Reggio Emilia New Italian skydiving record at BFU School of Reggio Emilia. During the weekend of June 2nd, the BFU Skydiving School of Reggio Emilia set a new Italian record with a formation of 23 paratroopers plus the video operator, flying “HeadUp”. The launches have been made at an altitude of 5100 meters, reaching an average speed of over 266 km/h. The objective was to surpass the previous Italian record for a large formation in free fall in the “HeadUp” position, which was 19 parachutists from 2021. The achievement of the coveted goal was by no means a given, completed after 8 attempts, but largely achieved with a formation of 23 elements.
The participants in the jump were all expert parachutists from different regions of Italy and also athletes from the Folgore army sports centre. Everyone with years of training in modern sport skydiving. To obtain this record, there was a lot of effort and several dedicated training meetings at the BFU School in Reggio Emilia, the last of which led to a careful selection of those who would immediately take part in the main group of the attempt record, and of those who would have given support by creating a “bench” of possible replacements. The video operator also followed the training to be sure he was flying in the right position and filmed the record-breaking formation correctly.
From the moment of exiting the plane, the athletes had approximately 60 seconds of free fall time to compose the exact formation previously agreed with the judges.
Training it consisted of a central core, the “Base”, and 8 external branches that connected to the base itself. The precise positions and the arm with which to connect to the formation, for each element, were pre-established and it was necessary that they were respected exactly for the record to be validated by the 3 sport parachuting judges present at the event.
The event was organized by RSfly by Riccardo Simoncini and Natural Fly by Anthony Grossi, and filmed by videographer Dennis Broglia. Acting as the perfect stage for all this is the BFU, the historic parachuting school in the city of Reggio Emilia, at the top in Italy for sporting events, courses, patents and 360° parachuting training, which contributed to the achievement of the prestigious goal not only with its own structure but also with the contribution of the athletes of its staff who participated actively and decisively in achieving the record.
