For the 2010 season Infinite Skydiving have the pleasure of promoting their formation skydiving coaching school at the dropzone every weekend.
What’s new??
Once the AFF course and consolidation jumps have been completed we have British Parachute Association accredited coaches available to get you through the FS1 requirement (Manual). laid out here is the FS1 as in the BPA Operations manual.
6.4. Formation Skydiving (FS)
6.4.1.To obtain Grade 1 in Formation Skydiving (FS1) the parachutist must, be introduced to FS by a CCI/Advanced Instructor nominated FS1 Grade parachutist or equivalent of proven FS instructional ability, have received a full safety brief and demonstrated the ability to:
a) Control fall rate.
b) Control horizontal movement, (forwards, backwards and sideways).
c) Achieve ‘docking’ techniques.
d) Turn in place.
e) Dive and approach a target.
f) Complete four points of 4-way FS.
N.B.(1) No more than one Category 8 jumper per group, all other jumpers in any group must be FS1 parachutists.
N.B.(2) Training programmes other than those contained in the BPA Formation Skydiving (FS) Manuals are acceptable for training for FS1, provided all the requirements of sub-para 6.4.1. (above) are met.
SEC 2/PAGE 9/FEB 2006
The cost is minimal at £45 per one on one coached jump with a full brief and video de-brief for each jump. You can also get the footage on DVD to take away at the end of the course for a charity donation to Karis kids who we are working with in 2010. (more about the charity later)
The FS1 is a fun and worth while level of skydiving to attain (mandatory if you want to jump with your mates) and we see many skydivers get a little lost as to where to get the correct high quality coaching needed to safely and quickly gain the qualification, learning the up to date techniques used by the UK’s best teams who are also still paying the worlds top coaches thousands of $$$ to coach them and filtering the skills and techniques down to you at such a small cost is fantastic value.
check out some of our current students:
Our coaches are Phil Hartree (also one of our AFF Instructors) Georgie Roles, 4 way FS team member from the “Jet Blondes” and currently uk FS team “Fend 4 Yourself” and Benji Dawson who also flies camera for our FS, AFF and Tandems providing awesome footage and images.
have fun in the skies and enjoy the journey
Fordy
Directions:
Only an hour from the capital we are easily reached from London and the South East as well as Bimingham and the West Midlands by both rail and road with the m40 corridor only a few miles from the Airfield.
www.infinite skydiving have started training students this year to qualify for their british parachute association skydiving license. Matt Short has completed his AFF ground school and is awaiting the weather before making his level one skydive with Infinite Skydiving. After 6 hours groundschool covering all the required modules of the Accelerated freefall course Matt is ready to go and very excited about getting in the air. Matt from London wanted to complete AFF last year but decided to wait for the start of the 2010 season to train and make the most of the days getting lighter and the weather getting better to pursue his new sport…
We look forward to putting video of Matt’s AFF level’s up for you to enjoy.
The event to start the 2010 season for the hardcore freeflyer will most definitely be at Skydive Spain this coming March. An invitation to Europe’s seasoned and proven head down flyers with the right attitude towards team play have been sent and the 30 available slots were snapped up within a few days, even at the top if you snooze you lose!.
With 2 Do-28 15 place Dorniers going to 16,000 + ft the event organiser Andrew Lovemore of Skydive Spain envisages multiple point 15 and 30 way formations yet unseen on the European freefly scene with load organiser’s Fabian Raidel and Mike Carpenter at the helm. The Invites for the team consisted of representatives from Volare, Skywalkers, Aria, The Bad Lieutenants, Darkside Freefly and Babylon to name a few…
The sequential scene in Europe has been lacking somewhat behind the likes of the Lodi Sequentials, Project Horizon and Summerfest where multiple point skydives are a matter of course, hopefully this event can redress the balance with the awesome available talent we have here.
Check back to see the progression toward what could be described as the biggest European freefly event of 2010..
