posted Oct 4th, 2022 - Agera from Norway and NMP PCH HayaBusa had something in common last week. Both teams traveled to Florida at the peak time of the hurricane season, which is officially defined as the calendar period between June and the end of November. Hurricane season in Florida does not mean that a storm will hit, however, there is surely the potential that it could get on a path that causes trouble.

Hurricane Ian did exactly this, and the path included Skydive City and Skydive DeLand both this time. The dropzone operators reacted early enough, secured planes and facilities, and no harm was done. However, the training camps for both teams were seriously impacted, as well as the NSL News operation. Agera and NMP PCH HayaBusa were able to start their training camps before the hurricane eventually arrived. The Belgians then evacuated to the Miami area in the south of Florida, while the Norwegians were sitting out the storm at a safe place in DeLand.

Agera did not resume the training, as the weather situation would have allowed only some additional jumps on their travel day. NMP PCH HayaBusa came back to Skydive City for the most beautiful weather after the storm and added almost 30 jumps to the total of this training camp.

The NSL News evacuated to Skydive City after the storm, as DeLand was still suffering power outages, loss of internet and phone services. The field trip to Skydive City was on the NSL News schedule even long before any hurricane was on the horizon. The regular visit of NMP PCH HayaBusa at Skydive City is more than enough reason to make the 2-hour road trip.

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Coming this Week: Hall of Fame Induction Class of 2022: Eliana Rodriguez - Pete Allum - Solly Williams - Support the US Parachute Team Trust Fund

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Shamrock Showdown 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		G,Q,12,C		K,N,P,18		L,2,20		F,1,5		7,3,19		10,6,D		B,H,16,13		J,E,A,4		14,O,8		11,22,15		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	29		33		23		29		23		24	-1	27		32		22		20		262	26.2
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	22		24	-1	18	-1	23	-1	20		20		23		30		17		15		212	21.2

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NMP PCH HayaBusa in training at Skydive City in October 2022

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The previous HayaBusa visit in Zephyrhills was for the spring training camp, which concluded with the first duel of the new lineup with Arizona Airspeed at this year's Shamrock Showdown. The NSL News followed up with the activities that brought the still reigning Belgian 4-way world champions eventually back to Skydive City.

The HayaBusa updates in the meantime included online NSL Live Talk and coverage of the CISM military world championships. The latest news from Belgium were very interesting, as the country's skydiving federation had agreed to use the competition draw of the USPA Nationals 2022 for the national championships, which were scheduled for the same weekend.

This move generated a combined leaderboard that resembled to a certain extent the situation at the upcoming FAI Outdoor World Meet, as the Qatar Tigers visited Skydive Chicago for training and competition experiences a month before the world meet at Skydive Arizona. There were obviously more than enough topics to discuss when the NSL News met again live with the complete NMP PCH HayaBusa lineup at the end of the training camp. They were not too concerned with the compromised training camp, as they were aware of the fact that it was scheduled in the middle of the hurricane season.

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USPA/Belgian Nationals 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/AAA Class		G,9,M,8		P,3,O,E		7,13,18		B,21,Q,14		20,L,2		D,1,A,19		5,11,15		10,17,N		F,C,K,H,22		12,J,16		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	28	-2	32		23		26	-1	22		26		22		21	-1	35		23		258	25.8
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	27		29	-1	18	-1	23		20		25		18	-1	21		26	-2	20	-1	227	22.7
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	23	-2	21	-3	20		23		19		23		18		20		29		19	-1	215	21.5

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NSL Live Talk with NMP PCH HayaBusa on 2 October 2022

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They could not complete the number of training jumps that they were planning and hoping for. However, it was enough to bring new member Neal Willems once again a little bit closer to the HayaBusa performance level of the last decade.

The new lineup with the new Inside Center has already reached the medal level at FAI world championships, as the combined leaderboard of the U.S. and Belgian national championships are showing. Neal Willems' four former and current world champion team mates pointed out that it takes time to integrate a new team member, as they have done it in the past.

The current lineup has completed 350 training jumps since December 21st last year, and they are not expecting to challenge Arizona Airspeed for the 1st place and FAI gold medals. They see the participation at the world meet as a very important step for Neal Willems. All other current HayaBusa members had previous world meet experiences before they actually competed actively for the first time.

NMP PCH HayaBusa are back in Belgium now, where they perform some military duties and complete paperwork for the upcoming trip to Eloy. They plan to make a few training jumps at Skydive Arizona before the competition begins. Then they they will take their seats in the last row of the Twin Otter for Round 1, the place that FAI/ISC usually dedicate to the reigning world champions for the jump order...