History of canopy formations

1980s

1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 

1986

General

The first blind jumper to be in a plane-formation was Dan Foley. The jump was Dan's second jump (1st square jump) when Denny Gainor docked on him in Perris Valley, CA in January.

Records and events

Jumpers from Thailand set a new national record, a 10-plane. The jump was done on a police DZ (Tungkhadaycha) in Cha-am, Thailand.

Only British Royal Marines jumpers managed to break the 23-plane built in the US. They built a 24-plane in August 20 in Dunkeswell, Devon. Using Avenger mains they held that vertical record for 12,7 seconds.

In October there were more record attempts in the USA. The best of the 32-way biplane diamond attempts built to a 23-way.

Competitions

The first Finnish CRW nationals were held in Pori. There was only a rotation event and three teams. "Viking Team" from Tampere won.

The first European Cup of CRW was held in Grenchen, Switzerland on August 28th to August 31st.

The first CRW World Championships were held in Gatton, Australia, September 23 to October 2. The plane used was a Twin Otter. The Chinese team won the rotation event, the sequential gold medals went to France and the 8-way winner was also France. France won the sequential with a margin of 25 points.

Rotation team "Prism" made 20 points in three minutes working time in June in the US Nationals. That record was soon broken in the World Championships when the Chinese scored 22 points, twice. In the 8-speed event the winning team from France also set a new record using Contact mains. The time was 43.29. That was the last time when there was only one formation(plane) in 8-speed. In the new rules in 1987 there were four different formations (plane, kite, biplane diamond and box). Also the French sequential team set a new record of 15 points. Working time was three minutes.