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!

The jumping is done for the day with a cloud layer ending any further attempts. The Babylon team have organised a meal this evening for all the participants in the record attempts. A 9 am start tomorrow will see a briefing and dirt dive for a 3 plane load looking at a possible 50 way + with the available aircraft. Again the names will be called at assembly for the guys and girls who are on the attempts.

Goodnight all.. check back tomorrow when it just gets bigger… 

Monday 8th June 09.30

The 9 am briefing has just taken place and the 105 registered participants crowd in front of the Babylon container Stefan Fardel the Babylon teams founder goes over the plan for the day.. First off we are looking to achieve a 51 way from 3 aircraft.. again the names are read out as the flyers hope to hear their names… Brits on the 51 way are as follows.

Andrew Lovemore 

Andy Ford

Mikey C

Mark Joiner

James Davies

Danny Parker

Matt O’Riordan

Andy Newell

Jim Harris

Martin Reynolds

Tim Porter (Camera flyer)

Claudio Lettiere

Fraser Smith

A quick big up for Fraser Smith, IBA Level 4 tunnel instructor from UK’s Airkix tunnel has only 250 skydives… What needs to be said, the tunnel has created some monsters. 10 years ago their wasn’t a dropzone in the world  that could put a 50 way together and now skydivers with 250 jumps can be part of the biggest formation over Europe.. maybe thats just a big up for the tunnel, however, you cannot learn to swoop, float, break off safely in the tunnel.. so back to Fraser with the big up. 

Hopefully we can get some p.o.v footage up once the jump has taken place to give you an idea just how awesome being in the thick of it can be, i’ll be sure to edit out the screaming!

Monday 8th 14:00

A long dirt dive preceded a nice flight out across the bay of Empuria’s watching the skyvan lead the 4 ship formation to the 17000 ft exit altitude… The rear of the two twin otters full of floaters who will leave as the camera flyer Tom superfloats the skyvan some 6 seconds before the base group leave. In theory that means the floaters are on an angle beneath the formation waiting without to much drive for the base to come to them whilst the other aircraft loads leave with the base to dive into slot. 

Upon the green light our trail Otter starts to climb the floaters out with Andy lovemore, Andy Newell and Myself together on the rail outside.. normally 10 seconds in the floater position is comfortable with the propellor on the turbine engine only 6 ft in front of us blasting a 70 knt prop wash against us. Not everything always goes to plan so the green light comes on and we climb smoothly into slot, 1 minute 45 seconds later with muscles screaming for release and one floater already fallen from the otter in front of us, we see Tom superfloat the Skyvan. To be honest the formation probably wasn’t the immediate focus of the skydive as we breathe a sigh of relief and make our way up the slipstream towards the silhouette of the base, flexing and trying to get the blood back into our hands to be able to pick up the grips in the formation. A little traffic but all in all a pretty smooth skydive in the circumstances with most people ending up in slot or just off of the grips, danny (floater who fell from otter 2) got into slot and deserves a huge “big up” for such a long float up to the base along with a free gym membership to work out his puny forearms

The debrief is over and we are waiting for a tannoy to announce the next attempt, with a better climb out and fresher minds and bodies this 51 way is a serious possibility on the next jump. i’ll edit some footage asap, BTW no cameras are allowed on the record so POV footage is not possible. however, the TV can always be filmed in the de-brief…

14:23, briefing commences

Waiting for the rain too pass before another attempt.. video uploading so shouldn’t be too long.

Just a mention, Their are over 50 talented flyers on the bench at the moment that will be moved in and out of the formation as required until the biggest formation possible has been achieved, being on the bench at this time is in no way a slant on the skills and abilities of those flyers. It certainly sharpens the 

focus knowing their is such a talented group waiting to take your slot.

16:00 15 minute call…

17:46

 Much better attempt but still some aircraft issues, for some reason the lack of communication between the Beech and the other A/c ended up with people staying on board the beech 99!! No way too break a record. The skydivers that were in the air built a fairly smooth formation and break off was event free.. a long track by the 1st wave at 6000 ft gives a huge opportunity to get a huge distance from the centre of the formation, pulling at 3000 ft the only negative is that jumpers land off of the dropzone on each jump. The staff here at Empuria are pretty quick to get out to any jumper landing off and the formation is built on the ground to see who is missing after each jump ensuring everyone is accounted for. Video now uploaded from jump 1 and some images also.

feel free to write comments as it makes typing worth while if we know their are people out their to read the blurb

It is now raining again quite hard so hopefully as earlier we will get a bright patch straight afterwards.

