For those of you not fortunate to be on Ted's CC mail list, I have culled the following from his reports.
Due to many technical difficulties (mostly bad cables and power) they are not using live (air-to-ground transmission) scoring at the meet. Even following the plane with the receiving antenna is nearly impossible: The meet is using Turkish Air Force Casas, and they are painted, well, they are very hard to see.
Round 1 of 4-way started at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday. Airspeed had a decent jump, except one of them went low on the first phalanx, so they had to settle for a 26, one point ahead of France and South Africa.
One of the French jumpers dislocated a shoulder in Round One. Their coach, David, filled in for rounds 2 and 3. Then he got sick on the plane before round 3 and had to ride the plane down.
Round 3 wrapped up with some excitement, as the Danish 4-way team experienced a quadruple AAD fire after their audible altimeters shut off during the plane ride.
The opening ceremonies are Saturday night, with 8-way set to begin
Sunday. Stay tuned right here!
September 14 Update
Ted reports that three rounds of 8-way are complete, and it's looking like there's going to be a good old-fashioned ass whoopin' in 8-way, like what France did in '94, possibly even worse.
Stylus, Ted's Style & Accuracy version of OmniSkore!, made its debut today. Says that if the loopers were staying at his hotel, he'd have free beer every night.
Someone pointed out to Ted today that this is the first World Meet since 1985 without a Wagner on the U.S. Team.
The Golden Knights, er, the U.S. 8-way team, have a 22-point average through three rounds, and they haven't even got to
the fast rounds yet (rounds 4 and 8 look like real burners to me, look for a world record
to fall).
September 15 Update
Ted sent me a long note that contained little juicy stuff, other than how much all the judges love OmniSkore! and how he's got a couple of offers to buy systems at $1M each.
Airspeed is up by five points after six rounds; they took a bust in round 6 on a zircon/zircon.
No 8-Way today. Are they saving the best for last?
September 16, 0630 a.m. Update
RING. Ted calls me up at 4:00 this morning and says, "Nice web page. Fix these mistakes..."
Looks like the Golden Knights er the U.S. 8-Way team absolutely SMOKED round 4 and set a world record 30 points. Unless Ted is having fun with e-mail again!
That's a 24 point average for the U.S. 8-way through 4 rounds!
More later today!
12:30 Update
Denmark's Zero in round 3 of 4-way is for going low. After the incident, the meet director (Patrice Girardin) grounded all the new audible altimeters at the meet. If the spot had been two kilometers north, like it was the previous day, the Danish 4-way team would be overlooking Ephesus from St. Peter's pearlys. There's a sizable hill over there, the top of which is above Cypress poptitude.
The South African 4-way team got busted on a zircon-zircon in round 6 for "illegal grip within a sub-group." They won the protest and the score was changed from a 13 to a 15; after six rounds they trail France by 8. CORRECTION: There was no bust; the Chief Judge, Monique Lenotte, told the judging panel to rejudge the jump. They did, and the score went from 13 to 15.
The U.S. 8-way score of 30 on round 4 bested their previous world record by a whopping 5 points. They could have taken two busts and still set a record! They are up by 25 after six rounds.
Somebody Fed-Ex Ted some food. Somebody's got him handcuffed to a
scoring system and he needs some chow!
September 17
7:30 a.m. Update
Ted sent me a long list this morning, and I won't have time to get it all here for a few hours (over lunch). But it looks like the U.S. 8-way set another world record with a 31 on round 8!
An important announcement from Larsen & Brusgaard regarding their new DYTTER: The Danish team was jumping a special prototype of a new DYTTER. The PRO-DYTTER which will be marketed in 1-2 months time has a different software program and does not shut down if in the same altitude for 10 minutes.
OmniSkore! regrets any inaccuracies or misrepresentations regarding the DYTTER made on this web page. The DYTTER is a fine product that has contributed volumes to the safety and enjoyment of our sport. For more information, visit their web site at http://www.l-and-b.dk/dytter/prodyt.
Much more to come here in a few hours. Stay tuned!
12:00 noon update
Ted phoned me a while ago from the airport and reported that the U.S. 4-way suffered a triple bust in round 8, dropping their score from a 22 to a 16, while France did a 21 to pull even. While 8-Way is turning into a one-horse race, it looks like 4-way will come down to the wire.
For the second meet in a row, the USA 8-Way Team has set two world records in the same competition.
155 green dots on the board, not one single red! New world record: 31. Ted says #32 was
one and one-half frames - three fields - out of time. That's about 0.05 seconds.
To put that 31 in perspective, look at the next three top scores from the same round:
France, 19; Germany, 18; Russia, 14. Those are not bad skydives!
Correction on the South Africa 4-way round 6: there was NO PROTEST. The Chief Judge, Monique Lenotte, told the judging panel to rejudge the jump. They did, and the score went from 13 to 15.
Eurosport has been providing television coverage of the World Air Games, and a 90 minute broadcast last night featured over half an hour of formation skydiving, with OmniSkore! doing the graphics overlay. Ted didn't see it, but heard great things.
Webmaster's note: omniskore.com typically receives around 150 or so hits per day. That number went to 722 on the 15th, and yesterday this page alone had 1108 hits. Thanks for visiting!
Round 8 of 4-way is in the can. Ahead by 5 before, USA/Airspeed gave up three busts, scoring a 16 to France's 21 --TIE BALLGAME going into the seventh-inning stretch.
USA 4-way is protesting, but we don't have any details yet.
