• PIA Symposium
• Medical Screening of Flight Crew
• World Team Update

Dear Editor,

Thirteen months! Just over a year from now, the parachuting world will be descending on San Diego for the PIA International Parachute Symposium. Please mark your calendar: January 29-February 2, 2001.

For details, see the PIA web site: http://www.PIA.com

Editors of industry magazines are entitled to a press pass and free admission to all events. But you must register in advance. Please contact us.

Blue skies and see you soon.

D-454

For a description of aviation medical screening from the other side, read an account of a routine physical by an American Flight Engineer working in Japan. It can be found on http://www.avweb.com/articles/physical/ Physical Duress

While the Cochrane Centre studies mentioned by Dave Salisbury apply to therapeutic medicine, is it not time that we applied the same scientific rigour to the screening medical examinations that we apply by law to flight crew? Excellent work was initiated in this field during the 70s by the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health examination and this was repeated and extended by the US Preventive Services Task Force, their report being published as ISBN 0-683-08507-7.

Published evidence and the established principles of screening medicine are ignored by medical regulatory authorities. They take advice from clinical specialists who advocate examining healthy aircrew as if they were investigating patients ill from an unknown cause. Few calculations are ever made to establish the efficiency or effectiveness of this screening process.

World Team '99 / Royal Sky Celebration - Update (17 December 1999)

The Royal Sky Celebration ended its scheduled program with World Team '99 setting a new "Guinness Book" record for the largest completed freefall formation. The complete 285-way formation, however, was only held for 1.1 seconds, so it didn't qualify as an FAI World Record, which requires that all grips be held for a minimum of 3 seconds upon completion.

During the Celebration Banquet that evening, hosted by Ubon Ratchathani's Governor Siwi, World Team Director BJ Worth solicited the support of the Director of Operations and Chief of Staff of the Royal Thai Air Force for another shot at the coveted FAI record. With their support assured, a phone call was placed to Air Chief Marshal Sanan, Commander in Chief of the RTAF, resulting in approval for a maximum of two jumps the following morning, prior to the World Team returning to Bangkok.

This good news bolstered the energy and enthusiasm among the World Team members, and created an electric atmosphere for the remainder of the evening. Immediately following the traditional Thai dancing show, a dramatic fireworks display, and a candle lighting ceremony honoring His Majesty the King, the World Team presented a horde of toys to the children of Ubon, and then headed to bed en masse.

Thursday morning dawned bright and clear, with light winds. After a brief dirt dive and a silent pause to visualize the upcoming freefall formation, World Team '99 took off in their four Hercules C-130's, and climbed up to 22,000 feet above the Drop Zone. On jump-run, the RTAF pilots lined up their aircraft in their tightest formation yet. Inside the cabin of each Hercules, there was a heightened level of concentration among the skydivers, as they quietly breathed their supplemental oxygen and calmly focused on the task ahead.

At the exit bell, 282 skydivers and 12 camera flyers filled the skies over Ubon. Within 45 seconds, more than 100 skydivers had joined the formation, which was flying flat and solid. The formation continued to build systematically as the loop sectors completed and the 12-person "weed-wacker" sectors began attaching to the Base formation - one after another. One minute and 35 seconds after exit, the final grip was taken and the completed formation flew beautifully for the next 7.11 seconds - until the first parachute opened to signal the break-off.

As the sky erupted with a splash of colorful parachutes, it was quickly obvious that everyone knew the formation was complete, and that a new world record had just been established. The cheering started in the sky, and then the mutual congratulations continued on the ground for 30 minutes. When the four C-130's landed and taxied by the drop zone, the skydivers directed their cheers to the pilots, who then stopped and revved up their engines for five minutes to join in on the celebration.

After the FAI Judges confirmed the new world record, and the entire World Team posed for a series of pictures with the RTAF pilots, the skydivers boarded four C-130's and three Fiat G-222's for their journey back to Bangkok, where the partying and celebration lasted into the wee hours. By morning, more than 100 skydivers had already boarded airliners and headed back to their homes around the world - secure in knowing that they had just set a new FAI World Record of tremendous proportion.

To see the results of World Team '99's world record performance, please check out any national and international media source for the next 24 hours. For an on-line update, photos, and video, please go to the media page on the World Team website at:
http://www.theworldteam.com/Pages/WT99pg.html World Team Website.

The World Team home page is at:
http://www.theworldteam.com World Team Home Page