Laters

Fordy

20.32 

Another attempt once the rain clears see’s the 51 way even closer to closing the final few grips, the aircraft are getting into the game and giving the jumpers a better chance of completion, a few small changes may be needed to allow a better flow of traffic to the designated slots but overall we know this formation can be accomplished fairly smoothly once these minor ripples are ironed out. Dirt diving any freefly formation becomes tricky with either a side door aircraft or a tail gate exit. With the tailgate the base sets up and upon exit inverts so out becomes in and vice versa, this is fairly difficult to recreate on the dirtdive as we are stood up and trying to visualise the inversion, an easy walk to the slot on the dirt dive generally means a tougher flight path to the slot in the air. The side door exit rolls out from right to left or vice versa so again these issues need to be taken into account during the dirtdive, is it any wonder few teams wants to organise massive H/D records, what a headache! 

The bench guys are building formations whilst the 51 practice on the ground with some nice 12 way, 17 and 20 way formations. good to see that everyone is making the most of the weather between the black cloud and the rain to get in the air.

Hypoxia is always a possibility with the exit height on 2 of the 3 jumps today over 17,000ft (no oxygen is available on board) the jumpers are mostly trying to remain relaxed on the aircraft ride to altitude with eyes closed and visualising the jump only minutes away, any early adrenaline rush or unnecessary moving around just causes the effects of hypoxia to take effect earlier than ever. Anyway, it’s easy to remain relaxed and adrenalin free before a record freefly attempt!!! yeah right!

Another 9 am start to see who is on the attempt and what changes have been made to the aircraft slots if any. will keep you posted whenever possible and hopefully the Brit’s can carry on being a major part of the record attempts.

    

Catcha in the morning, from us it’s an early night after grabbing some food. 

ciao 

Fordy

09:00 Tuesday 9th June

This is the weather we expect here on the southern coast of Spain, a warm sunny blue skies start should motivate everybody that little bit more to get this 51 done and move on. The Joiner brothers Mark and David are sat with me over coffee and croissants, here’s David’s views are on the overall experience so far.

David Joiner                                      

Thoughtful

 

Age: 30 yrs old,

Jumps: 1067 

Largest completed H/D formation: 20 way 

Tunnel time: 17hrs

What are your thoughts about being at the Euro record ?

“Came here hoping to get a slot but not expecting too get on the first few attempts. Looking at the guy’s that are on the jumps they are the best flyers available at the phenomenal speeds the groups looks to be reaching, flying at that speed isn’t a regular dz weekend fun jump. I have done the biggest completed formations than I have ever achieved before coming here and had a massive confidence boost flying well amongst my peers. Also had the opportunity to try diving slots and floating slots from the various aircraft, so many body position skills attained so all in all an Invaluable experience.”

Can you see the 51 way completed or maybe even a bigger formation?

“I can see the 51 way completed once the communication gets sorted out between the aircraft and i think that once completed then I hope they put extra flyers in to smash the record even more.”

Would you come back?

“Definitely!! Every time, this is the only place to learn this type of flying amongst not only ya mates but so many other cool people.”

Cheers David, thanks for your time.. Fordy

Always good news to be called to the Babylon container.. maybe not.. ha ha! Myself, Lovemore and Teppo Heikkinen have been cut for the next attempt, not a huge shock to any of us as the slots we were given were from rear float otter with the final slots on the opposite side of the formation were hellish to get too with the amount of traffic, however, now they have changed the A/C configuration to take into account the base rotation that should make the path to the formation smoother and traffic free. More video will be uploaded as soon as I have time to go back to the apartment and get the forgotten video camera!! doh! 

9:42 

The 9 am briefing has just finished, only a quick one as the slots were changed pre-briefing . good to hear confirmation that the pilots have been re-briefed on the tighter formation flying needed to give any big way a chance of being concluded and It was nice to hear at last on day 4 some praise for the 54 way bench that have been kind of in limbo since the 51 way attempts started. The bench has been given the green light to jump and practice after some confusion over the last couple of days over wether they should sit and wait or go and practice. 

10:22

10 minute call..

 

 

   I can confirm the sound the Twin Otter makes on take off is better from the inside…

 

 

 

Interview # 2

Andy Newell                                     

"Blue steel"

Age: 30 (tough paper round)

Jumps: 3000+

Largest completed H/D formation: 40 way 

 

Tunnel time: Instructor at Airkix

How’s it going so far for you personally Andy?

“better now the minor issues are getting sorted out, things seem to be improving”

What slot are you flying and how did the last attempt go?

” Stinger on Nimmo’s Pod forming a 3 way wacker, Moved over from the trail otter and now floating from the beech 99, the last attempt seemed to have a lot less traffic since the A/C slots were reconfigured and resulted in a much smoother overall feel to the dive.”

