The 3 Amigos


Alex, Luke and Ali on a break between jumps.


Welcome to Ali Taherkhani from London, who arrived today for an AFF Course.


Tom Moran from Ireland, also arrived today for an AFF Course.


Bella is now on her level 7, welldone girl, we’re getting there.


Her dream is to become a BASE jumper soon and we are her to help her:-)


Damien and Ryan after his level 5 today, and level 5 passed…..


Luke getting ready for his level 5, here checking his rig before board the plan.

Motti Belle !


A big welcome to Damien McLaughlin from Ireland, Carlo Turzi from Italy and
Alex Baille from England, they just arrived and fully ready for ground school.


Luke Murray checking his equipment before his level one with Ryan, one of the
most important tasks in the safety chain which starts long before your skydive.


Alex on a break:-)


Luke and Ryan level 2 next.


Bella is about to finish her course, level 5 at the moment.


Welcome back to John Baillie, John did his course with us last year, he is now
working on his B Licence.


Luke after his level 2, stable exit, 2 practice  pulls and 90 degree turns…passed:-)


Looks like the birds are migrating to Madrid this year.

The Peoples republic


A big welcome to Alex Lawson from Ireland, he just arrived for an AFF Course
with us, here pictured with his instructor Mike Evans.

Welcome to Bella Ward from Australia, doing Ground school today with Darren.


Anne is working on her USPA A Licence today, time to learn how to pack.

August 2005


This section chronicles the daily skydiving activities at our school in Ocaña Spain for August 2005.  

1st August 2005

Raman Sinha or “Ghandi” as we know him joined us for a weeks holiday. Ram trained with us almost two years ago. He was quite impressed with our new location although seemed more enamoured with a certain Spanish ” Chica ” in the hanger night club which is fast becoming a skydiver haunt in Aranjuez…


No stranger to adventure David Thorpe a banker from London arrived fresh from the British Sailing Nationals to start his AFF course. He graduated in three days of jumping.

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5th August 2005.

Congratulations to Brett Shepherd a Captain with the British Army who has just graduated his AFF. Brett Completed his course in three days from ground school to finish. He will now spend his time solo jumping.

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6th August 2005

Welcome to Louis Velascoe an Army Officer from Scotland who is here to learn to skydive with us. Loius is doing well on the course but has been severly hampered by a two day hangover after a night out in Aranjuez…

7th August 2005

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9th August

Project Dragonfly is underway! This is Andy Gulers project to build both a 4way and 8way formation skydiving team to compete in the World Air Games at Senior Level.

The team will be training at Freefall University and for the next months one 4 way and one 8 way team will be joining us for a week at a time.

Ben Hildyard is doing well and is now on his AFF level five after two days of jumping.

Adrian Crowther also joined us on Sunday afternoon and is now on level four of his AFF course.

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August 12th.

Adrian has now graduated his aff course and completed twelve solo jumps! Seven of his solos were made the same day. As its warm and Adrian now has his Category eight after a brief he is now jumping in shorts and t shirts! He s pictured here on the right and one of our Spanish students on the left.


Television Nacional España were working with us today making a documentary about skydiving. Louis Velascoe who has now graduated his course is pictured here being interviewed with his Instructor ( 6000 jumps ). Ironically whilst Spain is one of the best countries in Europe for jumping its not so popular in Spain. Of of the objectives of the production team is educational .. Jumping is not the preserve of the military but is also accesible to ” regular ” people.

Every 400 jumps we send our main parachutes back to Performance Designs for reline , inspection and general repair. Here Jorro, our rigger is performing an inspection on the canopy before assembly. This canopy is now on the flight line ready for jumping and we have sent another one to Florida.

Our Cameraman for the formation skydiving school Peter who is from Poland is as happy as a pig in S**** as he has done fifty jumps this week ( best was thirteen in one day ) with project Dragonlfy.

Louis Velascoe gets ready for another skydive. He must have felt like a bit of a pop star as he was being both filmed for national tv and photographed by me !

Below is a photo from that jump.

Every day we discover more and more cafes with wireless hot spots. Here myself and Louis check our emails over morning coffee ( Rotterdam Cafe Aranjuez open network ) before heading to the DZ.

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16th August 2005

Sorry about the lack of updates in the last few days. We have been very busy. . We are now averaging fifteen flights a day and this picture was taken at sunset when the last load was getting ready for take off.


Nathan Lance joins us for his AFF course and aswell as his ground school completed his AFF level one today. Nathan works a researcher at Manchester University and is working on talking computers or ” Speech Synthesis.

17th August 2005


Congratulations to todays graduates!
Richard Blisset from London trained with Andy and completed his AFF course from ground school to graduation in two and a half days. Richard is pictured here on the left and Matthew Archer on the right.

Richard works as a banker in London. Below is a picture from his level three.

Also Congratulations to Mathew Archer a student from London who finished his aff course with us also in two and a half days.

Mathew trained with Daniel. Below is a capture from his level three jump. He is about to pull out his pilot chute which is how you open your parachute.

Daniel Jenkins a soldier from the UK joined us yesterday afternoon and is pictured here getting ready for his AFF level one. He is training with .


Jim McTierney joins us for a refresher course. He did his refresh this morning and also completed three solos today. He is on holiday with his girlfriend and will mix his time jumping and spending time in Aranjuez and Madrid with Shana.

PJ Kennedy fresh back from Iraq joined us today to complete an AFF course he started with us last February. After a refresh course yesterday he continued and completed it today and has done three solo jumps also. PJ is pictured on the right. In the middle of the photo is Rusell Scott who had sixty two jumps when arriving. He is working on his formation skydiving ( FS1 ) qualification and did seven jumps today..jumping to the ” max ” !

Meanwhile Nathan Lance is progressing well and finished today on level six. He is pictured here with Tim Boyd his instructor boarding for his last jump of the day.

Meanwhile the formation skydiving school is also busy with Dragonfly in full swing! This is the last day of training for the 4 way, but only for a few days break. They will continue training in a week before the 8 Way commences.

In other news we have now installed a 4MB broadband wireless system on the dropzone. People who wish to bring their laptops and surf or check email are more than welcome to use the system.

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18th August 2005

Today began as it usually does. All students not jumping with an instructor recieve a refresh on safety procedures from an AFF instructor in the morning.

Welcome to Garreth Tennant , Andrew Nicklin and Stephen Caddywould who join us from the UK for their AFF course. They are pictured here going through the ground school which is a combination of theory and practical exercises. For example Andrew is pictured below practicing the basic body position.

Here is Danny Jenkins on a one instructor dive with Andy Guler as external cameraman. Danny is doing well and has completed five jumps now.

Nathan has finished his AFF course and has already completed three solo jumps.

18th August 2005

Danny is now about finished his AFF course and only has his level seven to do. His is pictured here with on his level 6. On each level your instructor will aim to ” put a hand on you ” during your deplyoment sequence. Ordinarilly on a level seven ( graduation freefall ) you are left on your own to pull.

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20th August 2005

Some pics this time from Aranjuez during the evening. The city has numerous places to eat. Here our group ( fourteen people ) eat together before heading of clubbing for the evening.


Stephen , Andrew and Gareth have all graduated their AFF courses and are now jumping solo. Everybody headed off to the Avalon night club to celebrate the graduation. Including our new aff students Jill, Laura , Dean and Michael.

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21st August.

Congratulations to Stephen Caddywould who has finihsed his AFF course. He was taking it handy today and is pictured here practicing his arch position while diving into the pool. Stephen took advantage of our Skydive Spain package deal.

Congralations also to Scotty who FS1 qualified today completing a nine point 4 way. He is pictured here with his instructor Andy Guler ( Dragongfly Captain ).

Also graduating , but this time the AFF programme is Gareth who is with the British Army in the UK. Ask him about Norway and Sandals…

Finally to end yesterdays graduates is Andrew who completed his AFF course in three days. Andrew will be on holidays with us for the next two weeks and aims to complete his formation skydiving course also.

Welcome also to Jill Nason who is a trainee nurse from Dublin who is here for a weeks holiday learning to skydive.

Also along with Jill for the week is Laura Cullen also from Dublin ( and training with Jill ) who is here to complete her AFF course.

Also joining Jill and Laura for the weeks training is Michael Williams who works for Pfizer in the UK.

Michael is accompanied by Dean Smith a workmate from Pfizer.

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And this just in! A short video of Richard and Mathews thoughts on life. Please note this was shot at 2am on a night out and is a bit dark for the camera. Click here

21st of August 2005

Congratulations also to Daniel Jenkins who has finished his AFF course and is now jumping solo. Daniel is a soldier with the Royal Engineers and is between tours in Afghanistan.

Also celebrating passing the 100 jump mark ( completing forty jumps in less than a week ) on top of his formation skydiving qualification is Russell Scott or Scotty who also is between tours and with the Royal Engineers.

Meanwhile Jill, Laura , Dean and Micheal are all doing well and are now over half way through their course having been with us for three days ( we had a bit of wind on Sunday afternoon and didnt jump ).

23rd August 2004

Congratulations to our three graduates, Micheal Williams , Dean Smith and Laura Cullen. All are now jumping Solo. Dean is pictured here boarding for his level seven.

Here is a picture of Dean in ” a full roll ” . On level seven which is really a ” show off jump. You demonstrate all the skills you have learned. The idea behind leaving the plane unstable is so you can see how easy it is to recover ” stability ” …you just arch.

Lets introduce you to another member of the team, Daniella our french PC-6 Pilot. She has joined us from GAP in France. GAP is one of the largest parachute centres in France and Daniella has been working as a ” paradrop pilot ” for eight years.

Here is a picture of Laura with the most perfect of body positions..

Nathan Lance´s comment today after having his introduction to formation skydiving.

After an introduction to formation skydiving a few dayss ago Nathan decided to have a crack at Freeflying. Today it was 30 degrees so Nathan decided to jump in his shorts.

Meanwhile Dean is ploughing on and completed 6 jumps today. Here is a photo of one of his more unorthadox methods of leaving the plane.

Also joining us today after biking down from the UK to see his son is David Caddywould who will stay in Aranjuez for a few days. He will of course be doing a tandem skydive tommorrow. He is pictured here on the right with Stephen in the middle.

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25th August 2005

Welcome to Russell Moore from London. Russell is an Engineer with Glaxo Smithkline and has arrived as a complete beginner. He is pictured here with his instructor in ground school and has already completed his first three levels of AFF.

Meanwhile Laura has now started to jump solo..

Also David did his tandem and had a ball! Stephen is talking him into doing the course next!

