Welcome to the Freefall University just south of Madrid. Were having a ton of fun on our dropzone. The weather is great, the beer is cold and the skydiving just south of Madrid in Spain is top drawer.

1st Feb 2006:

Luci Boella is back with the team! Luci was the second AFF instructor in the school and many of you who trained with us will know her as she has 200 graduations over her time for the Freefall University. More recently she took some time out to pursue her advanced ratings. She is now an AFF instructor Evaluator and a coach course director. From early this month onwards Luci will manage our AFF instructors training programme part time, but will spending must of her time teaching AFF. Luci will be with us full time. Welcome back Luci.

Thinking of buying kit? Make sure you talk to us about our gear programme. If you are happy to have the School Crest on your rig you will recieve a substantial discount on the cost. Call or email us and one of our riggers will be happy to have a chat with you further about the programme.

We are now also working on our expansion programme for the dropzone. We have installed four new modules to house our growing departments to make sure you are trained in comfort and have more recreation space. We have also finalized the contract with a building company to build the second bar/ cafe for the DZ which will overlook the landing area.

.

3rd February 2006

Ok the first of our guests for the next week have arrived. Welcome to Billy Gibbons who was with us only last month and who comes back for a weeks freefly coaching with Louis.

Billy trained with the FFU early in 2005 and now has 150 jumps. He has had several holidays with us and this is his second this year in Ocaña.

Wasting no time , we got straight into it and Billy was soon up in the air for his first coached dive. Billy is quite close to achieving his BPA FF1 qualification. We are the only dropzone in Madrid who can issue this qualification and the only school in Spain to have recieved the new BPA coaches rating certification.

.

4th Feb 2006

Louis and Billy are up and down like yo yos today completing seven skydives together. Billy is just about to get his FF1 rating and each video we see in the debriefing room Billy is just getting better and better..

Welcome to Chris from London and Katie who is here to complete the AFF beginners course.

Welcome also to the first group of fun jumpers and static line students coming from London also. They will spend the next week doing varied jumps , some fun jumping, some taking coaching and some who will progress on the RAPS system. We have a BPA RAPS instructor onsite to help them along 🙂

Aimee has joined us now and we wish her every success in her position and also with her events company ” skydiving in the Sun “.

In the background you can see Paula in one of the admin offices working away. Paula is our BASE and Birdman coach.
.

5th Feb 2006.

Meanwhile another AFF student just arrived James from North London is picture here on his way to the aircarft for AFF level one. James went on to complete two levels having done his ground school this morning.

Welcome to the “Lost boys” ! Ben Woods, Matt Powell ,Stephen Jefferson and Richard Houghton are a group of friends from the North of England who here to learn to skydive with us. They had a good night in Madrid last night and made it to the dropzone today, we will get into ground school tommorrow :¨) Our holidays are ideal for groups.

Welcome back to Paul Wainright who trained with us last month up to level six. Paul is here for the rest of the week and his sister ( who I guess caught the ” bug ” from Paul ) will be joining us later in the week to do the AFF course also.

Meanwhile Kate and Ulli are doing just great. Kate arrived yesterday and did her ground school and her first two levels and is doing fab!

.

6th Feb 2006

Kate is almost there, after her second day here she has only her level seven to go and will do that in the morning with Tim. Shes pictured here tellling Billy how she started a loop in freefall.

James from London cracked on the max after starting back at this afternoon and is on level five with doctor Ulli in the morning.

Also finishing in style today is Paul Wainright who over a few days completed AFF level one to six with us earlier in the year. Paul commented that his first solo was unforgettable , in particular respect of the time he had in freefall. Were edging up to14K now ( but dont generally go past that ). Did you know ??? : That it takes 12 seconds to fall the first thousand feet as you accelerate to ” terminal velocity” and then 4 – 5 seconds for each thousand feet fter that.

Paul went on to do five solos today and will now do his BPA CH1 canopy handling course.

Billy Gibbons Freefall University Graduate from last year now with 150 jumps is officially a freeflier and qualified to do so with other people. Billy did his course with Louis Harwood from avalore freefly.

Well done Billy , now you have to start working in your BPA FF2 which Louis can also issue.. look forward to seeing the graduation video. Billy decided to do a ” practive dive ” for the small freefall exam and practiced so well Louis told him he had passed that there was no need to do another jump. Billy however went full on and started to work on more advanced skills with Louis.

Well done to John Walters on achieving his 15″ delay on the BPA raps programme.

We have a fast turn around dz even mid week which is well suited to static line progression. We feel this is one of our defining factors ..we gaurantee flight midweek and plenty of it! This means very simply you will get the jumps you want , even Monday to Wednesday as we have ” enough going on to fly the plane”.

Torin, a madrid jumper and graduate of our sister school for Spanish students ( Aero Libre which means roughly ” Freedom Air ” ) dropped in to take advantage of the weather and mid week jumping. He trained last year with Christian and now has over 100 jumps.

“Boarding call ..boarding call pilatus thirteen” … meet Sonia . Its quite difficult to describe the cutest spanish English , but Sonia will have you scurrying to the boarding area to catch the ” Freefall Express ” .

Meet Chris Buse . John popped down from the UK for a few days jumping ( relative worker ) and is lapping up the Spanish weather.

Did you know ??

