posted Jun 22nd, 2018 - Last week was a busy one for Arizona Airspeed's team captain Niklas Hemlin. The U.S. national team in 4-way Open changed plans when SDC Rhythm XP had to cancel due to Doug Barron's injury.

Airspeed was planning to face serious competition pressure from their main U.S. opponent to get realistic meet practice for the FAI World Meet 2018 in October and had the main focus on the actual competition with Rhythm.

They decided to turn the trip to the east coast more into a training camp when it became clear that Rhythm would not be able to offer a serious challenge and canceled their participation at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2018.

Niklas Hemlin said that the time in Raeford became more a 5-day training camp with coach Solly Williams, including the two competition days.

Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Open/Advanced Class		F,M,C,10		14,P,A,15		19,11,9		E,B,22,7		2,K,G,12		3,O,1		4,17,J		Q,13,D,6		N,L,8,18		16,21,20		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	35		25	-1	24		27	-2	25		23	-1	25	-1	26		23		21		254	25.4

Airspeed completed 12 training jumps from a Cessna Caravan at Skydive Paraclete on each of the first three days before switching to a Twin Otter for the ten competition rounds. Airspeed also took advantage of the modified purpose and spent additional team in Paraclete XP's 16-foot flying chamber during the training days.

Even though the meet jumps were made from a Twin Otter, Airspeed still tried to simulate exits from the door frame of a Cessna Caravan.

All other U.S. teams at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic train from a Twin Otter, as this is the jump plane for the national championships.

The NSL News mentioned earlier that two Airspeed members, Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine, continued with Arizona FM player-coaching after the competition was completed, and there were additional coaching jobs to be taken care of at Paraclete, as well.

Eventually, Niklas Hemlin made it back to the west coast on Wednesday night, together with R2G (Ranch 2nd Generation) member Michelle Karamon, who has recently moved to Arizona.

The NSL News will soon follow up with more news and videos of the reigning USPA Advanced Class champion.

Niklas Hemlin still took the time on Thursday to spend half an hour with the NSL News and discuss the current Airspeed situation.

Arizona Airspeed's Round 3 at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2018

In fact, the NSL Live Talk included a video debriefing of Airspeed's ten meet rounds at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic by Niklas Hemlin.

He offered a lot of insight of Airspeed's continuity plan and techniques. His team is still not completely done yet with finding ways how to broaden and improve the engineering options. Niklas Hemlin said that they want to be ready for any possible sequence with the shortest and best transitions.

Each meet offers the opportunity to find new options, and the ten rounds at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic had a few.

The best example was the sequence of Round 3 (19,11,9) that Airspeed's front piece turned into a slot-switcher to get a faster transition from the Icepick of Block 19 to the first Photon of Block 11. R2G member Michelle Karamon commented her team's Round 3, as well, and demonstrated the traditional engineering for the same situation. Airspeed have almost four more months to complete the continuity plan for this year's world meet...