BigWay Skills Camp 2024

• Fri 17th - Mon 20th May 2023 (only two days of annual leave required for UK participants, only one day for German participants)
• Skydive Pink Klatovy, Czech Republic
• Four days of jumping. (Thurs 16th is arrival and warm up day and is strongly recommended. Weds 15th is a bigway skills tunnel min-camps in the Prague tunnel).
• 18-20 jumps.
• No stress
• No blame
• No drama
• Just fun, smiles and socially distanced cheesy high fives.
• Please be ready for 8am Fri 17th May.
• Release time (no later than) 4pm Mon 20th May (normally there are flights leaving Prague after 8pm)

There are only two bigway groups on the DZ for this period. There should be minimal waiting around.

At the start of the event you must have:

50 jumps experience after you have done a proficient 4way skydive (4 points or more). The assumption is that this is *at least* 75 jumps in total. Skydive Langar calls this 'FS1+', or older British skydivers may know it as 'old' FS1.

Minimum 15 jumps in 3 months preceding this event, ie between 18th Feb - 17th May

Minimum 2hrs tunnel total of which at least 1hr in the 3 months preceding this event, eg 18th Feb - 17th May.

Practice Jump requirements:

Please practice your tracking. Get used to tracking next to someone for a few seconds before fanning out and separating.

Suggest you try this on at least two jumps ahead of the camp.

Plan and jump a normal FS jump, 2 or 3 way. At 7k, turn and fly as a tracking team. Fan out at 5k, and deploy at 4. These altitudes are just a suggestion, feel free to modify them to make them more appropriate for your jump.

NOTE: C licence (200 jumps logged in your logbook) required to jump from high altitude with O2 and to jump the balloons. If you're close, make it happen.

We all want to come home in one piece...

• No turns greater than 90deg under 1500 feet. 
• There shouldn't really be any turns greater than 90deg over 1500 feet either.
• Land in the same direction, as indicated. OR land well away from everyone else. So far away we can't film you.
• If your downwind leg is on one side of the landing area, then you should NOT travel the whole width of the landing area on your cross wind leg as you'll be cutting everyone else up.
• If multi plane, suggest you carry a phone with you. I've landed off on more multi plane jumps than wingsuit jumps. No one wants it to happen. But...
• Make sure you have the number of the DZ stored in your phone.  

You will need to prove yourself safe in freefall and especially under canopy before we allow you to progress to multi plane. We'll be watching and assessing you from the moment you arrive at the dirt dive (don't be late) until you're back in the packing tent. Be safe. Look out for each other. We want you to jump multi-plane. BUT more importantly we have to make sure that the other 19 jumpers in the group plus your friendly cameraflyer are not put at unnecessary risk.

By coming on this trip you are confirming that with appropriate training and encouragement you will be able to safely fly 20-22ways. We will do our very best to help you. However, if you're unable to fly in 20-22ways safely; your approach is uncontrolled, your tracking is inefficient or your canopy control is reckless, or maybe you're just having a bad day, at some point you will be asked to stand down from the group.

You should have at least 50 jumps post 'old' FS1/FS1+ (or equivalent, eg 4 point 4way) to be considering this event.

You should have at least 2hrs of tunnel flying experience and at least 1hr of tunnel flying in the 3 months prior to the camp. Tunnel time can be as cheap as £140 for an hours group flying. (www.dynamic6.uk is my group social tunnel flying mailing list)

If you have >200 jumps then you'll be able to take part in the O2 jump(s) from >15k. This is planned for day1&4. At least one jump. No more than two. Unless everyone has >200 jumps and wants to get high.

You should try some 'tracking team' jumps before you arrive. At least 2 jumps. Try and fly close to each other, start slow and get faster. The aim is maximum horizontal distance travelled.

Tracking teams are great. But we only seem to use them on the big jumps. This means when you're on the biggest skydive of your life, and your audible beeps 6k, suddenly you're doing something you've never done before. Unnecessary stress. But with practice? You'll nail it.

You should be aware of and understand the following bigway terms;

• Quadrants
• Radials
• Stadium Approach
• Red Zone
• Tracking teams

You don't need experience of doing these though, that's what this camp is for. If we don't make a single completion BUT everyone comes back confident they've got the skills to nail a bigway formation record AND we're all smiling? That would be just perfect.

But obvs... I'd love some cool photos too. That's what facebook is for, right?

The DZ have confirmed that there will be two skyvans on the DZ.

