Canopy Course at Bridgewater, VIC, Australia

Location: Bridgewater Dropzone, Victoria, Australia
Time: 8:30am
Occasion: Canopy course coached by Michael Vaughan
Why are we still standing around: Ben and Anna are late!
Verdict: Lets start without them

A dozen skydivers ranging in experience from 15 jumps to 500 jumps all came to Bridgewater for the weekend to particpate in a canopy course hosted by Michael Vaughan. Most of the attendees were local Bridgewater jumpers although others were regulars from Skydive Nagambie and Commando Skydivers at Tooradin. The day began with a classroom session where everyone introduced themselves and put down their goals for the weekend. Goals ranged from "improve accuracy" to "learn more about my canopy" to "Can you teach me how to swoop?".

See www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGBe-Rh7o4U

Then it was time for jumping..... In amongst the many great landings on the weekend were:

Unstable cessna exits
3 way head down exit from 5 grand
Landing in the barley
Lock picking seminar
Some unplanned canopy relative work i.e. foot on pilot chute!
Landing a malfunction due to incorrectly stowed brakes on brand new gear, 2nd jump
As much meat as anyone can eat at the saturday night BBQ - thanks Ralph
Virgin pilots flying their first loads unassisted
Cartons for firsts
Go arounds to dodge the clouds
And the finale, a wingsuit swooper (or was that a low flying duck?) in the pond!!!

Also lots of watching and debriefing landing videos along with many classroom seminars.

What a fantastic fun weekend! Everyone had a great time, learnt heaps about their canopies and about how to fly and land them a little better. Not everyone improved on the weekend but now at least all participants have the knowledge to apply on their canopy flights over next few weeks/months to help them improve. All with the ultimate goal of improving the safety of our sport.

Thanks to Ralph and the staff at the dropzone for hosting the event. And also to the APF Sport Development fund for covering Michaels travel and the VPC for providing funding to reduce the registration costs for all.

2010 NSW Canopy Piloting State Meet

The NSW Canopy Piloting Championships were held at Sydney Skydivers on the weekend. A few keen competitors turned up a few days early to get some practice in before the competition began. By Friday afternoon there were 6-8 swoopers doing hop and pop loads and alternating with the tandem loads.

In all there were 14 competitors, 8 in open and 6 in intermediate. That is a pretty good turnout especially considering the cream of Aussie pilots have just returned from the World Meet in Russia and most were unavailable or could not afford to attend. 6 new competitors in intermediate who have never competed before is also very good to see.

The weather was not quite perfect on saturday with a blanket of cloud hanging around most of the day but it was still high enough for us to throw 1 or 2 competitors out per pass and get the competition flowing along. The cloud also kept the forecast easterlies at bay which helped keep things moving. When the winds come from the east it comes right over the freeway and becomes too turbulent and unsafe on the pond.

The competition began with the speed event. After 3 rounds almost every intermediate competitor was wet and only 2 had posted a score. The open event did not see any blistering runs but a number of competititors continued to post good scores.

After the 3 rounds of the distance event, 4 of the intermediate competitors had posted scores showing an improvement on the speed event. By competition end and 3 final rounds of Zone Accuracy ALL intermediate competitors had posted a score, a fantastic improvement during the day. Special mention should go to Kobi for scoring 1 point in 9 rounds by making the gate in Zone Accuracy, flying to zone 1 and not standing up. Nice one Kobi, not bad for your first competition. It is always good to see people giving it a go and challenging themselves. There were so many smiles around during the day, on the plane, in the pond, packing by the pond, a great atmosphere.

By sunset saturday 9 rounds had been completed and 14 hungry thirsty competitors headed for the free BBQ and bar.

Congrats to the 2010 NSW Champions:


Open Overall

Gold Michael Vaughan
Silver Tom Gilmartin
Bronze Keven Walters


Intermediate Overall

Gold Steve Cowan
Silver Simon Hayter
Bronze John Martin


Thanks to the Australian Parachute Federation and the NSW State Council for funding the sensors and reducing the entry fees for all competitors. Thanks also to Sydney SKydivers for hosting the event, to the judges and volunteers and to Chris Grime for getting in and out of the pond so often to change and fix the course. And finally thanks also to all the competitors for a fun, safe competition.

Bring on the Aussie Nationals in Feb 2011!!!!

Pond photo by Jim Smith