Not everyone will be involved in all the record jumps, so the Skywalkers will be on hand to organise a separate group to be used as a group to feed into all record attempts.

More info to come over the next few months as the planning evolves. If you want to make the event, then make sure you get to one of the warm up camps organised by the BLTs:

• 30-31 July at Skydive Hibaldstow organised by Daniel Parker
• 24-26 August at Skydive Hibaldstow organised by Matthew O’Riordan, Jim Harris and Mike Carpenter from Volare

If you intend on coming to the UK record, then please register your interest on the Facebook event for the UK record.

Feel free to contact the guys at team@thebadlieutenants.com​ or the team Facebook page if you have any questions.

2011 is looking good, let’s super size it!

This years Eurosequentials was announced early in the year, and saw the introduction of a new venue. I think all participants were excited to see that this year we would be traveling to Rome to perform in an arena 15,000 feet above the coliseum.

The Eurosequentials has now become a well established invitational event bringing together some of the worlds best flyers from the tunnels and skys of Europe with the aim of performing 25 jumps over 3 days. These jumps had been constructed and thought out in advance by 2 of the worlds leading flyers and organisers (Mikey Carpenter and Fabian Raidel), with the aim of pushing the boundaries of sequential group flying. These skydives, planned and performed, encompassed launching an 8 way base from a Cessna Caravan, Launching 2 four way round bases simultaneously, building a 9 way head down  round with half of the flyers outfacing and then constructing a 3 way round in the centre which then eagled out to a head up round as the 9 way round reconstructed around it again with half the performers outfacing, a 12 way sequential jump with 5 points where pieces rotated around, and culminated in a 12 way head up round, constructing a head up line crossed by a head down line of flyers, then the head down flyers moving up and rotating the line 180 degrees above the head up flyers before coming back down to re form a cross, and then moving into an infinity shaped formation with all flyers outfacing, an 8 way rotating base with 4 flyers stinging and then releasing simultaneously to half eagle the rotating base and re-sting on the opposite flyer (guess you have to see the video for this one!), and a couple of tracking dives with a twist, one of the track dives saw the 2 organisers leading 2 separate groups of flyers and leading the flyers so that the 2 formations crossed over and under each other.
Obviously the jumps were the highlight of this event, but one other amusing and noteworthy item from my log book was…

“First jump Sequentials 2011. Cessna Caravan ran in at 14,500 feet, 2 rear floaters and one front floater climbed out. 8 way base began to climb out, and from my position in the base outside the door, I felt the plane becoming unstable, and watched as the horizon went from where it should be, to 45 degrees, I realised we were stalling, and just had time to reflect on how happy I was to be already outside of the plane, before the words GO…GO…GO… cut through the background noise of wind blast and shuffling in the door. The exit resembled seeds scattered from a poppy in the breeze, and thankfully all were unharmed. Obviously the pilot had been briefed on our planned exit prior to take off, but had not realised how much speed he really needed to run in with, to allow for about 8 skydivers to hang off the side of his plane.”

The moral being, try and predict safety issues whenever you can, but always be prepared for the unexpected, stuff sometimes just jumps up and bites you! The pilot did an excellent job in the situation, and for the rest of the jumps exit involved climbing out, no flaps at MAC 1!

Participating at this event… Andy Lovemore (event organiser and flyer), Mikey Carpenter (jump organiser), Fabian Raidel (jump organiser), Max Heim (video) Markus Schwarz, Frazer Smith, Haavard Flaat, Kristian Moxnes, Gregor Vandeneynden (Sonic), Peter Nilsson, Andrea Fast Scarramuzza, Adrian Wild,
and  3 of The BadLieutenants, Martin Reynolds, Matt O’Riordan and Dan Parker.

Big thanks to all the sponsors of this event, Bottrop (wind tunnel), Sonic (suit manufactures), 90 Percent (magazine) and Vector (Rig manufacturer)

Finally, Speaking on behalf of all the participants, a big thankyou to Andy Lovemore (www.andrewlovemore.com) who spent a lot of time and effort organising this event (sponsors, location, flyers, excellent evening entertainment etc…) we all realise these events don’t just happen, so thanks for stepping up to the plate and organising another successful Eurosequentials. Andy has also had the foresight to organise very successful training events prior to the Eurosequentials, with the aim of training up and bringing in new talent to the Eurosequentials group in the future, and anyone interested in this kind of flying should keep an eye out for future Eurosequential warm up events.

