To participate in some of the Space Games, participants are required to pass an "Atmosphere Dolphin License Test," specifically the Atmosphere Dolphin A License Test. The test fee is $100 and includes jump tickets for both the candidate and the examiner.

During an Atmosphere Dolphin License Test, an approved examiner releases the ball from an exit altitude of 13,000 feet and the candidate must perform rotational and independent arm maneuvering skills flying with a standard Space Ball at approximately 170-180 mph. While most choose to fly head-down, the candidate may do the test while flying headup. The freeflyer is free to exit from any position but must not leave the aircraft before the ball is released. The examiner may retrieve the ball at any time during the dive for any safety reason in which case the test will be considered incomplete.

During the A License test, the candidate must:
1. catch the ball
2. pass it from one hand to the other and release it
3. perform a 360 degree rotation (any choice between a pirouette, loop, or cartwheel) relative to the ball
4. catch the ball
5. pass it from one hand to the other and release it
6. perform a different 360 degree rotation relative to the ball
7. catch the ball by 6,000 feet
8. pass the ball to the left hand to prepare for deployment
9. return the ball to the examiner after landing

It is best for novices to catch the ball with both hands. When catching the ball with one hand, the ball backs away a little bit if one is too slow to clasp the fingers about the ball. If one hand is extended such that the wind deflects off the palm, the wind will push the ball aside away from your hand. The angle of the hand is less critical if you catch the ball with both hands since the opposite hand will help trap the ball. If catching the ball with one hand and you have your hand slightly upwind of the ball, the burble from your hand will push the ball away a few inches. (This effect can be observed when Jack Jefferies catches his ball on one of his dives near the end of the Basic Body Flight Theory video published by the Skydive University.)

While passing the ball from one hand to the other, it is possible that the candidate may fail to maintain the same fallrate as the ball and stop falling straight down. In this case, the candidate may be surprised to see the ball recede, advance, descend, or ascend when he releases it.

After completing the required maneuvers, candidates have a tendency to become overconfident and they cork when attempting a third optional maneuver. If the candidate decides to go for all of the B License maneuvers, he or she must remember that he or she will fail the A License Test if he or she is not able to return the ball to the examiner after landing.

Passing the A License Test is only theoretically an indication that a freeflyer has demonstrated a minimum ability to fly in a coordinated manner. As freeflyers, one is expected to always fly with discipline and control. However, freeflyers have been able to pass the test even though flying chaotically towards the ball and corking chaotically prior to quickly returning to the ball to resume the next maneuver. Because the B License test involves performing more maneuvers, a candidate will not be able to pass the test if he or she is corking and flying chaotically about the ball.

The following Atmosphere Dolphin A License holders participated in the Indi 500 and/or Atmosphere Dolphin Challenge.

A candidate must have passed the A License test before they can take the B License test.

During the B License test, the candidate must:
1. catch the ball
2. pass it from one hand to the other and release it
3. perform a 360 degree pirouette rotation relative to the ball
4. catch the ball
5. pass it from one hand to the other and release it
6. perform a 360 degree loop rotation relative to the ball
7. catch the ball
8. pass it from one hand to the other and release it
9. perform a 360 degree cartwheel rotation relative to the ball
10. catch the ball
11. pass it from one hand to the other and release it
12. perform a 360 degree pirouette in the opposite direction as before relative to the ball
13. catch the ball
14. pass it from one hand to the other and release it
15. perform a 360 degree loop in the opposite direction as before relative to the ball
16. catch the ball
17. pass it from one hand to the other and release it
18. perform a 360 degree cartwheel in the opposite direction as before relative to the ball
19. catch the ball by 6,000 feet
20. pass the ball to the left hand to prepare for deployment
21. return the ball to the examiner after landing

The following Atmosphere Dolphin B License holders participated in the Indi 500 and/or Atmosphere Dolphin Challenge.

Previous to the Skydive Chicago Space Games, there were 125 (8 women and 117 men) Atmosphere Dolphin A License holders from 13 different countries around the world and 8 Atmosphere Dolphin B License holders.

