Based on the forecast for Monday, BJ decided not to start until 8am Monday morning. So of course it was severe clear at 7am; it took us until about 8:45 to get to the airport and start our dirt dive. It was relatively cool for a change. We did a few exit frames, got our gear, and loaded the planes.

This would be our first shot at the biggest RW attempt ever, just to add a bit of pressure.

We climbed to altitude and exited. A few people were low. The base flew very well until breakoff began. Breakoff worked well, and all 368 people got clear air for opening. (We're down a little from 372 due to injuries and sickness.)

The video showed an very clean build, with only minor level and spacing problems. Most of the wackers built. Of 368, we had 318 in - a new Guiness record!! The previous record, set in Eloy after the 300 way, was 316. It didn't count towards FAI since a few people were out. FAI records have to be complete as planned.

We rushed to get the next dive off before clouds came in. The temperature had once again climbed into the high 90's, and we sweated rivers until they started two engines and had bleed air to run the A/C.

When they opened the door at altitude, the view was amazing. Cumulus clouds were rolling in from the horizon, and the reflection bathed the inside of the plane in the same kind of brilliant white light you get from new-fallen snow. Against that backdrop, the far right trail Herc swung majestically back and forth as it lined up for the formation exit. Otters in close formation can sometimes seem a little twitchy as they line up; there is nothing at all twitchy about a C130. It made the heat and humidity and sore throats from the O2 and the long dirt dives seem just a little more worthwhile.

When we landed, clouds had covered the sun and it wasn't looking good. We got a short call for a dirt dive, then a standby to standby. While we were waiting we heard another bit of good news - another Guiness record!! 337 out of 366 had docked. It's not really what we're here for, but it indicated that we were well on our way to our real goal, a new FAI record. And a Guiness record is a nice perk.

Again, not quite complete, but all the wackers have had at least one completion now, now all we need to do is do it all together!

Around 3:30 BJ decided to launch anyway; the pilots thought there was a chance it would clear before sunset. We took off, went on oxygen, and opened the tailgate at six minutes out. We got the two minute and one minute calls. At one minute we line up on the tailgate as tightly as the oxygen hoses will allow, then at the oxygen-off call (at 8 seconds) we tighten up the rest of the way. We were about 20 seconds from jumping when we got the call - we were going to go around. We sat down, still on O2, while they closed the tailgate. After a few more minutes of circling at 22,000 feet we got the disappointing message that we weren't going to jump. We landed under an overcast sky and called it a day.

Tomorrow the forecast isn't great, but we plan to get there early in case it's wrong again.

End-of-the-day video (3.2 Mb)