They say that jumping from a plane and spreading your arms and legs against a cushion of rushing air is as close to flying like a bird as humankind will ever get.

Recently in central Florida, they really flew. In flocks of 100, they floated down, spinning into kaleidoscopic formations. In teams of four, plus a photographer, they tumbled through 35-second drills for a prestigious national title. And in solo dives, they rocketed earthward like smart bombs aimed at a quarter-sized target.

It was all part of the National Skydiving League's championship program last month at Fantasy of Flight, an aviation theme park near Orlando. It also was another notch in the belt of an adrenaline-charged athlete and promoter named Kurt Gaebel, who unwaveringly speaks of a day when his NSL is the airborne version of the NBA, complete with a sky diving stadium.

Pie in the sky?

Not for the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army parachute squad that wrested the national team title from second place P.D. Blue of DeLand, Fla., winner of the first three NSL titles.

Not for hosts such as Fantasy of Flight, who see the potential of leveraging sky diving spectators into paying customers. And least of all, not for Gaebel, who believes even the International Olympic Committee is ready to take on sky diving. Gaebel, the 45-year-old founder of the NSL, was a law student and soccer coach in Berlin when sky diving seized control of his life. He went to the World Championships with the German national team. "And when that was over, the next world championship was in sight." After first coming to the United States to train in 1984, Gaebel met and married his wife, Becky. They are the parents of four children and live in DeLand.

Not for James Flenner, a 42-year-old chutist from Reno who, in nine dives at a quarter-sized target from 5,000 feet, hit the mark four times and was off by a total 3 1/2 inches the other five times, winning the precision crown. Not for the several thousand spectators who showed up each day to watch free-falling human specks in the sky and pond-skimming parachutists and the snowflake-like formations made of a hundred linked divers."You need to be in good shape to be a top athlete like the Golden Knights in this sport, but still the competition is 95% mental," Gaebel says. "You have to memorize each maneuver in each diving sequence and then be able to communicate mentally with your teammates."

Dive-team members might know each other's every twitch and wiggle in every sequence, but it all goes out the window for competitions. That's because on the night before the event each team draws a 24-maneuver routine based on thousands of potential stunts.

"There's no way to practice that," Gaebel says. "That's where the mental challenges set in. "Teams do practice their assignedroutines, however — without parachutes and on the ground. They slide around the floor on mechanics' creepers. "Other than that, there is only your imagination," Gaebel says. "Really all you can do is talk it through. The most required skills then become visualization, coordination, concentration and relaxation. You need to be relaxed."

Once out the door of the plane, a team has 35 seconds to complete the sequence and then repeat it if it has time. Each correctly completed maneuver earns one point. The record is 38 points in 35 seconds, according to Gaebel.

As for getting sky diving into the Olympic Games, Gaebel's optimism is blunted by reality. The IOC already has 30 sports on its waiting list, and even the big-muscle federations such as swimming can't get events like marathon swimming added to the overcrowded competitive agenda.

True, the sky diving competition in the recent World Games in Aiketa, Japan, earned kudos from IOC observers on site. "The sky diving events were exceptional," says Kit McConnell, manager of sport operations for the IOC. "But making a splash at the World Games) is not a direct door into the Olympic Games."

Meanwhile, Gaebel will have to be content with helping increasing numbers of people — such as former president George Bush, who waited until his 70th birthday — to pursue the freedom found in the sky. "Sky diving, stepping away, is really a way of realizing the dream of flight that every human being has hidden away inside," Gaebel says. "And it's not the feeling of falling. It's the feeling of floating like a bird. It's like driving at 70miles an hour and sticking your hand out the window. You can feel that cushion of air."

Until we sprout wings, however, humans will have to be satisfied with very brief thrill bites. "It only lasts for a minute," Gaebel says. "But then you can buy another ticket."