posted Mar 7th, 2011 - The NSL News mentioned the Vertical Formation Skydiving competition at the Paraclete XP Indoor Skydiving Championships 2011 once during the live coverage, on 6 February 2011.

It was an update after Round 7 in the VFS 4-way competition where SDC Standard was three points ahead of Team4Speed. The same story included a video clip of the Best Trick competition in Freeflying.

The NSL News was actually planning to report the VFS 4-way competition more comprehensively. However, the traditional 4-way competition, including Arizona Airspeed's first appearance with the new lineup, kept the NSL News more than busy enough, and intelligent content information from other sources was not available. It is still never too late, and the leaderboard shows the final standings in the VFS Open Class.

Team	Rank	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Rd6	Rd7	Rd8	Total	Avg
SDC Standard	1	33	25	33	24	35	30	29	32	241	30.12
Team 4Speed XP	2	33	26	31	28	37	23	28	32	240	30.00
Arizona Arsenal	3	30	25	28	21	33	32	24	27	225	28.12
Antigravity XP	4	26	16	22	20	28	23	18	24	177	22.12
Arizona Drive	5	19	16	22	19	24	23	18	23	164	20.50

It was a world class field in this event, in fact, the best three VFS 4-way teams in the world competed in Raeford. SDC Standard is the reigning USPA champion of 2010 in this category. The lineup consists of Rook Nelson, Mike Wittenburg, Will Pesek and Mickey Nuttall. Dalton Samuelson is filming Standard at outdoor events.

Team4Speed, with Fred Nenet, Nicolas Ratier, Julien Guiho and Raphael Coudray, are the reigning world champions from France. Yannick Poletti was filming the team at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010. Philippe Schorno has guided the French national team to the gold medal level. He is a former 3-time world champion with the French TAG 4-way team of 1985, 1987 and 1989.

Arizona Arsenal, with Amy Chmelecki (Point), Steve Curtis (Inside Center), Ty Losey (Outside Center) and Jason Peters (Tail) was in 2nd place at last year's USPA Nationals, shortly behind Standard. Sara Curtis is filming the team in freefall.

The NSL Reality TV videos from eye level show very impressive flying skills of the VFS 4-way teams, even though it is kind of difficult to follow the scoring, due to the mostly 3-dimensional maneuvers.

The NSL News added a video from the judging perspective to this clip that shows the even more challenging job of the judges. The eye level perspective shows even more than what the judges can see on their screens. It was no surprise that it took a long time until the VFS scores were posted, and there were still quite a few disputes that were difficult to be resolved.

It is even more difficult to present the performance of VFS 4-way teams to the judges at an indoor meet. The team videographer can help to present the scoring formations properly to the judges in freefall, while the camera is static in the flying chamber. In fact, the VFS 4-way videographers are probably even more a crucial team member than in the traditional 4-way competition. Their flying skills must be at least as advanced as the ones of the scoring competitors.

However, it was eye candy to watch the VFS 4-way teams perform in the flying chamber, and the competition was just as exciting, as well. SDC Standard eventually rescued a 1-point advantage past the finish line.

The French team had a nasty Round 6 where they lost the round and the meet after being ahead for five rounds. The competition between the US team and France promises exciting competition in this event in the near future. Arizona Arsenal could not keep up with Standard this time.

The NSL-TV video clip finishes with a Freeflying big-way in the tunnel chamber. The NSL News did not count the number of freeflyers - but it was a very busy flying event. Vertical flying skills obviously save a lot of space in a windtunnel chamber, the visuals are very impressive.