SKYDIVE THE POINT October
1999 News LetterFebruary 15, 2005
September 16, 2004
Greetings,
Several events are coming up at Skydive The Point in the next few weeks.
There will be live water training (as opposed to dead water training?) on October 2nd at 9 AM. Since we are using the York River the jump into the water will take place during the day instead of the usual pool jump at night, as the pool at the Burgess is now closed for the season! So if you need water training for your B license let me know so I can plan on the number of folks who will be participating. You will need to bring a towel and shoes that you don't mind dunking in the river. Oh and a bathing suit would be good to. Of course there are a few of you out there we would love to see make the jump in their birthday suit, but Tattoo Tom is not one of them!
We will have a few Cessna loads going up on Wednesday October 6 if anyone is interested in a mid week break. If there is enough interest I can arrange to get the King Air from Suffolk there a bit early. It is already coming up in the afternoon with the intent of flying one load since we are taking three VIP's for tandem skydives just before sunset. So if there is enough interest I can arrange to get the King Air there earlier, although I have no idea why anyone would pass up a chance to jump the Fire Ball!
Halloween is just around the corner. Jumping takes place Oct. 28-31. Hard to believe it is mid September already! Anyway, we will need bodies to run manifest and load aircraft each day. The Casa will arrive Friday and fly through the weekend. Thursday and early Friday we will fly a couple of Cessnas to get ready for the boring, noisy Casa. We are already on an AAS alert with the Adrenaline Air Sports crowd threatening to show up in force and wreak havoc on the DZ again this year. They did not have the Big Ugly event this year so be prepared for even more outrageous behavior than last year! $15 registration covers your beer for all four nights and there will of course be prizes for the ever popular costume contest. The ice luge will be quite special this year, I will leave it at that.
Seveeral old friends from around the country are rumored to be coming out for the boogie so it will be fun to see some of the old timers back again!
PD will be there with demo canopies and I am working on Beezy to make it out with Hiper USA Nitro and Blade canopies, and Relative Workshop to bring demo rigs, but I have not nailed those two down just yet.
West Point Skydiving Adventures received a bunch of television coverage this week after taking Polly the 93 year old grandmother for a skydive last weekend. The footage aired on CNN for about 24 hours and many local news stations picked it up as well. The AP News Wire picked up the story from Newport News and it also hit a lot of newspapers. There should be more footage soon on local CBS news channels as they just interviewed her for some additional footage. She is a charming woman and I am sure she will continue to attract interest with her story. Plus Understanding Thrill Seekers aired this week again. Hard to believe it was 4 1/2 years ago that TLC filmed that footage. But it is still popping up on TV around the world. I guess I owe beer for something that happened this week.
Looks like the old white clubhouse might be coming down sometime in November so we will have one last Halloween with her before they tear her down to make way for a shiny new terminal building.
We should have a mentoring program in place pretty soon to work with newer jumpers looking to try some new and interesting skydives.
See you all soon I hope!
Jim
May 17, 2004
The Boogie weekend is approaching fast! It should be a great
event with organizers for RW and freeflying plus demo canopies from Beezy Shaw
who owns HiperUSA, distributors for the Nitro and Blade high performance
canopies. Roger Ponce will be organizing bigger RW skydives and Rob Murphy will
be handling other RW jumps for newer jumpers or smaller groups. There will be
food on site and $15 gets you all the beer you can drink for four days, Friday
May 28 through Monday May 31. We will start jumping Friday around noon with the
Otter and the Casa arrives Saturday morning. If you are a club member it would
be good for you to plan to help out for at least part of the weekend with
manifest or plane loading, etc. Boogies take people to run them! You can contact
Willow Seals and let her know you are available for help. Her email is asealsvt@hotmail.com
Scott Miller spent the weekend teaching his canopy course to 13 jumpers who were
lucky enough to participate. The course had a few open slots due to some last
minute cancellations so it was a shame that only a couple of people took
advantage of the last minute chances to participate. If there is enough interest
I can get him back out for another course in October. Everyone learned a lot
from the course and it made for a fun weekend of hop and pops.
The CRW weekend June 4-6 is full but if you would like to get on a waiting list
let me know and we can sneak you in if there is a last minute cancellation.
The Fireball is getting it's 100 hour inspection and maintenance done this week
so there will not be any Friday jumping this week. But we should be back at it
most Fridays through the summer season. We will probably shift the start time to
3 PM since noon seems to be a bit early for anyone to show up on the average
Friday!
The weather has been nice and the planes have been flying so come on out and
make a few skydives with your friends!
April 15, 2004
OK, after a great deal of begging, pleading and sniveling I got Tom to fly for us Friday afternoon. So we will be flying jumpers starting around noon and going till dark! Come on out and enjoy a great afternoon of jumping in the nice weather. The weekend is also looking promising and the student stuff is starting to get busy so come on out and get your knees in the breeze!
Things are looking up for the Memorial Day Boogie with the Casa, organizers, on site food and canopy demos from Beezy Shaw’s HiperUSA company already set up. He is the US distributor for the German made Blade and Nitro canopies. Maybe I can twist an arm at PD to get a few other demos. Hmm, I wonder whose arm I will be twisting? All we need is you and 200 or 300 of your closest jumping buddies to make this a great event!
WPSA Staff: Don’t forget we have a staff meeting Saturday night with free pizza, beer, porn and strippers. And everyone gets $1000 for attending the meeting (some claims may be slightly exaggerated).
See you soon!
Jim
March 22, 2004
Greetings everyone,
Winds last weekend were not very cooperative for jumping, even last Friday. So we will take another whack at jumping this Friday, starting at noon. Feel like you are coming down with something? I thought so. Might just get so bad by Friday that you need to take the day off! The Fireball 182 will be flying and maybe-just maybe- the Twin Otter will be available for jumping as well. There will be a new pilot checked out Friday so the Twin Otter may be flying loads. But that is up to Paul Fayard, not me. So you will either have the comfort of rocketing to altitude at near Mach speeds in the luxurious Fireball or you might have to jump the lame, cramped, Twin Otter. Let me know if you can make it so I can let the pilot know what to expect!