Martin (The BadLieutenants)

The Bad Lieutenants would also like to take this opportunity to say a big thanks again to all of their team sponsors in no particular order!
British Parachute Association,
Skydive Spain,
Performance Designs,
Airkix,
Velocity Sports Equipment
Vertical Suits
Larsen and Brusgaard,
Talent Stream
And finally a big thankyou and welcome to our latest, and prestigious sponsor, Airtec Cypres

Thanks
The Bad Lieutenants

Next came the Huck Jam, it was a little more of a quite affair than the last but it proved that bigger is not always better . We changed the format for this one a little and split the sessions in two half’s. The first half everyone was separated into smaller groups depending on their requirements and a Lieutenant organised the flying time. The second half took the American approach of turning the tunnel on full blast and everyone piling in and out as they pleased. Respect was shown to each other and everyone finished the session with a big smile on their face after lots of time flown with a mixed bag of experience levels. Expect this format to be repeated.

Onto the serious stuff. The team has just completed a weeks training at Airkix Manchester, there are new additions to the dive pool this year and its been a blast getting to grips with them and continuing to progress with the original elements. Thanks to the staff at the tunnel who are always great and thanks to Julien who was great when he was there;-)

Easter weekend (22-25 April) sees us organising the scrambles down at Skydive Hibaldstow, We’ll be there from Friday morning and registration for the scrambles closes that evening at 10pm. This is a fantastic opportunity to come down jump with some people you might not usually jump with, have some fun and maybe grab the glory. The competition takes place Saturday and Sunday and the other two days we will be available for coaching and organising. We hope you’ve all had a great start to the year and we’d love you to come to some of our events, check the calendar for details or get in touch with us at team@thebadlieutenants.com

The Bad Lieutenants.

A massive Happy New Year from the BLT’s!

It’s been a while since we posted something, big slap on the wrists for the BLT’s on that one, our bad!

So what have we been up to since the last write up?

The Skydive Spain Xmas Boogie has just been and gone. Jim and James were out in Seville representing for the BLT’s along with Mikey C, Stephanie Soria and Andrew Lovemore who all helped cook up some major Xmas pie fun for those in attendance. The boogie ended with a brilliant double tube jump, participants all around, smiles everywhere!!!!

Thanks to everyone who came to Seville to jump, the Boogie was lots of fun, even if it meant jumping with the Finns and Norgies!!!  Just kidding, you guys rocked the skies! Shame you couldn’t drink as fast the BLT’s in the boat race!

Jim has also been busy with his Track Dayz camps in Seville, keep your eyes peeled for more of his wicked skydiving events over the winter months in the warm weather of Seville.

Dan and James have also been running 4-way VFS tunnel camps which have been a great success!!! Think Claudio, Will Blackie, Tiziana and Jay Southall might be kicking our asses soon! Nice work guys!

So what has 2011 got in store? Event dates are soon to be released, but there are Huck Jam’s a plenty, 2 scrambles, another UK head down record attempt, head down skills camps, a trip to Empuria for the 2011 Euro head down record attempts, UK nationals, 8-way FS vs FF speed skydiving and of course some monthly Hibaldstow organising!!!!!

Irrespective if you like the tunnel or the skies, 2011 is shaping up to be a massive year!!!! Bring it on.

Don’t forget the BPA AGM hosted at the Hilton in Coventry on Saturday 22 January 2011. It’s always a riot, so get involved and meet new and old friends alike.

Keep your eyes peeled for the soon to be releases dates!

Have a great 2011 everyone!

