posted Oct 2nd, 2024 - Six national 4-way teams visited Skydive DeLand in the run-up to the FAI Outdoor World Championships 2024, and the last training before the major event began with Thyra's arrival last weekend. The Norwegian 4-way team in 4-way Women brought their coach and mentor, Carl-Erika Tuv, who will guide the team through their first outdoor world championship at Crystal Coast in North Carolina.

Their 4-way Women opponent from Germany, Meltemi Illertissen Oceanside, arrived shortly later and changed plans when Skydive DeLand's Twin Otter broke unexpectedly. There was a Cessna Caravan available as an instant replacement jump plane, and Thyra continued with training in DeLand. The German delegation, Meltemi and Airbus, both decided to use the Twin Otter at Skydive City for the final preparations and made the 2-hour trip to Zephyrhills instead.

Agera, Norway's 4-way team in 4-way Open, also continued from the Cessna Caravan for a few days and then headed north to the competition site of the world championship earlier than planned, together with British 4-way Open Class team Apex. The last team completing their training before Round 1 at Crystal Coast was Sweden's Echochamber. Skydive DeLand was actually hosting four of the five contenders for the 5th place and the unofficial amateur world champion title at the same time on their way to North Carolina. All of them trained from the Cessna Caravan and will get their final exit training at the competition site. Only the Spanish team Papea did not meet their direct potential opponents in DeLand.

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Echochamber at Skydive DeLand on 1 October 2024

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Echochamber had a more turbulent training camp than they may have anticipated. They did not suffer too much from the unexpected change of the jump plane, as they are familiar with Twin Otter exits from their Twin Otter in Sweden. They continued with the Cessna Caravan and knew that exits will only be easier from the Twin Otter door.

However, they had to deal with a different obstacle on the last day of training before the transition by car on Interstate 95 to Crystal Coast in North Carolina. Echochamber's videographer Anders Brouzell is showing on a clip an unusual opening procedure after an unusual freefall experience for outside center Ulf Liljenbäck.

The cutaway handle of his gear was loosened during the exit and began to disconnect itself in the following freefall. Ulf Liljenbäck's team mates noticed the malfunction after the cutaway handle hat actually disappeared into space and informed him with sign language. Ulf Liljenbäck checked the situation himself and then decided that he knew how to deal with it. Enough freefall time was left to continue with the sequence in progress, and the whole Echochamber agreed. Finally, Ulf Liljenbäck opened his reserve, and Anders Brouzell filmed the unusual but happy ending of this training jump.

FAI World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		21,L,B,G		22,18,17		19,7,O		J,16,12		10,A,D,15		Q,M,F,C,N		H,20,P,13		6,14,11		E,2,5		4,1,3		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32		21		27	-2	24		22	-3	62	-2	22	-2	20	-1	27	-1	22		279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	-5	21		27	-1	24		24	-1	60	-1	26		22		27		20		277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	-1	19		24	-2	23		24		52	-3	20	-3	17	-3	24		19		251	25.1
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	-2	14	-1	24	-1	21		22		53	-4	21	-1	18		20		17		234	23.4
5	Echochamber	SE	25	-1	16		21	-1	17	-2	20	-1	48	-4	14	-3	18		21	-1	15	-1	215	21.5
6	Amnesya	IT	24	-2	14		20	-1	18		18	-1	48	-5	18		14	-2	21	-1	15		210	21.0
7	Airheads	CH	22	-3	14	-2	19	-2	17	-1	18		44		16		16	-2	18	-1	17		201	20.1
7	Satori XL	UK	21		14	-1	21		19		19		37	-3	19		17		18	-1	16	-1	201	20.1
9	Evolution	CA	21	-1	13	-2	22		18	-1	15	-3	43	-2	15	-5	15	-2	19		15		196	19.6
10	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	-1	14	-1	17	-5	17		16	-1	45	-1	15	-3	14	-1	18	-1	15		192	19.2

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Echochamber at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2018

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The NSL News discovered the incident during the Echochamber debriefing at the Perfect Spot DZ Restaurant and met the team later for NSL Live Talk, where the team elaborated on the incident and their whole training camp situation with the outdoor world championship as the final conclusion.

The NSL Power Rankings were adjusted one more time after the conversation and the review of a few training videos. It appears that Echochamber may be the top contender for the unofficial amateur world champion title, which does not take away any of the exciting competition to be expected. The Swedish team will probably not be able to challenge NMP PCH HayaBusa for the 4th place, as no other of the five teams behind the 4th place is likely to do.

Echochamber has still moved to the top position of the contenders for the precious 5th place. It is exactly the same lineup who placed 5th at the FAI Outdoor World Championships 2018 with a 21.5 average. The ten rounds in Australia included a Super Sequence in Round 6 (Q,M,F,C,N) where NMP PCH HayaBusa scored the standing world record of 62 points, and Echochamber took their own advantage with a 48-pointer and the 21.5 average. However, the same lineup had shown twice the same year that they can score on the same level without a Super Sequence. The same lineup is back together now, after a world championship in Eloy 2022 with a different lineup. This year's direct opponents are different ones, who still may have to score on or above the 20-average level to defeat the Swedes.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Aethers	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Echochamber	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Airbus Illertissen Oceanside	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Agera	NO	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Apex	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Papea	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Out Of The Blue	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Netunos	BR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Havoc	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-