Satori XL

Thank you so much to the skydivers that have signed this we are at 400 but need more. Keep them coming.

** Please read all the way to the end. The UK DZ's need your help**

At the Council meeting on 21st March, British Skydiving were asked to consider providing financial assistance to Parachute Training Organisations impacted by the Corona Virus pandemic. At the meeting, Council declined to offer any financial assistance, but agreed to “encourage all our Affiliated PTOs to pursue these avenues to enable them to remain in business and keep those of their staff who are part- or fulltime employees”. Council also agreed to the creation of an online information and advice sharing platform accessible to all PTOs to share Government guidance and local experiences between the members of the DZO Specialist Interest Group.

We wrote to Council explaining that although the government had put in place measures to help businesses, these were - in the case of business grants - not available to all PTO’s and that the Corona Virus Business Interruption Loans scheme was currently unacceptable, due to the way in which banks had interpreted the governments guidelines. We also pointed out to Council that we have been told for many years, that British Skydiving needed to build its reserves to face future challenges and safeguard the Association, and that the Corona virus pandemic was the biggest threat that skydiving has ever faced and as such, this was the time to use those reserves. We requested that at the next meeting Council re-consider their previous decision on providing financial assistance to PTO’s.

At the meeting on 28th March, Council did re-consider its previous position and agreed to offer emergency secured loans, on a commercially suitable basis, for Affiliated PTOs. Provided that they were constituted as private limited companies and were in the most immediate financial difficulty. Once again we felt this fell short of needs, and that loans would mean PTO’s taking on more debt. We submitted another request to Council thanking them for changing their position, but requesting they consider making available a grant of £5000 per month, for three months, to all PTO’s. We also asked that if Council are unable to approve the issuing of grants to PTO’s, then they arrange for an electronic ballot to be put to the membership.

At the meeting on 4th April, Council agreed to donate £35,000 to the DZ Defence fund for grants, thus doubling it to £70,000. PTO’s in the most urgent need, could apply for a grant of up to a maximum of £5000. Council also agreed to provide interest free loans to PTO’s subject to due diligence and security which would be set out in a straightforward written agreement for which British Skydiving and the applicant PTO would share the legal costs equally. The donation to the DZ Defence Fund was welcomed, but we pointed out that a single grant of £5,000 whilst better than the previous proposal, was still short of what had been requested. We also pointed out that interest free loans still resulted in more debt to PTO’s at a time when we were all seeking to reduced our financial burden.

We wrote to Council a third time, requesting that at the next meeting it once more re-considered its decision to provide the grants requested to PTO’s. We pointed out that even if all PTO’s requested the maximum amount of our proposed grants available, it would still leave the Association with £2,400,000 in reserves. We also clarified that even though all PTO’s should be eligible for such grants, they would be looked at on a case by case basis and it was incumbent on the PTO to demonstrate to Council that they were needed.

At the meeting held on 11th April Council agreed that it would not be raising the amount available for grants. It felt their responsibility to the members was to remain financially prudent. Council did clarify that in addition to the £70,000 available in the DZ defence fund, a further £300,000 would be earmarked for interest free loans to PTO’s that qualify for them.

We are truly saddened that Council decided to place the financial longevity of the Association, above the security of PTO’s. To put the requests into context, if all PTO’s requested, and were granted, £15,000 and also applied for loans up to the £300,000 earmarked, the association would still have reserves left in excess of £2,700,000.

We feel now that we have no other recourse than to ask the membership for their support in this, and have decided to publish this open letter to you all to ask for your help.

Why do we need assistance?

First of all, not all PTO’s will require assistance, and not all will require it immediately. There are a number of reasons why we are facing financial hardship. Firstly, the weather at the end of last year and the beginning of this year means that the reserves we have built up during the summer to get us through the winter have been depleted. Secondly, aircraft insurance has increased by, in some cases 500%, meaning PTO’s have had to find an extra £30,000 or £40,000 more, per aircraft per year. Finally, the Corona virus pandemic has meant that now that the season has started we are unable to generate any income, and will not be able to do so for some time, even when the lockdown has been lifted, as social distancing measures may still be in place.

Why should British Skydiving help PTO’s?

We have been told by Council that it is the members’ money, and Council has an obligation to be fiscally prudent, and we whole heartedly agree, however it is PTO’s that are responsible for generating this money.

British Skydiving membership fees are split into two elements: the British Skydiving element (the association’s income); and the Insurance element, used to provide cover for all members. Excluding a few “Full Membership (Retired)” memberships, PTO’s are responsible for all the revenue generated by British Skydiving, in two ways:

Indirectly – Full membership, needed by licensed skydivers to jump at any UK PTO. This accounts for less than half of the British Skydiving element and a third of the insurance element.

