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11/21/2007 Sarge and Wendy's Daily Blog When you set your alarm clock for 4.30 a.m. to get up and dirt dive, it had better be worth it. The drive to Lake Wales airport is dark and cold. The coffee at IHOP on the way begins to make it bearable. Bleary eyes start to open and smiles begin to creep across tired faces. The smiles always become wider as you walk past Alan Gutshall who somehow manages to be first up, coffee in hand and always ready with a “Good morning, sir, good to see y’all” as you make your way to the 5.30 a.m. circle up. In short, today was worth getting up for. We set up the formation inside the armoury which is our home for the week, walked it out on the runway outside and boarded our aircraft around 7.30 for another crack at the 100 diamond. Spirits were definitely up. The chase CASA went over the base at 18,000 and by 12,500 feet the thirty-six way base was hammering through the sky. The formation built to 64 quickly and relatively smoothly by around 7,500 feet and the row 9 wings were called in. The row 10 wings came in shortly afterwards and the formation built into 90’s by the time it reached the 5,000 hard deck. Mike Lewis gave a “hold on” call in anticipation of the last four people docking and to the sound of arch calls we waited. And waited. And waited…and waited…and…well, you get the picture. And, in
short, the picture was
wrong. According to whoever you speak
to, the starburst call came at heights between 3,200 and 2,800 feet. To split the difference, we can all safely (or
unsafely) say that we were in a 96 way canopy formation at 3,000 feet. It was, however, healthy, broke down cleanly
and we were out of it at 2,500 feet. We
landed in the boonies. Foreigners kept a
weather eye out for alligators. Certainly
something to tell the grandkids (and the big kids at the DZ) about. Another thing to tell the grandkids (and your whole drop zone along with anyone else who will listen) is that the next formation broke off higher with more people on it. Four more to be exact. Ninety-six plus four equals……WORLD RECORD. Celebrations
and high fives and a
group hug were in order. They were over
in half an hour. The mood was, in
general, that we always knew this team would break the record. It was always a question of when.
People celebrated simply by having lunch. I had Kentucky Fried with Ben and Higgo and we
worked hard our wing loadings as
weigh-ins were now a non-event. We turned up again in the late
afternoon to
dirt-dive a second hundred way formation to include those on the
hundred way team who had not already been on a world-record dive.
In the fading sunset over Lake Wales, we built to 100
again but, critically, a couple of docks were made below on a jumper
who was not locked off above and, as we all know, once that happens
it's almost impossible to close the gap. As it turned out, a grip
that needed to be taken on the A line could only be made on the skin of
the canopy. There were inches in it, literally, but that
don't make it legal as they say in these parts. The formal apects of the day ended with the jump planes
doing a low pass in the missing man formation in tribute to those of
our close knit community who have passed on since we started this long
and rewarding adventure. To quote the transmission made to the
world record hundred way on break off, "Joe Lambright, Scotty (Fiore
and Cowan), Joel (Zane), Tas and Q...that was for you..." The gang is hangin around for the rest of the week to go
play in th air some more. It's all fun, remember. It's been a blast.
11/20/07 Wendy
and Sarge's Daily Update CRWdogs from all around the world met up at 5:30 this
morning with coffee in hand, ready to dirt-dive the largest canopy
formation ever attempted. The group was going to use 5 airplanes
- 2 Casas and 3 Otters - in the attempt. Spread out over the
grass landing area watching the sunrise and seeing the enormious number
of people on it was incredible to see. Around 8 AM we boarded the planes and took off for the
first ever attempt at a formation this large. There were
some issues with the aircraft formation and there were multiple
go-arounds so it was a long time to jump run. The formation was
building well and got into the 70's. The left trail Otter
was extremely high on this pass, which contributed to issues with
jumpers getting down to the formation. Others had left the plane
too early and found themselves behind the formation. It was a
good first attempt however and hopes were high as the day
continued. The second jump was the exact same formation.
