Dear members

Welcome to the 1^st issue of the new look Toggle Times (albeit a mini-issue).

Apologies for the long break since the last issue. We have been very busy upgrading the PASA website at www.para.co.za and, going forward, the Toggle Times will be linked directly to as well as published and distributed directly from the PASA website, giving us much more flexibility on the frequency of issues while reducing the cost significantly.

Testing of the new website is nearing completion and we hope to go live soon (gremlins permitting). The site will have a new look and feel with some useful functionality such as searching for ratings by type and by drop zone on the member page. More about this when we go live.

Looking back over 2010... what a year, it’s been!!!

• Two new drop zones opened – in Oudtshoorn and Barberton.
• Nationals championships were held in Canopy Piloting, Formation Skydiving, Artistic Events, Canopy Formation and Atmonauti with many great achievements, notably, Jo Selepe who became the first non-military black skydiver to not only participate in a Nationals but also go on to win a gold medal in freefly.
• Team Voodoo, consisting of Vana Parker, Amy Kirtland, Colin Rothman, Dave Sumter and Helge Harms on camera, participated in the 4-way Open event at the 19^th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships in Menzelinsk, Russia where they placed 12^th overall. They set a new South African and African record for the highest score in a single round in round 3 of the competition.
• Rob Kruger, Tim Mace, André Fourie and Selwyn Johnson participated in the 3^rd FAI World Canopy Piloting Parachuting Championships in Kolomna, Russia in August with Rob Kruger being best placed in 17^th place.
• The “InTime” scoring system used at the Canopy Piloting Championships was designed and created by Dirk Venter and Claire King who made the software and Jasper Williams who made the laser electronics for the gates. This system can be used to score Canopy Piloting, Formation Skydiving, Artistic Events and Canopy Formation.
• South African judges continued to make their presence felt internationally. Ettienne Bosch was invited to be an Event judge for Speed at the Canopy Piloting World Championships while Claire King and Chanél Robinson were both invited to be panel judges at the Formation Skydiving World Championships. A further three South Africans passed their FAI judging evaluations to qualify as FAI judges - Chanti Williams and Dirk Venter as FAI Formation Skydiving judges and Agnieszka Solomon as both FAI Canopy Formation and Canopy Piloting judge. PASA’s IPC (International Parachuting Commission) delegate, Jacqui Bruwer, was invited to be a Jury member at the Canopy Piloting World Championships in Russia.
• An instructor course was held in September to strengthen the instructor corps around the country.
• PASA’s numbers are looking good - we already have more registered PASA members than in the previous membership year. To November, we have trained more first jump students and performed more demonstration jumps and more tandem skydives than for the corresponding period last year. This bodes well for the future of our sport.

A more comprehensive newsletter will be distributed early next year with stories and pictures from the Aero Club awards dinner, tonto boogie at JSC, "bullets" boogie at Angels Way Skydiving Club, freefly and canopy piloting skills camps and more.

So, as we head into the business end of the silly season, allow me, on behalf of all office bearers and committee members, to wish you and your families well over the festive season and good health and prosperity in 2011.

Regards

Neeve

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Congratulations to all!

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Venue    :      Johannesburg Skydiving Club 

Dates     :      13 to 14 November 2010

The Atmo Committee is happy to announce a well-received competition (14 expected participants, 12 effective competitors), with a fair degree of skill presented by the competitors. It will remain a future requirement for the development of Atmo videographers. At the event, two additional Atmo Coaches were approved - Timothy Hutchings and Pierre Badenhorst (in addition to Marco Ciocca and Rogan Brent). This represents coaches in Gauteng, KZN, and the Cape. A fair degree of improvement was also shown by the intermediate competitors. In future, it is hoped that more participation will be forthcoming from KZN.

In general, the quality of video and completion of sequences has improved since Atmo Nationals 2009, which indicates a gradual all-round improvement of skills, especially in the advanced category.

We would like to thank the competitors (including 2 from the Cape, 1 from KZN, 4 from Pretoria and 5 from Johannesburg) for their participation and the good sportsmanship shown. A big thank you also to the pool videographers, without whom the competition would not have been possible.

The Atmo Committee would like to thank the meet director, Jo van der Schyff, for her invaluable support, and her commitment to assist the competitors in

terms of load organising, communication with ALS, confirmation of safe landings for each team on every load (with a specific requirement that each team captain sign a document confirming the team’s safe landings, assistance with competition footage paperwork and her general successful running of operations. A big thank you also goes out to Rhett Harrison for his technical support in the downloading of all footage received.

