Tandem Team and GK8 Team Up to Form a Rare Hybrid Formation

Tandem Team and GK 8 joined forces today after training was complete to form a rare “hybrid” formation. A “hybrid” formation is a combination of traditional belly flyers and vertical flyers. In today’s formation, GK 8 members SSG Justin Blewitt, SSG Josh Coleman, SSG Matt Accord and SGT Mike LaRoche  launched a perfect four-man round formation. 

Tandem team members SSG Joe Jones and SSG Jared Zell filled in the slots between two of the jumpers in the base across from each other. SSG Joe Abeln and SSG Jon Ewald then filled in the remaining two slots while flying in a back to earth orientation. Once the Tandem Team members where in place, SSG Jones gave a signal for the outside flyers to transition to a vertical flying position. The first two flyers to transition were SSG Jones and SSG Zell, transitioning to a standing position hanging under the formation. At nearly the same time, SSG Abeln and SSG Ewald transitioned to a “head down” orientation. As all of the members of tandem team transitioned vertically, the speed of the formation increaseded from 120 mph to over 150 mph. This formation takes very precise flying from all of the jumpers.

The result after just one jump was an impressive, solid flying eight-way “hybrid” formation. SSG Drew Starr took the freefall video and photos.