IPC Subcommittee for Formation Skydiving
IPC Subcommittee for Formation Skydiving
The IPC Formation Skydiving Subcommittee has had an active year in 1997.
Formation Skydiving competed together with Freestyle and Accuracy as part of the World Games in Lahti; The Turkish Aero Club organised the largest World Championships in Formation Skydiving ever within the scope of the World Air Games. Several countries have adopted and held competitions in the 16 way event with the subcommittees’ new rules for this event.
New achievements for Formation Skydiving have been set. France achieved a new World Record in 4–way sequential with 36 points, and the United States gained two new World Records in 8-way sequential with 30 and 31 points.
The Subcommittee conducted an open meeting with the competitors, FAI judges and organisers at the World Games and at the World Championships and some changes are proposed for the 1998 competition rules.
| Competition Rules |
The changes made the recent two years have been few and only small proposals for 1998 are proposed. (See Proposed Changes for Formation Skydiving rules 1998).
| Formation Skydiving attendance at the World Games |
The Finnish Parachute Association completed a well organised event in Lahti from August 8th, with completion of all competition rounds well within the allotted time. The event was run with the "Olympic Rules" of Formation Skydiving, with a reduced working time (15 seconds), and a star exit differing from the normal rules. The event proved well. The coverage on the Finnish TV network was extensive, with day to day reports from the competition. Formation Skydiving and the other disciplines represented were all exposed well in this media, although very few live spectators found their way to the skydiving arena at the Horse track center. The surroundings for the competition were excellent, and proved that Formation Skydiving (and other skydiving) competitions can well be organised in a venue suitable and built for other sports events. The Finnish Army helicopterpilots and crew all contributed to the smooth running of the competition.
A special thanks to Meet Director Olli Luoma and his crew from the Finnish Parachute Association for an excellent organised competition, and to Roland Hilfiker as the ever present and persistent World Games Co-ordinator.
The teams that entered were: United States, France, Russia, South Africa, Finland and England (after withdrawal from Denmark). With the reduced working time, scores were fairly similar from round to round, but there were no problems at this competition in determining the placings of the teams, even if there was a jump off for silver and bronze medals. However a two point loss for penalties was generally considered a too severe penalty, as the working time did not allow catching up an almost equal opponent. A one point penalty was suggested at the meeting with the competitors for the Olympic Event, as this would more coincide with the severity of the standard Formation Skydiving events.
| 1997 World Championships of Formation Skydiving |
The 12th World Championships of Formation Skydiving was held in conjunction with the 1st World Air Games in Efes, Turkey, organised by the Turkish Aero Club (THK). The competition had the largest attendance of any Formation Skydiving WPCs with a total of 38 four–way teams and 13 eight–way teams.
The competition was successful, and all ten rounds in both events were completed in good time, even with the other freefall competitions being held simultaneously. A special thanks to Patrice Girardin, Meet Director, who ran the Formation Skydiving events very professionally and competitor friendly. Further thanks to Monique Lenotte, Chief Judge, and Frank Mahut, FAI Controller for their contribution to the successful running of the event. The pilots of the Casas also deserve attention, for their consistency and co-operation.
Due to technical difficulties with the combination of the transmission system and the aeroplane configuration with a fast flying ramp aircraft, the live air to ground transmission and the spectator videoviewing did not work at the start of the competition, and it was agreed to continue the competition using dubbed tapes for the judging. This was a regrettable situation, and without the live transmission and judging, the public viewing area was not the natural centre of the competition with the ambience and atmosphere encountered at previous competitions. The committee will continue its work with to assist the progress of air to ground live transmission, and hopefully we will not encounter this situation in the future.
The venue was a newly built airfield with all buildings, tents and infrastructure in place from last years test event of this competition. The THK, and particularly Dr Atilla Tacoy, had prepared well for the competitions, and executed the organising of this very well. The organisers deserves all attention for a well organised event.
With over 530 competition team jumps totalling over 9 000 jumps, the 12th World Championships of Formation Skydiving was a success.
| Media Coverage |
1997 proved a breakthrough for media coverage of our sport. The extensive coverage of Formation Skydiving (and also the other disciplines) has placed us in the big field as an exciting, colourful and picturesque sport where we are being presented together with other traditional sports. This means that we from now on will be competing on a higher level with other sports for attention.
This is due to the work and efforts put down by the IPC in the recent years on making our sports more presentational and spectator friendly. It will be a continuing focus of work for the Formation Skydiving Subcommittee to carry through the work of development of the presentation both to the competition site for all concerned, and the provision of documentation to the external media.
| 16 way |
During the previous IPC meeting in Nairobi, the Formation Skydiving Subcommittee was given the authority to complete the rules for the IPC 16 way event. These were made available via the Internet in May 1997. Experiences from many countries showed that this was a welcomed event, and several competitions have been run using the dive pool and rules for this competition. These rules and the dive pool seem to have been positively adopted by a number of nations, as a new standard for this event.
| Open Subcommittee Meeting |
Several topics were discussed at the open Subcommittee meetings during the World Games and the World Championships.
The Formation Skydiving Subcommittee will propose some changes to the rules based on the discussions at the open meetings. Items aired included suggested changes for 3–5 formations / block sequences in the dive pools; to clarify in the rules the maximum number of viewings by the judges; and aspects on introduction of a female category in Formation Skydiving.
The open meeting of the Subcommittee was concluded with a request to competitors, judges and other interested persons to submit recommendations and questions regarding the future of the Formation Skydiving activities by writing the subcommittee members or their IPC delegates.
| Subcommittee work |
My appreciation is extended to the members and advisers of the Formation Skydiving Subcommittee:
Members Mads Larsen (Denmark), Frank Mahut (France), Rob Colpus (England), Arnold Collenteur (Netherlands), Tim Stevens (Australia), and advisors Rainer "Exi" Hoenle (Germany) and Per Madsen (Denmark).
These individuals have served the IPC and international community of Formation Skydivers with a bright mind and a high dedication.
Oslo, 15.11.97
Pål Bergan
Chairman IPC Formation Skydiving Subcommittee