As you all know there is a glaring need for a nation-wide system of qualified parachute instructors. I will not beat the bushes about the fact of life that most accidents are rooted in poor or inadequate training. The USPA Safety and Train­ing Committee has been working on the development of a Jumpmaster/Instructor system for several years, and is at this time proposing such a system be incorporated into the oper­ation of the USPA.

The Golden Anniversary of freefall parachuting will be April 28 of this year, a hallmark in aviation’s short and often turbulent history. Fifty years ago one man became the harbinger of today’s advanced and sophisticated “skydiving” techniques, one jump changed the role of the parachute and those who were to use them. That momentous day was April 28, 1919 and the man was Leslie L. Irvin, truly one of aviation’s great figures.

Francis Rogallo, who had the original idea of using the “ wing” as a device to not only lower an object safely to earth but to allow man the ability to “ fly” longer between deployment and ground impact, has been working with this pro­ject since 1945. 

The Star Crest Emblem (eight-man star patch) stems from an idea that came to mind last year for the promotion of rela­tive work on a more refined scale and to commemorate the efforts of the late Bob Buquor who played a major role in the origin of star formation relative work.