posted May 20th, 2018 - Teams in France launched their 2018 outdoor season this weekend at the first Coupe de France competition in Pamiers.

It was an extraordinary event, as most of the teams, with only two exceptions (Espoir Saumur Weembi, N4Forlenas), had competed earlier this year at indoor events, most of them at the French Indoor Nationals 2018.

N4Forlenas is a new team, and the French B-Team from Saumur attended the first outdoor competition with a new lineup. The Odin Parachute System team took advantage of the situation and outscored the national B-Team in Pamiers.

It was the first outdoor competition for Odin Parachute System, and the team competed with a different lineup, as well. Arnaud Camproux could not join forces with his daughter Elisa this time, who was in the lineup at each of the four indoor meets that Odin has attended since March last year.

4-way junior Elisa Camproux will probably be back in the lineup as soon as she is ready to jump from planes, as well. Odin had placed 10th at the World Challenge 2018 with a 24.9 average after Round 9, and 5th at the French Indoor Nationals 2018 with her in the lineup.

Coupe de France 2018 - Pamiers		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	J,C,O,16	21,E,A,8	3,13,D	Q,N,9,2	M,B,12,K	4,11,5	G,6,H,L	17,1,18	19,P,7	10,14,15	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Realfly	34	24	21	33	28	20	32	20	26	19	257	25.7
2	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	32	22	19	33	28	19	25	19	26	17	240	24.0
3	Odin Parachute System	18	13	12	19	18	13	18	12	17	11	151	15.1
4	Espoir Saumur Weembi	0	15	14	19	14	12	16	13	20	12	135	13.5
5	Airbivores Annecy Pamiers	15	12	9	17	12	8	15	9	6	8	111	11.1
6	Be Air Force	0	9	7	15	9	9	13	7	7	9	85	8.5
Rank	AA Class	J,C,O,8	21,E,A	13,D,2	Q,N,9	M,B,K,L	4,11	G,6,H	1,18	19,P,7	14,15	Total	Avg
1	Flyponots	11	12	8	14	20	10	10	9	9	8	111	11.1
2	ExponenCiel ASPU Maubeuge	10	13	9	17	19	10	6	9	9	8	110	11.0
3	N4Forlenas	6	8	6	7	10	6	9	6	7	6	71	7.1
4	Vive La Chute - Mousquet Air	4	5	4	8	9	6	6	4	8	4	58	5.8

This weekend's Coupe de France meet in Pamiers was not the first outdoor competition for the two national 4-way teams, Aerodyne Realfly (4-way Open) and Aerodyne Weembi Girls (4-way Women).

Both teams had traveled to Florida in March to meet the two best U.S. teams, Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP, at the Shamrock Showdown 2018.

Aerodyne Realfly will battle with Airspeed for medals at the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia, where Aerodyne Weembi Girls will win the gold medals for France and keep their eyes on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard.

National coach Mathieu Bernier mentioned in DeLand that his teams will attend a few outdoor meets in Europe to collect more competition experiences and check the progress on the way to Australia. Arizona Airspeed has the same plan on U.S. soil this summer.

French coach and teams will probably be happy with the results in Pamiers, as both teams finished with new outdoor record averages.

In fact, the 25.7 average by the 4-way Open Class lineup is now ahead of Airspeed's finishing average in 2nd place at the last world meet in 2016 and only five points behind NMP PCH HayaBusa at the same event, where the new French lineup won bronze medals with a 23.8 average.

Coupe de France 2018 - Pamiers		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	J,C,O,16	21,E,A,8	3,13,D	Q,N,9,2	M,B,12,K	4,11,5	G,6,H,L	17,1,18	19,P,7	10,14,15	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Realfly	34	24	21	33	28	20	32	20	26	19	257	25.7
2	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	32	22	19	33	28	19	25	19	26	17	240	24.0
Shamrock Showdown 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	B,J,17,20	M,10,O,3	Q,22,2	A,D,P,F,16	N,12,14	15,9,C	K,4,G,E	21,1,13	7,6,11	H,5,19	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	28	26	24	34	21	29	31	20	23	28	264	26.4
3	Aerodyne Realfly	27	24	21	28	17	28	31	19	23	27	245	24.5
4	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	26	23	21	33	15	26	27	19	22	23	235	23.5

The competition draws at the Shamrock Showdown and the Coupe de France competition were quite similar, with 20 of the 22 blocks and 15 of the 16 random formations in both 10-round meets. All six slot-switching blocks were included at both meets with a slight difference.

This weekend, the six slot switchers came in six different sequences, while two were drawn together in Round 2 (Block 10 - Block 3) in DeLand and neutralized each other for the front piece. The memory load was slightly lighter at the Shamrock Showdown compared to the Coupe de France draw.

The Aerodyne Weembi Girls could not outscore the French Open Class team this time, as they did once in Round 4 at the Shamrock Showdown and once at the FAI Mondial 2016, while they tied the highscores three times in Pamiers. They were also close in most other rounds, with no more than 2-point differences.

However, there was also one exception in Round 7, with one of the fastest sequences of the meet, where the Aerodyne Weembi Girls lost seven points. The team's new record average could have been even higher...