1st World Wingsuit Performance Flying Championships, Z'Hills, Day 2

Zephyrhills, Florida.  Friday, 4th November 2016

8.00 Wheels off with the first load of 16 Wingsuit Performance Fliers, the first task is "Time" .  It is busy in the judging station as performers arrive to receive their helmets with the Flysights fitted, and then after their jump, back to have them removed.  Within minutes the scores are up and it is fascinating watching them appear on the screens, and then click to pick up the flight chart. 

By 9.30 the first task was completed, we have an unofficial new World Record.  The existing record for the time task of 88.1 was broken from the first load of the day and subsequently 5 times as the first task progressed.    The IPC Records Officer is on site (currently working as the Meet Director) and with the new FAI/IPC agreement that Competition World Records would be fast tracked through the system, Randy is ready to officially complete the correct paperwork for all records broken during this competition.  We had two cutaways during the first task, but all were OK.

We now move to the second task - Distance.  At the end of the first run of this task we have the competitor from USA leading the field, just behind the existing World Record, which stands at 4,501 km, with a run of 4,471 km - could be interesting for the coming flights.

Now we have the first Speed task and it is not even lunch time.  There will be a competition break for lunch.

During the break a Competitors' Meeting was called by the Chief Judge and Meet Director on a safety issue. 

During the morning's flights there had been a number of instances of lane crossing - this must STOP was the message from both officials.  Several people had been warned, but any future incidents would be dealt with severely.  Randy showed the graphs of the four flight paths during one pass:

15.00 hrs  

We are well on the way to completing the 4th task of the day, the first of round 2.  But the clouds are moving in, and so this may put paid to the plans of our Meet Director to complete 5 tasks today. 

Meanwhile Skydive-TV are active on the DZ interviewing competitors as they repack and prepare for their next task.   We will post their daily output programme on this site as well.

16.30 and the clouds have cleared, so we are back on track for the end of task 4.  But by 17.00 hrs there was not time to complete the task before last light.  So the competition has been called for the day.  8.00 a.m. wheels off in the morning.

 At the end of the first day we have Chris Geiber, USA in 1st position, Travis Mickle, USA 2nd and Dmitry Podoryashy, Russia in 3rd.  Still got a way to go though.

Photo courtesy of Skydive-tv