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Chuting Star Rigging Loft, which started out as 11 Shooting Stars Rigging Services in 1999, continues to get busier each month and year. Even the winter months here in Georgia have not given the staff at the loft much rest. That’s a good problem to have. The rigging business was originally based out of my apartment in Marietta, Georgia as a part-time gig while I worked as an editor at a variety of newspapers. After the first year, the business grew enough to allow me to quit the newspapers and start rigging and skydiving full-time. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. :-) At the end of 1999, Atlanta Skydiving Center added on to its building and Chuting Star Rigging Loft moved in on the 2nd floor. The loft was built up with work benches, a hot knife table, sewing machines, gear lockers, canopy hangars and general office equipment. By the end of 2000, Adam Wheeler joined the Chuting Star staff, as the business could no longer be handled by just one rigger. For the last two years Adam has been a familiar face to our customers. Still, the business is increasing and we’re in the process of hiring more riggers. Over the next couple of months you’ll meet some of our new staff members and we’ll add information about them on our staff page. Chris Sears, a videographer, tandem instructor and rigger working at Alabama Skydiving, has joined the Chuting Star staff. You’ll also start seeing more of packers Chuck Owen and Kenny Pugh of Atlanta Skydiving Center. Both “riggers in training” have been working, learning and helping the Chuting Star staff over the last year. Chuck will be getting his FAA rigging ticket in January and Kenny plans the same for the following year. In the meantime, I’ll be taking my master rigger examinations early next year. All of this is being done to meet the increased demands for our quality rigging services and to better serve you. Thank you for your business and Happy Holidays from Chuting Star!

This year’s national 4-way formation skydiving champions, the Golden Knights, have released a new training video. The tape is short, but is well organized and gets right to the point: exit and block techniques. A hot random skydive is the longest skydiving footage you’ll find on the tape and it’s right at the beginning. Everything else is presented in short clips. The 22 blocks in 4-way formation skydiving are shown first. Each block is shown from exit and on the hill as well as at terminal velocity. If the Knights have an alternative method of performing a certain block, that is shown as well. After the blocks are shown, the Golden Knights demonstrate how they launch each of the 16 random formations. All jumps on this tape are out of Twin Otters, which is the most common type of competition plane for 4-way teams in the United States. All clips are shown in normal speed as well as slow motion, which can help you get a better idea of what each member of the team is doing on a particular exit or block move. The video is available from the National Skydiving League. Ordering information can be found on the NSL web site at www.skyleague.com. Click on the link to the NSL Shop and then scroll down to order the video. According to the web site, “The video is again a free service by the Army, and it can be ordered for only the shipping and handling costs of $14 in the NSL Shop. It is available in NTSC only.” The $14 seems a bit steep to me for shipping and handling, especially since the tape is sent out U.S. Priority Mail for about $4. There is just a plain sticker on the tape that says “GK 4002” and there is no tape jacket. Still, the tape is definitely worth the $14. There is only a limited number available, according to the web site. “100 copies of the brand new tape have arrived at the NSL headquarters and will be sent to the NSL audience in ‘first-come-first-serve’ order.” Happy Holidays! — Mike