The day ended with a total of 20 flights. Each of the people on this weeks course got at least six jumps in and most were struck by the serenity of the Sunset load. Deans comment was ” bootifull . The day ( night ) ended in Aranjuez bars / night clubs where Louis Velascoe was waiting having taken a late flight back from the UK for another weeks jumping with us!

27th August

Congratulations to Jill Nason who after a break of a few days finished her AFF course in style!

Meanwhile Dean and Mike who are on day six of the their holiday and their last are continuing to ” jump to the max ” .Dean finished on 23 jumps in six days and Mike finished on 27.

Celebratory drinks were had in the Tropicana music bar in Aranjuez. This after a hearty meal in the ” American Eatery “.

Welcome to Simon Lemon who joins us to complete the beginners AFF course. He is pictured here with Paula one of our admin team who is from Brazil.

Also joining us is Tony Jones for a brush up course . Tony is a financial analyst in London and originally learned to skydive in New Zealand but had not jumped in eight months. After a compressed ground school he is back in the air. He completed one jump under the supervision of an instructo and was recertified to go solo.

Meanwhile Russell is on level six and should finish the course before the day is out. Dean has one last swim before heading off for the short drive to the aiport. Dean packed in as many jumps as he could so were waiting to see if he makes his flight….

Welcome also to Nigel Arnold and David Cook who joined just in time for Sunset beers..

Also Russell has just finished his AFF course and is now jumping solo!

30th August 2005.

More pictures to be posted shortly. Sorry for the lack of updates we have been mega busy jumping. Both Nigel Arnold and David Cooke have finished their course and are now jumping Solo. You can see Davids ” comment of the day” on the right.

Team Dragonfly , the project for the Swiss National Senior formation skydiving team is in full Swing. A number of teams are working with one of our instructors Andy Guler as their coach to form the team that will represent Switzerland at the World Air Games. Andy is a player / coach on the team.

Also joining us to complete his AFF course is Robin Seiger who originally started in Skydive Arizona in the US.

Robin is now going to do some solo jumping before moving to 1 on 1 coaching with the Swiss Team. Robin is a ” motivational guru ” and speaks at a variety of international business conferences. His website is here .

Andrew Ciarelli Parenzi , originally Italian but living in London joined us for his AFF course. He is pictured here with his instructor just after qualifying to jump solo. Andrew trained and qualified to jump solo in three days of jumping.

September 2005

This section chronicles the daily skydiving activities at our school in Ocaña Spain for September 2005.  

1st September 2005

Congratulations to Daniel Wall from Ireland who has passed his AFF course. Daniel is an officer with the Irish Navy and completed his course in three days of instruction.He is pictured here on level 6 , ” locked on ” to his altimiter. Generally we ask that you watch the last thousand feet of your fall so you develop a sense over the course how long it takes to fall a thousand feet. ( five seconds ! ).

The Freefall University flew eighteen loads of happy skydivers to 13,000ft today . On your course you will get to train with other students and meet other people who are returning for continuation courses ( Formation skydiving, canopy control or Freefly ). Sharing the experience is half the fun. Many students come out on their own but quickly make friends.

On the subject of contination courses today marked the start of our formation skydiving skills camp. Our courses are available on demand also. All you have to do is call us with your dates!



Pictured here are Stephen , Andy and Gareth with their coaches. They have one each for individual attention. Our Formation skydiving school is headed up by the Swiss Senior team. The Swiss have a strong record in world competition. Stephen Andy and Gareth trained for their AFF with us in Mid August. The training for them is going so well we have something special planned for graduation day..

Congratulations to Simon Lemon who graduated today also. Simon like myself didnt believe that all you had to do to fall stable and with style was ” Arch and Relax ” !

Also, Nigel Arnold , David Cooke and Andrew Ciarelli Parenzi completed their level eight skydives today which is mandatory in order to jump solo in the UK. This is included in our UK BPA course as standard. Andrew went home today , but commented that he wouldnt be too upset if he managed to miss his flight. ” Oh no , ill just have to stay and throw myself out of planes some more ”

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2nd September 2005

The formation skydiving courses continued today with the three way and four ways completed. Now the guys who only two weeks ago had not done their first skydive are jumping with each other. They are pictured here dirt diving ( practicing the dive on the ground ) a three way.

Also arriving today for their AFF courses were Michael Lall. After introductions to the team on the dropzone and a portion of their ground school we all headed into Aranjuez. Some of the guys decided to go to the weekly bull fighting in the local ring to see what it was like and others still went to the grounds of the Royal Palace for a free open air concert. The atmosphere was electric and here Michael Lall who is a nurse from London is pictured ” largin it up mate ” .

Also enjoying the concert was , Andy Telfer ( in the middle here to complete his AFF course and a fireman from Scotland ) and Lee Lewis also here to complete his AFF training. Lee is a postman from Bournemouth.

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3rd September.

Cracking day! We managed to get 28 loads in today. Stephen , Darren and Andrew spent the day doing three ways with each other. Today was their last day and in two weeks they have completed 35 jumps each. Michael Lall did his first two skydives today having completed his ground school. Also jumping today was Andy Telfer from Scotland pictured here. Danny from Ireland is crcaking on with the solo jumps.

Also in action was Robin Seiger who has been with us for the last five days. Simon has completed 25 jumps. He has been doing some formation skydiving coaching with Andy Guler from the Swiss team. And is pictured here practicing a non gripped ” floating exit ” . Andy is in front and Simon in the back.

Here is a picture of Andy on his level two jump.

A nice level seven inside shot. Student and instructor take a moment in the door ( generally for the student a deep breath to relax and get ready to ” roll ” !

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4th September 2005

Andy Telfer continues to rocket through the course today with all but two jumps to complete. He is pictured here on level five. The level where you practice 360 degree turns.

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5th September 2004

Congratulations to Andy who has finished his accelerated freefall course. Andy graduated in three days and is now solo jumping. A photo of him in a roll is in our AFF course comments section . Meanwhile Michael Lall is goind well also and is now on Level five. Sorry for the poor quality . The sun was behind Michael for the whole dive.

Also Joining us to learn to skydive is Richard Bieda from London who works as a HR consultant. He has already completed his first three skydives and well have some freefall piccies of him in tommorrows update.

Chris Wood who is a software developer also joins us for an AFF course and like Richard has already made a number of skydives. Again more news tommorrow. ( News is a bit patchy at the moment …too busy skydiving for web design …sigh :).

A special word of Congratulations to Mike Worthington who having passed the 500 jump mark has qualified as a USPA AFF Instructor. Mike was a student with us last year and is our second graduate to become an instructor.

6th September 2005

We have had our third day of rain this year so were only flying in the morning. Danny Wall has completed all his consolidation jumps and tommorrow will start his Freefly training with our freefly coach Louis Harwood from Avalore who recently won a number of medals at the UK Skydiving championships.

Andy also has all his consolidation jumps done and also will take an introduction to freeflying with Louis.

Michael Lall managed to get up in time to complete two jumps today ! ( Mike spent the evening practicing his Spanish in Aranjuez…. hee hee !) He is pictured here getting ready for his level seven.

Lee Lewis is now on level four. Lee commented that he is very happy with our location. He previously had attended a paragliding course in Spain and had become fed up of it as the school was located in a small village with little to do. He tells us we have the right blend!

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7th September 2005

Unfortunatley the weather wasnt on our side today. We have a strict policy for your safety of not jumping in conditions not deemed suitable. We decided to take advantage of the break and head to Madrid ( short drive ) and go to the Spain international in the Calderon Stadium. The atmosphere was fantastic!

Fear not! The forecast is for clear blue skies with 5mph winds tommorrow.

8th September 2005

Back jumping in earnest today and another good day of it too! Mike finished his course today and his now jumping solo. Heres a picture of him on his AFF level seven locked on to his alti. Generally you are asked to watch the last 1000 feet of your fall before opening.

Michael has also done a number of solo jumps. Also his graduating today was Richard Bieda.

We have also been joined by a new member of staff: Louis Harwood . Louis originally from the Black Knights Parachute Centre in the UK will work as the head of the Freefly school which will be called ” Avalore ” . Louis has already been in action teaching Daniel Wall from Ireland.

Patricia has joined us for a few days to check out the DZ. She had been booked in for a tandem skydive and is pictured here gettting ready for the jump. She has spent a few days in Madrid and Aranjuez and said she prefferred Aranjuez.

Meanwhile Lee Lewis has also finished his AFF course and will now be solo jumping.

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9th September 2005

Welcome to Ulrika Henderson from Stockholm Sweden who has joined us for some formation skydiving coaching with the Swiss Team .

Daniel Wall and Andy Telfer have spent the morning jumping their own pack jobs! They are doing their packing certificates today and will also do the exams for their A License , now that they have reached over 25 jumps each. ( in less than a week )

Welcome also to Ian Newlands from London who works in IT. Ian is here to learn to skydive and will spend the next ten days with us skydiving. He arrived this morning and should jump either on Friday evening or on Saturday morning. He is picturer here with a ” training vest ” . This vest has the appropriate handles for practicing both pull and emergency procedures.

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10th September

Well what a day! We managed 25 flights in our trusty porter! I jumped it today and realised it climbs like a homesick angel! It gets up to 13K , drops its load and picks another up in about 13 minutes. Sweet just aswell as it was all action today. Lee ” Go Play ” lewis, Michael ” Is my cypress on ” Lall and Richard ” Party ” Bieda all crossed over the 20 jump mark today completed their levels eight and partook in an accuracy course. Ian did his first three levels of AFF and is poised for another Stormer tomorrow.

We had some new faces arrive today also. Here takes Phil McGaw from Liverpool through canopy theory. Phil is an IT ” boffin ” and will be with us for ten days to complete his AFF course and hopefully his formation skydiving qualification also.

Also joining us today were David Brewin and Wayne Buckland from Bristol. They are no strangers to adventure at all with rock climbing their main sport to date.

More news and photos tommorrow..

11th September

Tunnell Camp at the end of the month!

First up we are in the UK on the ,30 Sep and 1st and 2nd Oct.! Well some of us anyway.. we have bought ten hours in Bedford Wind Tunnell and already eight are booked out. If you would like to get in with us ( beginners to senior Formation flying available coaches available from our coaching team ) then get in touch. The cost of the time with or without coaching is 510 pounds per hour. Thus if you want half an hour flying time its 255 pounds etc. We have done pretty well as the tunnell is not yet open to public bookings! Monthly training camps are planned.

Ian Newlands progressed to level six today and should qualify tommorrow. Wayne Buckland pictured here did his first three levels also and is now on AFF level four. In this picture Wayne is being lifted upright by his parachute which is just starting to open. his instructor is on the far side.

David Brewin progressed to level thre today also, having completed his ground schook this morning. He is pictured here on the right. His pictured here on the right during a debrief.


