Well done to everyone from Langar who represented the UK at the World Skydiving and Parachuting Championships in Russia. Doug Preston and Gavin MacLeod with cameraflyer Martin Robiette competed in Canopy Formations and Katie Woods in 4-way Formation Skydiving with team Satori; Maria Russell also flew CF camera at the championships. Husband and wife Freestyle Team Al and Pixie MacLeod-Hodgson achieved a Silver medal in their event, and to complete their triumph they folloed up with Gold medals at the British National Skydiving Championships! Martin Reynolds competed in Vertical Formation Skydiving with team Bad Lieutentants, winning Bronze at the Worlds and Gold at the Nationals.

Also at the British nationals, in the 4-way Formation Skydiving event, team Ch4os (Keiron O'Rourke, Pete McLaughlin, Kate Medd and Marcus Beck with John Baggaley on camera) gained a convincing gold medal in Rookie class, 11 points ahead of the second place team. Marcus replaced Martyn Score at the last minute when Martyn dislocated a shoulder in training just days before the competition. In 'A' class, Full Stop (Cath Anderson, Sian Stokes, Kyle Price and Milko with Scott McKenzie on camera) were the Gold Medallists, with an even greater lead of 19 points! Katie Woods won Gold in 'AAA' class with team Satori. Phil Curtis and Milko were members of Gold-medal Senior 8-way FS team Microclim8, and 8-way Intermediate Gold winning team Discombobul8 included Guy Dickson, Ian Taylor, Jenny Buckle, Stu Grant, Emma Pilkington and Gary Clarke. Leigh Birchenough-Richards gained two Bronze medals in Freefly B and Speed Skydiving - and also clocked up the fastest time in the competition! Good showing all round, everybody.

Go-Vertical was almost Go-Horizontal, what with the wind and all. But they did some good stuff, taking advantage of 15000ft and Jan's Beech 99! The skydiving bits from the Sky Sports News HD advert were filmed
at Langar by Tony Danbury. Billy Payn did the stunts and Milko set the
whole thing up. Richard and Laura Head and Henry Chow did some great work with our teams during the BPA FS Roadshow Weekend - thanks guys - Our local 4-way teams (Chaos and EB 4-way) took advantage of the fantastic coaching! We have had the usual mix of skydiving disciplines at Langar lately, don't forget if it happens in Skydiving, it happens at Skydive Langar!

Despite some rather awful weather, we managed to complete the BPA Instructors Course (well for all those who hung on ‘til Saturday anyway). Dave Lewis’ Kickstart Easter Boogie started off with some smaller 12-15 way formations before progressing onto 24 way, two aircraft, formations! Keiron O’Rourke celebrated his 200th skydive with a well disciplined 10 way dive organised by our very own Milko. Unfortunately howling winds stopped play early on Sunday, but thanks to our pilot Dave Epton and his London Bus for keeping everyone entertained either driving the bus or getting “on the bus, off the bus”. It is not long now until Langar Boogie I with the one and only super-fast Beech 99 supporting our two Grand Caravans for the UK’s longest running Boogie! Check out the "latest photos" page in our Gallery to see photos from the Easter Boogie!!

Spring arrived on Thursday and we have made the most of it, flying 57 lifts and making over 760 descents in just four days! As always we saw a variety of different jumping, from 4 way teams training, tracking and freefly tube jumps organised by our resident freefly coaches, wingsuit jumps and of course FS organised jumps by our local organisers. Our Instructors have been kept busy with several AFF, Static Line and Tandem Students making the most of the glorious weather and lift capacity. A Special Mention to Great-Grandma Jean Clark who did a Tandem Skydive with Milko to celebrate her 80th Birthday! If it happens in Skydiving, It happens at Skydive Langar! Check out the "Latest Pics" page in the Gallery to see some of the action!

It was good to get back in the air after what seemed like an eternity waiting for the ash to clear! But 7 days and over 65 lifts later we’ve forgotten all about it! It was another weekend full of variety. We did our first demo of the season jumping into a charity football match at Mansfield’s Mill Field Stadium delivering the match ball for kickoff. Meanwhile both the FF and FS jumpers made the most of the load organising and coaching doing everything from 4-way team training, FS and FF coaching to the larger organised groups. The students continued to progress well through the AFF and RAPS systems and we even got a few people their CAT 8 and FS1 stickers. Thanks to everyone for a great week, and in case you didn’t already know Boogie 1 starts this Saturday for a whole 9 days! With 2 Caravans, 1 Beech 99 and 1 Helicopter! Check out "Latest Pics" in our Gallery to see some photos from the weekend.

