posted Aug 7th, 2020 - The coverage of the most recent NSL News visit at Paraclete XP continues with a new update of the U.S. indoor champion in 4-way Women, XPG4. The previous visit in Raeford had featured the new lineup for the first time and included an interview that took place in the 16-foot flying chamber.

This time, the NSL News was hoping for a new NSL Live Talk at the drop-zone of Skydive Paraclete XP, as the training camp at the end of July included plans for outdoor training. The first training day then began with a few flying sessions at the wind-tunnel in the morning, but the weather did not cooperate for the planned outdoor training later on.

It was not much different next morning, even though the clouds were not in the way any longer. Stronger and breezy winds kept XPG4 from adding more jumps to the 2020 account. The new lineup has completed over 100 training jumps this year and flown many tunnel hours whenever time and circumstances allowed a quick switch from outdoor to indoor.

All team members now live near the Paraclete XP facilities. Morgan Womble has the longest driving distance with roughly two hours. Michelle Karamon, Jeana Billings and Irina Meshcheryakova live in or near Raeford.

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XPG4 Training at Paraclete XP

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The new videos of the indoor training are showing how XPG4 was preparing for the outdoor training the same day. The team was flying without skydiving gear in the first training session and then added the heavy load of the full skydiving equipment for the second flying session. The next step would have been outdoor training with exits from jump planes at the drop-zone around the corner.

Irina Meshcheryakova moved from the U.S. west coast to North Carolina to support the intensive team plans. She explained during the NSL Live Talk that the training conditions are perfect, as switching back and forth between indoor and outdoor training allows the team to train like professionals.

All four XPG4 members still have to integrate 4-way training and competition into their professional lives and different jobs. Only Jeana Billings is a full-time skydiver who makes her living with coaching and instruction.

The video of the NSL Live Talk is showing a white-board with the sequences for the indoor training, as well as the schedule for work-related interruptions during the training. Irina Meshcheryakova and Michelle Karamon both had online meetings that needed to be included in the schedule of the training day.

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NSL Live Talk with XPG4 on July 30th

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The XPG4 members make the efforts to combine their work agendas with 4-way and 8-way training to save as much time for next year's training as possible. Morgan Womble finds the necessary support at her work place, while Michelle Karamon and Irina Meshcheryakova use any spare time for their online work. Jeana Billings can only work in the skydiving environment whenever her teams are not training.

She and Michelle Karamon are also Airspeed XP8 members, which doubles the time needed for training with both teams. They have become used to switching back and forth between 4-way and 8-way, even though it is still a mental challenge for Jeana Billings, as she explained in the interview. She also switched from tail (Ranch 2nd Generation) to outside center (XPG4) in 4-way after the USPA Nationals 2019. She also mentioned that some of the piece-flying techniques in 8-way are not the same as in 4-way.

The NSL News story on July 30th had pointed out that all four Ranch 2nd Generation members of 2019 have now been training and/or competing with Airspeed XP8, as well, with Joey Marshall recently filling in for Michelle Karamon.

Michelle Karamon said that it is a great advantage that the three teams (Airspeed XP8 - Arizona Airspeed - XPG4) are working so closely together. It has not been too difficult to fill open 8-way slots when it became necessary. Irina Meshcheryakova mentioned that she likes 8-way too and wouldn't mind getting her own opportunity one day. However, neither Airspeed nor XPG4 members are actually assigned to the alternate slot in 8-way. SDC Rhythm XP member Andrew Happick is the 9th XP8 member...