Mathew Geldert
from London also joined us to learn to skydive ( AFF ) yesterday afternoon. He started his ground school yesterday , completed it today and did his first three levels of AFF. He is pictured here with Daniel his instuctor.

13th September 2005

Graduation Day! We have had three graduates between yesterday and today. First up is Phil McGaw from Liverpool who has completed his AFF course , level eight skydive and also five solos. Phil has already decided that he would like to become a freeflyer and will take us up on our continuation course ” Freeflying from beginner to Ninja in just one week ” on his next visit planned for later this year. reckoned Phil looks like some singer who sings a song called tainted love .. so the two of them have been wondering around the dropzone periodically singing tainted love … anyway.. When asked to describe his skydives solo Phil said ” get out and do something stupid like loops and rolls and check alti .. repeat untill pull time ” .

Next Up Ian Newlands stormed home to finish his AFF course yesterday. He also has his AFF level eight done and is is racking up the solos.

When asked why he chose this quote for his graduation photo he tells us that his flat mate reckons hes a few sambos short of a picnic jumping out of planes ..his last words to Ian before he left home was…

Last up today ( he graduated this evening ) was Wayne Buckland who finished his course in style. He also got his first solo this evening on the sunset load which went to 15,500ft..becoming a bit of a habit for us to go high. Our normal operating altitude is 13,000ft ( and we get up their pretty sharpish too :). The proof is in the pudding…life does begin at forty !

Meanwhile not long to go for David Brewin who is now on level five.

We discovered another fab bar / restaurant in Aranjuez last night. The ” American Eatery ” where all the staff Speak English, the food great ( try the Steak ! ) and bear cheap. The decor is of musical instruments and american road signs and they were playing the blues brothers, U2 etc. all evening. Liverpool were playing Real Betis so Phil ( from Liverpool ) was periodically shouting ” ave it ” at the tele and was well chuffed with their 2-1 win.

14th September 2005

Welcome to Kevin Hawkins who has joined us to learn to skydive. Kevin hails from Bristol. Kevin did a tandem before his AFF course. IF you are doing a tandem in advance of your cost, add 70 pounds to your package cost.

Also Welcome to William Sean Roberts , Gerralt Roberts and Steffan Hughes all from wales and a group of friends who have come also to do the AFF course.

15th September 2005

Graduation Day! Well done to David Brewin who finished his AFF course today! He has now completed his first solo jump.

Our recent review in the UKs leading broadsheet the Times . Travel Section ( where we were described as ” one of the best skydiving schools in Europe” has had our offices inundated with Enquiries so web design has been on the back foot ! ).

Stay tuned we have lots going on… We are currently booked out for the remainder of September and parts of October.. If you are considering coming out in October please get in touch! ( Share your holiday experience with lots of other students even if you come on your own ! )

We will also in the next days be launching our car pooling inititiave meaning you can have a car for a week shared reducing your costs:

car , weeks hotel and course to GBP1150 pounds or less..

We are also taking delivery ( within 48 hours ) of more student kit from Aerodyne increasing dramatically the number of rigs we have available ..thus helping you get 20 or more jumps in a week!.

16th September 2005

Tons going on! Well done to Hevin Hawkins who graduated today. He jumped solo today also. Very well done.

Also , Ian Newlands has passed the 25 jump mark in one week and has decided to extend his stay a week further ( by a week ! ) . Ian will be doing our formation skydiving and freeflying continuation courses this week. Ian checked cost of flight change ( 25 quid ) and emailed his boss to tell him how it is..

Welcome also to David Faulkner and David White who have joined us to learn to skydive. Both are complete beginners and after a spot of lunch in our restaraunt got stuck into ground school with Tim. They will be ready to to rock and roll for the first load tommorrow. Sweet !

Then theres the ” Welsh on tour ” , Gerralt , Steffan and William who sold their fish boat to come skydiving! Today was their second day here and they are all now on level five of their course having completed ground school and one jump yesterday and four jumps each today. This photo is from their ground school. The lads to add colour to Aranjuez ( just discovered that the city is a UNESCO world heritage city by the way ! ) . This evening as fifteen ( AFF students , FS1 , FF1 and staff ) of us assembled for an evening meal there was an ” ibiza ” mood in the air. Everybody is off in the Avalon ( im typing you this report at 1am in the morning ) living life to the max…

Then theres the duo back in from Dublin Ireland.. Yes Jill Nason and Laura Cullen are back in town !


Last but not least is Mike ” Viagra ” Williams who has come back for another weeks holiday also. Mike is doing his formation skydiving course with Mel.

Gonna be a rocking week at the Uni… and our numbers are growing as the dropzone will soon be recieving jumpers from Europe who are looking for better jumping conditions.

Stats for Monday to Friday this week: 58 loads flown! Mid week jumping at the Freefall Uni ? No problemo… The weekend is gonna rock we have two porters rocking to altitude in double quick time!

Oh yes , gotta mention this , as id never seen it before. Kevin Hawkins (whos a black belt in Karate ) wrote notes on his Hand for each skydive..

A group of graduates !

Wanna play ? Then get in touch for a quote on the holiday of a lifetime ! You know you want to ! The signal they are making with their hands is ” check arms ” ..one of the in air signals from isntructor to student..

15th September 2005 .

A mixed day where we got ten flights up. Mostly our Formation skydiving students, some AFF and returning graduates. Luckily we have two runways so can take off in all directions.. the porter is known to be grounded even in moderate winds if the direction is wrong..

Pictured here is Mel one of our instructors with Mike Williams. Mel has been ” beasting ” mike to get him through his course in double quick time.

16th September 2005

Welcome to Richard Little and Chris Sheeley from the Isle of Man who are here to learn to skydive with us. Oddly most people clam up when they see a camera …but not these two…

Continuing with the “circles” photos theme today although we just cant squeeze everbody in any more here is another snap from Award winning camera maestro who took this one. IT includes starting clockwise Andy Guler ( Formation skydiving manager ) Richard Little ( AFF student who joined us yesterday, Gerrallt , AFF student from wales, Chris Sheeley ( Aff student from the Isle of Man who joined us yesterday ) , David White ( AFF Student ) , Ian ” Milkybar ” Newlands , and David ” taxman ” faulkner ( AFF student who joined us yesterday ) and lastly Mike ” Viagra ” Williams who is all but complete with his Formation skydiving course.

Meanwhile Tim is starting to wish he was a little bit taller..

We do skydive too… but in between loads more of the AFF students got together for a more novel group photo.. We call this one ” Circus Midgets” .

Ill do an update tommorrow night when I get my hands on the stats for graduations etc. We flew fifteen loads today!

19th September 2005

Another fantastic day at the Freefall Uni ! Were already at four pm on twelve flights for the day. In fact we have flown so much that we have a free flight for our students at the end of the day..yes! The Sunset load to 15,000ft is on us! Pictured right Juan Ambrona one of our Spanish students is photographed from inside the airplane as he sets off on his AFF level one. The unusual body position of the left hand side jump master is utilized to help you get facing to earth as soon as possible after exit so the exercises can begin.

Todays graduates include Steffan Hughes from wales! Steffan graduated in double quick time and weighing in at sixteen stone had a ..ahem ..brisk ” rall rate ” . His instructor was .

Welcome also to Tomasz Cieslar from Poland who has joined us to learn to skydive. Tomasz has made three jumps today after completing his ground school yesterday. He is pictured here boarding ” fox fox ” one of our two turbine aircraft.


Welcome also to Rayomand Dumasia who is a computer programmer from London and joind us to learn to skydive. Rayomand arrived to Aranjuez last night and after a ground school this morning is in the air doing his first skydive. He is pictured here with his AFF insturctor .

Richard Little is progressing well and has completed solo exits and backloops in his course. He has one level to go and will all things being equal qualify on the sunset or first load tommorrow.


Viagra Mike is racking the jumps up like theres no tommorrow. He is pictured here under canopy on his what is for him jump number forty two. This is Mikes second trip to the Freefall University.

Here is Chris Sheeley from the Isle of Man who is all but finished his AFF course , he is now on level seven.

Well too many people wanted to jump at the same time ( on the sunset load ) so no bother ..crack open our second turbine porter. We sent both planes up together climbing in formation. Sweet! Here are some scenes from the sunsets loads.

Mike Seems pretty impressed with the sight!
We jumped together completing his forty fourth jump.. a tracking type dive!

And just to give you an idea of how small we really are in the sky! Ray Dumasia sets of with and Christo from the other porter.

We let this load drop and continued to climb waiting for the others to land.

Fancy a trying two plane formation skydives..best fun you will ever have doing FS .. a unique challenge. Call us for details of our larger formation camps. Details to be publised soon with the base being the Swiss 8 way team ( intensive training camp here last ten days in October along with the four way team..Dragonfly ! )

20th September 2005

Well the sunset loads are getting more interesting. Two of yesterdays graduates today completed their category eight and marked the occasssion with a naked skydive from 13,500ft!

Here are some scenes in the landing area where we introduce the graduates also captured in the landing area. There are some interesting photos of ´rear ends ´going out of the door at altitude but well leave that to your imagination! Hoofing !


Were thinking ” bums away ” might have been more fitting but check Chris´s comment out ! Yes Chris , welcome to skydiving!

Also graduating today , but not yet ready for birthday jumping ( need to get his consols sorted ) perhaps well get him ” dressed up ” tommorrow…
Was David Faulkner who has also completed a load of solos.

So what will tommorrow bring ? Stay tuned to find out . Theres tons going on , we have more students arriving and also formation skydiving between gradautes returning from August courses kicks off , amongst some other surprises..

21.09.05

Mike Williams
has completed over fifty skydives now since training with us ( jumps made over two weeks ) and is pictured here getting ready for his three way dive on his formation skydiving course. He went on to complete a smooth exit and 17 points on the dive. He is pictured here with Oscar and Andy.


Nice to see former students return for some more skydiving and they dont get more former than Brian Hughes who was our third ever student who popped in for a spot of jumping from Ireland.

Lisa Walsh has joined us from the North West to take our introduction to skydiving course. This course is for people who want to try skydiving on a level one AFF skydive instead of the more traditional tandem skydive.


Rayomand Dumasia is progressing well on his AFF course and is now on level four.

Random group shot from load fifteen of the day ( five pm ).

Welcome to Daniel from Brazil who also joins us from Lillo. Daniel has over 9000 skdydives and has represented his country in various disciplines including skysurfing and freestyle at World competition. Daniel will primarily work with our Spanish students, but may well be your secondary instructor for your first skydives.

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21st September

CASA JUMPS| The casa has arrived for the weekend boogie and I managed to edge my way onto the first load.. a very sunset jump 15 way. Sweet..

