Skydive Laconia Update
Greetings to all,
It's been a quick winter season down here in Daytona Beach (remember, we are "Floridians" after all......lol), and I just wanted to offer a quick update on things.
I hope everyone had a great winter season around the lake.
I had a busy winter. First I was asked to run a "train the trainer" course at Ft. Bragg by the Army Golden Knights Tandem Demonstration Team. That was an amazing experience to work with such a dedicated group of professional skydivers.
Then it was off to Haiti where I met President Michel Martelly after skydiving into a new soccer stadium that my contractor friend just built as a community development project for. I wish the LAA and the local FAA that were so concerned about the accuracy of our parachutes could have been there to see the jump. We exited a mile away out of a Jet Ranger, 6000ft above the ground in a remote area of Port Au Prince, at sunset, with no alternative landing areas other than the soccer field that happened to have 4000 spectators standing around the field at the field's chalk lines. Despite those pesky "off shore breezes" and all that "drifting" we are accused of doing, all four of us landed on the center field circle......as planned.
As March rolls around, I am off to provide "Safety Day" training seminars up and down the East coast.
But I digress, the real reason I am posting today is to provide a quick update on the FAA and where things are currently in the process.
Obviously, the most pressing item is that we moved into 2012 and that Advisory Circular that the FAA is in process of drafting has not been completed yet. We are of course disappointed that it isn't complete yet, but the lack of completion is a good thing to be honest, as it means that the FAA is taking the expert input they have received very serious and making every effort to ensure that the AC will be grounded in reality and not subject to the "smoke and mirror" accusations that exist in the field from time to time.
When this AC is done, it will become the definitive resource on airport access issues. Why that is great is two fold, 1) It will settle once and for all, according to the FAA, whether skydiving can peacefully co-exist on the airport and 2) on a national level it will bring a much needed standardization of this airport access process.
Last update, Mary and I just had another amazing conference call with the FAA in Washington today on the progress of all of this. No one has given up on this process in Washington and we were assured today that as soon as this AC process is concluded that the FAA will be taking it to Laconia.
Blue skies to all and to all a good flight,
Tom
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