Pilcher

Two Georgia Tech alumni soared to take Team USA to the skydiving pinnacle.

Shannon Pilcher, BC 94, and Ian Bobo, IE 94, were crowned world skydiving champions in August, fulfilling a dream launched nine years ago on the Tech campus.

Pilcher and Bobo met through the Tech sport parachute club and along with teammates Kyle Collins, ME 95, MS AE 03, and David van Greuningen, Arch 96. They won three collegiate four-man free-fall national championships, Pilcher said. "After graduation, we continued competing and dreaming of one day representing the United States in the world championships."

Failing to find corporate sponsors in Atlanta, they moved to Deland, Fla. — between Orlando and Daytona Beach — considered a mecca of the skydiving world.

"We all left good jobs and moved south for the great weather and state-of-the-art facilities," Bobo said. "With all the skydiving-related industries located around Deland, we found jobs."

Their move was well timed.

"The world of parachuting changed in the mid-1990s," Pilcher said. "Equipment development accelerated and parachutes became smaller, faster and easier to maneuver. A new sport, canopy piloting, was becoming very popular."

Four-way is a free-fall event in which a four-man team exits the aircraft at 10,000 feet linked together and must execute up to 22 formations in 35 seconds, Pilcher explained. Between each formation, the team must completely separate. Speed and control are essential. Judging is done using videotape shot from a helmet-mounted camera.

Canopy piloting requires the diver to plunge earthward at tremendous speed, pull out of the dive and fly as fast as possible through a slalom course, steering with his parachute. Divers are judged on speed and accuracy.

Collins and van Greuningen left the team but Pilcher and Bobo continued their quest. They got their big break in 2002 when Performance Design, the world's biggest manufacturer of sport parachutes, hired them to travel the world competing in canopy piloting competitions and conducting coaching seminars.

"We pulled double duty competing in canopy piloting for Performance Design and continuing to jump in national meets with Deland Fire, our four-way team," Pilcher said.

After finishing third in 2003 and 2004, the Fire defeated the Army's famed Golden Knights team to win the 2005 U.S. skydiving championship and was designated as Team USA at the 2006 FAI World Championships of Skydiving in Germany.

In August — more than 30,000 jumps since their college days — Pilcher and Bobo and their Team USA teammates were crowned world champions.

"There were 28 nations competing and most teams were getting scores of 24 or 25," Pilcher said. "Then we saw our 28 and knew we had finally done it."