The winners for the free stuff from Safety Day are listed below:
Free reserve repacks:
David Buono-from Maryland
Larry Holbrook- I probably owed him some sort of volume discount anyway
Free 182 jumps:
Mary Saum
Paul Johnston
Jaime Hritsik
Jason Whitt
The free jump is good all the way up to 300 feet AGL. After that, regular jump rates will be applied. RW is not recommended from the free altitude or below. It is also only redeemable on Leap Year February 29th. See you guys in four years. Ha!
In case you haven’t noticed, there are lots of new faces showing up around the DZ. Many new experienced jumpers are coming out from other areas checking things out. Take some time to introduce yourself and make them feel welcome. Student activity is starting to pick up now that old man winter is on the way out and hopefully this will be a busy season filled with warm sunny weekends!
Many of you are looking around for gear from new rigs to altimeters. Check with West Point Skydiving Adventures and see what kind of deal can be had before you order elsewhere. I hate to see you pay more than you have to, and the extra business at home helps us keep the hangar doors open!
For those of you who have not been in the loop-The Airport Authority has taken over ownership of the airport from the town of West Point. Their first order of business was to nearly double our lease payments on the hangar and club house. They have secured the loans necessary to build a new terminal building, which will go in place right where the club house is now. Construction is slated to start in October. That means the historical club house which has seen 42 years of skydiving parties and antics will be torn down for good. Plans are already in the works to relocate the skydivers into the hangar until the construction is done, and then we should have access to the existing terminal building, which is near the beacon. Between rising fuel costs and getting jacked up with higher lease payments, rising insurance costs and generally higher costs of operating across the board we may be raising jump rates this year.
It seems like there are a few times a year when the winds are gusty and turbulent and we find ourselves under canopy wishing we were on the ground instead! There are measures you can take when you find yourself in that not so envious position of trying to land in one piece. First, stay on the ground. But since we already blew that rule the next thing you should be doing is checking the wind direction and landing as far downwind form trees and buildings as possible. The wind passing over obstacles creates turbulence for a horizontal distance near the ground of 10 to 20 times the height of the obstacle. Try different brake positions on the canopy. Some canopies fly better in turbulence with the toggles in the full up position and others do better with applying a little brake and flying a braked approach. This is regardless of what the manufacturer may recommend. I have seen canopies completely collapse that were recommended to be flown in full flight by the manufacturer when conditions were turbulent. As soon as half brakes were applied the canopy flew just fine. So know your canopy, know your limits and stay within both! It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were up in the air. At least there you can drink beer.
Let me know about Friday, and I will see you soon!
Jim
February 9, 2004
Greetings everyone,
Since it is Valentines Day weekend coming up we will be having a big party Saturday night to celebrate. Rumor is Woolie will be there with his portable bar, and it has been stocked with all the finest booze money can buy. I’ll bet he even has all of the different flavored Mad Dog 20-20! The King Air and the Fireball 182 have been climbing fast in the nice cool air, so come on out and see what fun you’ve been missing! There should be a bunch of folks from Virginia Tech Skydiving Club out for the weekend so that will be fun too. The last time I partied with college kids one of ‘em puked on my dinner plate in the middle of dinner. Ah those crazy college kids! They sure are fun when they are “experimenting with alcohol!”
So bring your sweetie or steal someone else’s but come on out for some jumping fun at West Point! The club could use a mid-winter shot in the arm and so could WPSA so bring a few students with you too! Of course we can always get you organized for a skydive regardless of your experience level.
Safety Day ’04 is coming up March 13. Or as we like to call it at West Point-Carnage Day! Hopefully, this year we can make it through the event without a tree landing or spinning malfunction or unintentional low turn injury! There will be some presentations in the morning to get you up to speed on the stuff you may not know or remember! We will follow that up with hanging harness training and gear checks for everyone who wants one. And of course skydiving! For those who participate in the entire day we will have some available prizes. Dinner and beer will be provided by West Point Skydiving Adventures.
There is still one or two slots left for the Scott Miller canopy training in May for any of you who would like to take his course. The basic schedule of events has been added to www.skydivethepoint.com/event.htm and we will add the details of each event soon. We have a great year of events planned for you to take advantage of, including Casa airplanes and great organizers for many of the boogies. We also have a Canopy Relative Work (CRW) camp June 4-6 for beginners and experienced CRW dogs. CRW is a lot of fun and teaches you a lot about canopy control. And if you screw it up you get current with emergency procedures too! Ha! There are actually very few wraps in CRW anymore with modern CRW canopies and teaching techniques. Why do CRW Dogs carry six hook knives? Because they don’t have any room to carry more!
See you this weekend!
Jim
December 8, 2003
Greetings and Baah Humbug!
The Holiday party is this coming Saturday, December 13. The turkey, stuffing,
mashed potatoes and gravy are covered as well as some desserts. If you are
planning to make it bring a side dish and email Laurel at lcallen@anteon.com
since she is keeping track of who is bringing what.
There will be a gift exchange for those who would like to swap gifts. $10-$15
should do as a limit for the gift. We are also collecting clothes and toys to
give to the local church so the coal miner’s daughters in the area will get
something for Xmas besides a pile of wood pulp. John Lee-an autographed picture
of you’re a** was not well received by the nuns last year. Please think of
something else for this year!
We also have the annual club meeting and elections while everyone is full of
food and totally smashed. This just makes things easier! I am sure you all want
to be President this year so the ballot will look like it is from California.
But there can only be one lucky winner for each position! There will be
discussions about the coming year and the Boogie schedule as well.
Everyone is welcome to come out and participate in the festivities! See you this
weekend!
In other news, apparently many of you weren’t getting the emails from last week.
I was experimenting with a Comcast email system that apparently sucks! So I am
back to the old ways! For those of you who have not heard, little Bobby Crouch
was put to sleep last Tuesday morning. Last Monday when I got home from work she
was obviously not well so Laurel and I made the difficult decision to put her to
sleep. We really miss her and it has been a tough week. She has been cremated
and we will take her for a skydive and spread her ashes over West Point sometime
in the next couple of months.
