Civilian Audience is Also Expected at the World Military Parachuting Championship

Text: defence.hu / MTI | Photo: Gergely Schöff and archive | 10:57 July 2, 2024

The 46th CISM World Military Parachuting Championship will begin on Wednesday, 3 July in Szolnok, where interested civilian audience is also expected, said the chief of staff of the HDF 86th Helicopter Wing in the Monday TV program of channel M1.

Colonel Levente Réz, who is also the competition director of the championship organized by the International Military Sports Council (CISM) with 150 member states and held again in Hungary after 2018, underlined that only professional service members can participate in the world championship.

Competitors in the individual event will carry out style jumps from the altitude of 2200 m, during which they have to perform different manoeuvres under an allotted time as a compulsory task. Teams will present pre-drawn skydiving formations with their members being linked by grips from the altitude of 3200 m. The team that can carry out the most changes the most accurately, while a fifth parachutist is recording the event, wins the formation skydiving, said the colonel.

He said that there will also be accuracy landing event, and demonstrated with a 5Ft coin the size of the dead centre disc (DCD) that parachutists jumping out from an aircraft at 1100 m must land on. According to his description, if a parachutist lands off the target even by 1 cm, he receives a score and an automatic measuring device (AMD) designed for this purpose indicates to the judges whether the jump was validated. In this case, those with the lowest score will finish at the top.

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As for the chances, he said that the Hungarian national team – whose members already became world champions in 2016 and will compete at home for the second time – are maybe the best in accuracy landing. In style jump, Czech, German and Swiss service personnel, while in formation skydiving, Germans, Czechs and Belgians might be their best competitors.

The colonel called attention to the landing of parachutists, which is really spectacular. He added that the current standing of the competition and how parachutists build up their jumps will also be displayed on a LED wall to create a special experience for the audience.

The opening of the 46th CISM World Military Parachuting Championship will be on Wednesday and the competition will last until 11 July, said Colonel Levente Réz.