posted Oct 11th, 2010 - A new round of discussion has resumed over an old topic. The related event is still two years away, however, the timing is crucial, as the topic is very important for the main actors in the show - the teams and competitors who will attend the next World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2012.

The topic is once again the aircraft for the Formation Skydiving events at the next world meet. It has often and widely been discussed in the past, and it comes back up for a simple reason. There is a possibility that teams and competitors may have to change their training plans as dramatically as it has happened in the past.

The International Parachuting Commission (IPC) is currently checking out two official bids for hosting the World Meet 2012. The IPC Delegates will decide at the end of January 2011 where the 2012 event will take place. The annual IPC Meeting is in Bar, Montenegro this time.

The bids include the aircraft for the 4-way and 8-way Formation Skydiving competition at the World Meet 2012. Italy plans to host the event in Belluno and use Pilatus Porters with right-hand doors. Dubai is the other potential host and has announced aircraft with left-hand doors in the bid.

Several international competitors and coaches are concerned that the vast majority of teams and competitors may not be heard well enough when it comes to the athletic part of the competition, where the exits play a major role.

Members of the German national 4-way team Paratec-Saar, unofficial amateur champion at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010, are so worried that they launched their own campaign on Facebook. Their goal is to avoid the troubles for the teams that occurred last time when the World Meet 2008 took place in Maubeuge, France.

Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge and Arizona Airspeed from right-hand and left-hand doors

It is a fact that the vast majority of teams have trained and competed from left-hand doors for many years. Even the French national teams are finally almost more familiar with left-hand doors, although the Pilatus Porter is the most popular jump plane in France.

Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge and Aerokart Deep Blue are still launching their 4-way exits from a left-hand door the way they modified the original right-hand door exits to fit the left-hand agenda. However, their modified exits from the left-hand door are obviously good enough to win the gold medals. It is hard to imagine that they could be even stronger from the right-hand door of a Pilatus Porter.

It would be a big effort for all teams to switch once again from a left-hand door to the other side of the jump plane for a 2-year period, which includes several meets from aircraft with left-hand doors.

The same switch has taken place a few times in the last decade and always initiated controversial discussions and frustrations. The teams had to spend a lot of time and money to learn a part of the game that they had mastered before.

The World Meet 2003 in France required all teams to switch from left-hand doors to the Pilatus Porter, except for the few national teams that have been training from the same jump plane. All teams went back to the left-hand doors in the following years, including the French national teams.

The same situation forced all teams back to the right-hand door of the Pilatus Porter when France hosted the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge. It was even more challenging this time, as the host decided to have two 4-way teams in the small plane.

World Meet 2012
Exits from Pilatus Porter right-hand door?	Yes No Doesn't Matter
	Current Results

The difficulties of this situations are obvious and have been discussed often. Many NSL News articles have covered this subject over the years, and many experienced coaches and competitors have expressed their opinions and discomfort with the inconsistency of the jump planes at world meets.

It becomes even more difficult for the teams to adapt, as they attend more competitions than in the past. Competition experience has become a crucial component for a competitive team, and it is nothing unusual to attend five or more meets every year these days.

Not only the German competitors know that the preparations for a world meet from a jump plane with a right-hand door would make it much more complicated to get adequate training and competition practice in this 2-year period.

It is, of course, even more challenging for new national teams that have never jumped from right-hand doors and now have to focus with their full attention on the exits, while they could invest their training efforts to increase the performance level from a left-hand door.

The growing group around the German 4-way team is now hoping that Italy may change the bid and offer aircraft with left-hand doors for the World Meet 2012. Otherwise they will hope that the IPC Delegates vote for Dubai as the host for the same event in 2012.

The Facebook page was the first option for an open discussion of this topic. The NSL Poll also includes a forum where feedback can be provided.