The Canopy Piloting World Championships is nearly finished.  But it’s not been without a few issues- most notably the smoke from all the fires in the area.

This hasn’t stopped competitors bonding; Mike Kleist, German swooper and author of The Secret of Male Multiple Orgasms and Other Sex Skills , has been researching his next book on how to pick up girls.  Others have spent time working on their wing loadings, as athletes in this discipline should, and eating pies, or the Russian equivalent.  The mischief has been a little tame so far but if the competition finishes today then perhaps we’re in for a wild night.

So far Speed and Zone Accuracy are finished with PD Factory Team and Flight-1 athlete Jason Moledzki clinching both golds with some awesome performances.  You can see the break down of results here.

Smoke on the ... Everything

Competitors at the Canopy Piloting World Championships are plagued by the dense smoke that has engulfed the area.  So, at breakfast in the hotel, PD Factory Team members and some of the South African delegation decided to bond with the locals with a few vodka toasts to set the morning off.  The smoke is pretty thick outside so our chances of jumping are low.  These guys started the meet roulette game early.

Breakfast of Champions

Competitors are still arriving and some have been here for a week.  But Moscow and huge parts of Russia are engulfed in smoke from peat fires that have arisen after the unusually high temperatures this year.  Many of the competitors that gave such inspiring performances in all of the disciplines that have already competed are still stranded in Moscow- the staging airport on their homeward journey.  They should get out in time, coughing and spluttering, but for some of us our competition hasn’t even started yet.  In fact, an Air Base in the town where the competition will be held was recently consumed by the fires and 200 aircraft were destroyed.  Just a few hundreds metres from one of the hotels that we’re staying in there are blackened trees showing how close the fire came.

But now the fires are heading to Chernobyl and there’s a risk of radioactive material mixing with the drifting smoke.  Canada and Poland are evacuating their embassies and the Russian Surgeon General has recommend that anyone that can leave the area should do so.

All this sounds pretty challenging and our lack of on-site training jumps is a real concern.  But really the more problematic issues are that of a huge bunch of skydivers hanging out and not having much to do.  This is when it gets dangerous and mischief comes in to play.  So watch this space to see how it plays out (assuming we’re not consumed by the smoke and fires that is).

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Team members were training at the Joint Service Parachute Centre in Bad Lippspringe, Germany, in preparation for the forthcoming Canopy Piloting National Championships and the subsequent World Championships. After a long day flying their Competition Velocities across the impressive swoop pond, they decided to break out their new Poppy-branded Vampire 3 wingsuits for a quick jump.

From 16,000 feet up, Major Alastair Macartney and Warrant Officer Class One Spencer Hogg, with Corporal Stuart Storey flying on camera, flew out over the ranges of Sennelager training area.  They were carving around the cloud formations, creating an amazing show for those watching below, really putting the new suits through their paces on their maiden voyage.

After swooping down to a safe landing on their Competition Velocities, they gathered up their gear and headed inside to pack up their kit. As they did so, two German police cars screeched on to the scene to apprehend the Jump4Heroes daredevils.

It turned out that the people in the local town had never before seen high speed wingsuit flying in this style. Unsure of what it was and how to react, they had reported the “UFOs” to the local police.

It all ended amicably with the team members showing the police their equipment and demonstrating the flight modes.

They invited the police to come up on a jump but their offer was politely declined, strangely…

Jump 4 Heroes

See the TV interview below and a short edit of the jumps below that.

Jump4Heroes Jump from Bloukrans Bridge. Photo by Dawie du Plessis.

It would be a shame to go all the way out to South Africa and not experience the place. So, with the World Cup nonsense out of the way, Jump4Heroes teamed up with some of the PD Factory Team to venture around the country and jump from anything survivable that was in sight.

Starting out at Cape Town, the weather was against us, so we put our foot down and headed for a jump in the rain at the 200′ Gouritz Bridge. Touring the Garden Route we spent the next few days having a boogie at Bloukrans Bridge, home of the highest commercial bungie jump operation. For anyone planning to go BASE jumping in South Africa, be warned—the landing areas can be pretty tight; landing at Bloukrans was either in the water or on a small patch of rocks, the trek out either involved swimming or rock climbing with no equipment- definitely scarier than the actual BASE jump!

Moving on, and having taken a 14-hour drive, we all jumped from the pool deck of a prominent hotel in Durban. The crack of the slider-down canopy openings may have slightly disturbed the guest out for an early morning swim and those breakfasting in their rooms admiring the view of the the sun rising over the sea.

The PD Team members called it a day at this point. They kept citing work as the reason they had to leave the trip but the rest of us firmly believed that they were just too scared; maybe they’d just had too much fun for 2009 though. It was then time to head north to the Drakensburg mountains, the largest mountains in South Africa, for a few jumps. The weather then turned and the remaining jumps didn’t happen.

In all it was a great trip. The Jump4Heroes crew got to raise some great awareness for The Royal British Legion, a charity that supports our troops- members of the Armed Forces, past and present. There’s a short clip of video, including BASE jumping from the roof of a moving car at Bloukrans Bridge, here:

Thanks to all those that made it possible, particularly our guide and photographer Dawie du Plessis.

For skydivers, weather holds can be the most dangerous time, particularly at a Canopy Piloting World Cup.  For some, there was time to kill, and the Australian delegation challenged some of the other nations to an improvised game of indoor (well, in-tent) cricket.  Others took the time to get some much needed rest, particularly following the early starts we’ve been having with 0530 take-offs.  Here are a few pictures of competitors resting while they wait for the winds to drop.