PASA Nationals at Skydive Pretoria 2022By Willie BodensteinGoogle Banner Ad     Skydive Pretoria's premises were as per usual, in perfect condition with manicured lawns, lots and lots of shady trees, a large magnificent swoop pond and an extremely large open area for out landings.  For many people, the words parachuting and skydiving conjure up images of adrenalin junkies and daredevils with little regard for their own safety. One of the questions most frequently asked of sport parachutists is, "who in their right mind would want to willingly throw themselves out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft?" In truth, sport parachuting is a disciplined sport that operates within rigidly defined and enforced safety parameters as set out in PASA's Manual of Procedures. This Manual has been ratified by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) and is the basis upon which PASA has been approved as an Aviation Recreation Organisation. The safety and training standards contained in the manual are on a par or better than international standards and must be adhered to by all affiliated drop zones and members in South Africa.     Some landing approaches  A competitor during the speed event….   ….and crossing the line where the speed is recorded.      Competitors during Friday's speed event The following disciplines were contested during the Nationals:  A formation team forming up during the formation event on Friday  The Ten Way Speedstar formation attempt on Saturday  A nice touch is that the formations can be viewed on a large screen TV Artistic Events (AE):- Artistic Events is an expansion of skydiving which includes using any combination of the three flying axes (roll, pitch, and yaw). Canopy Formation (CF):- Here, groups of jumpers leave the aircraft and open their parachutes relatively quickly in pre-determined sequences, allowing them to fly those parachutes together in various formations.    Competitors landing on the mat during the accuracy event on Friday  A competitor during the canopy piloting event.....    Extensive use is made of modern electronic measuring equipment to record speeds during this discipline.  Enjoying the action  Smiling faces from some of the speed event competitors  Another load on its way to the PAC 750 jump ship  Shade for the packers Wingsuit Flying (WS):- Wingsuit Flying is the latest SSA discipline in which one flies through the air using a specialised wingsuit transforming your body into a wing. A wingsuit flight ends by deploying and landing with one's parachute. Consistent glide ratios of over 3:1 can be reached with forward speeds exceeding 300km/h.     The Freestyle Canopy Piloting event was in progress when I arrived on Saturday morning. The weather again was perfect and the opinion of most of those that I spoke to was that the competition will most likely be concluded by later in the afternoon. It may be my imagination, but there just seemed to be substantially less people about than in other years. Perhaps we have too many long weekends in April, or is the cost of fuel or the ravages of Covid is still being felt? However, the most important thing is that there were no incidents or accidents and it seemed as if a lot of fun was had by all. The results                     www.para.co.za Or visit www.skydivepretoria.com Google Banner Ad  |
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