posted Dec 17th, 2005 - The NSL News mentioned at earlier stories covering the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2005 that the other events of the annual event at Fantasy of Flight deserve additional attention, as well. Chris Hayes, event manager of the Fantasy Swoop, already provided his story for the NSL News on December 3.

The NSL News will continue to cover more details of the 4-way competition every time new rounds of NSL-TV will be uploaded. The 4-way teams were obviously able to complete all ten rounds of the event, even though the NSL Championship began officially Friday afternoon.

The participants of the other two events, BJ Worth's "Kaleidoscope Dives" and Guy Wright's "Team Elite", were already at Fantasy of Flight on Thursday, ready for a whole day of jumping. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate this year as it did in 2004. The larger formations require more clear skies than a 4-way load.

In fact, the size of the formations reflected exactly the different success of dealing with the inconsistent weather situation. The 4-way event management was able to send loads whenever there was enough visibility. Jump plane operator Paul Fayard and his staff was flexible enough to accommodate any requests and any weather situation, and the 4-way teams were eager to get in the air.

Guy Wright's Team Elite jumpers used two planes to make 45-ways and completed up to 13 of 20 planned jumps. The quality of the 2005 jumps was once again on a high level after the first successful Team Elite participation at SkyQuest 2004.

World Team organizer BJ Worth was facing the most challenging situation of all four events. His Kaleidoscope Divers needed four planes flying in formation to get the 100-ways into the skies over Fantasy of Flight. Such a large formation needs a lot of blue skies for safe spots and landings.

Roger Ponce has been doing a most professional job spotting the Kaleidoscope Dives at Fantasy of Flight ever since the inaugural event in 2001. He had another almost flawless record at SkyQuest 2005 and managed to drop the formations on top of the theme park and museum in Polk City six times during the 4-day event.

BJ Worth had planned a total of 17 challenging Kaleidoscope Dives for the 2005 event. The weather did not allow to get through the whole dive plan, and safety concerns have always been on top of the SkyQuest priority list ever since the very beginning of the annual event series in 2001. However, the quality of the jumps was on a higher level compared to the Kaleidoscope Dives in 2004, and the participants left Fantasy of Flight well prepared for the upcoming world record attempt in Thailand.

The Kaleidoscope Dives 2005 served to a certain extent as a warm-up opportunity for the World Team members who will travel to Thailand in February 2006. BJ Worth is currently in the middle of his final preparations for the new world record attempt of the largest freefall formation in history.

SkyQuest Florida offers an important advantage compared to other skydiving events in case of weather problems and delays. The event takes place at a unique location. Fantasy of Flight alone offers enough entertainment for any visitor at any given time of the year and charges a gate fee of $25 per day and visitor.

A very busy skydiving schedule usually does not allow the SkyQuest participants to enjoy the facilities as much as it is worth it. This time, the skydivers had enough time to take full advantage of the theme park visit, which is included in the SkyQuest participant package.

Fantasy of Flight's owner Kermit Weeks, a former world class aerobatics competitor and aircraft designer, enjoys to welcome the skydivers once per year at his unique facilities and always watches the different activities whenever he can. He also made his first skydive with a tandem jump at SkyQuest 2003.

The Fantasy of Flight staff had prepared an additional show for Saturday, which was publicized as the Family Day of SkyQuest 2005. The whole tarmac in front of the exhibition hangars was prepared to entertain kids and parents all day long, while parachutes were in the air at the same time. Not only the kids enjoyed the fun rides, several SkyQuest participants could be found in the middle of the playland, as well.

Team Elite and the Kaleidoscope Divers put some great formations and sequences into the skies over Fantasy of Flight, while the Fantasy Swoopers with the lowest required jump altitude entertained participants and visitors whenever the wind came from the right direction.

The coverage of the NSL Championship will continue, while more stories and footage of the other three events will be added randomly.