10th EC & 11th WC Artistic Events, 13th EC & 20th WC in Formation Skydiving, & 1st EC & 2nd WC in Speed Skydiving Teuge, September 2015: Day 2

Entrance to the competitors' tents

Tuesday 8 September 2015:   Wheels-off with 4-Way VFS and whilst there are a number of clouds building, it does look like the altitude is variable. In fact it transpires that variations in altitude are two-fold - meteorological and operational - the latter being dictated by Schipol Airport.  Consequently, we have now switched to 4-Way, but all other disciplines are released until 15.15hrs

One major void this year are the FS/VFS teams from the USA, the Golden Knights, who by virtue of a recent fatality on a display, are subject to a safety stand-down imposed by their chain of command.

11.30hrs:  All 4-Way teams that have completed 2 rounds have been released until 07.30hrs tomorrow and those who haven't jumped a second round are released until 15.15hrs this afternoon.

The current 1-3 places and scores are as follows after the first round:

15.00hrs:  All disciplines on standy-by for 15.30hrs re-start.

15.30hrs:  It is proposed that we'll re-start the competition with 4-Way and by 16.05hrs the first 15 minutes call was broadcast over the tannoy. This will enable the remaining teams to complete Round 2.

18.15hrs: The best laid plans of mice and men to get airborne have been thwarted several times in the past few hours, but now as the afternoon draws into the early evening the weather is coming good - even the Speed Skydivers are getting excited - sorry, that should now read were getting excited. They have been stood down until 10.00hrs tomorrow.  In the meantime the FS teams are continuing unabated, with both 4-Way Open and Female having completed Round 2. In the 4W-Open Hayabusa has extended its lead over Russia's Black Cat team from a single point lead to 7 points (54) with France's VR4 France remaining in 3rd position with 46 points.  Of course it's early days, but it's always exciting to watch these top teams vying with one another.

It's not long come to light that the Russian 8-Way Team, Tanay 8, who hold the European Record for the Longest Sequence (29 points) will be directly challenging their own record as this year's draw is the identical sequence which gave them the record in September 2013!

A remarkable start in the 8-Way, as Round 1 established a new National Record by M8trix for The Netherlands, with a score of 20, breaking the previous record of 17. Sadly Russia's Tanay 8 failed to equal or exceed their previous record, in fact France's Aerodyne Maubeuge matched their scored of 29 in time, but an incomplete formation at point 16 caused them to lose one point to given them a score of 28!