posted Apr 17th, 2011 - The NSL News story on 15 April 2011 promised an update of the "Flight of the Phoenix" on Sunday after the first attempts were covered on Friday.

Not much happened on Saturday, as the weather did not cooperate very well. The 192 big-way fans from many different countries made only two jumps. However, those attempts were promising. The Phoenix was not completed by then, and the project continued on Sunday.

The weather was perfect today, and the stage was set for a successful big-way day, while several 4-way teams tried to get their own training jumps in. The cooperation worked well enough, as some of the teams completed 12 training jumps at the same time.

The NSL News visited at Skydive DeLand when the Phoenix participants were struggling with the Big Bird. The design of the 192-way formation began to take shape in freefall, and parts of the Phoenix could easily be identified, including the eye, which is a 1-way job performed by Alia Veselov whose husband is filming her and has provided the freefall footage for the NSL News.

The greatest news came by the end of the day. The hard work and patience of the participants, team captains and BJ Worth were rewarded at the last jump of the day and of the Phoenix weekend. The bird was flying with all feathers on Sunday evening. It was a complete formation.

The NSL News will hopefully be able to follow up with the footage of the successful attempt very soon.