World record skydiving attempt

Happening today, over two dozen jumpers, including numerous military veterans and active duty service members, are hoping to break a world record. They are trying to create the largest vertical stack canopy formation in Lake Wales. Good day's up. Matthew McClellan is live for us at the Drop Zone at Jump Florida. Hey, Matt. Hey, good morning, you two. So the second attempt is underway right now. This is Jump Florida at the Lake Wales Municipal Airport, and we've got some sun right now that's actually kind of making it hard to see where these two planes flying in tandem are. But they're somewhere in this direction. Tim Jones is the guy in charge here at Jump Florida. And Tim, you've got the elevation and the speed on these planes right now. How high are they flying and How fast? They are at 13,700 feet. at 145 miles per hour and we got a plane overhead as always we've always always got a plane flying overhead somewhere um what is exciting to you about this attempt and uh having these world-class skydivers here at jump florida it's just amazing people come from all over the world actually to be part of it yeah and it's hasn't happened in years And they all want to come together. Like 40 years it has. Yes, that's correct. Can you kind of break down the formation difference? I guess my assumption was that the vertical stack canopy formation was the only one that they're attempting. It's the most difficult one that they're attempting. But last time what they did was more like a diamond. You and I were kind of getting into the difference between that diamond formation they did last attempt and the vertical formation right now. Yeah, the diamond is more structured. Okay. So it's a little easier to do it. It just gets harder as it gets bigger. This attempt for the vertical, it's just so challenging because it's like a snake just floating around the sky. It could easily be broken. Easily be broken and harder to build. We know from my conversation with you that the feet are the thing that attaches one... parachute to the next one diver to the next and that that can you can get a what do you call it a wrap sometimes which can make things a little risky and you have to be able to roll out of it. But I also noticed that everyone's communicating with each other every diver every skydiver is using and if you just heard Omar's he's got his own little radio. How do the radios work and how do they kind of play into communications while they're up there and while they're diving. Well, the lead guy on the top is the one communicating with everybody in the formation. Thank you very much. So they usually don't speak back. They listen mostly and he's guiding them. And he calls them by name? He'll call them by name. He knows exactly each person. And as we kind of, I don't know that we're going to get them on this, on this attempt. I don't know that we'll be able to show you live. Oh, do we see them? Oh, look. Okay. Okay. If we look straight up ahead, sorry, I got excited. If we look straight up, we see the parachutes forming right now. It'll take them a second to get into that formation. I'm blocking the sun the best I can, but I don't know if you guys can see, they look like tiny little pops of color against the blue sky. It's really, really beautiful. Um, and even better when we see them coordinated and kind of getting into that, that vertical stack canopy formation. But again, this is attempt two. I believe there are four or five planned for today. They're spacing them out by what, about 90 minutes each, about 90 minutes between attempts. And, um, I don't know if you guys want to stay on us live. I would say you should. Um, Will, my producer, says we are going to stay, so I'm just going to yap while we watch these parachutes potentially break a world record, one that's been held for 40 years. It was the British... The Royal British Marines that set this record, there were 24 of them in 1986, that's the last time this was attempted. And so these world class divers that you're seeing coming down right now, they have spent the last several months in preparation for this. They did a training camp back over the summer. We've showed our viewers some video of that earlier this morning. And then some of the other video you've been seeing was on that earlier attempt that got underway around seven this morning. So this is history, potentially history in the making. And I think Russell mentioned this off the top, that there are about eight active duty or retired military veterans or again, active duty military members who are participating in this. But these are 26. World-class skydivers coming into this vertical formation. There are pods. It's all kind of broken up into pods. I would go back to Tim for this. Can you explain what a pod is? Is it three of them? But is three of them and they get together and they hold their formation until the bigger formation gets closer and then they'll squeak over and join them. You've been at this yourself as a diver and as as the head boss in charge at Jump Florida for many, many years. What kind of keeps you excited about this? Why do you keep showing up every day to facilitate this? What do you love about skydiving? The people. It's a new experience for everyone. Most of the people you meet, I would imagine, they're