Seven FAI world championships in two weeks: Lake Elsinore and Eloy in October

Seven FAI skydiving world championships take place in the United States this October. From 8 to 14 October, Skydive Elsinore in Lake Elsinore, California, hosts the 22nd World Canopy Formation Championships and the 6th World Wingsuit Flying Championships. Four days later the second block begins at Skydive Arizona in Eloy, with five championships at once.

Lake Elsinore, 8–14 October

In canopy formation, skydivers link up by grips under open parachutes. There are three events of eight rounds each: 2-way sequential (60 seconds of working time, exit at 2,450 m), 4-way sequential (120 s, 3,050 m) and 4-way rotation (90 s, 2,800 m). In the sequential events a team builds formations drawn from a dive pool; in rotation it builds a four-person stack from which the top jumper releases and docks again at the bottom. A point is awarded for every correctly completed formation.

In wingsuit flying the main event is performance: three tasks in a vertical window from 2,500 to 1,500 m, for the longest time, the greatest distance and the highest horizontal speed. Three rounds of three tasks make nine flights, and each task result is expressed as a percentage of the best. The ISC results portal also has a table for acrobatic flying, in which two performers and a videographer fly judged routines.

Eloy, 18–24 October

According to the organiser's bulletin, delegations arrive on 17 October. Official practice for canopy piloting and artistic events starts on 18 October, competition in formation skydiving and speed skydiving on the 19th, and in canopy piloting and artistic events on the 20th. The last day, 24 October, ends by 16:00 local time, with the award ceremony also scheduled that day. Skydive Arizona is fielding six identically configured Twin Otters carrying up to 23 jumpers.

• formation skydiving (27th championships): 4-way, 4-way female and 8-way teams build drawn formations in freefall, scoring a point for each correct one in 35 s (4-way, exit at 3,200 m) or 50 s (8-way, 3,960 m), over up to ten rounds, judged from the team videographer's footage
• artistic events (16th): freestyle is one performer with a videographer, freefly two performers with a videographer; seven rounds, two compulsory and five free, judged on difficulty, execution and presentation, camera work included
• speed skydiving (6th): the score is the average vertical speed over the fastest three seconds in the performance window, measured in km/h by a GNSS device; exit at 3,962–4,267 m, eight rounds, ranked on the total
• canopy piloting (11th): three events over a pond, three rounds each: a timed run through a curved 70 m course, distance after touching the water, and zone accuracy through water gates to scoring landing zones
• canopy piloting freestyle (5th): pre-declared manoeuvres performed in contact with the water, scored 0 to 10 by five judges, with the average multiplied by a degree of difficulty

In canopy piloting the best result in each round is worth 100 points and the rest proportionally less. The Eloy pond is 87 m long and 47.5 m wide, and the speed course curves to the right.

Changes before the start

In February the ISC Bureau agreed that both venues would use InTime Scoring instead of OmniSkore!HD, which no longer has a maintainer and cannot be updated to the 2026 rules. In June the Eloy organiser revised the entry fees, citing fuel and energy prices: most went up, a few came down.

Foreign teams have to follow US rules. Parachutes with components certified to US TSO standards must have been packed by an FAA-certificated rigger within the previous 180 days, with a seal on the reserve.

How to read the results

Each discipline has its own rules, judges and classifications, so a combined medal table says little. In canopy piloting an overall title is awarded only if there is at least one valid round in each of the three events. In artistic events the sixth and seventh rounds are the finals, while in formation skydiving and speed skydiving the placing comes from the total of all completed rounds.