On Friday, June 21, Seven Hills Skydivers of Madison, Wisconsin, which is located in Marshall, and veterans’ organization 4th HOOAH (Helping Out Our American Heroes) held the 5th Annual Freedom Freefall event in conjunction with the club’s Head to the Hills Boogie.

This year’s Heroes Skydiving big-way formation skydiving and benefit event for Wings for Life, a nonprofit that supports those with spinal-cord injuries, had big ambitions and a lot to celebrate.

Some of the best and most talented formation skydivers in the world attended the annual P3 Power Play event at sunny Skydive Perris in California June 27-30.

Skydive Orange hosted its Liberty Boogie: Sisters in Skydiving 2019 July 4-7. A stellar cast of organizers chased away the forecasted bad weather and everyone enjoyed a weekend of great jumps.

Gary Mancuso flies a 1,000-square-foot flag into the 1940’s World War II-Era Ball, a community event and fundraiser at the Boulder County Municipal Airport in Colorado. 

Stu Metcalfe, D-2563, is 71 years young and still killin’ it. This Cornhusker started skydiving in March 1969 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and soon became interested in precision accuracy.

Growing up, I would constantly tell my parents that one day I’d skydive, too. They’d always tell me how expensive and dangerous it was, I think because a part of them did not want to see pictures of their daughter hanging off the strut of a Cessna.

For the 2019 skydiving fatality report, USPA should include those who perished in the Dillingham accident.

While waiting in the loading area for the Caravan to land, I and a group of other jumpers witnessed a skydiver under a reserve canopy with his main pilot chute trailing.

“Swooping the Serenity”
Acrylic on canvas

Marina Kartseva
Marinart.land

Skydiving has its risks, but the flight to jump altitude should be the safest part of any jump. That depends almost entirely on the professionalism of the pilot.

Photo by Norman Kent | D-8369

At Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, 84 skydivers set the Féderátion Aéronautique Internationale World Record for Largest Head-Up Formation Skydive.

At Skydive Orange in Virginia, David Wybenga gets down on one knee in front of Melanie Firth during a photo shoot for the couple's save-the-date cards for their upcoming wedding.

Attitude plays a vital role in skydiving, for both students and more experienced jumpers. And although we are not airplane pilots, as skydivers we share many issues in common with pilots. The Federal Aviation Administration long ago identified five hazardous attitudes of aircraft pilots that can often lead to accidents. Skydivers can also be affected by those same five dangerous attitudes and their consequences. 

Gary Peek, D-8884, who had served on USPA’s board of directors for 23 years, was found dead in his home in St. Charles, Missouri on August 13. A full recap of his USPA service will appear in the October Parachutist.

At the USPA Board of Directors’ summer meeting July 12-14 in Arlington, Virginia, the Safety & Training Committee discussed several issues.

Near sunset on June 21, a Beechcraft King Air crashed shortly after takeoff from Dillingham Airfield near Waialua, Hawaii, killing all 11 aboard, including pilot Jerome Renck.