Aloha,

We welcome all our new and returning staff at Skydive Hawaii! Big Jim, a veteran tandem master of several winter seasons, has returned after his South African experience. Jon, Rocky and Peter have blown in from Colorado, making a nice addition to our tandem, packing and video staff respectively. Lyle is pleasing all his tandem customers with his Southern charm. Dan Lane will round out our new staff when he arrives in June from Maine.

Congratulation to Capt. Will Boyd who learned to skydive here at Skydive Hawaii!  Capt. Boyd and his partner, Capt. Anthony Barbina won the 2005 Best Sappers competition held at Fort Leonard Wood, MO.  The event, held April 26-28, is modeled after the Best Ranger Competition, and featured 22 teams consisting of two men each.  Teams took a modified physical fitness test, identified threat mines, constructed a poncho raft and swam across a pond, navigated by day and night, assembled and fired numerous weapons, tied knots, assembled various breaching charges, took a demolitions test, threw hand grenades, ran nine miles and road marched – a lot.  The team placed first in the Poncho Raft and Swim Time, as well as the 20 Km Road March Time segments of the competition.  Capt. Boyd returned from service in Afghanistan this year and is also learning to become a pilot.

We have noticed an increase in Freefall students in the past few months. Many of the new faces are military back from Iraq and Afghanistan. We welcome them both to our skydiving family and back from successful completion of their duties to our country. T.K. Hinshaw, son of owner Frank Hinshaw, has recently completed Freefall School.

Several meetings with the State regarding procedures for skydivers to use the East end drop zone facility have produced mixed results. The glider operators are concerned that they would not be able to gain enough altitude if the 26 threshold was moved 1,000 feet West. Skydive Hawaii has requested that the West end drop zone remain open for skydiving use at appropriate times. Making all or most of our jumps at the East end drop zone would be a big benefit to those of use who sky dive.

Late afternoon jumping on Tuesdays and Thursdays have been a hit within the skydiving community. Wind Tunnel Wednesdays have recently been started. Watch the web cam for activity updates on these days. We have had as many as 24 jumpers shown up for these after work activities.

Two ‘new’ busses have been added to the Skydive Hawaii fleet. Our customers have raved about both of the 2004 Ford 14 passenger vans. Our transportation is now quieter and cooler for all of our tandem customers who use this service. The plan is to have the vans in traditional Skydive Hawaii colors in short order.

Check out Blossom's MP3 debut: Swooping!  A link to the video is at the bottom of the web cam page.  The web cam page also now features a small weather station at Skydive Hawaii.  Dillingham Airfield wind conditions can now be monitored on line.  A big mahalo goes out to Stan for getting the weather station installed and hooked up to our web site.