The BLT’s

The last weekend of August provided us with a nice long bank holiday so there was only one thing to do, set a new UK head down record! In addition to the head down skills camp held earlier in the year, Jim Harris was on hand with Adam Mattacola’s help for the 3 days leading up to the record weekend to provide some warm up jumps, a last minute opportunity for people to show their stuff or just get some cool jumps in! The weekend was not kind weather wise, but Saturday allowed us to jump all day. We started with all the participants splitting into 3 groups for some warm up jumps before starting with the record attempts. After 3 attempts and a few adjustments we ended the day with a new 22-way head down record on the final jump! Perfect, it’s always good to get a new record set! Sunday was not kind weather wise, so the event was called with Monday’s weather looking even worse. It was a shame as having done only 3 attempts we were confident of going bigger. It was also a massive shame as people who had been waiting to be added didn’t get the chance to attempt a record and the record stood at the 22 set on the Saturday. A massive thanks to everyone for turning up, especially those who didn’t get to jump but were involved in the process. It always sucks waiting on the bench, looking at the decisions being made, but unfortunately its part of big ways. We really hope everyone learnt something, even if it was just experiencing the process of a big way!!!! Next year we go bigger and everyone will know what to expect! Special thanks to Performance Designs in the form of Dedric for turning up and supporting the event, very cool to have you there!

Record Holders:  Jason Southall, James Davies, Dumi Ndlouv, Martin Reynolds, Frazer Smith, Daniel Parker, Andy Newell, Mike Carpenter, Claudio Lettieri, Adam Mattacola, David Joyner, Chris Lynch, Glen Phillips, Alistair Milne, Mark Joyner, Kurmet Jaadla, Matt O’Riordan, David Pacey, Andy Ford, Charlotte Kemp, Catriona Adams & Jim Harris.

Cameras:  Olly Burgin & Axel Zohmann

The following weekend saw a free weekend, so a couple of the BLT’s headed out to Ibiza to show off their stella tans and rippled bodies. Well rested, Matt, Dan & James headed to Langar for Langar Boogie 2. Saturday saw some fantastic activity and a lot of freeflyers jumping. A full Beech 99 tracking load was managed along with some really fun head up jumps. The final Saturday night of the boogie lived up to the reputation and took a few victims. Fortunately Martin Reynolds was on hand in the morning before the bad weather dispersed people.

From Langar Boogie 2 it was on to the Euro Sequentials for the better looking BLT’s. Once again James remained in England. Mikey C and Fabian Raidel were once again on hand to organise the cream of Europe’s freeflyers. Two 10-way groups jumped consistently at Skydive Spain for 4 days, making some awesome jumps. Babylon, BLT’s Volare, Skywalkers, Axis 21, Frazer & Kurmet all pitched up to make the event a fantastic experience! Nice one Mr Lover Loverman for arranging it once again. Looks like freefly in Europe goes from strength to strength at all levels!

This weekend sees Matt and James coaching at Dunkeswell as part of the BPA road show. Remember, if you’re a BPA member, just pitch up, pay 2 jump tickets and you get free coaching from the boys. Not a bad deal, so come make the most of it! Hibaldstow’s Dornier is joining the Beech 99, so fast jump turn arounds will be the order of the day!

Other upcoming cool events include Huck Jams, tunnel camps and the 8-way FS vs FF at Hibaldstow on the 9-10^th October. If you haven’t got a team together yet make one! It was an awesome event last year. Check the facebook page or www.thebadlieutenants.com for information on the rules!

Ok guys, hasta la pasta, until next time!

The Bad Lieutenants

A quick shout out to the BLT’s coach Julien Guiho who is a member of the French 4Speed team, nice one mate, and to Cyril Colin who finishes his competitive career as a world champion in VFS (2010) and freestyle (2006)!!! Not bad for baguette eaters…….

Also massive respect to Al & Pixie for their silver medal in freestyle (hard work, talent and dedication do pay off), the other GB medal winners Volare (freefly silver) and Team Bodyflight (silver female 4-way) and GB team Satori who shredded in the ultra competitive open 4 way FS competition. Nice one people!

For the BLT’s it was great to win the bronze medal, but we’re also looking forward to pushing on and bridging the gap between the top two teams. The French showed it’s possible, so time for another team to make it up there, especially as the SoCal, Paraclete and Chicago Standard guys are also out there!!!

After dodging the fires in southern Moscow, by hiding in the bars and night clubs of Moscow, we finally made it back to the UK just in time for a few days off before heading to Skydive Hibaldstow on the 14-15 August for the UK VFS nationals.

