The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) recently announced the list of the Most Memorable Aviation Records of 2009, and the 181-way female large formation world record—Jump for the Cause—which took place at Perris Valley Skydiving in California on September 26, made the list. NAA President Jonathan Gaffney invited record organizers Melanie Conatser-Peschio, Kate Cooper-Jensen, Tony Domenico and Mallory (Lewis) Tarcher-Hood to receive the honor at the association’s spring awards luncheon March 3 in Washington, D.C..

The skydiving feat will be honored along with accomplishments by aviators from other air-sports organizations such as the Academy of Model Aeronautics, the Balloon Federation of America and the Soaring Society of America. "Many, many, many thanks for this huge honor!" exclaimed Tarcher-Hood upon hearing about the award. "It's always special to be recognized by our peers from the aviation community."

The International Parachuting Commission (IPC) of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) concluded their five-day meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, January 31, and here are a few of their decisions:

1. Each discipline’s competition rules except style & accuracy were changed, some more than others. (The changes will soon be posted on IPC’s website.)
2. Russia will host the world championships of formation skydiving, canopy formation and artistic events, July 31-August 6, 2010, in the eastern city of Menzelinsk.
3. Russia will also host a world championship of canopy piloting in Kolomna on August 8-15, 2010.
4. Germany will host a world cup of formation skydiving and artistic events August 1-7, 2011, in Saarlouis, (western) Germany.
5. A wingsuit working group was formed with Jacqui Bruwer (South Africa) as chair and includes voting members Larry Bagley from the U.S. and Ronald Overdijk from the Netherlands. Taya Weiss (U.S.) and Jarno Cordia (Netherlands) have been invited to join the group as non-voting advisors. The group’s goal is to define and judge no-contact wingsuit large formation records so a recommendation can be made to the IPC for consideration of a new unlinked world record performance category for wingsuit, largest formation. The group will serve for one year.

The USPA competition committee will consider the results of the meeting when they deliberate at their board meeting February 19-21, 2010, in Phoenix, Arizona. The IPC will meet again next January in Montenegro.

On Monday, January 18, Slavo Mulik presented the Štefan Banič Parachute Foundation Gold Medal to President George Herbert Walker Bush for his outstanding support of parachuting, at Bush’s office in Houston. Mulik is the founder and president of the Banič Foundation, which was established to recognize those who have made significant contributions to skydiving. The gold medal is awarded annually. The foundation was named for the Slovak inventor who applied for the first U.S. patent on a parachute and who donated the patent to the U.S. Army prior to World War I. Also present at the ceremony were USPA Executive Director Emeritus Chris Needels; Pennsylvania Senator Bob Robbins; USPA President Jay Stokes, who is also a Banič Foundation Gold Medalist; Admiral George Worthington, a Banič Foundation trustee; and Carol Schlichtemeier and Jack Pyland, both members of USPA.

The winter 2010 USPA Board of Director’s Meeting will be held February 19-21 at the Embassy Suites Hotel Phoenix/Tempe, in Phoenix. All USPA members in good standing are encouraged to attend. E-mail uspa@uspa.org or call USPA Headquarters at (540) 604-9740 for more information.

Schedule: BOD Meeting Schedule

Agendas

• BOD Meeting Agenda
• Competition Committee
• Constitution & By-Laws Committee
• Executive Committee
• Finance & Budget Committee
• Group Membership Committee
• Membership Services Committee
• Nominations & Elections Committee
• Regional Directors
• Safety & Training Committee
  

The Dubai emirate on the Arabian Peninsula is hosting a multi-national event that began this week, and the USA has a full delegation participating in all events except female 4-way formation skydiving. The event ends January 17.

Jim Hayhurst and Cheryl Stearns are competing in accuracy landing, Arizona Airspeed is among 15 teams in 4-way formation skydiving, and the canopy piloting event includes Nick Batsch, David Billings, Brian McNenney, Hans Paulsen and Shannon Pilcher, with a second group of four (Albert Berchtold, Ian Bobo, Thomas Hughes and Jonathan Tagle) also vying for medals and money. There is a $230,000 prize purse, with $20,000 going to first-place 4-way and $5,000 for first place in each of the three canopy piloting events: accuracy, distance and speed. The accuracy landing first-place team will earn $20,000 with an additional $5,000 going to the first-place individual. Prize money will be paid down to third place in all events.

"The meet is being run out of two Bell 212 helicopters sing civilian crews," said Head of Delegation Larry Hill, "and they are running pretty efficiently."

Check back for pictures and updates. For more information, check http://emiratesaviation.org/index.html.