TGI Friday 15 October

0615
The TV stations are reporting a lot of fog in the LA area, but it is clear as a bell here at the DZ at the moment. Houston, we should have liftoff at 0645 as planned.

If you have enjoyed the coverage OmniSkore has provided for the USPA National Championships, please let our sponsors know that. Their links are at the top of the page. Wouldn't hurt to let the USPA and Perris Valley Skydiving know that as well.

Aircraft to the left is the one being used for Style & Accuracy. 

Style is nearly through Round 3. There are about a half-dozen competitors that still have their third jump to make or have rejumps to do. Of those who have completed three rounds the leaders are:

Intermediate: Kevin Krupski 27.25, Nick Dewhirst 42.60
Men's Open: Tim Reynolds 23.50, Greg Habermann 23.55, Dan Leavitt 24.90, Jimmy Drummond 25.68
Women's Open: Angela Nichols 22.91, Rhonda Reichel 25.63, Janet Flenner 45.71

4-Way Sequential will be the first event up this morning; they will begin Round 5.

0830
The fifth round of 4-Way Sequential has been judged; however there was a hiccup with 502 4-Play's dub and they need to redo it when they get down from their Round 6 jump. Hence, the Round 4 scores are incomplete at this point. Of the four scores posted, 505 Redline had best score, 10, 501 Frayed Knot got 7 and 506 Zoom Dweebies got 5.

0925
502 4-Play got a 5 in Round 5, after five rounds 505 Redline has 36 points, which gives them a 6 point lead over 501 Frayed Knot, 502 4-Play is a somewhat distant third with 18 points. Round 6 dives are now being judged.

1000
Round 6 is history. 505 Redline, at 45, increased their lead to 9 points over 501 Frayed Knot with 36. 502 4-Play remains in third place with 22.

The S&A folks are switching loads from the stompers to the loopers.

1110
Round 7 is in the can505 Readline increases their lead over 501 Frayed Knot to 12 points, with 502 4-Play holding third 17 points behind Frayed Knot.

1150
Round 8 is being judged in reverse order of standings. 504 Leah's Toads gets a 0, and that will become their throw-away. 503 Lodi CRW is up next. They get a 3, which won't be enough to improve their place in the standings. Next up is 505 Zoom Dweebies. And they receive a 3 also, which will leave them firmly entrenched in fourth place. 502 4-Play is now on the bubble. They receive a 5, which will earn them the bronze medal. Now it is 501 Frayed Knot's turn in the barrel. They receive an 8, which clinches the silver for them. 505 Redline will win the gold; the question is how much will their victory margin be? And the answer is 11 points. They had a problem making the first formation and wound up with a 0 for the round.

The problem arose when Scott Shumway got his foot firmly entangled in the I-beam of a cell of Craig Stapleton's canopy while attempting to make the first formation. They used so much time getting separated that they were unable to complete the first point of the round.

8-Way Speed is up next.

1320
The scores for Round 4 of Speed are in, and there is no change in the standings. 702 CrewZin increased their lead from about 5 to almost 14 seconds over 704 Red Line? Frayed Knot, and 701 Chuck's Buddies is almost 24 seconds farther back in third place.

In Style, Chris Moore is being given a rejump for Round 3. He missed his plane because of an error by Manifest.

1400
Back to Speed Round 5. 702 CrewzZin suffered a triple wrap and cut-away during their jump. Their cameraman, Mike Maguire, who had never shot CRW before this meet, did a great job of tracking them all the way through their cut-aways. The first two cut-aways were uneventful, but the third one, Jim Bolton, had one line group around one leg and the other line group around the other leg. He reached for his hook knife, but it had been stripped from him sometime during the event. He was able to shove the lines off one foot using his hands and then used his free foot to clear the other foot. He  was open by 2500 feet. All three canopies remained together and were caught in the bad spot truck. All the out-of-towners were impressed by this, but it is merely standard operating procedure here at Perris.

Thank you, Jan Meyer, for collecting the facts for us so we could report this event.

The faux pas cost them first place. 704 Red Line? Frayed Knot now has a lead of about 51 seconds over 701 Chuck's Buddies, and the latter has less than a 3 second lead over the third place team, 702 CrewZin.

