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Skycapers Newsletter |
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| Greene Co. Sport Parachute Ctr. - Bardstown Kentucky |
February 2004 |
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 Greg Mathis Check out what Greg Mathis has been up to! click photo for larger view.-------------------------------- Congratulations - New Coaches! GCSPC Bardstown held a USPA coach certification at the DZ on November 21-23. All the candidates were local jumpers which helped everyone feel more confident and up to the task. The course begin on Friday when Kenn Heismann welcomed everyone to the course and thanked them for the personal commitment each of them has made to the sport by attending. The course had tons of material. Some of the topics covered in the class room covered a very wide scope; Rules, Ethics, Documentation, Instructional Methods, How Learning Happens, Student Progression, Common Problems and How t Correct them, Correct Methods of Training Students, Corrective Training, Student Advancement, Group Freefall Skills, Emergencies and a long list of other topics. On Saturday, due to predicted poor weather on Sunday the course was moved out of the classroom and into the air. Each of the candidates was required to demonstrate their proficiency in the air to; observe, offer in-air feed back via hand signals, provide corrective training where needed and de-brief each jump. The candidates were required conduct these jumps with evaluators. In many cases this is difficult for candidates because their in air evaluator may be someone they know very well. It’s just plain hard to think of that person as a student when they may have been their original instructor or mentor. On Saturday and Sunday several candidates elected not to jump due to wind conditions. These jumps were made up on following weekends. Back into the class room on Sunday for practical evaluations on teaching basic skydiving skills like; turns, tracking, emergency procedures and the like. A GREAT BIG, ‘WELL DONE’ to: Glen Powell, Jeff Steilen, Kevin Smith, Rusty Latta, Shawn Barnett, Chris Couch and Russ Crenshaw! ------------------------- Staticline ICC We have a Staticline Instructor Certification Course scheduled with the USPA for April 2-4. Instructional Rating Manual from the USPA and complete the pre-course requirements. All documents are in the IRM FFI: Kenn Heismann or Jim Moore at the DZ or the usual numbers listed in the border of this newsletter. We have moved the ICC back to allow more time for candidates to complete their pre-course requirements. Watch the web site for location. --------------------------- John Choi - Baghdad Greeting from Baghdad International Airport, Iraq! Hey, Guys! Good skydive? just let you guys know, I made here safe and I'll be keep in touch. You know what? this place is not bad, media is making small things so big it surprise us. I'll send you some pictures when I can chance. John Choi John.Choi@bdab.aorcentaf.af.mil ---------------------------- FUN! Dale Gumm sent this to me and I had a blast playing with it. In my first try I scored a big fat 'ZERO'! Give it a try I think you will enjoy it! << CLICK HERE TO TEST YOURSELF! >> .jpg){kind=small} ----------------------------- Keith & Melissa Abner We came by GCSPC Saturday on our way home from visiting family in Indiana. Couldn't .jpg){kind=small} believe our eyes when we saw NO one there and the planes tied down on.jpg) such a beautiful day. We were so disappointed! Anyway, we took a quick picture to prove we were there. We missed you! Melissa (click on photos for larger view) ----------------------------- John McCoin Returns Home! After spending a year in Iraq John McCoin had returned home! I am sure I speak for everyone reading this rag when I say, "John, THANK YOU!" We are anxious to see you back at the DZ. I'm sure John wants to get back to jumping. John made several jumps with us before he headed off to join in a proactive effort protect our safety and way of life. John, we just can't wait to see you and you Dad in the air together! So get you tail out to the DZ so your dad can say, "Come on, Son, Let me show you how it's done!" WELCOME HOME JOHN! John's dad is Bobby McCoin. You know, the Fendelson winner for 2003! ----------------------------- Safety Day How do you start the year of right? Attend Safety Day! March 13th, 6:00pm at the DZ!  Again our DZ is hosting National Safety Day activities. Safety day is a forum to help us all get prepared for another safe year of skydiving.During Safety Day we will have several stations set up where you can participate in hands on refreshers. We will present topics of relevance to skydiving safety and answer questions. Bring your gear! We'll suspend you in your own gear so you can practice your emergency procedures. Learn what it feels like to pull the handles on YOUR gear! Do you know what color your reserve is? Speakers will be presenting a wide range of topics;
Afterwards hang around meet your friends and have a good time.
