Parachuting Championship Events Explained

Monday, September 11, 2017

This week we’re thrilled to be hosting the 2017 USPA National Parachuting Championships. Skydiving has been growing exponentially since the advent of indoor skydiving and social media. The growth of our sport has exploded in various disciplines that have now reached competitive levels. Over the years, the United States Parachuting Association [USPA] has since split the nationals into two categories: freefall disciplines and parachuting disciplines.

Here, we’ll explain the different parachuting disciplines within the 2017 USPA National Parachuting Championships.

Canopy Piloting (CP)

Canopy Piloting or “CP” is also known as “swooping.” This is where an individual will land their parachute at high speeds, then quickly plane out over water to complete a series of tasks designated to test their ability to control their canopy and fly it accurately. CP is extremely dangerous, requires a lot of training and coaching, and is thrilling to watch!

Within the CP discipline are different categories or tasks as mentioned above.

Speed – a carving course, navigating a parachute in as fast a time as possible through 5 gates (wind blades) remaining within the boundaries of the course

Distance – to navigate a parachute as far as possible from the entry gate after dragging water at or before the first gate into the pre-determined course, and landing within the boundaries of the course

Zone Accuracy – to navigate the parachute through the first gate into the course, perform a water drag (toe-dipping into water) through as many gates as possible, and continue to land within a landing zone

Canopy Piloting will begin this Friday, September 15th and scores will be posted HERE.

More specific details are found at the USPA Skydiver Competition page here

Photo by Byrds Eye Studio

Accuracy / Sport Accuracy

Accuracy landing consists of competitors under parachute aiming to land on, or as close as possible to, the center of the target. Accuracy is also known as “Classic Accuracy” since it is one of the few remaining original disciplines of the skydiving and parachuting events.

Sport Accuracy [SA] consists of individual competitors flying their canopies to a target center and performing a stand-up landing (SA competitors usually use different types of parachutes and use different approaches versus Classic Accuracy).

Categories: Individual & Team

Photo by Byrds Eye Studio

Canopy Formation (CF)

Canopy Formation [CF], also known as “CRW” (canopy relative work), is when, during descent, canopy formation teams perform a canopy formation or a sequence of canopy formations drawn from a dive pool

The disciplines within CF are:

4-Way Rotation: each round consists of successive 4-way stack-plane formations being made by rotation with a 5th person videoing for judging purposes

4-Way Sequential: each round consists of a sequence of 4 or 5 scoring formations drawn from dive pool (5th on video)

2-Way Sequential: each round consists of 5 formations from 2 sets of the six formations from dive pool

More specific event information may be found HERE.

Photo by Fitch Images

 

Be sure to follow along! Below is the schedule of events and scores for Classic & Sport Accuracy, and Canopy Formation may be found HERE once the events are underway.

 

woman dancing in freefall with ballet slippers

I did my fist tandem jump yesterday with Jon. It was one the best things I have ever done in my life. I wish to thank everyone there for their professionalism and yet you made it so much like being a part of team and a family.

Coleen Courtney Mick