For some good news, I just got this email from Robin Britton:
~Hello there~
I just wanted to pass along the news. I ran into Paul Gestwick as I was getting
off the elevator at MCV this afternoon leaving work. Turns out his wife was
getting ready to deliver their son. I didn't see her, so I don't know close she
was to delivering or if the sonogram was right in that it was a boy, but
hopefully by now - if she's lucky - they've added a new addition to their
family. Babies everywhere at the Point!!!
~Robin
See you all soon,
Jim
December 4, 2003
Greetings and happy holidays,
As you all know I always root for the Grinch to stay mean. Somehow it
hasn't happened yet. But I am hopeful that one year he just keeps bashing the crap out of everyone all the way to the end of the show! We are working on getting a list together of who is bringing what side dish to the December 13 Skydive The Point Xmas party. So far we have the turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing covered. If you are attending please reply so we can get an estimate of the number of folks attending and let us know what you are bringing so we can avoid having everyone show up with the same dish of Goat or Yak parts. We are also getting donations together to provide the local community with clothes or toys for those in the area who aren't as rich or good looking as John Lee. You can reply to this email and also add lcallen@anteon.com to your address line so Laurel gets the reply too. You guys all know how good I am at being totally disorganized so Laurel will need to keep this straight for me.Baaaaaaahhhhhhhh Humbug!
August 20, 2003
Greetings!
Below is a list of events taking place at Skydive The Point/West Point Skydiving Adventures during the next few weekends. Come on out and join in the fun and games!
Friday Aug. 22, 8 PM packing class in the hangar. This will also cover tandem basics for anyone interested in getting started packing tandems. Hey, they’re just really big Stilettos!
August 30, 8 PM Water training and a jump into the pool with a parachute! This is the training requirement for a USPA B License or higher.
August 30-September 1, Labor Day weekend-Come on out for some fun skydives out of a Twin Otter and free beer and cookouts all weekend long!
September 5-7 Carol Clay Birthday Bash, Always a good time! The Casa arrives at noon on Friday and hauls jumpers around all weekend long. Roger Ponce is coming out to organize 20-30 ways and we will have organizers available for new jumpers as well. The party is always a hoot!
October 30-Nov. 2, The 21st annual Howling Halloween Boogie. Organizers will be available for all levels of belly flying and freeflying. A costume contest and prizes, great skydives and great times as usual.
Of course, wing suits are available for any of these events should you be interested in jumping a wing suit. Well maybe not for the packing class.
West Point Skydiving Adventures is looking for AFF and Tandem instructors interested in working with students! If you are a current instructor looking for a change of scenery let me know! If you are a Coach who is qualified for the requirements of either rating and would like training to attend an AFF course or to go through a tandem course I can help with that too!
We will probably start Friday jumping on a regular basis soon once the 182 is in place. Stay tuned for more announcements when we get more definite arrangements taken care of.
See you soon!
Jim
August 4, 2003
We will start jumping Friday around 1 PM or so since it is past due for Friday jumping and we can start the Screw Rantoul Boogie a little early! A great t-shirt, free beer, fun skydives and no registration should make for a good time. Plus there will be night jumps Saturday night with the full moon almost complete and this month Mars will be a mere 34 million miles from earth. This is as close as it has been in the past 60,000 years. No, I did not see it back then, I just look and feel that old. So what better way to see it than under canopy at night! You’ll cut down that 34 million mile distance a bit more, and you should be out of the haze created by Willy’s bong.
We will have water training Saturday August 30 after jumping wraps up at the Washington Burgess pool. That way you are ready in case this happens to you: http://www.skydivethepoint.com/PoolJump.htm Keep in mind that the USPA license requirements will be changing on September 30.
Doug Boyd is doing well and recovering from his kidney removal surgery. Sneezing, coughing and slam dancing are still causing him some pain but he should be back to normal in a few more weeks.
The weather continues to give us a hard time but we still got some loads up last weekend thanks to some determined students and licensed jumpers who waited around for the clouds to give us a break. Whatever happened to summertime droughts?
See you all soon. I think I am getting sick. By Friday I might have to stay home from work………………………
Jim Crouch
July 9, 2003
This weekend the Virginia Parachute Council heads to Skydive The Point for 4-way and freefly competition. Dave Milliron has done a great job with the events and keeping the VPC moving forward the past couple of years. Come on out and bring your buddies to get in on the competition! Last weekend was hot but everyone was trying not to complain since at least it wasn’t raining on us and we were jumping! Carol Clay proved that she truly is the Queen by winning the Rock part of the Rock and Feather Competition with a speed of 205 MPH. To nobody’s surprise, Willy Ward won the Feather part of it with a slow speed of 86 MPH. It helps to weigh the same as a small dog!
Carol Clay made her 14,000th freefall Sunday with an 18-way that seemed to change from 86 MPH to 205 MPH. But it was interesting!
There is a Coach Course coming up on July 18-20 that starts at 6 PM Friday. It will be limited to just one or two more people since it is starting later than I like, and time will be limited. Requirements are a C License and assisting at a first jump course and teaching the general sections of two first jump courses. This can be completed after the course but it is a good idea to get some exposure before the course starts.
The USPA Board meeting is this weekend in Fredericksburg at Exit 126 off of I-95. The general membership meeting is Friday night starting at 7 PM. So if you have any concerns or issues for USPA that is the place to bring them up! The meeting is at the bowling center there at exit 126. Yep, you heard me right! A bowling center. Should be interesting.
Have a good week!
Jim Crouch
June 16, 2003
Here we go with the Solstice Boogie, celebrating the longest day of the year! Didn’t winter just end last week? 10 lucky winners will get t-shirts from the Alaska Skydiving Center’s Solstice Boogie that is also taking place this weekend, so you can tell all your friends you were really there. See, we are saving you all that money it would take to fly to Alaska yourself!
We will be taking a group photo of everyone in their free t-shirt drinking at midnight to send to Alaska Skydiving Center. They will be making skydives at midnight but they do not need any chem-lights since the sun is still up!
In order to honor the longest day there will be a sunrise load on Sunday morning that is half price for all you licensed jumpers. West Point Skydiving Adventures will pick up the other half of the load. The minimum for this load will be 18 jumpers and it must be prepaid on Saturday night. You snooze-you lose! Literally!