8am on the ramp, kitted up ready to go.. dirt dived and in the air by 0845, running in on the 2 minute call with O² still on, red light comes on and the climb out begins.. As front float i have a radio to leave on the verbal ready from the base plane, the ready is the key and the visual is totally different from the previous jumps for me as I am now lower than the base and looking at it as it accelerates fast, people swarm towards the centre.. the build reaches 102 or something along those figures. My personal skydive was shocking as my slot seemed to be a way away from where i was on exit and the visual was totally different than expected, even though I had the same slot but different exit… not getting to your slot is a non excusable offense on a WR attempt and the canopy ride was full of remonstration and emotion, i can say with fervour that after so many successful dives to the slot, i hate front float ha ha
The attempts throughout the day have seen a 106 and other big but incomplete builds, many people are commenting on how the huge amount of people makes everything fairly confusing, a huge shifting picture, inverted and incredibly fast… if it was easy it wouldn’t be a world record huh!
Will try and get some footage to add some time today..
9 am briefing in the auditorium, yeah! Skydive Chicago have an auditorium that seats at least 100 for those big way de-brief moments. Rook Nelson takes the centre stage to brief the crowd about the day’s events. Two 44 way’s and a 40 ish way with Babylon, Rook /Mike Swanson and Dave Gershfeld running the 3 groups…
Rook and Mikes group build a fairly nice formation, and on the second attempt after a few slot changes the build is even swifter. Babylon’s 44 way seems to be going well also and on the 3rd attempt Rook and Mikes group build a fairly trouble free formation.
Ok, I have been lame with updates today… will upload video shortly!!
30th July
After an awesome night jump with fireworks and impressive swoops the evening was lit up with a huge firework display.. A 9 am start for the record participants confirms that the Skyvan is indeed out of action and cost prohibits getting another one in, another Otter however is due here in a few hours. So the aircraft scenario means that an 80 way is the first goal of the day as soon as the cloud dissipates.
Rook has given the briefing for the O² use and everyone has been alloted a slot for the formation. the “Alpha team” or hungry bench are waiting to see the outcome and putting together some smaller dives.. video taking time to upload with everyone on their laptops e-mailing away!!!
So far after not being on the original 80 way I went to update and grab a coffee, only to be grabbed 5 minutes later by an excited David G, dragging me to the dirt dive that i was late for?? I had been pulled into the 80 way just not told ha ha! hence lack of keyboard action… So, 2 x 80 way attempts later and the weather has come in a little cloudy so were on a weather/blogging update hold…
The first 80 way attempt the aircraft had some climb out/communication issues causing the left Otter to stay on board as they hadn’t received a green on climb out call.. No wonder the dive to the base was traffic free!! but the rest seemed to build quite smoothly..
Second attempt was way better with a 5 minute, 2 minute and 1 minute call before Green on making everyone more aware of the fast approaching exit. The build went well with really spot on heading base and fast flowing traffic free flight to slot, some issues in one of the pod or pod links mean’t that a 74 way was completed.. sure was the biggest formation I have ever been in… as the current world record is 69
Another 80 way attempt, awesome skydive, the pod i was in built and must have flown for 15 seconds, seemed more like 30!! the base was super smooth and everything seemed to go well, upon landing most people seemed to think it all went well! Alas 1 out by about a ft… 12″ away from a WR 80 way AAAhhhhhh!! how close can it get.. So on with the 108 way.. We are all chilling between de-brief and call to dirt dive. My new lens has arrived, HD Opteka, wicked!
laters (will edit and post video later)
Fordy
18:30 Having dirt dived the 108 way we are at the mercy of the weather and that isn’t a good thing by the colour of the skies… stood down until 8am tomorrow for the 108 way H/D WR attempt. Will attempt to get some stuff up here to read and watch asap.
Arriving at 9 am the DZ was pretty quiet, maybe the hellfish toga party got too a few people , The skies are blue but threatening to change to black as the day goes on so the organisers are hustling to get the loads going whilst the weather holds… Dave G’s group is in the air so i decide to throw my hat in the ring with Noah too see how things shape up.. And the 2 organisers hook up to create an 18 way sequential dive followed by a 22 way sequential.. what more could you want, some no pressure long dives to the base to ease into the day…
Some footage from the first 2 jumps of the day, both nice jumps with minor error’s to correct to see them complete..
