Aug 2007 - Nov 2007

WEEKEND 28th to 29th July 2007

Another weekend and another Grand Prix was held at Target Skysports. The weather was great for most of the weekend and in fact both the 8-way and the Freefly were completed on the Saturday.

In the Intermediate 8-way category, there were 2 teams competing a team from Headcorn and Weston called Blizzard; and a team made up of Escondido plus friends. It appeared from the first 3 rounds that Escondido would rip it up and take an easy win. however things changed in rounds 4 and 5 when a combination of 2 bad rounds from Escondido and 2 good rounds from Blizzard meant that they closed the gap to 2 points. With the discipline of 8-way and in particular teams who have not done hundreds and hundreds of jumps, it often comes down to the exit. The team that does a fast exit can gain those extra few points. So when the final scores were in Escondido had won an extra 2 points and therefore took first place with a score of 29. Blizzard came second with a 24.

In the senior class, there was only one team SoundsGrrrr8. They did absolutely fantastic and showed how much effort they had put in to their training with a good score of 50 giving them an 8.33 average. We also want to wish them good luck in Stupino at the World Meet.

The other Grand Prix was the Freefly event. Although there was only one team in each class, all the competitors saw it as a useful opportunity to do some team training before the National Championships in a few weeks time.

Aside from the competition, this weekend saw the beginning of a long raft of teams training. Murphy's Law, sponsored team Elan, Boogie Pimps, Wingnuts and Sonic V were all working hard. Some of them will continue on mid-week to do more training.

Have you seen the Nationals mini-site?
 

WORLD CUP 2007 TEAMS

Target Skysports wants to wish all the teams who train at the dropzone the best of luck as they prepare to go out to Stupino in Russia for the World Cup. This is teams Fusion, Inferno and Wingnuts.

Good luck and we will be flying our flags back in the UK. News about the event can be found on their website.

NATIONALS MINI-SITE ONLINE

The new Nationals mini-site is online and can be viewed here. You will find information on prices, accommodation, dates, event information and most importantly Online Registration.

WEEKEND 21st to 22nd July - Click here for photos.

The BPA roadshow opened its doors to the skydiving community again this weekend with Target Skysports sponsored team Outbreak Freefly passing on their knowledge. In addition, there was also the Canopy Formation Grand Prix competition taking place at the same time.
 

Unfortunately for all the jumpers at the dropzone, the weather was bad on Saturday. Outbreak ran a seminar to keep people interested and covered subjects sit fly basics to forward movement, freefly B category compulsories and free round ideas. On the Sunday, the weather was much better and everyone got quite a few jumps in with Jim, Mikey and Andy:

	Liz Boniface 3 jumps with Mikey
	Emily Handley 3 jumps with Andy
	Pete Haseler 2 jumps with Jim
	Jono Cole 3 jumps with Mikey
	Brian Cumming 2 jumps with Jim
	Mark Owen 3 jumps with Jim
	Paul Cooper 1 jump with Jim
	Jade Elliot 4 jumps with Andy
	Amelia Walters 2 jumps with Mikey
	Steve Hogan 1 jump with Jim

The Outbreak Freefly boys are just about to leave for Russia to represent the UK in the freefly discipline.

In the CF competition there were 3 different disciplines represented. 2-way Sequential senior was always going to be the busiest category and 5 teams registered for that. It was clear from the first round that Los Diablos were the clear leaders with an impressive score of 8. They then bettered this for the 2nd round with a 10. Los Diablos won first place. Not far behind them were Outcast with a total of 15. They also competed in the 4-way Speed Rotation event. 3rd and 4th place both shared the same score with CFUK and Cellmates respectively.

In the 4-way Speed Rotation Senior class, there were 3 teams competing. Outcast won by points over CFUK with a good score of 24. CFUK scored 21 and Lost Boys were in 3rd place with 16 points. The 2-way Sequential Intermediate category had a Spanish name theme with teams Los Perros and Los Gatos competing against each other. Los Perros won with a total of 10 points and Los Gatos took 2nd with a total of 4. This might have been different but unfortunately, they scored a 0 in round 2.

Next weekend, all those doing freefly coaching will have the opportunity to show their skills at the Freefly Grand Prix. Running along side this is the 8-way Grand Prix. Will SoundsGrrr8 rule the roost again? If you want to form a scratch team, let the dropzone know on info@skydiving.co.uk.