The fund raiser will continue for Jason Whitt to jump naked or not jump naked, depending on which side raises more cash. I paid a bunch to get him to keep his clothes on and figured I had it locked but a couple of high rollers paid a bunch on the other side to vote for him to jump naked so it looks like he may have to jump in the buff. The money raised will go to a good cause that I can’t really mention right now. But for those of you who are suspicious, I can assure you the charity is not my winter home in the Florida Keys!
Last weekend was great as we finally got a break in the weather pattern and got to make some skydives for the first time in a couple of months! It was busy and the sun was out Saturday and Sunday morning, but then the clouds shut us down Sunday afternoon. Maybe this weekend we can get two solid days!
July 4th weekend we will be operating Friday-Sunday July 4-6. The Rock and Feather competition will take place that weekend with lots of prizes including discounts on canopies, wind tunnel time and a free Pro Track, just to name a few. So plan to be there and go your fastest and slowest to see if you can win some free stuff.
Congratulations to Heather Moon for her new A License after a long and frustrating winter and spring, trying to finish up her training! She showed a great deal of determination to get things done even when the weather would not cooperate!
See you soon,
Jim
March 11, 2003
Mmmm Safety Day! What a day. Great weather, lots of folks showing up early. Great presentations by all of the speakers-Thanks to Doug Boyd, Holt Durham, Michael Gelardi, Dave Milliron and the West Point Rescue Squad for bringing up lots of great points. The local town reporter Lisa Hornsby was there to cover the activities. Life is good. Then the first load goes up after the presentations. Unfortunately two jumpers had to land off field from a long spot, off the wind-line a bit. One jumper made a low turn trying to avoid a fence or tree line, and struck the ground the same time as his parachute. Scott Yufer had not made a jump in a while and he had only a few jumps on his newer gear, which had him downsizing from a 220 square foot Cruiselite to a 190 square foot Sabre. The injuries included both femurs broken, his left ankle broken and a knock to the head that left him unconscious for about 20 minutes. He should make a full recovery from what I have been told.
Then a few hours later there was a spinning malfunction on one of the loads. Nothing was happening. The canopy kept spinning and spinning. No chop. Just more spinning after a deployment around 3,000 feet. What the F…..? Then about 400 feet the reserve pilot chute launches without a cutaway. I thought I was going to see West Point’s first skydiving related fatality in 40 years. After two more revolutions the reserve gets extracted from the freebag and inflates. He is now at 50 feet. The two canopies downplane and then just start to slow down slightly as the jumper hits the ground hard. The only injury is a sprained ankle. Thanks to soft ground and incredible luck. Willie Ward is still here to skydive with us some more. He said he couldn’t find the cutaway handle. His video shows he didn’t take his hands off the main risers until he was around 400 feet. Not much looking time left at that point………………….
Both of these situations and their solutions were covered in the morning discussions before the jumping began. Unfortunately for Scott he did not get the opportunity to practice with his new parachute before he had to make an off field landing. And the chain of events stacked against him in a hurry.
Let’s be careful out there folks. Next year we will have anti-Safety Day in the hopes that we can make it through without an incident!
After the jumping there was lots of good food and evening antics. No comments about Sunday morning please!
The big winners for the 3 free jumps that were donated by West Point Skydiving Adventures are Jim Crouch, Jim Crouch and finally,,,,,,Jim Crouch. What controversy? My dog watched me pull the names out of the hat just now! Actually, the names that came out of the hat were Anabel Durham, Henry Loving and Kris Evenson. Congratulations. Since Anabel and Henry are Coaches they can use their free skydive working on a Coach jump! Ha!
On a different note, this weekend is Hoop Dive St. Patty Day weekend. It should be a lot of fun. Come on out and plan to do something different as we create all sorts of different hoop dives. They are always a riot. We will make some smaller groups for those who are newer jumpers so they can have the chance to take a whack at it like anyone else and not have as much traffic to worry about.
Congratulations to John Moon who finished up his A License last weekend. He and Heather have stuck it out through one of the worst winters in years to keep jumping and learning. Heather is not far behind at this point.
The Mid Atlantic Region S&TA Meetings will be held this Friday 3/14 at Raeford Parachute Center in NC and next Friday 3/21 at Skydive VA in Louisa. Come on out to the meeting if you are interested. It is open to anyone who would like to attend.
Spring looks like it is finally getting here. Plan to jump hard! The club could use the cash and so could Fayard Enterprises, who provides the planes! And don’t forget to bring your fiends out for a tandem or AFF jump. It’s been a long winter for Grouchy Crouchy too!
See you soon!
Jim
STP News October 22, 2002
The women did a fantastic job at Perris Valley and there is a new world record of 131 women in a freefall formation that was held for 10.7 seconds before break-off! There were quite a few local jumpers on the formation and they all did really well. From STP there was Laurel Callen, Carol Clay Karen Luria, Cecile Kohrs, Birdie Merricks Christi Martabano-Meyer, Nicole Fouche, Kelly Frederickson and Marie Chapman. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!
It was a fun week and they did it in 13 jumps, which is pretty unheard of in big ways. They usually take 20+ jumps to sort out the slots, etc.
I was on the ground offering parachute packing in trade for sex. But Laurel caught me and that was the end of that offer……….
You can check out pictures at www.perriscam.com and www.jumpforthecause.com
The Halloween Boogie is getting ready to fire up for what looks to be a good time with lots of skydiving and silly antics for everyone. We will get started Thursday afternoon and carry on through the weekend. Costume contest Saturday night with prizes for the good ones including free jumps and stuff from West Point Skydiving Adventures like old student goggles and used face shields for your helmet (yes I am kidding, it will be new crap).
There will be a USPA Coach Rating Course starting noon on Friday December 6 and running through the weekend. Check out www.skydivethepoint.com/event.htm for details and requirements that are necessary before attending the course.
There will also be a USPA/Strong Tandem Instructor Rating Course starting at noon Friday January 17 and running through the weekend. You can check out www.skydivethepoint.com/event.htm to see what is required before attending this course as well.
Send me an email if you plan to attend either of these courses. I know you want to get started training people to skydive so come on out and learn what it takes!
