Skydive Hibaldstow Awarded Nationals for Next 3 Years

At the recent BPA Competitions Committee last week, it was decided that Skydive Hibaldstow had again presented the best bid to host the National Championships. This bid is for the next 3 years until 2014.

The dropzone will therefore host the following events:

• 4-way - Rookie, A, AA and AAA
• 8-way - Intermediate and Senior
• VFS
• Artistics Freefly - A and B
• Artistics Freestyle - A and B
• Speed Skydiving

In preparation for the Nationals 2012, Hibaldstow will be running many coached training events run over weekends by recognised international competitors. In addition, a series of training weeks will be scheduled which are designed for teams wanting to do a high number of jumps. You can find out more about these exciting events, when they are schedule, here - www.skydiving.co.uk/Experienced.htm.

Nationals Completed

It has been another fantastic Nationals and all the competitions have completed in beautiful sunshine. So, to sumarise in the 8-way Intermediate - team 8 A Cake won with a massive 24 point lead over scratch team Reprob8s who suffered a rare 20% penalty after they had a camera mal. Another scratch team, St8 Of Confusion took 3rd place with 15 points.

The senior 8-way has had the biggest attendance in years with 8 teams and finally Microclim8 had a battle on their hands with Brit Chicks. Microclim8 won it with a 13.1 average and only trained for a single exit (When they were VNE, they had 3 different exits). Brit Chicks took the Silver with a very respectable 11.9 average. This is also an on year, so the question is will Microclim8 take their position to go to Dubai in 2012 or will they let Brit Chicks go? In 3rd place were SuperSonic (no guesses who their teams mates are made up of then!) with a distant 72 points.

Again, a word of thanks must be given to Texas team SPX8 who travelled a long way to come and compete with us. They and a few other teams have just gone up to do a 40-way.

Freefly was also well attended with 4 in the senior A class and 5 teams in the B class. Even though Kinetic were the highest World Cup ranked British team, they took a 2nd place behind full time freefly coaches Volare who took Gold with 57.1 points. Euphoria were in Bronze position with 49.6 points.

Last but not least, special mention must go to Larsen & Brusgaard who sponsored the Speed Skydiving with a fantastic set of 3 audible altimeters going to the 3 medal positions. Next year, it is hoped that there will be more Speed Awareness Roadshows promoting the fun and exciting discipline.

Next weekend, we have the Headdown Freefly UK Record attempts and also the Fly Hard II 40-way formations.

Day 2

Good morning! Lift 1 is about to take off and the dropzone is a hive of activity. With only 3 rounds to complete at the most, everything should be completed by early afternoon.

End of Day 1

Its been a great day today and not what we expect. The forecast was very mixed, yet we experienced a lot of sunshine. Some disciplines have finished all their rounds already, such as Freefly A and B, Freestyle A. The 8-way Senior has the most still to complete with some teams having gotten as far as round 7 and needing to make another 3 jumps.

In the Speed Skydiving, its really worth noting newcomer Eddie Monteith. Other than 2 training jumps on the Friday, he currently has an average of 235 mph with 1 round left to do. Breaking that 200 mph barrier is a real achievement.

For those of you who know Al and Pixie from the Freestyle A, they have gone on to win a 4th successive gold medal. Is this a record? They took a commanding 13.9 point lead over Dunkerswell team Freestyle99.com.

Round 6 - The Battle Is Hotting Up

Round 6 is well underway for many of the FS teams and some of the Freestyle B and Freefly B teams have now finished their competition. In the Freefly B class, there is a close battle forming between Area 99 and team Jessna. They tied on round 3 and are only 0.4 away from each other. Again in the 8-way there is also a very close situation with only 4 points separating 3rd and 7th place. Microclim8 are slightly ahead with a score of 69 over Brit Chicks 64. Can the Brit Chicks pick up the pace and take that Gold?

So a quick weather update. We have had a few brief weather holds as the cloud has gathered in, but the aircraft are taking off again. Last but not least, in the Speed Skydiving, Simon, Eddie and Michael have been fighting it out. Simon is in the lead at the moment with a high score of 278mph average in Round 3. However Leigh has just started his competition late due to commitments in the Freefly B class. His first round was pretty good scoring a 261mph at his first attempt. There are still 3 rounds to do and it is the best 3 speeds out of 6 that count.

Rounds 1 and 2

Normally, there are 2 Dorniers running for the 2nd weekend of the Championships. For the first time, the dropzone has brought in 3 aircraft which means a much faster turnaround. In the space of 2 hours almost everyone has now done 2 rounds. The judging is in full flow now and the expected battle between Brit Chicks and Micro Clim8te is close. Brit Chicks scored a fantastic 14 in round 1 and were bettered by 1 point by Micro Clim8te.

Day 1 - SPX 8 Team Interview

Good morning readers, the skies are beautiful, cloudless and blue. So to start with, how about an interview with visiting US team SPX 8.

1. Can you tell us a bit about your team history?

SPX 8 has been a team since 2006. It started as an Intermediate (USPA) team. After 2 seasons (with a few personel changes) the team won Gold at the US Nationals (Intermediate) in 2007. 50% of the team stayed together and we competed in the USPA Open Catagory for 2 years. The team took one year off and reconfigured with 6 new and 2 remaining team members for the 2011 season and are again competing in the intermediate class at the US Nationals.

Our coaches over the past few years have been primarily Mark Kirkby for our DZ Coach and Andy Honingbaum for our tunnel coach. We have averaged between 7 and 11 points depending on the year and the team.

2. So the most important question, why has the team has decided to enter the UK Nationals?

I have had the opportunity to jump with many Brit Jumpers over the years as a Coach, Judge (I am a P3 Coach, and Dubai 500 Captain) and a competitor in both World Cup and World meets. The Brit Jumpers have been inviting me to bring over a team for many years and this year proved to be the year that it all worked out!

3. What is the 8-way scene like in the USA?

8-way in the US has always had a strong showing at the US Nationals. There will probably be as many as 11 practiced 8-way teams and the same number of pick up teams this year. So approx 11 teams in Open and 11, teams in Intermediate.

4. What is your opinion of the Dornier G92 in the training jumps you have done thus far?

We like the plane. It is a fast climber and the pilots do a great job of spotting. It took us a few jumps for us to figure out the exits but were helped a great deal by the local teams.

5. Where do you train in the US and what is it like?

SPX 8 trains at Skydive Spaceland in Houston, Texas. The drop zone is open 364 days a year. We now have 8 Twin Otters, 2 Skyvans, and 2 Cessna Caravans. We have a private airpark with 200 acres of landing area. Although it gets a bit hot in Texas in the summer, we have all air-conditioned creeping and packing areas. It is a great DZ to train at.

6. For those that know little about 8-way, what are the major differences compared to 4-way?

Some will disagree I'm sure, but I believe 8-way takes a bit more precision than 4-way. Levels are more critical and the shape of points are more important. Another difference is that in 4-way, all the randoms and all the random draws are what puts big point totals on the score board. Whereas in 8 way, it is the blocks that are faster and point the points on the board.

I've often seen times where a good 8-way team can split in half and score well doing 4-way. But putting 2 good 4-way teams together to do 8-way doesn't seem to nessesarily mean big scores. "Just my opinion".