They got it right. Reporting from WI.

On Tuesday I did something really dumb. I had my Air Trash ring in my right front pants pocket along with my car keys. I guess when I reached in to grab my keys, the ring came out too & dropped onto my driveway. As everybody knows, I'm as deaf as a bucket of nails, so I didn't hear the ring hit the driveway. The driveway is sloped & so it rolled all the way down to the gutter. I found it this morning.

Here's the kicker..... Friday is garbage pickup day in the Bully neighborhood & wouldn't you know.... I discovered the ring as I was "taking out the trash"...... Ha !

Hello to all Hinckley Parachute Center allumni:

Here are the facts: This is the final, last ever year of skydiving at Hinckley Airport. After 42 years of building the skydiving community here in northern Illinois, the dream is over. The lease is up, & will not be renewed. It's done. If you ever had the thought that someday, when things in your life settled out, that you'd have a place to come home to, that HPC would always be there, that you could just get a repack, fill out a waiver & pick up where you left off.... well, you're time is short. Very, very short. This historic dropzone will close forever this fall. It's impossible to state the impact of the place on the lives of those of us who've spent any time there. Perhaps I'm delusional, but I tend to think that we all share a comraderie that is rare in our contemparary society. Many lasting friendshiips have been forged. I've personaly made an effort over the years to keep up with comrades who have, shall we say, gone astray(?). I've come to believe, strongly, that we all share a bond which "normal" folks are not lucky enough to experience. In short, we're FAMILY(coincidentaly, the name of an early, succesful HPC team).

Word has spread. One of the early gang, a Mr. Red Kosteba, now of Arizona, is coming to the DZ on Saturday, August 14th, & the word is spreading quickly throughout the Old Timers community. The first generation of Hinckley skydivers is planning a reunion on that day.

So, how's about augmenting that? Let's call it Homecoming Day. A chance to get together, one last time, not at a funeral or wedding or ash dive, but at the dropzone that we all think of as our second home. Sorry, no band, no clowns or pony rides, just us getting together to bid a final farewell to a very special place that's touched all of our lives. Your call. Please spread the word.

Brian J.Voss LA# 43 And Damn Proud Of It.

Dates are July 24 for luau & party with more fun jumping on Sun. July 25. $25 boogie fee (includes goodie bag for first 40 registered), reg. starts @ 7:30am

Sat. nite BBQ, includes keg beer, open bar and Live Band.
boogie t-shirts for sale
RW & FF load organizers
Sat. sunset hit'n'chug

I think everyone will agree that the Old Farts Reunion of 2010 was a great success. The weather was perfect, jumping conditions were ideal, and the camaderie was second to none. How nice it was to see the wives of some of our fallen buddies. I’m referring to Nancy Sweeney, Jan Gorman, and Mary Stage.

It goes without saying that everyone appreciates the time and effort that John Bull and Norm Van Pelt devote to organizing this event each year. Thanks gentlemen, and thank you “Web Master” Larry Walsh.

The zany John Bull outdid himself this year by presenting “awards” such as Viagra, coloring books, condoms, bladder control pads, etc, to some of the older jumpers to the delight of the gathering. He even went so far as to bestow the title of King on me by placing a shimmering golden crown on my head and a huge trophy cup (three inches tall). Wow! Just think, I arrived in Taft an ordinary guy and left as a King. Ha!

USPA Needs Your Help!

Do you want online voting?

As you may know, the USPA Board of Directors has done a great deal of work trying to get online voting for the members. To make this happen, we have to get proxies from 10% of the USPA membership so we can change USPA’s by-laws to allow the use of an online voting process for electing the board of directors. We’ve tried before to get a quorum but have always failed. This time the proxy is very simple and direct. If USPA is going to move forward into the 21st century, we need to get this done. We don’t want to waste this opportunity!

We need your help! Please take TWO MINUTES from your busy day and do the following: Print out a proxy at the link below. Sign it and either mail it to 5401 Southpoint Centre Blvd., Fredericksburg, VA 22407; fax it to (540) 604-9741; or scan and e-mail it to uspa@uspa.org. You don’t even have to leave your desk to do this!

http://www.uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Proxy%20Download.pdf

You can read complete details about the proxy effort here.

The USPA staff and the board of directors will take care of the rest of the work, but we need your help on the proxy. Please do it now!

For those who have already sent one in, thank you.

Thanks for your time,

There's nothing like building your own Harley...

Here's a video that tells the story of 'Nina'.

I had the privilege and excitement Saturday to be in the airplane and jump out before my granddaughter mading her 2nd tandem. Bully and I did a two way. It’s great to be back!!!

This month we celebrate the birthdays of some of our older and probably smellier farts.

Bill Reed, Silly Tit #104 TURNS 70 JUNE 4th, 2010. You can send Billy a personal birthday wish be emailing him at ngf26fa@windjammercable.net.

And Bill Deli, D-6009 will turn a whopping 65 on June 3rd, 2010. You can email your birthday wish to Bill at skybill@dropzone.com.

Dennis Henley. SCR 216 and Silly Tit 211 is turning 63 today June 2nd, 2010. Birthday wishes go to drhscr216@sbcglobal.net.

Stan Troeller's birthday is tomorrow June 3rd and will be 66 if my calculations are correct. It says here he was born in 1944. Birthday wishes go to jumpsouth@alohabroadband.net.

Linda Hardesty has a birthday on June 13th but would like to keep her age a secret. Women are funny that way. Send wishes to flyndrgn@peoplepc.com.

And Tony Brogden turns 67 on June 30th. Wishes go to tbrogdon@ustruck.com

Hi Folks. The Grumpy Gimpy Old Farts Reunion was a heck of a lot of fun and I would highly appreciate it if you would help me out. If you took digital photos at the event I would love to include them in our story next week so please send them in. Just send me your best photos and maybe a short description for each. Please send them in original size and let me do the editing. PLEASE DO NOT CROP the photos.

John Bull is writing the story now with input from others as needed so we will have it published as fast as we can. Get those photos in NOW!

John Velardo has made his 500th jump which now qualifies him for his D license. Besides John, we had 9 other people willing to help celebrate this event along with Crazy Larry Simmons flying camera. The dive was simple enough. Form a round, John takes the center "geek" position and turns 360 degrees before deploying out of the formation at 5000 ft.

One person went low and never got back in so we had an 8 way round for John to turn in. Crazy Larry got some great video and photos as seen below. John also had his camera going and this view is also listed below.

Name on the mailing label is Alan Lee Frisby.............. Cohort is Jack Pyland (C-some 3 digit #......) I work with Jack from about August to November at the Texas State Fair........

I Made 4 leaps with Animal on my way through Florida. Two at Deland and two at Palatka.

Us! Us! (if you know what I mean)

Kenny Hamner and his newly appointed wife Ginger pose for this Air Trash Moment. Kenny and Ginger were married in Taft on January 30th, 2010. I believe this might be the first photo I have seen of someone wearing his AT Cap at his wedding. Way to go Kenny! Take good care of him Ginger.