Heres is a picture from inside the base with floaters behind us and divers ahead.

The dropzone is thronged with jumpers making the atmosphere fab. Final count: 30 Spanish jumpers and 20 foreign jumpers.. gonna be a good weekend especially when the madrid weekend jumpers join us.. Ocaña is Madrid jumpers most popular dropzone. Back to backs on both planes and we may even crack open a third aircraft..

Regardless of what the comments on students comments page is , for us the biggest indicator of how were doing when it comes to customer service is how many people return to jump with us again. We were joined today by Steffan Williams, Ian Waites and Ania Kempista all of whom trained with us earlier this year.

Then we also had a fancy dress jump. Mike William who has now passed his formation skydiving course with a difficult draw for his jump achieving ten points is dressed as a Gorilla in the centre of this picture. He commented after his sixtieth jump with us that he found that flying in the suit was a lot of fun.

Welcome also to Stephen Booth who joins us to learn to skydive. He is training with and has completed AFF levels one, two and three on his first day of jumping.

We ended the day with a few beers for some, I had to have my reserve repacked ..Spinnetto… and some of the guys headed off to watch a real madrid football game. Aidan commented that the atmosphere was fantastic and he could not resist the temptation to Slag Beckham… hope he spoke in jabberred English .. he was surrounded by 80,000 Spanish Real fans.. Madrid is a short hop away you can drive , or take the train that runs every twenty minutes.

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Were also getting our transport fleet sorted out for excursions and aswell as a six seater now have a thirty seater. Christo will be our driver and here is photographed in his bus. This will be used by our students staff and winter sun skydivers who want for example to head to Madrid to party the night away and get picked up for a drop off to their respective hotels.

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22nd September

Our Casa Boogie is in full swing. Jumpers are pictured here loading into the back of the plane.

Congratulations also to David White who has finished his AFF course and is now jumping solo.

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25th September 2005

Congratulations to Gary Walker who finished his AFF course in two days of jumping. He is pictured here on a solo jump. You can have a professional cameraman with you in freefall for 38 euros and you get 9.2 megapixel files to take home with you on a CD ! These pics can be blown up lifesize with no major degredation ( ISO 100 )


Here is another one of Garys jumps as he rolls out the door for a sunset skydive.

Congratulations to Stephen Booth who has passed his AFF course and has now completed five solo skydives including his level 8 hop and pop. Stephen is a funds manager from the city.

Meet Enkel he is Juans pet and is making a home for himself on the DZ. You will meet people on your course not only from the UK but from here in Spain where an average of five spanish students train per week. You will of course get to meet Enkel and tab the dropzone moggy ..whos not so sure of Enkel..


Su Knight from London arrived yesterday and has completed her first three levels of AFF. She is pictured here in one of our debriefing rooms.

Congratulations also to Tomazc Cieslar from Poland who finished his AFF course and completed ten solo jumps.

Sheeps ba**s no thanks! Tonight we scoffed chineese in Aranjuez , a meal fit for a king and ten euros a head for all we could manage to eat.

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27th September 2005

Welcome to Jeremy Watkins who joins us from London to complete his AFF course which he started on a UK dropzone but decided to complete with ourselves. Jeremy is pictured here with Andy doing a refresh of canopy skills. It peaked at 30 degrees yesterday so we conducted our class outdoors for comfort.

Graduating today was Su Knight. Su qualified in two days and has completed her first solo skydive from 13,500ft on the sunset load in Ocaña. Celebrations in the bar then of to Aranjuez for the evening to celebrate in style.

First we ate in Asturiana then had a few pints in cheers bar watching skydiving movies.

. Seems Cheers is building quite a collection of movies for itself , tonight it was ” good stuff ” from Joe Jennings amongst others. Then evertbody settled in to the Avalon which is home to most of the folk late into the night from the local Universities.


James Jewell who joined us two days ago has also completed his AFF course. James was a complete novice two days ago and today did his first solo skydive.

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28th September 2005

So its official the Freefly school is opening on the 6th of October. In the first of a series of additional schools ( most from continental Europe alhough there will be more British Ones ) opening in Ocaña just south of Madrid Louis Harwood will move from the UK to begin coaching in Madrid. Team Avalore have been busy over the summer in the UK competing in the UK national skydiving championships and have been coaching on most UK dropzones. For more information visit Freefly Avalore Spain . If you are interested in coaching with Louis or Rob McVeigh then you can contact us or Avalore directly. For October coaching booking soon is advised as the schedule is already pretty full!

Welcome to Ivo Mentuccia from Italy who joined us yesterday to complete an introduction to skydiving . Ivo is from Rome. He completed his ground school and the first three levels of the AFF today. We have students and fun jumpers coming from many european countries in October and from places as far away as Moscow! Benvenuto Ivo.

Welcome back to Robin Seiger who is here for more formation skydiving coaching. Robin finished his AFF course with us in Ocaña last month. Robin was the first jumper on one of our new Mirage systems with a Spectre main.

Meanwhile Jerry Watkins finished his AFF course today and completed four solo skydives.

April 2005 Part one


Welcome to the April News section from the Freefall University.
Temperatures this month:
Night time :11 degrees :::Daytime   : 24 degrees ( Average from 9am to sunset )
Maximum day: 27 degrees ( Peak temperature is generally from 1pm to 5:30pm ) and the temp you are likely to jump in.
Sun Index : Medium.

1st April:

A new day , a new month and what a start! Congratulations to our first new skydiver in April. The first of April but no April fool well done to Karen who had a great course. She is pictured here with her AFF Instructor Tim Boyd.

Well done also to Robert who completed his AFF course this afternoon. Super job Robert! He too by request trained with Tim.

Welcome also to Mathew O´ Riordan who joins us for a long weekend of skydiving from the UK. He is photographed here with Joni Mallet who now has 28 skydives since qualifying with us. Perhaps shes going for the school record for the most number of jumps after finishing her AFF course in less than 24 hours!

Welcome also to Pete Cottrell a former AFF student from early last year.

Welcome also To Robert Page who is here to learn to skydive on the AFF course. He is pictured here just before boarding practicing the exit on the mock up. His instructors are Luci and Juan for this jump. Robert did his ground school this morning and first AFF level this evening.

The Freeflyboys! Welcome also to Robert Tyler who paired up with Mathew for some freefly fun over Ocaña.

Dan A pleasure as always! Dan Atkins is a former AFF student and a regular return visitor who stopped in for a bit of Leppin from perfectly good aeroplanes..

Meanwhile Michael Woodward has been jumping his socks off , he came from the UK ( on easyjet ) for four days jumping and we will let you know his final tally of skydives on Monday evening.

2nd April.

Welcome to Nicholas Waller who joins us to learn to skydive. He arrived this morning and was straight into his ground school with his instructor. They are pictured here during the multimedia presentation for canopy control.

Nicholas is a from Leicester and he’s a full time sailor.

Well done to Robert Page who has only one jump of his AFF course left to do. He is premanifested and will be on the first load in the morning. Our one student one experienced instructor strikes again..

Well keep you posted on Roberts Progress tommorrow.

Sylvans conquest of the skies goes on unabated he has now done the first ten skydives of his block training with Louis.

Well Joni , how many skydives you up to now, its hard to keep count. Congratulations on completing the CH1 canopy course.

Together Again! Welcome back to Katie Hearn who graduated with the FFU last year. She is here to complete her formation skydiving course. Welcome back also to Rachel Wenham who trained with her at the same time.

Meanwhile Nick Golding who only arrived yesterday to do his AFF course is pictured here getting ready for his AFF level six. This was his last jump of the day ( 4pm ) . He decided to have a rest and finish off tommorrow morning. Hes on the “early bird”… the 9am load..assuming everybody survives the crash course in Spanish Nightlife in Aranjuez tonight that is….
Word is the normal University students in town are going pretty wild on their Spring Uni cheques..

So an action packed few days for us at the Freefall Uni and plenty more to come this month. Tomorrow we welcome four new intrepid adventurers from the UK to complete their AFF courses with Spains most experienced team. Mathew Legett, John Beresford , Catherine Curtis and Nicholas Friend join us for some fun in the sun… This month also saw our record booking. Roberto Queto from Portugal has just booked in for an AFF course and also bought 500 tickets to be used over the summer.. We expect him to complete that over about 2.5 months at a leisurley pace..

If you would like to come out then why not check our availability by getting in touch.

4th April

Congratulations to Robert Page who has finished his AFF course double quick time and started to skydive solo yesterday. He also did a few solos today. Robert will be with us for the next week jumping his socks off..

Tom who came with Robert for a few days holiday decided to do a tandem. Normally at this point poeple are shouting ” oh my f$%%$ god ” ,,,not tom..he looks well happy as hes about to head off into freefall..

Nicholas Waller also finished his AFF course and has completed most of his consolidation jumps. Here you see him on the climb with his instructor Luci on the left.

Pilots like to fly , but not too much. So now Edward has been given a well earned holiday and Danielle as back to fly us to altitude. Danielle flew with us last year and then worked for our avaition company in the Canaries and Portugal. Welcome back Danielle!


Mitching of work again
.. happy days . we were joined by a few guys from Madrid who arrived to take advantage of our midweek jumping.

Meanwhile we have been joined by some new recruits to the sport. Nicholas Friend and Glynn somers join us to learn to skydive. They did their ground school and straight away got into some skydiving..Look at the state of one of that whiteboard..Sylvan your a grafitti artist.. 🙂

Glynn looks cool calm and collected as he gets ready to do his level two..

Sally Oberton is back from Dublin for her second holiday this year.

Smiles all round! Welcome to Kate Curtis who completed her ground school with Tim yesterday. By the end of today she was on level five .. Well done Kate .. your hot on Joni Mallets heels for the record..

Congratulations also to Nick Golding who completed his AFF course and has finished his consolidation jumps. Super course Nick !

Welcome also to Matthew Legget who completed his ground school and first two levels of AFF today. Hes pictured here walking in from the landing area..

Welcome also to Jonathan Beresford who joins us to learn to skydive. He is pictured here on the left with Mathew and did his first two level of AFF and should get most if not all his course finished tommorrow.

6th April 2006

Heres Nick Friend who is on one of our AFF courses. He is pictured here running over the communication on exit for his AFF level seven with Ulli. We got a good deal done today thanks to some lovely weather.

Nick went onto graduate and do some solo skydives. We accompanied him up for one of his last consolidation jumps. Here he is pictured in a tuck , just after exit.

Sweet ! Regular altitude checks are the order of the day. Getting out at 13-14K you get around 60 seconds in freefall, can you count to sixty ? Best check the clock..

Congratulations also to Kate who finished her AFF course and qualified to skydive solo. She has since been on every load she can manage and has finished her consolidation jumps.

