posted Feb 20th, 2012 - New scores have replaced the ones of the Paraclete XP Indoor Championships 2012, and they are also related to a windtunnel competition.

The Paraclete leaderboard was exciting enough with Arizona Airspeed's 30.0 average after ten rounds. It still did not impress Airspeed's two top challengers too much who pushed each other once again to new performance levels. NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Aerodyne Aerokart posted their own top scores two weeks later at the Aerokart Indoor Championship 2012 in Paris, France, and the Belgian and French 10-round averages (33.1 - 32.8) are the highest scores in the history of the sport.

The recent scores add even more excitement to the upcoming first outdoor showdown between Airspeed, Hayabusa and Aerodyne Aerokart at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 in DeLand. It seems to be impossible to predict the outcome in March.

The AAA Class field of 22 teams at Aerokart included other top teams, and additional 14 teams competed in the French intermediate class category. There was no Super Sequence in the French AAA Class competition draw, and the dive pool was almost completely exhausted when eight of the ten sequences turned out to be 6-point sequences. Only Block 1 (Snowflake - Snowflake) did not have to be squeezed into the smaller flying chamber in Paris.

Hayabusa's Roy Janssen reported that it is not that easy to perform all blocks in the smaller flying chamber: "The 14-foot Aerokart tunnel is pretty small to do all the long blocks like 1,4,8,12,13,19,22. It is sometimes pretty hard to use the normal skydive techniques because you have to adjust to the smaller tunnel. In Bedford you don't have that problem."

He said that Block 1 was not in the dive pool for the meet, and Block 13 will probably be removed next year. He also explained the easier procedures for the start of each sequence with a Star in the Paris chamber: "Time starts running when the Star is broken, and then you have to build the first random formation or block of the sequence."

Aerokart Indoor 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,9,3	4,Q,F,22	B,E,11,19	8,15,A	16,H,20	D,K,L,C,18	P,21,J,14	O,17,N,5	12,M,G,6	13,2,7	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	31	33	33	30	30	39	32	45	32	26	331	33.1
2	Aerodyne Aerokart	31	34	35	27	30	38	32	45	29	27	328	32.8

His team was very happy with the performance last weekend: "We did ten rounds without big meltdowns, just little hickups. We enjoy to compete against the French team because we are pushing each other to new levels. There was no room at all to make a mistake because the French were right on our heels.

Aerodyne Aerokart and NMP-PCH Hayabusa each posted highscores in three of the ten rounds, and they tied their scores in the remaining four rounds. At least the Belgians know that the game will change in four weeks, and Roy Janssen said that his team is fully aware of that:

"The game at the Shamrock will be a bit different. We start jumping prior to the meet, and it will be our first jumps since Dubai. We expect Airspeed to be strong, and also the French team. We know that on terminal air we are as fast as all the others, but on exit and subterminal we need to work harder to be competitive. However, we still have one year to get to where we need to go."

Aerokart Indoor 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	G,H,11,C	L,17,E,20	D,22,J,10	16,19,O	K,M,2,18	B,15,9	N,4,3	Q,P,8,12	5,F,A,6	14,7,21	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	36	30	24	28	29	37	29	27	35	23	298	29.8
2	Aerodyne Aerokart	33	27	23	26	27	34	25	24	32	24	275	27.5

It almost sounds as if Hayabusa is not expecting to win the showdown at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 in DeLand. Roy Janssen seems to see his team in the underdog position due to the lack of outdoor training. However, Hayabusa will surely try to keep as close as possible to the currently better trained outdoor experts from Arizona and France, and not only at the upcoming first showdown, as Roy Janssen finished:

"Hopefully USA, France and Belgium will be tight each competition this year. There is no better competition than the one when you really have to fight for each single point. For now, the first test will be the Shamrock!"

There is much more to say about the field that competed last weekend in the Aerokart flying chamber, and the NSL News will follow up with more information very soon.