posted Oct 16th, 2018 - The aftermath of the FAI World Meet 2018 switches over to the 4-way Open Class competition and resumes the Fun Flag story at the same time.

The last Fun Flag update was related to the Swedish bronze medal winner in 4-way Women, Team X, with the story on 14 October. The Fun Flag did not travel to Sweden though, as there was another adventurous capture before the participants of the event left Gold Coast in Australia, and before the Swedish delegation could secure possession until the next event.

Members of the Dutch national team in 4-way Open, Out of the Blue, found the Fun Flag in the Swedish headquarters at the InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort hotel, where all participants were accommodated.

The Dutch takeover was actually detected by a Swedish guard. However, he was overwhelmed by the Dutch Fun Flag force, and the complete Out of the Blue team could celebrate the perfect conclusion of the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2018. There was no information available whether or not the Fun Flag was eventually taken to the Netherlands.

FAI World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		21,L,B,G		22,18,17		19,7,O		J,16,12		10,A,D,15		Q,M,F,C,N		H,20,P,13		6,14,11		E,2,5		4,1,3		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32		21		27	-2	24		22	-3	62	-2	22	-2	20	-1	27	-1	22		279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	-5	21		27	-1	24		24	-1	60	-1	26		22		27		20		277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	-1	19		24	-2	23		24		52	-3	20	-3	17	-3	24		19		251	25.1
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	-2	14	-1	24	-1	21		22		53	-4	21	-1	18		20		17		234	23.4
5	Echochamber	SE	25	-1	16		21	-1	17	-2	20	-1	48	-4	14	-3	18		21	-1	15	-1	215	21.5
6	Amnesya	IT	24	-2	14		20	-1	18		18	-1	48	-5	18		14	-2	21	-1	15		210	21.0
7	Satori XL	UK	21		14	-1	21		19		19		37	-3	19		17		18	-1	16	-1	201	20.1
7	Airheads	CH	22	-3	14	-2	19	-2	17	-1	18		44		16		16	-2	18	-1	17		201	20.1
9	Evolution	CA	21	-1	13	-2	22		18	-1	15	-3	43	-2	15	-5	15	-2	19		15		196	19.6
10	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	-1	14	-1	17	-5	17		16	-1	45	-1	15	-3	14	-1	18	-1	15		192	19.2
11	Tanay Wolves	RU	22		14		18	-1	17		16	-2	35	-3	17	-3	14	-1	18	-1	14		185	18.5
12	Rotor Out	AU	21	-1	13	-1	18	-2	14	-1	16	-1	32	-3	13	-7	13	-1	18		14		172	17.2
13	CTR Optimum	BR	19		10		17	-1	15		13	-1	31		14		14		18		13		164	16.4
14	Papea Masculino	ES	17	-1	13		18		13	-1	13		28	-3	14	-1	14	-1	13	-2	12		155	15.5
15	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	16	-1	11	-1	13	-3	14		15	-1	28	-2	15	-1	15		14	-2	12	-1	153	15.3
16	Meraki	ZA	14	-3	11		14		14		13		28	-1	12	-1	12		14		12		144	14.4
17	New Zealand	NZ	10	-4	9		12		11		10		21		7	-3	11		10	-1	11		112	11.2
18	Paraguay	PY	10	-1	8		10	-1	7	-2	9		17		7	-4	8	-1	10		8	-1	94	9.4
19	Cyprus	CY	13	-1	8		9	-2	8		7	-2	19	-1	7		8		9		5	-2	93	9.3

The world meet was not only successful for Out of the Blue due to the successful capture of the Fun Flag.

The AAA Class team of the Dutch 20+ Project also finished with a new team record average at Gold Coast and is on track with the project plans.

The NSL News introduced the Dutch 20+ Project on 5 January 2017 and followed up with the participating teams and several updates.

The latest one of project team Out of the Blue was published on 27 June 2018 after the team was sanctioned to compete for the Netherlands at the world meet.

It became a successful trip to Australia that included a new team record for a single round with the 28-pointer in Round 6, a new team record average and the capture of the Fun Flag on top of all.

Out of the Blue has now arrived at the 15+ average level, even though the Super Sequence in Round 6 supported all teams with a high scoring number.

Participation of teams from the Netherlands at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving

The 15.3 average last week is the highest one for a Dutch team since the founders of Dutch 20+ Project, Dynamic Fource, finished with a 20.7 average at the FAI World Meet 2010.

The competition draw in Menzelinsk had included a Super Sequence, as well, where the standing Dutch highscore for a single round was posted with a 44-pointer in Round 3. The 20.7 average is still the highest Dutch average and included another fast sequence in Round 9. Dynamic Fource had added 26 points for the second fast sequence and was then eliminated due to the previous IPC rules with cuts after Round 8 and Round 9.

Only Punky Fish in 2006, with Dynamic Fource member Paul Hofstee in the lineup, and Dynamic Force in 2008 and 2010 have posted higher Dutch averages than Out of the Blue at world meets in the past.

Whooops (2012), Cool Runnings (2014) and M4trix (2016) represented the Netherlands after Dynamic Fource in 2010, and Out of the Blue has started to move the average back up to the Punky Fish level in 2006. Goal is obviously the 20+ average that the project leaders have set up for the participating teams. Out of the Blue has made the first step...