The game is ON!

Arriving and preparing for the CF Sequential and Night Record

By Henk Lunshof, Perris Valley, 15 October 2019

Tense, excited, enthusiastic, anxious…43 CF jumpers have just travelled towards Perris, California full of all forms of emotion. There is good reason for this mix of emotions and the will to undertake this trip. In the face of everything that has already been achieved, who would not want to participate in the next attempt to break existing world records in the discipline we love? This, of course, includes the world class camera-flyers, who are as much a part of the CF family as those who fly in the formations.

The term ‘the Dark Side’ could raise some questions or even some terrifying images but for me there is a different meaning and it is a key part of my CF experience. It’s that time when the fast-paced noise of the alarm clock bursts its way through the night, before the sun rises and forms thermals that bubble through the serene air. The alarm clock drags me through those dark side hours to the dropzone to fly our formations in the clean early morning air and, I must say, breath-taking colours as the same sun rises.

For today, 15 October, we arrived at DZ Perris in daylight to prepare for the exciting three days that lay ahead of us. During the CF World Record attempts, Perris is also hosting The Sequential Games 2019, a FS World Record team which has already flown a 130-way with a full no-contact transition to the second point earlier this week. What a way to go! In the coming days they will concentrate on flying the Jewel, an all out-facing formation that is known to be one of the hardest FS formations to fly.

So, for us today was an interesting sight-seeing day at the DZ, registering with manifest, then filling up our accounts, and, thanks to mandatory membership rules, the pockets of the USPA 🙁

At 14:30 the briefing for the first day started. This covered DZ rules (which included information about flying patterns), the handling of the radios, use of airplanes, bigway sequential drills and the starburst drill. Mainly the day was used to catch up with fellow CRW dogs. How was your trip? And China? Those who had fallen out of planes with Eric at Lake Elsinore in the preceding days had some stories to tell as well. The tacos at the end of the day tasted good, hot enough to get us fired up for the next day, and we even had a shift in the time frame, giving us a welcome 6:30 start with a dirt dive and a 7:00 wheels up! Looking forward to tomorrow!