For those very experienced freeflyers who have already passed their B License test, there are also the C and D license tests which involve two balls and two ball masters. The balls are recovered by 7,000 feet AGL. Currently, only Olav Zipser has passed the C and D License tests.

The basic Atmosphere Dolphin License Tests do not confirm that a freeflyer is ready to make routine jumps with a ball. The "Space Ball" should not be used as a toy. It is too easy to bump it and to lose eye contact with it especially if you must look directly into the sun. When Atmosphere Dolphin License candidates cork by accident during the test, they rely upon seeing the Ball Master's location near the ball in order to know where to find the ball. Even a very skilled freeflyer and Ball Master should not use the ball as a toy nor training aid. Each time the ball is taken in the air, there is risk of dropping it. It is best to minimize the use of the ball to help insure that this test standard for freeflyers will not be lost.

Examiners who can give the A License test are selected and approved based upon their experience, capability, and consistent attention to safety. Typically, they have passed their B License test. But passing the B License test does not automatically qualify one as an A License examiner. Similarly, passing the C License test does not automatically qualify one as a B License examiner.

A freeflyer must have passed the Atmosphere Dolphin B License Test and must be approved before he or she can be a Ball Master. He or she also receives training in additional safety procedures.

Ball masters are responsible for the ball from the time they take it to the aircraft until the time they have returned the ball to its place of storage. The ball must be utilized over a non-inhabited area where it will not cause any damage if accidentally dropped. The ball should never be used over the airport, road, town, or other inhabited area. The wind drift should be calculated to determine the direction and amount of estimated freefall drift of the ball from the exit point. The exit point should be selected accordingly. Winds aloft in access of 40 knots may cause significant drift of the ball and jumps with the ball are best postponed to a time of better weather. The spot should be verified prior to exiting with the ball to insure that the ball will not be over any persons or property. The ball should not be jumped in clouds. A Ball Master shall retrieve the ball at any time due to a cloud, bad spot, or due to freeflyers flying in an out of control manner. The ball should be retrieved by 6,000-5,500 feet AGL to prepare for deployment and any activities, tests, or events of the jump are finished. After canopy deployment, the ball must be safely stowed to avoid accidentally dropping it during descent under parachute. It is the responsibility of the Ball Master to always exercise good judgment when using the ball.

During the Space Games, Ball Masters allow competitors to concentrate on competing without additional concerns for retrieving the ball to prepare for deployment. Competitors compete until the ball is retrieved by the Ball Master. Ball masters determine the winner after each race by asking each competitor whether or not they won. If competitors do not agree, the video will be reviewed for evaluation.

The Indi 500 competition began on July 1. Because this event utilizes a ball, participants must have earned the Atmosphere Dolphin A License.

In this event, two racers race around 2 freeflyers that act as pylons. Racers must make as many laps as possible while flying in a safe controlled manner. The race is filmed by an external camera flyer. The racer making the most laps wins and moves on to race against another freeflyer in another round. In the event of a tie, there will be a one round race-off. Otherwise, the winner will be determined by a coin toss. Ultimately, the freeflyers involved act as honest judges of the competition.

To setup the race track and begin the race, the two freeflyers acting as pylons exit from outside the aircraft with the racers exiting from inside. The front floating pylon (facing toward the tail) carries and releases the ball and the rear floating pylon (facing toward the prop) is the "Gate." A coin toss determines which racer gets the back and front positions inside the door. The Ball Master pylon must fly relative to the ball filming the Gate pylon beyond the ball, retrieve the ball at 6,000-5,500 feet which signals the end of the race, and retrieve the ball at any time if necessary for any safety reason. The "Gate" pylon flies relative and facing the Ball Master at a distance of 40-50 feet.

