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Head-Down High
Freeflyers from across the globe gathered at Perris Valley Skydiving in California in late April to set another world record for largest head-down formation. National champion freefly team Alchemy, with Jon Devore, Rook Nelson and Mike Swanson, again organized the event. The trio organized the two previous head-down world records—the 24-way in Sebastian , Florida , in February 2003 and the 42-way in April 2004 at Perris. The attempts used a Skyvan as the lead plane, with two Twin Otters in trail. The group jumped from 12,500 feet for most of the practice jumps but went to 16,000 for the actual record attempts. This year, the organizers decided that if they wanted to go bigger than 50 people, they needed to implement an idea of connecting pods with lines. It had been tried unsuccessfully before, but Swanson said, “This year, thanks to a large talent pool, we were able to pull it of.”
On Friday, April 29, on the seventh attempt of the event, a 53-way completed with jumpers from ten countries. Judges Kama Mountz, Jami Pillasch and Sarah Thompson confirmed the completion, which now goes to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale for declaration as an official world record. All the work is worth it, says Swanson, “after the completion, seeing everyone’s stoked faces.”
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