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Kittinger To Open PIA International Parachute Symposium
The Parachute Industry Association is pleased to announce that Joe Kittinger will be the guest speaker at the opening ceremony for The 2001 International Parachute Symposium. On August 16th, 1960, then a Captain, Kittinger set three of his collection of world records as part of the Excelsior III Project. The Highest Parachute Jump - 102,800 feet, the Longest Parachute Freefall - 4 Minutes and 36 seconds and the First Man to exceed the Speed of Sound without an airplane or space vehicle - 714 mph during freefall. His multiple World Records includes parachuting, ballooning and flying. After 28 years in the United States Air Force he retired at the rank of Colonel. Col. Kittinger accumulated 1,000 hours of combat flying over Southeast Asia with 483 missions. His flying career includes two emergency ejections.
One occurred during his third combat tour. He was shot down in an F-4 near Hanoi on May 1st, 1972 and was held as a POW until his release in March 1973. After retirement, he settled into the civilian world of aviation as Vice President of Flight Operations for Rosie O’Grady’s Flying Circus. A position he held for 14 years. Col. Kittinger is currently an Aviation and Aerospace consultant, a Barnstormer in a 1929 New Standard Open Cockpit Bi-Plane and the Chief Skywriter for the Great American Flying Circus. The dates for the 2001 Symposium are January 29th through February 2nd, 2001, at the Town & Country Resort, San Diego, CA. The opening ceremony with Col. Kittinger will be held on, Tuesday January 30th, 2001.
For more information check out: www.pia.com/symposium/Symposium2001.htm.
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ESPN pulls the plug on skysurfing at the X-Games!
After six years, fourteen pro events, a record event purse of $75,000, an overall cash total of $392,000 and 100+ hours of global TV exposure, ESPN has decided to pull the plug on skysurfing or any other form of skydiving in the X-Games. Skysurfing is being replaced by downhill BMX bicycle racing. Read more on our SSI Pro Tour page.
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Another Birdman Record?
On Friday, July 20, in Den Helder, Netherlands, seven skydivers with Birdman suits set a new world record in unaided human flight. After being dropped from a jump plane at a height of 15,000 feet, the group of parachutists soared laterally approximately 2.5 miles from an island in the North Sea to the mainland.
Now, a group of South African and international "Birdmen" are planning to top this record in early January by flying the four-mile-wide strait between Robben Island and Blouberg Strand just outside Cape Town, South Africa. For more information check out www.humanflight.com/Activities/challenge.html.
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FS4 Motion Coach available
A trial version of the FS4 Motion Coach is now available. As reported earlier, another masterpiece of 4-way science has entered the software market. Yola van der Wal, 4-way and 8-way competitor from the Netherlands, has developed a software program that is demonstrating the current 4-way techniques with accuracy like no other program has offered so far. Van der Wal is using the Flash Player software to have her little figures skydiving across the computer screen. Check out Kurt Gaebel's article in our archive for more details on the program.
Van der Wal and the NSL headquarters are now offering a 4-minute demo version of the program at the NSL website at www.skyleague.com/Fs4mot~7.exe. The whole program is ready to be applied in the training. Van der Wal will be selling the complete program for 35 EURO (approx. US$28) via Internet, or for 40 EURO (approx. US$34) for shipping a CD. Requests for the FS4 Motion Coach can be made through the NSL headquarters.
A demo of the FS4 Motion Coach can be viewed at OmniSkore's website.
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ESA Thailand Boogie - Change of Plans
Exotic Sky Adventures regretfully announces that it is unable to launch another Amazing Thai Boogie in year 2001. Since late October, it was announced that the Royal Thai Air Force was unable to provide ESA with the G-222's that they needed. This came as an unexpected surprise and a major setback to the whole event. Through countless channels they tried to revert the outcome and once again secure their jump ships, but without luck.
The organization has, since the first bad news, been working on a back-up plan which is coming together in such a favorable way that they hope you will share their enthusiasm when they now welcome you to: "Jump Below The Wind, Borneo Boogie".
Destination is Kota Kinabalu, located on the large island of Borneo, Malaysia. ESA's Malay liaison is officially launching a skydive center - an ambitious project with all aspects of skydiving to be connected. On December 30, 2000, the news and media will be covering a grand demo jump performed by 50 Malay skydivers for the official opening. The boogie, two months later (February 16 to March 3, 2001), will be the first international event to follow up. For more information check out ESA's website.
The ESA organization will be inspecting the area in mid December and secure all the aspects that an ESA boogie should offer. Hereafter their website will be updated with final info on hotels, flights, DZ, jump air crafts and the long-awaited registration forms.
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Changes in Spain
Train in Spain left the dropzone in Lillo, Spain at the end of November and is moving to Proenca a Nova in Portugal (150 km NE Lisbon), where they will re-open in February 2001. For updates check our their website at www.traininspain.com.
The dropzone in Lillo, south of Madrid, remains open under Mike Shaw, and, with its Pilatus Porter, makes a good winter dropzone for freezing north European skydivers. The facilities are amazing, with a lovely clubhouse newly built, quality showers bar and restaurant. There are plans for a Christmas event and they will be open seven days a week if teams or groups contact them prior to coming over.
For more information call Mike Shawn at +34 91 523 1253 or mobile at +34 607 601 593, or send him an e-mail at mj.shaw@mad.servicom.es.
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Four-Year-Old Skydives!
In a leap into the record books, four-year-old Toni Stadler became the youngest person to skydive! The tandem parachute jump took place at the Cape Parachute Club, 25 miles north of Cape Town, South Africa, on Oct. 27, just five days before Toni's fifth birthday. The youngster was strapped to jumpmaster Paul Lutge's chest as they leaped out of their single-engine plane 10,000 feet above the earth, freefalling for half a minute before opening the parachute.
Toni's mom said, "We have been skydiving for four years and recently Toni started asking if he could jump too,". "We did not make him do it. He made us let him."
