Welcome to the May Skydiving News from the Freefall University in Spain. This page is updated three times a week and tracks the progress of our students and former students who are back on holiday with us and possibly completing further training.
1.05.05
To go to the News for the second two weeks of May click here
Congratulations to Ian Waites who has completed his AFF course and is now jumping Solo. Ian trained with Luci Boella. He is pictured here on his level seven.
On the right he is sitting in the door waiting to " roll out " in a ball. The objective of this exercise is to demonstrate to the student that the classic " Arch " position will allow you recover stability from any orientation.
Here is a snap taken just after the exit. As you can see he is upside down and effectviely in a roll.
Later on the dive , " thumbs up are exchanged between instructor and student. The level seven is the last jump done with an instructor. At this point Ian knows hes cracked it and his next jump will be a solo.
Luci is pictured here walking in from the landing area with Ian.
Toby Welman is pictured here getting ready for his AFF level One with Luci and Stephen.
Heres Toby on his first jump ever. He is doing what we call a practice touch ( reaching around for the ´ handle ´). On your first level all you have to do is make a good attempt at the " Arch " stable body position. You also practice opening the parachute three times. Then at 5000 ft you use the movements you have practiced to open it for real. Toby did a stunning level one.
And here is after landing with myself and Lucy. Our student landing area is huge and pretty much stretches out into the background.
Steffan Williams from Wales joined us for a three day stay and moved to level seven of the AFF course. He will be back in a few weeks to jump solo and we have done our best to convince his girlfriend ( Annia from Poland ) to learn to skydive. She did a tandem with Marcus and I accompanied her in freefall. I have a sneaky feeling weve done enough and we will see her soon.
Here is Steffan " locked on " to his altimeter. Generally speaking we ask that students continously monitor their alitude for a 1000 feet before opening. This serves two purposes. You over your course get an idea of how long it takes to fall 1000 feet and secondly it allows for a margin of error ( a small one mind ) in tuning into your exact altitude for the pull.
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03.05.05
Simon Glover is pictured here getting ready for his first AFF jump. Simon completed five aff jumps over his first two days and is about to graduate AFF . He is pictured here with his instructor Luci Boella and his secondary instructor Steven.
When asked for a comment about skydiving he said " After a long wait I am so glad that I tried it, its fantastic and I cant wait to get back up there"!
Dee Jadeja who is a financial Analyst with Accenture in the UK has been chatting with us for a while about doing his AFF course and after three days of jumping is on Level five of his AFF course. I spoke with him at the end of Level three and he was well impressed with jumping. " Im registered for my fourth jump today and am looking forward to it. " . Well keep you posted.
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03.04.05
Another long term visitor. Mike Worthington who trained with me in Feb of 2004 has moved to Lillo. In true Worthington " Smoothness " Mike did the road trip in his MG convertable in about 12 hours through France and Spain to Madrid. Mike is a member of the Freefall University Sponsored formation skydiving team and will work on his relative work skills and also his camera license.
Joining us for a weeks skydiving holiday is Richard Bell who learned to skydive with us in Nov 2004. Richard is working on his British Parachute Association FS1 rating which will allow him to jump with other people. Steven is Richards coach.
Sorry Darren, couldnt resist posting this one. Darren has been jumping I promise. If however hes not jumping he seems to spend a good deal of time sleeping. The gorilla in the photo has a long and varied history, even managing to get arrested by some of the spanish police when it was the passenger on the back of a pushbike , yes the law is very busy in Lillo....
Congratulations to Russell Bargery who on his first visit to us progressed to level four. He took a few days of from the course and when he came back he well and truely nailed it with a cracking level three. I accompanied him on this jump along with Steven and Mike Vetter from the Swiss team and gotto say it Russell.. Fantastic jump .. thanks for having me along !
Ola Chica ! An honourary member of the Freefall University Family is Chrissy from London who heads up the London Skydivers drinking skydiving club. She will be helping our London skydivers get to know their fellow meatbombs around the greater london area.
Meanwhile heres Dee on his level six, its all good , he exiting the plane on his own now and controlling heading..essentially jumping solo under supervision. One more level and Dee will be jumping solo.
The things skydivers get up to between jumps.... one of the activities suited to the a general audience is arm wrestling. In this battle of the Ozzies V the Welsh Toby gets the better of Gareth. Gareth is doing well and has all his consols completed now and is just racking up jump numbers whilst preparing for his formation skydiving course.
