WHBM,
A bit of a general statement there regarding skydiving. A good 16 way team will come out of a large aircraft (sat a Twin Otter) already gripping (i.e already in a formation) and begin turning points immediatley.
The current record for an 8 way team is 32 formations in 60 seconds.
Larger formations do take longer to build, but I've been in a 32 way that exited at 14 000' and was complete by 10 000'.