How many jumps now Nick ? Nick has finished his consol jumps and is doing this just for fun having met all the A license requirements.

Glynn is lovin it ! Hes here getting ready for his level six skydive with Luci . He went onwards to graduate his AFF course and is now a qualified solo skydiver! Well done Glynn.

Here is Mat on his level five. Happy Camper !

7th April

Another Day at the drozpone and all our students are graudated heres Robert getting ready for another Solo…enjoy!

Edward, one of our pilots meanwhile cant seem to get enough of the dz. Hes on ” holiday ” from flying and in the most unusual of body positions is spending his time jumping from Daniellas porter !

Robert comes in for a tippy toe landing in the student landing area which is grassed. There are areas that are not grassed also , and these are even softer ( we plough them to keep them that way ) so first jump students prefer to land in the non grassed section .

Nick….what a great freefall Grin you have there ! Nick is loving hte solo skydives !

Welcome to Ralf Taner who joined us after a long lay off from the sport. We put him through a ground and air refresh and now hes jumping solo again and soon to complete our formation skydiving course .

Nick ! Smashing course , well done . Nick is now finished his consolidation jumps also and is pictured here With Ulli who was his AFF instructor. Nick like all our students this week completed his packing course and knows how to pack his own parachute. Not bad for a few days at the Freefall Uni.

Welcome to Georgia from Leeds who joins us for an introduction to skydiving weekend. You can tailor the package to your needs completing a tandem + AFF level one as or a tandem on its own. Georgia has decided to go on and do the full course!


Packing like a PRO! Nick who passed his packing test earlier in the week is now pro packing his own gear. The basic test is in flat packing but once youve done this if you want to go onto learn the more common method of pro packing which in most cases is easier we are happy to teach you. ( Be advised however that many centres in the UK prefer you to flat pack if your packing rental gear ).


Hamish who is a barrister from London came on our intro package for the weekend and has was instantly hooked , hell be back in a few days to get stuck into the full AFF course also .

Remember we talked about a new plane , well were getting two of them! We will be the proud owners of a -34 porter which will rocket you up to altitude and also a -27 will be leased for tandems at the weekend. Both planes will fly with a mimimum of five and a max of nine. Now getting the jumps you want is going to be even easier..


Welcome back to Katja! Katja was the first AFF graduate ever in the Freefall University a few years ago now 🙂 and still pops in from time to time to say hello and skydive with us.

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April 8th
Welcome to Peter Dolbel who joins us for our BASE course. Peter is from Jersey.

Welcome to Antony Antonio who joins us to complete his AFF course. Antony is an officer in the British Army.

Welcome to Adeoye Sanni from London who joins us for an AFF course.

Sunset load for Robert, his sixth jump of the day. Peter took this piccy of him.

April 7th

Welcome to Robin who joins us for some freefly coaching.

Adeoye is doing great , he is on level seven next. Here is he is just before pull time on his level three with Luci and Paula.

Antoni is also doing fab on his course and is on level six next.

Welcome to Louis who also joined us for the base course. The BASE students have completed all their canopy and packing training now and are heading off to the bridge..

Shiny new plane! This is the first of the new porters ..

Welcome to Danny Jenkins who joins us to complete an FS1 course. Danny trained with us last August as an AFF student and this is his second visit back since.

Previous skydivng news index

June 2008 at the Freefall University

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FS1 and AFF would be the theme for this month. The weather is perfect and our Mix of BPA and USPA instructors mean that we have excellent qualification times.

May 2008 at the Freefall University

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Here is the incomplete news for May. We have had some tech problems with moving offices which have now been solved and we are still working through the backlog. Apologies for the lack of updates!

March 2008 at the Freefall University

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Welcome to March at the Freefall University. A top month ahead with a great start. We are all but booked out for March in our AFF courses but have some spaces left in April and May. We are also, as ususal running formations skydiving courses with BPA instructors if you you would like to get qualified.

Feb 2008 at the Freefall University

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The highlight of Feb was being selected as the European dropzone for a ” round the world ” record attempt. With only a window of four hours to make a skydive before leaving for Venezuela the weather was perfect and Martin Downs completed his skydive within an hour of arriving on the dz.

December 2007 at the Freefall University

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This months sees lots of activity with AFF; formation skydiving and experienced jumpers from home and abroad enjoying jumping from the Cessna Caravan which has commenced operations in the FFU Ocana.

November 2007 at the Freefall University

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This months sees lots of activity with AFF; formation skydiving and experienced jumpers from home and abroad enjoying jumping from the Cessna Caravan which has commenced operations in the FFU Ocana.

October 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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Welcome to the October news for the Freefall University.

September 2007 at the Freefall University Spain page 2

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We split the September news to keep the news page a reasonable size.

September 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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Lots of action this month with an expected 40 graduates and 4000 individual skydives.

August 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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August at the Freefall Uni.

July 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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July at the Freefall Uni.

June 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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Welcome to June at the Freefall Uni.

May 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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May roundup of events at the Freefall Uni , europes most popular skydiving sch

April 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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April roundup of events at the Freefall Uni , europes most popular skydiving sch

March 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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Welcome to Skydiving.

Feb 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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One student one instructor.

One student , one rig.

January 2007 at the Freefall University Spain

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Happy new year , we are back after the holidays and joined by our first holiday makers of 2007 who are learning to skydive, fun jumping or doing their formation skydiving courses

November 2006 at the Freefall University Spain

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More graduates than you can shake a stick at and incredibly busy on a number of fronts. We have renovated and furnished our new offices and there will be a number of personell joining us from across Europe as we get ready for an exciting 2007. Already some months are booked out and we have decided to recruit more instructors ( see your national magazines ). We have also placed an order for 6 more parachute systems in addition to another pilatus porter ( -34 ). With this we will carefully look at increasing the number of spaces available.

October 2006 at the Freefall University Spain

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Another action filled month at the Freefall University. Our new freefly team will be arriving with Fresh ideas and a new programme that we call ” Accelerated Freefly ” .. top ! We also opened an office in Copenhagen and Amsterdam , so expect to train with people from an even more diverse background.

September 2006 at the Freefall University Spain

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Despite some operational difficulties which are now squarely resolved we had a great month. We passed over these and got firmly back in action. This month saw us pass our 300th graduate for 2006.

August 2006 The Freefall University Spain

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Aranjuez, BBQ´s , skydiving on a full time turbine DZ. It doesnt get any better than this. All our students are off to a cracking start with the average number of solos completed in the mid teens.

July 2006 The Freefall University Spain

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ALL the fun under the sun…

Lets go skydiving,, the summer is top , the skydiving is great. This month saw us work with Jack Osbourne for the Finale of his series
” Around the world the Hard Way ” . This will be on tv in Sep 2006.

June 2006 ( page 2 ) – the Freefall University Spain

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ALL the fun under the sun…

Welcome to the June part two news. A great finish to the month with bbqs in full swing and more graduates than you can shake a stick at..

June 2006 – AFF course Boogie at the Freefall University Spain

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Welcome to June at the Freefall University. We have the new -34 porter on the flightline.. the fastest climber in Madrid! This month sees long summer days , skydiving , pool and BBQ´s !

May 2006 – AFF course Boogie at the Freefall University Spain

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Welcome to May at the Freefall University. Spains non stop AFF course Boogie.

April 2006 at the Freefall Uni. Madrid – Part three

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This page contains page three of the Freefall University News from April. With 40 people attending our AFF courses this month we have now christened the event the AFF boogie.

April 2006 at the Freefall Uni. Madrid – Part two

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Check out our news to see whats being going on. More and more people are choosing us for our AFF courses and recently a lot booking in for formation skydiving and freeflying too. We also have three new BASE graduates so far this month..

April 2006 at the Freefall Uni. Madrid – Part one

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Spring time is here with mild temps and lots of skydiving. Back to back non stop seven days per week. This month sees 28 people attend our beginners courses and theres lots of freefly, BASE , Birdman and more. Its all the the Freefall University Madrid. Lets see whats happened so far this month..

March 2006 at the Freefall University – Part two

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What a month its turned out to be. No problems with numbers for midweek flight. Want the jump numbers , want to avoid Spains intense summer heat ??? Choose the Freefall University Ocaña for great weather thats not too hot , great instruction and a fab vibe that lasts well into the night…

March 2006 at the Freefall University – Part one

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Welcome to March. Again an exciting month ahead. We have our new plane arriving and a few other things besides lots of quality skydiving. We will also be the only dropzone to honour our committment for one to one tuition regardless of discipline but to include AFF. So to reserve your place get in touch.

February 2006 ( part two ) at the Freefall University – Full time midweek.. get the number of skydives you want!

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Week two at the Freefall University Madrid. What a feeling! The weather has been perfect for us and jump numbers for each of our students has averages 25 each in one week. Mid week we are continuing to increase our flight numbers with about 50 flights to choose from Monday to Friday.

February 2006 ( part one )at the Freefall University – Madrids happening dropzone!

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Geat start to the month, we have a fantastic group of talented / experienced people ready to look after you. Watch out for details of full time AFF Instructor training now that Luci is a course director and AFF Evaluator. Lots going on across all our courses ,, theres a real buzz about the DZ !

January 2006 at the Freefall University Southern Madrid.

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Fresh horizons , new ambitions for the team at the Freefall University. 2006 will bring a lot of enhancement to our courses and we have once again decided to champion the cause of sponsorhip for junior teams. Read more..

December 2005 at the Freefall University Madrid.

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A month with some strange visitors and the not so strange visits from birdman who streaked across the skies supersonically on one of our birman courses. We have a mix of guests coming from AFF, to FS1 , Birdman and formation skydiving. We have also had our first graduates of the month and look forward to many more.

November 2005 at the Freefall University Spain.

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Welcome to November online. Another exciting month for us. We have many students who trained with us August through September returning, some to become residents on the dropzone aswell as AFF and many people for our continuation courses.

October 2005 at the Freefall University Spain

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This month is going to a topper at the Freefall University. Spaces are already quite limited for our AFF, FF and FS1 courses. We are starting to welcome competing schools from the UK and beyond to our dropzone.

September 2005 at the Freefall University Spain.

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What a month! From graduates who did fifty or more jumps to formation flying with a difference. With the shorter evenings coming in people explored the nightlife more. The Universities were open with the bars once again filling in the evenings. This was for sure a month we jumped ,learned and enjoyed more !

August 2005 at the Freefall University Spain.

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August! When we made loads of friends who have already been back on holidays. We will remember this month for jumping to the max and getting into the vibe of Aranjuez nightlife.

Early August


Welcome to Simon MaCullock and Matthew Welbourn, here doing ground school
with Darren, the weather is perfect outside so they will probably do level 1 later
today.