Unfortunately our fantastic cameraman, Matt, couldn’t be with us for the weekend due to personal commitments, so Andy Newell jumped in to help us out. A big thank you to Andy Newell of Dark Side freefly for helping us out at the last minute. Andy is one of the most experienced and skilled freeflyers in the UK, so it was great to have him on board.

This year the competition was made up of 3 teams, nice one to the local guys for sticking a scratch team in and checking it out! The Manchester Airkix guys pushed us close with some really cool skydives, although some of those tunnel rats did land in the muddy fields! By the end of the competition we ended up a few points ahead of our tunnel mates to take the 2010 UK National title. Finally…….

After some dodgy weather early on Saturday morning, 57 FS teams were finished by 2pm on the Sunday. Can anyone else in the UK run the nationals like Hibaldstow? A massive thanks to the dropzone management for an awesome job!!!

Moving on, we look forward to the UK head down record attempts on the 28-30^th of August. Remember, Jim Harris and our good friend Adam Mattacola (Killa) will be on hand from the 25-27^th August at Hibaldstow for some last minute warm up jumps and opportunity to show your stuff. From the Saturday onwards it’s record attempt time, so no try outs! This year we’re looking to break into the mid 20’s, it should be great, especially if we beat the attempts from our good friends in Norway!!!

Watch out over the next few months for 4 way VFS camps, huck jams, end of season events and other dates to register in the diary! 2010 is not finished yet!

And finally, a massive thanks to all our sponsors and people who helped us out this year: Skydive Hibaldstow / Spain; British Parachuting Association; Velocity sports (Infinity rigs); Performance Designs; Airkix; Talent Stream; Vertical Suits & L&B

See you at the 2010 UK head down record weekend suckers!!!

The Bad Lieutenants

Wednesday was spent recovering from the long and tiring trip, Friday was used for training jumps, whilst Saturday saw the last few practice jumps and Sunday the opening ceremony and initial competition rounds for 4-way. VFS was stood down until Monday, which allowed the local hospitality and culture to be enjoyed before experiencing a very warm welcome from the town of Menzelinsk at the opening ceremony. We finally got to sample what it may be like to be a rock star, if only for 2 hours………

So on to the competition. Round 1 saw a draw of 7-J-K with the French team 4 speed leading the way with a score of 26, the reigning World Cup champions Arsenal 21, the BLT’s 16, Germany 13, Belgium 9 and the Russians 6. We were super happy with the first round, a really clean jump and a great start to our competition. Round 2 saw the potentially the most difficult round. The BLT’s scored 9 with one bust but with a relatively safe but reliable strategy. The slow round was also reflected in the top team’s scores of 16 (France) and 17 (USA). The final round for the morning was 12-B-E which were really happy with, a score of 20 giving a 12 point advantage in the round over the fourth placed German team. America and France continued to dominate with scores of 34 and 36 respectively.

Day 1 finished, can’t wait for tomorrow. Check out some of the photos from the last few days. There are DZ pictures, fellow competitors, opening ceremony and 2 people stuck in a lift for 1.5 hours……… I wonder who that could have been!

The BLT’s

Official web-page:

http://www.wpc2010.skyjump.ru/

Results:

http://www.omniskore.com

Photos so far:

http://thebadlieutenants.com/photos/?album=1&gallery=10

Video from the first day

http://thebadlieutenants.com/videos/world-championship-day-1/

The month kicked off with the UK edition of the Funshine Boogie at Hibaldstow. The Funshine Boogies continue to go from strength to strength in both the UK and Spain. The basic concept of walking a fine line between a boogie and coaching is ever present. Coupled with an enthusiastic atmosphere Dan, Matt and James had a great time working the boogie at Skydive Hibaldstow. A massive thanks to everyone who made it to the boogie, we can’t wait forward to being involved in the next one!

