Formation skydiving
Encyclopedia
Free-fall
Free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it, at least initially. These conditions produce an inertial trajectory so long as gravity remains the only force. Since this definition does not specify velocity, it also applies to objects initially moving upward...
with multiple people gripping each others' limbs or specially built "grippers" on their jumpsuit
Jumpsuit
Jumpsuit originally referred to the utilitarian one-piece garments used by parachuters/skydivers, but has come to be used as a common term for any one-piece garment with sleeves and legs.-Use:...
s.
Formation skydiving can be further divided into several sub-categories, so named for the number of members in a team:
- 4-way sequential
- 4-way vertical sequential (VRW)
- 8-way sequential
- 16-way sequential
- 10-way speed
- Large formations (Big-ways)
A competition in 4-way formation skydiving (FS-4) takes place like this:
There are two kinds of formations, called randoms and blocks. The randoms are singular formations with full separation of all grips both before and after building the formation. The blocks are double formations with a special designated movement pattern in between, called an inter. The start formation may, or may not be similar to the ending formation. The inters are differently performed. Here are some examples:
Inter 1: The grips are released between some of the flyers, so they become two pieces of two team members. they both do a 270 degree turn, and reconnect to a different formation
Inter 2: Three people stay connected, and do a 360 turn, while the last person, flies alone.
Inter 15: All grips are released and everyone does a 360 turn back to the original formation.
Blocks are designated by numbers, while randoms got letters. Blocks are worth one point for each correct formation, that makes 2 points, and randoms count as 1 point. There are 22 blocks and 16 randoms.
A competition consists of up to 10 rounds, and each round consists of 5 or 6 points, which the teams are to repeat as many times as they can within the working time of 35 seconds. The score judging are based on the videographers material.
A competition draw may look like this:
1. C-E-B-13
2. 14-20-8
3. 15-16-H
4. J-O-1-D
5. 6-18-19
6. 5-F-21
7. 10-K-G-M
8. 22-3-P
9. 12-9-4
10. 11-17-Q
The winning team will be the team that has collected most points, by completing the most correct formations within time after the final round is ended. In case of weather or technical problems, or other causes, a competition will be valid as long as all teams has completed at least one round.
The current FAI world record for largest free-fall formation is a 400-way, set on February 8, 2006 in Udon Thani
Udon Thani
Udon Thani is a city in Isan, north-east Thailand, and the capital of Udon Thani Province.-Location:The province of Udon Thani has a population of 1,467.200, the city alone 500.000. Geographical location and is approximately 560 km from Bangkok...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
by World Team. It was held for 4.25 seconds. They used five C-130 Hercules
C-130 Hercules
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport...
airplanes and exited from an altitude of 25,000 feet.
A recent sub-category of formation skydiving is vertical formation skydiving
Vertical Formation Skydiving
Vertical formation skydiving is the art of building formations in free-fall with multiple people gripping each others' limbs or specially built "grippers" on their jumpsuits , while using high-speed body positions normally associated with freeflying...
(VRW). Skydivers build formations using higher-speed body positions normally associated with freeflying
Freeflying
Freeflying is a skydiving discipline which began in 1990 when Olav Zipser began experimenting with non-traditional forms of body flight. Zipser formed the Freefly Clowns as a two person competitive team with Mike Vail in 1992, and was joined by Omar Alhegelan, Charles Bryan, and Stefania...
, such as head down and sitflying.