posted Aug 30th, 2005 - The 2005 national championship of Belgium was held on August 27 - 28, and it included the 4-way and 8-way Formation Skydiving competition. The three competition classes of the 4-way event were identical with the AAA, A and Rookie Class of the National Skydiving League.

Only three teams competed in the AAA Class, and the Belgian national 4-way team, Spa Hayabusa, did not have to work very hard to defend the title. This used to be different when the Belgian army team, NMPV, was a strong contender for the national 4-way championship, as well.

Seven teams competed in the A Class, and one team signed up for the Rookie Class. Three 8-way teams competed for the Belgian championship title. None of the army teams competed for any Formation Skydiving medals this year.

BelgianNationals 2005		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAAClass	EF 12 L	520 Q	N9 6	1413 O	2G 11	16D P 4	M19 18	21K B 1	1715 A	JH 22 8	Total	Avg
1	SpaHayabusa	21	20	26	15	17	22	20	19	18	20	198	19.8
2	Divas	12	12	15	10	11	11	11	10	12	12	116	11.6
3	Kom II Foo	7	8	11	7	9	6	9	8	6	8	79	7.9
Rank	AClass	D19	7C	921	NO F	BK 8	6L	OH 4	2E	MJ A	BJ 2	Total	Avg
1	ASAP	5	10	9	8	7	7	10	8	-	-	64	8.0
2	Sparadra	7	8	7	9	5	8	9	8	-	-	61	7.6
3	RedPeppers	7	9	7	9	7	5	7	9	-	-	60	7.5
4	SpaPlan B	5	8	6	10	8	7	7	6	-	-	57	7.1
5	EatMeatballs	5	8	6	9	6	7	6	8	-	-	55	6.9
6	Blackspeed	5	5	5	7	6	6	8	6	-	-	48	6.0
7	Puzzles	5	5	3	5	6	6	6	0	-	-	36	4.5
8	Meatballs	1	4	4	3	2	5	2	0	-	-	21	2.6
Rank	Rookie	OK C	MN H	EQ G	BD L	EO J	ME L F	MA P	EK F	-	-	Total	Avg
1	Skyrockets	1	1	0	2	0	1	1	0	-	-	13	2.2

The competition started on Saturday with perfect weather, and each team did six rounds. The remaining rounds were completed on Sunday. Two Cessna Caravan brought the teams to jump altitude.

Spa Hayabusa finished the 10-round meet with a 19.8 average, which is a new team record and also a new Belgian record fpr the highest meet average after ten rounds. Hayabusa member Roy Janssens reported that the team was going after the 20+ average. However, mistakes in the first and fourth round were in the way of this goal.

The European Skydiving League championship finals on the upcoming weekend are the last chance for Spa Hayabusa to score a 20+ average this season. Roy Janssens added: "The 20+ average was our team goal for this year. However, the general feeling about the last meet is good, and we feel that we are coming on stronger every time. There is still a lot of hard work to get us where we need to go."

Spa Hayabusa has been very efficient with the team's training efforts ever since the very beginning of the team. The 2005 season was the third year for the current line-up with David Grauwels, Andy Grauwels, Sven Ibens and Roy Janssens.

Spa Hayabusa has completed a total of approx. 700 training jumps in these three years and spent approx. 35 hours in wind tunnels, mostly the one in Paris, France. The 35 hours of tunnel time include the flying time as tunnel coaches.

Roy Janssens explained that Hayabusa did approx. 150 - 200 jumps the first year, added 250 jumps in 2004 and completed another 250 jumps this year. The team has great support at their home dropzone in Spa. However, the Belgian weather did not allow any team to train more then Spa Hayabusa did so far.

The team hopes for more in the near future and before next year's World Championship of Formation Skydiving in Germany.

The Hayabusa plans include two training camps in Eloy, Arizona, and many more jumps at home in Belgium. Hayabusa is limited to weekend training due to full time jobs of the team members during the week.

Unfortunately, Spa Hayabusa will not compete at the World Cup 2005 in Eloy in October. Roy Janssens said that the team does not have the resources to add another overseas trip to the schedule: "We will have to spend the money for the training next year." He also mentioned that the team's website provides additional up-to-date information.