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200+ way prep dives
Today, we arrived a little later, giving us all a chance to take care of odds and ends in town before the busses left at 8:30. We used the cooler of the morning (23-28 degrees C, 72-80 F) to dirt dived the 400. The dive plan for Wednesday called for two groups of 220-plus, including all eligible skydivers on World Team. The exit allowed us the first opportunity with five C-130s in formation, jumpers aboard, just like the 400-way will be.
The aircraft fly a V formation, nose overlapping tail, with the trailing planes a tail height below the one ahead. We believe this is the first time in history that anyone has flown so many Hercules in such a tight formation, which the RTAF has practiced for six months. There is helmet-to-helmet radio communication among key skydivers on all the planes so that everyone can begin to exit on the “go!” from the lead plane.
The first pass succeeded with the formation building slowly and surely toward completion. However, the second pass ran into trouble that resulted in the entire group landing with the planes. One of the jumpers had reconnected his oxygen to a different hose when they moved closer to the tail following the first exit. However, the hose was not delivering, and the jumper became disabled. He will recover, of course, but the captain called for the descent. With this many jumpers and airplanes, such confusion can spell unforeseen trouble. It was a good call.
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As it was, the pilot of one of the planes pressurized the cabin for the descent. As a result, many of the jumpers’ automatic activation devices became confused and either activated their reserves in the aircraft, shut down and could not be turned back on afterward (apparently completely ruined), or were unaffected, depending on the model of the AAD. To achieve a world record pushes people and equipment to their limits and sometimes beyond. This is why the captain’s call was a good one. We are operating in territory unfamiliar to us and must take things one step at a time.
Fall back, regroup, get some lunch, and try again. Smiles all around.
The next lift carried half our team for one pass, as the rest of us were released for the day. The aircraft positioned almost perfectly as they came overhead. On the ground, the spectators heard the preparation commands from the skydiver-skydiver radio. Ten seconds after the “Go” the call came across: “Good exit!” The preparation has paid off. The formation built well with many of the whackers on grips and flying smoothly. Tomorrow, we continue with half groups until we are ready. Meanwhile, replacement AADs are being flown in.
click here for today's video (10.7 MB) |
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© Photos by World Team Camera Team:
Hans Berggren, Willy Boeykens, Bruno Brokken, Gustavo Cabana, JC Colclasure, Dave Major, Gaby Meis, Craig O’Brien,
Will Pesek, Jason Peters, Daniel Ramsbott, Wendy Smith, Andrey Veselov, Gary Wainwright, Henny Wiggers, Saskia Zegwaard.
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