The sun shone; aircraft flew and over 130 competitors took to the skies during the 2019 Armed Forces Parachute Championships here at Netheravon.
The Championships are now in their 20th year as a tri-service competition. The competition has grown from its original two disciplines (Formation Skydiving and Accuracy) to seven as of the present day. Competition now incorporates all three Services with an average attendance of 140 Service personnel taking part and an overall ethos of something for everyone, regardless of experience.
The competition, was for the first time, in at least the last 10 years, blessed with fabulous weather, and we managed to complete the whole competition with time to spare! As always, the competition was extremely well attended and all in all, 47 teams competed over seven disciplines, with 85 aircraft loads and 1300 jumps.
The culmination of the week was a parachute demonstration that included a representative from every Corps/Service that entered, all jumping with their respective Service/Corps flags. The overall Corps winners were the Royal Engineers and a great spirit of good-humoured rivalry ensured throughout the whole week, making it a real anniversary celebration for everyone.
Julie Cooper
Photo: Volt4ge by Soupy Campbell
Find out more about APA Netheravon: https://www.netheravon.com/
