Well the weather has certainly been a major factor in what has been achieved at the Peterlee Drop Zone these past 2 months. There have been periods of no jumping and periods when literally 100’s of jumps have been undertaken.
We have tried to make the best of the bad weather periods by running Safety Presentations, Staff Briefings and bringing in coaches to pass on their knowledge; indeed great to have both Paul Dorward back with us for a second time this year to present on Canopy Flying, and Brian Cumming back for a second time to coach & organise Formation Skydiving Loads. Brian losing his regular Cameraflyer Paul Rimmington to the Nationals meant we were on the look out for a Cameraflyer to film Brian’s Big Way Formation Skydives, and Steve Burdon capably stepped up to do a great job producing some great 9 Way Footage.
Unfortunately, the Great Northern Speed 10 had to be postponed by a few weeks to Sat 7 – Sep 19 when we look forward to some Great Northern Teams competing against one another with Cark returning to defend their title from 2018.
Great to see some notable sons & daughters skydiving with us these past two months with Theo Dyas making his first Tandem & AFF Jumps with Father Brian proudly jumping with him, and Kerry Noble’s daughter Megan coming in to make a Tandem Skydive with us – sadly Megan’s jump has had to be postponed to 28 September however Paul Moore was able to get Kerry up in the Aircraft to illustrate the differences between Kerry’s former Cessna 207 and our Cessna 208 Supervan 900 – needless to say Kerry as a Task Specialist for the day was suitably impressed.
There have certainly been some highs and lows this past two months with over 700 jumps being completed over the August Bank Holiday period when we also averaged 40 Tandem Skydives per day over 4 days Friday through Monday as well as AFF, SL & Solo FreeFall jumps. On the low side we have seen two serious landing injuries sustained at the Drop Zone to Darren Crumpler and Darren Strafford, both are making progress recovering in Hospital and we wish them both well.
Also of note within this issue of Club News is the Sale, now virtually completed, of G-PLEE – will be sad to see G-PLEE go and hopefully the aircraft will fly its last North Wings Display on 7 September 2019 and perhaps a load or two at the Peterlee DZ in early September 2019 before departing to a new home lifting Skydivers at a Club in mainland Europe.
We have also said a bye for now to Connor Johnstone, at least for the short term as he returns to the USA to complete some more jumps towards his Tandem Rating Conversion. As one Connor departs we welcome back another – Connor O’Brien who has having left the Army returned to Co Durham to take on a role of packing of parachutes these past weeks.
Other notable news is proof of Chris Gilmore seen smiling and enjoying himself in free fall. Big shout Out for Jared & Karen Morris and their Shotton Aero Sports Club hosting representatives from Peterlee and their twin town in Germany, some of whom clearly want to make skydives with us. Looking ahead a mention for the Club Annual End of Season Awards and Christmas Party on Sat 23 Nov 19, also being organised by Jared, and after which we will be closed until Feb 2020.
Ian Rosenvinge
Achievements: AFF L8 Mark Younger, Darren Crumpler 1st FREEFALL Omar Kamal JUMP NUMBERS 100 Alice Mitchell 500 Mary Sunter
Photos: Brian Cumming Load Organising by Steve Burdon / Geordie Batey at DZ control by Ian Rosenvinge
Find out more about Peterlee: https://skydiveacademy.org.uk/
