posted Sep 18th, 2008 - The NSL News has reported the adventures of Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo as members of the PD Factory Team many times over the years.

Their skydiving career began in 4-way with DeLand Genesis and soon they connected in DeLand with Performance Designs. Genesis turned into PD Blue, and Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo expanded their range of activities by becoming original members of the PD Factory Team.

Their careers as 4-way and Canopy Piloting competitors and PD Factory Team exhibition performers ran side by side and very successfully ever since. The Skydiving Magazine honored them eventually as the 2005 Skydivers of the Year, even before they won the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 in 4-way with DeLand Fire.

Both former world champions, who forwarded their titles this year at the World Meet 2008 to Airspeed Odyssey, continued to compete in 4-way mostly for fun and worked with teams as coaches. Shannon Pilcher recently guided the Canadian national team Evolution to the top level of 4-way competition in the world.

However, their priorities have recently been set in favor of the Canopy Piloting events and the PD Factory Team, which also includes DeLand Fire's team videographer, Jonathan Tagle.

That doesn't mean at all that the 4-way fire is not burning any longer within the three world champions of 2006. DeLand Genesis already had a few reunions, and the Pilcher/Bobo duo also competed with DeLand Groove, the winner of the USPA Nationals 2006. There is a chance at any given time that either team name might appear on a scoreboard once again.

At the moment, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo are busy recruiting new team members for the PD Factory Team, as the PDFT newsletter explained in August:

"The PD Factory Team today kicked off its X-Project, a five-month quest to hand-select additional team members. The selection process will involve several phases and will be open to all interested high-performance canopy pilots.

Applications are due by October 3, 2008. The entire process will be documented and blogged, and in the end, up to four pilots will be invited to join the team. Excellence is calling. Do you have what it takes?"

A video at the PDFT website shows what to expect after becoming a member of the PD Factory Team, and it surely is quite exciting to see what the team members have been doing in the past. Applicants can click on a link below the video screen after watching the clip and fill out an application form to enter into the first stage of the selection process.

Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo explain more of the process briefly in the video, together with their other PD Factory Team pilots: "The PD Factory Team is on a quest to hand-select additional team members. We're inviting all high performance canopy pilots to submit applications."

There is still enough time, October 3 is the deadline for any applications.