COACHING ROADSHOW 14th to 15th July

Another coaching roadshow came to Target Skysports this weekend. Team Elan, Caroline Hughes, Billy Paine and Chris Hollis were all on hand for load organising and coaching at the dropzone. The weather forecast was mixed for the weekend, and even with weather holds on the Saturday most people got 7 jumps in. Many of those on the big-ways comments how original and challenging the dives were. It was great to see the mix of load organisers and Elan offering coaching. Caroline and Billy have been on numerous world records and Elan offer their perspective of smaller formations. The 2 Dorniers at the dropzone this weekend did a fantastic 40 lifts between them on just the Saturday.

Many skydivers at the dropzone over the weekend were working towards their FS1 qualification.

In addition to the load organising, there were many teams training for the 4-way Nationals which are due to begin in August - Fusion, Havoc, Qi, Inferno, Sonic V and Baccanalia. Unfortunately the weather on the Sunday was a complete washout with no lifts at all. Photos will arrive here tomorrow!

Next weekend, Hibaldstow will be hosting the CF Grand Prix and the new Nationals page will go online.
 

OUTBREAK FREEFLY DATES

Jim Harris from Outbreak Freefly wanted to remind everybody that the FF Coaching road show will be arriving at Target Skysports on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd July. They will also be available for ground coaching from the Wednesday 18th to the Friday 20th. This is an excellent opportunity to learn from the best freeflyers in the UK.

FS GRAND PRIX WRITE-UP - Click here for photos.

25 registered 4-way teams attended this weekend's Grand Prix at Hibaldstow. Seen by many as the biggest warm-up competition to Nationals, there is always a good attendance. The Single A category this year had the most teams with 11 teams registered. Team Elan were here coaching and competing. But more about them later.

The weather was on and off all weekend, with many holds. However true to form, the Dornier's were sent up with even the smallest gaps in the weather to drop teams. Saturday afternoon had the best weather and most teams had completed 4 or 5 rounds. In fact some of the AA and AAA completed their competition entirely by the end of the day leaving them open for a party in the bar.

In the Rookie class, Hibaldstow local team 4 Play took Gold after a neck and neck battle with Paradigm. 4 Play were 2 points ahead with a score of 48. Strangers in the Night took 3rd place with a score of 44. In the Single A class, Sonic V who have trained very hard this year and easily won the event with a 62. Battling for the Silver and Bronze were Synergy, Monkey Magic, Phobia and Slightly Odd. All were within a few points of each other and swapped places several times during the 6 rounds of competition. At the end of the event, Phobia took 2nd place with a score of 54 and 1 point behind them were Slightly Odd. It will be interesting to see what happens at Nationals this year.

The AA category had 4 teams enter. The clear favourites to win were Wingnutz who were 25 points ahead of Escondido in 2nd place. Escondido are taking a year off from training this year as Abi has just had her first child. Mike Worthington (from Polaris in 2006) has stepped in. 3rd Place went to Fend 4 Yourself from Weston who scored 45.

4 Teams also registered for the AAA class. World Champions Team Elan too the Gold medal with an impressive 98 points over 6 rounds. They were on hand coaching many teams over the weekend and their skills came in useful especially for many junior scratch teams needing some advice. 3 Other local Hibaldstow teams Fusion, Havoc and Inferno were fighting for the remaining 2 medals. Fusion took 2nd place 10 points ahead of Havoc with a 83 score.

In addition to the high turnout of teams for the Grand Prix, it was interesting to see how the judges got on with the new judging system Camtrix. Kate Charters, Bob Charters and Karla Cole are all recognised on the world circuit as the best in their field for FS judging. There were many busts over the competition and this warned the competitors to be clean during the Nationals event, showing good separation and video work. The Camtrix system works by storing all the video on a PC. Therefore, downloading and judging times are greatly reduced with no need to record on DVD's. Speaking to Bob Charters he mentioned that this system was already showing a lot of interest in other international competitions and had seen a lot of hard work go into its development.

BRIAN VACHER'S CANOPY COACHING COURSE - Click here for photos.

