posted Sep 2nd, 2005 - The NSL News story on September 1 began with the preview of the 4-way AAA/Open Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2005. DeLand Fire and the Golden Knights were the first two teams in the spotlight, this story continues with two other contenders of the BIG-6, the two 4-way line-ups of Arizona Airspeed, Odyssey and Velocity. The preview will be completed later with the two remaining top contenders, Fastrax and DeLand Majik.

Top teams in 2005	SSL February	FSL March	SSL April	MESL May	MESL June	Malevsky July	MESL July	Germany August	NSL August
DeLand Fire	-	20.7 (10)	-	-	-	21.6 (10)	-	21.2 (10)	-
Golden Knights	20.2 (6)	20.4 (10)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Airspeed Odyssey	19.5 (6)	-	20.8 (6)	-	-	20.4 (10)	-	-	20.3 (6)
Fastrax	-	18.3 (10)	-	16.3 (6)	22.8 (6)	19.9 (10)	19.0 (6)	-	-
Airspeed Velocity	18.7 (6)	-	22.8 (6)	-	-	20.2 (10)	-	-	18.2 (6)
DeLand Majik	-	19.3 (10)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Airspeed Odyssey currently holds the third place in the AAA Class Rankings of the National Skydiving League after attending two meets of the regular season and the NSL Playoffs 2005. Airspeed Odyssey also competed at the Malevsky Cup 2005 and finished in second place of the July meet in Russia.

As their 8-way teammates of Airspeed Velocity, Andy Delk, Craig Girard, Brian Johnson, Eliana Rodriguez and Will Pesek (camera) have to deal with two events and split up the training jumps in 2005 between 4-way and 8-way. Craig Girard and Eliana Rodriguez have been doing this for a few years with great success. Craig Girard has already won world championship gold medals in 4-way and 8-way, while Eliana Rodriguez won her first 8-way gold in Croatia 2004.

However, the Airspeed focus was more on 8-way in 2003 and 2004. The plans for the 2005 season brought a significant change, as Craig Girard explained in the NSL News story on January 7. Airspeed decided to put equal efforts into 4-way and 8-way and try to win both events at the USPA Nationals 2005.

The two new Airspeed 2005 members, Brian Johnson and Andy Delk, both ended up in Craig Girard's 4-way line-up of Airspeed Odyssey. They were already experienced and highly talented 4-way competitors when they were invited to join Airspeed and had to learn mostly more about 8-way. Andy Delk had previous 8-way experiences with Dan BC's team Vengeance.

Airspeed was also hoping that the internal competition between Odyssey and Velocity would constantly push both 4-way line-ups to higher levels, while they enjoyed the 8-way training together. This concept seemed to work well throughout the 2005 season. Airspeed Odyssey and Velocity took turns in beating their friends and developed a healthy internal competition.

Odyssey took the lead (19.5 - 18.7) at the first meet of the season in February, the SSL Valentine's Meet, and Velocity fought back very strongly (22.8 - 20.8) at the SSL April meet. It seemed as if both teams had arrived at a very similar performance level at the Malevsky Cup in July, where Odyssey placed second (20.4) and Velocity (20.2) ended up in third place.

The last test came with the NSL Playoffs 2005 in August, and the two Airspeed 4-ways had separated once again. Odyssey posted excellent scores and finished the slow 6-round meet with a promising 20.3 average, while Velocity ended up far behind Odyssey (18.2) and below expectations.

Both August results will not change anything in the Airspeed quarters. Odyssey's motivation and spirits probably received an additional boost if the remaining four rounds of the 6-round performance in August were as successful as the first six jumps. The Velocity members are world champion veterans who cannot be shaken much by anything.

Kirk Verner and Neal Houston have been competing on the very top of the world almost for decades. Dennis Rook and Andy Honigbaum are younger Airspeed members, however, they are both already completing their third year in Arizona, and the Airspeed veterans know how to forward their incredible amount of knowledge and experience successfully to any new members.

The Velocity line-up posted a 22.8 meet average over six rounds back in April. The team members know very well of the team's potential, and the best performance of the 2005 season might happen next week.

The questions behind both Airspeed 4-way line-ups are mostly related to the double duties throughout the 2005 season and in Perris next week. Did Odyssey and Velocity get enough specific 4-way training to compete seriously with the four other 4-way experts? Do both events technically support each other or interfere? How much can the recent 8-way threat by the Golden Knights bother the Airspeed members, if at all?

The story continues later with the two remaining 4-way challengers of the BIG-6, Fastrax and DeLand Majik.