STP News July 29, 2002
OK, it was pointed out that I had scheduled water training on the same date as VPC, which is August 17. So in order to keep things less complicated, water training will be held on August 24. West Point Skydiving Adventures will sponsor a cook out for everyone after the VPC meet on August 17. So come out and compete on August 17 and get fed at the same time for no extra charge. You can get your panties wet doing the water training the next weekend, August 24.
See ya,
Jim Crouch
You can view and order pictures from the 40th Anniversary Boogie at Oscar’s web site www.flyingeyes.com There are pictures from the women’s jumps, POPS jumps and some other stuff too. Oscar will be adding more when he gets a chance. Thanks to everyone for coming out, it was a great event that will be remembered for years to come! See you soon.
It has been a long time since we did water training and there are many of you in need of the requirement for your B License. So we will have water training on Saturday, August 17 in the evening after jumping is done. The pool at the Washington Burgess will be the site where the water jumping will take place. Bring a swim suit and towel, everything else will be provided for the jump into the pool. The ground training will take place at the DZ and will start just before sunset. This is a hard class to get done so take advantage of it while it is offered! Cost is usually around $5 or $10 per person. You want to be prepared in case you should find yourself in the situation that Tommy Bryant was in many years ago:
http://www.skydivethepoint.com/PoolJump.htm
Respond back and let me know if you are partaking of the festivities.
Thanks,
Jim Crouch
lostmymind@skydivewestpoint.com
STP NEWS NOVEMBER, 2000
Hello everybody,
Just a few things to keep you updated about STP! Winds have made things rather challenging
for jumping the past few week ends! The annual Christmas party will be December 9 at STP
in the club house after jumping. There will be a gift exchange with a maximum $20 to be
spent on the gift. For those of you who are not sure
what this means-this is 1 gift that you need to bring for 20 bucks or less. NOT a gift for
every club member! Bring a covered dish, preferably one that has some food in it. And you
should BYOB.
Speaking of BYOB-many of you are being very lame about bringing beer for your "firsts", and come to think of it, I should have quite a few bottles of Captain Morgan heading my way for beautifully opening reserves! But seeing as how the biggest offender of both of these rules does not have email, maybe one of you folks can print this out and put it on his windshield or something!
The 3rd annual Bill Kenny Memorial Accuracy competition will be this week end, Nov 18 and 19 if a 2nd day is needed. $20 entry fee and 3 rounds of jumps. The money collected will be split between the rescue squad and the charity of choice for the advanced class winner. There will be classes for all ranges of jumpers, so come on out and compete for the hell of it.
STP will be closed Thanksgiving week end as usual. Each year most everyone heads to CSS in Louisburg for the Thanksgiving Boogie. That is the week end of November 25-26. They are jumping during the entire holiday there, and the boogie starts on Wednesday.
Club officer elections will be January 13, 2001 at STP after jumping.
There will be few incumbents this time. This is an important meeting and anyone who is
interested in holding a position should be there. You do want to be the President don't
you? Look at all the fun Clinton had behind closed doors. How bad could it be????
For a limited time you can get a CYPRES from West Point Skydiving Adventures for $950 plus
shipping (1 pin Expert Model). Orders will need to be paid in advance, add 5% for Visa or
Master Card, and there is a wait time of 8-10 weeks. This offer will be good through the
end of the year only. Send me an email if you would like to take advantage of the offer!
Have a good holiday season, and remember-this is the seaon that causes the suicide rate to
go through the roof! Somebody already took all the sharp stuff out of my house.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
See ya,
Jim Crouch
http://www.skydivewestpoint.com
http://www.skydivethepoint.com
SKYDIVE THE POINT October
1999 News Letter
Fall Approaches: Well it was a busy summer and we had an unusual amount of rain this year but we still managed to make a lot of skydives. Screw Quincy was it’s usual size and I hear it went well, although how bad do you have to be to get kicked out of a Biker Bar??!! Ask Tim Brown. Carol’s Birthday Boogie just finished and was a lot of fun, although the planes were not flying a lot of loads because the group that was working on doing the planned 50 ways was taking a lot of time between jumps to dirt dive, which is normal. The other jumpers that were not on the attempts were taking the Casa or Otter or King Air in between the big way loads. Lu Lastra did a great job organizing the dives and Pam and Sherry did a great job managing the loads and whining skydivers. Carey Whitley also spent a tremendous amount of time contacting the participants and organizing the event. Saturday night saw a great party with not 1 but 2 male strippers that worked on entertaining Carol first and then most of the other women on the DZ. I’ve never seen so many $1 bills flying. Sunday had me working very hard not to puke out of the Otter door as I waited for the signal to climb out on the formation loads. What were those shots I was doing in the kitchen??
Halloween Boogie: October 28-31 we will again be having the Halloween Boogie at STP. A Casa and our King Air will be flying. There will be a beer truck and a food vendor as usual. Make plans to jump all 4 days as there is nothing better than walking to the plane on a beautiful Thursday morning knowing that everyone else is working! $20 registration covers beer for all 4 nights! If you are a club member you should plan on trying to help out during the boogie with whatever may need to be done, helping with registration, taking trash to the dumpster, holding Allan Neal’s hair back as he hurls, etc.
Gear Checks: Early in the summer there was a jumper who had a reserve ride because of a pilot chute in tow. Well this sort of thing happens from time to time, people make mistakes closing their containers and trap the bridal. But what concerns me is that this very careful jumper received not 1 but 2 pin checks, 1 on the ground and 1 on the plane before exit. Both pin checks did not catch the misrouted bridal. A pin check should include checking the bridal to make sure it is routed and secured properly as well as making sure the pin is fully seated. Yes I am also guilty of not checking the bridal all the time but it should be done, and it only takes a second to check. While we are on the subject of closing loops, they need to be tight. Very tight. Many of the rigs I receive for a repack have loosely closed main containers, which could spell disaster in some situations. If you are not sure how tight it should be ask a rigger.
Sit Still: A jump plane can be a crowded place. There is almost always a full load and there you are sandwiched in with some people you want to be with and maybe some you don’t. So it is a pain in the ass to move around and you should really make an effort not to move around anyway. The pilots really don’t like having the load shifting around, and you are only going to increase your chances of snagging handles and gear. As the plane gets near jump run take a look and make sure you are not caught on a seat belt or another jumpers gear, check your 3 handles and 3 straps, and then you are ready to get out of the plane. Remember, this is important because the life you save could be MINE!
