Richard Owen, whose dedication to staying current with his canopy piloting skills, deserves recognition!

“I’ve been jumping for 7 years now and have done around 950 jumps in that time. I’ve focused mostly on FS, with a few seasons of 4-way and lots of big way events.

I’ve done the Flight 101 & 102 courses several times over the years (5 courses in total), with a couple of different instructors. I’m not interested in high performance landings, so the 100 series is perfect for me. It’s definitely worth repeating the courses, as you learn new things each time.

The 100 series courses are great for newer jumpers or anyone just wanting to improve their basic canopy flight and landings. Until you’ve taken a course, you simply don’t know how much more there is to learn (beyond what you were taught as a student). The courses don’t make you an expert canopy pilot overnight, but what they do give you is the knowledge to progress, and the ability to debrief your own landings and work out what went well, or didn’t. When there are a lot of canopies in the air (e.g. on big way events), having the knowledge gained from these courses really gives you the tools you need to stay safe and have a great jump.

I’ve seen the Flight-1 courses change over the years, with new courses being developed and the course content changing as well. It is clear that Flight-1 continues to invest in improving the quality of the courses.” - Richard Owen.

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Virginia Skydiving Center