Langar Boogie 1, rain, wind, cloud, oh and just under 1200 jumps. Despite the typical Bank Holiday weather, we managed just under 75 lifts flying the awesome Beech 99 along side our Caravans. Bullet Freefly and friends provided top class organising and coaching making the most of the fast turn around of the Beech. Congratulations to Ally Milne and Scott Calcraft on becoming FF coaches! Dave, Billy, Brian and Milko provided FS organising and the other Langar FS coaches and instructors allowed a lot of jumpers to progress with their FS1! Ross Lambert and the other wing suit fliers took advantage of the gaps in the weather to navigate their way around the skies! Shaggy's Bar hosted the launch of Mark Wayne's innovative Sky Shot helmet and Local band Faulty New Goods played to a packed bar for the last party on Saturday night. Thanks to everyone who came and jumped, partied and helped out at the Boogie, we will do our best to book better weather for the next one! Lots of photos on the "Latest Pics" page...

We managed 56 lifts this week, with 17 being flown on Sunday alone! The aircraft started up at 10.00am and ran continuously until 5.45pm!

Dave Lewis's first Pinch Jump weekend was successful (except for the frozen noses and visors) making a great warm up weekend for the Easter Kick-Start Boogie.

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend, fingers crossed for more good weather!

D-FBPS our second Grand Caravan has returned from its Annual Maintenance in Germany. D-FBPS complete with a new PT6 engine is back up to full speed and ready for the busy season. Every winter our aircraft undergo an extensive maintenance program to ensure minimal downtime during the busy summer months.

We are hoping to have D-FLOH back mid March ready for the BPA course and Easter Boogie. So with two powerful Grand Caravans at Langar - fingers crossed for some good weather!

What a cracking weekend! We managed just short of 60 loads and 750 descents, keeping our two Grand Caravans busy hot fueling all day. Congratulations to Air Supply Instructor Phil Curtis on his 7000th jump and Cameraflier Chris Cook on his 1000th Jump! Thanks to everyone for a great weekend, let's hope we keep this weather a while longer!

Well, it seems to have been a busy start to the summer! We’re lucky to have Two Grand Caravans with us full time all year round and we have been making the most of them!

We managed just over 1200 jumps during our first Boogie, and although it was plagued by the typical bank holiday weather, Jan managed 75 lifts in his awesome Beech 99!

Bullet Free Fly and friends provided top class organising and coaching making the most of the fast turnaround of the Beech. Meanwhile Dave, Billy, Brian and Milko provided FS load organising for all levels of jumpers.

Bullet Free Fly School continues on with Ally Milne and Scott Calcraft qualifying as FF coaches, they join the host of regular Bullet coaches as well as their friends from the tunnel to organise loads of FF and hybrid dives!

Sian Stokes has recently become an FS coach joining our well established team of coaches and is busy coaching the latest students through their FS1 qualification!

A number of 4-way teams have made good use of our midweek lift capacity and chosen us as their training venue in preparation for the Nationals. Phobia managed 12 jumps a day during one of their training camps with us. Good Luck to all the teams who trained with us this year!

We were deeply saddened by the loss of Brian Laithwaite and Emma Bramley at the start of June, they will both be greatly missed by everyone at the dropzone. Members of Brian and Emma’s 8-way team L8Arrivals are raising money for the Air Ambulance in their memory, click www.justgiving.com/L8Arrivals for more details.

Lastly, get your diaries out and make sure you book some time off for Boogie 2 from 4th – 12th September. We’ve got Jan and his Beech returning as well as the helicopter and Brian Vachers Safe Flight School!

Jump Numbers
Liam Byrne 50
Alan Foulkes-Williams 50
Jonny Francis 50
Jonny Castell 100
Karen Neilson 100
Dan Vandenhende 100
Hannah Tillyard 100
Laura Muller 200
Kyle Price 200
Pete Harris 300
Ryan Briddon 400
Ross Lambert 400
Gary Davidson 400
Sian Stokes 500
Wayne Glenn 700
Des Meyer 800
Chris Cook 900
Chris Cook 1000
Andy Pike 1000
Neil Butcher 1300
Fiona Birnie 1500
Chris Carroll 2000
Phil Curtis 7000

