Aloha,
Happy New Year - Hauoli Makahiki Hou! We are very grateful to all our great customers and staff who combined to make 2005 another successful year for Skydive Hawaii. Aloha nui loa!
For the best present our company could have gotten, Jet "A" returned to Dillingham Airfield! This eliminates having to fly into Honolulu International Airport once or twice each day for fuel. Jumpers have had to wait for up to two hours for the plane to return, so this is a welcomed change that is appreciated by our management, pilots, mechanics, jump staff, sport jumpers and students.
Clint Clawson has suggested that Party in Paradise events start again and Skydive Hawaii is ready! It looks like the format of the event will change to an invitational event over a weekend, but several times during the year. The Caravan would primarily be used for the Party during these weekends. Camping would be located behind the Skydive Hawaii building. These events are planned to be limited to 30 jumpers a weekend. We think that it will be great to have Clint involved with the Party in Paradise, so get your free flying gear ready for your invitation for some great jumps! Clint will be handling all invitations, so see Clint to get the skinny.
The State of Hawaii, Department of Transportation, Highways Division has recently planted a couple of clusters of “short” trees up wind of the drop zone. Skydive Hawaii has placed both the North Shore Neighborhood Board, and the Highways Division on notice that these trees will create wind turbulence for all the jumpers at Dillingham Airfield. All jumpers should avoid landing down wind of obstacles such as trees and buildings.
Bo and Alex have arrived for the Winter from Atmosphair near Jefferson, Wisconsin. They have let us know that their first child is expected this Spring. Stan and Georgie will be arriving in January 2006 after becoming married recently in England. Kevin Love has returned for some work this Winter and Aaron Comp 'AC' has recently joined our tandem master staff. Jake Kilfoyle was featured in a full page article in the "Hawaii Army Weekly" in their December 2, 2005 printing.
Congratulations to Ben Borger! SPC Benjamin Borger, 1/27 INF, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, started his skydiving career on February 24, 2005 by making first first tandem jump at Skydive Hawaii and then completing Freefall School. After making 180 jumps Ben applied for the US Army Golden Knights. In October 2005 he was accepted into the US Army Golden Knights. Kudos to both Clarence T. Lopez, Jr. and Randy Burke for a very akamai job of instruction and coaching for Ben. Although this mean we must say aloha to Ben, all the instructors, coaches and staff at Skydive Hawaii wish every continued success to Ben throughout his jumping career.
Hopefully, 2006 will be a year of adding some much needed additional facilities for Skydive Hawaii. The construction of a hanger for our Caravan is our primary objective. Adding additional space for video viewing, manifest, and customer comfort will also be on the construction agenda.
In August, we congratulated Richard Doppelmayer for making his 10,000th skydive. What we didn’t realize at that time was that Richard has made more jumps in Hawaii than any other person at any time. Richard was recently featured at the Kahala Madrian Hotel when he jumped onto the beach as Santa Claus. Shaun Dunn and Rick Cain also jumped as Santa’s elves.
Sky Smith, now known as 'Indian Joe' has been sighted riding his Indian motorcycle on the North Shore. It has been about 5 years since he has been able to dine at Haleiwa Joe's or Jameson's by the Sea. Welcome back to Hawaii. Sky has been a valuable part of the Party in Paradise/Skydive Hawaii staff by handling complaints.
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