The next weekend saw Matt and James heading out to Voss in Norway for the Nordic Meet Training event with Martin Kristensen (Voss Ventus) and Kristian Moxnes (Skywalkers). The boys made some fantastic tracking jumps in the mountains before living it up Voss style!!! It was great to jump and socialise with old friends in Norway. It’s a shame that there isn’t any more free time in the schedule to hit Norway up again. Voss is a fantastic playground with some great events throughout the summer season. If you haven’t heard of the Skywalkers Boogie, Extremeveko or the Freefly Festival at Skydive Voss, get online and check them out, they’re well worth hitting up.

Following on from the Voss trip, the BLT’s met up for a weekend of team training with Jim Harris flying in from Skydive Spain. After the volcanic disruption to the first week’s training camp, it was good for the boys to get some jumps in. Hibaldstow once again looked after the team with their fast Dornier lifts, affording 10 training jumps on each day.

Next up was the 2^nd Freefly Scrambles at Hibaldstow. 14 people entered the FF1 category, 11 the FF2. The event gives people an opportunity to meet and jump with new people, whilst also experiencing a fun and social competition. After the dust settled, Karen Bain took the bragging rights in the FF1 event, followed by Dave Thompson and Lizzie Compton. In the FF2 category, Dan Parker finished in the top spot when it looked like Matthew O’Riordan was set to take the title. After a mentally challenging final round, Frazer Smith took the second spot, James Davies the third with Matt dropping to fourth. The Saturday night saw the competitors make full use of the free BBQ and Hibaldstow bar. All those who attended agreed they learnt a lot from jumping with different people and watching the other’s jumps.

May was finished off with Jim and James organising and coaching at the Funshine Boogie in Seville. If you haven’t heard of the event, check out www.funshineboogie.com or just search the name in YouTube. This event goes from strength to strength and is always over subscribed. The latest Spanish edition saw a great line up of organisers for an ever enthusiastic group of freeflyers. The event was a great success with all participants getting their 6 jumps per day and more! The jumps spanned head up, head down, tracking, tube jumps, space ball jumps and big ways. Congratulations to Mark Owen for once again providing some massive Funshine pie for all those involved to enjoy! The BLT’s salute you! J

Phew…… and that was May!

June sees the boys get together at Skydive Spain for a week of jumping with Satori, Sonic Nutz and Volare. Hopefully the weather will be kind and all the teams will be able to get their training in as they head towards the 2010 World Meet in Russia!

Keep you eyes peeled for the UK Head Down Record training weekend on 3^rd-4^th July at Hib and the BLT Huck Jam on the 2^nd July.

July also sees a further week of training out at Skydive Spain from the 10^th-18^th July. If you have nothing to do during this time, get on down to Seville, the plane will be flying and the sun will be out.

Until then keep charging hard!

The Bad Lieutenants

That’s right, the pesky volcano affected our first sky camp last week, preventing us visiting Eloy in Arizona for a first sky camp of the year. Along with many others, our travel plans were thrown into complete chaos, so there was no Eloy action for the BLT’s!

However, a little bit of rescheduling lead to a pretty intense training week none the less.

The BLT’s travelled down to London hoping the flights to the USA would take off, before heading straight back to Manchester for a day of tunnel at the Manchester Airkix after discovering the flights were cancelled! We then headed to Skydive Hibaldstow for 2 days of jumping. Thanks guys for operating, those days were really enjoyable and much needed! The ash radar then indicated it was time to head back to Manchester for 4 more days of tunnel before the skies were deemed safe to fly in once again and we could hit Skydive Hibaldstow up once again!

We were also fortunate to have Julien Guiho on board to coach us all week, who competes for the French 4-way VFS team 4Speed. His knowledge, briefings and debriefs were fantastic and extremely useful. Watch out guys, that help may come back to haunt you! He also proved to have the BLT spirit which was a little bit of a surprise for a baguette eater, nice one bro!

We’ve also been busy with another Huck Jam at the Manchester Airkix wind tunnel which was great. Thanks to everyone who turned up for that one, the night was a major success. The next one is this weekend, Friday 30th April. A load of people are down for this one, so why not get involved too if you haven’t put it down in your diary!

After this Huck Jam it’s straight to Skydive Hibaldstow where Dan, Matt and James are hitting up the Funshine Boogie. It’s a bank holiday, so it should mean 3 days of Funshine Boogie pie, let’s hope for good weather and lots of good jumps!

