5th FAI World Canopy Piloting Championships, Z'hills, Nov 2014 - Pre-Competiton reports

Promotional video

3rd November - End to Training and Opening Ceremony

Training jumps continued through the day until time for the Opening Ceremony.  This consisted of speaches and a demonstration jump from a military team.  Unfortunately two of the team members suffered a canopy collision during the jump which looked much worse than it actually was, with one jumper suffering a broken leg and the other a broken shoulder.  We wish them a speedy recovery.  

The competitor briefing followed the opening ceremony and went very well.  After which the heads of delegation were invited to a local restaurant by the organiser and USPA and the USA NAC awarded Greg Windmiller and Nick Batsch their FAI World and National Record Certificates.

Tomorrow 7 am call for the Speed Event and the start of the Competition.

2nd November - Official Training

The first official training day went well, with 3 twins available there was plenty of lift capacity, and two flew all day long and the competitors have jumped all they wanted.

Yesterday the winds had been too strong for jumping, but today it was good, with a bit of a crosswind.  The forecast for the coming days is perfect.

Tomorrow (3rd November) jumping will continue until 16.00 after which the Opening Ceremony will take place - the usual speeches, a demo jump with the American Flag and the competitors meeting at 17.00 hrs.

(report forwarded by Alberto Martin Paracuellos - FAI Controller)

31st October:

All set for the start 1st Nov - with the arrival of judges and delegations. The final registration is 28 teams (i.e. Nations) with a total of 105 competitors.  Inevitably there will be changes to the pre-registered delegations, but these will be brought up to date and have pictures added as the days goes on.  The actual compettion in terms of practice jumps starts on 3rd November followed by the opening ceremony.

Five South American countries are represented here, thanks to the work of COLPAR in encouraging this discipline and organising events and competitions.

Good luck to all competitors, have a great, exciting and safe World Championships.  This will the first time a Parachuting First Category event is covered completely by an on line TV company - so make sure you tune in on line to www.skydive-tv.com - once the competition is underway.  Feedback on how you feel about this coverage would be greatly appreciated as it could form a future publicity arm for IPC and First Category Events.  Take a look at their promotional video - link at top of page.