Nice relaxing lunch, really not worth queuing for the food, 15 minutes waiting to order and 30 to get a sandwich, at least it’s served with a smile!!!!! So a coffee and walmart goodies are the order of the day.. With the incredible humidity hydration is without doubt the most important factor here, by 2 or 3 pm you can feel pretty knackered if you haven’t caned the water all day.
Dave G’s group again this afternoon with a nice fairly complicated 14 way with a 9 way chunk out of the Otter with a couple of floaters and a the rest diving. Fairly fast build to the first point and a smooth transition to the big round, moved across for the in/out facing and the levels became a problem… We decided to transition the out-facers to head up anyway and the rest is history Will post video later…
Weather hold.. Brit’s all over the dropzone are scratching their head and looking confused?? a couple of clouds have built somewhere near Idaho and were stuck on the deck.. good time to update and chase people for a quick chat.
Wicked wicked cool skydive, 20 way sequential from 13oooft because of the weather, check out the image of point #1 from babylon cameraflyer Kuri, taken with the Canon eos 5D mk2 (for you camera geeks).
Weather seems to be closing in a little, feels like another storm approaching with the intense humidity.. The only load going is a hop an pop load doing a swoop n chug!
Quick interview with Liz Chare from the UK..
Hey Liz, first of all how many jumps do you have?“300, did my 300th today with Jim Lewis who was also doing his 300th jump ;-) We did a rodeo.. very cool”
First time at Summerfest?“no, 3rd time here.. “
Why do you come back?“It’s the biggest boogie I can find, with super super friendly people, brilliant load organising and the DZ is the sweetest set up”.. Oh! and a great party!!!
Do you jump much in the Uk?“No not really, have done a few..”
Why not? “Cost and weather mostly, I have also found some UK dropzones less welcoming than US DZ’s”
What’s you main aim or goal here at the Summerfest boogie?“to improve my skills in FS and build up my wingsuit jumps, i currently have 17 and i love it”
Thanks Liz, go cheer jim on in the swoop n chug
Hmmm, have just been and checked out “swoop n chug” fairly disturbed by the sight of the second guy down doing it naked, from the distance he slid on landing i think his evening may taken up removing impacted grass….
Have finished the next short video clip.. I feel obliged on behalf of youtube to apologise for them removing all of the soundtracks within minutes of upload… will upload soon. Also some images from the pond and maybe a clip or two of the evening swoopers.
Some fun and demanding flying for Dave G’s 20 ways…
Tomorrow, July 29th is the warm up day for the attempts.. 40 ways are the aim of the day and when i know more i’ll tell ya..
Wow! The pace has been fairly hot with $21 tickets and free load organising everyone has been making the most of blue skies and long days. The FS jumpers always seem to be up and dirt diving early with the first Skyvan and Otter loads taking off around 0830, waking most of the freeflyers up in their various tents scattered around the beautiful Skydive Chicago site.
Personally I have gotten involved in Mikey Carpenter’s groups, the most organised part of Mikey’s loads are him actually being ready himself, but what he lacks in punctuality and ability to control a group of freeflyers he sure makes up for in the quality of flying and awesome energy he brings to the group.. If you want fun 10 way + groups with lots of movement and rhythm both head up and head down then Mikey has it covered.
Dave Gershfeld maybe small in stature at around 5″4′ and 120lb, but he is an awesome flyer with “typically” Northern Californian idea’s on freefly groups, multi point skydives anywhere from 10-20 way with lots of lines moving past and around each other creating a kaleidoscope of movement and creative points.
When Mikey C and Dave join forces to create bigger groups then you are definitely in for a treat, 3 point 22 way with only a couple of grips missing on the 3rd point (only the outfacing ones ) and you can imagine the quality of the skydive, and all form 14.000ft.
I will try and upload video today and get some images to post as a picture paints a 1000 words instead of my blurb.. apologies for not posting more often but it’s way too much fun here..
Did I mention we attempted a 2 plane 44 way yesterday, more of that later..
If you wanna catch a different take on the boogie take a look at the “Tony Suit tour“
Some video at last..
Another great day, chilled more today as the humidity is fairly high and saps the energy if your cracking out 8-10 jumps a day.. here are some still images from some of the jumps so far..