Directly – Provisional memberships for first time parachutists such as tandems, account for over half the British Skydiving element and two thirds of the insurance element.

During the last membership year 2019-2020, Full memberships generated around £370,000, whilst first time parachutists generated around £410,000 for the British Skydiving element.

Should any PTO not make it through the crisis, there will be fewer PTO’s catering for these types of jumpers. Not only will there be fewer places to jump, there will be less revenue for British Skydiving, one knock on effect of which would be higher membership fees for skydivers.

What can you do?

Having explained to Council why PTO’s need assistance and why the package they have put together does little to help our situation, three times. We feel our next step is to seek support from you, the membership: our club jumpers, instructors, competitors, riggers, packers, coaches… the people who will suffer if your local PTO has to close permanently. The Articles of Association state that “Council shall convene a General Meeting on the receipt of a requisition signed by at least ten per cent of the Membership of the Association”.

We would like you to support us, by calling for a General Meeting to put the following yes or no proposal to the membership by means of an electronic ballot. That in addition to the money set aside for interest free loans:

“Should British Skydiving use membership reserves to fund grants of £5000 per month, up to a maximum of £15,000 per qualifying PTO?”

If you have paid your renewal for this year you can do this by signing the petition here:

www.change.org/p/british-skydiving-support-uk-pto-s

Once we have enough signatures we can present this to Council.

If you have not renewed yet, you can still help us by emailing Council [email protected] and letting them know you think that they should be doing more to support PTO’s, please copy us into your email at [email protected]

We know this is a very difficult time for everyone, but there is a real possibility that PTO’s will not make it out of the lockdown and now is the time for British Skydiving to use the reserves it has been building, to do the best they can to ensure members have places to jump when the lockdown is over.

Army Parachute Association Beccles Skydivers Black Knights Parachute Centre

Cornish Parachute Club Paragon Skydiving Sibson Skydivers

Skydive GB Skydive Headcorn Skydive Hibaldstow

Skydive Isle of Wight Skydive Jersey Skydive Northwest

Skydive St Andrews Skydive Strathallan Skydive Tilstock

Sky High Skydiving Skydiving London Wild Geese Skydive

Sign the Petition Support UK PTOs

Please read all the way to the end. There's DZ's that need our help

Sign the Petition Support UK PTO's

We would like to thank all our sponsors in the past years for everything they have done for the team. Unfortunately satori XL will not be continuing in the 2019 season. 😢😢 &B

UPT – United Parachute Technologies United Parachute Technologies, build skydiving containers for sport and military use. Our products include the Vector, Sigma, and the Vector SE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Fic8BJiUE

World Meet Rds 1-10

FAI World Meet 2018 - 4way Open: Satori XL Leaderboard and more information at https://www.skyleague.com/events/150359/

We would like to say a huge thank you to all our sponsors who have supported us throughout the season as we trained for the World Championships.

We finished tied in 7th place with Switzerland, and produced some of the best skydiving we have done. Unfortunately a rocky jump on the all random round (R6) prevented us from being competitive with Italy for 6th place in a meet where we were otherwise toe to toe with them throughout the meet.

A huge thank you to the British Parachute Association, Skydive Hibaldstow, Skydive Algarve and Windoor for the training support you have provided us with as well as all of our equipment sponsors:






You’ve all been awesome.

Another 60+ training jumps in the bag, thanks to all the team at Skydive Algarve.

Next Stop WM Australia.

https://youtu.be/GCHvtTQO1M0

J M F A C

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHNE_gFqzPA

Here is our Rounds 1-9 From the recent UK Nationals. An epic battle with NFTO, first UK Nationals with 2 teams over a 20 point Avg & a first 20 + Avg for Taf & Ady.

Were looking forward to our final training at Skydive Algarve prior to the World Meet.

UK Nationals 2018 - Satori XL Leaderboard and more information at https://www.skyleague.com/events/150570/

Another great day thanks to all the team at Skydive Hibaldstow.

The machine has been running all week.

Also a huge thanks to UPT for these beauties. Without doubt the best containers out there!

1st day back training. Here is to some nice jumps.

Come and do some good skydiving with Peter Taf Mather

John Mciver and Peter Taf Mather will be doing a tunnel camp on the 2nd and 3rd of may at iFLY Manchester. Times are from 9am till 4pm. 1 on 1, 2 on 2 or 4 way. If you would like to get some time please contact John or Taf.

A cool shot of Satori XL in action whilst team training with us last week. Photographer Willem de Groot

Hey All

In addition to the 2 BPA roadshows. Keep an eye out for our coaching events at our home DZ Skydive Hibaldstow.

There will be lots of opportunities for private coaching and organised coached events. PM us for private coaching details and keep an eye out for organised events, dates released soon!

We look forward to jumping with you all

Satori XL