Wayne Cross and the staff of Meadow Peak Skydiving in Marion, Montana, played host to the 51st Annual Lost Prairie Boogie August 4-12. Three hundred skydivers made the annual pilgrimage to northwestern Montana for nine days of skydiving magic and a family reunion that is like no other.

Pepperell Skydiving Center in Massachusetts delivered a smash-hit Barefoot Boogie this summer. Led by DZO Fran Strimenos and boogie-meister Iain Guthrie, PSC’s crackerjack staff and pilots scored the grand slam of nonstop flying, fabulous food, fine entertainment and fun, while Bobby Goldman reunited New England’s formation skydiving brotherhood on the ground and in the air.  

On July 1, members of the Rhode Island State Senate performed their fourth annual skydiving fundraiser at Skydive Newport. This year, the senators raised money for a memorial to the Rhode Island Eight who died in the bombing in Beirut in 1983.

Skydive Danielson in Connecticut held its third annual Chicks Freedom Boogie June 30-July 4, which included discounted lift tickets for women. The yearly boogie focuses on getting more women into the sport by welcoming skydivers of all levels to join in on the fun.

On June 30 at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, jumpers from five countries came together in hopes of setting head-down sequential world records. Led by organizers Matt Fry and Melissa Nelson Lowe, the team first set out to accomplish a three-point formation.

Each year over the New Year’s holiday break, USPA hosts the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships, the longest-running collegiate skydiving competition in history. This year’s Collegiates will take place at Skydive Arizona in Eloy December 28, 2018-January 2, 2019. Collegiates brings together nearly 100 students from colleges and universities across the country for friendly competition in multiple disciplines—2-way, 4-way and 6-way formation skydiving, 2-way vertical formation skydiving, sport accuracy and classic accuracy.

Canopy formation skydivers (from top) Mike Roy, Mark McManamay and Dale Maddox release the ashes of longtime Skydive Tecumseh staff member, instructor and pilot Harold “Buster” Walenski over Honey Acres Airport in Clinton, Michigan.

Darren Johnson | D-23069

B.J. (Bruce Jeffery) Worth, D-3805, is an epic figure in skydiving. He helped develop competitive formation skydiving and went on to become a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Champion; performed parachuting stunts in blockbuster movies (including playing James Bond from 1979-1997); organized the famous Olympic rings skydive in Seoul in 1988; and led World Team, which set multiple FAI World Records (including the standing 400-way record for largest formation). Worth also served as president of the USPA Board and president of the International Parachuting Commission and earned the USPA Lifetime Achievement Award and the FAI Gold Medal for Parachuting, Bronze Medal and Air Sports Centenary Award.

During production on the movie “Drop Zone” (starring Wesley Snipes and Gary Busey), the good guys needed to catch the bad guy as he was escaping on foot within a forest of skyscrapers. The plan was for the non-aerial stunt team to rappel down the building and jump on the bad guy (played by former jumper Michael Jeter). During a production meeting with the director, I casually mentioned that a good guy could ground launch from the top of the building and swoop down and catch Jeter in a scissor grip with his legs. The director bought it and changed the script. The regular stunt team was not amused and more than a bit skeptical.

Recently, a well-known drop zone updated its packing pricing schedule as follows:

Square footage of canopy:

Sub-100—$6

100 to 199—$7

200 to 299—$8

300-plus—$9

At the recent USPA Board of Directors meeting, the board voted to give $25,000 per year for the next six years to a yet-to-be-constructed skydiving museum. I am concerned as to why the board voted for this extraordinary amount of skydivers’ dues to be spent in this manner.

Fused glass

Laura Dawson
lauradawsonglass.com

This is the month for you and other USPA members to select those 22 members who will serve on USPA’s board of directors and determine the association’s direction for the next three years. In this issue of Parachutist, you’ll find the election instructions and a ballot.

Photo by Norman Kent  |  D-8369

Jumpers follow the base out of a Skyvan during the successful Skydivers Over Sixty World Record attempts at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, where the team eventually built a 75-way formation.

USPA Nationals season came to an end Thursday, September 27, at Skydive Sebastian in Florida, one day ahead of schedule. Sebastian hosted 10 days of canopy action for the 2018 USPA National Parachuting Championships, which included classic accuracy, canopy formation and canopy piloting.

Ten good reasons to support the 1968 United States Parachute Team.  See page 6 for the story of their training and more Chip Maury photos.

There are several modern AADs available for skydivers to choose from, all of which offer jumpers the ability to offset the activation altitude (temporarily change the activation-altitude settings to compensate for a landing area that is higher or lower than the point of departure). Additionally, both the Airtec CYPRES 2 and the Advanced Aerospace Designs Vigil 2+ offer a feature that allows users to increase the activation altitude semi-permanently (until the user changes it again).

In the days following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the nation reorganized its priorities. While President Bush called for a return to life as normal in America, no group outside New York City, Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia felt the sting as much as civil aviation.

Follow all the scores at OmniSkore.com, and check out USPA’s Facebook page for photos throughout the event, which continues until September 18.