Jump For The Cause: During Labor Day weekend there was a new world record big way of 118 women at Perris Valley. A huge amount of money was raised for Breast Cancer research and the event was a great success. Carol Clay, Bunny Wagner, Jan Puckett and Jacquie Neal were there from STP as was Oscar Oczkowski doing live video feed to the Internet during the jumps. 1.3 million people had logged on for jump 15. Allan Neal spent the weekend as a pack slave for Jacquie and to make sure there was plenty of evening entertainment.
Got The Time? OK, so you and your best buddy have just been invited to jump on a cool 12 way. The 2 of you don’t have a lot of experience but what the hell, everyone else on the dive does and it looks like it will be a kick ass jump. So you go up and make the jump, break-off was supposed to be 4000 feet but everyone was trying to sneak in that one last point so there you are at 3,200 feet still grinning at all your new cool friends! They all start to take off and you fly over and give your buddy a high 5, and all of a sudden you realize where you are. You turn to track and roll over on your back! Now you flip back over and start tracking, since this is your first larger jump you are not sure how far you need to go, so you keep tracking. Blowing through 1,500 feet you reach back and pull, but nothing happens, and you now have about 7 usable seconds left in your life. You reach back and still cannot find the handle of your pilot chute and you are trying to remember what the hell to do next. Now you are at 400 feet and you pull the reserve ripcord, the pilot chute begins its launch a second later. You have now given your reserve a total of 233 feet to inflate and slow you down. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em! Incidents are almost always the result of more than 1 thing going wrong. Leave yourself enough time by leaving the dive at the assigned altitude and pulling by your assigned minimum altitude. Right now the BSR’s call for a minimum of 3000 feet for students and novices, 2500 feet for A and B license holders and 2000 feet for C and D license holders. I feel the minimum should be 2500 feet with today’s slow opening parachutes. 600 to 700 foot openings are not unusual and that leaves very little time to handle a problem if the pull is started at 2000. Practice emergency procedures often!
Josh’s Tandem: On September 12th Josh Nichols gave me the honor of taking him up on a tandem skydive. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 5 years since his dad asked us if we would teach him to pack and put him to work. It’s been a wild 5 years for him and lets just say that he grew up mighty fast hanging around drop zones and boogies packing parachutes every weekend. I realized that Josh was all grown up when I had to tell him to squat down so I could get our harnesses tight together! So we did a 12 way round out of the Casa with Oscar shooting the video. At 7000 feet Josh got a first hand look at the Willie Factor as he went blowing into and past the formation! Everyone on the load was standing beside the pea pit waiting for us to land. No pressure for me or anything! But we had a nice stand up landing in the pea pit and Josh had a great time.
Get With IT: If you are receiving this in the postal mail and you have an internet email address then by all means send me your email address since it will save me from having to put the paper together and mail it. Killing trees and the extreme dangers of paper cuts are just 2 of the many downsides of the older method. My email address is lostmymind@skydivewestpoint.com
My Two Cents: You know Jim couldn't send out a newsletter without my input! I'm always sticking my nose in or commenting on something.
First of all, I would just like to thank everyone for your contributions to the club this year. Whether you are mowing the lawn, fixing something around the club house, running manifest, helping out with the boogies, cleaning up on Sunday nights, or assisting with the many housekeeping and club maintenance duties too numerous to mention, I really appreciate it! Or if you are just hanging around skydiving, thanks for that too! It keeps JT and Jim Parkman happy and keeps them off my back!
We must mention specifically, Lyn Hannah for taking over bathroom duty. This is the first time since Helmut left that the bathrooms have actually been sanitized. Next time you see her on her hands and knees scouring the showers and scrubbing the floors, please let her know how much you appreciate it. It is a dirty job, that no one has volunteered to do. And since your lazy butt is not doing it , buy her a jump to let her know you are grateful!
Second of all, I would like to thank all of the club officers and board members for their hard work this year. Next time you see these guys, THANK THEM! Without them, the club wouldn't operate! But specifically thank them for the following:
Chris Barbie for all the computer maintenance, software assistance, electrical work, and general maintenance he continues to do. Thank God we don't have to pay a consultant!
Tim Dudley for gracing us with his presence every weekend. Just kidding! The club couldn't get by without Tim's safety efforts and his diplomatic nature. He knows the operations of the club and the school inside and out, and provides the knowledge for both entities to harmoniously operate. We appreciate his insight! Not to mention, all the maintenance and shopping he does (with Sherrie) for the club. (Who do you think buys all those supplies?) And he married Sherrie, so we will have a full time Treasurer/Manifestor.
Matt Fitch for all of his help with maintenance around the club. He is always willing to help out, and spends many of his days off during the week out at the club mowing the grass and maintaining the place.
Ken Wolfe for being a big pain in our... Did I say that? Ken keeps us all on the straight and narrow, and contributes greatly to the maintenance. (He will also run manifest if we beg and plead!)
Rob Murphy for stepping up to the plate as safety officer. Need I say more? You wouldn't have any fun either if you were the policeman for all of us out there having a good time, having to ground people, now Would You?
Jim Crouch for keeping us all laughing! And what an excellent job he does of keeping us informed of all the goings-on at the club and in the skydiving community. I can't keep up with it, much less get it on paper or e-mail to get out to all the members! Jim has more dirt than the Enquirer!
Carey Whitley for organizing all the events and boogies. Next time you are at West Point, the Casa is there, and you are having a really good time, go up and thank him! The man behind it all! I'm not biased or anything, but what a great guy!
And last but most important of all, Sherrie Dudley! She is definitely the hardest working person at West Point, and she doesn't even skydive! Hats off the Sherrie for keeping the planes flying, manifest running, the bills paid, all the money straight, and hardest of all, dealing with a bunch of whiny skydivers! Her job is never easy, and she does it without complaining, and always delivers service with a smile. Don't forget to thank her every weekend for all the hard work she contributes. (By the way Christmas is around the corner, don't forget your manifestor!)
