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cpoxon

New world record? Most tandems in one day

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I'm very pleased to be the one to report about this story since I was one of the 31 Tandem Instructors taking part in this attempt. With only 24 tandems to my name (the most I'd done in one day before was 4, hell, the most skydives I've done in one day before is 8) I endeavoured to complete 8 in one day along with 30 other instructors. I was packing for myself too. Hard work but well worth it.

Just to clarify a few points in the story, the aim was for the most number of tandems in a day. They weren't RAF planes, they were Steve Swallow's G-92s (Do-28 with super engines) from Hibaldstow. And the exit altitude was 10,000 feet. These planes can each go to 14,500 in ten minutes. You can imagine it didn't take very long to get to 10k! Barely had time to tighten up the straps before exit. It was a fantastic day. The vibe was excellent. Everyone one was great and well up for it. The DZ worked really well and all went smoothly. No mals (a couple of snapped lines). One minor injury (sprained ankley). Wheels off was at 8am and they were all done before 5pm. With 3 hours of daylight left a lot more could have been done but we'd run out of students (a few even went back up for a second go). £100,000 raised is just staggering.

Having said that, I do wonder what other dropzones have done. I don't think there is a record because no-one has claimed it. Guinness mentioned on uk.rec.skydiving that Cross Keys recently had 200 tandems booked in for the day. I wonder if any of the large busy turbine DZs in the States have done anything similar?

Copy of the article:

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Charity skydive sets world record

A group of 255 skydivers jumping to raise funds for charity set a new world record on Saturday.
The jumpers - volunteers for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust - set a new record as the largest number of people to take part in a skydive in a 24-hour period.

The event at Weston-on-the-Green in Oxfordshire was held to raise £100,000 to help find a cure for the disease.

Two RAF planes carried six volunteers at a time and dropped them from an altitude of 12,000 feet at 15 minute intervals.

Some of the jumpers had never skydived before and each one jumped from the plane attached to an instructor.

The money raised will be used to help find a cure for the 7,500 babies, children and young adults living with the disease in the UK.

It will go towards the £15m needed to fund the Cystic Fibrosis Trust's gene therapy programme which will carry out clinical trials of vital drugs.

Matthew Stickels, spokesman for the trust, said: "So far £6mn has been raised but a further £8.8m is needed to ensure that this groundbreaking research can continue to find a cure for this devastating disease."

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Congrats, but how many tandems where done??? It doesn't say that anywhere..



Sorry, another thing that isn't clear from the poorly written article. 255 tandems were completed.
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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Sorry, no Tandem Masters, only Tandem Instructors :-P Off the top of my head, I can only think of half of them (sorry guys):

Steve Apps
Dane Richardson
Aron Jones
Arron Hearsum
Mick Cooper
Andy Parkin
Ian Charnock
Wolfie
Max Hurd
Tommo + Grant
Steve Blee
Andy Goodall
Dave Luke
Dave Skinner
Martin ?
Pete Maclaughlin
Me!
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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Wow, Names from the past in the UK. Say hi to Andy Parkin for me if you see him again - I did my AFF with him last year in Spain - tell him I am now jumping in Sydney.

A few of the Nethers crew there too. Sounds like a good day. Congratulations.

Chris Parsons

P.S. Would love to know where that image in your avatar was taken if you want to PM me.

CJP

Gods don't kill people. People with Gods kill people

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I am pretty sure that Rob Morris at ASC has done either 30 or 31 in a day.
Chuck


I just checked their website. Don't know if it's current or not but it says:
"Rob Morris (Horseface)
Tandem Master
Georgia state record -19 Tandem skydives in a single day"

"When I die, I want to go like my grandmother, who died peacefully in her sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in her car."

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Back in the "early days", I did 50 tandems in one day at Skydive DeLand, so that it could beat George Fulcher to be the first person with 500 tandem jumps. I used 5 rigs (no drogue), 1 passenger (a 92 lb. experience female jumper), and two 182's, with an exit altitude of just 3,000 feet. The most I ever did in the hot Florida sun, packing for myself, briefing and suiting up the students, and going all the way up to 13,500 ft, was 10. Congrats on the record for charity. It gives us all a good name.

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Bill, do you think there should be a limit to the number of tandem jumps a single instructor does in one day? Does RWS have any recommendations in this regard? I would be interested to know. There has to be a point at which the average tandem instructor no longer performs at optimal physical and mental levels. Have there been any studies on this?

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