After the second big way weekend, I got chatting with some of the guys and some of them are part of a pool of jumpers who form Speed 8 team Mayhem. The team leader invited me to join them for their next training session in August as a couple of the guys were out injured and he wasn't sure how many people he could get together in order to train for their next competition.
In the end, we had 6 people for most of the jumps, then 7 for the final one plus camera. And I had yet another learning curve - this time on how to build a base and a formation when everyone starts inside the plane and exits individually! The rules for the Speed 8 are No Show, No Grips, so the time starts from the moment any part of any member of the team comes past the door frame, whether accidentally or not! So I learned a whole new series of exits as we experimented with the best way to get the entire team out of the door of a Grand Caravan as quickly as possible. Because I am floaty and most of the team are fast fallers, it was decided to put me out early. After the first jump, that moved to putting a load of lead on me, and sending me out first, rofl. The idea being that it's very easy for the second person to catch up with me and for us to form the base for everyone else to dock onto. The points are scored by the number of seconds it takes for everyone to have at least one grip on someone else (so 7 grips), so the lower the score, the better. Bonuses are given for then making formations, though apparently many teams don't get together at all within the time frame allowed to score. Speed 8 is not taken seriously by many people so a lot of the teams are 'scratch teams', put together on the day by people who have never jumped together in that large a formation. And of course, most flat flyers are used to linked exits and being together on a level before trying to turn points. So tomorrow we will see if doing some training jumps, even missing a couple of the regular members, will make enough of a difference for us to be high up in the rankings :-)
It is done over 4 rounds so hopefully will be finished in one day, which will then allow me time to do some fun jumping on Sunday.
And that will go back to yet another learning curve as I am going to be meeting a 4-way team who have just lost their Tail flyer for the Nationals next weekend. I usually fly IC or OC in the tunnel or on fun jumps, so I've now got to relearn all of the Random formations with new grips, plus a different exit. If the weather permits, we'll do some trial jumps on Sunday and decide whether it will work well enough for the team to enter and if we do, I'll be off to Lincolnshire with them on Thursday! Hopefully that will give us Friday for some team training, before the competition starts on Saturday. And if it doesn't work out and they decide not to go, I'll do the next big way training session instead :-)
I also have more Speed 8 training lined up with Mayhem as the Speed 8 Nationals are at Sibson at the end of September. We just need the weather to cooperate a little more than it has done so far - who knows, I may yet make it to my 200th jump by the end of the season in order to collect my C licence :-)
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