About Formation Skydiving
Overview
Formation Skydiving (formerly known as Relative Work) is the
sport of building a series of formations in freefall. Formation
Skydiving can be as few as two people or more than 100 (the unofficial
world record largest freefall formation is 297). Competition formation
skydiving consists of 3 basic events* for National and International
competitions: 4-Way, 8-Way, and 16-Way. 16-Way was adopted by the IPC as
an official event in 1997, and the 20-Way event popular in the U.S. was
then changed to a 16-Way event, adopting the IPC rules.
For all events, each team performs as many formations as possible
before working time expires. The team with the most points after the
last completed round is the winner.
* 10-way is another US Nationals event but is a speed event, not
sequential formations.
Events
4-Way
The 4-Way event uses a working time of 35 seconds and an exit
altitude of approximately 10,500 feet (about 3,200 meters). The dive
pool consists of 24 block sequences and 16 random formations. See the IPC
Dive Pool page on this site for more information.
At the beginning of the competition, the formations to be performed
on the skydives are randomly drawn until the skydive has at least 5 or
6 points. Once the team has completed the sequence, it starts over at
the first formation and continues to repeat the sequence.
8-Way
The 8-Way event uses a working time of 50 seconds and an exit
altitude of approximately 12,500 feet (about 3,800 meters). The dive
pool consists of 24 block sequences and 16 random formations. See the IPC
Dive Pool page on this site for more information.
At the beginning of the competition, the formations to be performed
on the skydives are randomly drawn until the skydive has at least 5,
6, or 7 points. Once the team has completed the sequence, it starts
over at the first formation and continues to repeat the sequence.
16-Way
The 16-Way event also uses a working time of 50 seconds and
an exit altitude of approximately 12,500 feet (about 3,800 meters).
The dive pool consists of 12 blocks and 9 randoms.
For some reason, the 16-way
World Championships are held separately from the 4- and 8-way
Championships. I for one would like to see them held together.
FAI/IPC
The Fédération Aéronautique
Internationale (FAI), the world's air sports federation, was founded
in 1905. It is a non-governmental and non-profit making international
organization with the basic aim of furthering aeronautical and
astronautical activities worldwide. The FAI is the governing body of the
International
Parachute Commission (IPC), which overseas international parachute
competitions. The IPC solicits bids from FAI member countries to host
international parachuting competitions. The world championships for
Formation Skydiving are held every odd year; the championships for
Canopy Formations Skydiving are held every even year.
Formation Skydiving Rules
The rules for Formation Skydiving competitions in the United
States have been traditionally maintained by USPA
in the USPA Skydiver's Competition Manual. USPA, however, has recently
adopted the IPC rules to apply for U.S. Nationals competitions. This
change will alleviate any discrepancies between national and
international rule interpretations.
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