1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
General
Team ”Them Toad suckers” from the US built a 4-stack using round canopies. The top two canopies were PCs and the other two were Starlites. This jump was made in Homenstead, FL in fall.
The first CRW jump made at the author’s home DZ(HLU), was made in Räyskälä. Juha Lampela and Timo Saarinen built the 2-stack in May.
The first BASE CRW jump was done on Trollveggen, Norway in August. Both jumpers was Norvegians.
Records
The first 11-plane was done in Zephyrhills, FL in April. They used a DC-3 airplane and needed only one attempt to succeed. The previous day the jumpers made one 10-plane attempt. After breaking the record the group attempted a 12-plane but the base was slow and it built only to a 9-way. There was a 13-stack attempt in Issaquah, WA, done in May. The result was a 7-stack.
The first 9-stack in South Africa was done in April. The DZ was Harrismith airfield. The stack completed on second attempt. Canopies were mixture of Clouds and Cruisairs. Aircraft was Twin Otter of Lesotho Airways.
Jumpers in DeLand, FL, built the first 12-plane (12th was in in about 30 seconds). That happened in May. Also in late winter jumpers from South Africa made the first 8-stack in Africa. They succeeded on the fifth attempt in Pietermaritzburg. Phil Pass was the eighth in formation.
European jumpers also built stacks. In Norway they made the first 8-stack of the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland). This jump was done in May. A 9-stack was also built in July. It was held for 1 minute and 30 seconds. A 10th jumper was in the formation for about nine seconds. Some Norwegian newspapers reported that it was a European Record, but it wasn’t.
The first 8-stack in France was built by jumpers from Charlon sur Saon. Yves Fuger organized the jump which was done in May.
In July, jumpers from Issaquah, WA made a second 13-stack attempt. The result was again only a 7-stack. ”Perris CReW” made the first night 10-stack in August. This was also the first 8-stack at night.
Just before the World Cup, in October, Englishmen built a 13-plane on the first attempt. They held it for 1 minute and 18 seconds. That was the first time when the unofficial ”world record” was held outside the US.
After the World Cup competition US jumpers made three 16-plane attempts. The first one was a nice 14-plane, on the second jump they built an official 14-plane where jumper number 15 was hung on for 26 seconds. The last jump also built to a 15-plane, now only for 20 seconds.
A few days before the end of the year the first 8-stack in Australia was completed. In that formation the last jumper was Ian Ladyman, a jumper from New Zealand.
Competitions
The first World Cup of CRW was held in Zephyrhills, FL on October the 26th to November the 2nd. It wasn’t an official world cup because CRW wasn’t an official event recognized by FAI. There were rotation teams from USA, England, France and Belgium. In the 8-speed event, there were teams from USA and England. US 8-speed team ”Plane Magic” set a record time of 1’17”. In rotation the best score was 20 points in 4 minutes working time. Both the English ”Mounting Men Red” and ”Plane Old Bud Folks” from the US scored 20 points.