Ground Launching Speed Flying Sports: GLC History

The Ground Launch Center™ was created by Jim Slaton.

Jim began ground launching during Team Icarus Extreme's early parachute expeditions as part of the Icarus Project.

In 2001 the team swooped small high performance parachutes (5-7m) down the face of the "Eiger" mountain and the Lauterbrunnen valley. In 2002 the team did an expedition on Mont Blanc in the Chamonix valley of France where they landed their small parachutes (5-7m) on the summit and ground launched all over the valley. The team produced a video of their parachute expeditions called "Out of the Blue".

Jim won the 1st US National Canopy Piloting Championships in 2004 and then shifted his focus on opening a training center to teach ground launching. In early 2005 Jim opened the Ground Launch Center™ in the Sequoia National Forest of Southern California. The Ground Launch Center™ is used for all forms of ground launching and speedflying...

1) The center teaches people how to ground launch all types of parachutes, kites & gliders.

2) The center is used for all sorts of mountain & ridge swooping with really fast "ultra gliders".

3) The center is used for SpeedFlying

4) The center is used for Bladerunning™ competitions

5) The center is used for ground launch boogies & festivals

6) The center teaches non skydivers how to fly skydiving parachutes before ever jumping out of a plane.

7) The center teaches licensed skydivers how to fly their parachutes better and increase their landing accuracy.