To begin the race, each racer must pass the Gate pylon with his left side (assuming they are flying head-down) closest to the pylon in such a manner that his body "eclipses" the ball master pylon's view of the Gate pylon. The race proceeds with left hand turns about the pylons. It is suggested that racers stay in the video frame and do not pass closer than 6 feet of the pylon freeflyers. If a racer even slightly touches a pylon freeflyer or collides with his racing partner, he will loose that round. In other words, freeflyers can not touch nor burble anything.

For the top freeflyers, the exit is critical. The first freeflyer to eclipse the Gate pylon wins if both racers have equal flying skills. Because forward movement slows the fallrate, racers have their legs together and the arms swept back while the pylons are in basic head-down stances. Novices are slow to catch onto this concept and they tend to float or cork while racing. (Wearing a freefly suit that is too baggy will restrict a freeflyer's ability to move forward quickly around the track without floating above the track course.) While forward drive is the name of the game, it's easy to sail past a pylon making a wide arcing path around it. Indi 500 Champion, Colon Berry, explains that he slows at the 3/4 point to the pylon, flies tight to it, and accelerates into the next straight leg. The better racers pivot on their heads around this 3/4 point to prepare for flying around the pylon. "Rook," who acted as the Ball Master pylon commented that he could feel the burble of some of the best racers racing around him.

No one competed in the Indi 500 while attempting to fly headup.

The AD Challenge began on July 2. Because this event utilizes a ball, participants must have earned the Atmosphere Dolphin A License.

In this event, two racers strive to perform as many transitions as possible pointing to the ball in between each. The two racers are filmed by a Ball Master. The race ends when the Ball Master retrieves the ball at 6,000-5,500 feet. The Ball Master may retrieve the ball at any time, terminating the race, for any safety reason. Transitions not completed prior to the retrieval of the ball do not count. The racer making the most transitions wins the round and moves on to race against another freeflyer. Ultimately, the freeflyers involved act as honest judges of the competition.

The two racers will exit from outside the door with the Ball Master inside. The entire group exits with shoulder grips. The race begins when the ball is released by the Ball Master.

Racers must stay within the video frame and point to the ball while on level and within arms length distance prior to each transition. This illustrates that each racer is capable of catching the ball in between each transition. Transitions must be performed in order: pirouette, loop, cartwheel, etc. Each racer must remain in his half of the airspace which is defined by the Ball Master's line of sight through the ball. If a racer crosses the Ball Master's line of sight, he will loose the round. If the order of transitions is not followed nor if not pointing to the ball within arm's reach prior to the transition, that particular transition will not count. If the ball, Ball Master, or other competitor is touched or interfered with during the race, the violator will lose the round.

During the competition, the novices tended to float more during their transitions. The fallrate of the ball is sufficiently fast such that transitioning techniques for maintaining fallrate properly must be utilized. Competitors with the regular baggier type freefly suits tended to float more during their transitions. Other competitors chose to wear less drag. Even a pirouette that rotates off axis would cause a competitor to float relative to the ball. AD Challenge Champion, Olav Zipser, used good clean flying skills to stay close to the ball during his transitions.

The AD Challenge seemed to present some judging issues. Sometimes racers tend to rotate about the ball as they perform transitions. Logic would indicate to not count the transition if the line of gravity drawn through the racer's center of gravity is on the opposite side of the ball. However, this was not specifically addressed. Only very few transitions were performed after pointing to the ball truly within arm's reach. Most of the transitions were performed after pointing to the ball clearly not within arms reach of the ball actually capable of catching it. Competitors counted these transitions anyway. So, should one transition not count if it is slightly further from the ball when another competitor was slightly closer but still not within arms reach of the ball during the pointing?

Flipper Points

While competing in the Indi 500 and the Atmosphere Dolphin Challenge, freeflyers can earn "Flipper Points." Freeflyers earn 1 point just by competing at one Space Games and 1 point for each race that they do not win. A freeflyer earns 2 points for each race he or she wins. (Because they do not actually race for a particular round, freeflyers do not earn Flipper Points during these "buy" rounds.) The first place champion of each event, the Indi 500 and AD Challenge, earns an additional 16 points. The second place freeflyer of each event earns an additional 8 points and the third place freeflyer of each event earns an additional 4 points.