skydiving for the first time. Yes, the majority is first-timers, and I really like the excitement they get. It keeps me fired up. What makes a really skilled and talented skydiver? Discipline. It has a lot to do with it. What do you mean when you say discipline? Like taking instruction? Taking instructions and paying attention for the safety reasons. You can't have fun if you're not safe because you're falling 120 miles an hour. It could be really dangerous for other people. Yeah, I can see how. Okay, we are seeing some formation happening right now. If you watch the sky here, we're seeing, and God bless Omar for holding his neck that long, looking up, but we are seeing formation. Do you have any thoughts or any analysis on formation right now, Tim? We're looking really good right now. You're going to see four. Separate skydivers out, they're just the camera people. Okay, so there's like four bonus people. Yes, there'll be four bonus people on the sides. They won't link up. This one guy that's way away from the others kind of going over us, will he be able to join them? They should be able to join them. That's a pod. You can see two or three of them together. That's a pod. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a specific order that these divers are following. And it's really, really essential that the weight be adjusted just so that everybody get in position in the correct order. Otherwise, this cannot work. One thing that I was discussing with Douglas, who also works here, was the importance of packing. What role does packing kind of play in making what we're seeing a success? It's had to... Open the parachute immediately out the door, and it needs to be opening on a heading. In other words, it shouldn't spin out the door. So when you open the parachute, you're still facing the same direction. Somebody said consistency is really, really key. Always pack the exact same way. Correct. The same way because they know what to expect. Looking ahead after this landing, and we are still watching for formation here. It's tedious. It's slow and it's tedious. But there's going to be a debriefing, just like we saw after the first attempt. For our viewers at home, what does a debriefing mean? As we compete with the engine of our nearby jet friend. What does a debriefing mean? Debriefing pretty much can talk about what happened and what we need to change to make it work. Just getting some notes on how we can improve for next year. Any speculation on how many, like just going off of these first initial attempts, any speculation on when you think or what day you think they might actually pull this off? Well, they got 18 on the last one. If they discipline themselves and do it right, they could do it today within the next one. So if they do better than 18 right now, they'll be doing really well. Correct. I think that's everything I got for you, Tim. I would ask, you know, it is Veterans Day. It's a day that we honor those who protect and serve. Any thoughts on being able to maybe break this 40-year standing world record on Veterans Day? Oh, that would be the best part. And that's one of their biggest goals, trying to break it today. Tim Jones, thank you for speaking with us. We really appreciate it. I'm going to I will. I'm tempted to send it back to you guys, but I guess we all just want to kind of watch and see if this... Actually happened. So maybe if you're willing, Will, producer Will, we'll stay on this a little while longer. We're looking at all of our parachutes aligning, which is what you want to see. Little that I know about skydiving. I'll just hold here for a second. And if the anchors have any questions for me, I'll try to get answers. I'm just saying, I'm so glad that the fog burned off because this is gorgeous weather for what they're trying to do now. Oh, yeah, you couldn't pick a better sky. It's like the perfect shade of blue. Everything's just popping off that blue sky. Russell had asked about the fog, too, and earlier it was looking really foggy, you know, like right around 530 or 6. Right. And the first thing they said when I asked about it was, no, the fog, you know, you get it, you know, regularly and it always burns off just like clockwork. So the fog has not been a problem today, which is really, really great. And again, this will be, if they don't get it today, they'll try again tomorrow. If they don't get it tomorrow, they'll try again Friday. So there's three days that they've set aside to do this. They know that they're going to achieve this, that they are going to break this longstanding world record with 26 vertical canopies in formation. So just a matter of when. It's so fun to watch. It's slow, though. It's like you want to like speed it up. It's like watching paint dry. Yeah, like a game of Tetris. Yeah. Congratulations to Omar, I mean, for following this. No kidding, Omar, well done you. Oh, yeah. Nice job, Omar. He's back on the tripod. We love you. He realized the tripod will save his neck. It'll save the upper back, and now bless his heart. All right, well, we'll keep watching and waiting. It's fun to watch. Matt, thank you. I'll let you know if this works. Okay, good. It looks like they're close. Little slow, you know, steady as she goes, I guess. All right, Matt, thank you. We'll leave it there. We'll be right back.