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The first event briefings brought quite a surprise to the participating teams in the 4-way Formation Skydiving competition.
Arizona Airspeed members Andy Delk and Craig Girard both confirmed that the jump plane will be a helicopter with a right-hand door. That was a complete surprise for the teams who expected to jump from a left-hand door in Taiwan. The training day was also much needed for the pilots who did not seem too experienced with dropping teams on the spot.
Airspeed's Center Inside Andy Delk explained more of the training experiences on Thursday:
I think each of the teams got a bit of a surprise during the pre meet briefing. We were told the competition would be out of the right door due to safety concerns with the helicopter. Apparently the pilot had decided this months ago but neglected to tell the meet director until the day before the meet. Also, as it turns out, this meet will be a 6-round meet. Hopefully the weather cooperates and all of the competitors are able to put on display worthy of the olympics."
Other than dealing with the jump plane surprise, Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard, Andy Delk, Mark Kirkby and Steve Nowak enjoyed the days leading into the actual competition, with yesterday's training jumps and today's first meet day. Craig Girard had a summary of the previous days for the NSL News:
We got our team registered and spent the day shopping and sightseeing. We are living in downtown Koahsiung right near the night tourist market. There is a meeting tonight for all the skydivers and we should find out something more.
We rode the bus from the hotel to the City Hall with most of the skydivers who have already arrived. I saw Chris Gay and his two teammates, the Solstice guys, and Jay Moledski. While we were there, the French delegation arrived straight from the airport. It was great to see them again. I also saw the Belgian team last night at the night market and they said that they had just arrived, as well."
This means that the three top contenders are in Taiwan and ready to go. Hopefully the next update from the World Games 2009 will already bring the first scores of the competition.