Jump tickets at Klatovy are EUR39.50 each. (price correct as of Nov 2023) but you should expect a modest increase for 2024.

The planes are equipped with O2 and can go to FL20. Single plane 02 jumps are marginally more likely than multi-plane 02 jumps.

The costs are:
4200m / 13,800 ft AGL is EUR 39.50 (No O2 required)

4800m / 15,750 ft AGL is EUR 45
5200m / 17,100 ft AGL is EUR 56

6000m / FL20 / 19,700 ft AGL is EUR 64

Klatovy is about 1k ASL so we'd get 1k less than stated numbers. ie if we're going to do it, we're going all in. To the top. Well, at least once anyway.

• Innhopps are AMAZING.
• We'd jump one evening and land out. Somewhere. Somewhere scenic. Somewhere.
• Because you haven't seen the landing area, except in a rudimentary drawing, your senses are heightened making it an amazing experience.
• Transport back to the DZ would be included. 2018 there was beer on the landing area, fire dancers, a cowboy on his horse and a live band. True story. 2019 we landed at a f*cking castle and there was beer on the landing area, dinner and tours of the castle. 2020... someone landed at the far end of the field, slung their canopy over their shoulder, climbed on the back of a local's motorbike and got a ride to where the beer was waiting. 2022 there was beer on the landing area and some of us were walking to the pub for dinner and were invited into a local's back garden party to sample the local vodka. On empty stomachs. And the local rum. There was a live band and there was dancing on the tables.
• All the boring stuff is included like ground crew, transport for ground crew, smokes for landing direction, boat crew if near water, extra fuel for the plane, transport home for everyone etc etc, blah blah blah.
• We've no idea on costs but if you budget for 1 jump ticket plus EUR30 then that's about right.
• Optional. You don't have to jump, there is also an option to ride the bus there to join us.
• No need to decide now. Decide at the event.
• This is not guaranteed to happen. However, we will endeavour to make this happen. It's the icing on the cake.
  
  TBC

• Please be on the DZ for 8am on Day1. DZ registration can be a little slow. We'd like to be on a call for 9am.
• You'll be released no later than 1600 on Day4 in order to make the late flights home to the UK.
• Camping is free
• DZ bunkhouse is cheap and clean and very close.
• We are working on a hotel package (Country Saloon) so many of us can all stay in the same place. Don't feel you have to if you've got a bigger budget. Costs are pretty reasonable. Standard hotel price is about 28 euro per night inc breakfast. Expect breakfast to be typically Czech. Expect twin beds to be separate mattresses but one double bed frame. I don't know why, it's just what they do there.
• It is likely accommodation will be tricky and single rooms at a premium. If you definitely want a single, please look for accommodation elsewhere.
• Nearest airports are Prague and the ones in southern Germany. Assume Prague will be most popular but suggest you do your own checks.

NOTE: If you do stay at the Statek Ceskalipa, please get itemised receipts for the food and drink you buy. Every year people forget how much they buy and with the large size group it's difficult to work out exactly who bought that bottle of wine or that round of beers, etc.

I'll be LO for some chilled warm up jumps the day before. My current plan is to fly out on Wednesday morning. Hit the tunnel Wednesday afternoon, evening and Thurs morning and jump on the Thursday afternoon. Feel free to join me. Or do your own thing. I'll be on a lift Thursday afternoon and will do 3-4 jumps as quickly as I can and then I'll be stopping to catch my breath before the camp starts.

After the event there's often a boogie fun jump day - Wingsuit rodeos, freefly, big big star formations. Anything goes. This year the DZ may be shut Tues 21st May however. If they have a plane, they will let us know.

Event tshirts are notoriously hard to get right. I don't do them. I am happy to assist and guide someone else sorting them though.

2018 - event tshirts were crowd sourced. John Horne was 'the man'. He designed them and found a manufacturer.

2019 - The legends of Sun Path Products subsidised the event tshirts - it was a one off. Shirts supplied by Manufactory. Approx USD 70 per shirt. Wow. Amazing. Jemma Westing was the designer to rule all designers.

2020 & 2021 - hahahaha.

2022 - we did them and it wasn't a total nightmare. But later event tshirts were ok.

2023 - David and Damien did them. They turned out ace. I didn't even have to do so much this time.

A long story. I don't do tshirts. If you want to make it happen, please be my guest. I'm happy to advise, I've made enough mistakes, I feel like an expert. Thank you.