Tuesday, November 7

0800
Election day Americans, get out and vote!

It's a chilly morning in Eloy, Arizona, and we'll be starting with 8-way round 3 shortly.

0900
We are on a cloud hold; it is supposed to turn sunny by mid morning. We're playing team movies on DZTV and drinking lots of coffee.

An hour later, 8-way round three is done, and Russia is developing a pattern of scoring 19 formations in time but busting at least once. Airspeed cruised to a 23 for a whopping 15 point lead after only three rounds. 4-way has been released for the day, except for the women's cup which continues along side 8-way.

1140
That's better Russia 8! Those were some of the nicest Lego - Eye blocks I've ever seen, and they match Airspeed 8 on the round with 17 points each. Meanwhile the Netherlands 8-way is doing some nice skydiving trying to close the gap on Airspeed Blue for 3rd place, and I'm well on the way to setting a World Cup record myself with my 7th cup of coffee this morning. I typed this whole paragraph in 10 seconds! If the Netherlands 8-way team drank this stuff, they might catch up to the Russians! Sure, I'll take that donut too...

One of the event judge stations, behind the photo below.	Note the radio; careful coordination between the pilots and judges is crucial for live judging.

1300
The Netherlands 8-way set a National record with 15 points on round five, congratulations! That beats their previous record of 13 set at the 1997 World Meet in Turkey. They are training hard preparing for the World Meet in Spain next year.

WHAM SHAZAM did Airspeed 8 just torch round five! I think they've been drinking the same coffee that I've been drinking! That's 28 points in time, they just missed 29 by a whisker. Russia followed with a 23 and now trail by 20 points just half way through the meet.

1430
No big surprises on round 6; Airspeed 8 added a couple more points to their comfortable lead. 

Poor Mom is down with a bad toothache, so I'm doing what I can ;-)

“Why yes, I am having fun in the dubbing room.”

Okay, while I'm in the throws of caffeine withdrawal, how about I pick some nits. One of our favorite topics is the judging, and so far I think they are too nice. With their button pushing, that is. Marginal separation? Give it to the team. Well, all the teams are getting pretty much equal treatment, so it's hardly unfair. But then, if the judges are being so lenient, why on earth are they watching so many jumps - at least 40 to 50 percent of them - three times? We've missed a number of live jumps on DZTV because they wanted to see a jump a third time. Did that third viewing change a single score? I'll wager not.

What's up with this weather? November in Arizona is normally the most consistent blue skies of the year, but we've had record rainfall and low temperatures the last couple of weeks. There must be a major skydiving competition going on somewhere...and yes, we are back on a weather hold, there's a thunderstorm passing close to the east...

...an hour later, we're jumping again, finishing up on round 7 of 8-way. This round is one of those “molasses” dives of three slow blocks; not the kind of jump you can make up a lot of ground on. Russia wades through 12 points, busted to a 10, while Airspeed 8 slogs through JUST getting the 14th point in time.

1700
The Meet Director has called it a day, and tomorrow will start off with 4-way round 6. And the webmaster will try to back off the java, just a little ;-) g'night!