I think that’s pretty much it for the day, lots of loads again, No Skyvan today as it seems their was an issue with the starboard engine.. Hope that’s sorted for the wednesday start to the 108 way warm ups as the base is in the skyvan for the record attempts. Tonight is the 6th annual hellfish toga party… the mind boggles!! I’m sure their will be a few sore heads in the morning For those of you that started freeflying a few years back and watched the awesome freefly chronicles filmed with Olav and the freefly Clowns you will remember Mr Orly King.. Imagine my suprise to see Mr King on the Dropzone today, one of the best parts of boogies is meeting up with some faces from your skydiving past and saying “Hi”…
Check back tomorrow to see what the folks at Summerfest 09 are getting up too….
ciao for now
Fordy
OOPS! forgot to upload the second video montage.. my bad!
After a trouble free flight, then getting pulled by the cops whilst in the back of a cab I made it the 90 minutes down south of Chicago to Ottawa and “Skydive Chicago”. By the way, it wasn’t me pulled over, the insane indian taxi driver swerving across 3 lanes in front of the sheriff 40 seconds after we set off did the trick. Luckily for him the cop didn’t want to detain me too long so let him off with a warning, after I got him to reset the $5.00 he’d rung up on the meter mumbling his way out of a ticket…
Anyway i digress, Skydive Chicago… What a beautiful skydiving resort nestled in next to the Fox river just off of highway 8. Greeted by RV’s and tents neatly put up next to the owners twin beech (I particularly like that for style) and a huge hanger emblazoned with the Skydive Chicago logo standing out in the centre. This place is not a skydiving centre, it is a skydiving resort! With kayaking, horseriding and Skydiving even the non skydivers are catered for…
Day one then, a not too early start after a night of biblical storms (so glad I opted for the hotel) and the hanger is buzzing with the 100 way FS participants and lots of Freeflyers, Tandem’s, AFF classes and a variety of people packing, de-briefing and chilling.. The hanger is big enough to easily house the 4 otters and skyvan if needed. What a great sight….
Their are a great list of organisers for the summerfest event including the following:
Whilst sounding like the title of a Harry Potter novel the “Summerfest and the head down world record attempt..” will hopefully have a lot more magic and less lightning than the Rowling creation.
I head out today to Chicago to attend the Summerfest Chicago boogie at the Skydive Chicago dropzone in Ottawa Illonois. Amongst the “things to do” at the boogie is the world record VFS formation attempt currently standing (read falling) at 69 linked in formation will hopefully be broken with 108 VFS formation.
As with the Euro record their are a number of Brit’s in attendance whom I shall name once i get a few minutes online with my participants sheet.. For now i know that Martin reynolds, James Davies, Jim Harris, Danny Parker, Mark Joiner, Andy Newell, Adam “Killa” Mattacola, Mikey Carpenter are attending.
So far the organisation from Erin Horton and the Skydive Chicago team has been excellent, a sheet was e-mailed out with the participants names and slot numbers alongside a template for the record itself showing each numbered slot, each sector has been allocated their aircraft and each aircraft is also shown with slots for exit.. I even know my choice for the bagged lunches each day. Feel free Euro Record organisors to take note of how the Skydive Chicago team have gone about this attempt!!!! nuff said.
So, as soon as i am WiFi’d up stateside I will attempt to keep the blog updated, as with Euro record 09 It may be difficult to do everything so it may take time between updates, i am sure you understand. Feel free to make comments or ask questions and I will endeavor to answer them.. for now, i have a flight to catch
After an awesome 40 way head down record success in 2007, the Babylon freefly crew are putting together another record attempt of 60+ skilled flyers from all over Europe at the Empuriabrava dropzone on the cost brava in Spain. The UK has the following participants registered to try out for the record attempts with many of the flyers having been on previous Euro* and World** records.
Matthew O’RIORDAN U.K.*
James DAVIES U.K. *
Martin REYNOLDS U.K.*
Will BLACKIE U.K.
Jim HARRIS U.K.*/**
Mark JOYNER UK
Claudio LETTIERI UK
Andy FORD U.K.*
Mike CARPENTER U.K.*/**
Andrew LOVEMORE U.K.
