Records and events
The Mardi Gras Boogie hosted record attempts in New Orleans, TX. The best of the 22-plane attempts built to a 17-plane. These jumps were done in February.
In Easter there were two separate record attempts going on at the same time. Jumpers in Perris Valley, CA had more success. Their 19-plane was funneled. The other record attempt was being jumped in DeLand, FL.
In Pampisford, England there was also a 22-plane attempt in May. The best one of those was a 14-plane. There were 21 Englishmen and one jumper from USA taking part in those attempts.
In La Ferte Gaucer, France, jumpers completed a 22-plane world record in June. The jumps were sponsored by an insurance company.
Two weeks later US jumpers made a bigger formation. The 23-way formation was unique in that the last jumper was in stack, because it is faster to make a stack than a plane. The jumpers held it for 15 seconds and they needed eight attempts. The record jump was made on June the 16th. This 23-way, organized by Ron Cole, was the last vertical formation record. FAI doesn’t care what kind of formation you make; there are no different categories for verticals or offset formations.
It can be said that ever since those two records there was a battle between the USA and France. That battle was over by the mid 90’s when most record attempts were done by multinational groups.
The British tried to set a new record in August. They tied the record with a 23-way and made an unofficial night record. FAI didn’t recognize night records at that stage. In August they built an incredible 22-plane at night! The brits used National Avenger mains.
In September the first diamond formation world record was set. Dennis DePries was organizing the new unprejudiced biplane diamond formation. The size of the record was 28-way. The arrowhead was completed on the fourth jump and it was held for 20.23 seconds. The jumps were done in New Hannover, PA. Four of the jumpers had also been in the first biplane diamonds in 1981.
Before the record attempts they kept few training weekends. In June they built the first 12-wedge biplane and on Labor Day at Herb’s boogie the first 18-way biplane diamond was completed.
Female jumpers from France built 10-way formation in Lapallisse, France in September.
Competitions
The first CRW competition in Finland was held in Pori. There was only a rotation event. Two teams took part in the competition that was also the first CRW competition in the Nordic countries.
Rotation team ”Budweiser” using Pursuit mains scored 18 points in three minutes working time. That record was set in Muskogee, OK in the US Nationals in July.