The bench is pretty strong and chomping to get a chance of a slot, does this add to the pressure?

“Personally for me  not really (laughs), I am just keen to get the 51 way built so we can add more flyers and go bigger! “

What are the basic issues stopping the formation from completing?

“Technically the dive plan seems more robust and now it’s just coming down to individual skill level as to wether the final grips are on in the time alloted. Wether this is down too the grip presentation or other small but important errors such as levels we’ll have too wait and see on the video de-brief”

cheers mate, talking of the video de-brief you’d better run as the video is being shown.. Fordy

 

Video de-brief shows a few grips shy of the final 51, the A/c configuration seems to have smoothed out the traffic flow and most of the formation seems to be flying for a huge 8-10 seconds waiting for the last couple of grips, everyone seems very pumped up and motivated.. go 51 way

12:20

Dirt diving commences for another attempt..

13:09 

The team board the aircraft for the ascent to 17,000 ft, a couple more slots have been switched in the attempt to get the perfect formation flying. the skyvan leads the way off of the runway with the twin otters following, Jan’s amazing beech 99 can afford to wait for a while as it can out perform all the other aircraft. all the aircraft are off the ground and away.. 20 minutes will hopefully see a new European H/D record.

 

13.45

 The 51 + camera have all landed safely and the packing hanger is buzzing with adrenaline as the participants discuss what they saw, who was in their slot, how the levels and speed were etc. The general consensus is that everything was built for a good 10 seconds but one flyer could not find the correct slot and the formation was incomplete, such is the way with record attempts, so close but oh so far… I am sure the person involved won’t get the chance to make the same mistake again, not with this bench.. Mutiny might ensue! lol.

The exit on the video is clean and looks awesome against the blue skies, no traffic allows everyone a clean approach to the base, it looks ridiculously easy when it goes this well… My heart goes out to the flyer who got lost as no amount of words are a consolation for watching the 50 way in front of you and being unable to finish the job. Make no mistake this is the sharp end of freeflying and is not only fast and furious but unforgiving of error! Another attempt will be made as soon as everyone is packed.. watch this space

Good news, Andy Lovemore has been asked to re-join the next attempt, i’ll graba chat with him once he calms down and his scared rabbit eye’s disappear, this must be the reason the bench watch the dirt dive so it’s not all a complete suprise go big Lovemore..

Everyone has stopped for lunch.. where’s Lovemore for that chat?

 

Andy Lovemore

Age 37

Jumps 5000

Largest completed H/D formation 22

Tunnel time yes, but no real idea how much.. 100 + hrs?

Is this your first time at the Euro record attempt?

“No, I was here in 2007 and completed a lot of the training jumps up to the 20 ways stage, i fell ill and stayed at the hotel for 3 day’s in bed before deciding to return home, my girlfriend Suzy picked me up at the airport and I quite literally curled up on the back seat all the way home.”

How did you you feel about the 2007 records with days in bed to ponder?

“I didn’t feel ready for the record attempts, i was robbed to be that ill at the time but looking back I wonder if it was partly psychosomatic..”

You were stood down for the attempts this morning along with myself and another flyer, how did you feel afterwards?

“Relieved because the pressure was lifted, but disappointed at the same time” 

How are you feeling now you have been asked to help the team get the 51 way completed knowing that all the other slots were built last time around?

“F****g terrified ha ha!” 

Go big fella, get in their and show em your skills, thanks for the honesty… by the way, your looking peaky Fordy

15:00

Boarding call, the turbines are starting up.. unmistakable the whine of the skyvan.. Interesting to see Wolf from babylon on the ground?? the only member of the babylon team now not on the attempt!

15:11

The team has been stood down for weather as a build up of cloud would make an already hard core skydive dangerous.

15:50

The weather hasn’t changed so the team are still on standby.

interview #3

Matt O’Riordon

Age 30

Jumps 2500

Largest completed H/D formation 40

Tunnel time 50 hrs +

Hey Matt, how is the Euro record 2009 going for you so far?

“it’s been good actually, some of the slots have been hard because of the aircraft positioning but now it’s seems getting their is super easy, the physical tension in the slots can be harsh but otherwise it’s all good. I think primarily the team is made up of really good flyers and that of course makes all the difference”.

What aircraft are you on and what’s your slot? 

“Lead twin otter to the right of the skyvan, just behind and below, looking across I have a great view of the beech 99. The slots has changed for me a couple of times and i have ended up 1st stinger on a pod beginning a 3 person whacker.”

Are you on the the list of invites for the world Record in Chicago?

