Monthly Archives: July 2011

IAF training enters its final week

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There are only a few days left before the Indian Air Force completes their training here are Skydive Arizona. It is truly amazing to have witnessed the transformation of the group. Each person is a completely different skydiver than when they first arrived. In addition to all of their gained technical knowledge, the groups overall energy has changed from typical students, to confident and trained competitors. I am very much looking forward to their future performance at the CISM Military Championships.

After yesterdays training jumps, both groups (Men’s and Women’s Teams) decided to make a fun jump with members of Arizona Airspeed and AXIS Flight School Instructor Brianne Thompson. The 18-way, plus myself on camera, was the biggest jump any of the Indian members have ever done. Although the formation did not complete, we all had a blast charing the same airspace.

        

Over the next few days, both teams are going to be jumping from a new aircraft, the Sky Van. This will more closely simulate jumping out of a Mi-8 helicopter, which will be the aircraft used in the CISM competition.

Photographing Rainbows

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Most of the time I am not lucky enough to have a camera on hand when rainbows appear.
To the left you will find a picture I took of the Skyventure Arizona tunnel yesterday afternoon, after a rainstrom passed thorough the area. In order to track my progress in shooting this phenomena, I have added another image to this post which I took back in March of 2009 at Skydive Elsinore.

I shot the image of airplane with a Canon Rebel XTi set on RAW, focal length 25, FNumber 11, exposure time 1/800. Whereas the photo of the tunnel was shot with my Canon 7d set on L, focal length 21, FNumber 22, exposure time 1/80. Both images received some post work in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Indian Air Force

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Over the past couple of weeks, AXIS Flight School has been working with the Indian Air Force in order to prepare them for the upcoming CISM Military Championships. India will be competing in Formation Skydiving and Classic Accuracy in both the men’s and women’s divisions. During their first few days of training, the group has made great progress in their individual body-flight skills utilizing Skydive Arizona‘s wind-tunnel. Now they have entered the next phase of their training, taking to the air and working on camera flying, exit technique, and more advanced FS skills. Here are some photos I shot during their first week of sky training:

Birds of Prey

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Since I have move to Arizona I have been taking an interest in some of the wild life that can be found in the desert. There is a wide variety of birds of prey, such as the Burrowing Owl, Red Tailed Hawk, and even a variation of the Peregrine Falcon. In some cases I have followed a single bird for hours, observing its behavior and hunting tactics. However, given their keen eye sight and high intelligence, it has been quite a challenge to photography these animals, as they tend to be very curious about my presence. Here are some of my selects from the last few weeks.

          

Thank you Blue Skies Mag!

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AXIS Flight School has been posting information about coaching, events, photos, videos, and their trick tips on Facebook for the past year. Recently however, facebook has been making a lot of changes that effect businesses with personal profiles. In order to keep our information out there, we have created a business account. Unfortunately, now we have to start all over by rebuilding our friend list.

Blue Skies Magazine, has been a huge help by posting a bulletin on their wall, informing their readers about this switch. If you do not yet have a subscription, you are missing out! Blue Skies Mag is independently owned and operated by people passionate about human flight. Covering everything from: skydiving, BASE, paragliding, ground launching, speed flying, hang gliding and any other form of human-powered flight, this magazine will keep you in the loop of the most up to date information available in the industry.

However, I feel that I must warn you, some of the content may not be for everyone, which is why the magazine comes with a “Mature” sticker on its cover. Please click here to view a sample version. And if you do decide to subscribe, tell them AXIS sent you 😉

Also, please make sure to check out their Facebook page!