It’s been a while since the last update, sorry!  If you’ve been here lately you know that it was very busy during Summerfest!

        Photo By Charles Lane.  All Rights Reserved.

We had a great turnout for Summerfest with about 600 registered jumpers and non-jumpers!  Everyone had great things to say and had a great time!  There were plenty of aircraft (Casa, Otters, King Air, Jet, Biplane, Helicopter), organizers, and activities to keep everyone happy!

      Photo By Charles Lane.  All Rights Reserved.

I’d like to thank all of the staff and organizers who worked VERY hard to make this year’s Summerfest the best yet!

A BIG congratulations to the 69 people who set the new Freefly World Record!!!  Rook, Alaska Jon, and Mike Swanson did a great job organizing the 69-way!

      Photo By Jason Peters.  All Rights Reserved.

The camera flyers (Jason Peters, Norman Kent, and Brian Buckland) got some great shots of the attempts and record!  I’d also like to thank the judges (Scott Smith, Sarah Thompson, and Stefania Martinengo).

Jason has pictures available along with his and Brian Buckland’s video of the Record and Record Attempts.  For more info contact Jason Peters at aboveallphotography@hotmail.com or 520-251-0129.  Also check out www.BrianBuckland.com and www.NormanKent.com to view other pics of the Record that are available for purchase.

The winners of the 5th annual film festival were:
        1st Place: How Not to do 4-way By: Jim Bloomingdale
        2nd Place: Lake Elsinore Psycho By: Andy Malchiodi
        3rd Place: The Hebrew Hammer By: David Gershfeld

       Photo By Charles Lane.  All Rights Reserved.

Thanks again to Scott and Todd Ayer who really put together a spectacular fireworks show!

Summerfest is over, but things certainly aren’t slowing down around Skydive Chicago. Everyone is getting geared up for Nationals which is just weeks away! 

If anyone has a TV and/or VCR that we can borrow for Nationals it would be very helpful!!  We need them for the teams to debrief, and also for the judges!  If you can help us just e-mail me at Erin@skydivechicago.com.

We flew 99 Otter loads last week, and put through 4 new AFP graduates!  Congratulations to the new grads: Brian Brown, Rob Taylor, Chris Wojnarowski, and Siobhan Daukes!!

I’d also like to congratulate Brad Vancina on completing his 5,000th skydive!!!

Skydive Chicago hosted the MWSL meet this past weekend and here are the results:
        Team                    Rounds Completed    Pt Ttl        Avg
        CSC Rhythm                            10           112       11.2
        SDC’s Furies                            10           110       11.0
        CSC False Religion                   10             87        8.7
        SDC’s Quattro                           6             70       11.7
        SDC’s On the Fly                      10             85        8.5

This past Sunday Mike Wittenburg organized the latest swoop club.  The results were:
        1st Place: Henry Wojdyla
        2nd Place: Steve Verner
        3rd Place: Nick Batsch

In upcoming events we have our next water training scheduled for this Sunday, August 19th at 10am.  Signup in manifest!

Next weekend, on Saturday the 25th is the next scheduled night jump!  Signup early in manifest.  Remember: night jumps are required to obtain a ‘D’ License!

Next Sunday, the 26th, Mike Wittenburg will be organizing the Belly Pylon Races.  This event is for everyone from belly flyers to freeflyers and beginner to experienced jumpers!

In just 3 more short weeks Skydive Chicago will be holding the 2007 USPA National Championships!  If you need to get in some final training we are open 7 days a week!

Until next week (I promise)!

Erin