September 17
0700 Update
The results for 4-way are not yet complete, but this is just in: for rounds nine and ten, USA scored 21 and 24, France 20 and 21, USA 4-way wins by four!
Speed style was finished yesterday, Cheryl Stearns is in second. They're finishing accuracy today, and Cheryl was tied for first as of last night. She will have to have two bad jumps to lose overall champion. GO CHERYL!
Ted promises to send me some skysurfing and freestyle results today, I'll get 'em up as soon as I can. We like you guys too!
Everybody remember Ted's e-mail snafu from last year, when he falsely reported that Airspeed funneled an exit and injured Dan BC? Seems now everyone is questioning the wild numbers coming out on this page, especially those amazing 8-way scores...
I have to tip my hat to that French 4-way team. We (the Knights) jumped with them a couple of years ago at Perris Valley, and they were quite green at the time. They have obviously been training very hard. Look out for these guys in the future. Congratulations, France!
As of this writing, I am still waiting for the rest of 4-way and the finals for 8-way. Stay tuned for the rest of this story!
Just as I start to send this up, Ted sends me the 8-way results and some more pics. Looks like I'm gonna a few minutes late for work...
Ted got a visit from a VIP today by the name of Neil Armstrong. The first man to walk on the moon spent ten minutes getting a briefing on the world's most advanced piece of inter-galactic skydiving machine, otherwise known as OmniSkore! Don't believe it? Check out the last photo to the left...
Just because I did a demo in '91 with Chuck Yeager, Ted's got to show me up!
More after work today, gotta go pay some bills...
Final Update: September 18, 9:00 p.m.
First, I will start with remarks from Ted's last message from Turkey:
All in all I have to give the Turkish organizers high marks for the competition, despite the technical difficulties. They made very honest, earnest and concerted efforts to fix things that weren't right, even when they were things that should have been ironed out long before the meet. The food was good, the facilities excellent (at least after the air conditioners were installed halfway through official practice), and the THK staff eager if not experienced.
My apologies AGAIN for not having freestyle/skysurf scores. I keep dropping hints to people asking for scores, but to no avail. (I blame their judging staff for that, largely. Darn but they should asked for a Pegasus ...)
I know that Omar and Scott were winning Men's Freestyle (in that order), but that was about it. Tomorrow: equipment downtear, and if we can get gear, free 16-ways.
Lights out,
tcw (^;
Tim's two pennies:
First and foremost, I want to congratulate my ex-teammies (I say that more proudly than ever), the U.S. Army Golden Knights/U.S. 8-Way Team, for putting forth an effort that showed not only their talent and effort, but also displayed a level of excellence and competitive spirit that will go down in the books as the standard for which to strive. When people expect you to win because it is your job to win, it is easy to relax when you have a comfortable lead. However, it is the mark of a true champion, a mark of true excellence, a mark of spirit and perseverance, to not look over your shoulder and gauge yourself by your opponent, but to put forth the finest effort you are capable of, and show what level you are truly capable of achieving. And that is reflected, in no small part, by the numbers to be seen on the scoreboard. An un-precedented 53-point margin of victory. Two world records in one meet for the second time in a row; not just beating the previous mark by a point or two, but by five. A 22.4 average, nearly two full points better than the previous record effort. These are not trivial numbers. They are figures that have raised the bar for everyone else, numbers that will be waiting at the finish line for every team that competes, pushing them to go higher, faster, farther.
World Meet Record Trivia:
Chris (the Wagner that started it all for us, for those of you who don't know), observes that in 1991, the official record was still 18, though the team had done a 20 at the mini-Nationals in May at Eloy, it apparently was never accepted as it was judged air-to-air and the FAI judging standard was still ground-to-air. So at the beginning of the 1991 World Meet, the official record still sat at 18. Team USA blew that away with a 23 in round 2, but in later rounds scored a 19, 20, 21 and 22, thereby beating the old record on 5 out of 10 rounds...for a final team average of 18.1, also higher than the old single jump record!
On the USA 4-Way Team:
Airspeed withstood a tremendous effort on the part of the French. After suffering their serious triple-bust setback on round 8, which led to a one-point lead going into the final round, Airspeed put forth a fabulous gut-check round of 24 on their final jump to win by four points. These four (five, John too!) competitors, ambassadors of their sport as much so as the Golden Knights, may have had their last team jump at this meet, and they have also set standards for other teams to strive for. To Jack, Dan, Mark, Kirk, and John: Great job, from all of us fans of the sport. We appreciate it!
And to all of you who stopped by and visited here, thanks, especially those who left all those nice remarks. We appreciate it, and we will try and do even better at the U.S. Nationals next month. So stop on by again!
-Tim Wagner, webmaestro@omniskore.com
-Ted Wagner, OmniWizard
Team tents form a large semi-circle
around the landing area.
U.S. 4-Way creeping for round 5.
Wind blades.
DZTV floor potatoes.
Turkish Casas.
Six teams per load in three passes.
"Hey Dan, that's not a gripper..."
"Who's got the remote?"
DZTV at the end of the lunch tent.
U.S. 8-way burning up round 4
on DZTV.
Green dots across the board,
and a new world record!
Mark, Rita, & Trevor. No contest.
USA runs the boarding gauntlet
before round 9.
Anxious crowd waiting for Airspeed
after round ten...
...and Airspeed fixing to please.
"Houston, the Eagle has landed."
World Champions and a class act.
Ted with Neil Armstrong.
"I'm not going to wash this hand
for a month."