posted Jul 28th, 2005 - Just prior to the beginning of our 3rd meet of the Mideast Skydiving League 2005 season, MESL Director Randy Connell approached the assembled competitors with a request: on July 2nd, there was an incident at a drop zone that has been a huge supporter of the league since its inception. This incident resulted in one fatality and one severe injury.

In the aftermath, the drop zone involved has opened a trust fund for the children of the skydiver who was killed, and a health savings account for the skydiver who was injured. Both of these skydivers were known throughout the region and had competed in prior years on teams in the Indiana Skydiving League.

Randy Connell asked the competitors if they would be willing to donate the "cash kitty" from this year's meet registration fees to these causes, splitting the donation 50/50. It is a testament to the skydivers of this region that there was not even a single neutral answer. All jumpers present either said "Yes" or nodded their heads vigorously in support of this idea. The two funds will each receive approximately $500 each.

With clear, blue skies overhead, seven teams finished final preparations and began with round one. The AAA Class featured Fastrax against Fastrax Select. With Fastrax having only recently returned from an outstanding showing in Russia, the US top contender decided to go easy on themselves and focus on consistency throughout this meet. At least that's what they said! The 19-point average may say something else.

Fastrax Select, featured on the cover of this month's Parachutist magazine, was coming in following a week of intense training. Due to an injury, Fastrax Select has brought in a new tail. The 14.2 average was good enough to place them second overall for the weekend in the AAA Class.

It looked like a real battle was shaping up in the AA Class between Vortex, Airtight and Soylent Greene. Vortex took the early lead, but Airtight made up the difference in round two. A slower round three lagged Vortex back, and Soylent Greene made up some ground.

As the day progressed, the largest single round differential in the AA Class was two points. This added up for Airtight finishing with a 5-point lead after six rounds over the other two teams that took it into a jump-off to finish the day. When all was said and done, Soylent Greene came out on top by a single point in the jump-off. Nice job, guys!

For Soylent Greene, this constituted a moral victory. The team has been able to force a jump-off at every meet this year! The jump-off at meet one ended up being disregarded in the wake of the questions regarding the wording of the rules in the USPA Competition Manual. In meet two, Soylent Greene was able to push to the edge and force a jump-off with Jamba, which the jump-off experts did not manage to win. However, this time around, Soylent Greene was able to carry through.

In our Recreational Class, we saw some new faces. DC3 and Greene Speede made debut performances. Both teams had a few difficulties in freefall, but they worked relentlessly to slow down and work out the issues. DC3, in particular, is a long-awaited set of faces. The league has been waiting for them to get past a pair of early season injuries and join us. However, while DC3 overcame those injuries to get in the air, Greene Speede may be done for the year due to a minor injury at the end of round five. We look forward to seeing more of both of these teams in the future.

I look forward to seeing everyone again at MESL Meet 4! That will be on August 20th and 21st at Skydive Greensburg and will also be this year's NSL Playoffs. Blue Skies!

Randy Connell, MESL Director