posted Dec 29th, 2022 - Switzerland was a very strong player in 4-way competition for a time period of two decades, which began before the current format for FAI/ISC events, with the mixture of blocks and random formations for a competition round, was created and applied for the first time in Croatia 1985.

In fact, the Swiss national 4-way team Blue Magic won the last world championship title in 1983, before the change of the format and the first new 4-way world champion in Croatia 1985, the DeLand Air Bears. The Swiss 8-way team won the silver medals in 1983, and both teams did not continue after the radical and historic change of the competition format.

Only one team member of the Swiss 4-way world champions of 1983, Marcel Aeby, made the transition and was back in Swiss 4-way and 8-way lineups in the following years. However, the momentum of the successful Swiss 4-way presence at the international events with the peak in 1983 generated uninterrupted Swiss participation until the next world championship in Croatia in 2004.

Ever since, Swiss teams visited FAI world championships only randomly, even though the last Swiss national 4-way team, Airheads, finished with the country's highest outdoor average (20.1) in the Top 10 (7th) at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2018 in Australia. Airheads even followed up with a 5th place (29.2) at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019.

4-way Open results of the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 1983

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No teams from Switzerland attended the next two outdoor world championships (Tanay - Eloy), and this year's FAI Indoor World Cup in Charleroi took place without Swiss 4-way teams, as well.

However, the absence of Swiss teams at FAI events will change at the upcoming indoor world championship in Slovakia in April 2023. Realfly Fire have plans to compete at the event at the Hurricane Factory Tatralandia and try to follow up as good as possible on the Swiss 4-way performance at the previous indoor world championship at Weembi Lille.

Realfly Fire were still competing in the AA Class when Airheads posted the 29.2 indoor average at Weembi Lille. They attended their first competition at the ISR Grand Prix 2019, where they finished in 2nd place behind the HF Flying Rebels.

The Swiss team moved up quickly to be eligible for the Wind Games 2020, which offered only the AAA Class competition. The original lineup attended one more competition, which was the national Swiss indoor championship of 2021. They raised the meet average in the AAA Class from 20.1 to 23.5 and finished behind Airheads in 2nd place.

Swiss 4-way participation at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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Original Realfly Fire member Charlotte Chatelan did not continue after the competition in November last year, and Ambra Vitti joined the team. The new lineup spent a few hours of indoor training together before they traveled to the Netherlands for this year's ISR Grand Prix in November.

It was the same place where Realfly Fire launched their team career in the AA Class of 2019. This time, it was the first AAA Class competition for the new team member, Ambra Vitti, and her team mates were very happy with the performance of the new lineup.

The starting point in the AAA Class with the new lineup is significantly higher than the one in January 2020, and the 21.0 average was rewarded with the 5th place in the 21-team field.

It is still a long way for Realfly Fire to copy the performance and scoring level of the Airheads at Weembi Lille in 2019, however, there are more than three months left for indoor training before Round 1 at the indoor world championship. It will be the second consecutive event with a Swiss team on the indoor leaderboard. Switzerland now also needs an outdoor team for the 2024 world championship in Israel.

ISR Grand Prix 2022			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class - Top 10		13,12,D	O,10,3	11,Q,N,15	A,J,6,18	9,16,7	22,K,F,C	B,P,5,L	1,21,H	Total	Avg
1	Out of the Blue	NL	21	18	23	26	24	26	31	24	193	24.1
2	HF Flying Circus	CZ	19	19	23	25	23	26	33	22	190	23.8
3	Chaotic Motion	NL	19	21	23	24	24	25	31	21	188	23.5
4	Falco	BE	20	21	20	24	23	26	28	23	185	23.1
5	Realfly Fire	CH	18	20	16	21	22	25	25	21	168	21.0
6	HF Chameleons	CZ	19	19	20	17	17	25	24	20	161	20.1
7	Phoenix	BE	13	17	15	20	19	23	23	20	150	18.8
8	Fuel	NL	16	17	17	17	18	21	25	18	149	18.6
9	HF Flying Rebels	CZ	18	18	20	18	21	13	20	20	148	18.5
10	Jazz Republic	ZA	16	17	17	18	14	21	23	17	143	17.9

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Realfly Fire at the ISR Grand Prix 2022 - Video Footage Courtesy of Rogier Carper/Indoor Skydive Roosendaal

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