In early April, USPA’s Executive Committee voted to allow the Phantom Airborne Brigade to jump at Group Member drop zones. The Phantom Airborne Brigade is one of several groups that performs military-style static-line jumps using round parachutes.

April was a rainy month in Texas, with almost every weekend either too cloudy or windy to jump. Fortunately, the last weekend in April was crystal clear at Skydive Spaceland­–Houston in Rosharon, Texas, just in time for the third annual Spaceland XRW Skills Camp.

On May 16-19, Skydive Elsinore in California—one of the few drop zones with a lakefront view and enough outs to host canopy formation events—hosted its Kick Off to Summer canopy formation (aka canopy relative work or CRW) boogie.

In the photo by Jeff Donohue on the cover of the June issue, Scott Callantine is on the left, Kyle Lobpries is wearing the gray wingsuit and Wes Sandler is backflying below.

USPA is looking for 15 remarkable photographs for the 2020 USPA Skydive Calendar. Email submissions to communications@uspa.org  or  visit parachutistonline.com/p/submissions. If emailing, please indicate “calendar submission” on the subject line. Photographers must submit entries by July 31 for consideration.

The National Aeronautic Association selected the four-point 42-way head-down world record as one of its most memorable aviation records of 2018. The skydivers set the record on June 30 over Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, surpassing the previous record of 33 set in 2014.

At Skydive City Zephyhills in Florida, Doug Cross reveals the source of chem trails as Marcie Smith looks on.

Rich Grimm, D-18890, started skydiving in 1980. He has been a competitor and a DZO, but he’s best known for being the creator, facilitator and organizer of epic international boogies in exotic locations.

After college I wound up in an unhealthy relationship. I was depressed and needed to do something about it. One of my coworkers, Ray, had recently started skydiving and was always encouraging people to come to the Ranch in Gardiner, New York, to try it. I was pretty desperate, so I figured, “What the hell?”

I was a late starter when it came to skydiving. I began at age 37 in 1969 when several of my firefighter buddies and I were watching our 10-inch black-and-white TV in the station and saw a program about skydiving at Skylark Airport in Lake Elsinore, California. “What the heck,” we said.

I have always made a point to get a DZ safety briefing about local hazards like power lines, highways, water hazards and irritable farmers whenever going to a new place

Your appeal for us to share our [malfunction or accident] stories with a larger audience (“Gearing Up” by Executive Director Ed Scott, April Parachutist) not only resonates, it makes sense.

I don’t understand why you’re reversing the standard aviation placement of numerator and denominator, and I would urge you to adopt that standard.

Hats off to Jim Crouch’s article “A Record Low—the 2018 Fatality Summary” (April Parachutist). Crouch’s article points out the significance of the fatality index rate being at its lowest ever in our sport: one in 254,000 jumps (or 0.39 per 100,000 jumps).

“Watching My Opening”

Colored pencil

Heather Weter | B-47715
Ozark, Missouri

Facebook.com/flyingmonkeyartanddesign

With this year’s skydiving season now at the mid-point, we’ve got some great news to report on our initiative to solicit more incident reports: Many of you have responded to our plea and have begun submitting them.

Karine Joly and Greg Crozier of French freefly champion team AirWax enjoy a skydive while visiting Skydive Sebastian in Florida.

Photo by Michael Tomaselli | D-18530

Team Fastrax practices its demo skills during a training day at Skydive Sebastian in Florida.