World Record Skydive *

* WORLD'S LARGEST FREEFALL FORMATION

..

* denotes "comprised solely of totally blind skydivers"

September 13, 2003: Garrettsville OH.

The world record for the largest freefall formation of blind skydivers was
shattered today in the skies over rural Ohio. The two-way smashed the
existing record by a factor of ... two.

The participants, John "BJ" Fleming of California/Oregon 1900+ jumps, and
Dan Rossi of Pennsylvania 300+ jumps, stepped off the tailgate of a Casa
at 14,000 feet and into the skydiving history books, becoming the first
two blind skydivers to ever be in freefall together.

The jumpers exited in a side-by-side and were stable right out the door.
They closed for the two-way, screamed their congratulations to each other
and then opened back to a side-by-side. At 6,500 feet Rossi gave Fleming
the pull sign, a hard shake of his upper arm. Fleming deployed in
position and then Rossi, assisted by a safety diver who was lurking near
by, tracked to 4,000 feet and deployed.

There was quite a bit of radio traffic as Larry Wereb ably talked down
the two skydivers, bringing them both in for great landings.

"We really pulled it off. I can't believe it." Said Fleming after landing
back on the drop zone.

"It was beautiful." Said Rossi. "I can't believe that BJ let another
blind guy give him the pull sign. He's crazier than me." He added after
making his way back to the packing area.

When asked about the complexities in a dive such as this, Rossi responded:
"Well, large freefall formations like this take months of planning and
practice. A lot of people have to be in the right place at the right
time. We think it might be theoretically possible to add another blind
jumper, but we'd really have to investigate the aerodynamics of a
formation that large."

When asked about the experience and talent of a jumper to be part of this
momentous skydive, Fleming explained: "Well, for a jump of this magnitude
we had to take the best, and only the best skydivers qualified to make
this jump. We had to look for the best, most experienced, and most active
blind skydivers in the country. Of the two possible candidates, I think
we chose well."

To prove it was no fluke, Fleming and Rossi made a second jump together on
Sunday. This time they invited their two safety divers to join them in a
four-way. Rossi and Fleming repeated their flawless exit from the
previous day and were joined in freefall by Don Schwab of Ohio and Howard
Hutchison of Oregon. The four-way built quickly and the divers got bored
of geeking at each other while waiting for 6,500 feet. Rossi again gave
the pull signal and then tracked with Schwab to a 4,000 foot deployment.
Mary O'reilly of Ohio successfully talked down the two jumpers for great
landings.

The record attempt was nearly ended before it began when Rossi was "lost" on
a jump Thursday evening.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• blind
• skydive
• skydiver
• skydiving
• record

[Yarrick2k5]

Two men saying 'fuck you blindness, I'm going skydiving!'.

[CAMBi07]

Congrats to Fleming and Rossi!

[Slayerfan7790]

This is quite an amazing feat!

[alphgeek]

Great work! I love the write-up. Small world but there is another jumper named Dan Rossi here in Australia. Who woulda thought?

[TogtherWeAreOne1]

OMG CRAZY!!!!!!

[NewRushin]

супер! молодцы ребята!

[EricFromCalifornia]

This is great. Great footage capturing the whole thing. Wow.

[jovharris]

YOU'RE FREAKING CRAZY!!

[lowpull]

That was truly amazing to see that many blind skydivers in the air in formation together. Must have taken a lot of ground practice to achieve success in just one jump. Congratulation!!

btw, who shot the video? was this another blind skydiver as well?