posted Jan 19th, 2007 - The NSL News story on January 15 covered the Formation Skydiving Committee's agenda at the upcoming meeting of the International Parachuting Commission (IPC) in Florence, Italy. The topics don't indicate the discussion of any complicated issues. However, there was one topic that caused a lot of trouble at last year's World Meet 2006 in Germany.

The official agenda includes three topics under "Proposed Rule Changes", which are all related to the same problem that caused the trouble at the competition:

1.) "Clarify wording of which drawn rounds are the rounds to be used for the semi and finals. We propose the next rounds in sequence be used."

2.) "Clarify that although time must be reserved at the end of competition for semi and finals, if they cannot be completed, there is still a valid competition."

3.) "Look at completion of round in progress if only a few teams left to jump at semi final start time, then go on to final round."

The weather in Germany did not allow the World Meet to be completed after ten rounds, as it was planned. The 8-way teams completed six rounds, and the 4-way teams in both categories were stopped after only five rounds.

It was a very difficult situation for the meet management. Official Meet Director, Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle from Germany, tried very hard to use any jumpable weather situation to get the teams in the air. The efforts became more and more desperate on the last two days when the time of the event was running out.

Dr. Rainer Hoenle had to operate under the official IPC rules for the World Meet, and the weather situation put the rules for the semi-finals and finals under a very serious test.

The test was not successful, and teams, competitors and officials all agreed that the according rules needed to be changed.

The current set of rules for the semi-finals and finals put the meet director in Germany in a very difficult position. The "selection rounds" and "final rounds", which consist of one "semi final" and one "final" round, are defined in the IPC rules and need to be applied at a World Meet.

The tricky part for Dr. Rainer Hoenle in August 2006 was defined in the next part of the "Rules Specific to the Competition" (Part 6 of the IPC COMPETITION RULES FOR FORMATION SKYDIVING 2006). This part defines very clearly how the meet director has to handle a situation where selection rounds have not been completed.

IPC's meet director in Germany was facing a lot of criticism, which was understandably caused by the very unfortunate combination of bad weather and rules that were not very helpful. Dr. Rainer Hoenle had no choice, even though he was aware of the trouble that was caused by his execution of the IPC rules.

It was already challenging to complete Round 5 in 4-way, and the completion of this round included a few re-jumps due to the weather situation. From then on, Dr. Rainer Hoenle counted the remaining minutes of the meet to see when he would have to skip a "selection round" (Rounds 1 - 8) that was already in progress to guarantee the final round.

It became quite confusing and challenging for the teams. Several teams had already completed Round 6 and were preparing for the sequence of Round 7, while others were still working on Round 5. At some point in time, it became obvious that Round 6 could not be completed since the lift time was needed for the semi-final (Round 9) and the final (Round 10).

Dr. Rainer Hoenle had to announce that the scores of Round 6 would not count and that the next round would be the semi-final with the sequence of Round 9. The teams had to clear their minds and forget the sequences of Rounds 5, 6 or 7. The sequence of Round 9 was now the only thing in mind. The creeper pads got busy once again, and the minds were spinning.

The meet director kept on counting the minutes, while the weather situation did not improve at all. He tried a few times to send the teams up in the air for the semi-final (Round 9) when there was a light on the horizon. It did not work out. Finally, he had to follow the IPC rules once again for the next painful decision: forget about Round 9.

Now the teams had to get busy again. All the preparations for the sequence of Round 9 were for nothing. The next competition jump would bring the sequence of Round 10 - and only for a limited number of teams. The IPC rules also include cuts after the selection rounds and after the semi-final round. It was a sad situation.

The according section of the IPC rules was already discussed during the open meeting for teams and competitors, which was held on site by the IPC Formation Skydiving Committee. The most current experience in Germany left no doubt that this part of the rules needed an adjustment, and Fiona McEachern, Australian Chair of the committee, added it to the agenda of the upcoming meeting.

The NSL News will follow up on the rule changes and announce the results of the meeting as soon as possible.