The PD Blog

AXIS goes to M.O.A.B.

Brianne Thompson and Niklas Daniel of AXIS Flight School arrived with the Skydive Arizona otter in MOAB to help organize during the 8th annual Mother Of All Boogies. Over the course of four days, jumpers from all over flocked to the beautiful dropzone to enjoy the great scenery, friendly people, and make some awesome jumps. We had an awesome time jumping and organizing at this boogie and would like to thank everyone who attended!

 

 

In addition, AXIS was able to take part in some of the off-site jumps, such as MOAB Airpark and  Castle Valley in order to take pictures. Please visit Nik's Blog to view more images.

And for all you freeflyers out there, here is some GoPro footage from an interesting jump we did with some tunnel instructors from SVCO (Skyventure Colorado).

 

AXIS would like to thank Skydive Moab for hosting this great event, and is looking forward to attening next year!

CarolinaFest 2011

During the first weekend of June in Chester, SC, Skydive Carolina held their annual CarolinaFest Boogie.  Over the past several years it's been building as one of the best boogies on the East Coast.  This year did not disappoint.  With more organizers than ever, Team's Turbo XP, Scarecrow and individual organizers, Amy Chmelecki, Melanie Curtis, Melissa Nelson, Pepe Rodrigues, Ryan Risberg, Simon Bones and Joe Freeman, everyone always had someone to jump with and a fun jump at that!  I had my work cut out for me to try and cover all of the event.

During my jumps there, I was asked by Greg at UPT to come up and film an intentional cutaway on a SkyHook equiped Vector!  I had never seen one up close and personal before.  It was amazing how quick that beautiful PD Reserve inflated to full flight!  If you haven't seen one or tried it yet, I highly advise giving it a shot the next time you're at a boogie and UPT is there.  I was also lucky enough to witness an actual cutaway and see the beautiful Optimum Reserve show it's true colors!

Overall the Boogie was a blast!  If you'd like to see the Entire Gallery of my work from the event please click the link.  Looking forward to next year and more PD Reserves and Optimums in action doing what they were designed to do!

-Brian Buckland

Arizona Vertical Challenge

 

Photographer Niklas Daniel captured these images during the Arizona Vertical Challenge.

This annual invitational event is led by VFS team AZ Arsenal and brings some of the most talented freeflyers from around the world to Skydive Arizona. Participants built large and complex formations with multiple points. 

 

 

Tracking anyone?

Photographer Niklas Daniel captured this shot of Brianne Thompson of AXIS Flight School

diving out of an otter over Skydive Arizona. 

March Madness Freefly Sequentials

Luis Prinetto and Scott (Plamer) Palmer hosted a weekend of Head Up / Head Down freefly formations during Skydive Sebastian's March Madness week in mid March, 2011.  Over 30 freefliers showed up to fill the planes and attempt to build some challenging formations.   

Over the weekend the group flew multiple twin otter formaion loads.  The largest built was a mixed Head Up / Head Down formation with 29 freefliers.  

PD Photographer Brian Buckland captured these shots and more over the course of the weekend.  If you'd like to see the entire gallery, please visit his events website.

Airspeed Wins Shamrock Showdown 2011

The 2011 Shamrock Showdown brought the best in the world to Deland, FL
 for a weekend of perfect weather and some fast-flying 4-way. Twenty teams took to the skies for ten rounds of competition, including current world champions France Aerodyne Aerokart as well as the newly reshaped Arizona Airspeed.

The boys from Arizona proved to be a powerful force as they ended the meet with a 24.9 average to the French team's 23.6. Airspeed dominated every jump except round 8 and posted an astonishing score of 30 in round 7. 

Airspeed's not the only team who had a good meet, though. Paraclete XP4 and SDC Rhythm also competed in the AAA category and wrapped up the weekend with 19.9 and 19.7 averages, respectively.  FAI World Cup in August, USPA Nationals in October...With this kind of 4-way action, you pay for the whole seat but you only need the edge!  

PD Zero at 13th Annual Para Ski Championships

The 13th Annual FAI Para Ski World Championships 2011 are currently underway in Gosau, Austria (throw another shrimp on the barbie, mate!) and some of the competitors in the accuracy competition have been landing their PD Zeros on the hillside! Check out this photo taken by Oliver Nöthen of the Zero in action!

If you would like more information about the 2011 FAI Para Ski Championships, please click here.

Skyventure Colorado Invasion of Elsinore

 In late January 2011, two instructors, Brad Cole and Ryan Risberg from Skyventure Colorado decided to push their birds out of the nest.  Assembling a group of 20 tunnel fliers (that are also skydivers), they traveled to Skydive Elsinore to not only put what they have learned to the test, but to also round out their skydiving skill set. 

 

 

It's amazing to watch people fly all over the place in a tunnel on their head, back and feet, but they really aren't quite sure how to dive down to a formation or float up to one for that matter.  What happens when someone rocks the base and send a wave through the entire group?  How does one turn 180 degrees and back track?  If you're a pro it might sounds like a silly question.  But if you've only flown in the tunnel you've never had to do it. 

 

These skills and more were practiced over a long weekend.  PD photographer Brian Buckland was there to capture the action.  To check out the entire gallery from that weekend follow this link.  All in all it was a great experience for these tunnel fliers to build some basic skills and gain some real world skydiving experience.   The event was so successful there is another one planned for March.

 

Katana over Arizona

Photographer Niklas Daniel captured this shot of Brianne Thompson under her KA 97 over Eloy, AZ.

Katana over Sebastian

Excerpt from PD Photographer Brian Buckland's blog:

"I think someone is following me.  I could have sworn I saw their shadow run across my brand new Katana while I was flying it over Sebastian in late 2010." 

The folks at PD did a great job designing this custom Katana Logo for all to see. 

Enjoy!