These are just the highlights of the many hours all the officers contribute to the club. Until you have stepped up to take a position as a club officer or board director, you probably can't appreciate all the time, hard work and effort that these people spend without monetary compensation. Outside of the weekend operation, there are hours of time spent during the week just to take care of the basic operations, plan events, and maintain the club. It is no easy task, especially when you have a full time job to boot, plus a family, and a somewhat normal life! Since we are a club, it takes these volunteers to make sure we operate. Make sure you express your gratitude the next time you see them. Without them, you might be skydiving at Louisa, Orange, Suffolk, or Chesapeake!
Also, THANK CAROL CLAY! There aren't enough trees to produce the paper to list all of her contributions to West Point. But next time you are there and you board a nice airplane, participate in a shit-hot skydive, land in a nice freshly, mowed landing area, and come inside the clubhouse or hangar to pack, and the place is clean, and then you finish the day with a few beers and the comraderie of some great skydivers, THANK HER! Without Carol, STP wouldn't be the West Point it is today. I can't say enough good things about Carol and her contributions to the sport and to our Drop Zone. So be grateful! We should all bow down and kiss her feet! So when she is picking up all the empty beer bottles from the night before, or mowing the grass, step up and do it for her! She deserves a break from all the menial chores she does every weekend (since 1974)!
To all the Officers, Board Members, and Carol, please accept my gratitude for a job well done! Your hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed!
Okay, this is my last topic, (Okay, Okay! Jim, next time I'll just send out my own newsletter!) Congratulations to the Women for the successful 118-way Women's World Record! (Not to mention, saving ALL those BOOBS!) Carol Clay, Jacquie Neal, Bunny Wagner, and Jan Puckett, congratulations on your success! Way to go, Women!
Also, thanks to all the club members who donated money to support Carol for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation! (Sorry I badgered you so much to give, but it was for a great cause!)
Regards,
Pam Whitley, President
Geez, what a windbag! I try to make a news letter and it turns into goddamn War and Peace!-ed. :>)
Skydive The Point
May 1999
Memorial Day Boogie: The Memorial Day Boogie is right around the corner coming on May 29, 30 and 31. There will be jumping on Friday the 28th as well. A Casa will be coming in for added lift and tailgate aircraft fun. Raft dives, 30 ways, load organizing by Carol Clay and Chris Wagner. The usual food vendors will be available during the weekend for food on the DZ. A beer truck and ice luge will be available for the partiers and a massage therapist will be available for the aches and pains. You can pre-register at http://www.skydivethepoint.com/event.htm As usual, the club could use all the hands possible to help with registration and loading, crowd control, dog walking, and making sure everybody keeps their clothes on until late at night! A General Club Meeting will be held on Saturday, May 22, 1999 at Sunset to review the Boogie Plans.
Fuel Be Fixed!: The fuel situation has been taken care of and there is now Jet A on the airport. No more long waits every 3rd load while the King Air goes off to find fuel. The plane owners have purchased a fuel truck that will be at West Point full time. This takes care of a long overdue problem that was caused by losing the in-ground tanks due to EPA upgrades. We were trying to get control of the other Jet A fuel system on the airport but it became obvious that this was going to take too long. So the fuel truck was purchased to eliminate the problem!
Early Loads: In an effort to get the plane flying earlier, The Westpoint Skydiving Center will be scheduling Tandem groups for 8:00 am when ever possible. This will allow us to train them and get the first 3 dressed and ready to go by 9:00 am. That still leaves 4 slots available for experienced folks who want to start early, or if there is a bunch of you around you can take the second load at 9:20 hot! This is a joint effort between the Westpoint Skydiving Center, Special Ops and Skydive The Point to get the plane flying as much as possible for the rest of the year. I know I am personally looking forward to getting up early so I can put on a 60 pound rig and a 200 pound student who is scared shitless and make that early load! The least you can do is show up and carry me to the plane!
New Faces: There are a bunch of folks who have caught the skydiving bug and are mid-way through their AFF program. Look for some new faces to jump with soon. Invite them on a skydive and offer to teach them something. New graduates need your support to make it fun for them. Doing it solo gets old quick. Just ask Allan Neal!
Sad News: Hugo Roca passed away from a heart attack in mid-May. Although he didn’t get a chance to skydive very often he was always a welcome sight at the DZ. I can’t remember ever seeing him when he wasn’t smiling. We will have a memorial dive for Hugo on Memorial Day Sunday sometime during the day. The dive will include Benny and Terrie Sherman via tandem, since Hugo was one of their first students and had stuck it out through several spinning level 3’s and "interesting" other levels, and went on to become a good skydiver. He’ll be missed.
Electric Avenue: If you are still receiving this via Postal mail and you have an electronic email address, send me an email so I can put you in the address list to get this news letter in your email. It will save me a lot of time and the club a bunch of stamps!
The weather is improving and so are the skydives. Come out and see what you’ve been missing!
See Ya Soon! Jim Crouch
Skydive The Point
March 1999 News Letter
Election Results: Elections were held in February on a Saturday night in a less than over-flowing clubhouse. This was the first year for having a closed ballot and making the terms last for 2 years. This format seemed to work well as I didn’t have to live in fear of having my ass kicked by someone’s spouse if I didn’t raise my hand for them! Anyway, the results were as follows:
President-Pam Whitley 804-230-0729 pamela_young@ccnotes.ccity.com , V.P.-Tim Dudley 804-559-6018 no email due to technically challenged, Treasurer-Sherry Dudley 804-559-6018 no email due to marriage with technically challenged, Secretary-Jim Crouch 804-746-4620 lostmymind@skydivewestpoint.com , Safety Officer-Rob Murphy 757-229-9995 murphy1mpc@aol.com , Event Coordinator-Cary Whitley 804-230-0729 apalate@aol.com , Board Members-Matt Fitch 804-452-2537 no email due to unknown reasons, Chris Barbie 804-261-5864 crb_rigger@msn.com and Ken Wolfe 804-673-5675 no email due to unable to spell , count, write, etc.
USPA Safety Day March 13: Once again we will be participating in Safety Day with a full schedule of events for the morning. We’ll have topics covered on Aircraft emergencies, canopy control, gear stuff, emergency procedures, etc. Spend the day getting current in the hanging harness and bringing yourself up to speed for the coming season. As a bribe to get you out for the day we will have the first jump of the day for $15 and a free dinner cooked by Cary Whitley, who can do wonders with a piece of bacon fat and a sprig of parsley.
