fergs

Up the east coast I agree with most others - Nagambie in Victoria, Picton in New South Wales and Toogoolawah in Queensland. Fancy learning wingsuit? Wherever you end up, smile a lot and you'll be welcomed. Shoot good video and you'll be welcomed a whole lot! fergs

1. Listen to Bobby 2. Check out the pics of his destroyed S-3 leg wing - as well as the aircraft. 3. Listen to Bobby 4. Try and imagine what would have happened if he'd been even a little bit less aggressive on exit - very bad things would have happened to him and the aircraft. 5. Listen to bobby. 6. Same applies for any low tail. Be aware and exit accordingly. 8. If you haven't already, listen to and learn from bobby. fergs

Aubrey, mines Guiness in Pint glasses - lots of them. Oh, and I think your service is great - but am happy to pretend it sucks if it means more beer. Blue Skies, fergs

AK, Yes, I've stayed at the barracuda many times. It has the newer hotel part as well as a row of bungalows along the lagoon. Hotel rooms are fine. Bungalows allow self catering a bit - and are prety basic. The restaurant is fine, but basic. Take a look at the attached for an idea: Hotel portion is U-shped white structure wrapped around the pool; Bungalows are the red roofed line of cottages along lagoon; restaurant is the larger red roofed building above right leg of guy at 6 oclock position; runway visible; DZ out of sight below the pic; water park out of sight to the right of the pic; shooting range (may be closed these days) out of sight bottom right; Dubai 40 minutes drive away. The whole complex is 5 to 10 minutes walk from the DZ. But be sure to check - since I was last there (2 years ago) the DZ has had aircraft and operational hassles - so you need to ensure it is open when you are there. There's a few bigger and better serviced hotel complexes further up towards Al Ain - but a vehicle would be necessary. There used to be regular boogies there when I frequented the DZ (I had 1100km drive each way to get there) which were always a blast. May be good to sync in with those if you can. So good luck and have a good time - but, as mentioned, be sure to contact local jumpers before booking in to the barracuda - lest you find the place deserted while you are there. Message me if you need contact details of jumpers in Dubai / the area. Blue Skies, fergs

I've had an Icon / Pilot / Smart combo for a few months now. Pilot: It's loaded about 1.5 lb/sq' and behaves very well. Immediate previous canopy was a Spectre and sabre before that. The Pilot is much more responsive, in my opinion. It turns fast yet opredictably and planes out well on landing. Opens softly and always on heading - I psycho pack 100% of the time. I certainly like it! Icon: Previous 2 regs were Mirages, Vector before that. icon is very well made and extremely comfortable. Reserve container easy to close. Smart: Cannot comment on performance, as it hasn't been used and possibly never will (nah, I won't mind a malfunction, but hey never seem to happen to me - last one was cpl thousand jumps ago). But it's pack volume seems smaller than I'd expected. Overall: Good solid gear, well made, some nice features, nice main canopy. Great value for money.

Bryn, I'm over in Oz - my copy caome late last week. yes, the article is there. Do you still need copies of the pics? fergs

Go check out Ramblers at Toogoolawa, not far west of you. It's a great DZ. Nice facilities and a very friendly crowd. They also have a super fleet of turbine aircraft. Do a tandem, then get into AFF, then then sky's the limit. Get a couple of hundred jumps and then try a wingsuit. THEN, you'll know why the birds are always singing! Don't worry about losing all of your non jumping friends. Some may come with you. Otherwise you'll make new friends that will stay by you all of your life. It's all good. Blue Skies, fergs

Hey Bobby, Great to hear from you and thanks for the nice words. I hope everything is fine for you now that you are back in the US. So as you can see, we are moving in the right direction. How about coming back fto Oz or a few months? Blue Skies, fergs

Kevin, Aha, I knew you'd be looking in - so the tie was for YOU!!! And anyhow, it was a flock over our Parliament House, so formal attire was entirely appropriate. If ever you get to flock over your U.S. Capitol, then I'd suggest you too will wear a tie, ha! Thanks for the congrats note - it'll help me finally recover from the last of this Finnish Flu. Blue Skies, fergs

Thanks Trav, Ed and Scott, I must first explan the embarrasing injury - and it all probably started when I caught the dreaded Finnish flu from Jari ... not at the Chicks Rock Boogie like many at the boogie - rather, i actually got it from him even before he left Finland, down on of those high speed ADSL phone lines during a telephone conversation. So Jari's Canberra week had both of us coughing, spluttering and being miserable in stereo - not a pretty sight. Oh, I'd add that both Jasmin and Jimmy had the very same flu, which prevented them from coming to Canberra for the Over Parliament House flocks. So pre-dawn our Picton DZ day, I awoke and whilst walking groggily to the kitchen (flu grogginess not alcohol) I walked straight into a wall - hence the blooded nose. Both Greg Cox and I are delighted with our new BMCI status. We are committed to our first goal - that of getting a BMI at each and every Australian DZ. This will have far reaching as well as immediate benefits for all in our ever growinmg OzFlock!! We are initially planning three wingsuit training camp weekends in the coming months. At each of these we will run BMI training and exams immediately prior the training camps. Plan is to hold these at Temora, Picton and then Nagambi. Later on we'll head north to Queensland DZ's. Then it'll be west. It's all good. It's also newsworthy to describe Jari and my day sailing. We took my boat out on the friday afternoon - a seemingly picture perfect sailing day. Well, not long after setting sail, a huge front came through - and keep in mind we were still two flu-ridden, not fully functional folk - with much wind and waves. So we decided to take refuge on an island and have lunch at the same time. After getting all of our food and drinks to a table on the island we sat and prepared lunch. The wind was certainy blowing. I opened a bottle of beer and set it on the table. Immediately a gust came through and literally blew the full beer bottle away. Never a dull moment!! Blue Skies and long flights, fergs BMCI

