posted Dec 12th, 2020 - The NSL News announced Vega XP's lineup changes on September 8th, almost exactly a year after the team's last outdoor competition in the AAA/Advanced Class competition of the USPA Nationals 2019.

Vega XP had still competed with the same lineup at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020, where they won the gold medals in the same category. Then the team, with the two original members Annie and Ian Drennan, had plenty of time to connect with competitors who were interested in the two slots that Brandon Kashani and Nicholas Walker left behind.

Andre Van Heerden and James Hall joined the new lineup, as the NSL News eventually reported on September 11th, and the preparations for the first training camps began. The new Vega XP lineup had a late start with training and missed the few competition opportunities this year.

In fact, the complete new lineup has not even trained together yet. Vega completed two indoor camps at Paraclete XP, where coach Niklas Hemlin was filling open slots for each of the two new team members.

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Vega XP Training with Niklas Hemlin in December at Paraclete XP

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Andre Van Heerden (tail) and Ian Drennan (inside center) began to learn the new rear piece together at the first weekend indoor camp, while Niklas Hemlin replaced James Hall in the outside center slot. Point Annie Drennan was Niklas Hemlin's front piece partner and had her own personal Airspeed experience.

James Hall was at Paraclete XP for the second Vega indoor camp at the beginning of December, where Andre Van Heerden was not available. However, coach Niklas Hemlin was back for his coaching job, and he joined the rear piece this time.

The complete front piece now had their first experiences together, while Ian Drennan connected with Niklas Hemlin in the rear piece. This time it was his turn to learn directly from the Airspeed coach, who has trained and competed in all four slots in his own career.

Ian Drennan did not spend much time in his inside center slot, which will be his A-slot with piece partner Andre Van Heerden. The training videos are showing that he also used the opportunity for a lot of B-slot training as the Vega tail.

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Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Advanced	21,15,10	7,5,G	13,L,11	3,K,B,6	19,8,9	M,P,14,C	N,A,17,1	20,16,Q	F,22,D,H	0,2,4	Total	Avg
1	Vega XP	15	22	19	21	20	28	21	17	27	19	209	20.9
2	Flying Spaghetti Monsters	16	24	19	19	19	26	22	16	22	17	200	20.0
3	Lucky Chris	15	19	17	19	18	22	19	15	21	17	182	18.2
4	Platinum XP	13	18	15	16	19	23	19	13	20	13	169	16.9
5	Dramatic Pause	13	16	16	17	16	21	15	14	21	17	166	16.6

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Previous Vega XP lineup at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2020

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The NSL News was present at Paraclete XP when Vega came back to Raeford for the next weekend indoor camp. The three present members took some time to answer a few NSL News questions on the second training day, and they provided some of the video footage of the flying sessions with coach Niklas Hemlin.

James Hall, Annie and Ian Drennan are all amateur competitors, even though James Hall was trying out for the open SDC Rhythm XP slot when JaNette Lefkowitz and Andrew Starr stepped back. Christy Frikken, who had transitioned into the professional skydiving world already many years ago, was eventually selected for Rhythm's inside center slot.

James Hall was outside center with Redline XP, who won the USPA Advanced Class competition in 2018. He was very well prepared for the inside center slot when he was in the flying chamber with Steve Lefkowitz, Andrew Happick and Doug Barron. Then he came back to Paraclete XP as the outside center for Vega XP.

The Vega 3-way also explained how they manage their lives between family, work and 4-way training and competition. The complete Drennan family was at the Paraclete XP wind-tunnel for the training weekend, which has been normal family operation for Annie and Ian Drennan in the past years.