Brian Vacher's Safeflight school came to Hibaldstow on the 2nd to 4th July. The content of the course, is a mix of classroom theory and practical exercises
done on hop and pop jumps. People learned about the neutral body position under canopy and how to get better flares and improved landings from their canopies.

A combination of trepidation and excitement could be seen as the group went in the G92 to do their exercises, all filmed from the ground and then debriefed by Brian. In a matter of a few jumps the improvement was clearly seen, and by the end of the 10 jump course the results were impressive.

Those who took part were Chris Prideaux, Chris Higgins, Kate Morris, John Fox, Ben Hardy, Shayne Humprey, Karen Bain, Dudley Nelson, Liz Purcell, Ruth Kent, Bruce Bryan and Leanne James. Check out Blairs photos of the group.
 

WEEKEND 30th June to 1st July - Click here for photos

Large numbers of 28-way competitors turned up for the annual sequential competition. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and rainy for much of the weekend. This stopped any competition taking place and very few tandems were able to jump either. Simon Cathrine and Dave Lewis kept the teams as active as they could by regularly practicing the formations, however the weather was not on their side. The Saturday evening made up for a day of not jumping with an exciting 'pub-style' quiz run by Blair Stent. No guesses for what the winning prize consisted of!

Team Elan with their coach Gary Beyer were at the dropzone training this weekend. They will be there providing free coaching for the next two weekends:

	7th to 8th July - Grand Prix
	14th to 15th July - FS Coaching Roadshow

As most of you will already know, the camping field and bunkhouse were completely waterlogged. Target Skysports would like to apologise for the accommodation not being habitable this weekend. Efforts are underway to pump the water out of the field and they have promised that everything will be habitable by next weekend.
 

WEEKEND 23rd to 24th June 2007 - Click here for photos.

The forecast for the weekend was absolutely miserable, but once again even with a large chunk of unjumpable weather, Target Skysports was able to put quite a few lifts up. On Saturday, we did 30 tandems and helped some 4-way teams to work on their training (Inferno, Bacchanalia and Sonic-V).

The POPS (Parachutists Over Phorty Society) also paid a visit to the dropzone. It was interesting to hear from them that their members are not just made up of skydiver who started in the 60's or 70's. Many of them are recent converts to the sport. A competition was run by top POP, Dick Barton for an accuracy competition which he also won. Rings measured at 5, 10 and 20 meters were marked out and scores given for first contact, stopping position and whether they stood the landing up.

Next weekend is the annual 28-way competition.
 

TEAM OUTBREAK AND FRIENDS BREAK THE EUROPEAN FREEFLY RECORD

Have you heard the news that 10 Brits were part of the European record attempts a week ago? Big congratulations go to Mike Carpenter, Jim Harris, Andy Newell, Daniel Parker, Andy Ford, Adam Mattacola, Andy Newell, Martin Reynolds, Matt O´Riordon and James Davies who were all a part of the 40-way record set on the 15th June. That's 25% of the total formation organised by Babylon (who also took the photo).

Read reports on UKSkydiver.co.uk and see a photo of the record here.

FLAT AND PRO PACKING COURSE DATES ANNOUNCED

Richie Rich our local rigger has announced the following dates for the packing courses:

	Flat Packing Course: June 29th
	Pro Packing Course: July 20th

Contact the dropzone on 01652 648837 to book.

WEEKEND 16th to 17th June 2007 - Click here for photos.

Stu Ferguson brought the first UKS Boogie to Target Skysports this weekend. More than 120 registered skydivers turned up for the event with many many more regular jumpers participating. What a fantastic weekend it was. We had Louis Harwood and Rob McVey from Avalore coaching freefly; Caroline Hughes, Simon Bristow, Fiona Birnie and Simon Brentford organising / coaching formation skydiving; and Lee Saunders on wingsuits.

Jumping on the Saturday was limited to less than 10 lifts because of heavy cloud and some rain. However many people got at least one jump in with their coaches and organisers. Even with the bad weather, we had uplifting music played by a series of DJ's during the day. Even when the heavens opened, the music continued under tarpaulins.

Saturday night kicked off with a massive BBQ organised by Noel and Jack and included lots of interesting salads to complement the mandatory burgers, chops and sausages. Then the main event, the James Bond party began. Being a fancy dress party, there lots of ladies in sophisticated dresses, blofeld's, doctor evil's and of course Bond's. To entertain them, there was more music and a casino with real chips.

