posted Nov 17th, 2024 - The series of national indoor championships, shortly after the end of the outdoor summer season, with the conclusion at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships, continued with the British Indoor Nationals.

Italy had launched the indoor winter season at the end of October, and teams from Denmark followed up a week later. The British 4-way teams were next and increased their own participation record of 33 teams last year with a total of 35 teams another week after the indoor start in Italy.

Danish and British teams had a longer travel in common, as their national indoor championship was not hosted by a windtunnel on their respective home soil. Denmark's national indoor championship took place in Sweden, the British event at Weembi Lille in France. It was not much of a geographical difference for the Danish teams who could cover the travel distance with a short road trip. There was a significant difference for the British teams, even though the Channel Tunnel between Kent in Great Britain and Calais in France allows easy traveling by car or by train under the English Channel waterways and to the 4-way and 8-way destination in the northern part of France. Hosting the event at Weembi Lille also allowed the British hosts to offer 8-way competition as a part of the event.

British Indoor 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		13,11,L	C,12,20	7,21,18	14,15,10	17,19,M	B,N,4,D	Q,8,H,9	6,A,E,16	2,K,22	F,3,J,5	Total	Avg
1	NFTO	UK	24	22	23	20	28	28	30	25	22	32	254	25.4
2	Chimera	UK	23	20	23	19	28	28	29	23	23	29	245	24.5
3	Norgies	NO	21	18	23	17	25	28	27	24	21	25	229	22.9
4	Apex	UK	19	19	22	18	24	28	25	23	19	28	225	22.5
5	Garudas	BE	21	12	20	13	21	24	25	21	20	22	199	19.9
6	Airdrops	CH	18	17	18	16	19	18	24	19	15	21	185	18.5
7	Don't Tell Groom	UK	16	14	16	13	20	22	21	18	16	19	175	17.5
8	My Personal Favourites	UK	16	14	16	14	17	18	21	19	16	21	172	17.2
9	Circles of Confusion	UK	13	12	15	10	16	15	20	17	14	17	149	14.9
10	Winged Hussars	UK	14	11	14	11	15	17	16	14	11	14	137	13.7
11	Antares	UK	13	9	13	10	12	14	18	13	8	16	126	12.6
12	Axis	UK	12	12	9	9	12	17	14	14	13	13	125	12.5
13	Sora	UK	11	7	13	9	12	14	16	13	11	14	120	12.0
14	4Inchs	UK	11	10	13	10	9	16	13	13	11	12	118	11.8

Several of the British 4-way teams who had attended the British Outdoor Nationals this year were back for the indoor competition two months later. The British national team in 4-way Open at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships, Apex, had only little over four weeks to get ready for the national indoor championship.

The transition from outdoor to indoor competition is usually the easier one. However, Apex also did not have the complete lineup available and had to replace Dave Rogers with Kate Lindsley. In the meantime, two very strong opponents arrived well prepared for indoor competition at Weembi Lille.

NFTO members Anna Hicks and Vana Parker were also present at Crystal Coast, Anna Hicks for competition in Speed Skydiving, Vana Parker as alternate in 4-way and 8-way for the British delegation.

The excursion to the outdoor world championship did not require any serious training efforts for NFTO though, who were just as ready for 4-way indoor competition as Chimera at their next reunion event.

Apex eventually ended up far behind the 1st and 2nd place on the British leaderboard and also had to allow the guest team from Norway to finish in 3rd place.

British Outdoor Nationals 2024		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	L,21,C,10		19,18,13		12,P,8		Q,22,11		3,D,6		4,N,9		E,15,2		A,M,17,J		G,16,K,7		5,H,1		Total	Avg
1	SOAR	19	-1	16	-1	16		15	-1	19		19	-2	19		31		20		20	-1	194	19.4
2	Apex	17		16	-1	13	-1	16		19		20		18		27	-1	14	-2	20		180	18.0
3	NFTO	14		12		11		14		14		16		16		26		14		14		151	15.1
4	British Army Volt4ge	10		9		9		8		9		12		9		14		5		7		92	9.2
5	Vantage	9		9		7		7		8		10		7		9		8		11		85	8.5
6	Axis	9		9		6		8		6		9		9		9		9		8		82	8.2
7	Dynamite Wolf Squadron	8		5		5		9		9		8		8		11		8		10		81	8.1
8	SORA	8		9		6		8		8		8		6		10		8		9		80	8.0
9	Winged Hussars	7		7		7		8		6		9		7		10		6		7		74	7.4
10	Silver Linings	7		8		5		5		7		8		8		9		7		7		71	7.1

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SOAR - Apex at the British Outdoor Nationals 2024

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One of all the British top competitors won two British gold medals this year. Former Satori/XL member Julia Swallow had teamed up with her former team mate Pete Allum, as the NSL News reported on September 26th. SOAR, also with Sarah Ashworth and James Woods in the lineup, Pete Harries on camera, won the national outdoor championship by 14 points (194 - 180) before Apex traveled to North Carolina a month later.

NFTO then recruited Julia Swallow again for their lineup at the national indoor championship and won by nine points (254 - 245) over Chimera. She had competed for NFTO three times before, beginning at the Wind Games 2020 .

Chimera had their complete lineup of 2022 together, who had won the unofficial amateur world championship title with the 5th place in Eloy 2022. Chimera already had a reunion event of the complete lineup at the Wind Games 2024, where they finished in 10th place behind NFTO (3rd) with Elizabeth Kennedy in the lineup. Chimera were much closer to NFTO at the British Indoor Nationals, where Sarah Ashworth and James Woods competed against their SOAR team mate Julia Swallow, who has now united British national indoor and outdoor championship titles.