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Matt Doland - Baghdad Hi Jim - thanks for writing. I got to Baghdad about a week ago - looks like I'll be back sometime in March, so that's not too bad. One of the good things is that I'll save enough money while I'm here to buy a rig when I get back, so I'm excited about that. Before leaving I made several jumps at the Raeford DZ - good bunch of people, and it's great being able to jump from a Twin Otter every time. It's interesting being here. Driving into Baghdad was like driving onto a war movie set. I'm at the 28th Combat Support Hospital, which gets most of the trauma in the country. And there is tons of it, but the majority is (thankfully) Iraqi wounded. They do get quite a few of our guys with their improvised explosives, though. Anyway, definitely an interesting place to be, but I can't wait to get back. If you (or anyone) wants to write, my snail mail address is below. Hopefully I'll be back to jump there sooner than later. Take care. CPT Matt Dolan mdolan777@juno.com 28th Combat Support Hospital APO AE 09342-1274 ------------------------------- ATTENTION Rating Holders! To renew your rating you must have attended a USPA Instructor seminar within the last 12 month. Attend the Staticline ICC on Friday evening April 2nd at 6:30 EST and get you logbook signed off. Watch the website for location. -------------------------------- Vickie Croston I finally got a chance to train a class again. Seemed like both "forever" and "yesterday" since I'd taught one! Had a  good class of eager students, but weather wouldn't cooperate, so had to send them home "jumpless". Bummer. My husband Wyn was in the class, but we returned Sunday and he made his first Staticline jump. Did pretty good (even without a functioning radio).....guess I'm a proud lady! Now he wants to jump regularly out here in Houston.....I've unleashed another SKYDIVER!!!! Watch out!!It was WONDERFUL to see my old friends again too. We had already flown to the WFFC at Rantoul, and saw several more there.....nice reunion. Now if we could just do something about that rainy weather.........! I've made several new jumper friends here in Texas, but they don't compare to those back in Kentucky and Indiana! You guys are SO SPECIAL! We flew up in our C-172, and with the stormy weather everywhere, we managed to keep current our skills of deciphering computer weather and talking to Flight Service (on ground) and Flight Watch (in air). Very helpful people......I highly recommend them! We also found a few airports to land at while waiting out bad storms, meeting many very nice people along the way. We're learning so very much about navigation (GPS is a GOOD thing!), communicating with ACT (not always wording things correctly, but it still works) in addition to  seeing a BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY !! Speed improved from last trip to 90-114 knots......better than my last trip with headwinds. Not quite Mach, but better than driving!We flew up in our C-172, and with the stormy weather everywhere, we managed to keep current our skills of deciphering computer weather and talking to Flight Service (on ground) and Flight Watch (in air). Very helpful people......I highly recommend them! We also found a few airports to land at while waiting out bad storms, meeting many very nice people along the way. We're learning so very much about navigation (GPS is a GOOD thing!), communicating with ATC (not always wording things correctly, but it still works) in addition to seeing a BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY !! Speed improved from last trip to 90-114 knots......better than my last trip with headwinds. Not quite Mach, but better than driving! We're enjoying our little plane way too much.....so I'm still not jumping a lot. Many diversions to my Instrument training this summer, but hopefully will be back on track and finish in September. Flying IFR certainly would have helped this trip, but not even with bad storms. I may be adventurous, but not stupid. Life certainly can get in the way of having FUN! If any of you get down towards Houston, please contact us. You will have a place to stay, and we'd love the company. Nearest DZ is only an hour's drive, or 20-min flight, away. Blue skies and light breezes, Vickie :)  -----------------------------Christmas Party After another great year of jumping out of airplanes  the Heismann's threw their annual Christmas party at the Days Inn in Bardstown.Lots of folks (new faces and old) came out to enjoy food and the company of the greatest skydivers in the world. The evening began with Kenn Heismann (DZO) speaking about the history of Greene County Sport Parachute Center. Kenn spoke about event from 1971 to present. If you haven't attended a Christmas party at Bardstown you need to make it a 'must do' for next year just to hear the history of GCSPC. It will keep you rolling  in the isles.The Fendelson Award was won by Bobby McCoin. Bobby won the award by making an incredible tree landing. Let's face it folks, if there is anyone you want to land in a tree it's Bobby. He is the only person on the DZ who can be in a tree and his feel still reach the ground. Dale Gumm and Jim Moore were each awarded a plaque in recognition of 1000 tandem jumps. Congratulations to Gerry Whitson and Allan Covington! Each received and award for, 'Outstanding Achievement and Contribution to Sport Parachuting and Greene Co. Sport Parachute Center. member Gerry Whitson - ----------------------------- AFF Certification Course? Are you interested in becoming an Accelerated Freefall Instructor? Several people have asked about our hosting a course. If you are interested or just want to know more get with the staff. If there is enough interest we will host a course at Bardstown. ----------------------------- Control Line Malfunctions As we're sure you've heard there have been a lot of accidents and near misses attributed to fouled control lines. Many reports have been attributed to 'Slinks'. PDs instillations instructions for Slinks say that after about 20 jumps they should take a "set". We note that the instructions do not require or even mention that the free ends should be tacked into position. We highly recommend after having slinks installed for a while you have your rigger tack the ends down. Not that it's going to cause a problem, but heck, if you or your rigger can spend 5 minutes tacking down the free ends of your slinks we think you will agree that is time well spent. PD gives detailed instructions on how to tack them down. If you want to do it yourself and you have the proper materials go for it, you can always have a rigger inspect your work. Details can be found in PDs safety information sheet on control line malfunctions. PD had done an excellent safety information sheet on control line malfunctions. We highly suggest everyone take the time to sit down with a cold one and give it a read. You might just learn something! ----------------------------- Photo Gallery <<Photos - photos - photos click here>> |
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