1978

General

Jumpers from Pope Valley built the first diamond formation in April. Marty Martin was piloting, Chuck Drake and Sparky (Kent) Gregory were the wings and the locker was Tom Warner. The credit for the first diamond formation goes to Roger Hull who organized about 40 attempts. Unfortunately he missed the first successful one. The diamond was built using a free flying technique instead of climbing to the diamond from a stack.

Suzanne Sherer became the first female jumper to dock eighth. She got her CCS in Xenia, OH. In the same formation there were four female jumpers. It was 10-stack attempt. The next day the same group made a 7-stack trying for a 10-way.

In the summer US jumpers B.J. Worth and Mike Eakins made a 2-stack and landed it in the opening ceremonies of the World Championships in Yugoslavia. That was the first time when the IPC saw CRW.

Some of the CRW jumpers were also making larger and larger plane formations. In Pope Valley, CA jumpers made the first 8-plane in November. All of them used white Unit mains. The jumpers exited from a DC-3 at about 3 750 meters. They had one problem though; jumpers had difficulty staying in a plane formation as they started to rise up the lines. They solved the problem by taking grips on the legs of the jumper above them.

The European Canopy Club was founded in Belgium. They were awarding the E.C.C patch to jumpers who had participated in a 5-way or bigger.

Records

CRW started to spread out and soon there were other 8-stacks. The first non-”Know-Sense Team” 8-stack was done in July in Thun Field, WA. They also set a new record – three 9-stacks in a row. All of them were done in July. The last one included a 10th person for 10 seconds. The rules required one minute holding time so it didn’t classify as a 10-way.

Before the first 9-stack there were 11 complete 8-stacks. Most of the attempts had more than eight jumpers in the air.

The first all female 4-stack was made in Xenia, OH in August.

Jumpers from Belgium made the first 8-stack outside of the USA. They built it in France, Maubeuge in November. The last one to dock was Frank ”Jesus” Rens. The formation took 9 minutes and 10 seconds to complete. The record-breaking jump was the group’s first attempt and also the first CRW jump ever for jumper number two!

US army jumpers were also active in CRW. They tied the record and built a 9-stack in Ft. Rucker, AL. That happened in November. They used a UH-1H ”Huey” helicopter.

 

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