TIDBITS (Timbits + Tedbits)

22 September

Send mail to Ted or to me (Ken) for messages for teams.

0830

Good morning to all. Today begins as yesterday finished with a weather hold.

0930

Still sitting on the ground here at the airport, but they are getting enough altitude over the Accuracy venue to get some jumping done. The current forecast predicts that it will clear up in a few hours.

1000

The weather has quickly improved. There is still a layer of clouds over the DZ, but it appears high enough to send up a load. They've just given a 15 minute call to Ukraine FS 4-Way Female, and 8-Way teams from Japan and the UK.

1130

CF Rotation is in the air also and their jumps appear to be taking place in a bit of haze. Two loads of FS have been completed (four 8-Way and two 4-Way Female 4-Way teams).

1420

Russia FS 8 has just put up a 20 in round 7 outscoring the nearest competitor so far by 7 points. USA and France still to come.

1440

France and USA both get 19s so there is no change at the top of the leader-board.

1350

Jumping seems to be moving pretty slow around here. For the Ladies 4-Way they have changed from the plan they been using the last few days and for round 9 each team will be put on the chopper with two 8-way teams. I think they are trying to drag this out so that the final round for the women will be either late today or tomorrow.

1500

There are still 4 teams left to go in 8-Way round 8 so while you're waiting we've got an update on the whereabouts of the "Fun Flag"  The flag came to be in the possession of Synchronicity, the US Female 4-Way team, by means unknown to me. I went to find out, but they are boarding the MI-8 for round 9 as a write this. Synchronicity informed me that they passed it along to Neal "Sunglasses" Houston to bring to the World Meet here in Croatia. Apparently, Neal will now be known as Neal "I forgot the Fun Flag" Houston.

Airspeed and France 8-Way are on the same load as Synchronicity, so it shouldn't be too long before we can get some results for the top four 8-Way teams. At present, Italy has the best score in round 8 with 15 points.

1510

Judging for the last MI-8 load has completed and Russia 8-Way has put up a 20. They seem to be getting stronger as the meet goes on. In 4-Way Female, current 2nd place holder France looks a tiny bit shaky gets 14. Possibly a chance for the USA girls to pick up another point or two.

1520

4-Way teams are gearing up and heading for the plane. They haven't jumped since Monday. 8-Way Open and 4-Way Female teams have been released for the day. Scores coming soon...

1540

USA Ladies have few glitches also and score even with France maintaining their 3 point lead.

France 8-Way gets a lot of separation on the first Double Chinese Tees-Double Donuts block and it puts them behind from the start. The rest of the jump looks good and they get a 20. USA is smooth and tight right out the door. They seem to start off a little conservative and pick up the speed all the way to the end for a 21. Again, the 22nd point was just barely out of working time.

 

1630 FS 4-Way judging began about 20 minutes ago and hasn't stopped since. We're about 10 teams into the round. I'm seeing a lot of clouds on the video and the last few teams have been hitting the clouds right at the end of working time. It doesn't look good to me but they are still sending teams up. 1830 Sorry for the slow updates. We were having connection problems with the OmniSkore server. To bring you up to date, round 8 of 4-Way has finished. USA scored a 21 and picked up another point on France. It's a tight race for 3rd with Russia and Italy separated by 1 point. The cut has been made for round 9 and the top 10 teams will continue on. There will be two more loads tonight. CF Speed has finished with Russia taking the gold, France silver and USA get bronze. All other competitors have been released for the day. 1850 The first five 4-Way teams for round 9 have judged and Belgium puts up the highest score so far with a 17. 1910 Italy tries to push it on round 9 to make up the point they are behind Russia and get busted to a 16. Fortunately Russia gets busted to a 16 also so it goes down to the final round for the bronze. In my opinion they also busted the following point which would have given Italy the lead. BTW, It's Ken here and I am not a judge or affiliated any way in judging this competition. France is up now and they post an 18 even with one member going low for a second or two moving to the second point. USA is up and look smooth and fast posting a 19. 1930 The beer is already flowing and we're getting ready to pack up and head back to the hotel. The weather report looks pretty good for tomorrow and if all goes as planned it looks like we should finish all the events tomorrow. One last picture for the day. Questionable weather for jumping makes for a great sunset.

Ted Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim Wagner, Webmaster