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05.05.05
Simon Glover is now on level seven of his skydiving course. Here is a picture for his level six where he exits the plane without Luci holding onto him. " Check out " is what he is saying. It is a verbal check between both student and instructor signifying both are ready to skydive..
Here is Simon Later on on the same dive. A face of concentration. Level six is one of the milestones you will pass on the journey as you leave the plane without an instructor holding you and provided you dont need assistance the instructor wont try to help you physically , but instead with only hand signals.
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06.05.05
Mick McGinnity from Ireland is back for a few days. He commented that Irish Weather seems to have been against him and that he has decided to do all his skydiving here in Spain. He learned to skydive solo with us mid last year and this his his third skydiving holiday with us. Equipment is made available to our graduates for as long as they need it once qualified and to ensure we meet this demand is why we have set out to add one new set of equipment to our inventory once a month for the next twelve months.
Ger Gallagher from Ireland is also back for his third holiday with us. He also learned last year when he came out with Mick. Ger has done some jumping in Ireland. When asked what he thought of the progress we had made in building our skydiving centre he said he was " amazed at the new facilities which have sprung up since he was here last " . He has managed six skydives i one day with us and is jumping one of our Spectre main parachutes.
Congratulations to Simon Glover who has graduated AFF and is now skydiving solo. Simon trained with Luci Boella and has another four days ahead to complete his solo jumps.
Meanwhile Gary Martin from Belfast who joined us a few days ago is Training with Marcus Lazer. Gary is cracking though the course and is pictured here with his instructor.
And here is a picture of him here in Freefall on his level six.
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10.05.05
Welcome back to Dion Bingham who is here to complete her AFF course after training in the UK where she completed a number of levels over the last few months.
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Welcome also to Nathan Carmichael from the UK who is here to learn to skydive. Nathan works as a green keeper in London and has wanted to learn to skydive for quite some time . Nathan is training with Steven.
Also welcome to Jon Peaple from the UK who is here to learn to skydive, he will be training with Luci.
And now for something completley different... Mike Worthington sent us this picture of Richard Bell who visited recently. Im quite curiuos to know to know how Richard managed to get the hat to stay on.
Also sent in by Mike Worhington is this picture of Darren Vincent who is pictured above sleeping on the Gorilla. Darren is seen here practicing the Mantis position which is a more advanced body flying position employed by formation skydivers.
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13.05.05
Here is a picture I took of Mike Worthington, Richard O´Neill and Pete Cottrell doing a 3 way formation skydive. The formation ( or in skydiving Lingo " point " they are making is called an " Open Accordian ". It was nice to be a part of a skydive with three people who trained as skydivers in our school and who qaulified to jump with other people on our formation skydiving courses.
Here is a photo of Dion Bingham getting ready in the door for her AFF level seven with Brian Vacher. On level seven you sit on the edge of the door before rolling out.
Here is a picture taken a second after exit where Dion is upside down beginning to accelerate to terminal velocity.
Smiles are exchanged.. Dion knows shes done it ! She has on her level seven rolled out in a ball , recoverd stability and completed two 360 degree turns. The level seven is the jump where one puts the icing on the cake..
Meanwhile Jon Peaple is just about finished his course having completed level six today with Luci Boealla.. He will jump with her tommorrow on level seven and well post some more piccies then..
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14.05.05
Congratulations to Jon People who today completed his first four solo skydives after completing his AFF course with Lucy. Ill publish some pics from his level seven when they are ready ,but for the moment here is one i took of him jumping out the door for his first solo.
On the same " load " here is Jerry Ramshaw who works in personal Security in Baghdad. He has never skydived before and completed his first four levels today with Steven. I asked him what he thought and he replied that "after a year of Driving Down Baghdad Airport road this was a simple affair for him ! " . Given this is the most dangerous road in the world , i completley agree!
I was playing around with Mike and ensuring my cameras were set up correctly in preperation for FFU5 Team training. Heres a shot just after exit.
There was an accuracy competition on the DZ today with approximatley 30 competitors entering. The objective is to land as close to the " target " as possible..the target being a 2cm dot in the middle of the mat you see underneath the jumper. The average for the jumper in first placs is 4cm which is good.
Stay Tuned , tommorrow we will have another update with pics from both Jon Peaples course , Steve Ramshaws course and five or six former students who are here on holiday. The formation skydiving team will also start training again tommorrow.
To go to the News for the second two weeks of May click here