Grades etc
Rob Walker FF1
Nicole Calcraft FF1
N. Foreman FF1
Dan Vandenhende FF1
Alan Foulkes-Williams FS1
Steve Head FS1
Liam Byrne FS1
Jonny Francis FS1
Jon Rivers FS1
Paul Clapham FS1
Andrew Johnson FS1
Rachel Harper FS1
Jonny Castell FS1
Nick Robinson FS1
Dale Brailsford CH1

Hours Freefall
Rob Walker 2hrs
Paul Dewey 1hr
Lee Funnell 4hrs
Bill Miller 12hrs
Hannah Tillyard 1hr

The 25th February marked a milestone in the history of British Parachute Schools. Ten years ago, our first Cessna Grand Caravan (D-FLOH) arrived at Langar, the start of our transition to an all-turbine operation. Just four years later, a second Grand Caravan replaced the venerable Cessna 206 Charlie Echo – and we've gone from strength to strength ever since.

Skydive Mag April 2010 Langar Club News

Well, the snowy weather has made a chilly start to 2010. Hats off to the Langar runway clearing team and their state of the art snow ploughing devices. Their efforts meant that we could take advantage of the clear blue skies when they arrived – The DZ did look rather charming under canopy in the snow.

The 25th February marked a milestone in the history of British Parachute Schools. Ten years ago, our first Cessna Grand Caravan arrived at Langar, the start of our transition to an all-turbine operation. Just four years later, a second Grand Caravan replaced the venerable Cessna 206 Charlie Echo – and we've gone from strength to strength ever since.

Plenty of you joined us from near and far for some night jumping action at the end of January. We couldn’t have asked for more perfect conditions – much fun had by the jumpers and plenty of 'oooh's and 'aaah's from the onlookers as we watched the glow-sticks skate around the sky.

It might be quiet during the winter months, but as you'll see from the list of achievements, Langar's student program never stops! Aurelie McKellican deserves a special mention – first freefall to 10 second delays in one day, and a faultless performance.

Brian Laithwaite has been organising skydives throughout the winter – he's kept the hardcore jumpers happy all season, and deserves thanks for that (there's no pay, after all!)

We’ve got lots planned for the new season starting with Langar Boogie I from 1 – 9 May with Jan’s Beech 99 and Brian Vacher’s Safe Flight School. This year there's a bit more time between the end of the Boogie and Go Vertical – so you've got time to earn some more jump money. For more info and details of other events, check out our brand new website (www.skydivelangar.co.uk), or join our Facebook group for updates. Massive thanks to Keiron O'Rourke for helping us out with the back-end stuff for the website – couldn't have done without him!

Sarah Bailey

Achievements:

First Freefall
Aurelie McKellican
Jonathan Francis
James Kerr
Jordan Roland

Graduated AFF
Craig Stock
Ed Penny
Adrian Wilson

FS1
Daniel Vandenhende
Kev Brown
Lisa O’Kane

50 Jumps
Daniel Vandenhende
Kev Brown

On our first weekend with two aircraft we managed 23 lifts and 350 descents on Sunday (it rained rather heavily on Saturday). With both aircraft on quick turn arounds it allowed lots of RAPS students to progress well through the category system. Billy Payn was here organising 14 and 15 way formations and our resident organiser Brian had a growing group of budding FS jumpers. The freefly scene is starting to take shape, with Scott Calcraft and Ally Milne heading up some of the smaller organised groups. It will soon be time for our Easter Boogie - kick start the 2010 season at Skydive Langar!

With both Caravans busy flying, it gave the Pilots a chance to practice some formation flying ready for the summer. We flew 15 lifts on Satuday despite the wind conditions keeping our students firmly on the ground. Both the FS and FF organised scene continues to expand. Thanks to Ian Taylor, Guy Dickson, Ally Milne and Scott Calcraft for stepping up and organising some nice 8 and 9 way dives. Keiron's 4-way group continued with their training plan, and Keiron's dancing lessons are paying off with some spectacular wiggles in the door! Check out our "Latest Photos" page in the Gallery for photos of the weekend's action!

With D-FBPS arriving back complete with a new PT6 engine we put it to good use flying 15 lifts on Saturday before it became too windy. Three of our local 4 way teams, Information Overload, Old Skool and Keiron's yet to be named team progressed well with their jumping. Brian's Organised Group did some nice 5 and 6 way formations as well. We got through all our tandems early in the day leaving the instructors free to provide FF and FS coaching to those who wanted it. Finally, we were all really happy to see the boss Dave Hickling back in there air in the UK! Don't forget with our second Caravan due to return this week (weather permitting) it is time to kick start the season at Langar!