posted Aug 8th, 2006 - The weather in Gera has not improved much yet. It is slowly getting to the point where a closer look at the rule book might be helpful for the teams. There is no minimum number of rounds any longer to determine the winners. One complete round would be enough to declare a new world champion.

The minimum number of three rounds was removed from the rule book years ago. Round one of the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 could theoretically become the most important round for the teams on the competition site in Germany. Russia would have the 4-way Open Class champion, France the 4-way champion in the female category.

It would be a little bit more complicated in the 8-way event where Arizona Airspeed and France are tied in 1st place with 18 points each. A jump-off is usually the solution in such a case. There would be no chance for a jump-off, which would make the last highscore for a round the winning score. Both teams made only one jump with the same score.

Next step to break the tie would be the time of the completion of the last point within working time: "...the fastest time (measured to hundreths of a second) to the last common scoring formation in the last completed round."

The French 8-way team completed the 18th point, the Compressed Accordeon (O) on the fourth page, a little bit earlier than Airspeed and would be the new 8-way world champion.

The German meet management is still confident that the weather will allow many more rounds. However, another part of the rule book is more likely to become a factor of the World Meet 2006. It is quite possible that there will not be enough time any longer to complete all rounds. If this is the case, then the teams need to be aware of the fact that some of the draw's sequences might be skipped.

The IPC rule book calls the first eight rounds of a 10-round meet the "selection" rounds. Round nine is the "semi-final", round ten is the "final". The IPC makes very clear, confirmed by the meet director in Germany, Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle, that these last two rounds have priority over the selection rounds: "Time must be reserved before the end of the competition to allow for the completion of the semi-final, final and tie break round."

Selection rounds between rounds one and eight will be skipped if necessary: "If the selection rounds are not completed at the starting time of the semi-final, the semi-final round will start regardless of the number of completed rounds."

The sequences for rounds nine and ten have been drawn and are considered as assigned to the semi-final and the final rounds. The teams would have to be ready to skip some of the rounds and prepare for the last two sequences of the meet at any time.

Hopefully, this part of the rule book will not become relevant. The meet director has just sent the first load back in the air. The skies do not look very pretty yet, but there might be enough jump altitude. There is also a third Twinotter available that will be used as soon as the first load has been dropped successfully.

Stay tuned for updates.

Perris Airkix catches up in Round 2

The FAI World Meet 2006 is back in full swing. In fact, it is even busier than before since all three Twinotters are in the air at the same time. The second round is already complete in the 4-way Women's event, and it is a horse race between France and Perris Airkix.

Once again, it is still quite a happy zoo out there at the boarding area. The teams have no chance to get some quiet time and focus on the upcoming jump. The spectators and fan clubs are cheering, TV production crews and reporters ask the teams and competitors the last questions before the jump, planes and teams are coming and going. It surely is a public event and very entertaining - and a distraction control exercise for the teams at the same time.

The jump order has come to the rankings of the last world meet, and the crowds get even louder when the top teams arrive at the boarding area. At the same time, each jump becomes more important with the time lost to the weather situation.

Airkix won the second round by one point over France, and both teams are far away from the rest of the field. The Russian Ladybirds were not able to catch up at all, and they have also not been able to separate themselves from the rest of the field. In fact, the German team from FSC Remscheid is still tied with the Ladybirds in bronze medal position, which is an unexpected and happy surprise for the German host. Ukraine's team Alfa-Fox posted a record score of 14 points in the second round.