New and Notables - Skydive New Mexico

inside the issue:
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•Water Boogie 2005
•Members save lives
•Our latest licensed
•New BOD announced
sky•dive vi to jump from an airplane and descend in
free fall, sometimes performing acrobatic maneuvers,
before pulling the ripcord of a parachute
July 2005 • Summer N e w s l e t t e r
SNM summer off to a great start
The summer for skydivers
here at Belen Alexander
airport couldn’t have “taken
off” to a better start! With
the addition of
Bob Martin’s Cessna
182 to our fleet of
jump planes, the
business of skydiving can reach
even more people
who want to take
the real plunge! We’ve
never seen a larger group of
people spill out of the SNM
hangar before! Speaking of
additions to our fleet, thanks
to Allen Welch for finding
us a second van to transport the
flood of new jumpers back and
forth from the hangar to the
landing areas. With all the
continued growth of
o
people jumping
(then coming back
again and again), we
really needed the
extra van! We just
hope that the airport’s restaurant, Carolina’s
Cafe, can keep up with all those
extra mouths who need to be
fed after a hardworking
skydive! We always give our
students a class break just to
fuel up on the delicious food!
Airport safer after jumpers get CPR training
On Thursday, July 14th,
over a dozen skydivers
made the commitment to
make the city of Belen and
its airport, home to Skydive
New Mexico, a lot safer.
Thanks to Karen Mascarenas for arranging a CPR
course that led our members through four hours of
official training, testing,
and ultimately certification
to perform rescue
procedures in the case of an
emergency at the airport.
Lauren Wilson, SNM Board of
Directors member, had this to say
about the training: “I never
thought I’d be happy to put my
mouth all over a dummy, but if it
makes our operations in Belen
safer, I’ll keep kissing these
plastic men all night!”
The members’ certification is
valid for two years.
New and Notables
Upcoming...
Water
Boogie
2005!!!
Last year during Water
Boogie, the airport seemed
like a ghost town! We had
so many people join us to
make water jumps at
Elephant Butte State Park
that officials considered
renaming it “Skydive New
Mexico State Park.” We
hope you join us again for a
truly amazing weekend of
fun, food, sun, and water
jumps. We will temporarily
relocate our operations-planes, jumpers, students,
and all--to Elephant Butte
State Park for the weekend
of September 9th-11th. For
details about water jumping
requirements, directions,
and facilities, go to the
news page on our website:
www.skydivenm.net
then, we’ll see you there!
New and Notables
Recent student grads:
•Octaviano Torres-Hughes
And, congratulations to one
of our jump pilots, Eliza
Wade, who recently did her
FIRST tandem with Dave
Strobel! Blue Skies!
Remember to bring your own food
and drinks to Water Boogie, Sept.
9-11th at Elephant Butte State Park.
Live water training is at 8pm August
12th at the Tramway/Candelaria
YMCA.
Member Awards:
You may not know that our very
own SNM’s Jacqueline Chavez
is the female boxing world
champ in her division! Her event
to defend her belt and title late
this month has been postponed,
due to a cancellation by Johnny
Tapia. Stay tuned for info...
It’s a skydiving tradition to
get a big cream pie in the
face upon completing your
100th skydive. Our most
recent member to get
“creamed” is John Ngyuen.
Upon his accomplishment,
John commented, “Mmyuh
whaagh uhn nayh!”
SNM’s 2005 Board of Directors:
Lee Norris-President
Danny Combest-Vice President
Carey Olson-Secretary/Treasurer
Adam Buckner
Tiffany Dyer
Mike Astle
Laurie Wilson
Members
Funny of the Month
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form,
called a "gripe sheet", which tells mechanics
about problems with the aircraft. The
mechanics correct the problems, document
their repairs on the form, and then pilots
review the gripe sheets before the next flight.
Never let it be said that ground crews lack a
sense of humor. Here are some actual
maintenance complaints submitted by
Qantas' pilots (P) and the solutions recorded
(S) by maintenance engineers. By the way,
Qantas is the only major airline that has never
had an accident.
P: Left inside main tire almost needs
replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very
rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode
produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing
gear.
S: Evidence removed.
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable
level.
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to
stick.
S: That's what they're for.
P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief
search.
P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly
right, and be serious.
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel.
Sounds like a midget pounding on something
with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.
--thanks to Adam Buckner for the laugh!