Congratulation to Martin Garnish, Martin started his course a few days ago and
is now working on hos consolidation jumps.


After every jump we need to set up the breaks and let the packers do the work.


Steven just did his level 1 with Ryan and went just great, level 2 next.


Matthew is ready for his 1st level with Mike, after learning everything he needs
to solo skydive his confidence is high.


And just like a said, Steven ready for his level 2 before the end of the day, weldone
Steven.

Parachute Jump Course weekends departing London . Manchester and Dublin

This section chronicles the daily parachuting activities at our school in Ocaña Spain for October .  . for some reason saw nearly all our bookings come from London this month .

1st October 2005

Welcome back to Dean Smith who completed our parachute jump course last month with us, he is from London  .After getting his knees in the breeze and is working towards his BPA FS1 qualification. This course allows him to skydive with other people including those who have ten or more solo skydives after their AFF course.

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2nd October 2005

Today was Jerry Watkins last day and he completed his seventeenth parachute Jump with Peter following him. Here Jerry is photographed going into his track to find his own clear airspace to open his parachute.

 

3rd October

Welcome to Barry Painter from the UK who is here to complete his AFF course with us. He did his theory this morning and first skydive this evening. He would like to say hello to Culum , Cavan and Callow Painter his sons and duaghters and all their friends in George Fentham School. Hed like you to know hes having a great time and was very excited as we headed off for Aranjuez for the evening.

We would also like to tell the Painters and all the folks at home that Barry did one of the best first skydives we have ever seen with him being released in freefall by his main instructors.

Welcome also to Colm Smith from Ireland who did his paracute  theory this afternoon and first skydive. Colm did very well also and was thrilled with his experience.

Colm lives in Dublin and is a computer Boffin.


Meanwhile Dean is doing well on his formation skydiving course and is almost ready for this three ways. The “gadget guru from Viagra ” is going to be a top formation skydiver for sure !

We would like to welcome Cici pronounced see see to the team also. Cici has 2000 skydives and will work with us as a formation skydiving and Accelerated Freefall coach. She oozes enthusiasm for skydiving and is pictured here ground schooling ( for an accelerated freefall course ) Thomas Knowles and Stephen Robinson who arrived this afternoon. Sisi joins us from Skydive Castellon.

Welcome to Michael Bellis who joins us to learn to skydive. Michael was making some strange bets with the other students in advance of his level one and did very well but did not win the accuracy one coming second.. thirty metres to the target!

Last of todays Freefall Universities AFF students in the lineup is Arjan Smit from Amsterdam. He was well impressed with the evenings entertainment in Cheers and won the accuracy bet proposed by Michael landing within ten metres of the target.

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4th October

Rock and roll! A day where Vivienne ,

Deans wife decided to do a tandem skydive in Madrid with us and now will do another one tommorrow and possibly the accelerated freefall course !


Remember a tandem in advance of an AFF course only costs you sixty pounds or 90 euros! If after the ground school you would like to do one you only have to ask. Vivienne did a fun tandem , but on an AFF tandem you in addition to the tandem master have a ” ripcord ” and altimetre aswell as getting to practice the exercises of the AFF level one.

Vivienne came down to watch what was going on and has become more involved as the days have gone on it the sport. She has also spent a deal of time exploring the local attractions incuding the royal palace.

We did fifteen flights today and all of our guys got four jumps each so tommorrow will be for many graduation day! Stay tuned for details..

Ok thats enough for today.. Were all of to Cheers and then for a chineese.. and well ..who knows..

stay tuned , same bat time…same bat channell… the months only getting started!

5th October 2005
12:15pm
We are all winners and today the buzz is fantastic about the dropzone. The sun is shining and the chill peppers are playing on the dz music system. We have made eight loads between our school, visiting school and fun jumpers. Many are now about to do their level seven and already Barry Painter has graduated his course. The picture on the right is after his qualification and the one below is of Barry in freefall.

What a body position! This position combined with the relaxation developed through the continous exposure ( three or more jumps a day ) to freefall means you ” get the hang ” of it in no time at all.

Congratulations to Colm from Dublin who has also finished his AFF course. Finished it in style also! He is pictured here in the middle of this group in the boarding area.

Our staff are all skydivers. Here David , one of our holiday reps takes a break from the office to do a low jump or hop and pop. As part of the BPA requirements you must complete this jump under supervision to move from student to novice status. Although you dont have to do it quite like David did..

Its a new experience for you again having learned from 13,500 ft..but they are good fun as you only spend minutes in the plane and get a ” quick lob in “.

Ok for the Graduates! Today we had four! First up is Michael Bellis who went on to complete three solo skydives. He is pictured here going into a track… a “move” in the sky that allows you cover great horizontal distances in the sky. This is good fun as you feel the air differently and it also will become an important skill in your skydiving as it is used to find your own parachute opening space at the end of a formation skydive.
Also finished his AFF course is Colm from Ireland who qualified in two days.

He is pictured here in the boarding area with David and some of our students.

 

6th October 2005

Sorry for not updating more, but we are flying more! We now feel at ease gauranteeing students and visitors 5 jumps a day at a minimum. Our dropzone is open 365 days a year and we will fly with a minimum of five on the porter. Reports from around Spain suggest Drop zone owners are becoming hesitant to fly unless their planes are full. WE will fly with five on board , but our average on a load is 8 (max is nine we dont ” squash you in ” ) and average mid week numbers are 13 porter flights . This has been consistantly kept since August 1. Statistics for average numbers can be ” distorted ” with tandem stats for the weekend , so dont be fooled by full week figures! More competing schools are choosing Ocaña which offers a blend of facilities, aircraft that fly full time and an expidition managers dream– Aranjuez.

Fun jumpers of all experience levels are more than welcome and the FFU team will help arrange acccomodation etc. for you in the city so you can take advantage of the ” things to do , the city offers “. Currently Ocaña´s website is not in English but its being overhauled as we speak.

Pictured on the right is Adam Conduct who is here to work on his BPA FF1 qualification with Louis from Avalore freefly who is now based full time in Ocaña.

Qualifing in the last days has been Arjan from Holland ( although he was keen to point out he lives in France ) , Thomas Knowles from London and Steven Robinson who is with the parachute regiment in the UK.

Vivienne liked her Tandem so much she decided to do another one. She commented to me ” this second tandem is your fault ” ,, i said …no ” the AFF course is going to be my fault ” ..

She said she enojoyed this one more as two of the staff went up with her and did a formation skydive taking her hand in freefall.

Meanwhile Dean is on 3 ways and four ways now having spent some time working one on one. Dean took a more advanced FS1 course and was practicing vertical moves ( moving over and under formations instead of going around the jumpers to get to the other side. He is pictured here leaving the plane with Oscar for a two way jump earlier in the week. Fab exit!

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7th October

Welcome to Robert Czeklaski who is from Poland. He is pictured here with Andy Gregory one of our instructors. Robert is doing an introductory course with us.

Tim ( right )another one of our instructors is a man ” living the dream ” ..to work full time in skydiving. He is pictured here with Garry Campbell who has joined us to learn to skydive. Gary is from london and did ground school this morning aswell as his first jumps this afternoon.

Dean your a formation guru! The exit was a star. Then dive was a diamond, zig zag, to open accordian. Twelve points in time! So nothing too shabby about it as a BP FS1 qualification.. ( with a BPA Instructor on the dive ) wonder if Dean will apply for the sponsored team next year? He is pictured here just after the dive.

Meanwhile Vivienne was off exploring the Royal Palace which is located in the centre of Aranjuez. Aranjuez whilst a modern city is also listed as a Unesco world heritage site and as such has a lot to offer non skydivers aswell as skydivers taking a break from jumping.

Thomas Knowles is also pictured here just having completed another solo parachute jump

 

8th October 2005

Cracking day for the British! Welcome to Justin Richardson who after ground school today completed his level one. He was accompanied by Grahame Bourke and pictured here in ground school. Both have wanted to go parachuting for a long time and decided to do it in Spain after researching their options in London.

And later Justin was finished his exams in time to make the last student load ( which for safety reasons is one load before the sunset load )

Also doing well on his freefly course is Adam who can now backfly like a ninja! He is jumping one of our Mirage systems which is both size adjustable and freefly friendly, main is a spectre.

Pictured here also is Garry Campbell who is now finished his AFF course having started yesterday morning. His first jump tommorrow will be a solo skydive!

From never having jumped before to being a solo skydiver in 24 hours..

Here he is giving the thumbs up as his parachute opens toTim. Tim is returning the signal ..both know its a job well done and the next jump for Garry will be a solo.

We finished the days parahuting  watching the football in cheers and then a chineese. The restaurant owner was a bit concerned when 20 of us walked in and asked to be ” fed ” .. but the chow was great if you will pardon the pun and only eight euros a head..

Arjan from holland has decided to extend his stay with us by another two weeks. He is making his mind up as to whether to do our formation skydiving course, or introduction to freeflying course. He will also do the tourist thing in the next fortnight checking out both Aranjuez and Madrid. There are lots of things to do in the evenings, sunset is now set to fall at 630pm when the clocks change. We can help you plan your evening activities for example purchasing tickets to a Real Madrid game for you in advance.

8th October 2005

Grahame Bourke had a cracking level one two three and four this morning! He had previously done an introduction to skydiving in Chatteris in the UK and is ” lovin it ” . He is pictured here during the ground practice for his first skydive. He will probably end the day with five AFF jumps as will Justin.

Welcome to Norma Madden a civil servant from Cork , Ireland. Norma has completed one tandem skydive. Norma joins us for a weeks holiday to do her parachuting course

Welcome to Daniella Breen from Barnhurst, Kent who joins us for a weeks holiday to learn to skydive. This is something that Daniella wanted to do for a long time and finally booked.

Welcome to Barry Preston from Ashford Middlesex who joins us to learn to skydive. Barry is in IT has never jumped before.

Meanwhile Garry is making like a sky slut and has completed five of his consolidation jumps already. When asked what he was doing , he said ” im just rolling out of the plane and making it up as i go along” .

 

11th October 2005

Lets introduce another instructor who will be full time at the Freefall University. Experienced jumpers from England will know Carl Williams from the Silver stars. Recently qualified BPA instructors will also know him as he is a BPA Instructor Examiner. An instructor examiner in the BPA is responsible for the certification of other British Parachute Association AFF instructors. We are now in a position to issue UK licenses on the dropzone here in Ocaña and not just prepare people to take them in the UK. Carl its good to have you on board! Carl is pictured here in the middle.

Welcome back to Simon Lemon who trained with us a few weeks ago. Simon is here for some fun jumping and perhaps the introduction to Formation skydiving. When you do AFF with the freefall University you are joining a community and are always more than welcome back. Returning graduates swell our numbers greatly. For example tonight there is 20 of heading to cheers..