Sunday's skydiving was fantastic with only a few weather holds. The sun came out and we did over 40 lifts. Congratulations goes to Michelle Meakins (FF1), Aidan Mitra and Weston Dan (FS1). Others will have been missed, but let the dropzone know and we will update this section.

Many thanks also go to Stu Ferguson for organising a great event, the coaches / organisers and all the others who made things work seamlessly. A final thank-you goes to Pip Hollingworth who spent hours walking around handing out free homemade chocolate cookies to needy skydivers!

Read some reviews of the event here:
http://www.ukskydiver.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=5929
 

FLAT PACKING COURSE ANNOUNCED

Richie Rich our resident rigger has announced the next flat packing course date of Friday 29th June 2007. If you are interested in taking part let the dropzone know on 01652 648837. Find our more about the course here.
 

B-LICENSE PROGRESSION COURSE

The date of the next course is Thursday 28th June 2007. This course helps you to work towards your JM1, CH1 and CH2 which are all necessary elements of the FAI B-License. If you want to book on this course, please contact the dropzone on 01652 648837 or by email info@skydiving.co.uk.

More details about the content of the course can be found here on our
skydiving training mini-site.
 

WEEKEND 9th to 10th June - Click here for photos

Thank-you Simon Cathrine, Doug McLelland and Lynne Murray (from Fusion) for organising the big-way skills camp. Despite the poor forecast, around 30 people turned up. Although there was a slow start on Saturday morning with bad weather, each group managed to achieve at least 4 jumps that day. Simon and Doug's group came together at the end of the day for a formation load on the G92 and SMG92.

Everybody who participated enjoyed the jumps and learned new skills. Even the lower experienced jumpers were able to learn from this weekend as Lynne looked after them with 6 and 8-ways. Unfortunately the weather was not good on Sunday but overall feedback from the event was positive. Target Skysports together with Simon hope to run similar events in the future.

The Scottish contingent who made it down earlier on Friday even managed five jumps that evening. This helped to make it worth their while driving down despite the poor forecast. This is another example of not trusting the weather.

We also had World Champions training with us this weekend. Team Elan (formerly known as Airkix) managed 40 training jumps on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. This was despite the stop-start weather on Saturday and 5pm start on Sunday. Aardvark Zulu (including ex-world champions) also completed 34 training jumps by the end of Monday after only starting at 2pm on Saturday.

Monday's training for these two teams consisted of 16 jumps in only six hours. This just shows what can be achieved and teams don't always need to go abroad to get their training jumps in. Thanks to the packers and all the staff for helping to keep teams going and achieving six back-to-back loads on each cycle.

Finally congratulations to Noel on achieving his British AFF rating with an extremely good exam score.

See all the photos here.
 

2 AIRCRAFT THIS WEEKEND Target Skysports would like to confirm that there will be 2 turbine aircraft at the dropzone this weekend - 1 G92 and 1 SMG92. This means we will have huge amounts of capacity to cope with team training, load organising and fun jumping. Don't forget that Simon Cathrine and Doug McLelland are running a big-way skills event this weekend.

x2

WEEKEND 2nd to 3rd June - Click here for photos.

Over 50 lifts were completed at the dropzone this weekend with perfect blue skies weather. Team Elan (Tarn Hollis and Amanda Kemp) were on hand for coaching along with other regular coaches. Amongst those who received training were Murphy's Law, Charlotte Fletcher, Katherine Montgomery, Paul Bailey, Paul Geary and Chris Prideaux. Each person and team were given training specific to their particular needs and it was great to have such a wealth of useful information. There were many other teams and individuals who received training and the list goes on. As some of you are aware Target Skysports has sponsored Team Elan and as part of the partnership you get to benefit from their knowledge and experience.

Team Elan are next here on the 7th and 8th July for the Grand Prix. They will as usual be offering some more expert tuition. Next weekend we have the big way skills weekend with Simon Cathrine and Doug McLelland.

Charlotte Fletcher has over the past few weeks and months been receiving coaching for her FS1 qualification. This all came to fruition when she successfully completed 18 points on her 4-way. Both Tarn and Amanda were involved in that jump and not many people can say they have had 2 world champions on their FS1 dive!

