posted Jan 28th, 2018 - The series of traditional indoor events of the year began with the SkyVenture Hew Hampshire Indoor Meet and will be followed by the Wind Games this weekend. Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2017 at the end of February, French Indoor Nationals and World Challenge will guarantee an exciting start into the 2018 season.

The Shamrock Showdown 2018 interrupts the indoor winter/spring tour with the first major outdoor competition in March, right after the first national outdoor championships in Australia.

The Belgian Indoor Nationals 2017 was the last national indoor championship of the year and took place without the Belgian 4-way indoor and outdoor world champions, NMP PCH HayaBusa, who will now come back into action at the Wind Games in Empuriabrava this weekend.

The NSL News reported on 22 December 2017 that two of the Top 3 teams in Belgium (Amnesya, ISR FireFlash) competed with different lineups, while Airbus attended the team's first indoor competition with the complete team.

Belgian Indoor 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		O,3,18	22,14,N	Q,2,B,E	L,A,F,19	P,4,H,5	9,10,8	6,13,16	K,G,17,C	21,J,1	15,20,12	Total	Avg
1	Amnesya	IT	21	17	26	30	27	21	18	32	20	15	227	22.7
2	Airbus	DE	19	18	26	29	26	18	17	30	19	17	219	21.9
3	ISR FireFlash	BE	20	18	27	23	22	18	17	26	20	16	207	20.7
4	JETMAX	BE	17	16	24	26	17	17	17	16	19	15	184	18.4
5	Ludo's Pinkcakes Deluxe	BE	13	12	22	21	18	15	14	18	16	11	160	16.0
6	Just 4 Fun	DE	12	12	17	19	14	12	11	16	14	11	138	13.8

ISR FireFlash had a very interesting lineup at the Belgian Indoor Nationals, where the team's regular outside center, Wesley Claessens, was not available.

Luc Verstrepen, AtomiX YUU coach of the past years, substituted for Wesley Claessens and had the opportunity to observe his team's main German opponent, the national 4-way champion Airbus, live in action.

The FireFlash personnel change created a former HayaBusa center situation in a special way.

Sven Ibens was the original inside center for the first HayaBusa lineup between 2002 and 2006. He stepped back when Roy Janssen, David and Andy Grauwels decided to join the Belgian military and pursue their ultimate goal, the 4-way world championship title.

His inside center successor was Luc Verstrepen who drove the HayaBusa engine to the first FAI bronze medals at the FAI World Meet 2008. It was the beginning of HayaBusa's FAI medal collection, which now include two consecutive sets of outdoor gold medals.

ISR Grand Prix 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		21,17,12	B,H,Q,10	D,9,K,P	18,22,F	3,G,O,M	16,L,N,E	11,J,15	2,C,A,14	Total	Avg
1	ISR Fire Flash	BE	18	34	37	21	31	30	24	23	218	27.3
2	Amnesya Fly In	IT	20	29	31	19	31	26	24	25	205	25.6
3	Tenanine	MR	17	29	24	21	27	23	20	21	182	22.8
4	Monaco Indoor Skydive Team	MC	16	25	31	17	25	24	21	19	178	22.3
5	Team White Project 20+	NL	17	25	30	16	24	21	19	18	170	21.3
6	HF Flying Circus	CZ	17	28	29	17	20	21	19	18	169	21.1
7	Out Of The Blue	NL	15	25	31	14	22	22	18	18	165	20.6
8	JETMAX	BE	14	23	29	17	23	22	17	19	164	20.5
9	Flyzone Les Affranchis	FR	14	24	21	15	20	21	18	15	148	18.5
10	Skycentrum	CZ	12	17	23	11	18	18	14	14	127	15.9
11	Gravity Abuse	BE	13	18	21	13	17	16	14	13	125	15.6
12	Crash Test Dummies	BE	12	16	17	12	16	16	14	16	119	14.9
13	Cool Runnings	NL	13	18	16	8	16	15	11	15	112	14.0
14	4igami	NL	11	13	18	10	13	11	10	11	97	12.1
15	Blue Rebels	GR	11	12	18	11	12	10	7	11	92	11.5

Sven Ibens and Luc Verstrepen were never in the same HayaBusa lineup, and it took another nine years after the 2008 season until they joined forces for ISR FireFlash at the Belgian Indoor Nationals.

FireFlash could perform with only one inside center, of course, and Sven Ibens volunteered for the outside center position, which changed both pieces. The FireFlash lineup in Belgium could not keep up with the performance level of the original lineup that had posted the 27.3 average at the ISR Grand Prix 2017. However, FireFlash's HayaBusa center still finished with a 20+ average in 4-way and then also enjoyed the 8-way competition with a colorful Fly-In lineup.

There was another HayaBusa member at the Belgian Indoor Nationals, even though the Belgian world champions did not compete as a team. David Grauwels filled a slot for Amnesya from Italy who won the meet. Then he shared the flying chamber with his two former inside center team mates for the 8-way competition and eventually won both events in Belgium.

HayaBusa will try to defend the Wind Games championship title this weekend in Spain, while ISR FireFlash has signed up only for the World Challenge 2018.