The PD Blog

Skydive Radio show with PD's John LeBlanc

 

Recently our beloved Vice President John LeBlanc did an interview with the great folks from Skydive Radio.  For those who haven't aren't familiar with Skydive Radio they do a show about once or twice a month which you can listen to on their website, or iTunes podcast.  Each episode usually has an skydiving guest on the show that they speak with about their area of expertise.  The most recent episode you can hear hosts Stump, Dave, and Karry speak with John about his first days of skydiving rounds and the beginnings of Performance Designs.  This was the first part of a two part interview with John.

Have a listen HERE.

Army Canopy Piloting Team Wins Sports Awards

The British Army Canopy Piloting Team, from Netheravon in UK, were selected as the Army Sports Team of the year at an Award ceremony in London earlier this week.  The PD Sponsored Team was up against stiff competition from other elite sportsmen and women, including a number of Olympic hopefuls.  To demonstrate the importance of the Award Ceremony the prizes were presented by General Sir David Richards.  He is the Chief of the General Staff- the Head of the British Army.  He also outlined his dedication to sport insisting that the qualities it delivers are integral to his main effort in Afghanistan.

Four of the six man team were present to receive the Award; the other two were committed elsewhere with one training in Elsinore and the other serving on a military exercise.  General Richards also praised the team for the impressive work that they do for The Royal British Legion, a charity that supports all members of the Armed Forces past and present, as part of Jump4Heroes.  The video clip below shows a short TV Interview from the Awards Ceremony.

TV Tonight: History Channel - Skydiving

Tonight (Friday September 19th), the History Channel will be showing an episode on Skydiving as a part of their "The Works" series.   A little bird told us that you might see some very cool PD Stuff in there, including some sweet footage of the PD Factory Team.   
So, if you find yourself at home on a Friday night, in front of the TV, flip to the History channel and check the show out. It's on at 8:00 PM Eastern time (click here for detailed schedule in other time zones).
Should you miss that one, there appears to be a rerun of it on Saturday night, at midnight.  Enjoy!!

Difficult IS worth doing!

Last night, May 29 - 2007, history was made as skydivers from the UK took part in the first ever LIVE TV commercial on British television.

The advert, which was part of Honda's campaign 'Difficult is worth doing' to promote the new Accord, featured a number of world class skydivers building the letters of the word Honda over the skies of Skydive Lillo in Spain.

Shown on the mainstream British television station, Channel 4, it lasted 3 minutes 20 seconds and was the only thing shown during the commercial break.

A MASSIVE congratulations to everyone who took part. You guys and girls have made the whole skydiving community proud, and even convinced this wingsuiter to hang up his wings for a bit and try some of that flat m'larky again!

If you didn't manage to see the advert, it's now available on Honda's website here - or, even easier, right here:

Floating Swooper

Brian McNenney (yep, the same one that just took home the gold in the first FLCPA meet of the year) was recently interviewed by a TV station in Tallahassee, for their sports section.  Because of the sports element, the focus was on Brian's competition swooping as a member of the US Canopy Piloting Team.  Brian took 4th place at the recent World Cup in Australia .
As a part of the interview, Brian filmed the reporter during a tandem jump at the School of Human Flight in Tallahassee.  You can see the story here along with some video - check it out.
The article mentions that Brian is really good (one of the best in the nation) at "floating at high altitudes". 
We are not exactly sure what that is, so if anyone has a video of Brian doing his floating thing, we would love to see it :)