“No, I snoozed and it wasn’t until I realised some of the guy’s were planning to go that i asked Babylon about a slot, their were only 30 slots from europe and they were already gone so i am on the list for a cancellation!”

What motivates you to spend time and money coming to the Euro record especially with the weak £ – € ?

“For me it’s a lot to do with the people, seeing friends from my last 9 years in the sport, also after 9 years of constant jumping I feel I have earned my right to be involved here and keep being part of the evolution of  freefly. I think mostly the chance to hang out and jump with my friends from throughout Europe motivates me the most. Money isn’t an issue when these meets take place so rarely, If you want to be here you just get on with it” 

Matt, the team are kitting up so cheers for ya time and enjoy your jump. Fordy

15:25

The weather seems to have improved enough to get another attempt in the air, surely it must complete this time! Everything has come together over the last few jumps and the previous attempt has left everyone with that slightly frustrated feeling of why haven’t we done this yet? The final dirt dive is taking place. 

 

15:41

The aircraft are being boarded for probably the final jump of the day.

The view from the ground was the second best view of the 51 way possible, the white backdrop at 20,000ft + gave the perfect canvas for everyone looking up to watch a perfect aircraft set up and run in, the base get swarmed with miniscule dots then nothing, 3 camera men and a beautiful 51 way european record.. this of course has to be ratified but from the ground the formation looked clean and perfect.. now for the waiting!

Video review tells all, one 2nd stinger doesn’t take the grip so the 3rd cannot either, another super close attempt. A 49 way with 2 within a foot of completion. amazing how solid everything looks on the outside camera footage. The whole room is silent during the video playback until the final seconds when the lack of completion is apparent, then howls of frustration erupt as yet another attempt fails. Everyone is pumped to try again and as in all records the elusive formation evades the first few tries. If it was easy it wouldn’t be worth chasing.

17:30

Another attempt has been tannoyed for this evening, 20 minutes too meet for a dirt dive.

18:10

2 minutes too drop..

17:13

the aircraft are on run in and clearly visible 

17:15

The formation again looks complete, possibly 1 slot maybe 2 not gripped but again impossible too tell from the ground, after staring into the bright sky for 3 minutes solid everything looks like a formation ;-P

Everyone has landed and again now have too wait for the video de-brief. From the public nut roasting one guy has just received from Babylon Vince I am pretty damn sure it wasn’t a record. 

18:46

The video debrief has taken place, one more attempt will be made this evening. the last attempt was again close but some movement caused one of the jumpers to pop out of the formation and take someone else with him. At speed in excess of 180mph only small movements can send ripples through the wackers and cause dramatic effects.

18:58

A 30 minute call for the sunset 51 way maybe the team are waiting to get the most dazzling sunset images and it’s all been about the photography?

Wow! massive apologies for anyone logging in to check what happened after the final attempt! the internet here has been incredibly slow, over an hour and the basic blog page wasn’t loaded! It’s terrible now but at least there is some bandwidth.

 

 

 

NEW EUROPEAN RECORD 51 WAY BUILT OVER EMPURIABRAVA!! 

The team did it, a clean build on a super solid base see’s a new Euro record of 51 freeflyers head down linked in a pre-determined formation. The whoops and hollers and general noise whilst the team were under canopy was awesome too hear, complete and utter jubilation after so many attempts to complete the 51, funny that 98% off the flyers didn’t change anything they were doing throughout the day, only finishing the last few grips were missing and finally they came together on the sunset load. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today Wednesday the 10th June we look to do a bigger formation, looks like at least another 15 people have been asked to buy euro record tickets.. that could

mean were looking to beat the 69 way world record.. now that would be something

09:53

Everyone has slots and we are dirt diving a 70 way formation… go big or go home huh!

12:14

The de-brief has taken place and the formation looks to be 60+ with one guy 1st stinging on a connector loop (nearer the centre just outside the base of the formation) spitting out causing those behind him to wait in slot.. 

The rest of the dive seemed traffic free and was super smooth with minor level issues. 

On a personal note as we were starting to taxi out my zip popped on my suit! of all the possible times to get a burst zipper, incredible, so wrapped in sellotape and with my t-shirt over my suit encased in my weight belt we overcame the problem, i began to feel the hypoxia effects on this climb to altitude probably because of the excess stress and moving around to get everything sorted. On the positive side this made very little effect to the dive for me as 1st stinger on a 2nd pod behind Vince in the base I arrived and took my slot after waiting about 6 or 7 seconds for the pod to finish building, the 2nd and 3rd in my wacker were also formed up and waiting but we ran out of altitude before the close.

Dirt dive and take off by 13:00

Again i will apologise in advance as I am off to dirtdive so updates will be fewer than yesterday, from my point of view a good thing!!

