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..

Ciao for now

Fordy

29th July…

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.

Ciao

Fordy

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..

Ciao for now

Fordy

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

Ciao

Fordy

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

 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.

2nd Stinger ~ As above but second

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

The 9 am briefing will commence shortly! Spanish time

  

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.

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!

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

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

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!

    

David Joiner                                      

Thoughtful

 

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! “

“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.

If your a fan of tattoo’s the ink in the skin kind and not the military brass band spectaculars then you may have heard of louis Malloy, for the last 24 years Mr Malloy has been practicing the art of tattooing and is seen by many to be at the top of his profession, being the artist who created David Beckham’s Guardian Angel.

Mr Louis Malloy and entourage of like minded artists are currently working with The Discovery Channel on the aptly named Sky TV program “London Ink” and in show number 6 Mr Malloy takes to the skies on a Tandem skydive with one of his “customers” Mr Toby Goodchild  before later returning the favor with some awesome artwork on Toby in the studio.

Tandem Instructor Loz Cross along with Toby jumped from 13,000ft with Infinite Skydiving Camera flyer Andy Ford to film for the series.. 

Here are some of the images of the sharply dressed and very laid back louis Malloy making the descent.. 

Regards

Andy Ford

Infinite Skydiving Solutions ltd.

Well, it’s Friday 18th and the team have done as much training as possible with the Tunnel flying schedule and weather conditions, so 40 team jumps completed and a mini meet draw already flown. The Skydive AZ 4 way VFS competition starts tomorrow with teams in open and Intermediate class. Outbreak Vertical are going into the open as they have tried to train the harder blocks 4,5, & 6, with some success, more practice would have been good but ya play the cards ya dealt so the team phrase “suck it up, buttercup” definitely comes into play here.. 

As a quick end to the training phase the team were invited on Matt Hills 1000th jump a 20 way that built to an 17 with all the team in slot and flying well… 

So the draw for the 6 round meet will take place tonight at 7pm mountain time (Arizona??) and will be uploaded along with the team shortly after..

regards

Fordy

www.infiniteskydiving.com

Weather still being a hinderance to getting good consolidation with the jumping, Exits seem to be getting better, after 20 jumps we are definitely all in slot and launching a good solid chunk and turning on the hill.. With some of the tougher blocks such as 6 (snowflake) and 11 Overcrank/undercrank to fly were hoping for better conditions before the weekends competition… 

Here are some more dives and some tunnel we have been working on:

More to come as we train through the week towards the Eloy VFS comp at the weekend

Fordy

www.infiniteskydiving.com