Above: The members of POPS and SOS prepare to board the plane for a 16-way.
Members of the Parachutists Over Phorty Society and its subgroup, Skydivers Over Sixty, set three Virginia records at a September 8-10 event at Skydive Orange in Virginia. Keith Scholz organized the attempts, and the drop zone dedicated a Twin Otter and pilot to the group for its efforts.
A number of record attempts on Friday came up just one grip shy, but the jumpers had better results on Saturday. The SOS group—Bob Bebee, Roger Landmann, Doug Lewis, John Pataky, Norman Patnode, Larry Rinnard, Keith Scholz, Rob Templeton, Mike Urzen, Bill Welch, Harold White and Benjamin Wong—set the Virginia SOS Record for Largest Formation Skydive with a 12 way. Ben Shank flew video for the group.
Also on Saturday, the POPS group—Vanessa Betancourt, Dana Bittenbender, Nadine Giampapa, Sean Phillips, Keith Rehmel, Jim Stark and Chris Whitley with videographer Sandy Adkins—set a Virginia POPS Record for Largest Three-Point Formation Skydive with a 7-way.
With two successes under their belts, the groups then combined for a 16-way formation skydive on the last jump of the day. They planned to attempt additional sequential records on Sunday, but the weather did not allow any jumping that day.
Bill Welch | D-35956
Woodbridge, Virginia