posted Apr 25th, 2022 - The Chief Judge of horizontal and vertical Formation Skydiving competition at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 came from Austria this year. In fact, Wolfgang Duller attended his first competition as FAI Chief Judge at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August last year.

He replaced Rina Gallo, who was not able to travel from Canada to the postponed and rescheduled event in Russia last year, due to the corona virus restrictions. Wolfgang Duller had become an FAI Judge after the successful evaluation during the FAI World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia.

Ten years later, he would have been the FAI Chief Judge for the first time at a world meet, once again in Russia, and he had to wait for another year for his first official assignment.

NSL-TV Unfiltered had shown him doing his job at Airspace Charleroi during the competition draw, where he supervised the manual procedure. He took some time between the completion of the event and the award ceremony on Saturday to discuss the event and judging in general.

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FAI Indoor World Cup 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		O,18,14		L,C,F,9		1,J,H,19		3,E,P,Q		20,7,16		2,13,8		17,D,6		N,22,A,G		12,5,11		M,21,4		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	29		54	-3	35		41		29		25		39		37		27		30		346	34.6
2	Aerokart Monaco Akdemie	FR	25	-1	58		28	-3	39	-2	25		25		33		32		24		28	-2	317	31.7
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	23	-1	54	-1	30	-1	38	-2	26		23		32		31	-1	24		28	-1	309	30.9
Rank	4-way Women		O,18,14		L,C,F,9		1,J,H,19		3,E,P,Q		20,7,16		2,13,8		17,D,6		N,22,A,G		12,5,11		M,21,4		Total	Avg
1	HF Cubs	CZ	24		47	-2	24	-5	34	-2	23	-2	23		30		32		22		26	-1	285	28.5
2	Nephtys	FR	22		44	-1	28		33	-2	23		20	-1	29		29	-1	21	-1	23	-1	272	27.2
3	Piteraq	DE	19		37		23		30	-1	17	-2	17		24		21		16	-1	22		226	22.6
Rank	4-way Junior		E,F,P,J		C,O,G,11		18,H,22		B,L,D,13		19,Q,7		8,9		K,14,M		6,1		-		-		Total	Avg
1	HF Flying Rebels	CZ	54	-1	28	-1	20		29	-1	24	-2	25		23	-2	22	-1	-		-		225	28.1
2	Aerokart Akdemie	FR	55	-1	23	-3	19		29	-2	20	-1	20	-2	23	-1	19	-2	-		-		208	26.0
3	HF Chameleons	CZ	45	-4	25		18		24		21	-2	24		20	-2	22	-1	-		-		199	24.9

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NSL Live Talk with Wolfgang Duller from Austria, Chief Judge Formation Skydiving Competition at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022

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Wolfgang Duller was a very active competitor before he became a judge. He started skydiving in 1991 and joined the Austrian 8-way team Mamagama in 1997. He trained and competed with Mamagama for four years, while he also launched his first 4-way team on a higher level.

4-Matrix trained and competed until 2004, and the team even has a short record in the NSL News archives, after participating at events of the NSL Network a few times in 2004 and 2005. 4-Matrix also visited SkyVenture Orlando when there were no other wind tunnels in the world, and they combined the indoor training with training jumps at Skydive DeLand.

Wolfgang Duller won several national championship titles and attended a few outdoor world meets with 4-Matrix. He stopped his active skydiving career when his team did not continue at the end of the 2005 season.

However, he staid connected by switching to judging and became an FAI Judge in 2010. He remembers the times before indoor competition, which was integrated by FAI/ISC in 2015, even though indoor competition had already become a popular part of Formation Skydiving training and competition. Austria has had a wind tunnel for several years by now, and Wolfgang Duller sees the same progression of the domestic performance level.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,P,C,18	9,15,16	K,11,19	E,F,7,5	A,J,21,12	6,4,10	17,Q,L,1	H,14,3	13,22,O	N,M,D,2	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Majik	US	29	23	17	30	18	19	27	21	19	24	227	22.7
2	Maubeuge	FR	28	22	18	30	17	19	23	20	18	24	219	21.9
3	Sky Panthers	RU	24	21	19	25	22	15	28	19	16	22	211	21.1
4	Sinapsi PD	IT	22	21	20	28	21	18	23	19	16	22	210	21.0
5	EADS	DE	20	18	17	24	17	16	19	17	16	19	183	18.3
6	HayaBusa	BE	21	17	17	21	11	16	20	17	17	21	178	17.8
7	Endeavour	CH	16	17	14	19	16	13	19	14	14	-	142	15.8
7	Arcteryx	NO	19	14	15	21	15	13	17	15	13	-	142	15.8
9	Danez	DK	17	16	13	21	11	15	19	15	14	-	141	15.7
10	Spain	ES	19	16	15	21	15	11	16	12	14	-	139	15.4
11	Voodoo	UK	15	14	14	19	15	13	14	12	-	-	116	14.5
12	VNE	UK	15	15	13	18	15	11	14	13	-	-	114	14.3
13	Australia	AU	11	15	13	18	15	13	14	13	-	-	112	14.0
14	Stratosfear	CA	15	14	12	17	13	12	16	12	-	-	111	13.9
15	R-Fource	NL	16	14	13	17	11	10	14	12	-	-	107	13.4
15	4-Matrix	AT	13	14	13	18	13	13	11	12	-	-	107	13.4
17	New Zealand	NZ	15	14	12	14	13	11	15	12	-	-	106	13.3
18	Croatia	HR	16	11	12	16	13	11	9	10	-	-	98	12.3
19	Slovenia	SI	14	11	10	12	10	9	9	10	-	-	85	10.6
20	Kazakhstan	KZ	5	5	0	6	4	6	5	4	-	-	35	4.4
21	Iceland	IS	2	1	1	3	1	2	4	1	-	-	15	1.9

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Wolfgang Duller has been a part of the Formation Skydiving competition development for three decades, and he presented this time period from both perspectives in the NSL Live Talk conversation, as an active competitor and as a judge.

He explained that judging the top teams has actually become easier, even though the scores have increased to an unforeseen level when indoor training became available with the first wind tunnels. The multitude of indoor training opportunities across the planet has lifted the performance level and standards dramatically, and the top teams now make it easier for the judges by developing their skills according to the rules and judging requirements.

He said that the judging challenges occur when the teams behind the top of the world try to get up to the same or similar levels and increase their speed and rhythm.

Wolfgang Duller also commented on the ongoing discussion of delayed posting of scores and live judging. He said that the best solution for the problem would be an additional panel of judges at the big international events. He had two 3-judge panels available in Charleroi, and it was difficult for them to keep up with the turnaround of the team rotations. He believes that live judging would not serve the teams very well, as it increases the potential for too many mistakes under the same time pressure.