posted May 10th, 2023 - A fairy tale 4-way story came to an end at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, or at least to an interruption. HF Flying Circus, the Czech national 4-way indoor and outdoor team, knew already before traveling to Slovakia that the event would mean the farewell to 4-way training and competition with the lineup of the past eight years.

It's the second recent loss of a very popular team. Chimera, the British national team in 4-way Open of the past years, announced this January that they would not continue as a 4-way team. HF Flying Circus announced the team's retirement after the conclusion of the indoor world championship:

"Our team decided a while ago that this world meet would be the last one for us. We are not saying that we will never compete again, but for now we are going our own separate ways. Thank you all for the continuous support we received over the nine years, eight with current lineup. It was a hell of a ride!"

Chimera and HF Flying Circus have more in common. Both teams started with AAA Class competition in 2016, Chimera with three of the original team members, HF Flying Circus with the same lineup who competed at the event in Slovakia last month. Both teams competed with and against each other at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022. The Czech team then outlasted Chimera by half a year, after eight years together.

World Challenge 2015			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie		C,O,A	F,B,N	E,P,L	K,D,Q	J,H,M	G,E,C	H,N,J	B,M,F	O,K,G	P,Q,D	Total	Avg
1	Flying Circus	CZ	18	26	19	19	23	20	22	45	15	24	231	23.1
2	Jetmax	BE	20	19	16	10	25	15	19	38	18	19	199	19.9
3	Blackhawk	UK	12	22	14	10	18	11	16	35	5	20	163	16.3
4	Skyfall	IE	11	16	11	10	19	14	12	31	14	10	148	14.8
5	ChatterChaps	UK	10	17	13	9	15	7	11	19	11	12	124	12.4
6	Velocity	UK	7	14	9	10	13	7	16	21	10	8	115	11.5
7	Lahottia	ES	9	10	4	6	11	9	10	17	10	10	96	9.6
8	Staunch Jades	UK	4	11	8	7	13	8	7	19	8	10	95	9.5
9	Tempest	UK	7	9	9	7	12	6	9	15	5	4	83	8.3
10	Come on our Backs	UK	3	7	3	4	7	4	5	8	2	5	48	4.8

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HF Flying Circus at the World Challenge 2015

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HF Flying Circus actually started two years earlier with three of the current team members. Dagmar Bezdekova, Martina Vavackova and Lukas Kaderabek had Hanka Weinlichova in their lineup in 2014 and 2015. Jakub Klapka joined the team in the tail slot the year when HF Flying Circus moved up into the AAA Class world.

It did not take too long until the complete original lineup became addicted to 4-way training and competition, as Jan Klapka offered already by then the monthly meets of the Indoor Cloud League and the Czech Tunnel League, and HF Flying Circus participated most regularly.

The first lineup attended five indoor meets in their home chamber at the Hurricane Factory in Prague in 2014/2015 before traveling to Bedford for their first international competition at the World Challenge 2015.

They won the Rookie Class competition of ten teams from five different countries and met their 4-way friends from Belgium, Jetmax, first time in this category. Together they would continue their journey through the NSL 4-way categories until HF Flying Circus finally became the Czech national team and competed for their country at the FAI world championships and world cups. Jetmax could not follow there, as NMP PCH HayaBusa were in their way.

World Tunnel League November 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		21,J,3	B,F,10,7	12,14,2	A,18,17	M,L,O,G,P	16,15,C	20,9,8	E,K,5,D	H,22,6	19,11,4	Total	Avg
1	Bad Boys	CZ	19	25	13	20	40	21	19	30	18	16	221	22.1
2	CZ Ladies	CZ	15	21	13	16	30	16	15	22	17	11	176	17.6
3	HF Flying Circus	CZ	16	21	12	14	28	16	17	19	17	14	174	17.4
4	HF Chicks	CZ	16	18	13	17	27	16	16	19	16	14	172	17.2
5	Accord	CZ	10	12	7	8	19	10	10	8	10	8	102	10.2
Rank	AA Class		21,J,P	B,F,7	14,2	A,18,8	M,L,O,G	15,C,4	20,9	E,K,D,Q	H,22,6	19,11	Total	Avg
1	Skydive University	SK	18	26	14	13	26	15	14	26	15	13	180	18.0
2	HF Junior Cubs	CZ	18	27	13	12	23	14	14	12	14	11	158	15.8
3	Best of Relative	CZ	15	23	9	8	19	11	11	17	9	9	131	13.1
4	HF Junior Flies	CZ	16	20	10	7	16	11	10	14	10	8	122	12.2
Rank	A Class		21,J	B,F,7	2,Q	A,8	M,L,O	C,4	9,P	E,K,D	H,6	19,G	Total	Avg
1	Mirek Team	CZ	12	19	6	11	24	9	17	14	13	8	133	13.3
2	Mimozemky	CZ	11	18	11	11	22	10	13	14	12	9	131	13.1
3	HF Junior Blue	CZ	8	9	6	5	13	6	10	7	8	6	78	7.8
Rank	Rookie		J,N,P	B,F,E	Q,K,H	A,D,G	M,L,O	C,J,B	P,N,F	E,K,D	H,Q,A	G,M,O	Total	Avg
1	HF Junior Green	CZ	2	8	5	1	5	7	6	2	5	0	41	4.1

