From: moret@disuns2.epfl.ch (Pierre Moret)
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving
Subject: Report of the last IPC formation skydiving subcommitee
Date: 13 Oct 92 14:38:52 GMT
Reply-To: moret@disuns2.epfl.ch (Pierre Moret)
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

Report ot the IPC formation skydiving subcommitee meeting.
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(Gap, 9th of October 92)


Last night at the CMCL (this is a building at Gap), an unofficial meeting of
the International Parachuting Commitee took place. After presenting it's 
members, the subcommitee explained its role by giving a brief history. This
commitee, composed mainly of ex-competitors, is always listening to what is
going on on the drop zonew and paying attention to the improvement of the
equipement and the techniques. Thanks to them, formation skydiving has
evolved from 10-way speed to 4-way figure-loop-figure to 4&8-way formation
to finally 4&8-way sequential (blocks & randoms).
The first problem they spoke of was modifying the dive pool. After a vote, 
the majority agreed not to change it, neither by adding figures nor by 
removing some.
The second problem was work time. Since the actual level of teams is very high
and that their performances are always getting better, it would be possible to
lower the jump altitude and therefore reduce the work time without lowering
the challenge. This would help the event getting olympic, which still is one
of the main objectives of the subcommitee. It would also reduce the costs.
After a hand raised vote, it appeared that the majority was against lowering
the altitude.
The third problem was the judging system of which the history was given. At
the beginning, they used telemeters until one day an amateur video showed
that the judges didn't see everything correctly and were therefore unreliable.
So it was decided to use ground video as a judging system. It was then noticed
that most teams had their own videomen which allowed them to debrief and to 
complain in case of bad judgement. It was decided afterwards that the teams 
would be allowed to provide video evidence of their jumps in case of doubts. A
lot of teams won back their points thanks to this system. The importance of 
the videomen had greatened. Seeing this, it was decided for this world cup to
try an air video judging. In the future, they are already preparing air to
ground direct judging, the aim is to be able to give the results for each team
as they land after the jump.

Now the videomen have the whole responsability of the jump. If ever a video
doesn't work or the team isn't on the screen or the videoman fails his exit,
the whole team is penalized since there is no rejump. Technique is treading
over the sport, and as several people have put it, this is not a videomen
contest, but a formation skydiving competition.

Several solutions have been proposed:

- To use a videomen pool, each videoman would be affected randomly to each 
team. In case of a technical problem, the team would get a rejump. How do we
make that pool? Do we take each team's videoman and exchange then or do we use
professionals, expensive solution, paid by the host country? I order to 
minimize the amount of rejumps (let's not forget that a rejump gives a team
a 1.5 point average advantage and that it costs money), you need operational
videomen that know their job well and that master the exit whatever the plane
is and whatever the team's exit procedure is. How can you guarantee that level?
What does a team which can't afford a videoman do? The system used at the US
Nationals, with a pool made of team videomen affected randomly, gave good 
results without too many rejumps.

- Placing a camera under the plane to film the exit during the first seconds.
But depending of the plane, the team exit and the slipstream, it would not be
possible to always film the exit from above and therefore judge it.

- Taking two videomen on each jump in order to be failure proof. We could 
then have to find a plane allowing everybody to get out at the same time. In
any case, it is more expensive.

- Not taking the exit into account by starting to count points either five 
seconds after the exit or after the first point. There are several
advantages in this solution, first the type of the aircraft doesn't have any
influence on the jump anymore, second in case of a bad exit, the videoman has
time to get stable again, and last it certainly doesn't cost more than the 
present solution since each team would present its own videoman. It would 
probably even cost less since it would not be a necessity to equip the planes
with special devices to help the videomen at the exit. This would allow
smaller countries with smaller means to organize world cups and championships.


It is asked to each team to write down all thier ideas, suggestions, critics 
and opinions. This would allow the subcommitee to get the next formation
skydiving official rules written down. This is your event, you are the ones
making it evolve, so take your pencils and start writing now!
Newsgroups: rec.skydiving