jguy904 jumpingbean001 jumpchikk lauraliscious lisag LyraM45 missg8tordivr Max Minch mwabd1 The111 TMPattersonJr Ward Hessig Albert Berchtold added tammie and myself blue skies, art

added tammie and myself.....skydive palatka will be shutting down again and taking everyone to dublin! 2fat2fly BigBug BigM BillyVance (maybe) Blueskyserenity ccowden Chaoskitty CrazyRick crutch CSpenceFly DaGimp & PornKitty (maybe) DownwindDave dzmemories FlyDoc fmmobley Goofyjumper hisgoofyness Hushpuppy icevideot Jeannier Jerrald JesSke Julie jumpingbean001 LadyBug Lauraliscious LittleSkyCrab LoveBug MicDuran Mirage62 MOUTH and hubby mwabd1 namgrunt nannerbanner ncfitzge PapaSke Popsjumper Psychobob and Psychopatty Rastaricanair RedBug Revillusion RevJim skinnyshrek Skydave Skymama Stitch smud79 T teamjenn1 Thanatos340 TinMan TMaricle55 TMPattersonJr (maybe) Turtle Whodamiss and Freelyflyn71 wildcard451 + dick in a box woodpecker yardhippie

Skyvan had the engine put back on it this past week, if everything checks out, it will be there for the boogie on saturday morning at 9:00am.

so it begins.........

:17:0 13 at the keys boogie, VERY good time jumping with my girlfriend! lots of wingsuit flocks and sunset beach jumps. tammie got us on two beach jumps saturday, including a helicopter load (thanks to woody for the spot and bolas for the ride back to the airport)! then some tandems back home on sunday. anyone who missed what may have been the last keys boogie, really missed out. the skydive sebastian crew put on a wonderful event! hopefully things will work out and it won't be the last! blue skies, art

good luck peter, i have run nyc three times and they have been the best running experiences in my life! have fun! blue skies, art

Glad to hear you are better! Hope to see you back in the air soon! Blue Skles, Art

Results from the Hog-Flop. Anyone who is not a local, will be recieving their trophy in the mail in the next week or so. Tom looks like the big winner as the cameraman gets a trophy also....congrats! Sorry Spence, maybe next year First Place: 6.29 (frames) Boogada Boogada Boogada : Travis Stewart Camera Person Tom Hayden Justin Jones Max Minch Adam Abelow Second Place: 10.17 Oh Shit: Tom Hayden Camera Person Norm Olson Andy Whitlock Kath Bledsoe David Mancini Third Place: 11.10 Dead Last: Scott Krout Camera Person Al Mastin Adam Chamley Mike Patterson Justin Faroni

some more pics.....

she even jumped!