There were again some problems with the aircraft, and the lower 2 trail
planes were definitely feeling some hypoxia when jump run finally
commenced. This dive built well into the row 9 echelon, giving us
great hopes for the last dive. This one was broken somewhat
higher as we approached a cloud layer and wanted to avoid the
turbulence associated with it. The last dive was much faster to altitude, to the great
thankfulness of the jumpers. The pilots are still working
out some kinks with the last 2 airplanes. Both airplanes passed
below the altitude of the formation. Everyone in the right trail
plane exited anyway, seeing as how that the formation was quite
sinky, it was easy to get up. The left Otter did a very rapid 360
and put us out quickly thereafter. This dive built to 83 - the 81
was complete with right row 10 wing and lockup was on. Everyone is very excited about tomorrow's jump and are
fully expecting at least one hundred way formation to be built
tomorrow. We are so close the anticipation is tangible in the
air. On a sad note, the community here was extremely saddened
to hear that Joe Lambright passed away this morning from the injuries
he sustained in a wrap on Saturday. Our thoughts and
prayers are with his family, and we will fondly remember an incredible
man. 11/19/07 Wendy and Sarge's Daily Update Things are definitely looking up. Following yesterday's successful completion of a 49 diamond, the organizing committee decided to launch three aircraft (a twin otter carrying the base and their under-canopy oxygen systems and two Casa chase planes) carrying jumpers for an attempt on a 64 diamond. A healthy and fast flying 64 diamond is the springboard to our goal of building the first 100 way canopy formation at this meet.The first attempt built to 52 before pilot Chris Gay gave the starburst call as the formation encountered turbulence somewhere above 7,000 feet. Those who have travelled in light aircraft and experienced turbulence would have some appreciation of the effect of a flying canopy formation. The second attempt saw the base exit at 18,000 feet and begin to build smoothly before the first chase CASA passed one hundred feet above the base and spill a further 27 jumpers over the tailgate. The formation built to 36 as the third plane passed overhead. The visuals from the formation as the last waves of jumpers streamed over the tailgate, opened, turned and swooped towards the formation remind us all why we love this discipline of the sport. This time we beat the turbulence and got the starburst call sufficiently above the hard deck of 6,000 feet to give us the belief that we can build the world record in time. The video debrief showed that there is a degeree of pulsation in the formation and that there had been a number of radical docks during the dive which cost us time. However, that only added to the belief that we could build the record in time once people had mastered their slots and as people became used to flying together. The 64 way group sat out the rest of the day while the organisers worked on the reasons for the amount of movement in the formation. Six canopies in the centreline of the formation were sent to the riggers to have eight or so inches taken off the lines to give them more drive and penetration (a rigging modification that FAA Master Rigger and notorious CRW dog Mark Kruse calls the "spaghetti mod") and the wing leaders and their lock ups met in groups to debrief. Meanwhile, the rest of the team continued to jump regularly and the day saw smaller groups attempting 9, 16 and 36 diamonds to prepare the other 36 jumpers who who are to make the first assault on the 100 way diamond. At day's end, Chris Gay announced that the first attempt is to be made tomorrow. We are to meet at 5:30 am when the names of those on that attempt will be read out. Sometime in the early morning after we have dirt dived the formation, 100 CRW dogs from 16 countries will exit five aircraft from heights between 12,000 and 20,000 feet into the air over Lake Wales for skydiving's first shot at CRW's holy grail...the hundred canopy diamond. 11/18/07 Wendy
and Sarge's Daily Update
(without Sarge) Rumor has it that Sarge is not here tonight because he
went to visit a friendly sheep he met earlier today while landing off -
but that rumor is completely uncomfirmed so don't believe it unless you
actually know Sarge. Today was a good day. Most of the groups had
continual success on multiple point skydives. First thing this
morning we had two 36-ways and four 16-ways. That is a lot
of CRWdogs. The base group went up and successfully built
both a 36-way, and then a 49-way diamond. The 9-way base were
testing out the new oxygen systems, and with a reasonable number of
foreigners up there, some of the Americans were starting to worry that
we were being invaded! The 9-way base looked
fighter-pilot-ish, with their bail-out oxygen
bottles. The 49 way built well at the end of the day,
having been greeted with cheers from all on the ground. The small groups were all having success as well,
building multiple point skydives in preparation for the upcoming record. Now that everyone has passed their weigh-in, everyone is
freely eating and drinking again. The 5:30 AM meet-up time
is being anticipated with dread tomorrow however. We have all
moved to the Armory from the main hanger, leaving us with much more
space to pack and debrief which is a welcome change. We had one malfunction at the end of the day, and Joe
Lambright was injured after an ugly wrap on an early jump this
morning. He is recovering at a nearby hospital and he is in all
our thoughts and prayers. Other than some wind-dummy loads
early in the day
- "So far out they weren't even seen," the spots were right on and
everyone landed at the airport. We still have some work to
do with the pilots of the aircraft getting into the right place at the
right time, but things are looking excellent for completion of the
world record, and we are far ahead of where we were at this point in
2005. 11/17/07 Wendy
and Sarge's Daily Update Pam is buying the Germans an excellent case of beer for
their aid in the successful recovery of her lost canopy.
Arguably, that wasn't even the highlight of the day, as
there were other people competing for that honor. On Mark
Gregory's 3rd load of the day, a wrap occurred involving Gary
Cullen of New Zealand, Hans of the Netherlands, and another to be named
later, conspicuous by his limp, resulting in a triple cutaway, 3 lost
shoes, and some minor facial scarring. The rest of the contingent was involved in the more
routine aspects of world record preparation - jumping, de-briefing,
weigh-ins, canopy measurements - including the obligatory swapping and
borrowing of gear, and filling in registration forms. Master and
Visa cards took as much punishment as parachute gear. In th midst of all this, there was actual preparation
for the world record. Those who had arrived were broken down into
three groups based on wing-loading and canopy size each of which went
about the task of building and rebuilding 16 and 25 diamonds. The
groups managed to complete their dives with varying degrees of success,
depending upon how many of the new arrivals had managed to shake off
their jetlag. All in all, the mood of the day was upbeat and it
was good to see twogroups of big way CRW in the skies over Lake Wales
at the same time. Mike Lewis's group ended the day with a very nice 25-way
diamond; Chris's group ended with a 2-point 16-way, Mark's group
went searching for their missing gear. The rest of the gang arrive tomorrow and we expect to
see some world class skydiving in the days to come. Even so, most
would agree that the last four days have seen some very good CRW by
people who obviously have their mind set on building a world record
and, as the last of the attendees arrive in Lake Wales, there is is a
distinct air of anticipation around the drop zone. Tomorrow is
the final day of practice and a chance to renew old acquaintances as
the entire team assembles before the business end of proceedings gets
underway.
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