Winter Jumps: Hey, the weather has been a little cool and a little windy but we are still jumping! Evidently, based on attendance the past couple of months this news must be a surprise to most of you. Thankfully winter is pretty much done with and good weather should be the norm instead of the exception. We have gone the extra mile to get a King Air at STP, the first Virginia DZ to do so 3 years ago. But I got news for you, the plane needs to generate cash flow so the plane owners can pay their bills. This works by you, getting off the couch, showing up at the DZ and skydiving. Then at the end of the day, someone knocks you over and steals as much cash as they can out of your wallet. You go home with a big grin from all the skydiving fun you had, and the club gets to give your money to the aircraft owners so they can pay their bills. And maybe, just maybe, if enough of you guys repeat the above process, the club will make enough money to buy toilet paper! We have acquired the Chesapeake hangar to house the King Air and provide indoor packing, and that costs money, too. So show up and support the club that has been making these improvements for YOU!
5-Way Scrambles March 20-21: We will be having a 5-way meet for something fun and different. Jumpers will be divided up according to number of jumps in 5 categories. Then a name from each category will be drawn to form an on the spot team. This makes for an even playing field and big grins. 5 way dives are a little different anyway so it should make for a fun event. Start time will be 9 AM Saturday and we will use Sunday if we need the time to finish. I’m sure we will be partying and carrying –on Saturday night so come on out for a different event!
Coaching Available: If you want to improve your RW skills you can receive coaching at one of Lu Lastra’s camps, which he holds on a regular basis at STP. The camps are designed for specific experience levels and they fill up quickly, so you will have to act fast. Check the bulletin board at the club house or the web site for the latest schedule. I’d add it here but I don’t have it right now! I should have the information added to the web soon. On a less formal route, if you want to work one on one you can always grab one of the staff at WSC for a drill dive, or get on a load with Carol Clay, who has spent countless week-ends organizing skydives for anyone who wants to make a jump.
Free Skydives!- It’s possible for you to jump free a lot at Skydive The Point! All you need to do is bring students out to have the thrill of their first jump and you will get a free jump ticket from The Westpoint Skydiving Center. There are limitations so check with The Westpoint Skydiving Center for details. Benny and Terrie are offering this as an incentive for you to bring students out. The student has a great time, you get a free skydive, what more could you want!? Also, after a person makes their first jump, they can receive $15 off their second skydive by bringing out one of their friends or family.
It’s On The Web: If you’re ever wondering what’s going on at STP you can check the website for details. It is updated constantly as information is added or changed. I also recently added a used gear site for people to buy and sell gear. This was added as both a convenience for you and a way to attract more people to the site. If there is ever anything you would like to see done on the website let me know and I will see what I can do. The address is http://www.skydivethepoint.com in case you didn’t know. The address for the Westpoint Skydiving Center is http://www.farther.com/wscjump The 2 sites are linked and actually it looks like 1 sight to the casual observer. While we are on the subject….the news letter will be published on the web as well. And I would like to send this electronically to as many club members as possible, to make it easier for me and cheaper for the club. So send me a note with your email address!!! My email is lostmymind@skydivewestpoint.com
Getting High At Night?: Two things we will be trying to do at various times through-out the year are high-altitude jumps from 21,000 ft.and more night jumps. Check the website and future news letters for dates.
VPC: Somehow I got suckered into helping to organize the Virginia Parachute Council again this year. I have the help of a handful of people-Stephanie Harris, Rob Murphy, Celeste Williams, Alice Looney- and we will have 4 competitions again this year with 4 way and accuracy. We are also checking into adding free flying to one of the events as a test. This year we have obtained sponsorship from many manufacturers for awards and prizes that will go to the competitors. Contributors of discounts on gear include: 50% off 4 Alpha canopies, 35% off 4 Javelin containers, 50% off a Precision Aerodynamics Omega or Safire canopy, 30% off a Flite Suit jumpsuit, 30% off JumpRun manifest software, registration goodies from Relative Workshop and PD. And the list continues to grow. Dates and locations will be finalized in the next week or so and I will add them to the next news letter and also to http://www.skydivethepoint.com/vpc.htm
Picture If You Will: Here’s a scene for you to think about. As you climb out of the King Air at 14,000 ft. you are suddenly jerked off the plane by your deployed main. You and the parachute are pulled across the tail, ripping it off the fuselage. You are dazed and hurt but you manage to cut-away your trashed main and deploy the reserve. Whew! But wait! There’s more! While under your reserve you notice the King Air flopping by in front of you, it’s not doing too well with the tail gone, you see. And since I am almost always towards the front of the plane with a student, I’m stuck in the plane. So the last thing you see as the plane goes tumbling by is my face pressed firmly against the windshield along with my tandem passenger. I have just enough strength to raise both arms against the "G’ forces to flip you the bird with both hands, while the pilots work at the controls so frantically it looks like a scene out of some hard-core porn movie. What a nasty ending. And it could all be prevented with a $1 closing loop that you had either not replaced or was adjusted way too loose. 50 to 60 percent of the rigs I receive for a repack have closing loops that are unacceptably long, resulting in a pin that is easily extracted. Or the closing loops are very worn. Check your loop. If you are not sure if it is tight enough, ask a rigger. Make sure your Velcro is in good shape as well, and that the pilot chute pouch is not worn or damaged. The life you save may be MINE! Skydiving is a sport that is dependent upon your equipment. Make an effort to learn everything you can about your gear. That should start with reading the manuals supplied by the manufacturer.
Boogie Dates: Boogie dates for this year are as follows: Memorial Day 5/28-31, Screw Quincy 8/7-8 or 8/14-15, Queen Boogie 9/10-12, Halloween Boogie 10/28-10/31. As information becomes available on aircraft, etc. it will be added to http://www.skydivethepoint.com/event.htm Look for a new section to be added soon for club news where this newsletter will be added along with other information regarding the club.
Be safe, make lots of skydives, and support Skydive The Point!!!
Blue Skies,
Jim Crouch
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