Then we’re into May which means Matt and James are off to Voss valley (we can’t wait for to visit again), a weekend of team training at Hib, the Freefly Scrambles at Hib and finally the Spanish Funshine Boogie with Jim and James at Skydive Spain in Seville.

A final word of mention to Velocity Sports Equipment, Performance Designs, Viki Bingham & Brian Cummings! We finally received our bad ass new equipment, courtesy of Viki and Brian, thanks guys. A massive thanks also to Velocity Sports Equipment for making our amazing new BLT Infinity rigs and PD for our spanking new Velocities and reserves! Nice one guys, the equipment is wicked! Now we have all the gear but totally no idea!

Charge hard mofos

The Bad Lieutenants

30 flyers were invited to form 2 groups of 14 with camera and the goal was to create some interesting multi-point, mixed head-up and head-down skydives. The groups were led by Fabian Raidel and Mike Carpenter, and participants included members of Babylon, Tora Tora, Skywalkers, Darkside Freefly, Volare and of course the BLTs.

The weather wasn’t particularly playing ball, the first day being the best as we completed our quota of 7 skydives for the day, the following 3 days allowing 3 or 4 jumps per day. A terrible forecast for Saturday induced a little too much partying on the Friday night and resulted in a few people being missing in action the following day… We’ll let you guess who might have been involved in that one…

The organisers introduced some fantastic ideas to each the teams which produced awesome results, including a 4-way round being flown through the centre of a 10-way round and passing one 7-way accordion over another. Check these jumps out and loads more cool stuff on the Euro Sequential website or Euro Sequential Facebook page…

Thanks a lot to Fabian and Mikey for some wicked load organising, Andy L, Andy N and Piers for putting together a fantastic event. Bring on October for the next instalment!

We were joined by many familiar faces, some new ones and some unexpected ones!! We were pleased to have Mathias Holtz of Skywalker fame (multiple Norwegian freefly champion & World record holder) and Fred Fugen of Babylon (multiple World Champion & World record holder) come and visit to add an international flavour to the evening!!!! Nice one boys.

Groups of all levels were formed from the attendants of the event. Basic group head up work, entry level VFS and higher level flying groups rotated amongst each other for the 2 hours that was flown. Depending on size of groups people paid £50 and flew between 15 to 30 minutes, a snip of the full hourly rate!

After flying it was great to see the majority of flyers stay on for a drink and social debrief at the fully stocked bar. We did our best to drink it dry, but in the early morning we threw in the towel and let the Airkix staff finally go home. Thanks guys for working those long shifts just to keep us happy, it’s much appreciated!!!

The next Huck Jam dates are soon to be released, so keep your eyes peeled. If you want to come fly with others, have a laugh, learn and pay a fraction of the price then this event is for you!!! Thanks once again to all those who turned up, we look forward to seeing you all again at the next events.

And remember, if you’re not flying at the next event, “What the Huck were you thinking?”

Fly hard mofos

The Bad Lieutenants

BTW. You can check out some photos from the Huckjam in our Photo Gallery

So what have we been up to? We’ve just finished our 3rd Tunnel camp together, having been joined by Julien Guiho from the French team, Team4Speed, for a little guidance and input. Thanks mate, that was great getting all your team’s secrets!!!! ☺ Training is going great so far. In the world of point churning, it gets faster and faster for us which is great news as we progress towards to the 2010 World Meet in Russia.
We’re also really happy to announce that we’ve received so many great sponsors over the winter period. Skydive Spain / Hibaldstow, Infinity Rigs (Velocity Sports), Performance Designs, Airkix wind-tunnel, L&B, Ouragan Suits, Talent Stream and Sprint Shift have all offered us support towards our training in 2010. More of that in our sponsors section, but thanks guys, you’ve made a big impact towards our training, it’s much appreciated!!!

After last year’s line up, the random draw for camera was once again made, this time being decided at Xmas. It was early present time for 4 of the team and an early bath for one of the BLT’s. So, for the 2010 season it will be…….. Matthew O’Riordan donning the helmet cam and stretching some neck muscles for the team. He’s got a lot of experience in this department so the team should be ok!

