2011 has been an exciting year with many boogies, nationals competitions and skills camps dedicated to giving our members as many opportunities as possible to have fun, learn and hone your skills. We look forward to more of the same in 2012. Members at all skill levels are urged to consider participating at Nationals next year. It should be a fantastic event since it’s the first combined nationals championships representing all competition disciplines for some time with open gold medallists being eligible to represent South Africa at the Mondial World Championships, also showcasing all disciplines at one event, being held in Dubai in November and December, 2012.

On the housekeeping front, we have continued to strive to improve service levels while keeping costs (and your fees) to a minimum. We will be launching the new admin system in time for 2012 renewal and hope this will further improve service. More about those exciting developments in the next issue.

While our number of members, first jump students and descents are all marginally down on the previous year, I am pleased to report that incidents are down more than 30% on the previous year. This underscores the great work done by Safety and Training, Chief Instructors and their support staff around the country.

At the end of October, we were treated to a rare privilege - two 8-way camps run by multiple (and current) World Champion 8-way team member, Martial Ferré. 

Martial generously gave up half of his first holiday in South Africa with his family to visit Pretoria Skydiving Club and the Johannesburg Skydiving Club and share some of his amazing knowledge and experience, and spread his passion for 8-way.  Motivated by the possibility of growing 8-way across the globe, Martial arrived from his previous camp after 3 days of no sleep and exhausting travel to teach us whatever we were willing to absorb in the short time available.

Standing left to right:
Robbie Stewart (cam), Oliver Nöthen, Garric Townsend, Martial Ferré, Pam Russell, Andre d’Argent, Alister McQueen

Kneeling left to right:
Martin Phelps, Erik Vliegenthart, Steve Norris

(Photo courtesy of Claire King)

With most of the participants having no formal 8-way experience at all, Martial spent a lot of time on exits, something many of us in South Africa tend to approach with a “just wing it” approach.  He poured into the intricate and specific details of the angles, positioning, process and responsibilities of each slot and of the whole piece – from the PAC in the first camp and then from the Atlas Angel in the second.

The results were so rewarding to see, with the PSC participants performing the first completely linked 8-way exit from an Angel.  We saw the impact the correct exit made on the success of the jump – while “winging it” informally often works out, it slows the first transition and is usually unrepeatable.

Team PSC in action

(Photos courtesy of Warren Hitchcock)

Not to miss the opportunity, those who couldn’t gather enough people for an 8-way, attended in a 4-way and spending time getting back to basics.

Martial took the teams through the whole 8-way dive pool, reinforced by his 8-way guide distributed to everyone beforehand.  Again, the focus on angles and precision paid off for the jumpers who showed visible, significant progress over only 10 jumps.

While jumpers were up on loads, we drilled Martial for 4-way coaching on the creeper pad, going through the 4-way blocks and alternatives and options practiced by the French (in South Africa we largely follow American techniques and continuity).

We are so appreciative of Martial's generosity and professionalism. The feedback was really positive and everyone had a great time.

For your next training camp, I'd highly recommend giving him a call. In the meantime, take a look at his website http://www.veloce.fr/ for a wealth of 4-way and 8-way info as well as alook at his latest pursuits - powerplays, big ways and all sorts of interesting and challenging FS in between coaching the Swiss 8-way team, tunnel coaching and his other full time skydiving work.

Many thanks to Martial for coming, and to Arnaud Laloum for the idea, introductions and organising the opportunity for us.

We look forward to seeing more 8-way  teams training and entering Nationals in 2012, and years to come.

Ian van den Berge
FS Committee

Skydive Robertson hosted a Wingsuit Camp on 12 and 13 November 2011, with the help of Steve Bartels and Pierre Marais Badenhorst.

Five students sat in on the course, which was presented by Steve on Friday evening. The history of Wingsuiting and the development of the suits was discussed with emphasis on knowledge transfer.

The first flight course covered all aspects of safe Wingsuiting and showed the importance of knowledge transfer as well as the value such a course can offer a skydiver.

Evaluation jumps and First Flights took place on the Saturday. The weather unfortunately did not want to come to the party on Sunday and so students and instructors moved from the DZ to Affie Plaas to ensure the visitors got the full Robertson experience.

The camp also aided in completing the requirements for Marcel Vliegenthart and Oliver Nöthen to become approved PASA Wingsuit coaches.

They will continue the progression of the less experienced Wingsuiters as well as give first flight courses to skydivers that meet the requirements and wish to try the amazing and rewarding discipline of Wingsuiting.

(Photos courtesy of Oliver Nöthen)

Skydive Central hosted an introduction to Canopy Formation skills camp over the period 18-20 November 2011.