1430
With six rounds of Speed in the can, Scott Smith, the Meet Director has decided to switch the Crew Dawgs to Rotations in hopes of wrapping up that event today. Although there are already enough rounds done to make it an official meet, they want to do three more rounds to complete the planned eight rounds. However, it is going to be close to 1600 before the first load goes up, so I doubt there will be enough daylight remaining to get in three more rounds.

1500
Here are the standings in Accuracy after nine rounds:

Intermediate

First: Kevin Krupski, 2.84
Second: Nick Dewhirst, 3.28

Men's Open:

First: Chris Moore 0.07
Second: Shawn Callahan 0.08
Third: James Flenner 0.10
          Greg Habermann 0.10 (tie)

Women's Open:

First: Elisa Feldt 0.16
Second: Angela Nichols 0.17
Third: Rhonda Reichel 0.19
Fourth: Rose Mery 0.40

Some viewers have requested more detail in the S&A standing and we truly wish we were able to comply. While other disciplines benefit greatly from automation, getting the S&A standings on the web page remains, unfortunately, a manual (read very labor intensive) operation. We simply do not have the manpower available to do it after each and every round, even if we could get the results after each and every round. Currently we consider ourselves lucky to get the results once a day. We will try to report the top places daily, and when the event is over we will fat-finger the results into the web page tables.

1530
Here are the results for three of the four teams (getting reserves repacked has delayed 702 CrewZin's jump) after Round 5 of 8-Way Speed: 704 Red Line? Frayed Knot got a 70.45 which likely will keep them in first place. 701 Chuck's Buddies got 86.90, so 702 CrewZin will have to do better than 84.17 in order to overtake them for second place.

1630
The Meet Director has released all Canopy Formation competitors who have finished Round 6 of Rotation and Speed are released until 0800 tomorrow. The judges are about to judge 602 Redline's Round 5 rejump. They were awarded a rejump because the camera flyer's exit on the first jump was delayed due to no fault of his own. And they replaced the 7 they had on the first jump with an 8 on the rejump, which is not enough of a difference to cause a change in the standings.

1710
702 CrewZin (in Speed) and 605 Demolition Dweebies (in Rotation) have had their Round 6 jumps delayed because of the need for reserve repacks after the wrap that affected three members of 702, two of whom are also members of 605. The other four teams in Rotation have made their Round 6 jumps, but the judges will not judge the round until tomorrow morning, even if 605 gets their jump in before sunset.

Here is another Tidbit from Lyn Hannah:

The CF competitors started the day by wishing Al Altendorfer, a well-known and highly regarded judge, a Happy 50th Birthday.

Brian Pangburn, just back from the World Meet in Croatia, wore a sign reading, "Happy Birthday, Al" when he exited the plane. Brian's wife Pam, the team's videographer, captured it on film.

Not to be outdone, Sequential team 4-Play also had a sign that team captain Kirk Van Zandt wore as he exited.

This birthday is not only Al's 50th, but it also marks Al's being cancer-free for 5 months. He has gained 50 pounds and is able to walk without a cane. [Ed. Note: I can tell you he sure looks a helluva lot better than he did last year in Lake Wales!]

Good going, Al!

Yesterday's Tidbits featured a picture of 602's slate for Round 1. Visible in the photo to the left of the slate is Mr. Pickle, their mascot. That famous gherkin, known as "Super Pickle," was kidnapped today. After diligent detective work, a gear bag to gear bag search, and an APB (All Pickle Bulletin), Mr. Pickle was found. The owner of the gear bag where he was located is protesting and claims that he has been framed. "Frank"-ly, we're skeptical.

1745
Everything is done for today except for the stompers, who are doing their best to beat that big pillow into the ground. I guess they will go on until they are finished or until sunset, whichever happens first. After the judges are finished there, they have to come back and judge some more rounds of Style. Those poor souls will be working late. Lift a beer and toast their dedication to their job. As for me, I'm going to "train centerline and secure" (any old Navy gunner's mate out there will know what that means -- the rest of you can probably make a pretty good guess). See you in the morning.

Ted "T1" Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim "T2" Wagner, Webmaster