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First competition with the new lineup: HF Flying Circus at the November meet of the Czech Tunnel League 2016

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HF Flying Circus was also an outdoor 4-way team from the very beginning, and they moved up to the A Class in both elements in 2015. Jakub Klapka, the youngest team member, eventually joined the Flying Circus during the transition from the AA to the AAA dive pool in 2016 for indoor and outdoor training and competition both.

They still had to accept the next challenge by Jetmax before they would finally arrive in the AAA Class. Both teams competed at the ISR Grand Prix 2016 and finished in the same order, 1st and 2nd, this time on the AA Class leaderboard.

The first big AAA Class competition for HF Flying Circus was the World Challenge 2017. The top of the leaderboard was naturally far away, and the Flying Circus finished in 18th place. However, they had won the first AAA Class duel with Jetmax (23rd) in Bedford.

Flying Circus still had the Bad Boys, with Jakub Klapka's father Jan, as the major obstacle to the 4-way indoor and outdoor top spot in the Czech Republic. The Bad Boys still won the national indoor championship title in April 2018, while they did not event try to defend the outdoor title any longer later the same year.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		E,14,3		K,F,22,17		O,7,5		N,2,18		L,P,12,15		M,10,D,H		16,9,C		1,G,J,8		4,Q,21		6,20,A		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27		35		39		27	-2	31		38		38		29		28	-1	31		323	32.3
2	France 4-way Open	FR	27		33		38		26	-2	28		33	-3	35		28		30		30		308	30.8
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	26	-1	30		33	-3	26	-3	28		37	-1	37		28		29		30	-1	304	30.4
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24		29	-1	32	-1	26		25	-3	32		30	-2	26		25	-1	26	-1	275	27.5
5	Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource	DE	22	-2	28	-1	33		22		25		30	-2	31		24		24	-1	25	-1	264	26.4
6	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	22		26	-1	30		17	-5	24		28	-3	27	-2	23		24		25	-1	246	24.6
7	FLY X	IT	19	-4	27		30	-1	20	-1	21	-1	29	-2	30	-1	23	-1	22	-2	24	-1	245	24.5
8	HF Flying Circus	CZ	20	-2	23	-1	29	-1	22		20	-2	30	-2	29		24		20	-3	25		242	24.2
9	Purple Maze	FI	22		26		29		19	-3	21		29		27		25		21	-3	21	-2	240	24.0
9	Papea	ES	23	-1	24	-2	29	-2	19	-5	21	-2	28	-2	28		25		21	-1	22	-2	240	24.0

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HF Flying Circus at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, video footage courtesy of FAI/InTime

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The change of the 4-way generations in the Czech Republic was completed in 2018/2019 when Flying Circus won all meets of the Czech Tunnel League and represented their country at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019 with the first Top 10 finish.

Unfortunately, the implications of the corona virus crisis did not offer the new Czech national team in 4-way Open, as many other teams, the usual annual international competition opportunities. Flying Circus missed the FAI Tanay Mondial, and other FAI/ISC events did not take place between 2019 and 2022.

The FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 was the next opportunity, where the Flying Circus finished in 6th place and the best Top 10 position of any Czech 4-way Open Class teams in history. They competed for the Czech Republic at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022, as well, and now concluded their team career in Slovakia, perhaps with a break only for a while.

Chimera represented one of the Formation Skydiving powerhouses, Great Britain, in the past years. British teams can look back at a history with world class teams as Sebastian XL and medal winners as NFTO. HF Flying Circus have added the Czech Republic to the 4-way landscape at indoor and outdoor world championships and world cups, and Jan Klapka continues to turn his country into a new 4-way powerhouse.