Members of Dallas Rogue/Mass Defiance and SkyVenture New Hampshire will be hosting our second annual formation skydiving tunnel competition on Saturday December 5, 2009. Our goal is to have a fun meet and give 4-way junkies something to hold them over until the snow melts – this meet will also be a great opportunity for folks interested in forming teams for next year to meet potential teammates. There will not be any cash purses, but prizes will include tunnel time and donated prizes from manufacturers. There will also be a 2-way VFS meet on Sunday December 6th. Ari Perelman, who will be the meet director for that event, will send out more details about the VFS meet later this week.

Registration prices this year (for the Saturday FS events) will be $60 per competitor regardless of her/his competition class. Price includes a pizza lunch, bottled water, a DVD of your team’s flights, your meet flights and warm up time, and if you register before the November 20 deadline, a free t-shirt for each team member.

This year, we will be adding in a Rookie Class event that will take place in the morning. This will be a 5 round meet, and two competitors will be paired with two veteran 4-way folks who will serve as “player coaches.” You can either form a team with experienced 4-way competitors from your home DZ, or we will pair you with folks that have won medals in the Advanced or Open classes at USPA nationals (at no additional charge!). Two minutes of practice time will be included in the cost of $60/person ($120 per team). Competitors should be on site by 7:15AM to complete paperwork and payment before the 7:45 briefing and warm up time for the Rookie Class event will be flown from between 8:00 and 8:30AM. The Rookie class meet flights will be completed by 11:30AM, and awards ceremony will happen as soon as the judges can finish (before the Intermediate/Open class meet). Rookie flyers should sign up with as a pair and provide me with a team name. If Rookie class competitors also wish to participate with an Intermediate class team in the afternoon meet, they may do so at a discounted rate of $45, however, the rookie class is designed to give folks that are new to 4-way a chance to get involved – no sandbaggers please!

NOTE: ROOKIE CLASS IS CURRENTLY FULL! I AM WORKING ON EXPANDING THE SCHEDULE TO ACCOMMODATE MORE TEAMS, PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ON THE "WAIT LIST" FOR THIS EVENT, KNOWING THAT I MIGHT BE ABLE TO ADD MORE TEAMS NEXT WEEK.

In the afternoon, there will be an Intermediate and Open class competition. These teams will complete 10 competition rounds. Two minutes of practice time will be included in the meet fee of $60 per person ($240 per team). Teams should arrive no later than 11:00AM to complete paperwork, make payments, and prep their warm up time before the 11:30 briefing. Practice time will be flown before between 12:30PM and 1:30PM. The final briefing and draws will take place immediately after the warm up time. Competition rounds will be completed by 7:00PM, and the awards ceremony will either happen as soon as the judges finish (at about 7:30PM)

The meet will be modeled in NSL fashion for the three divisions of 4-way. The Open class will have 5 to 6 points per round and use a modified dive pool for the meet (all random formation plus blocks 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, and 17), the Intermediate class rounds will have 4 to 5 points per round and consist of random formations and a few blocks (blocks 7, 9, and 14), and the Rookie class will have 3 points per round and consist of only random formations. Judges will score each round based on the tunnel video, and it is the team’s responsibility to stay low enough in the flight chamber for the judges to see all the grips in each formation (this means staying well below the top of the door frames of the tunnel). Three teams will enter the tunnel chamber at the same time and then will each complete two separate meet rounds during that flight session. Therefore, teams will have about a two-minute break between round 1 and round 2, and then they’ll exit the tunnel and another three teams will enter the flight chamber. For each meet round, teams will have a one minute flight session to enter the air column, compete their 35 seconds of working time, and then safely exit the air column. Teams will have approximately 45 minutes between each flight session to prep their next two competition rounds.

The maximum number of Intermediate and Open class teams (combined) will be 15 and the maximum number of Rookie class teams will be 9 – teams will be registered on a “first come first serve” basis. To register for the meet, all you need to do is email Ben at NHtunnelmeet”at”gmail”dot”com with the team name, the competition class you will be competing in, the full names of all four team members, each team members email address, and each team members t-shirt size. All payments will be made on site at SkyVenture New Hampshire on the day of the meet. Remember, teams that register before November 20 get a free t-shirts. If your team needs an additional member or two, or you are an individual looking for a team, go to the following google spread sheet:

Team and Sign-up Spreadsheet

There you can enter your information if you are looking to find a team, or look for potential teammates if you are short a person or two for your team. Please be careful not to change or delete any fields besides your own as the changes will get save automatically.

Registered teams will be able to purchase discounted training time from Friday November 27th through Friday December 4th at a rate of $360 per half hour or $660 for hour blocks. If you are flying practice time with your team, it would be good to have the tunnel driver note your airspeed and communicate it to me.

Lastly, discounted rates at the Radisson hotel are available for registered teams. Price is just $52 plus tax per night. To book a room you should contact SkyVenture New Hampshire at (888)SKY-VENTURE and leave a message for Laurie Greer with your check in date, your check out date, how many beds (double or king), your name and phone number, and your credit card number. She’ll book the room and call you back with a confirmation number. The Radisson has a pool, sauna, hot-tub, health club, free internet in the room / wifi in the lobby, full restaurant, bar and more.

We look forward to your participation! Please contact me by email if you have any questions about the event.


Blues,


Ben Liston, Meet Director
NHtunnelmeet”at”gmail”dot”com
http://www.skyventureNH.com