David JOYNER U.K.
Piers ROBERTS U.K
Richard FRAME U.K.
Laura KENYON U.K.** (female w/r)
Frazer SMITH UK
Daniel PARKER U.K.*/**
Andrew NEWELL U.K.*
Paul GOODMAN U.K.
The record attempts take place from the 6th – 10th June 2009 and we will be updating the blog with images and news as often as possible so check back for current information on how the event is proceeding.
image by Babylon freefly
Thursday 4th June. Arrived at Empuriabrava DZ after a wonderful flight with ryan air, it sais it all when the captain bounces the plane down the runway along with screams from nervous passengers.. sure woke me up! 3 freefly jumps from the otter with 17 other head down maniacs.. fast pace with the first swoop to the base touching 199 mph, closely followed by a 205 mph and a 210 mph, that sets me up as last stinger for about 8 seconds to dock and start the break off at 6000ft. So, looks like the aircraft will be 2 x twin Otter, 1 x Skyvan, 1 x twin beech and possible Pilatus Porter.. Thats an amazing capacity of 90 and 2 maybe 3 camera flyers!! Here are todays fun skydives OK! that should have been thursday 4th June on the video, it’s been a long day ha ha Come back tomorrow to see what’s going on in European record head down craziness… mean while here are some images of the day.
Ciao Fordy
ready to dock
On the way to 15,000ft
Waiting for the briefing
Checking the camera equipment prior to boarding
Thoughtful
“Blue steel”
Friday 5th June
Cloudy start with a little thunder and lightning to get us in the mood! ;-( now 9.25 and the first loads just gone up, french 4 way girls are training but not much else happening… what else did you expect from freeflyers!!! it’s 9.25 after all. The Brits are rocking up with Andy lovemore (S.A but token Brit) arriving late last night and Andy Newell arriving this morning, Claudio (Italian but token brit) Mark and David Joiner (S.A but token Brit) Piers Roberts (Canadian but token Brit) Frazer Smith, Fordy, Richard Frame, Laura Kenyon already here… It seems we treat our freeflying like our tennis and boxing with any nationality representing the uk as long as their from somewhere else, now where did Greg Rusedski go?? Will get back to you with some jumping soon before the rain comes…
22 way briefed and on a 20 minute call, weather seems to be playing along with the groups timings with cloud building between our loads and dispersing to glorious sunshine for take off, guess that’s what you get with the prevailing wind coming from the coast. Using a 4 way base with two 5 way pods we are looking to mimic the 4 way base from the 2007 euro record with 4 sets of 2 way wackers between the two 5 way pods, not enough flyers to link the wackers into a line yet but good practice for levels and group speed as this is only the 2nd jump of the day and the biggest so far. The break off has been split with 14 leaving at 6,500ft and the base 8 leaving at 5,000ft, with staggered pull heights that should give clear airspace for everyone.. it’s only ever going to get more crowded from here on in, now where is my velo 79!
Ciao for now.. Fordy
Weather issues I.E. crap weather have made the day fairly long and freefly free… the 22 way was?? hmmmm, to say the least quite a scary place to be! basic level issues and hard docking made the break off beeps a beautiful sound much as the bell at the end of round 1 with Iron Mike Tyson would have sounded..
Having done a 16 way since the scary 22 way we have now canned the final lift due to a 10,000 ft cloud base we have retired to the bar to ponder on just how hard the euro record could be to beat! let alone double in size. Here are the final 2 dives of the day, a 22 way and a 16 way both from 12,800ft with the first wave breaking at 6oooft and base + stingers at 5000ft.. Thats approximately 34 seconds from exit to complete the 22 way formation before 1st wave goes..
