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Did You Know...

... that the 14+ leaderboard of the Indoor Cloud League March competition is almost complete?

Seattle Swift at the USPA Nationals 2017
image by: USPA/Omniskore
posted Apr 4th, 2018 - The 14+ leaderboard for the month of March is almost complete after the latest submissions of scores and videos from iFLY Seattle and iFLY Dallas.

The Northwest Skydiving League team held one event at iFLY Seattle on March 24. Deb Correia said that the coaches really had to scramble again after a late cancellation and a no-show. However, Seattle Swift members Dmitry Rudchenko and Denis Pershakov are used to intensive training efforts, and each stepped in to fly 30 minutes of the 60-minute session.

At the same time, the participants had two player coaches in their lineups, which turned out to be a nice bonus. However, none of the AAA/AA lineups were able to get close to the scores that Seattle Swift posted with the complete lineup. The NWSL team continues to train hard for USPA Nationals. iFLY Seattle's ICL team is glad to have their expertise as coaches available, while they also turn in scores for the Open Class sequences (AAA - AA).

Deb Correia added that Erin Hundtofte was back for the first time after a surgery earlier in the year: "We wore her out, but she was happy to be back..." Randy Barbee also was back after recently having issues with his shoulders.

iFLY Seattle - MarchAAAAAARRRRRRTotal
TeamsP,6,E,5P,6,4P,E,6J,H,LM,P,EM,PTotal
Seattle Swift2422(-1)----46
Nat Mote, Gary Dutton, Dmitry Rudchenko, Denis Pershakov--15---15
Babs Selig, Kurt Ferstl, Randy Barbee, Dmitry Rudchenko--1518(-1)--18
Slavko Bato Pešic, Erin Hundtofte, Deb Correia, Dave Correia----181836

iFLY Seattle's Best of March242215181818115

Bob Byrne with U.S. Navy students
The Florida Skydiving League team at iFLY Tampa had unusual participants in March. Coach Bob Byrne has recently been working with a team of the U.S. Navy. He said that the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) Sport Parachute Club was formed in the late 1960s. Although it grew to prominence in the 70s through early 80s to the point that it fielded multiple competition teams and hosted the first-ever Tri-Service Academy Parachuting Competition, now known as the Inter-Service Academy Meet (ISAM), it has never enjoyed the acceptance or support that the parachute clubs at either the U.S. Air Force (USAFA) or Military Academies (USMA) have. They now refer to the entire club as the U.S. Naval Academy Parachute Team (USNAPT).

Bob Byrne said that the lack of support has been manifested by not staffing any cadre to guide and oversee club activities, and very little in the way of financial support. At both of their sister schools, USAFA and USMA, their parachute clubs are supported with facilities, aircraft, flight crews, instructors, coaches, riggers, and equipment, as well as funds to pay for varying degrees of jumping and wind tunnel training. At USNA, any staff that helps the club, does so on their off-duty time, as they have other primary jobs that keep them busy during normal business hours. Additionally, the Midshipmen (Mid'n) pay for almost all of their own equipment, training, jumps, and tunnel flight time.

He said that the USNAPT eventually stopped jumping, first from 1982 to 2008, and most recently from 2015 to last October. Being an alumni and former club president/team captain, Bob Byrne has been volunteering his expertise, as they try to get back on track.

Florida Skydiving League - March 14+
AAAAAARRRRRRTotal
P,6,E,5P,6,4P,E,6J,H,LM,P,EM,PTotal
Sally Craig-Hathaway, Amer Kassas, James Hall, Sebastian Jimenez2019----39
Bob Byrne, James Hall, Amer Kassas, Kanishka Perera--21---21
Sally Craig-Hathaway, Paul Bertorelli, Marty Schneider, Bill Bickner---18--18
Shanise Dietels, Kanishka Perera, Paul Bertorelli, Sebastian Jimenez----2221(-1)43
Ken Levens, Simeon Brewster, Derek Forand, Michal Boisza-------

iFLY Tampa - Best of March
201921182221121

Indoor Cloud League competition experience: U.S. Navy team
Starting with a tunnel camp at iFLY Tampa over their Christmas holiday break, Bob Byrne was coaching about one third of the USNAPT basic individual flying skills. During their recent spring break, Amer Kassas assisted him coaching another tunnel camp, at which they introduced the newly formed 4-way team to USPA Collegiate Advanced Class 4-way. Collegiate Advanced Class 4-way is very similar to NSL A Class 4-way.

For the majority of the following week, Bob Byrne coached and shot video for them as they took their 4-way FS tunnel training into the air for the first time. Amer Kassas then also suggested participation at the Indoor Cloud League events to gain competition experience, and the team decided to join the FSL Tunnel Kicker in March.

Team members are Ken Levens (OC), Simeon Brewster (IC), Derek Forand (P) and Michal Bojsza (T) who is a foreign exchange student from Poland.

The team took on the Rookie and A Class Class sequences and could not get to the highscores level at their first attempts. Bob Byrne will continue to work with the team in the near future.

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