I'm about 1 o'clock in this image, in the blue/yellow outfit. This was Maryland's first 20-way formation, over Ridgely, Md (Pelicanland), on August 1, 1976. I flew 7th into the formation, into my assigned slot.

The jump was made from 12,500 feet, in a DC-3, which held 34 or 35 jumpers. Wonderful jump aircraft. I would estimate that we were around 8,000 ft when this image was snapped. The formation was completed by 6000 to 6500 feet (maybe a bit higher), and we rode it down for at least 10 seconds to our 4500 foot break altitude.

Although getting 21 people cleared within 10 or 12 seconds max is... interesting... on this particular jump the break was was very orderly and we all got our canopies open without any inordinate drama. The situation was usually more hairy when the formation never built, or collapsed, because then there were people all over the sky with no cohesion.

My 213th freefall. I was 19 at the time, and by a good stretch the youngest member of our team. I started jumping two years earlier, at the age of 17. We spent the better part of that summer, every weekend, working toward this 20 man. So we got a good deal of satisfaction out of our success imaged here.

A world record 40 man was put together at the Nationals in July 1977. My fuzzy recollection is that at the time we did this (summer '76), the world record was about 36, and I think that was over Elsinore, CA, where all the heavy relative work was then done. They had the advantage of clear skies and pleasant weather 12 months of the year, and the entire LA basin population to pull from. So I always thought this was fairly impressive for the era.

I suspect very few people have an image of the exact instant in time of their peak experience in life. This, by a mile, was mine.

Photo by Chris Wentzel