posted Oct 22nd, 2010 - Back to the new Arizona Airspeed lineup after a short excursion to France. The story on 18 October 2010 broke the news, and the NSL News explained a day later how Mark Kirkby and Niklas Hemlin connected with Team Fastrax in 2006.

The story on 20 October 2010 followed up with the time that Niklas Hemlin and Thomas Hughes had together, also as members of Team Fastrax in 2007. However, Mark Kirkby, Niklas Hemlin and Thomas Hughes still never trained and competed together for Team Fastrax.

How did Mark Kirkby and Thomas Hughes connect with each other? Both were also Airspeed members in their times, but just as with Fastrax they never trained and competed together. Mark Kirkby was still on a break from Airspeed when Thomas Hughes joined the team for a year in 2006.

SkyQuest 2004		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	C-2-12	Q-P-L-6	B-M-7-17	J-4-5	14-D-21	A-15-8	O-N-E-19	3-11-13	H-K-18-G	1-20-22	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Blade	17	28	21	20	18	18	25	17	23	12	199	19.9
2	Punky Fish	16	23	22	18	14	16	24	15	21	14	183	18.3
3	DeLand Scape	15	24	22	17	16	16	21	15	19	13	178	17.8
4	Danez Denmark	15	20	20	17	16	14	19	15	17	10	163	16.3
5	Teiwaz	13	17	19	14	13	13	18	13	14	11	145	14.5
6	Optic Kurves	12	14	15	13	13	12	14	11	14	9	127	12.7

Mark Kirkby and Thomas Hughes had connected a few years earlier. The two Englishmen had joined forces as player coaches for Natasha Montgomery's player coach team in 2004, Arizona Blade.

Thomas Hughes' team of 2003, Sebastian XL, had discontinued after the 4th place at the World Meet 2003, and the Blade project kept Thomas Hughes busy the next year. Mark Kirkby had left Airspeed after the USPA Nationals 2003 and was available for other projects, as well.

Natasha Montgomery was infected by the 4-way bug and found Thomas Hughes and Mark Kirkby at the right time. She was well prepared for the next level after a season with player coach Brian Johnson. Mark Kirkby, Thomas Hughes and Robert "Robob" Healy then brought her up to high 4-way speed in 2004. The NSL-TV video shows Arizona Blade at the NSL Championship 2004.

Mark Kirkby and THomas Hughes with Arizona Blade at SkyQuest 2004

Blade had competed at the USPA Nationals 2004, as well, and posted an 18.5 average as a guest team since Thomas Hughes was not eligible after his World Meet 2003 with the British national team. Blade followed up with a 19.9 average at SkyQuest 2004.

Mark Kirkby and Thomas Hughes made approx. 700 jumps together with Blade in 2004. The team had an average of ten days of training each month and also attended the meets of the Southwest Skydiving League regularly.

Their coaching worked well for Natasha Montgomery. She continued with DeLand Fire in 2005 (Shannon Pilcher, Gary Smith, Ian Bobo) and Thomas Hughes was now filming the team, as he was not eligible for USPA medals. DeLand Fire first won at the USPA Nationals 2005 and then took the gold medals at the World Meet 2006 in Germany.

Mark Kirkby continued with other player coaching projects in 2005 when Arizona Blade was done. Then he visited Team Fastrax in 2006 and went back to Arizona in 2007. Thomas Hughes did his time with Airspeed Velocity in 2006 when DeLand Fire prepared for the World Meet 2006 without him and won a USPA gold medal in 8-way.

He did not compete at the World Meet 2006 and would now be eligible to compete for the US delegation at the World Meet 2008 if his new team of 2007, Fastrax, won the next USPA Nationals.

The two Englishmen trained and competed together the last and only time in 2004 before they now re-joined for Arizona Airspeed. The third new Airspeed member, Niklas Hemlin, is originally from Sweden and was a member of Swedish national teams long ago. He has not competed for the US delegation yet at a World Meet or World Cup. The same counts for the only US member, Josh Hall.

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