posted Nov 18th, 2024 - The NSL News coverage of the Arizona Airspeed topic continued with new NSL Live Talk. Gary Smith himself is a 2-time world champion with DeLand Majik (2004) and DeLand Fire (2006) and has arguably become the most successful coach in the history of the sport.

His current coaching job for Qatar's Formation Skydiving delegation requires him to be on top of everything that is happening in the world of Formation Skydiving competition. He has been following the history of Arizona Airspeed lineups since they were launched with the original one in 1994. In fact, Gary Smith's own teams were opponents for Airspeed when he was still a full-time competitor.

The South African 4-way team DeLand Equanimity could not defeat Arizona Airspeed in 1995 and 1997, however, Gary Smith was in the lineup who won the only set of FAI medals at an outdoor world championship for South Africa with the 3rd place in Turkey 1997, together with Solly Williams, Robbie Spencer, Fred Whitsitt and Graham Harding on camera. Gary Smith and Solly Williams wanted more than a bronze medal and immigrated to become U.S. citizens after moving to DeLand, Florida. That's where his own similar experiences began that he has been following in other teams ever since, and which resemble his own career.

---

---

NSL Live Talk with Gary Smith on 17 November 2024

---

NMP PCH HayaBusa's world champion member of 2021, Michele Silvi, made the same move from Italy to Belgium and became a 4-way world champion. He has probably more understanding than anybody else of the desire that Airspeed's new member from Brazil, Alisson de Vargas, drove to leave his country and move to Arizona.

There are a lot of obstacles on the way for a move like that, and Gary Smith explained some of them during the latest NSL Live Talk. However, Gary Smith and Solly Williams succeeded together and won their world championship title for the U.S. delegation with DeLand Majik (Doug Park, Joey Jones) in Rijeka 2004.

Gary Smith continued with DeLand Fire (Natasha Montgomery, Shannon Pilcher, Ian Bobo) and won his second 4-way gold medal in Gera 2006.

Alisson de Vargas has made the first step on the way to his first world championship title by moving from Brazil to Arizona. The new Arizona Airspeed lineup now have to win the USPA Nationals 2025 to qualify for the next outdoor world championship, or aim for any other FAI gold medals in the future.

USPA Nationals 2003		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	8,A,Q,F		15,3,G		4,N,22		J,7,B,H		O,13,17		16,K,1		21,D,L,14		6,5,2		12,P,11		10,19,18		Total	Avg
1	DeLand Majik	26		19		17		32		23		20		21		19		19		17		213	21.3
2	Golden Knights Gold	26		18		19	-2	32		23		21		19		17	-2	19		17		211	21.1
3	Airspeed Vertical	27		18		17	-2	34		18	-5	19		21		19		18		19		210	21.0
4	Airspeed Dragon	19	-2	15		17		30		20		14	-2	18		17		15		14		179	17.9
5	Golden Knights Black	20		15		16		27		15	-2	17		17		16		16		14		173	17.3
6	Perris School Boys	21		15		14		25		18		13	-2	16		14		12		12		160	16.0
7	DeLand Synchronicity	18		15		14		23		15	-2	14		15		15		14		12		155	15.5
8	The Ranch Team	17		14		13	-1	22		15		16		12		14		13		12		148	14.8
9	Teiwaz	17		13		13		17	-2	15		14		15		13		11		11		139	13.9
10	DeLand Chikara	16		12		11		19		14		12		13		13		13		9	-2	132	13.2
11	Optik Kurves	16		11		11		22		12		12		14		10		11		9		128	12.8
12	Elsinore Illusion	16		6	-4	12		22		14		9	-2	14		13		12		9	-2	127	12.7
13	4 Something	14		9		9		16		7	-2	9		11		8	-3	9		9		101	10.1
14	Wingspan	11		10		7	-2	14		9	-2	10		9		7	-2	7	-2	8		92	9.2
15	Guy Chuck JP Billy Mike	7	-4	7		8		9	-2	8	-1	4	-2	0		7	-1	3	-1	6	-1	59	5.9

---

DeLand Majik - Golden Knights at the Shamrock Showdown 2003

---

The recruiting situation for Gary Smith and Solly Williams was different when South Africa's national team DeLand Equanimity did not continue, compared to the situation that Arizona Airspeed's Joey Marshall and Chris Kuhlmann have been facing. They joined forces with two well trained world class 4-way competitors, Joey Jones and Doug Park, to launch the DeLand Majik team.

Joey Jones and Doug Park were already world cup winners of 1998. They tried to take the top spot in the United States and then become world champions with Florida team FX. Airspeed lineups were in their way between 1998 and 2000, until Joey Jones and Doug Park decided to join forces with Gary Smith and Solly Williams for DeLand Majik.

The situation at the beginning of the 2001 season was still similar to Arizona Airspeed when Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine recruited R2G team mates Joey Marshall and Chris Kuhlmann as a 2-way for the other half of the Airspeed lineup. The two 2-time world champions of 2022 and 2024 now selected two individuals for their new lineup who have not been on the world's 4-way top level yet.

Gary Smith confirmed that the quality of the team dynamics, especially under challenging conditions, are more important than any other factors. Coaching knowledge and training logistics are available in totally different dimensions compared to the times when the earlier Airspeed lineups and DeLand Majik/DeLand Fire recruited their new lineups. Indoor training and modern coaching techniques bring talented competitors much quicker to a high performance level. Gary Smith is currently applying modern coaching technology successfully for the Qatar delegation.

USPA Nationals 2005		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	2,A,19	F,20,D,9	C,21,N,11	15,M,8	4,6,P	5,1,H	22,7,12	3,K,16	E,17,14	13,18,J	O,G,B,L,Q	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	22	27	22	20	18	21	17	21	22	20	36	210	21.0
2	Golden Knights	21	27	21	20	22	22	17	19	23	18	34	210	21.0
3	Airspeed Odyssey	21	26	20	19	20	20	17	20	22	18	-	203	20.3
4	DeLand Majik	20	25	19	19	17	20	16	20	18	18	-	192	19.2
5	Fastrax	20	26	20	19	18	18	15	19	19	17	-	191	19.1
6	Airspeed Velocity	21	23	21	16	17	17	15	18	22	18	-	188	18.8
7	Phugoid	18	20	12	15	16	16	12	16	17	15	-	157	15.7
8	Perris Fury	17	19	17	15	13	14	14	15	17	15	-	156	15.6
9	Perris Synchronicity	16	19	17	15	15	15	12	15	17	13	-	154	15.4
10	Spaceland Thunder	15	19	15	16	15	15	13	15	16	13	-	152	15.2
11	Fastrax Select	16	17	15	15	15	15	11	14	14	13	-	145	14.5
12	Spark	14	18	13	15	14	16	13	13	14	14	-	144	14.4
12	GKOG	16	18	13	16	16	10	12	15	16	12	-	144	14.4
14	Arizona Directe	14	17	15	14	15	13	11	16	14	13	-	142	14.2
15	Aerodyne Mamba	14	14	12	13	11	13	12	11	13	12	-	125	12.5
16	Dallas Mojo	12	15	13	10	13	13	11	13	14	10	-	124	12.4
17	Element Perris	14	14	13	11	12	12	10	13	12	10	-	121	12.1
18	Kachina	10	14	10	11	11	12	9	10	13	10	-	110	11.0

---

NSL TV Unfiltered: USPA Nationals 2005

---