Last but not least, Will Walls a regular freeflyer at the dropzone celebrated his 1000th skydive by doing a tracking dive. Well done Will.

WEEKEND 26th to 28th May - Click here for photos.
The main highlight of the weekend was an Old Skool Disco. Lots of our regulars came along kitted up in school shirts, nasty stripped ties and evil headmaster uniforms (H). Noel Purcell ran a traditional pub quiz specialising in 80's nostalgia and music.

Beside the partying, the dropzone was busy with teams training under John McIver, Steve Hamilton and Pete Allum. Lynne Murray was also coaching and load organising for those without a team. Amongst the teams at Hibaldstow this weekend were Havoc, Inferno, Murphy's Law and Valkyrie.

Don't forget this weekend is free team coaching with Team Elan.

WEEKEND 19th to 20th May - Click here for photos
Saturday was pretty windy, but we got some good stuff done, with Tarn and Amanda from Team Elan around a few took advantage of the free coaching and all progressed well. Check the diary for when the girls are coming up again, June 2/3 is the next date for free coaching.

While we weren't jumping some people got their CH1 and CH2 briefs , just ask guys if you need to get them done and we'll try to get you briefed.

The Top Gun birdman team were also around all weekend and took Chris Hollis on his first birdman jump.

Sunday morning with nil winds and clear blue skies came as a welcome pleasure. Fusion, Qi and Inferno were all there team training.

The Birdmen were getting a few done showing some close formation flying. The guys are looking at coming up again soon, so if your interested contact us and we can organise a weekend for first flight courses. Alan Wilson joined them for a couple of flocking formations, so the potential for a Hib flock is there! Cheers to the guys for coming up. If you want want to see more about Top-Gun follow this link www.birdmantopgun.com.

Sunday was finished off with Ane Brentford, Tim McGiven, Charlotte Fletcher and Chrissy Wolfers doing their practical spotting with Lee from the Cherokee, flown by H. This finished off Ane's C licence and Charlotte's B - well done guys!

Remember next weekend is the Bank Holiday, we are having a BBQ Saturday and the Skool disco on Sunday night, don't forget to bring your uniform and cheesy old school tunes!

TEAM ELAN DATES AT HIBALDSTOW ANNOUNCED
 

Target Skysports sponsored team Elan have announced they will be at Hibaldstow on the following weekends:

	June 2nd - 3rd
	July 7th - 8th
	July 14th - 15th

WEEKEND 12th - 13th May 2007 - Click here for photos.

Every year in May, Target Skysports host the scrambles competition. This is where mixed teams are created to do 4 rounds of of 4-way. At the start of round 1, all teams should be in the same position with an equal chance of winning.

6 teams registered for the event and considering the forecast was terrible, we had a good turnout. The best weather was on Saturday and 3 rounds of the competition were completed by the end of the day. Experience levels varied a lot and most teams had a pre-FS1 member and an experienced leader with 1000+ jumps. Early leaders Rusty Bullet Hole (Tarn Hollis) held a commanding lead throughout the competition to take 1st place. Close behind them, Sexual Chocolate (led by Chris Hollis) took 2nd place and Easy Pink Difficult Brown were in 3rd. Notice a theme for the team names at all?

Thanks goes to all the team captains / coaches who helped and of course the competitors:

	Chris & Tarn Hollis
	Christian Hinchliffe
	Simon Brentford
	Derrick Kent
	Kate Morris
	Dave Head

In addition to the competition this weekend was also the celebration of Hibaldstow airfield as a World War II airfield. A classic war bird flyover was displayed with a Lancaster Bomber, Hurricane and Spitfire. These aircraft are extremely rare and it was great to see them flying over. Lee Pugh, Blair, H and Noel also did a small demo next to the old control tower for the Hibaldstow and Kirton Lindsay reunion. Tandem instructor Baldrick exited last with a large 10,000ft Union Flag.

Last but not least, Pat Hammond, Eugene Brennan and Gordon Mission were coaching at the Canopy Formation CF roadshow. Martin Gardner, Simone Pickerell, Trish McDonnagh, Jo Bolton, Dave Humprey, Noel Purcell and Simon Brentford all received coaching. Noel docked 4th for the first time and Simon piloted his first 4-stack. Many other firsts were achieved over the weekend.

