gkchristopher

There is not a regulation in the USPA competition manual for size of a pea gravel accuracy pit because competition accuracy is run on a tuffet these days. A tuffet is basically thick foam (12+inches) covered with vinyl. Regulation diameter is 5 meters (side to side). I've been competing in accuracy for about 20 years now and would be willing to help you out. Just msg me.

Greg and I will be rolling in Thursday afternoon and can start anytime on Friday. Dropzone just said they will be starting no later than noon but may begin as early as 10am. They are going to give me a call if 10am happens. I can give you a ring if you like. Did you make it to Chicago? I wanted to but didn't work out with the team. Maybe later..... Chris M http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/goldenknights/Webpage2005_content.html

Weather is looking up here at the Wood..... Sun is out and the winds have calmed at ground level, but still kicking up top. There might be a chance to get some practice jumps in today before this thing kicks off tomorrow.

After six days of competition, the style and accuracy world meet ended this morning. We completed all the scheduled rounds yesterday, ending with the final in men's and women's accuracy. Most of the competitors headed to Moscow today for some culture, but a few of us came back to the dz to watch the tie breaking jumps in team and individual accuracy. There were two guys tied for first with .00 and three guys tied for third with .01. Also, two teams were tied for first in team acc and two team for third. Here's the results: http://www.malevskycup.ru/results/acc.xls

Conditions were great but we picked up .03 as a team in round 7. Just one more round to go and we are sitting in the middle of the pack. Unfortunately, Stu dropped .08 on that one and I dropped a .01. There were still 7 guys with .00 going into the round, so every .01 is another nail in the coffin. More later......going to go out and watch the girls now!

After sitting in the hanger watching a thunder storm pass, we spent the rest of the day waiting for the winds to die down. Winds were over 9 m/s until around 6 pm, when the organizers finally were able to launch the wind sikis (wind dummies or wind drift technicians). Once the winds did calm down, conditions were beautiful. I saw a lot of dead centers before we went up. Men's team stepped out around 8 pm, about 30 minutes before sunset here. We took advantage of the air and scored five dead centers to make our second dead center round of the meet. Last team landed just as the sun was disappearing below the horizon. This morning the wind sikis are back in the air and the last few teams who didn't get a jump yesterday are preparing. Once those teams are done, women will start into the 7th round accuracy. Conditions look awesome now. Should be a lot of DCs today.

Looks like some weather moving in this morning. Might get some jumps off before the bad stuff gets here. Yesterday afternoon was fairly exciting in accuracy. Winds were so strong upstairs the Czech girls backed up past the tuffet. I think they protested for unexpected winds aloft but not sure of the outcome. The round was going ok for most of the women until our team was coming in. Wind was reading 2 to 3 m/s as I watched Cheryl turn in right over the top of the tuffet. She was feeling some really strong stuff very close to the ground. She was looking good until she started to transition the canopy and the parachute just kept flying past the pad for a .16. Elisa followed her staying steep as well. She worked the canopy well and scored a .01. Angela came in next looking like she was making a her normal high arrival approach. The canopy circled around the pad and Angela picked up a .16 as well. Amy tried her best to get to the pad but the canopy balloon over and she took a .16. Rhonda played it safe and brought it in tight for a .03. This one was not a good round for the women, dropping them from 4th place to 8th. After our girls, the last three teams had the same conditions and the same problems. The first Chinese girl pasted the last jumper from the team in front of her causing them to both approach the target at the same time. The Chinese girl descended just a little faster and hit the target first getting a .01. She took her time getting off the target and the other girl landed on the pad just as it was reset scoring a .00. The crowd went wild. As the rest of the Chinese girls came in they were being thrown all over the place. One scored a .07 and another a .02. The fourth girl looked like she was landing short of the tuffet until she threw the toggles to the keepers, swooping up to the tuffet, and putting her foot down as she screamed past the pad to score a dead center .00. The crowd went wild again. Fifth girl had little problem getting to the tuffet and scoring a .00 to save what could have been a really bad round for the past world champions. As soon as the women finished the round we went on hold until later in the day. Once we started back up the winds were back to normal. It must have been just a freak wind layer to past through because the conditions were great for the next round. Definitely going to be raining most of the day today. I'm sitting here watching the lightning all around. Better get of the machine before it gets here. More later.......

Accuracy scores

Style scores

Elisa Feldt took third place in women's style this morning. She turned in a 6.9 sec set in the final to maintain her led of .1 sec over one of the Russian girls. This is the best finish Elisa has had at the World Meet after more than 12 years of competition. Congratulations Elisa!!!

On the DZ at 7 again this morning for another long day of competition. We didn't get fininshed yesterday until 9pm. Elisa is sitting in third in women's style going into the final round. The best 10 women moved to the final and are up in the air already. Elisa has a tenth of a second advantage over one of the Russian girls and a chance to move up with a fast, clean set. The judges are gigging hard so clean is best. Men's team had a couple of good rounds yesterday in accuracy. .02 for the second round and a .00 for the third. That gives up a .04 total after three rounds which is good enough for about 6th place. Stu and I are sitting at .00 still but still a long way to go. Men got through the third round of style yesterday. James Hayhurst and myself we the only US team to make the cut. We both turned in around a 7.4 set after gigs which wasn't good enough to move on to the semi final. Jimmy is sitting around 26th and I'm 22nd. Only 19 moved on to the semi. Looks like rain coming in tomorrow so they are cranking things up today. We are prepped for a very long day, again.

Thanks, Chuck!

Here's a picture of the US Style & Accuracy Team here at Stupino just before the opening ceremonies.

Yesterday ended with the completion of the first round of men's accuracy and went right through the first round of women's accuracy. Keith and James made their second rejump and scored a .00 and .02 to make the team total .02. Not a bad start. The women's scores were .02, .00, .00, .04, and .00 to give them a .02 round. We are back on the drop zone this morning at 0645 hrs waiting to start up some accuracy. Conditions look nice out there. Cool wind at 2 to 3 m/s. Should be a lot of dead centers. More later..........

Well, we made one team accuracy jump. Winds were over 7 m/s for all but one of us. Stu and I scored .00. James and Keith took the rejump. Winds caught Jimmy D a little short. He fought to get over top but slid off to the right too far and picked up an out without. Unfortunately, he's the only one the winds were good for. Women finished up a round of style. Scoring has been very strict. Cheryl was around a 7.9 and Elisa about 7.5. Winds came up over 9 m/s while James and Keith were making a rejump, so they were waved off. It's staying around 8 to 9 m/s so accuracy is on hold. Heading out to make a style jump in a few, but looks like a lot of clouds up there. Might be circling for a while......