Toogs DZ e-News #328 (30 April – 6 May 2018)

Achievements

Riley Russell – Completed AFF
Natham Leckie – Certificate A
Ellen Meulemeester – Certificate A
Nicole Gersby Adcock – Star Crest, Certificate B & C
Joshua Arndt – Display Licence
Simon Backman – Head Up Crest

Photos Missed From Last Week:

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It’s Monday 30th April, it’s Newsletter time. It is the start of a fairly quiet week compared to last week’s Learning Curve week. We did have a few Tandems arrive for their first taste of skydiving. Constanza Ferrari Bardile, Muhammad Hamza Ahmad and Ahmad Muhammad Hussan all had a ball. Riley Russell did his Stage 9 AFF, well done mate!  That was it for the day.

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Then it was Tuesday the 1st of May and we had a another couple of Tandems here to get their first taste of skydiving, namely Honey Collett and Rueben Caudell. Welcome aboard. Stephen Roberts was also here for Stages 2 & 3 of his AFF Course. Geoff Stillman returned to the DZ after a 12 tour of Europe. Robert Lyndon couldn’t stay away either!

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Wednesday was rainy. Thursday wasn’t much better but we got a few loads in.  Actually we did six loads including one Caravan load, all fun jumpers and mainly hop and pops. Then on Friday our tandem was Emma Keegan. We got four loads in including a Caravan load but it was all pretty low key.

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Saturday was a beauty, great weather and a big roll up for the start of the long weekend.

Flight Pursuit Canopy Course (Foundations)

Bubba had his first load of Canopy Handling Course jumps into the air early. The event ran for 3 days, with 5 seminars, 7 demo canopies, 24 participants , 31 loads, and 119 Hop ’n’ Pops! Thanks to SQPC, TSC, NZ Aerosports, Flight pursuit pilots and manifest!

What a weekend on a Flight Pursuit Canopy course!
Kicked most days off with some essential theory covering aircraft safety, canopy awareness and inputs, and looking after our mates, then hit the ground running getting 14 loads on the saturday, and some flare turns to finish the day safe and strong.

Sunday was epic weather in the morning banging out 8 loads total and then the winds picked later that day but participants still got some great information seminars on weather and aerodynamics from Jordan the pilot, Your the Man bro! followed by a workshop on coming up with a plan for skydiving seminar with bubba.

Monday was a early start @ 7am to try beat the weather but managed to get a 8 loads in before clouds and wind decided to join us, So covered more seminars in cloud identification and effects on our canopy, filming landings properly (cheers tilla) then had a open discussion on the floor so participants could go away with some “homework” to work on until the next canopy course.

Id like to thank all participants for you efforts you put in towards improving your canopy piloting skills during the course and for the future, i am proud of you all!

Cheers to the Crew at Skydive Ramblers for making it run so smooth, you are all legends!!

thank you Icarus Canopies by NZ Aerosports for the demo canopies

Queensland Parachuting Association – NQPC and SQPC for your endless support

until the next one guys!

Learn – Adapt – Unleash!

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We had a few tandem jumpers arrive that Saturday; Christopher Landenberger, Paris McLeod, Laura Mueller, and Max Van Haren got their knees in the breeze for the first time. Paul McElhenny did Stages 5 & 6 of his AFF Course. Ellen Meulemeester, Nathan Leckie, Taylor Hines and Jack Pensa all arrived for a Refresher Course after a bit of a break and got their jump in.

Flatties did 4 great jumps including a couple of 2 pointer 15 ways. There were 12 loads done in the Caravan and about the same in the Cessna 182. After jumping the bonfire lit up and the music went up! It was a great day.

John’s Invitationals (5 May 2018)

Check out these amazing photos, courtesy of David C Brown:

Report by John McMahon:

Hey guys, thank you all for a great day on Saturday, really enjoyed the jumps and the frivolity of the dirt dives, for the first jump we dirt dived an 11way, then Holly arrived, no worries just slot her in, dirt dived the 12way then Kevin rocked up, ok lets dirt dive a 13way, got that done then Emily arrived and we ended up doing a very nice 2 point 14way, 2nd jump was once again a very nice 1st point, a little bit of a wait for the disabled pensioner (go Blaino, he is 70 after all) then luckily Dave’s camera misted up and the KAOS of the 2nd point is not readily seen. 3rd jump, well we built the donut but it seemed to float a bit as opposed to the rapidly spinning ones we normally build, but ended the day with a very nice 2.10 point 11way, somebody tracked a little early (no names hey Millie) but a fun day, everyone smiling and laughing watching the video’s.

On a more serious note, Emily raised the point of splitting into two groups for track of as we get to larger groups and she’s correct so in future on the bigger ways we’ll have two track heights.

Gourmet night was, as always, spectacular, the food was delicious and a good variety to tempt the taste buds and a good night of music and laughter. I think I accidently shot Wayne’s son about 30 times with my gel blaster, don’t mention my name at school young fella.

Huge thanks to the cooks and to Dave and Lynda for hosting a very good night, and of course Dave for the excellent camera work, a link to the video’s is below.

See you all next month on June the 9th and don’t forget X’mas in July on the 14th, snow has been predicted for that night

Stay safe
John, Jane and the aging Basil the Brush.

Watch the Video by David C Brown:

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Sunday was almost as busy, lots of 182 loads and lots of Caravan loads. Bubba’s Canopy Handling Course started early again. More Tandems arrived. Welcome to the skies to Lindsay Lebsanft, Jurie Bender, Anri Bender, and Stacey Jacobson. There were quite a few fun jumpers here with lots of different types of jumping happening. It was another great day with people still here for the Sunday night party – tomorrow, Monday is a public holiday. It was a top, good weather weekend.

See ya,
Macca and the Ramblers Team.