Jo Bolton wrote a fitting write-up on Target Skychat.
 

B-LICENCE PROGRESSION DAY

H has announced the next B-License progression day as Thursday 17th
May. The content of the course prepares you for your CH1, CH2 and JM1. Send H an email to book yourself in or call 01652 648837. Find out more about the skydiving course here.

WEEKEND 28th - 29th April 2007 - Click here for photos.

This was the first big tandem weekend of the year. On Saturday a large group of Leeds RAG came to do a series of tandem jumps. Sunday saw an even larger group of 40 tandems from the Leeds Jewish Society (JSOC) raising money for charity. At one stage it looked like the weather was going to stop all jumping, however at 2 in the afternoon the weather broke to sunny blue skies and it was all systems go. All 40 tandem's were completed in less than 5 hours.

In addition, we had a group of Britchick's arrive for some preparatory team training under the leadership of Sasha Chilton. Although Dan Parker cannot be classed as a 'chick', he still made it on to one of the dives.

FUSION HAVOC COACHING WEEKEND 21st - 22nd April 2007

Team Fusion and Team Havoc hosted a formation skydiving coaching weekend. This was well attended and 139 individual jumps were completed. Each coach took on either a 4-way team or individuals and worked on specific areas including exits, puzzles and the FAI dive pool. At the same time, Dave Butterell was running a camera course. This meant potential camera flyers had a wide range of subjects to video and review.

On Saturday evening, Brian Cummings celebrated his 30th Birthday by organising a Hawaiian party. Brian also did a complex 14-way for his 400th skydive. Simon Cathrine put together an interesting hope diamond in the middle of the formation. For those of you who do not know what this is, check the photos out.

ARE YOU AWARE OF WHAT IS GOING ON AT HIBALDSTOW?

Experienced skydivers have different interests in the sport of skydiving. Whether that be boogies, camps, competitions and coaching weekends, Target Skysports can offer you those exciting events. Here is just a quick summary of what we have on offer:

WEEKEND 14th to 15th April 2007

This weekend we saw 3 FS1 dives issued. Gavin Bowers, Cairon Van Rooyen and Paul McGerry had been working hard on completing their qualifications and it all came together this weekend. Cairon managed 13 points on his dive and Paul did a 7 point 5-way for his. Ane Bauerle-Brentford also completed her 500th jump with a 3 point 14-way and Jimmy Freemantle successfully completed his C license.

In addition, we had a weekend of high-performance round parachuting jumping. Andrew Hilton and friends from Scotland brought 2 serviceable Starlite's and a Para Commander for people to jump. For those that do not know much about these round parachutes, in their day they were considered high-performance and could move forwards up to 15mph!. There were perfect sunny low-wind conditions over the weekend and Karen Bain, Rich Aveyard, Simon Brentford and Mike Coulthard all made their first jumps on these canopies. Andrew plans to organise future weekends with jumps on these canopies so if you are interested, please let the dropzone know.

Photos from Pete Allan's website can be found here.

CAMERA FLYING COURSE Friday 20th APRIL

Dave Butterell is an experienced camera flyer from Target Skysports. Specifically, his knowledge extends to both formation skydiving, still photography and tandem flying. He will be running a course this Friday (20th) to share some of his skills.

He will show videos and photos to explain and demonstrate elements of the course. The Friday night session will start at approximately 7:30pm and expect to run for a couple of hours.

I'll use Friday to plan for jumping over the weekend. The course will use the FS skills weekend to provide formations to film and work on camera flying skills for both FS and Tandem filming. Dives will be planned that will use the skills required to film both FS formations and Tandems. A second camera, possibly made up of those on the course, will film the primary cameraperson to allow a debrief afterwards.

	Overview of the course and introductory briefing to camera flying
	Official requirements and recognised experience
	Introduction to the equipment
	Safety aspects of camera flying
	Introduction to the disciplines and the skills required for each:
	Fun jumping/video logbook
	FS filming
	Tandem filming
	Additional student filming
	Still photography
	Coached videoed jumps including pre-jump briefing to focus on the specific elements of the discipline, in-air footage of the exit & freefall and finally post-jump debrief with improvement techniques learning points.

