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Friday 02-03 |
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400-way attempts
Last night, we all met for dinner at the Charoensri Hotel and reviewed all of Saskia’s daily compilations for the website. It was the first time that many of us have seen the examples of the work from our fine team of camera flyers, headed by Henny Wiggers. Some of us were also happy to learn that our Cypreses would be fine after the unusual pressurized descent once reset at the factory. Then we went to bed to dream about our first 400-way exit.
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In the morning, a thin layer of clouds obscured the sky—high, but not high enough. Instead of 400, we sent the base for practice. Then at mid-day, the skies cleared and set us into motion. You can see the team coming together with the efficient loading of the five RTAF C-130s, who taxied to the five organized groups waiting to mount the ramp and be seated in reverse order.
Only enough clouds remained to make the skies beautiful over Udon Thani. At altitude, you hardly need gloves. With the planes in good position, the base launched cleanly but immediately flipped—always a sign of trouble. However, many of us have been here before and used the opportunity to keep our discipline as the base reformed. |
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The jumpers in the 12-way showed great discipline for the most part, with Craig Girard making sure the rebuild would be on the required heading for the outside jumpers to make sense of it. But, an unsettled dock again took our base apart. We could only make the best of what remained. This was only our first try.
Afterward, we learned that the jump had resulted in two individual landing injuries, reminding us how careful we must be.
For the final load today, half of us were released for the day, while 245 took off for more practice with the base and some replacements from the Alpha team. This went much more smoothly, putting us back into position for tomorrow. Sometimes you have to take a step back to move ahead. click here for today's video (8.7 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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