Freeflyers accumulate Flipper Points at each of the 3 Space Games Events previous to the Space Games World Championship, which will be held in March or April 2000. The best 16 Atmosphere Dolphin rated freeflyers in the Indi 500 and the best 16 in the AD Challenge will be invited to the Space Games World Championship.

3-Way Freefly Open

The 3-Way Freefly Open began on June 30 and competitors had to submit their tapes to be judged on July 4. The rules for the competition were something like...

A. GENERAL: On a freefly jump, teams perform a sequence of moves with the highest possible artistic and technical merit. Each team exits the plane at 13,000 feet. The working time begins when the first team member leaves the aircraft. For the Compulsory Round, the working time will be 45 seconds. Due to the many possible different flying styles and the different fallrates, teams are free to perform their free routine until opening time or until they present an obvious ending. Deployment must occur no lower than 3000 feet.

Teams can do as many jumps as they wish and submit one video dub of their best compulsory round and one video dub of their best free round prior to the posted deadline time and date.

B. TEAM COMPOSITION: The are no gender nor slot specific requirements for a freefly team. The team consists of three freeflyers, one of which wears a camera. The camera can be rotated between team members but only one camera is allowed per team. There are no member substitutions allowed once the competition has begun.

C. THE COMPULSORY ROUND: Freefly teams show their technical skills by performing a set sequence of seven maneuvers as follows:

1.2.3. 360 degree rotations around all 3 axis to be performed in a predefined order (pirouette, loop, and cartwheel). The 2 team members without camera should perform each of the 3 rotations simultaneously.

4. Over-under

5. Carving (minimum of 3 rotations)

6.7. Docks: Mindwarp, Compress, Foot to Foot, 69 (minimum of 2 docks to be chosen by the competitors)

When the teams have completed the first sequence of 7 skills, they start performing the sequence again until the 45 second time limit expires. Every move completed in the correct order will count as one point. The team with the highest compulsory score will be the team who completes the most number of points within 45 seconds.

D. THE FREE ROUND: Teams are free to perform whatever they like as long as they are safe at all times.

E. JUDGING: A panel of 3 judges will evaluate each team's performance. During the competitors meeting, one day prior to the start of the aerial races of the Space Games, all competitors will vote on a committee. The committee will choose a panel of judges.

F. JUDGING THE FREE ROUNDS: Free rounds will be judged on 3 different categories: Camera Work/Photography, Technical Skill, and Overall Artistic Impression. Each of the three judges will judge only one aspect of the dive. One of the 3 judges will be a Video/Photographer expert (either an expert camera flyer himself or a film maker or a professional photographer). One of the 3 judges will be an expert freeflyer able to determine difficulty level of the team moves and of the team flying. The third judge, who will give the Overall Artistic impression score, may be a non-skydiver or a novice and will observe the dives from a perspective of a non-skydiver. Each category is scored up to 100 maximum points and the scores are added together to determine the final score for the round.

- 1st expert judge concentrates only on the Camera work and looks for: Composition, Angles, light usage, background usage, smoothness, overall aesthetics, and movement of the camera flyers.

- 2nd expert judge concentrates only on the difficulty level and team work. He looks for: Precision, speed curve changing (changes in fallrate and proximity control), team flying as a piece, Technical level of the moves, and originality of moves.

- 3rd judge concentrates only on the Overall artistic impression and looks for: Aesthetics, Artistic expression, Excitement, Inspiration, and Beauty of Choreography

For the Free Round at the Skydive Chicago Space Games, the judges were:
Technical judges: Orly King, Rob Romey, and Johnny Skinner
Camera judges: Sammy Popov, Steve Verner, and Ace Bhur
Artistic Judges: Teneveve (12 jumps in total), Amy Mishkin (Painter and Sculptor), Chad (Musician and Surfer), Jennifer (dancer and gymnast), and Karen (a relative work skydiver)

G. JUDGING THE COMPULSORY ROUND: For the compulsory round, judges count the number of moves the team performed within the 45 second working time. Each move completed as described in section C, performed in the correct order, and visible on the video will count as one point. If a tie occurs, judges will look for synchronization in performing the moves, precision, and proximity.