The cost will be £10 plus the cost of any jumps completed. There is no minimum requirements to attend the Friday night course, though attendees must meet the minimum BPA criteria to fly camera over the weekend.

To book a place either call the dropzone on the usual numbers or send David an email to david.skydiving@btinternet.com.

PROGRESSION COURSE

The next B-License progression course is Monday 19th March 2007. Speak to H to book your place on 01652 648837. Find out more here.

EASTER WEEKEND AT HIBALDSTOW

As it's the start of the new season and to ease people back into jumping again, Skydive Hibaldstow are running the Easter weekend as a weekend of FREE coaching and organising for both Formation Skydiving, Free Flying and hybrid jumping!

If you want to improve your 1-on-1 skills, get some tips for FS/FF groups, or try some hybrid jumps or tracking races then we'll have the coaches on hand for each.

We would like to organise a weekend of both serious coaching and some good, fun, bigger-way skydives, so if you're not too hot with your freefly, tracking or FS skills then come and get some coaching and practice in for the new season!

Coaches arranged already are: (with more to be confirmed)

FS:
 

	Simon Brentford (ex-4-way National Champion)
	Lee Pugh (ex-8-way National Champion)
	Karen Bain (FS Coach, current 4-way competitor)

FF:

	Rob Simpson (FF Coach, ex-Space freefly team, World Meet)
	Darren Glover (FF Coach)

This is a free event with no registration fee required. We're currently trying to arrange a few more coaches - watch this space! The bar will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Russ is back from Spain and can't wait to serve you all again!) and there will be a Happy Hour (or two!) and bar promotions each night.
 

TEAM ELAN SPONSORSHIP - 20th March 2007

Has anyone every heard of the Airkix girls? They won the world championships last year in the female 4-way event. Not only that they also won the British Championships in 4-way open. In 2007, they are now called Team Elan and along with new member Tarnya Hollis (taking over from Sparky), they are set to train hard again this season. Team Elan are in Skydive Spain this week bashing as many jumps as they can. Skydive Spain and Target Skysports are proud to announce that they are the new sponsors of Team Elan this season.

A new interview has been posted at Skyleague.com about their move from training in the USA to Spain / UK.

TEAM RATES AVAILABLE

Are you part of an FS or a Freefly team? At Target Skysports, we offer team training rates for bulk purchased jumps. These rates vary depending on the number of jumps you plan to make. You can find the details on our Team Training page.

B-LICENSE PROGRESSION DAY

The next progression day is on Monday 19th March 2007. Click here for more info.

LOAD ORGANISING EVENTS WITH BRITCHICKS

There will be a Brit Chicks warm up weekend on the 28th to 29th April with Sarah Smith and Sacha Chilton. Lucie Fenton from Skydive Magazine will be there in addition. This will be an opportunity for experienced and non-experienced jumpers alike to receive coaching.

CAROLINE HUGHES

Caroline Hughes has announced that she will be organising at Hibaldstow on the following 2 dates:

	16th - 17th June
	14th - 15th July

WEEKEND - 24th to 25th February - click here for photos.

This weekend, we had the annual visit of the BCPA for their Valentines meet. Unfortunately the weather was off and on all weekend. There were quite a few lifts on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning between heavy cloud. On Saturday morning, Simon Brentford, Marc Fletcher and Lucy Herrett ran a dirt-diving competition in replacement of the actual skydiving. Some 14 teams were entered with 20 seconds working time and all 3 rounds completed. It was even suggest and put to a vote that if the weather did not clear that the results of this be used for the BCPA league. However, this was voted against and the first round of competition was completed on the Sunday.

On Saturday night, a party was held at the dropzone with the fancy dress theme of good versus evil. Take a look at the photos here.

TOP GUN WINGSUIT WEEKEND - 19th to 20th May 2007
In addition to the wingsuit weekend planned in September (7-9th with Rolf Brombach), we are hosting a 2nd weekend with the Top Gun Wingsuit team.

Mark Harris has agreed to bring his team down to Hib and offer free training to beginners. The cost of the actual jumps are 2 altitude jump slots plus £10. In addition, the hire of the suit will cost £5 per jump.