Latest arrival, Martin Reynolds from the Bad lieutenants freefly team.. Still a lot of “faces” to arrive yet. Also a huge “big up yourself’ for Kirsten McAndrew who with only 204 jumps was part of the base for all of the jumps today, Kirsten is a tunnel prodigy and it’s awesome to look across at someone with that amount of skydives mixing it up in the sky, nice one Kirsten!. That’s us for the day, the jumps start in earnest tomorrow with the babylon team looking to put together some nice skydives to check out all the flyers skill levels, let’s hope the axe is freshly sharpened and my next post isn’t from the bench! ha ha ciao Fordy
Saturday 6th June 09:37 Official start to the practice jumps. A low cloud base along with a freefly style of communication to the masses sits upon us, in other words I have no idea what is going on yet.. lots of flyers arrived last night so a long round of high five greetings takes place over grande cafe americano, Mikey Carpenter, James Davies and Matt O’Riordan made a late arrival last night making the Brit pack a formidable sized group here at the euro record, did I mention Matt is South African.
Waiting for the briefing
Received a comment from someone on the youtube clips asking if the freeflyers track on their back because it’s more efficient? For those that don’t freefly in formations that’s a perfectly fair question. The break off is one of the most dangerous parts of the skydive, with a large proportion of the flyers leaving at the same time and looking to leave safely and get in to clear airspace to deploy as far from the centre of the formation as possible.
The break off starts with a 180° turn with out committing to any forward drive, once a clear path has been established visually, the flyers accelerates forward and change the angle/pitch of the body to convert the vertical speed of 170 mph into horizontal speed, momentarily back tracking before rolling over into a more efficient belly to earth tracking profile, this takes place in about a second and can create huge distances between the flyers. Problems occur when flyers turn and change the angle of flight before checking that the exit path from the formation is clear, collisions are dangerous with the speeds involved between static and tracking flyers.
Briefing has taken place and the base 6 to be used in the actual record attempts are off to burn up the atmosphere in their 15 way with Vince, the rest of the 70+ flyers have also split into 15 ways with various babylon team members. Danny parker has arrived minus rig thanks to low cost budget airlines and managed to lock what little he did have with him in the boot of his hire car along with the keys, so at least their is no change in the quality of freefly admin.
Aircraft
We have a great fleet of aircraft for the record attempts, Beech 99, twin otter, Skyvan, Porter… I will update images as I get the chance.
The 15 way groups are all either jumping or waiting for the call, all the basic skills being checked with tight fast exits, approach and docking, levels and grips, break off and track being all of equal importance.. This really isn’t the place to be practicing for a bigway, this is the place to be ready and waiting for the slot on the record.. i am sure their will be some decisions made throughout the day as the jumps get done.
Will’s 15 way completed as have most of the other groups, normal issues to iron out with a stronger base needed to allow the stingers etc. to dock smooth and fast increasing the chances of a completed formation, 15,000ft helps enormously and gives a slightly more relaxed atmosphere to the jump. Changes to the base are being made to create the stronger centre for the formation.
The weather has come changed for the worst with a front approaching from an unusual direction, huge cumulonimbus building over the DZ making jumping at this time impossible.
Andy Lovemore is on Nimmo’s group so we have footage from a different formation.
A quick Glossary of terms for those that may need them:
Formation ~ Group of flyers in a pre-organised group gripped together to form the correct pattern.
Dock ~ The grip between one flyer and another.
Base ~ The core group (a 6 way formation in this case) of the formation that all the flyers move towards in the sky.
1st Stinger ~ The first skydivers to take a dock on the base, giving other flyers the beginning of the intended formation.
2nd Stinger ~ As above but second
Pod ~ A sub group of the base that starts with one 1st stinger and loops around to close with another 1st stinger, the base 6 would have maybe a 10 way pod on either end to allow more flyers to join
Wacker ~ A line that is docked onto a pod or the base that does not return to finish at the pod or base, generally curved all in the same direction to aid the flow of docking, the wackers allow flyers room to fly cleanly and allow bigger formations to fly stronger.
Burble ~ The disrupted air above the flyers feet that is not clean and very difficult to fly in, the falling body creates a burble all around like a force field, falling into or putting flying surfaces (arms and legs) into the burble cause tension and movement in the formation.
Break off ~ The altitude that has been pre-designated to stop building the formation and allow the flyers to move horizontally away from each other too open their parachutes.
Axed/Benched ~ if a flyers skill level is not up to the required standard then the flyer is taken off of the next attempt or axed from the formation, this is the organisers job after a video review and always done for the good of the group, also any flying deemed “dangerous” would end up with the flyer being axed or benched.
