posted Mar 18th, 2019 - The NSL News recently posted the February column of Blue Skies Mag's Turning Points. "Size Matters" was related to flying chambers for indoor training and competition, and to the meet conditions for participating teams and competitors.

The article pointed out that body sizes have a direct relationship to the indoor meet conditions, which are not the same for everybody in smaller flying chambers.

The article related to the German national team in 4-way Open, Airbus, who probably combine for an average body height of at least 6 feet or 182 centimeters. However, the NSL News actually received feedback from one of the tallest 4-way competitors in the sport, who is in a position to share his valuable experiences naturally with 4-way teams and competitors who are not in the same situation. As a passionate and long-standing Formation Skydiving competitor, Lee Staebler shares his 6 feet and 5 inches of body height (less than 5 centimeters short of 2 meters) on a regular basis with his 4-way and 8-way team mates in flying chambers. He recently competed with two teams (Fire Ball XP4, SCZ Zeus) at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2019, where the 16-foot flying chamber offers him more space than at all other wind tunnels in the United States.

Paraclete XP Indoor 2019		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	P,N,Q,1	G,2,17	14,18,D	K,12,10	5,H,J,L	19,M,7	15,13,8	C,6,B,9	20,16,11	E,3,O,A	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	38	30	25	25	42	31	23	44	23	36	317	31.7
2	SDC Rhythm XP	39	31	24	23	44	30	22	35	22	36	306	30.6
3	Golden Knights Gold	30	27	22	19	34	26	20	35	21	29	263	26.3
4	Ranch 2nd Generation	31	26	23	22	30	27	18	30	21	28	256	25.6
5	XPG4	30	22	20	19	31	24	19	28	17	27	237	23.7
6	Lite XP	25	19	16	17	23	24	17	26	17	27	211	21.1
7	Great Expectations	27	15	18	17	24	23	16	24	13	24	201	20.1
8	Air Force Shadow	25	20	15	15	27	20	16	25	15	22	200	20.0
9	Perris Force	27	16	16	16	20	22	14	23	14	23	191	19.1
10	Vega XP	22	13	15	12	21	23	15	24	15	20	180	18.0
10	Phoenix XP	22	17	15	16	20	20	14	20	15	21	180	18.0
12	SDC Rhevolution XP	23	14	14	14	19	20	14	21	15	17	171	17.1
13	Fire Ball XP4	23	14	15	14	21	18	15	16	12	21	169	16.9
14	Air Force Boomers	22	16	12	14	22	18	15	18	10	15	162	16.2
15	Lucky Joshua	21	13	14	13	17	17	14	17	13	20	159	15.9
16	SCZ ZEUS 3.5	19	15	13	12	18	15	10	18	11	17	148	14.8
17	A Bunch of Misfits Winto a Bar	17	13	13	14	20	18	13	11	11	16	146	14.6
18	Airtrocity	18	14	12	12	18	17	13	17	10	14	145	14.5
19	NSL4XIC	18	12	10	9	16	15	10	15	10	13	128	12.8

Lee Staebler has been in the sport for a long time, even long enough to experience the very beginnings of indoor training and competition.

He learned to fly in the 12-foot chamber of SkyVenture Orlando, which was built in 1998. There he was so fortunate to train with one of the most experienced 4-way competitors and coaches in the history of the sport.

Pete Allum lived in Florida at that time and provided Lee Staebler with all the knowledge and skills training that would allow him to acquire the precision and accuracy that he would need to share a 12-foot chamber with three other 4-way fliers. Lee Staebler remembers the very early days of indoor 4-way training:

"I was not skilled enough to do 4-way at the time but was mesmerized watching a Dutch 4-way team alternate rotations with us. I was actually talking with Paul Hofstee at the most recent Paraclete tunnel competition about that experience who was on that team those many years ago. Pete was pointing out Paul's optimal body position to me."

The flying chamber did not get any larger for him when he moved north and continued at SkyVenture New Hampshire.

Fire Ball XP4 and SCZ Zeus at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2019

However, finally Paraclete XP opened and offered the 16-foot chamber, and Lee Staebler eventually made his first experiences with more comfortable flying space: "Wow, that was a huge difference. Over the years I went to many camps at Paraclete, both for the highest caliber coaching and the 16' tunnel."

Then the 14-foot wind tunnels proliferated and are now the standard size in the United States. Europe has a much higher number of wind tunnels with 16-foot flying chambers, while Paraclete XP is still the only one in North America.

The U.S. travel distances became much shorter to visit a 14-foot wind tunnel, and there was and is now a critical balance between travel efforts and expenses and the comfort of Paraclete's 16-foot flying chamber. Lee Staebler said that he finally made his first real 4-way training with Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard at SkyVenture Arizona's 14-foot tunnel. He continued to improve his skills, and the smaller flying chamber did not hurt so much any longer:

"Of course I tend to fly with smaller people, some on the short side, so that my being 'too tall' and their being short cancel each other out in effect."

He remembers another 4-way training camp with Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard a year and a half ago at Paraclete, together with another tall skydiver, Franky Hoelzner, practicing the previous versions of Block 1 and Block 13: "Of course, with those great fliers everything went perfect, but I think it would have been more difficult even with that group in a 14' tunnel."

However, Lee Staebler thinks that smaller flying chambers have their benefits for training purposes: "I had to work much harder to emphasize a more precise, controlled flying style being as tall as I am. That was and is what I have always sought anyway, as the precision and grace of a Pete Allum and Craig Girard was my goal. I so admired their abilities, and I wanted to emulate them as much as I could. In training I believe it is to the tall flier’s advantage because it forces one to be more attentive to flying better than needed in an area that is more forgiving."

It's a different story when it comes to competition though: "I believe it is a disadvantage to the taller flyer. Especially a team of taller fliers competing against a team of smaller fliers. All things being equal, the smaller fliers have the advantage of using up less space. 16-foot chambers for competition would level the playing field in my opinion.”

Lee Staebler is impressed when he watches a tall team fly really well in a 14-foot chamber: "They have to be that much more precise." He knows what he is talking about...