400-Way!

Now that things are getting somewhat back to normal for me, I'll be able to post a little more often on my silly little blog. Please, hold your applause.

Anyway, although I've not had the time to jump recently, I always try to keep up with the skydiving community.

It looks like a new freefall formation record has been set by the World Team. It was a 400-Way formation, held for just over 4 seconds. That may not sound like a long time, but when you consider how long it takes to get 400 people into a formation, holding onto one another, having 4 seconds left to just sit and take it in is quite an achievement.

(The extra bodies you see on the perimeter are video flyers.)

Every couple of years over the last decade, the King of Thailand has hosted a big celebration of the sky. He provides quite a bit of support for record attempts like this... including offering up service men and women and planes from the Royal Thai Air Force. It's a giant event. People from all over the world work together to make this affair a success.

You can read about it more here:

http://www.theworldteam.com/index.htm

If you have the time, check out the daily updates here:

http://www.theworldteam.com/06News.htm

They have video posted for almost every day and it makes you feel like you are right there with them in Thailand. If you only have time to watch one of the videos, you can watch the record jump here:

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=guestpass&id=WT208

If that wasn't enough, in a few days, they are going to shoot for a whole different kind of record. 960 parachutists will be conducting the Largest Mass Freefall Jump for the inauguration of the new Bangkok International Airport. A total of 700 freefalling sport men and women will join 260 paratroopers representing all services of the Royal Thai Armed Forces.

Crazy people! Damn I love this sport!

Blues skies, Everyone!!!