Orange Skies Free Fall Center launched its opening weekend at Fort Morgan Municipal Airport in Colorado April 20-21.

During its recent meeting in Dallas, the USPA Board of Directors voted to support a major airport-access win for skydiving by Luther Kurtz, DZO of the Phoenix Skydive Center in Casa Grande, Arizona, under Part 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Kurtz will receive a $24,156.76 as a reimbursement for a share of his legal expenses through the Airport Access and Defense Fund. Details about the case are available in the article “DZO Wins Part 16 Appeal” on page 16 in the February issue of Parachutist.

The action calls worked and it now appears that the needed FAA funding bill will pass without changes to the structure of air traffic control. “Once again, we thank our members who made the calls in defense of skydiving’s airspace needs,” said USPA Executive Director Ed Scott.

This proposal would pull ATC out of the FAA and move it to the U.S. Department of Transportation, where a new Management Advisory Council, populated with airline interests, would serve as the ATC board of directors.

Late Tuesday night, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee announced that he was dropping his push to privatize air traffic control. Opposition by general aviation users, including members of USPA, prevented the idea from getting any traction within Congress.