We also thank JSC for the use of its facilities, JSC Staff (especially manifest officer/s), the PAC Partnership, the support of PASA, NEDs and the SSA, and the Judges - for their participation, availability, advice and support in terms of ongoing improvements to the rules documents for future events.

Although the ALS were not required for any recovery of off-dz landings and no injuries were reported (other than a tandem passenger who required assistance for nausea), we would like to extend our gratitude to them for their willingness to be of assistance at this event. Victor and Marlize have confirmed their availability for similar events in the future.

A number of requests have been received by Atmo coaches from jumpers hoping to commence the CAT2 progression in Atmo - from the excitement that was generated at the event - for which the Atmo Committee is very satisfied, as this represents a potential for future growth of the discipline, and is a firm reminder of the importance of such national events.

This competition represents the 3^rd Atmo Nationals competition with the 1^st Demo Event held in Modimolle, the 2^nd held at Mafikeng, and this latest Nationals held in Carletonville. It is a specific aim to hold the next two rounds in KZN and the Cape, with the view to promote the discipline in other parts of the country.

Results:

Intermediate

Advanced

TEAMS
Team 1               Timothy Hutchings and Rob Kruger, Pierre Badenhorst (Camera)
Team 2               Tim Mace and Christiaan Bosch, Rogan Brent (Camera)
Team 3               Marco Ciocca and Brendon van Niekerk, Timothy Hutchings (Camera)
Team 4               Pierre Badenhorst and Rogan Brent, Christiaan Bosch (Camera)
Team 5               Edward Chambers and Rohin Gosling, Timothy Hutchings (Camera)
Team 6               Scott Riddell and Zach van Tonder, Pierre Badenhorst (Camera)

Angels Way Skydiving Club hosted a skills camp from 16 to 19 December 2010 and, to make it extra special, they offered recurrency training and 12 free jumps to past skydivers who joined PASA before the 17^th of December.

There was fair interest in the offer and Mark Bellingan was flown in to assist with recurrency training. He also did uncurrent instructor evaluations with Dale Jowett who has now rejoined the instructor body at Angels Way with both his Instructor and AFF Instructor ratings.

Weather played a role so jumping was only possible on two of the days.

Nevertheless, the following people got recurrent:

The SSA FS committee sent Claire King, Dirk Venter and Gavin Chapman down to do some coach training with up and coming FS Coaches and Cat 2 & 3 jumps with junior jumpers. Maryke Prinsloo and DeWet Davel successfully completed their Cat 3 jumps and De Wet had his B licence signed off.

Peter Hansen also successfully completed his requirements for his Pro Rating.

To round the weekend off, a 8-way formation was built, which is the largest formation to be built at Angels Way.

Angels Way Skydiving Club is delighted with the success of the “Bullets Boogie” and are also pleased to have welcomed a number of visiting jumpers. Many stories were related and it was fantastic for the younger skydivers to get an insight into the “old days”.  It is hoped that initiatives such as this can become frequent events. 

Members are reminded to diarise the dates of the 2011 South African Skydiving National Championships:

The bid documents containing further details are available under “nationals documents” on the PASA website.

If you have not participated at Nationals before and are interested, please contact the representatives of your preferred discipline listed on the PASA website and they will guide and assist you. It really is a “must do” experience.

Hi Everyone

Another year is drawing to a close, and worringly, we are still far short of the expected volume of contributions for a comprehensive look back at our sports history. There are still many jumpers, both current and former, who promised to send stories at the reunion in Pretoria, and whilst we understand that you are all busy, we need to make a concerted effort to make this thing happen.

Sadly, it has been a very bad year for the sport, with a number of our prominent members having lost their lives, both in the course of skydiving, and also away from the dropzone.

This situation has also contributed to our decision to give a time-line until July 1, 2011. If we reach the first of July next year, and there has not been a significant increase in contributions for the book, then we will ditch the project and hand over the material to an alternate source.

We still believe that there are many amusing, amazing stories that need to be told, and we still believe in the value of putting this together. It’s now up to you.

Wishing you all a great, and safe festive season. 

Terryl D342 and Jeff D374

Please forward all stories and photographs to: ralex@iafrica.com

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PASA and the Toggle Times cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions,
due to all content being submitted without verification.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue. If you have any stories, pictures, comments or suggestions please send these to news@para.co.za

We would also like to invite everyone who sells, maintains and/or manufactures skydiving or related equipment to consider advertising in the newsletter. We currently distribute to well over 900 people. Contact admin@para.co.za for more details.

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