Formation skydiving

Formation skydiving, traditionally called "relative work" (RW) or "group freefall", is a discipline of sport parachuting where two or more participants intentionally manuever to close proximity with each other in freefall before separating and deploying their parachutes.^[1]

History

Formation skydiving started in California, US, during the 1960s. The first documented skydiving formation occurred over Arvin, California in March 1964 when Mitch Poteet, Don Henderson, Andy Keech and Lou Paproski successfully formed a 4-man star formation, photographed by Bob Buquor.^[2]

In 1967, the first 10-man star was formed over Taft, California,^[2][3][4] and the first 12-man formation was formed, also over Taft, in 1968.^[5] Jerry Bird participated in both of these record-breaking formations and in 1970 captained the United States Freefall Exhibition Team (USFET)^[6] which demonstrated formation skydiving at the 1970 World Championships in Bled, Slovenia.^[7] This led to formation skydiving becoming a recognized competition discipline in its own right.

In 1972, Bird organized a world record 24-man star formation over Perris Valley California. The jump was featured on the CBS program I've Got a Secret^[8] and in Life magazine.^[9] Later (on June 16), Jerry Bird's All Stars won the Ten-Man Star event at the National Championships in Tahlequah, Oklahoma,^[10] and Bird organized a world record 26-man star at the close of the 11th World Parachuting Championships, also at Tahlequah.^[11] During the 1980s and 1990s, Bird joined further record-breaking Big-ways formations: a 120-way at Quincy, Illinois in 1986;^[12] a 144-way diamond formation in August 1988, also over Quincy;^[13] a 246-way formation over Chicago in July 1998;^[14] and, in 1999, a 282-way formation in Thailand.^[15]

The current FAI world record for the largest free-fall formation is a 400-way,^[16] set on February 8, 2006, in Udon Thani, Thailand by the World Team.^[17]

Sub-categories

Formation skydiving can be further divided into several sub-categories, so named for the number of members in a team:

• 4-way sequential
• 4-way vertical sequential (VFS, Vertical Formation Skydiving)
• 8-way sequential
• 16-way sequential
• 10-way speed
• Large formations (Big-ways)

Competitive format

A competition in 4-way formation skydiving (FS-4) takes place like this:

There are two kinds of formations, called randoms and blocks. The randoms are singular formations with full separation of all grips both before and after building the formation. The blocks are double formations with a special designated movement pattern in between, called an inter. The start formation may or may not be similar to the ending formation. The inters are differently performed. Here are some examples:

Inter 1: The grips are released between some of the flyers, so they become two pieces of two team members. They both do a 270° turn, and reconnect to a different formation.

Inter 2: Three people stay connected and do a 360° turn, while the last person flies alone.

Inter 15: All grips are released and everyone does a 360° turn back to the original formation.

Blocks are designated by numbers, while randoms get letters. Blocks are worth one point for each correct formation, which makes 2 points, and randoms count as 1 point. There are 22 blocks and 16 randoms.

Competition consists of up to 10 rounds, and each round consists of 5 or 6 points, which the teams are to repeat as many times as they can within the working time of 35 seconds. The score judging is based on the videographer's material.

A competition draw may look like this:

• 1: C-E-B-13
• 2: 14-20-8
• 3: 15-16-H
• 4: J-O-1-D
• 5: 6-18-19
• 6: 5-F-21
• 7: 10-K-G-M
• 8: 22-3-P
• 9: 12-9-4
• 10:11-17-Q

The winning team will be the team that has collected the most points, by completing the most correct formations within time after the final round is ended. In case of weather, technical problems, or other interruptions, a competition will be valid as long as all teams have completed at least one round.

A recent sub-category of formation skydiving is vertical formation skydiving (VFS). Skydivers build formations using higher-speed body positions normally associated with freeflying, such as head down and sitflying.

World record

• Big-Way:

The current FAI world record for largest free-fall formation is a 400-way,^[16] set on February 8, 2006, in Udon Thani, Thailand by the World Team.^[17] It was held for 4.3 seconds. With the support of the Thai government, they used five C-130 Hercules airplanes and exited from an altitude of 25,400 feet.^[18] In April 2013 the World Team tried to break the record for the largest 2-point formation dive in skydiving history. All 222 members came together and made a formation, broke apart, and then reformed to make a completely different formation. The team attempted the jump many times and came very close to breaking the record, but were unsuccessful each time. The World Team has not made anymore official statements about attempting the record again. ^[19]

Longest sequence in one round:

• 4-Way

Set by the Belgian team(NMP-PCH Hayabusa), at the World Meet 2018 in round 6, where they posted 62 points in working time (35 seconds)

• 8-Way

Set by the U.S. (GKXP8) national team, at the World Meet 2024 , in round 9, where they posted 37 points in working time (50 seconds)

World championship

See also

• Canopy formation

References

1. ^ USPA Skydivers Information Manual, p.162 5-1 A
2. ^ "1st RW Records". Starcrestskydivingawards.com. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
3. ^ "Cover: World's first ten-man star". Parachutist. September 1967. pp. 1,3. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
4. ^ "A Galaxy of Stars". Parachutist. October 2022. pp. 42–44. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
5. ^ "World's first 12-man star". Parachutist. May 1968. p. 26. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
6. ^ "Congratulations to the 2022 Pioneers of Excellence Award winner, the 1970 Freefall Exhibition Team!". International SkyDiving Museum and Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
7. ^ Cottingham, Ray (September 1987). "Meanwhile, … High over Yugoslavia ...". Parachutist. pp. 20–33. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
8. ^ "1972 World record 24 way - images of 'I've Got a Secret' TV Show - Recreation jump in 2019". YouTube. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
9. ^ Life, February 4, 1972
10. ^ Heaton, Norman (September 1972). "A report on the 1972 national parachuting championships - Ten-man event". Parachutist. p. 11. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
11. ^ "The world record 26-man star". Parachutist. December 1972. pp. cover, 5. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
12. ^ "The 120". Parachutist. October 1986. pp. 14–15. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
13. ^ "World Record 144-Way Built in Illinois". Skydiving. September 1998. pp. 1, 4, 20. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
14. ^ Koreen, Nancy J. (September 1998). "246: the new magic number". Parachutist. pp. 32–39. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
15. ^ Heid, Robin (February 2000). "Thailand Large-Formation Record a Success from Every Aspect". Skydiving. pp. 1, 20–23. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
16. ^ "Largest Formation Records". Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
17. ^ "Chronology of World Records". World Team. Archived October 26, 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
18. ^ Bertorelli, Paul (February 15, 2006). "The Making of the World's Largest Skydive". AVweb. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
19. ^ "World Record Jump Attempt in Arizona". Air Sports Net. April 14, 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2013.