Bench ~ Literally taken it was once the place where skydivers would sit and wait inline to be invited on the formation, if the formation was 20 way in size with 26 total flyers then the 6 extra flyers would sit in order of arrival for a slot to become available, normally by a flyer being axed from the formation. A strong bench means the organiser has plenty of talented skydivers to pick from above the original formation. For the European record the planned attempt is a 60 way with a 35 strong bench!
Lift capacity ~ The amount of aircraft available to fly the skydivers in the formation to altitude. Generally lift capacity limits the size of the formation, lack of participants is not normally a problem.
Superfloater ~ A skydiver who leaves the aircraft earlier than the base and other skydivers and is the signal for floaters in the other aircraft to leave.
Weather changed for the better so most of the 15 way formations get a couple more jumps in, all the groups seem to have the odd issue with 1 or 2 flyers but it all bodes well for tomorrow with hopefully the groups joining to concentrate on bigger formations.
Here are the last couple of our groups dives, the base got the act together on the last jump to give everyone a sweet point to aim at
Weather looks better for tomorrow so if all goes well we could push 5 or 6 formation loads together, quality rather than quantity is the focus, after all this is the euro record not the euro try outs, the babylon website states fairly clearly that everyone attending should be comfortable flying in multi plane freefly formations.. hmmm, maybe not everyone is on the internet!
Ciao for now
Fordy
Sunday 7th june 09:20
The 9 am briefing will commence shortly! Spanish time
So far today the weather has played along and the loads have been getting in the air at a good pace, we have a little altitude problem with air traffic at Girona so the last few lifts have only managed 12,800ft instead of 15,000ft.. amazing how much of a difference that 10 seconds can make both mentally in the aircraft and the obvious in the jump.
Will’s group have completed 2 jumps and they couldn’t have been further apart in quality.. To be honest the mindset on the first attempt was wrong from the off, with a war cry of “get on it or f**k off” the base melted into the atmosphere throwing in a turn just for good measure.. the whole skydive was just a group of individuals looking for an opportunity to survive. Jump 2 could not have been different with less altitude and a completely different base (3 brits and an italian fella) we flew strong and fast on heading allowing everyone the opportunity to take time and get into their slot. Only 1 or 2 grips shy of a smooth 16 way from 12,800ft.. awesome.
Lunch is served whilst in the confinement of the babylon container the silent assassin wields his sharpened blade.. or it could be just Nimmo with a pen, maybe we’ll have more time too blog if things don’t go so well for me!
Waiting for the Babylon crew to get the first of the larger formation loads together, always a little tension waiting for the names to be read out! To be fair each individual flyer here knows wether he or she has been in slot and done their job for the team on every jump. It might be a little bit of a shock to get cut having been in slot on every jump but shouldn’t be too much of a suprise if instability, hard docks, falling out of slot, going low, not getting to the formation have been apparent in all of the jumps so far! things should get cleaner from now on.
A lot of the flyers are wearing weight myself included, The base is rumored to be falling at over 200 mph conjouring up images of feet together hands by your sides to be near it.. it’s hard to dock if your palms are flat against your thighs to stay with the base 6 so a few pounds around the waist might just help some. BTW the rumour came from a guy in the base so should be fairly accurate.
hmmm, the call to meet has been tannoyed!! here we go..
So, 30 way from the Skyvan and Beech 99.. looks like we are training for the centre of the final 60+ will get back with a checklist of the brits involved!
Piers, Newell, Mikey C, Fordy, Richard Frame so far in this load.
30 WAY
Emotional… Aircraft communication didn’t help the exit with the Beech 99 chase plane being a fair distance from the Skyvan and the team not being outside and ready as the base exited the Skyvan and went on it’s merry way towards 210mph. The epic pace from the base catching a few of the jumpers out and causing issues. Interesting skydive giving everyone benchmark to improve from. The other 2 groups of 30 are also up and working towards the goal, how awesome to have three 30 ways practicing on one DZ. I’m sure it will get smoother once the pace issues are sorted, that really becomes a personal issue, however i can’t seem to find a second 10lb weightbelt anywhere!
) We did a rodeo.. very cool”
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