What have we got planned for this year? Check our calendar and events section to see what events we’re attending and when we’re training.

We have the second monthly “Huck Jam” event happening next weekend at the Manchester Airkix windtunnel. A social event where tunnel time is split amongst participants and a progressive yet fun atmosphere is achieved. This event is heavily subscribed, but check our Facebook page or events section for the next event dates, get in touch and get involved!

We also have a few more tunnel camps at the Manchester Airkix windtunnel before hitting the Arizona skies in April when the team will be heading over to Eloy for some training with Arizona Arsenal, the current double World Cup champions.

In June and July the team heads to Skydive Seville for guaranteed warm weather training alongside fellow British teams Satori, Volare and Sonic Nutz. There will definitely be fun in the sun in Seville!

2010 also sees the BLT’s hooking up with Mark Owen’s Funshine Boogie concept in both the UK and Spanish editions. As the event continues to walk the fine line between boogie and coaching, the BLT’s can’t wait to get involved in some Funshine Pie once again.

It’s also all happening once again at Skydive Hibaldstow in 2010. Freefly Scrambles, Head Down skills camps, coaching, organising, 8 way speed star and a freefly end of season blow up are all planned at the drop-zone. Check their web-page or ours for full details!

All that remains to be said is 2010 should be another great year, so get your sh*t together and get involved, there’s plenty going on inside and outside. Hope you all enjoy the site, check in now and again to see our regular updates and what’s going on! Facebook, twitter & web-page….. we’ve gone main stream!!!

Charge hard mofos!

The following Safe Flight School 3 day preliminary courses have been scheduled at Skydive Spain for the first half of 2010:

• Fri 26th – Sun 28th Feburary
• Fri 26th – Sun 28th March
• Fri 30th – Sun 2nd May
• Fri 4th – sun 6th June

The course costs 420€ and includes 10 hop’n’pops from 7000ft/2100m AGL, DVD of all landings and a Safe Flight School canopy program manual.

Single day and 2 day courses are also available, minimum 3 participants. Please contact jim@thebadlieutenants.com for more information.

Alongside our training and competition commitments the team will be running various events throughout the season, including organising at the UK and Spain Funshine Boogies, freefly scrambles, FS versus FF speed competition and monthly Huck Jam events at the Manchester tunnel.

Watch this space for news about the team and information about events you won’t want to miss!

2/12/09…. Day one of comp. Woke 4.30am, and drove to DZ. First round of Accuracy, very strong down wind, but within comp limits. Maha first out, and scored zero. Russian came in next, nice swoop in conditions, but landed hard on sand. Broken femur, course closed, wind increased and no more jumping today… Great start!

3/12/09…. Up at 4.30 again, rain all night, so accuracy sand pit very hard. Course changed to speed. Wind picking up again very early. Jumping started… Got to 2,000’  on my load, and plane leveled off and then began to descend. Walked back from boarding area to see Max the russian receiving C.P.R on the course. 5 minutes later they announced he was dead! Broken neck. Surprised how much it affected me. Always thought I knew the risks and had come to terms with the fact that death was the same whether I was there or not… Apparently not… Cried a little, very upset. Super G still in a coma from a training incident, and Russian having Femur operation today. Segay needed to borrow 6,000 rand as down payment for them to start operating on the Russian. Gave him some money, felt a bit like I was doing something. Sat round a bit, chatted to Pete about his team mate dying, Eli, and Sam… sad day… Back to guest house, shower, back to DZ, chatted to Chief judge, felt we should not jump again that day. She listened, and took an informal pole with Ian Bobo amongst the jumpers… In the end, Russian captain said he wanted the comp to continue, so felt OK with that…. Wind 5.8 m/sec coming in over the tent onto the course not happy, but meet director said go. Nicky on our load decided not to go, so just me and Brian on my pass ( this competition beginning to feel a bit like the Grand National!). Felt mixture of emotions, but felt focused. Sit fly exit to break the tension, set up for speed, cross/down wind on pond. Felt super fast, heart racing, and mouth dry on landing. One of the biggest adrenaline rushes I have ever had on jumping. Ambulance guy shook my hand. Wind dying down now, packed and did round two. Faster than round one 2.8 secs, and personal best, but felt much calmer. Beer with Chris and Julie then back for dinner.. Very weird day!