H. SCORING: All the scores from each round (compulsory + free rounds) from each single judge are added together for a total overall combined score.

I. CLASSIFICATION OF FINAL RESULTS: The Overall winner is the team with the highest combined overall score. In the case of a tie, the winner will be the team with the highest score in the Free round.

Recognition will also be given to:
- the team with highest score in Camera work
- the team with highest score in Overall Choreography/Artistic Impression
- the team with highest score in Technical Skill
- the team with the highest score in Compulsory
- the team with the highest score in Free

Apagee had the highest score in Camera work of 18 points. Sky had the highest score in Artistic of 18.6 points and the highest score in Technical of 17.6 points. Sky, also, had the highest score in Free of 51.5 points. At the Skydive Chicago Space Games, the team with the most Compulsory points was the Freefly Baboons completing 13 points in the 45 second working time. The overall record for the Compulsory routine for maximum number of points is still held by the 1st School of Modern Skyflying team (Olav Zipser, Filippo Fabbi, Mauro Tannino) with 15.5 points in the 45 second working time.

3-Way Freefly Open Scores
Camera	Artistic	Technical	Free	Compulsory	Total Score
1. SKY Rook Nelson, Olav Zipser, Stefania Martinengo
15.3	18.6	17.6	51.5	11.5	63
2. BITCHEN Ace Buhr, Steve Utter, Bruce Graybill
17.2	16.6	14.6	48.4	9.5	57.9
3. Aerial EVOLUTION Alaska, Joe Joseph., John Skinner
14.6	16.1	16	46.7	11	57.7
4. 1 877 FREEFLY Sean Mac Cormac, Olav Zipser, Steve Utter
11.6	16.9	16	44.5	11.5	56
5. Freefly BABOONS Max Cohn, Alaska, Sean Mac Cormac
12.6	16.1	12.6	41.3	13	54.3
6. GENERATION ZIPPY TRIBE Max Cohn, Olav Zipser, Colon Berry
14	17	13	44	10	54
7. APOGEE John Shoffner, Janine Hill, Colon Berry
18	16	12.6	46.6	4.5	51.1
8. The BIG CAHUNAhS & ED Russ Wylie, Jim O'Reily, Ed Mace
13.3	15.2	11.6	40.1	9	49.1
9. SPEED The LOVE Rook Nelson, Johnny Cangelosi, Johnny Winkelcotter
12.3	16.1	11.3	39.7	5	44.7
10. FRUIT LOOPS Stefania Martinengo, Janine Hill, Rob Romey
13	13.6	11.3	37.9	6.5	44.4
11. LUG NUTS John, Rook, Russ
12.6	14	10.6	37.2	6	43.2
12. CAPTAIN LARRY & CREW Larry Kershenbaum, Sean Mac Cormac, Steve Utter
11	14.6	10	35.6	6	41.6

Bermuda Triangle Tracking Race

In this event, two racers attempt to track further than the other. Jump run is flown perpendicular to the wind line approximately 1 to 3 miles upwind. Both competitors exit at the same time from inside the plane. Exact exit position is determined by a coin toss. Racers track in a straight line towards the drop zone 90 degrees to the line of flight. Competitors must deploy by 3,000 feet. Competitors are their own judges. If there is no agreement, a coin toss will determine the winner.

The Bermuda Triangle Tracking Race was not included at the Skydive Chicago edition of the Space Games.

Wrapping Up

A video of the Space Games at Skydive Chicago will be released at a later date.

The next Space Games will be in November at Skydive America West Palm Beach. And the organizers are asking current Atmosphere Dolphin License holders for suggestions and comments about the rules.

Future editions of the Space Games will include new games, some games more difficult games to challenge Atmosphere Dolphin B License holders, female categories for certain games, and a skysurfing event.