Jesse Weyher and Keith Creedy perform over-unders during a tracking dive at GoJump Oceanside in California. 

Photo by Weston Whittaker | C-43600

On February 9 at Skydive Sebastian in Florida, 26 jumpers set the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Women’s World Record for Largest Two-Point Head-Down Formation Skydive.

March 2-4, 32 expert formation skydivers from drop zones across the length and breadth of the United States and from as far away as Brazil, Canada, Norway, Russia and the United Kingdom gathered at Skydive Arizona in Eloy for three days of phenomenal formation skydives.

For the fifth consecutive year, Contadora, a 54-square-mile island in the Pearl Islands archipelago of Panama, hosted the Pepe’s Island Boogie, a tropical retreat that included paddle boarding, scuba diving and, most importantly, skydiving.

When it came to having fun, the Bahama Beach Boogie 2018 in the island nation of the Bahamas delivered! The event, hosted February 3-11 on the west end of Grand Bahama island by Sky’s the Limit in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, attracted 60 attendees for more than a week of jumps from a 900-horsepower Super Caravan.

The USPA Board of Directors will hold its summer meeting July 13-15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

USPA recently promoted Stephanie Seidel to become director of its Membership Services department, the department of five that has the most interaction with USPA members.

Beautiful Day | Photo by Timothy Parrant | D-34622

Matej Sakej lands his NZ Aerosports Petra 72 during a sunny winter day at USPA Foreign Affiliate Skydive Empuriabrava in Spain.

Shooting skydiving on film—true film—has a long history. Nearly at our sport’s inception, freefall cinematographers captured it this way. It was the only way to show a skydive in motion. Many of the early movie cameras used in freefall were World War II military surplus, just like early parachute gear. These were gun cameras, which the military mounted on aircraft guns to record a minute or so of footage when the weapon fired.

Jeannie Bartholomew is a dedicated professional canopy pilot who (along with her husband, Curt Bartholomew) has put everything she has into the sport of skydiving. She is a member of Team Alter Ego Fastrax and travels the globe to teach canopy piloting skills and compete in events. Prior to skydiving she was a competitive cheerleader, and jumpers feel her positive attitude and energy wherever she goes.

“One Temporary Escape”  
Watercolor

Kayla Perron | B-47722
Winter Park, Florida

Melinda Ray was a 35-year-old wife and mother of three who was suffering from a disease that was quickly destroying her liver. She didn’t score high on the transplant list to qualify for a liver from a deceased donor; she had to find a living donor. She was desperate. 

From February 10-20, Tsunami Skydivers Exotic Boogies treated 127 participants from around the world to an experience they’ll never forget: the Boogie in Belize. The event included accommodations and nightly parties on Ambergris Caye, four days of jumping on a nearby private island and four days of intentional water landings into the Great Blue Hole (a large submarine sinkhole in the Caribbean Sea near Belize City).

The action calls worked and it now appears that the needed FAA funding bill will pass without changes to the structure of air traffic control. “Once again, we thank our members who made the calls in defense of skydiving’s airspace needs,” said USPA Executive Director Ed Scott.

This proposal would pull ATC out of the FAA and move it to the U.S. Department of Transportation, where a new Management Advisory Council, populated with airline interests, would serve as the ATC board of directors.

Advanced Aerospace Designs has released a Public Service Bulletin PSB-01-2018, regarding certain Vigil II and Vigil 2+ Automatic Activation Devices. The bulletin provides instructions for updating the firmware of affected units that can generate an error code during high-altitude jumps above 27,000 feet. Compliance is mandatory before any jump made from 27,000 feet, or higher, or by no later than May, 2020 for those with affected units who are not making any high altitude jumps.

A celebration of life for Larry K. Bagley has been scheduled for June 1 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In 2017, almost half of the 24 jumpers who died in the U.S. faced malfunctions. Unfortunately, the failure to safely land a canopy (a quarter of the mishaps) and other causes remain, but failure to handle a main-canopy malfunction was the biggest killer in 2017. Learning from the circumstances that surround the deaths that occurred in 2017 can help us all have a safer 2018.

Thankfully, no skydivers or jump pilots died in skydiving-related aircraft accidents in the U.S. during 2017. But there is room for improvement with regard to decision making by jump pilots.