Our dropzone being the closest to Madrid and probably the most chilled out dropzone in Spain , is home to the majority of Madrid skydivers. WE also train a lot of Spanish students who wish to enter the sport. Here Ramon, Carlos and Pepe are pictured having completed their ground school today. They also made their AFF level one jumps and will be back in action tommorrow.

Meanwhile Stephen ” scored ” Robinson is finished all his solo jumps now and is doing his hybrid FS1 , FF1 freefly course with Louis. This is a course that brings him through the BPA fs1 rating and onwards on the journey to Freefly. Stephen is here for another two weeks! He is pictured here with our British Parachute Association Freefly instructor Louis Harwood. What was the name of that nightclub you ****** in Stephen ?

Another of our full time instructors Ulli Bulli is pictured here with Norma who is cracking on and doing just great on her  course. She should be finished tommorow. She is seen here with Tim, her secondary reviewing here level four.

Meanwhile Daniella and Simon are cracking on with their level six and sevens to complete.

Welcome back to Chris Sargant who trained with us earlier in the year. He arrived this afternoon and did a number of solo jumps today and will tommorrow start his advanced parachuting course.

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14th October

Congratulations to todays AFF graduates.

There is a growing number of fun jumpers coming from Northern Europe now that the season is at an end there. We had a freefly team start training here today ( thanks Scotty ..wink ) . They have been busy jumping together and will also take some coaching from our freefly coach Louis Harwood.

Samantha and Amelia who are from Black Knights in the north west have also joined us for a skydiving holiday and are learning to freefly with Louis who is being kept very busy indeed.

We are so busy that once again our second porter is being called into action. Despite some challenging conditions at times we have been doing upwards on fifteen mid week loads and expect to peak at forty five loads between the two porters over the coming weekend.

Welcome also to Sylvan Butt from the UK who is here to learn to skydive. Sylvan is a horticultural specailist from England although from Australia originally. When asked how he felt after his first skydive he said ” im rushing with adrenaline ” .

Another new member of the team joining us from Lillo! Welcome on board to Paula Silva from portugal who will be part of your day at the Freefall University. Paula has 1200 skydives and 1000 base jumps aswell as being a birdman instructor. We have ordered birdman suits of varying sizes.. stay tuned for details of the Freefall University Base and Birdman School.

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15 October 2005

Well a smashing day for all of our students crossing the range of courses ongoing. First to freefly with Louis Harwood who was in Action with Amelia and Samantha picturer here. Samantha is getting the hang of flying on her back and Amelia is doing very well in sit and is pretty close to gaining her BPA FF1 freefly qualification. Samantha is here on the right and Amelia is pictured below.


Congratulations to Ben Lewis who finished his AFF course. He is pictured here on one of his earlier levels with His Instructor Carl Williams from the Silver Stars who will be full time with us this winter.


Danielle who qualified today offers some practical advice in her graduation quotation.. Danielle spent the afternoon solo jumping with her boyfriend Simon who graduated yesterday.

Both are pictured here swapping stories about their jumps.

Meanwhile the freefly boyzzz from the UK are captured during a ” routine ” by Peter the school cameran. They did eight jumps together day and have already booked another holiday with us in a few weeks time when they will return with a few friends.


Chris Sargant is pictured here completing his BPA formation skydiving course. I ament sure what this point is called but it was well built and Chris played a stormer during the course. He has also being trying our range of canopies progressing down a size during his course. He is jumping a Nav 200 now and using our new Icon Containers. He is in the black jumpsuit.


Can I jump again ? No worries. Lets introduce you to Angela who is one of our manifestors. The manifestor is the person responsible for keeping the plane flying with the jumpers who want to jump , getting as many jumps as they want.

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17th October 2005

Welcome back to Thomas Cieslar from Poland who is here for his second holiday having trained last month. He will spend the next week with us fun jumping and consolidating the skills he learnt last month.

Also joining us this week is Mathew Gardner from London. Mathew is no stranger to adventure as he is only back from trekking in Peru.


So check out Paul Goulden from London who joins us for the next week. Paul has never skydived before and when offered our AFF tandem decided he wanted to get straight into the jumping at level one!

Having joined us yesterday here is Jonathan Dennis who took an easyjet from Bristol to learn to skydive with us.

Joe Lamerton from London joins us also. He did a tandem a few years ago in Australia and has wanted to do the AFF couse for ages…now his his chance ! Joe is famous for missing his flights and only made the easyjet to madrid at the last second… he wont be missing any of ours.. to 13oooft!

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Many people have been asking us recently ” will I be the only student there “..will there be lots of other students training at the same time so they can share the fun ..both during the day and at night… the answer is YES.. you will meet lots of people learning at the same as you.. sweet. Laura Caullen from Ireland sent us in this pic of a typical night out in Aranjuez.. remember it gets dark at 7 o clock now… so think about the evening activities!

18th October 2005

Check Toby out! Toby is one of our graduates and previously worked for the Freefall University . He is now taking one of our Bird-Man Courses with Paula Silva our Chief Birdman Instructor.

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20th October 2005

Congratulations to Mathew Gardner who today finished his AFF courseCongratulations to Mathew Gardner who has completed his AFF course today. He trained with Andy Gregory.

Jonathan Denniss also completed his AFF course. Also well done to Jonathan Denniss who has finished his AFF course, hop and pop or level eight and four solo jumps. He is pictured here with Doctor Ulli his AFF Instructor. Ulli is one of our qualified riggers also.

I learned to skydive!

back to skydive with us in Spain is Chris CoveyduckWelcome back to Chris Coveyduck who trained with us last month on an AFF course. Chris will spend the weekend on a formation skydiving course.

21st October 2005

Mathew Gardner has declared that he will be back in a few days and will stay with us for a few weeks ( months ? ) over the winter. He is pictured here getting ready to do another solo.

Welcome to Thomasz from Switzerland is learning to skydive. Thomsz is on level five having started yesterday.

 

Also welcome to Chris Baker from the Isle of Man who is here to learn to skydive with us. Chris is with us for the week.



Welcome to David Christopher Lee from Ireland who is here to learn to skydive and enjoy the nightlife. David works in Saudia Arabia and will be with us for the next ten days.

Also learnng to skydive ( he started with us two days ago ) is Christopher Handley. Christopher is not long back from Florida and had been thinking of doing a tandem untill a hurricane rolled into the coastline… Not to worry he went staight up for a level one AFF jump and has breezed through untill level five..

Welcome also Jeanna from Denmark. Jeanna lives in Germany though and speaking fluent german is learning through German with Ulli Bulli, our multilingual , Base Jumping , wingsuit fandango , all round good egg ( 6000 jumps / 20 years in the Sport ) .. the one the only ..Ulli Bulli!

Also jumping his ass off is Chris Coveyduck from London who spent the last two days going in mantis syle ( formation skydiving to me and you ) with the master of the skies ( hi mike ) Daniel.

 

26th ctober 2005

Congratulations to our graduates! Chris had a fantastic course with Andy is has already completed some solo jumps.


Stephen the same , he has now been solo jumping and you can guess from him quote that he is completley hooked!

Jeana has passed also and we are awaiting her graduation quote. She trained with Doctor Ulli in german. Jeana was a touch nervous at first , but with experienced instructors on her side she passed with flying colours.

David is rocking on and has completed five levels and should complete tommorrow.

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26th October 2005

Welcome to Rhodri Huws, a bar manager from Wales who is here to learn to skydive.

Also joining us is Stephen Freestone from London who is here to learn to skydive on an AFF course.

Robin Harwood has popped down from the UK to check out the dropzone also. He will spend the week fun jumping with us.

Also congratulations to Aimee Herrick who graduated her AFF course. She is pictured here with Houdini one of our Spanish Tandem Masters.

 

28th October

Welcome to Timothy Found who is a Barristar from London. Tim joins us to learn to skydive and will be here for a week.

Meanwhile Packing Lessons for Stephen.


Congratulations to Stephen Freestone who qualified to jump solo today. He had looked at a number of different skydiving courses but felt , quite correctly that AFF was the best method.

So whats all this FS about then?

Meanwhile Rhodri from Wales is all but finished his course and pictured here jumping with Andy Guler who is fresh back from another tunnell training camp in Switzerland.

Well done also to David Christopher Lee who graduated his AFF course . David seems well Impressed with Aranjuez advancing Irish – Spanish relations a great deal..

Tim Found is pictured here being debriefed by his AFF instructor Andy Gregory. Tim is now about to graduate his course.

With the recent clocks change everybody was in Cheers Bar by seven thirty. While much of the population speaks English we are now also preparing a small phrase guide for our students. Sample ” Ola chica , que tal ” = ” How you doin ” .

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29th October

Congratulations to Tim Found who graduate his AFF course in three days of instruction. Tim has already jumped solo and done his hop and pop aswell as taking packing lessons. He will jump his own pack job tommorrow.

Congratulatios also to Rhodri from Wales who graduated the parachuting course with us. 

Congratulations to Chris Baker who qualified to parachute jump  solo and is pictured here after making his way in after landing in one of the biggest landing areas in Europe.


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November 2005


This section chronicles the daily skydiving activities at our school in Ocaña Spain for November 2005.  

1st November 2005

Welcome to Stuart James Abel who has joined us to learn to skydive. He did his ground school yesterday and started jumping this morning with Andy Gregory. By teatime he had completed five skydives.

Also joining us for his second holiday in less than three months is Danny Jenkins. Danny is a soldier on tour in Afghanistan and used his break to squeeze in a spot of jumping. Danny will do a few solos and then get stuck into our formation skydiving course. Danny is an aff student who trained with us here in Ocaña.

Tim Found is cracking on with the solos and also completed his hop and pop.

Grant Raedel also joined us yesterday for a Base jumping course with Ulli and Paula. He has been practicing his canopy skills in advance of his first BASE in the next few days. He is pictured here doing a BASE pack.. as much care goes into this Pack as that of a reserve . Ulli who has thousands of

Congratulations also to Stephen Freestone who finished his AFF course today and qualified to jump solo.

He trained exclusively with Doctor Ulli and is pictured here being presented with his VHS video of all his skydives.

Welcome to Zahid Yousaf who joins us from London. Zahid is an It manager from London and will train one on one with Andy Guler. Zahid arrived yesterday , did his ground school this morning and his level one this evening.

Welcome also to Lee Wood who joins us to learn to skydive. Lee ground schooled today and will jump tommorrow.

So all in all a good day at the Freefall University . We flew fifteen porter loads which aint bad for a tuesday.

