Skydive Atlas in Holdrege, Nebraska, recently won the Visionary Rising Star Award from the Holdrege Area Chamber of Commerce. The award goes to a Chamber member who has been in business five years or less and has demonstrated business success and community leadership.

In April, Advanced Aerospace Designs released Public Service Bulletin PSB-01-2018 regarding certain Vigil 2 and Vigil 2+ automatic activation devices.

On April 2, the International Skydiving Museum and Hall of Fame announced that Marylou Laughlin and Gill Rayner have joined its board of trustees.

Four skydivers in Eloy, Arizona—Sara and Steve Curtis, Jason Peters and George Reuter—recently purchased Firebird Skydiving, maker of the EVO harness-and-container system (and previously, the Omega sport and tandem harness-and-container systems and the Contrail, Demon, Cayenne and Chilli canopies).

A Federal Aviation Administration Senior Rigger found excess wear on the top and bottom of this reserve parachute closing loop during an inspection.

Photo by Carlos Felix |  D-36519
Steve Verner swoops in for landing after a hop-and-pop skydive during a cloudy day at Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Rochelle, Illinois.

Photo by Roy Wimmer-Jablom | USPA #279679
Team Zion Freefly makes a practice jump at Skydive DeLand in Florida.

 Photo by Seth Kuttruff | D-32445

On a drizzly day during the Cheese Boogie at Skydive Milwaukee in East Troy, Wisconsin, Vanessa Mohawk follows four jumpers out the door (from left, Joshua Gifford, Adam Wirtz, Dan Wagner and Tim Hajewski) as they launch a head-up round.

 Photo by Tom Sanders |  D-6503

At the Boogie in Belize, Elizabeth Higgins, D-13274, who was not current but wanted to make her 1,000th jump over the Great Blue Hole, fulfills her wish on a tandem with instructor Andy Malchiodi.

“This whirring carousel of images accompanied the start of the very last hour of my 45-year voyage through life. Its final phase, which commenced on the third of December, 2014, at nine minutes before noon, would be spent suspended in midair in a wicker basket dangling in the shadow of an enormous 40-meter-tall balloon, now rising silently but steadily toward the stratosphere. 

I knew this moment would be critically important for the future I’d envisioned for myself.” 

Photo By Zach Lewis | D-21616

At Skydive Arizona in Eloy, jumpers build a formation in memory of legendary skydiver Tom Jenkins, who died of complications from Parkinson’s disease in December.

Last August, two tandem double fatalities occurred just a week apart. The details for both of those tragic accidents can be found in “Incident Reports” in this issue of Parachutist. While the casual observer may not see a correlation between the two accidents, they should be a flashing neon warning sign that screams for every tandem examiner, Safety and Training Advisor and drop zone operator to regularly review staff members’ tandem procedures.

Brought to you by Niklas Daniel and Brianne Thompson of AXIS Flight School at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. Photos by David Cherry. Information about AXIS' coaching and instructional services is available at axisflightschool.com.

Photo by Raymond Adams | D-30158

Kyle Stubbs swoops in for landing during the Fitz Boogie, an annual St. Patrick’s Day event in Fitzgerald, Georgia.

Photo By Ellen Morris | D-26655

Neither wind nor the threat of a late-season snow storm could dissuade DZO Ole Thompson (second from right) and other intrepid jumpers from Vermont Skydiving Adventures in Addison from attending Safety Day, which the DZ traditionally holds in April rather than March due to the climate. 

Over Easter weekend, Skydive the South—a small, homey drop zone in Tuskegee, Alabama—transformed. The hustle and bustle of people, parachutes and airplanes brought about by the DZ’s first Easter Boogie (and fundraiser for two charitable organizations) was astonishing. 

The Spring Fling—which started at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales back in 2004 with only 18 participants—has grown to be the world’s largest annual gathering of canopy formation skydivers (aka canopy relative workers or CRW dogs). The 2018 Spring Fling, which returned to Lake Wales this year, attracted 112 participants from 10 countries.

It sounds like a lot when you don’t yet have them. But in reality, 200 skydives is not that many. And in some cases, it’s not enough to prepare the jumper for the added complexity of flying a wingsuit, which adds risk and reduces comfort during almost every phase of a jump from exiting the plane to deploying the parachute.

Nick Barson doesn’t just say he loves animals. He proves it. In fact, more than 700 animals owe their lives to Barson and his nonprofit rescue operation charmingly named “Paws Landing.” Barson’s plan is to keep that number growing.