Wow, just had to retrieve a former version after an admin cock up.. back in a moment!

Ok, that’s better, trying too blog whilst waiting for the aircraft to start up may have ended up me deleting the entire page and then saving a blank page, no-one said i was bright! 

We have attempted a 70 way world record freefly formation twice today, neither have come too fruition but they are close enough for everyone to be confident that we can achieve the goal. Again from a personal perspective the Aircraft were flying a closer formation that for the dive planes (out otter and the beech 99) make for a shorter swoop down to the base, I think my neptune was at over 240 mph on the dive to the formation. Myself, Piers, David Joiner and Jim Harris are on the dive otter with Laura Kenyon, Richard Frame, Andrew Lovemore, Danny Parker, Andy Newell, Mark Joiner, Claudio, James Davies, Martin “da base” Reynolds spread throughout the other 3 aircraft.

Having sat just off my slot for least 10 seconds I totally believe that if some minor issues are sorted then this formation is totally within reach for us! i am off to find someone to interview.

Laura Kenyon

Age (discretion doesn’t allow me to ask)

Jumps 1720+

Largest completed H/D formation Female world record 20 way

Tunnel Time  20hrs +

Hey Laura, how’s the altitude affecting you on these attempts? 

“it’s messing with my head to be straight to the point, i can’t piece every detail of the dive sequence together and that’s down to mild hypoxia i guess!”

The 51 way took place over the last few days and built yesterday evening, how did you feel watching the goal achieved but from the ground?

“Pleased for all off the flyers who worked so hard to achieve the record but frustrated at not getting a chance to be part of it”

Today we are attempting a much bigger formation to beat the W/R 69 way, how are you feeling after the 2 attempts so far?

“this is my first time floating up too a formation and it’s really weird because your flying up to the base and working to close the distance and suddenly it’s right in front of you, I have docked on both the attempts so far, the Wacker behind me is also complete. Apart from a little tension the formation feels good.”

From what you are seeing so far do you think it will take much too complete this record?

“I think the skill level is definitely their, the flyers around me are all doing a great job, maybe a little less tension and focus on levels will make the small difference between nearly done and complete”

Having taken part in a female world record in the USA, how does the europeans style of organisation differ?

“it’s totally different, if you want to arrive at 7am and get in the air for 8 then go to the states, The european style is far more laid back with briefings at 9 am and the first jump is after 11 am… Say no more”

What would you like your next venture to be?

“Having been part of artistic freefly teams for a number of years i would love to be part of a VFS team to take to the UK nationals and beyond, their is a lack of commitment to VFS at the moment within the UK with only a couple of teams training.”

Would you come back if their was a Euro 2011?

“probably not unless I could commit to doing some multi plane loads beforehand to get more experience” 

 

Cheers laura, thanks for your time.. were briefing soon and i still have a headache from the last one.

 

16:08 briefing now for the 70 way 

Will upload the de-brief video in a while, sad too say we were close yet again but not successful. one more attempt follows… 

The 70 way is slimmed down to a 63 way, slots are swapped and i am now comfortably sat in the skyvan but still on a 1st stinger slot.. The ride to altitude takes forever whilst the beech 99 happily buzzes about on the port side. Red on! The benches go up and the base gets ready as the ramp opens.. Green on the cameraflyer tom leaves a full 4 seconds before the end of the base exit countr and we move swiftly towards the tailgate and rotate into a ball and stretch earthward, an endless stream of bodies aimed towards their individual slots around the base.. a fairly traffic free approach see’s my pod built about 6 seconds after I am sat in slot waiting.. the grip is easy and we fly hard but the second stinger is heavy and dragging the wacker and the pod, F**ks sake this isn’t mean’t to be this hard! 

 

Little did we know the Otter pilot had not put on the green light so one of the dive planes was 17 seconds late.. decimating any chance of the 63 way completing.. 

 

Fred from Babylon has asked if we are fit enough to try again, no-one sais no as we are equally as hungry for the 63 way as the previous 51.. i’ll let you know what happens

Ciao

Fordy

21:31

 The babylon team have called it because the day is very late and everyone is super tired after so many lifts to high altitude without additional oxygen.

The Brits have just been up to beat the current 11 way record set here in 2007, with a 15 way.. not all the guys are still around so not as big as it could have been.

Thanks too Tim Porter for filming and taking stills for us.. 

 

Jut taking the stills to the FAI judges and we have a 15 way british record..

 

thanks for the messages of support, hope you enjoyed the ramblings and images, were off for a beer the start the evening.

 

Ciao for now, maybe see you at the World record at summerfest in chicago.