A massive congratulations to one of our Instructors – Tim Boyd who got married near his home today to Paula ( Boyd I guess now ! ). All the staff and im sure your students wish you all the joys of marraige . Tim and Paula will spend the next month on honeymoon in Brazil.

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2nd November 2005

Well done to Stuart James Abel from Scotland who graduated his AFF course. He started jumping yesterday and finished today and even had time for a solo this afternoon! He trained with Andrew Gregory.

Stuart decided to think about what he wanted on his graduation quote whilst mulling over a few pints in cheers… so check back in tommorrow to see what he has to say..

Zahid and Lee did three jumps each today, they had the opportunity for more but wanted to take it easy. Zahid is on level five next and Lee on level four. Danny Jenkins did another five solos.

Stephen is pictured here with Andy. Stephen is looking rather happy with himself as he has just jumped his own pack job. Two days ago Stephen didnt know anything about packing but has been working with Andy. Stephen decided to open early ( 6000ft on the jump ) to ” be sure ” … he need not have worried .. he said it was one of his best openings yet.

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2nd November.

A bit windy for student jumping today. However we did run continuation courses. Kevin Dawes joined arrived last night for to undertake our BPA FS1 certification program. He is pictured here with Louis our primary freefly coach ( Avalore ) .

Kevin did five training jumps with Louis and then did the certification dive which he nailed ! Congratulations Kevin.

Kevin will now start training with Paula Silva and start his birdman training. Profits from our AFF courses continue to be ploughed into our continuation courses and we have ordered another three birdman suits. Two staff have also bought suits. We now have people registered for our birdman camp on the 27th of December, there are some slots available still, contact us for details. You must have a minimum of 200 jumps to take part.

Andy found a picture from our recent wind tunnell training camp in Switzerland. We will run another tunnell camp, this time in England in the Bedford wind tunnell in Jan of 2006.

Grant Raedel and Ulli have gone of base jumping and Grant has done his first base! He and Ulli have made a total of four bridge jumps today.

3rd November

Congratulations to Lee Wood who finished his AFF course today. Lee is here for another week and will occupy himself solo jumping , learning to pack and course course ( and he is a Scotsman ) sampling the night life in Aranjuez.

Freefly action today for Kevin aswell as the groundschool for his first Birdman flight tommorrow. Also training was Freefly Avalore. Rob McVeigh took this picture of David Downham and Louis in action over the Freefall University Ocaña.

This branch of freeflying is known as head down and you can learn to fly like this on one of our freefly courses.

Also joining us again is Ian Newlands who learned to skydive with us in September of this year. Ian popped down from the UK to escape the english weather and to get his first jumps in on his new rig which he bought through our shop here in Ocaña.

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4th November

Your ba**s get bigger when you graduate! Check out Stuart James Abel pictured in the middle as he strides towards the aircraft for another solo jump , flanked by Tim Found and Lee Wood.

Congratulations to Kevin Dawes who did his first birdman flight today. Kevin managed a flight of 1 minutes 30 seconds on his suit which is amazing for a first flight! Especially as Beginner birdmen open at 5000ft.

Welcome back to Brett Shepherd from the UK who did his AFF course with us in Ocaña. Brett has returned to do some more solo jumping for a long weekend.

Brett took along his brother for a long weekend in Aranjuez. Darryl used the opportunity to try skydiving on one of our tandem skydives and loved the expereine so much that he now describes himself as ” hooked ” . He will be back next year to do our AFF course.

5th November

Welcome to Alan Jones from London who joins us to learn to skydive. He did his ground school this afternoon and will be on the first load tommorrow. He is training exclusivley with the Doctor..

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6th November

Alan Jones did well today and completed the first four levels of his AFF course. He will be on level five tommorrow morning.

Congratulations to Justin Thwaite who todaty achieved his FF1 Freefly rating. This certifies him to jump with other freeflyers in the seated position or sit fly.
He is pictured here with Louis Harwood his coach.

He is seen here towards the end of his dive recieving a signal from Louis.


Meanwhile Kevin Dawes is up to fifteen birdman flights and is now back coaching with Paula our Birman Instructor. They did some dives to practice the skills required to flock dive ( flying together in large groups ).

Welcome back to MAthew Gardner who trained with us last month. Mathew has found an apartment in Aranjuez and is now a resident jumper at the dropzone and will be here for the next few months at least.

11th November 2005

Sorry theres not been more updates recently but myself and the PC became seperated for a few days. We have tons going on. Lets start here:

Welcome to Richard Cann who is here to complete his BPA FS1 formation skydiving course. Richard is from London. He is jumping with Oscar.

Also welcome to Stephen Bury who is here also to to his fs1 formation skydiving certificate. He is jumping with Josh Burill ( BPA AFF and FS1 instructor ) who competes in UK skydiving based team Southparc (13.5 Average seniors ).

Welcome to Katy Hearn from London who is here to learn to skydive. She is jumping with doctor Ulli and did two skydives this afternoon and is on level three next. She did so well she was released on her first jump by her secondary instructor.

Welcome also to Rachel Wenham who is here to do our beginners accelerated freefall course. She is training with Andy Guler. She did three skydives today again cracking and is on level four.

Welcome also to Kevin Pinkstone who is here to learn to skydive. Kevin is training with Andy Gregory and did three skydives today also. Kevin said when i spoke with him ” cant think ,, cant talk ..too much adrenaline ” ..

Meanwhile
some returning students, welcome to Sylvan Butt who is here again having been with us only last month.

Dan Atkins from Ireland joins us for another weekend of jumping .Danny trained with is in early 2004.

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14th November .

Check out our wind tunnel trips. Join the growing gang ( 9.5 hours now for December so not much time left ) . Or why not join our Jan Dates ? Details available here. These camps are managed by our formation skydiving director , Andy Guler

18th November


Sorry , updates are a little thin on the ground! We have been working on other projects. Here is Rachel Wenhams Graduation photo..well done!

Carl Williams says to say “hello” to all the lurkers out there..

Kevin Pinkstone is doing great, he has one more jump to make to qualify to jump solo.

Welcome Also to Katie Wilson who started her AFF in earnest today. Katie is doing really well and should finish tommorrow.

Whats with all the ” Wilsons” this week ? Here is Adam who has also joined us to learn to skydive and is doing well.

The last of the Wilsons ! Here is Brian Wilson from Scotland who is also here on an AFF course.

ok, update. Kevin Pinkstone graduated !

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We were also joined by Okan Akin from London who joins us to complete an introduction to skydiving . He completed some jumps today.

Welcome back to Ben Lewis, Aimee Gregory ( who recently got married to one of our AFF instructors Andy Gregory ) and Paul Anker who are back for some fun jumping. Paul trained with the Freefall University and purchased his equipment thourgh the Freefall University. Aerodyne is becoming a major partner to the Freefall University. We recently orderd another 3 sets of kit with them for the school .


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19th November 2005

So well done to todays graduates! First up is Katie Wilson. Katie also complete some solo jumps and her BPA level 8.

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Adam Wilson , also graduated , jumped solo and completed his AFF level 8.

Welcome to Irene from Australia , but living in London for a few months who joins us for a basic formation skydiving course.

Welcome to John Land from London who joined us for his skydiving lessons today. John will spend the next week with us.

Welcome to AJ from the US who is here to learn to skydive with us. AJ is training with Andy Gregory.

Ruth Bridge a former student of Ulli Bulli popped in to see us, it was a flying visit she came down from the UK with her brother to watch him do a tandem skydive as a surprise for his 40th birthday.

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20th November 2005

Congratulations to John Land from Scotland who completed his aff course today.

21st November 2005
Congratulations to Brian Wilson from Scotland who finished his AFF course today.


Pete Clarke also popped in for the weekend to get some freefly training with Louis. We just discovered Louis and his Team Avalore.

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22nd November 2005


Kevin Pinkstone is racking up the jumps now and has extended his stay with us by another week. This is the second such extenstion to Kevins holiday… perhaps hes not gonna go home…

Another AFF student learning to skydive with us at the moment is Shaun Trigg from the UK. Shuan works in Iraq and joined us for his holiday leave.

23rd November

Congratulations to AJ who completes his AFF courses and is now skydiving solo to beat the band.

The Swiss four way team are also in training hard this week , so the porter is up and down like a yo yo. Dont be surprised if we break the school record for the number of solos done be a recent student done in a day which currently stands at nine solo jumps. These guys are top notch and time spent with any of them on our Formation skydiving courses is time well spent. They give you a firm foundation in more than the basics.

They are also jumping eight way.

We just found a picure of our DZ taken by a satelite. You can see the facilities, but also the landing area which extends well beyond the runway to the left. This is great expecially for people who are learning to jump. Obstacle free and HUGE are the watchwords. The size of the landing area will make a difference to how comfortable you feel when learning , you can learn to land accuratley , because its a good skill to have as opposed to worrying about having to land accuratley or else… click to see our DZ from Space . You can zoom in and out to take a closer look.

24th November

check out the Sunset photo from this evenings 8 way… Toby Zumsteg clicked this one just as the team fell level with the sunset on the horizon.

Congratulations to Katy Hearn who completed her AFF training in Netheravon last weekend. Katy spent a few days training with us and then continued from where she left off in the UK and finished levels 5,6,7 and eight with flying colours!

Congratulations also to Shaun Trigg who graduted his AFF courses with us. We are awaiting his graduation picture.

Greetings from the ” THRILL SEEKERS ” . And John , do apologise you are of course from London! This picture was taken in Cheers Bar , where the bar maids are pretty , speak English and serve cracking beer. People generally hang out here before heading of to the Avalon or Hangar Bar for late night antics..

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29th November 2005

The Swiss mixed it up today with some local jumpers. Toby whos been a busy cameraman this week took this picture.

So well done to Paula Silva who today qualified as a USPA coach and AFF Instructor. Paula is slowly adding to her qualifications . Birdman , base and now AFF!.

November the 29th.

Welcome to Gareth Couldrey who joined us today to complete his aff course.

Welcome to Mark Rees who joined us today also to complete an AFF course.

Welcome also to Clive Courtney pictured here with Ulli our rigger learning to pack parachutes . Clive is learning to pack his new set of gear supplied by the Freefall University. We can supply a number of brands through our onsite shop.

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Gareth did three AFF levels today with Bristol Andy. Sweet as a nut on level three Gareth is on level four tommorrow.


Welcome to Andy Star , Andy is Active Skydiving trained. He joins us for a weeks fun jumping. He has tried his hand at birdman already.

Welcome back to Sam Davies , who joined us again for some furhter freefly lessons .

Mark Rees is thundering on also and did his level three today with doctor Ulli 🙂 He will do level four tommorrow.

Amelia is also back for another weeks jumping.

quick link:

Tandem skydiving in Spain