Archives for "July, 2011"

24th July 2011

UK Head Down Record – 27 – 29 August

For the 3rd year running we attempt to make the largest UK head down record!!!!  With the Euro record fast on the heels of the UK record it’s all about size in 2011.

Not everyone will be involved in all the record jumps, so the Skywalkers will be on hand to organise a separate group to be used as a group to feed into all record attempts.

More info to come over the next few months as the planning evolves. If you want to make the event, then make sure you get to one of the warm up camps organised by the BLTs:

If you intend on coming to the UK record, then please register your interest on the Facebook event for the UK record.

Feel free to contact the guys at team@thebadlieutenants.com​ or the team Facebook page if you have any questions.

2011 is looking good, let’s super size it!

12th July 2011

Eurosequentials May 2011: Venue… “The Zoo” Rome

Three Bad Lieutenants visit The Zoo (best place for them!)

This years Eurosequentials was announced early in the year, and saw the introduction of a new venue. I think all participants were excited to see that this year we would be traveling to Rome to perform in an arena 15,000 feet above the coliseum.

The Eurosequentials has now become a well established invitational event bringing together some of the worlds best flyers from the tunnels and skys of Europe with the aim of performing 25 jumps over 3 days. These jumps had been constructed and thought out in advance by 2 of the worlds leading flyers and organisers (Mikey Carpenter and Fabian Raidel), with the aim of pushing the boundaries of sequential group flying. These skydives, planned and performed, encompassed launching an 8 way base from a Cessna Caravan, Launching 2 four way round bases simultaneously, building a 9 way head down  round with half of the flyers outfacing and then constructing a 3 way round in the centre which then eagled out to a head up round as the 9 way round reconstructed around it again with half the performers outfacing, a 12 way sequential jump with 5 points where pieces rotated around, and culminated in a 12 way head up round, constructing a head up line crossed by a head down line of flyers, then the head down flyers moving up and rotating the line 180 degrees above the head up flyers before coming back down to re form a cross, and then moving into an infinity shaped formation with all flyers outfacing, an 8 way rotating base with 4 flyers stinging and then releasing simultaneously to half eagle the rotating base and re-sting on the opposite flyer (guess you have to see the video for this one!), and a couple of tracking dives with a twist, one of the track dives saw the 2 organisers leading 2 separate groups of flyers and leading the flyers so that the 2 formations crossed over and under each other.
Obviously the jumps were the highlight of this event, but one other amusing and noteworthy item from my log book was…

“First jump Sequentials 2011. Cessna Caravan ran in at 14,500 feet, 2 rear floaters and one front floater climbed out. 8 way base began to climb out, and from my position in the base outside the door, I felt the plane becoming unstable, and watched as the horizon went from where it should be, to 45 degrees, I realised we were stalling, and just had time to reflect on how happy I was to be already outside of the plane, before the words GO…GO…GO… cut through the background noise of wind blast and shuffling in the door. The exit resembled seeds scattered from a poppy in the breeze, and thankfully all were unharmed. Obviously the pilot had been briefed on our planned exit prior to take off, but had not realised how much speed he really needed to run in with, to allow for about 8 skydivers to hang off the side of his plane.”

The moral being, try and predict safety issues whenever you can, but always be prepared for the unexpected, stuff sometimes just jumps up and bites you! The pilot did an excellent job in the situation, and for the rest of the jumps exit involved climbing out, no flaps at MAC 1!

Participating at this event… Andy Lovemore (event organiser and flyer), Mikey Carpenter (jump organiser), Fabian Raidel (jump organiser), Max Heim (video) Markus Schwarz, Frazer Smith, Haavard Flaat, Kristian Moxnes, Gregor Vandeneynden (Sonic), Peter Nilsson, Andrea Fast Scarramuzza, Adrian Wild,
and  3 of The BadLieutenants, Martin Reynolds, Matt O’Riordan and Dan Parker.

Big thanks to all the sponsors of this event, Bottrop (wind tunnel), Sonic (suit manufactures), 90 Percent (magazine) and Vector (Rig manufacturer)

Finally, Speaking on behalf of all the participants, a big thankyou to Andy Lovemore (www.andrewlovemore.com) who spent a lot of time and effort organising this event (sponsors, location, flyers, excellent evening entertainment etc…) we all realise these events don’t just happen, so thanks for stepping up to the plate and organising another successful Eurosequentials. Andy has also had the foresight to organise very successful training events prior to the Eurosequentials, with the aim of training up and bringing in new talent to the Eurosequentials group in the future, and anyone interested in this kind of flying should keep an eye out for future Eurosequential warm up events.

Martin (The BadLieutenants)

The Bad Lieutenants would also like to take this opportunity to say a big thanks again to all of their team sponsors in no particular order!
British Parachute Association,
Skydive Spain,
Performance Designs,
Airkix,
Velocity Sports Equipment
Vertical Suits
Larsen and Brusgaard,
Talent Stream
And finally a big thankyou and welcome to our latest, and prestigious sponsor, Airtec Cypres

Thanks
The Bad Lieutenants