Cover photo by Lynn Scheer.

Mike McGowan, D-5709, was hanging outside one of Skydive Arizona's Twin Beeches when he took this shot of a multi-plane formation exit on one of the 64-way diamond attempts in Coolidge, AZ at the end of last year.  More large diamond attempts are scheduled in both Arizona and Florida over Easter.

Norman Kent submitted this photo of the Four N Legion Team—Jeff Barbani, Abadulaziz Ojjeh, Joe Nepute and Tom Piras—over Lapalisse, France where they finished third at the French Open Championships in August of last year.

Frequent PARACHUTIST contributor Gus Wing, like several other freefall photographers, traveled a lot last year, keeping his camera pointed at several world record large RW formation attempts.  He brought back this photo from British Columbia where some 12 tries at the first 100-way formation fell just short of success.  The 100-way barrier was broken in Muskogee the following month, but that record stood for less than 30 days before the 120-way in Quincy, IL  established the current mark.

Mike McGowan, D-5709, got this shot at the 1986 Turkey Meet in Zephyrhills, FL.  McGowan headed a team of a dozen freefall photographers who provided air-to-air video coverage; their tapes were used to judge all four events.  More information and final results of the meet appear in this month's At Presstime section.

The ranks of skydivers have always included celebrities: professional football players, TV actresses, state politicians.  But this month's cover shows someone of far greater stature touching down with Bill Booth after his first jump: Ron Reagan, the President's son.  Details of Ron's jumps for the "Good Morning America" TV show are on page 17; the cover photo was taken by Michael Takash, a shooter for the News-Journal newspaper in Daytona Beach, FL.

This month's cover was shot by Dave "Bluebaker" Hancock, 32, a five-year member of the Australian 8-way team with more than 3,500 jumps.  It shows the American CRW sequential team practicing over the lighthouse at Byron Bay, which, as the most easterly point in Australia, is roughly equivalent to America's Cape Hatteras.  A complete report on the World CRW Championships in Australia begins on page 16.

Frequent PARACHUTIST contributor Tom Sanders snapped this shot of the beach in Mazatlan, Mexico, where a group of Perris Valley skydivers vacationed last year, combining jumps over the ocean with sunshine and resort hotel living.

This month's PARACHUTIST cover is a composite of a photograph taken by Robyn Allen and the official logo for this year's National Skydiving Championships designed by Gary Cobb.

Craig Hanson, who served this year as USPA's official photographer for the National Championships of Style and Accuracy and CRW, accompanied the Prism 4-way rotation team on their apparent world record jump: 20 rotations in three minutes.  Apparent records were also set in women's group accuracy and largest freefall formation, the latter when a 100-way was completed and held for nearly eight seconds over Muskogee during the Nationals Boogie.

Gus Wing, D-7117, a frequent contributor to PARACHUTIST, supplied this photo of former Skydive DeLand co-owner/operator Tom Piras over the Florida DZ during this year's Easter boogie.  Piras' former partner Bob Hallett has since assumed full control of the drop zone.

Bob Feisthamel submitted this Ken Jorgensen photo of Feisthamel's Tension Free teammates Bob Suchor, Lynn Kleen and Daryl Dassinger over Spearfish, SD.  Tension Free took home a box of medals from last year's National Skydiving Championships of CRW, including gold medals in 4-way sequential and 8-way speed stack and silver medals in 4-way rotation.

Eric Vickery, C-15915, was there to record Bob Johns of Alaska on an accuracy approach during the 1986 National Para-ski Championships in Utah.  Johns tied with Nick Kingery for first place in the men's open accuracy event.  More photos and the report on the Championships begins on page 25.

Norman Kent got this shot of 1985 U.S. Team members exiting a helicopter over Japan with Mt. Fujiyama in the background.

Photographer Alf Humphries docked last on an 8-stack over Loveland, CO to get this shot.  Top to bottom in the formation are Jeff Wagner, Doug Wyatt, Bruce McQuery, Tim Monsees, Keith Butler, Stuart Wyatt, and unidentified jumper and Humphries.

Craig Hanson, D-8245, got this shot of the Impulse 8-way team in practice over Perris Valley, CA.  Impulse finished in a tie for fifth at the 1985 National Skydiving Championships in Muskogee, OK.

Tom Sanders brought back this shot of the Army Parachute 8-way Team exiting the Bird Machine DC-3 from the 1985 National Skydiving Championships in Muskogee.  Edged out for the gold medal by Coors, Golden Knight Commanding Officer Larry Nelson told PARACHUTIST recently that the APT would again concentrate on the 8-way event in '86.

Gus Wing, D-7117, strapped his 35mm on the tail of the trail Cessna for this shot of a formation load exit over the Buckingham Parachute Center in Orange, VA.  Pilot Bob Churchill, D-7253, snapped the photo as his airplane emptied.

Norman Kent, who spent most of last month in Yugoslavia for the VIth World Championships of RW (page 15) submitted this photo of a 3-stack landing at Perris Valley Paracenter prior to his departure.  Kent's photos of the world championships will accompany Craig Fronk's complete story in next month's PARACHUTIST.

Mike Homer, Esther Bick, Ernie Long, Phyllis McCauley and Steve Dramstad check out cameraman Mike McGowan over the Aero Country DZ in Texas.  McGowan is a frequent contributor to PARACHUTIST whose work has also appeared in the annual USPA Calendar.  (For more information on ordering the 1986 USPA Skydive Calendar, see page 34 of this issue.)