Saturday, September 25
And
the final day of competition has dawned at the 1999 US National
Championships of Formation Skydiving. The Knights have withdrawn from
10-way in an effort to finish the other events; at any rate they will
have to make 6 jumps today just to finish 4- and 8-way. Meet
Director/Big Brother Chris Wagner will have his hands full trying to
close out all the events in the scheduled number of rounds. I have just
heard also that the Knights have waived the 6-jump rule to complete as
much as they can.
The mail box was flooded again this morning, thank you
all. Lots of thanks from folks who appreciate the video clip of Airspeed's
39-point jump (thanks Paul Q.). To answer the question how did I do
it...indulge me here...
After the jump, I tried to think of a way to
get it digitized and on the web. I had shipped my PII desktop
here just for this kind of thing, but the capture card went
tango uniform in transit, forcing me to use my laptop as a
webcam machine with its Nogatech PC video capture card. I fired
up the software and tried to capture a clip. 80% frame loss.
Very bad. I tried it again at 100 X 75 pixels. Same result. A
final try using "capture to memory" allowed me to get
37 seconds before memory ran out. How convenient! I networked
the file over to my desktop and fired up Premiere. Ten minutes
later I had the clip saved as a QuickTime movie. Then the hard
part...it took about 8 tries to upload that puppy to the server
before it took. Success. |
So to answer another e-mail, the answer is no, I can't do that for
every jump, not even all the good ones. I will however see if I can get
the Knights' 29-point 8-way up here, that one was really sweet.
HOLY
GREEN CARD BATMAN! Guess what...unless the Knights have a really good
day in 8-way, they are going to go home from this nationals without one
single gold medal. Knights FX made Derek Thomas an alternate for
16-way, and he jumped in a slot on round 4. Derek is ineligible on at
least two counts, so Knights FX is now a guest team. Wow...Deguello
didn't even train 16-way this year, and they're going to go home with
gold medals in the event! Now THERE'S one for the books!
Okay, moving on with 4-way Advanced. The 50% cut has been made and
we're down to 8 teams. This one is a good race...Z-Spot round 9 is going
and...it's a 12, a VERY nice score for that round! That should tighten
this one up even more...
Now
the Knights' round 6 of 8-way is up...boy these guys look so smooth, did
I say that already? And the score is...they need a 19 to keep their
lead...and they have...a...ooh that last point is right on the time
line, did they get it? The judges are doing a third viewing...oops
there's a bust...and they're not going to get that last point, OUCH they
busted three times and get a 18 busted to a 12. That smarts! The Knights
are not having a fun day.
Back to 4-way Advanced, Euphoric put up a very nice 13, that's
the best score of the round so far, and good enough to take the lead by
one. Z-Spot needs a 13 to keep up and...they get a 12, and Euphoric
takes a 1 point lead into the final round. What a race!
Regarding
the world record performances by FX and Airspeed: The judges will be
submitting paperwork for both jumps, in chronological order, so if
everything checks out then FX will have held a world record if for a
day. Credit to be given where credit is due.
10:30 a.m.
They are judging 4-way Open right now, trying to get through round 7
and 8. Last night, drinking brewskies at the tiki bar, I heard more than
one team saying their goal was to not bust any more jumps. Okay, 4-way
Open is now complete through round 7, and Space Center FX has jumped
into second place by one point, with a little help from AZ Purple's
bust.
With the exception of their busted round 4, Airspeed has posted the
best score in each round of 4-way Open. Where is Maubeuge when you need
just one more guest team to keep things interesting?
4-Way Advanced round 10 is now being judged, who will win this great
battle? Z-Spot? Euphoric? Frost? Any crowd favorites out there? Well,
let's see here...the winner is...nope, now they're judging Open
again...now Open is complete through round 8, and it's Airspeed out in
front of Purple and FX. Back to Advanced...the envelope, please...what
do you think Ed? Here we go...OUCH, Z-Spot just took it on the chin from
the judges with two busts...and the winner is...FROST takes the gold!
Euphoric in second and Z-Spot in third. Congratulations Frost!
12:00 noon
The Knights FX "guest" situation is making for a lot of
tongue wagging around the DZ. Apparently Derek competed in the British
Nationals -as a British citizen - and that makes him ineligible under
the rules. When the Knights FX made him an alternate they either didn't
know or Derek didn't tell them.