The amount you shit yourself before a jump squared is equal to the rush of adrenaline you feel when you pull it off ? Why else would we do it ? Thats what Paul figured out when he completed his unstable exit on the RAPS system today. Paul is down from a group from London Parachute School – the closest dz to london.

Stephan who did his ground school this morning got into the air this evening for his first jump. What a stormer, one legs out signal and that was it! Perfect canopy control and a tippy toe landing.. level two plus tommorrow. Well done and welcome to the sport of skydiving!

He is part of a group from a London based film company so were making sure they have lots of footage to walk away with so they make up their own holiday DVD. We do give all our student DVD´s but, well , were professional skydivers and these guys probably have nicer toys to edit on..

As for the rest of the gang , they all did level one today also and with an instructor each they will be finished in no time at all. Well keep you posted.

Have to admit the buzz was electric as the porter fired up to take the three guys on their level ones to altitude. There was a mixture of anxiety in the air aswell as excitement ,,mix that with turbines starting , the smell of Jet – A1 ..fantastic .. brings back memories of my own first jump in the IPC.

So folks stay tuned , same bat time , same bat channell.
.

Tuesday 7th Feb 2006.

Well done Katie ! Level seven finished and the first few solos already!

Thanks to one student, one instructor ( a promise we actually deliver ) and the glorious weather Katie finished in three days from start of ground school to qualification.

Paul is now working on his all round skills following our consolidation jump programme , so far he has done five solos today.

Ben Woods is now on level four having started yesterday morning. he is training with Andy from Bristol.

Matthew Powell is now on level four also and is getting right through it with Tim Boyd from London who is his main instructor.

Meanwhile people are welcome to demo our Firebirds if they already own suits but havent had the chance to fly the latest generation suit !

Here is a photo of Matthew getting ready to do his Level five which is the first solo exit of the aff courses ( you jump from the plane without your instructor holding onto you but he stays really close to watch ).

..And they are gone. Tim is slightly above Matthew for the best video angle. Tim like all our instructors wears an ” instructor cam ” ..this footage forms part of your DVD of your course.

A growing freefly scene in Ocaña.. Nasco and Peter exit the Porter for another freefly jump. The Freefall University is a training dropzone..even midweek you will have no bother finding a jump partner to practice your skills with between jumps. Thier is a broad range of talents on the DZ and many of our ( non instructional )staff will be happy to jump with you if you ask.

Another exit shot! Here is Doctor Ulli exiting with Richard for his level six.

Mr. Carpenter what an unexpected pleasure .. feel free to drop in any time! Mike is from the ” famous british freefly team “… Freefly Euphoria..

.

.

Wed 8th April

Well done to James Mundy who graduated his AFF courses and is now skydiving solo. Also graduating last night was Mathew Powell ,Richard Houghton and Ben Woods.

Our cameramen are lovin it! And they are getting some great shots too. Paul Wainright took one up to get some piccies of a solo jump ( hes done all his consolidation jumps now in a day and a half ). Here are three shots from the skydive.

Is the exit the best part ?

Terminal Velocity …you can barely hear yourself scream …yet its not loud…its more that your voice is carried away by the wind passing.

Time for a backloop … the more you go on , the more you will try .. in comfort.

Well done Paul!

So another great day at the Uni with many more to come. We are recieving emails from people booked on our courses over the next few weeks… not long to go for some of you! Kieron White ,,especially thanks for your message. There are five other budding skydivers coming your week, so no ..you wont party alone 🙂

Thursday 9th Feb 2006

Welcome to Rachel Wenham who joins us for another holiday in Ocaña. Rachel has thirty five jumps and will be here for the next ten days. She originally trained with us last November.

Ben is pretty chuffed with himself , he has just done his first consolidation jump. He is pictured here with Anfy Gregory who was his AFF instructor.

Friday 10th Feb 2006 :

Welcome Ian Fletcher from the UK who is here to complete an AFF course. Ian is from the UK and his instructor is Luci Boella.

Well done to Stephan Jefferson who finished his AFF course in style!

Here Stephan and Ulli exchange thumbs up on the level seven . Smashing course Stephan well done !

Welcome to Penelope Strickland from New Zealand who joins us for a weeks holiday to learn to skydive. Penelope arrived in last night , but not jet lagged at all she was in ground school this morning and has already completed her first level of AFF.

.

Saturday 11th of February.

The lost boys ( Northern Contingent ) spent their last days jumping here today doing five jumps each. They did an average of 25 jumps each during their week with us. A nice ambience , but twinged with sadness as they go back to work on Monday. They are taking a Saturday night out in Madrid and given Madrid nights out wont be in shape for jumping tomorrow. Here Richard gets ready for one last jump.

Jet Lag got the better of Penelope who did two jumps and is on level four next tommorrow morning.

We are joined by Louise Wainright from the UK who initially came to do our skydiving introduction course , but got bitten by the bug and went onto complete here AFF level two this evening . All this after a 1-1 ground school this morning. She will decide overnight wether to go all out and finish the course tommorrow before heading home on Monday or come back in a few weeks to have more time 🙂

Scotty and Louis were taking it handy today. Louis is booked for the next few weeks with a few groups coming for freefly coaching and fun jumping in general. If your looking for your FF1 or FF2 then Louis is your man.

The Staff like to jump together now and again ..a nice tracking dive on the sunset load.

Meanwhile Stephan decided what he would like written on his graduation quote.

.
So folks stay tuned to the action .. the Ocaña buzz is growing and we are all enjoying what we are doing 🙂