News

March 2008

Although January was a complete washout, the first three weekends in February brought some fantastic and very unseasonable weather. As Tilstock was one of the few dropzones open for business, everyone came out of the woodwork keeping Whisky Romeo busy from dawn to dusk and keeping the staff busy with refresher training for all the Students, eager to jump after the Christmas closure. By the time you read this, our new Airvan should be on line giving us the extra lift capacity we need and we’re looking forward to the party to welcome it on the weekend of the 25th & 26th April; give Colin a call at the Centre for details.

Congratulations to Rob Wilson for surviving his first freefall :-)

February 2008

Winter’s nearly over and here at The Parachute Centre we’re ready to ‘Spring’ into action.

During the winter break there’s been a number of exciting developments taking place at Tilstock.

We have partnered with Airkix Aircraft Limited to purchase a ‘brand new’, 8 place, Gippsland Airvan.; This aircraft, along with the Cessna 206, will now form the permanent fleet at Tilstock Drop Zone.

This means that from April 2008 onwards there will be plenty of aircraft capacity on site to service the needs of both our student and experienced jumpers.

And ‘brand new’ is exactly what the aircraft is: G-VANX went from the production line to the finishing shop a week ago and is scheduled to be on a ship and heading to us in just seven days time.

VANX is expected on line end March or early April and we’ll be organising a celebration party the weekend beginning Friday 25th April where jumps will be just £19 a slot to altitude for our members (regular price from 1st April 2008 £20 members / £22 non-members).

We are planning to maximise the use of VANX and involve Tilstock with activities taking place at Skydive Airkix.  Our colleagues at Sibson are organising an intriguing new competition for the summer months designed to introduce both intermediate and early competition jumpers to the fun of team jumping.

The competition provisionally called Airkix Airmix will be fully announced later but is basically along these lines;

• 3-way teams
• 5 rounds in the tunnel
• 5 rounds from either the VANX Airvan or the Let at Sibson
• Unlimited practice of the rounds before you nominate the jump or session to be judged
• Prizes of tunnel time and jumps

To introduce Tilstock customers to the Airkix Tunnel (both to start competitors training and also to coach skydiving skills to both our student and experienced jumpers), we’ll be organising a trip or two to Airkix Milton Keynes, perhaps with a mini bus or coach.  Airkix has offered to provide some coaching and an attractive tunnel rate.  These will be fun social events, perhaps combining with the other facilities at Xscape such as the Snow Dome for our skiers.

Even better for competitors, you’ll be able to practice the competition dives at Sibson on Sundays.  As part of the arrangement with our new partners your £25 Tilstock Membership will be interchangeable with Skydive Airkix membership. As a Tilstock member you’ll be able to jump at Sibson for only £15 to 13,000ft from the Let, and our students will be able to jump the Airvan there as well.  We are also aiming to plan Sunday FS, FF and competitor coaching events at Sibson.

We are also offering an enhanced membership and an extra £75 gives you ten minutes at Airkix in Milton Keynes as well as some valuable Tunnel offers during the course of the year. The tunnel time will be at selected times for us and is likely to include coaching!

So they key points are:

• The Parachute Centre will have a brand new Airvan and the Cessna 206 online for the 2008 season
• Party weekend with cheap jumps to celebrate the new aircraft arrival
• Airvan to be used to launch new style of competition for intermediate and novice competition jumpers at Tilstock.
• Our Membership is also good this year at Skydive Airkix at Sibson, giving you direct access to the lowest rates at Sibson - £15 to altitude from their Let 410.
• Special Tunnel Time enhanced membership deal.
• The Parachute Centre to organise our own coached sessions at Airkix wind tunnel and fun coaching meets at Sibson on Sundays.

So what are you waiting for? Come on down and meet our own new Aussie Airvan - VANX!

JANUARY 2008

We had a good turnout at the AGM this year held at The Hawkstone Park Hall Hotel"

Congratulations to Craig Powell who was awarded the prestigious "Liz Wojda Student of the Year Award." and Terry Hall was awarded the " Nick Irvin Memorial Plate" for his outstanding services to the club.

NOVEMBER 2007

The Bonfire party was a great success! A good variety of fireworks were set off over the clubhouse. FANTASTIC!!.A great BIG thank you for those who were there! Well done to Jules for winning the fancy dress and to Shelly for best fire work.

See Liz if you are interested in going to the Christmas do which is on Saturday 8th December, venue Hawkstone Park Hotel. Not long now

With the unseasonably gorgeous spring weather and two planes there has been loads of jumping lately at Tilly, as well as lots of people doing courses and fun jumping abroad.  The Airvan is a big success- more lifts, more slots, more jumping; which after all is what we love.

As you can see from the long list of achievements everyone has had a great time lately, well done to Phil and Christine both graduating AFF, and to Matt Wilcock for his first freefall.  Raps courses have been running every week and we have loads of students progressing steadily, sadly some courses earlier in the year were frustrated by the wind, but now that summer is on its way they should get lots more air time.

Congratulations to Dave Major; who, after lots of training and many hours of flying and study is now our newest jump pilot. 

For all you budding camera flyers out there we should be holding a camera flying and editing day this summer, check the website and notice board for details as and when.  Also there will be a certified first aid course sometime soon.

Blue Skies

Achievements

First Freefall – Matt Wilcock

FS1 – Michele Eppleston, Mike Allsopp

1 Hour freefall – Louise Whitby

AFF Graduate- Phil Jenks, Christine Dawes

Jump numbers

800 Jumps – Steve Smith

1500 Jumps – Ray Parker

1700 Jumps – Gwyn Ackery

1000^th  Tandem – Tony Lightfoot