2009 Collegiate Championships Blog/News

7:30 a.m. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

It's another cloudy morning here at Spaceland, but there is no fog and this low layer of clouds is definitely on the thin side as I can see some blue coloration... With a little more luck, hopefully we'll be in the air before too long.

The academy teams are here and in nap/hangout mode, but the crowd is noticeably thinner this morning. I hope everyone had a good time last night!

8:00 a.m.: Interesting things happen on day 3 of a weather hold, especially at Collegiates:

8:10 a.m.: There's more blue showing through the clouds and a Caravan just got pulled out of the hangar... stand by!

9:10 a.m.: Still no luck; that brightening trend has reversed itself. Anyone have ideas for the proper sacrifice to appease the weather gods and let us get in the air?

10:10 a.m.: The clouds are breaking up, but we're not quite there yet. It's pretty breezy out here, too much so for classic accuracy, but so far we're OK for the other events unless our luck holds. The sun-deprived collegiate competitors are starting to wake up and warm up a little as we get more sunshine. :-) In the meantime, let's enjoy a few photos of what we wish we were doing by Ori Kuper (accuracy photos from Tuesday and VTSD 4-way practice from Monday):

10:25 a.m.: We're on a 15-minute call!!!! WooHOOOOOO!!!!!!

12:10 p.m.: We're rolling now! Two Otters are flying competition loads and we'll have scores and team photos online for you soon!

12:45 p.m.: Team photos are going up as we get them; check the roster pages for those. Competitors, if you haven't had your photo taken, find Christy in the blue jacket/ponytail to do so! Scores will be posted online soon. The delaying factor is the fact that Collegiate competition working time is calculated a little differently than most competitions, and most scoring systems aren't designed for that (yet). Rather than working time beginning when the first team member leaves the aircraft, it starts as follows:

"Working time starts the moment of the first separation of a grip from the first drawn formation, or five seconds after any team member separates from the aircraft, whichevercomes first; if the first separation is not on the video, the working time begins on the exit of the aircraft."--Skydiver's Competition Manual, Section 7-1.10 B 1

Thus, the judging takes a bit longer and scores are being double-checked before posting. You'll know the scores as soon as we do!

Photos!!!

1:45 p.m.: Round 3 of 4-way is on a call and the winds have settled down a bit... life is good!

2:45 p.m.: 4-way advanced round 1 is now posted, and Air Force Impulse is out to an early two-point lead! Three teams are currently tied for second: West Point Abroad, West Point Vigilantes, and Air Force Eminence. Open scores are coming soon!

3:02 p.m.: 2-way formation skydiving round 1 is now posted as well! West Point Dance Machine has taken the lead with a nice 15 points, and the other four West Point teams have taken the next four placings. West Point Prestige Worldwide is only one point behind. Open round 1 final scores will be posted after a rejump is scored.

Speaking of rejumps... While several competitors were unhappy with the idea of the video pool (where the teams don't have an assigned video flyer but get , the camera flying has been quite satisfactory for the most part. So far we have needed four rejumps due to video reasons. One of the judges remarked that overall, the video flying has been a lot better than it was last year.

4:30 p.m.: We've completed three rounds of 4-way and 2-way formation skydiving! We're going for meet minimums in all events, so 4-way competitors who are doing vertical formation skydiving (VFS)  have switched to the latter event after three rounds of 4-way. 4-way competitors who are not doing VFS are continuing their 4-way jumps. And 6-way should start tomorrow.

More scores are coming soon! We're just waiting on those rejump scores and double-checks to get 4-way open scores out to you. By the way, you might have noticed that round 6 of 4-way should be a real burner: P-B-J, or sidebody-stairstep diamond-donut. If there's a collegiate 4-way record on the books (will get back to you on that), I'd guess there's a good chance it could get broken at this meet!

4:40 p.m.: Just clarified the collegiate 4-way/2-way record situation--neither record currently exists. So it sounds like whatever teams get the highest scores in round 6 should submit those skydives for a record. With that draw, the records might stand for quite awhile! So what kind of scores do you think we'll see in that round?

5:00 p.m.: And we've got official scores for round 1 and 2 of 4-way open! 2009 U.S. National Intermediate Champion team VTSD is tearing up the scoreboard with a 17-point average, giving them a 4-point lead over Air Force Groove. West Point Apocalypse is 7 points back, and Air Force Epic is 7 back from Apocalypse.

5:50 p.m.: Are you ready for a 50-point skydive? West Point Dance Machine has unofficially scored a big fat FIVE-ZERO on 2-way round 3 (P-B-J). WOW!!! Way to go, guys! The complete round will be posted as soon as possible.

Oh wait... West Point Prestige Worldwide just topped that with a 55! Looks like it was actually a 63, but with 8 busts. That's some fast flying!

10:45 p.m.: Hey all, sorry about the delay in updating this space. Technical difficulties... anyway, we got through all of 2-way FS today (barring a few rejumps, I believe). Tomorrow we'll start bright and early again, 7:15 a.m. 15-minute call and wheels up at 7:30 a.m. Six-way speed is up first; the plan is to get one round of 6-way in so we have a complete meet with at least the minimum number of jumps (1) in each event, then switch back to 4-way and 2-way VFS. Accuracy will follow.

See you all in the morning! :-)