Hi Beverly, I've just emailed you a copy of the Wingsuit Operating Procedure Manual that every DZ in Australia has. Our federation, the Australia Parachute Federation, preferrs at this time not to regulate wingsuits or have formalised progression tables, etc. Rather,they prefer to have a recommended precedure manual that individual DZ CI's can refer to with their local wingsuiters. In addition we are embarking on a process of getting new BMI's trained and qualified with the intention of having at least one at each DZ in the country. This will then go a long way towards providing uniform safe training as well as loose "supervision" of the local wingsuit fraternity. Safety will be paramount and fun will be the result. Anyhow, take a look at the document in your email. This will shortly have some revisions and additions - so it's really an ongoing working document. Blue Skies, fergs BMCI

Tom, I agree - Kenya Rocks!! I've only been lucky enough to have made on Beach Boogie - and it was a fantastic week. Managed 55 jumps for the week, but still managed some diving, a Dhow trip as well as other attractions as well. Have also jumped lots at Wilson Airport over a number of Kenya trips the last 20 years or so. All very casual - a few jumps, then retire to the Aero club. Say G'day to Harro and all the old folks from me, fergs

I've made many hundreds of jumps at the UAQ DZ - all when I was living in the middle east. The DZ has had some great boogies and still plans more. Latest info i have is that they are not very active at present, mainly due to aircraft problems. I'll pm you a current contact. Hope you manage to make lots of skydives there. Blue Skies, fergs

Our wingsuit flock in Oz is growing all the time. Give me a buzz when you get here - I have demo GTi's if you don't yet have a suit. fergs

Fiorget the second PC - jump with one only and just sit up as you pull and it'll launch OK. Dual PC's caused as many problems as ones they supposedly solved. Blue Skies, fegs

1973, the year I started skydiving, only 32 years ago... And now some of the memory dims, but: The world may not yet have seen a 30 way First jumps were all static line using either a 7TU or T10 (yes, once apon a time parachutes were round) Paracommanders were such high performance canopes that you needed to have an A licence before even touching one Square canopies were just emerging - but they weren't too popular - brutal openings at anything over 7 seconds and hugh bulk and weight. We still used french Paraboots Front mounted reserves usually had no pilot chute. Capewells were the order of the day - making cutaways a real hand to eye to muscle memory coordination excercise. Sequential RW meant 4 way round - backloop - 4 way round We were natural at freefly, but back then we called it "unstable again". Accuracy landings were hitting a 10cm disc on a downwind approach (except for those suicidal square jumpers) You could actually score a dead center if you were on the mark, as the disc diameter was actually slightly larger then our French Paraboot heel width. Other than accuracy, almost every landing was going backwards - as our canopies really did not go faster than the wind all that often. Some of us were radical by jumping canopies such as Thunderbows instead of paracommanders We made cheap rubberbands for packing using old bicycle tubes - and learned that thicker cut ones may last more than 4 or 5 jumps. Those of us who converted to piggy back systems earlier than the masses were looked upon with suspicion Our first square canopies did not have sliders - ring-and-rope reefing was the technology of the time. When we converted to sliders we were even more radical Throw out pilot chutes were unheard of Single point releases were unheard of Anyone with 200 jumps was a true sky-god But heck, we were still skydivers and we loved every minute of it!! Blue Skies, fergs

PS how is Quantas about flying with your rig? I've hand carried my rig on qantas many times with no problems. Always have my Cypres card ready but have never been asked for it - but of course the Xray nazis are not qantas staff.

I've travelled with my rig on hundreds of commercial flights over the years - mostly international flights. In the early years I would always check it. But last 5 or 10 years have been taking it as hand luggage more and more. Now that's all I do. Certainly have not had any issues in Australia on either Qantas or Virgin. I put my rig into a soft over the shoulder gear bag and simply carry it as if it was any-old-hand-luggage. The security people at Xray have never questioned it. But I have the Cypress card with me in case. Blue Skies, fergs

And nope, no protracks. The Paralert (predecessor to the Dytter) came out about 1983 or so I think. Wendy W. Wendy, from memory, my first paralert was 1980 or 81. It was great! fergs

Kimibird, send pictures!!!! Take care, fergbird

I'll be there - both weekends and am workoing on arranging additional days in between. The Monday at least is looking good. f

... and the same ground from a slightly different angle. Barracuda clearly visible at bottom of the pic. The boogies few boogies that I've been to at UAQ have always been fun. Blue Skies, fergs

Well done, J-Bird, f

Grapevine suggests that someone in the US is planning a wingsuit landing (no canopy) soon. Anyone have any news? f

Aubrey, I'm planning on being there for at least some of it. Can you scam enough time to then come south and visit Canberra for a cpl days? I can promise you some flocks right over our Parliament House. Who knows, may even have Jari on a load or two with you. Plus lots of other fun stuff. fergs