CF is a relative unknown discipline for SC, however, the SC Chevrolet show jump team recognised the “crowd pleasing” value of CF with regards to show jumps. With the possibility of utilising CF in show jumps, two triathlon hybrid canopies were sponsored by Chevrolet, so the journey started to develop CF at SC.

Andre Le Roux, along with Gerrit Lambert, a seasoned CF coach made their way to Bloemfontein from Jo'burg.

(Photo courtesy of Johan Laubscher aka Lobstercam)

It became evident throughout the weekend that CF seemed to be stigmatised by the skydive community, as a discipline that usually ends in wraps and cut-aways, that the canopies utilised for CF promises for bad landings and broken ankles.

This might have been true if you partook in CF back in the 80’s. The gear and techniques utilised today cannot be compared to the time when CF was still in it’s pioneering phase. The stigma surrounding CF did unfortunately not disappear with the new developments and it seems that people tend to see images of wraps and jumpers with line burns over their bodies, whenever they hear the word CRW, Crew or CF.

This observation became evident when the junior participants outflew their more senior counterparts - the juniors did not enter the camp with preconceived ideas, they just went for it.

Jackie Schoeman (320 jumps) and Wesley Pagel (110 jumps) both received their CAT I in CF and are only one jump away from completing their CATII.

(Photos courtesy of Johan Laubscher aka Lobstercam)

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* * * * * * * * * *

Dear Valued Customers,

The time has come again where we say goodbye to yet another great year.

Icarus Air Wear would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support during 2011 and we are looking forward to continued relationships during 2012 and beyond.

Please be advised we will close on Monday, 12^th December 2011

and reopen on Monday, 9^th January 2012.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The annual Aero Club awards dinner was held on 5 November 2011 at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg. Congratulations to the following PASA members who received recognition awards on the night:

Erik Vliegenthart - Participant - 13th FAI World Para Ski Championships, Gosau, Austria from 28 February to 5 March 2011

Ettienne Bosch - Chief Judge - 6th FAI World Cup of Canopy Piloting and 2nd FAI European Canopy Piloting Parachuting Championships, Klatovy, Czech Republic from 22 to 27 August 2011

Chanel Robinson - Event Judge - 8 Way Formation Skydiving and Vertical Formation Skydiving - 17th FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving and 10th FAI European Formation Skydiving Championships, Saarlouis, Germany from 1 to 7 August 2011

Dirk Venter - Formation Skydiving Judge - 17th FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving and 10th FAI European Formation Skydiving Championships, Saarlouis, Germany from 1 to 7 August 2011

Agnieszka Solomon - Jury Member - 6th FAI World Cup of Canopy Piloting and 2nd FAI European Canopy Piloting Parachuting Championships, Klatovy, Czech Republic from 22 to 27 August 2011

Samantha Schook - Canopy Piloting Judge - 6th FAI World Cup of Canopy Piloting and 2nd FAI European Canopy Piloting Parachuting Championships, Klatovy, Czech Republic from 22 to 27 August 2011

Jacqui Bruwer - FAI Controller 6th FAI World Cup of Canopy Piloting

Members who renew their Aero Club fees via PASA are advised to ignore recent email notices from the Aero Club relating to membership renewal.

PASA’s membership year ends 31 March 2012 and members will be notified about renewals closer to that time.

The Vliegentharts have been part of the Skydive Citrusdal family since dad Leen joined the Club in 1974. Sons Erik and Marcel grew up on the dropzone and both learned to pack at an early age, and eventually to jump. Erik found a career on the dropzone, and Marcel found a wife, Debby. Their children, Phoenix and Gabriel, are now on the new Robertson DZ being led astray by the grown up kids that populate it.

Recently, Leen’s partner, Denise Howkins undertook her first Tandem jump with Erik looking after her. Debby, Leen and Marcel joined up with the Tandem pair above Robertson. Thanks to Tim-O-T’s photography, Denise will never forget the day she truly joined the flying Vliegenthart family.

Left to right: Erik, Denise, Leen,
Marcel and Debby

(Photo courtesy of Timothy Hutchings)

All discipline committees were requested to give their members feedback on progress and development as a comparison to the plan and budget submitted by them at the start of the year. This is a valuable tool for you to measure your discipline committee’s performance and if they are delivering, which in turn should influence who you vote onto the committees at the AGM in March and also how you allocate funds to each discipline via the ticks on your renewal form.

We have highlighted only the development activities or other major items here. A detailed feedback report from each discipline will be available to members ahead of the AGM in early 2012.

» No feedback reports had been received from the Freefall Style & Accuracy Landing and Paraski committee or from the Wingsuiting committee at the time of going to press. «

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

If you are interested in advertising in this newsletter, contact admin@para.co.za for more details. 

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