posted Jan 6th, 2022 - The NSL News introduced the Russian military team Airborne VDV first time on 28 January 2021, after the surprising 4-point battle with IFS-Moscow for the indoor top spot, and the 30.4 average at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2020.

The update on 13 July 2021 reported the scores of the Russian Indoor Cup 2021, where former Russian Thunder member Georgy Miroshnichenko finally competed with his military Airborne VDV lineup. The team's 31.5 average was even too much for IFS-Moscow and Bubbles this time.

Only a week later, the NSL News had to follow up with the sad news of the tragic plane crash in Tanay, where Georgy Miroshnichenko was seriously injured. Oleg Shalamykhin would replace him at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 a month later. Russia's Formation Skydiving delegation eventually withdrew the 4-way Open Class team from the world meet.

Georgy Miroshnichenko had his early comeback at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2021 in November, where his Airborne VDV team finished in 2nd place behind Bubbles and ahead of IFS-Moscow. He followed up with the same lineup at the 1st Dubai International Tunnel Championship (DIPC) in December.

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Russian Indoor Cup 2021		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	21,12,19	Q,G,A,J,17	M,8,O,22	5,7,15	9,C,2	18,4,K	D,P,H,N,3	1,13,14	L,16,11	10,E,20	Total	Avg
1	VDV	27	41	28	32	36	27	43	27	28	26	315	31.5
2	IFS-Moscow	23	39	28	28	31	27	41	24	23	26	290	29.0
3	Bubbles	25	33	25	27	31	28	41	22	26	26	284	28.4
4	Russian Thunder	21	32	20	29	31	25	38	23	23	23	265	26.5
5	VDV 2	21	30	24	24	28	24	33	20	22	20	246	24.6
6	42	17	28	23	24	24	21	31	22	22	21	233	23.3
7	No Limits	21	33	21	21	24	21	32	19	20	19	231	23.1
8	Antibodies	21	28	21	24	25	21	31	20	21	17	229	22.9
9	DDW-Team	20	32	17	22	26	21	30	20	19	20	227	22.7
10	Quartet	17	27	22	19	26	15	31	19	19	19	214	21.4
11	Bumblbee	14	29	20	18	24	17	27	18	19	17	203	20.3

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Airborne VDV at the Russian Indoor Cup 2021

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The amazing recovery story of Georgy Miroshnichenko resembles the plane crash that Arizona Airspeed legend Dan BC lived through and recovered from in 1992. Airspeed's multiple 4-way and 8-way world champion attended his first world meet after the accident, and Georgy Miroshnichenko qualified with Airborne VDV in November for his team's first FAI event at the indoor world cup in April.

Bubbles won the Russian Indoor Nationals ahead of Airborne VDV, however, the 4-way Women team will probably rather defend the Russian top position in the world in their category and leave the 4-way Open Class slot for other Russian 4-way teams.

Airborne VDV begins with training for the FAI Indoor World Cup in Charleroi this month. Denis Erokhin will be in the lineup, after performing the last four rounds for Kirill Bukharov at the Russian Indoor Nationals. He was a member of the second VDV team before being recruited for the Airborne VDV lineup.

Georgy Miroshnichenko's plane crash and recovery story began when he was training with Tanay Wolves (Georgy Miroshnichenko, Timur Frank, Sergey Shenin, Alexander Furman, with and Alexey Afanasyev on camera) for the FAI Tanay Mondial.

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Russian Indoor Nationals 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	15,5,10		20,3,17		1,2,11		J,G,P,N,18		21,H,M,19		13,L,4		8,A,D,O		6,22,B		F,7,E,9		12,K,Q,16		Total	Avg
1	Bubbles	24	-2	24		22		34	-1	31		28		33	-1	24	-2	47		29		296	29.6
2	Airborne VDV	23	-1	23		23		35		29	-1	25	-1	31		25		43	-1	24	-1	281	28.1
3	IFS-Moscow	24	-1	24		23		32	-2	22		27	-1	32	-2	20	-3	40	-4	29		273	27.3
4	Quartet	17		20		21		29		25		19		30		17		36		24		238	23.8
5	DanDelion WN	20		21		18		25		22		24		27		20		36		24		237	23.7
6	Antibodies	19		18		18		29		24		22		25		21		35		20		231	23.1
7	No Limits	14		17		19		26		22		19		26		18		31		21		213	21.3
8	Bumblbee	15		17		15		24		23		15		26		18		31		21		205	20.5
9	Let's Fly	14		17		17		22		20		19		20		16		31		18		194	19.4
10	FlyStones	13		10		13		17		17		16		16		17		23		16		158	15.8

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Airborne VDV at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2021 in November

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The Tanay Wolves held several indoor training camps beginning in February 2020 and followed up with outdoor training in Dubai. Everything seemed to be going according to the plans until the corona virus crisis changed the situation, and the world meet was eventually canceled and rescheduled.

The Tanay Wolves resumed with outdoor training in Dubai as soon as it was possible, until Timur Frank was facing back problems and needed surgery. The first one did not resolve the problem, and he had a second one early in 2021. Georgy Miroshnichenko continued with Airborne VDV during Timur Frank's recovery efforts until the Russian Indoor Cup 2021 where they won with the impressive 31.5 average.

Andrey Barabash, president of the Russian skydiving federation and Tanay 8 member, eventually assigned Airborne DVD as the national team in 4-way Open for the world meet when it became obvious that the Tanay Wolves with Timur Frank would not be ready for the competition.

Airborne VDV began with outdoor training in May, joining Russia's 8-way training camps in Tanay. Timur Frank was also supporting the new national 4-way team, and the Airborne VDV members gave back by helping him to get back into skydiving after his second surgery. The NSL News will follow up tomorrow with the details of the tragic plane crash and Georgy Miroshnichenko's recovery story.