4/12/09…. Up at 4.30 again. Nice distance run 91m. Best run 135. Second distance run, OK but set up not great did 91m. Jay broke world record with 175m! Quite strong cross wind at 1,000’ lot of people caught out. Watched Brian from above, very nice run and he got to yellow line (world record prior to Jays jump)

5/12/09…. First load at 5.30 .. Down wind accuracy…. set up good but slowed down too much on water, fell out of pond into zero zone… Pete Alum very good advice, said you can only morn a jump for 5 minutes then you have to move on ( morned it for the rest of the comp!! ). Next run distance…. Got 121m ( new P.B ). Hit the gate just right and got lift, then went flat, felt very good. Nick Batch had awesome run… 181.7m new world record. Next run speed. Walking to plane for my load, herd announcer saying Greg Windmiller 2.09 sec for speed run…  new world record. I did 2.36, Nice set up, and straight down the centre line of the speed course, slight turn, and out. Felt good and fast. New UK speed record. 5 minutes later Wes did 2.34 and stole my record. Wes has really come on a lot over last year. Think this record will stand for a long time. Next accuracy, nice set up again, and felt really good dragging water through the course. Came out of water heading for zone 5 and perfect score, but slid over into -37 zone… Dooh. Stopped packing to go and watch Sooty’s (Sean Sutcliff ) accuracy run. He did perfect Superman, and turned to look at spectators as he dragged all water gates, with a broad smile on his face. For me, one of the highlights of the comp.

6/12/09…. Last run of the comp. Had nice set up, and good run. All water gates and landed in zone 1. Felt big relief comp over and happy with my performance. Time for some freestyle… Wind picked up, and now 15 knot down wind on the pond! Talked about landing into wind, but Brian said “are you Danger-pants or Safety-pants?” Nothing like a bit of peer pressure to override any fleeting safety considerations. Decided to go big! Set up way back, 450 degree turn, and Miracle Man. Planned to land safely in middle of pond, but as came out of turn, found myself skimming across the pond to just about slide it up the bank. Sweet!  Nick did good wing over – then blind man into the middle of the pond, Robbie had nice run… Back to Guest house to dry cloths and rig. Evening presentation and banquet. Food good I won a pair of Gators for freestyle comp. Later did suicide tequila with all the Australian team and Atti (he was really supportive throughout the comp, and added great value to the S.A experience). Brian Vacher and Jessica Edgington from P.D also did tequila suicide. Paid Jay £20 ( lost bet that I would not be beaten by a girl in the competition)… Got 20th out of 65.. Very happy with result. Back to DZ for late night drink with Julie, Grim, Woodsy, Mike Teague, Koppell etc. End of night, lay out on grass drunk, looking at stars, beautiful sky in Africa. Contemplated comp and some of the sad events and some fantastic moments…. Thats skydiving….

Arizona Arsenal of the USA led the way throughout the competition, posting the highest score of the event, 28 points, in round 1 and taking an immediate 4 point lead over Team4Speed of France. After a small hiccup in a tricky and low scoring round 2, in which the French pulled back 1 point, Arsenal continued to steadily increase their lead right through until the end of the competition. Team4Speed continued to put up a strong fight, equalling the Americans scores in both round 6 and round 8, but were unable to contend with the experience of the Arizona team who take home the title of VFS World Cup Champions for the second time with an average of 20.4 points.

The UK team Outbreak of Bad Lieutenants, although not in a position to compete for Gold or Silver, put in a solid performance to take the Bronze medal. The slower rounds seemed to allow the Lieutenants to stay a little closer to the top teams, coming within 3 points of the French in round 3. Unfortunately the fast rounds where another matter and in round 6 both the USA and France posted a score of 27 compared with a 16 for the Brits, which was their highest score of the event. The Russian team Energe, obviously new to the event and showing great spirit, took fourth place.

Having achieved their goal of a 10 point average and a spot on the podium the Outbreak of Bad Lieutenants are now looking towards training hard for 2010 and the first VFS World Championship.