We also want experienced wingsuit jumpers to come also so that we can organise flocking dives. If there happens to be bad weather, there will be a seminar to keep you interested which will discuss safety issues, flight plans, equipment etc.

If you want to book, please make contact with the dropzone.

BIG-WAY CAMPS AT TARGET SKYSPORTS

Hibaldstow is a dropzone which is noted for its fast climbing turbine aircraft. In particular, we have a lot of formation skydiving teams training at our centre. During 2005 we had our first 28-way sequential competition. Last year we successfully put together a 50-way. This year these events will be repeated and not only that, but we will help to train up new people to take part. These are the dates we have booked so far:

	June 9 - 10th : Big way skills weekend with Simon Cathrine and Doug McLelland
	June 30 - July 1st : 28 way Sequential competition
	Sept 1 - 3rd : 50 Way weekend

If you are interested in taking part, please let the dropzone know by email or phone. A pre-registration form will be made available here shortly.

If 4-way is your thing or you would like to find out more about this discipline of formation skydiving, team Fusion with the help of Havoc are hosting a weekend FS skills weekend of coaching on April 21 - 22nd. This event is open to both individuals and teams together. So if you want to know a little bit more about the FAI dive pool or simply get some good tips on putting a 4-way dive together, this is the place to be.

Please let the dropzone know if you are interested in taking part in this event. A pre-registration form will be released shortly from here.

SAFE FLIGHT SCHOOL DATES ANNOUNCED - 2nd July 2007 to 4th July

Brian Vacher from Safe Flight School is coming to Hibaldstow to run a canopy course. The dates are Monday 2nd July 2007 to Wednesday 4th July. Chief Centre Instructor Paul Hollow is fully behind this course and recommends it as an excellent way to improve your knowledge. Find out more at the canopy course webpage.

MORE PROGRESSION DATES ANNOUNCED - 6th February 2007

H has made the following progression, FS and packing courses available:

	February 23rd - FS Ground School
	March 7th - Flat Packing Course
	March 15th - Flat Packing Course
	April 5th - Pro Packing Course

WEEKEND 3rd - 4th February 2007

Many of you might think that there are few skydivers jumping in February. However, this weekend proved everyone wrong. Even though it was cold with frost in the morning, regular skydivers and tandem parachutists came out in force.

A mixture of 3 and 4 lift cycles were achieved over the weekend with Hull, York, Leeds, Dundee and Lancaster universities jumping regularly. Simon Cathrine, Jo Burns and Geetha Narayanan all helped out with some FS coaching. These are some of the achievements with the RAPS and AFF programmes:

	Danny Moore (Leeds) - started the weekend on 10sec delays and finished Sunday evening off with an unstable exit. He's on dive exits and backloops from 15,000' next...
	Kat Montgomery (York) finally jumped for the first time in a year, refreshing with an AFF-style jump with Steve Murphy.
	Chris Wiggins (York) progressed on to 15 second delays
	James White (Lancaster) progressed on to 10 sec delays
	Ruihong Tang (York) - completed first (solo) AFF consolidation jump
	Rory McCullagh (Leeds) - carried on his AFF after coming back from his AFF course in the states over Christmas

SKYDIVE SPAIN CHRISTMAS BOOGIE DVD OUT NOW
David Pratt has just finished editing the footage from the Christmas Boogie 2006 / 2007. Running time is 61 minutes and this can be purchased from the cost of £15. Telephone or email the dropzone to purchase your copy.

Click on our Events page to find the complete listings.

LOAD ORGANISING

If you are looking for something slightly different, we also have a series of wingsuits for hire and a qualified Bird Man instructor.

COACHING
Many experienced UK skydivers come to Hibaldstow to be taught specific disciplines. Our skydiving coaches will train you to FS1, FF1 and FF2 standards on a jump-by-jump basis.

1 on 1 coaching jump     2 slots + £10

COURSES
The British Parachute Association operates a series of courses designed to give you safety training and experienced in specialist disciplines. Once you have passed your basic A License qualification, you can then move forward to your B License.

You may also be interested Formation Skydiving or Freefly. All our coaches work together using the same techniques. Therefore, even if you change from one instructor to another over a period of several weekends, you will still have consistency. Learn more about FS1, FF1 & FF2.