2:00
p.m.
The skies have cleared and we have started 10- and 4-way again...
Some lessons learned by competitors here this year:
- The judges don't care whether or not you did the skydive
correctly. They can only evaluate the footage you provide them.
Period.
- It is the competitors' responsibility to read the SCM from cover
to cover and understand it completely before the competition
begins. (Example: the competition can require you to get on an
airplane (make a manifest call). They can*not* require you to
get out at altitude if you think the conditions are unsafe.)
- It doesn't matter what the competition schedule posted by the host
says; once your event begins, you may be obligated to stay until the
end of the meet to qualify as a winner.
- Know each team members' eligibility before you register.
Knights FX / Derek Thomas Update: The Knights FX filed a protest
regarding Derek's eligibility. The jury ruled that under 1-1.4 paragraph
D of the SCM he is ineligible to win a medal at the competition. The
paragraph says "Guest competitors and any competitor who has
competed in any other country's national championships or
represented any other country at an FAI-sanctioned world cup or
championships in any competitive category in the three year period
immediately prior to entering the US National Championships are
not eligible to receive a US Nationals medal or to serve as US team
members." The controversial part of this rule now is the part that
says "and any competitor who has competed in any other country's
national championships." Some may interpret this to mean that
Airspeed is ineligible also because they competed (albeit as guests) at
the Japanese Nationals this year. I see a rewrite coming on that
paragraph next year!
Meanwhile,
4-way Open is done through round nine. Airspeed has an 11 point lead
despite busting the round, and FX picked up another point on Purple.
Coming up, the last three jump in 10-way speed...
...and Roger Nelson's "Skydive Chicago STL" has won the
gold in front of XTZ and Lebanon 10-way.
3:30 p.m.
...and the Knights FX / Derek Thomas controversy continues. Knights FX
is now arguing that Derek never registered for the competition, and thus
the team should just get a zero for the round and still remain medal
eligible based on the previous jumps without Derek (Derek only jumped on
round 4). Based on the way the meet has been run to this point that is a
valid argument, and their round 4 is now becoming a zero and the team
remains medal eligible. I can't wait to see how this mess plays out.
Now the judges are going through all the paperwork and finding all
the teams that Derek has competed on...all those teams get zeroes for
all their jumps...Derek is going to owe a lot of beer when this is all
over!
It's amazing how much the e-mail dies when the weekend hits. Same
thing happened last year. Everybody out playing and not surfing at work!
4-way
round 10 is up next. Hey Col. Stahl - one of your soldiers is doing
4-way in pink panties! Can't tell which one, though. Purple just did a
19...FX, judges working, OUCH two busts for a 14, these judges are TOUGH
this week...Airspeed up next...and they nail down another gold medal
with a 19, and they finish with a 21.9 average. In both 4-way Advanced
and 4-way Open, the second place team after nine rounds lost the silver
medal on busts.
Thank you DD for pointing out my mistake on the front page, I had
Z-Spot as the Advanced winner when it is Frost with the top stop.
BTW, since Knights FX lost their protest, that's $240 into the US
Team Fund...
On to 8-way now, the Knights are doing round 9, and boy is it
nice...a 26! Sweet! And now Airspeed...fast, but they've got at least
one bust in there, they were moving right along...they got a 26 busted
to a 22, now their lead is down to 2 points with one jump left. VERY
interesting! The Knights look determined not to go home empty handed.
Passion 8, here comes there final competition jump together in round 10.
These girls should be very proud of themselves. Their score, an 11, they
finish with an 11.7 average, a lock on the bronze medal. They sure are
in good company with Airspeed and the Knights.
The Knights and AZ8 round 10 coming right up here to finish this meet
up...GK up first...looks very nice, and it is a 22! AZ8 needs a 21 to
win...the jump looks fast enough...is it?...OH NO, they busted just
inside of working time! Holy smokes, they post an 18 and the Knights
upset the defending champs 213 to 211! Wow what an ending! And the meet
director just announced that 16-way has been called at 4 rounds, so THIS
MEET IS DONE!
I'll have a final wrap on all this tomorrow, including a special
little treat that I think you all will like. It's banquet time now! THANK
YOU FOR VISITING OMNISKORE!
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