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| FEATURED ARTICLE |  | Team Fastrax and
Start Skydiving Offer Wounded Veterans
Tandem Skydive Opportunity "Blue Skies for the Good Guys and Gals" Honors our Nation's Heroes Team Fastrax Professional Skydiving Team and Start Skydiving are proud to announce their new program, "Blue Skies for the Good Guys and Gals," to say THANK YOU to the men and women who serve our country. The program will provide a tandem parachute opportunity for those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard (active duty, reserve or guard) who have been wounded in combat and received a Purple Heart. Team Fastrax has partnered with the Wounded Warrior Foundation and The Thank You Foundation to reach out to Veterans around the country. "These are our nation's finest and brightest and we have an obligation to do whatever we can to lift their spirits and show them how much we care, said John Hart, founder of Team Fastrax and owner of Start Skydiving. "As a Gulf War veteran and 20 year Army service member, I am honored to sponsor an event that will have a special impact on these men and women." The program will kick off at Start Skydiving in Lebanon, Ohio on Memorial Day Weekend as part of the Thank You Foundation Boogie. Selection.com, the nation's premier background screening service, is spearheading the corporate charge to raise the funds to make these skydives happen. For more information on how to help and participate you can contact The Thank You Foundation at : 1-877-280-8893
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The Thank You Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to show appreciation and express gratitude for those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, both past and present. The Foundation accomplishes its mission though several programs and activities such as sending care packages, visiting Veterans in care facilities, providing complimentary tickets to sporting and entertainment events, and presenting Thank You Cards and Certificates of Appreciation to those who have served or are serving our military. Donations can be made directly to: www.thethankyoufoundation.org |
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| At Start Skydiving, we place our customers first in everything we do. This newsletter is meant to keep you informed about the latest events and occurrences at our Professional Skydiving Center. Please take the time to email or call us with any comments that will improve the services we provide at Start. You can help us spread the word about Start Skydiving by forwarding our newsletter to your friends. All you have to do is select the "Forward to a Friend" button to the left. |
What's Up This Week | Week ending 22 March 2008 Marcus, Selena, Sarah, David and Matt would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome. We apologize for not knowing everyones' names yet; we're getting there. Please be patient with us; there are a lot of you! We are officially open for the season, so come on out and get current! We are now operating on Spring hours: Saturday and Sunday, 9:00 am until sunset. |
| | Safety First! | Things you need to know Water training is tentatively set for the 29th of March at the YMCA in Lebanon, OH. The cost is $25.00 per person. Please send an us an email at
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if you plan to attend. Don't forget your bathing suit and towel! Remember, students and A license holders, this is a B License requirement. With squirrelly winds and ever-changing conditions, the weather in the spring can be tricky for jumping. Here are some things to keep in mind: Winds on the ground are much more variable than winds aloft. Surface winds must be determined prior to jumping and should be measured at the actual landing area. Winds aloft reports available from the FAA Flight Service are forecasts only. Observations may be made while in flight using navigation systems, such as global positioning satellite systems (GPS). Winds can change at any time, so all available information should be checked by the jumper before and during the jump. Before heading out to the boarding area, make sure you check out the white board in the hangar, which has both forecast conditions and observed updates. Checking in with jumpers from returning loads is a good idea, too, but not a substitute for getting your own information. Before boarding, check the winds blades and socks. During the climb to altitude, make sure everyone in the plane is in agreement about landing direction. Uunder canopy, double check wind indicators and other canopies to confirm which way to land. HAZARDOUS WEATHER Weather fronts generally approach with much warning, but if you're not paying attention, they can catch you off guard. Some fronts are preceded by a gust front, a line of sudden and severe weather. With the approach and passage of a weather front, wind speed and strength can shift dramatically, both on the ground and in the air. On calm, hot, humid days, thunderstorms can spontaneously generate and move in unpredictable patterns. On days when air temperature is changing, dust devils can generate spontaneously. If there is no dust, leaves or debris to indicate their presence, these mini-tornados are invisible - and very dangerous to canopies. There are several places to get practical information on approaching weather: - TV - the Weather Channel, or local broadcast news; - the pilot, who is legally responsible to know the weather conditions before every flight. And, of course, there is the tried-and-true skydiver method of standing in the landing area, head up, one hand on the forehead to shield the sun, one wet finger in the air, saying, "Looks good to me!" |
| | DZ Happenings | | Here is the scoop! Start Skydiving held it it's second annual "Safety Day" on March 15th. It was a good thing that it was planned a week later than the suggested date of March 8th, because we received 15" of snow on that day. More than 60 skydivers participated in the events and seminars that were conducted throughout the day. The only disappointment for the day was not being able to fly any loads due to heavy fog and rain. Thanks to Performance Designs, Alti-2, United Parachute Technologies and Sky Systems for providing all of the great prizes that were given out for correct answers to questions asked by the presenters of the different seminars. At the end of the day the drawing for the grand prize was held: Nick Hice was the lucky recipient of 10 free jump tickets. Safety Day 2008 was a huge success, in large part to the efforts of this year's organizer, Harry Short. A special thanks from all of us at Start Skydiving. We will be conducting an IAD certification course this year for anyone interested. If you're in the market for new gear, make sure you check out our sponsors on the left side of this newsletter. All the manufacturers we support are top-of-the-line. Ask manifest if you are in need of something; Kip or John will sit down with you and explain the benefits of having the right equipment. |
Picture of the Week | 
Start Skydiving Master Rigger Greg Beecher addresses the more than 60 skydivers that attended Safety Day 2008!
Photo by David Strobel |
| National Skydiving League |  Four Way Tips John Hart, Team Fastrax Greetings All, Below is the seventh in a series of Four Way tips Team Fastrax is providing at the April Skills camp. Showing formations, keying Unfortunately, it's not enough just to build a formation to get credited for it. The team must show the formation to the judges. This requires: · Present a steep camera angle so all grips are visible. · Show the formation in control and as completely stopped as possible. · Between formations, show big flashes to prove separation. Flashing is a skill not often developed outside competitive formation skydiving. To do this effectively, the jumper releasing a grip must move the hand at least a foot horizontally away from the grip. All four teammates should flash as simultaneously as possible, to show the complete separation clearly to the judges. Videographer The position of the videographer is unique within the team. Unlike the others, the camera flyer does not pay his own slot, and on many teams the videographer is paid. Because of this, and because a team can switch videographers with less impact than switching formation players, some people tend not to consider the videographer an integral part of the team. This is a misconception. Make no mistake, the camera flyer is as important a member of the team as any other. A penalty for his error hurts the score just as much as anyone else's error. For a videographer to be effective, he must consider himself a member of the team, with as much responsibility as anyone else. For him to do so, his teammates must all likewise consider him a full-fledged teammate. A good camera flyer must become an expert in the following areas: · Judging the exit count · Presenting on exit appropriately for the formation being launched · Maintaining a steep angle at terminal velocity · Using the correct combination of wide-angle lens and height above the formation · Maintaining and operating a camera helmet Meet 'n' Greet - April 12 Meet 1 - May 24 Meet 2 - Jun 21 Meet 3 - July 19 Meet 4 - Aug 16 NSL Playoffs - Sept 20 - 21 Rain dates are the Sundays. If good weather prevails and the meets complete in one day, we'll have organized big(ger) ways on the Sundays. If anyone has an interest in doing some 4-way this summer, feel free to contact me directly at
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. We're here to serve. Here's to a great season in 2008! -Mike |
Thank you for making Start Skydiving the place where great people become skydivers and skydivers become great! Blue Skies, The Team at Start Skydiving |
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