posted Mar 9th, 2005 - The NSL News introduced Team Fastrax in detail with the story on January 22, 2005 (Team Fastrax trains outside the box). The information for the story was collected at a meeting with the team at SkyVenture Orlando. The original NSL News plan was a visit at the Florida Skydiving Center the same day to observe a Fastrax training day. The inclement weather situation did not allow any jumping that day, and NSL News and the Fastrax members met in Orlando.

The story of January 22 offered insights of the Fastrax operation and training plan. However, the information of the meeting at SkyVenture Orlando explained Fastrax' training "outside the box" only in theory. The NSL News was still interested in eye witnessing a Fastrax training day.

The opportunity came back with the next Fastrax training camp in February at the same location. The weather was cooperating perfectly this time, and the NSL News once again hit the road from DeLand toward Lake Wales. This visit was also an opportunity to meet Fastrax Select and follow up with a story ("The profiles of the Fastrax Select members are no secret any longer").

The NSL News arrived at the Florida Skydiving Center on Thursday, February 17, in the early afternoon. It was the first visit for the NSL News since the 2004 hurricane season, which had a devastating impact on the drop zone in Lale Wales. The Florida Skydiving Center has hosted several Florida Skydiving Lague events in the past years and the USPA Championship in 2003. Windline Lightning and FSC JAMMM were local teams of the Florida Skydiving Lague in 2003 and 2004.

There is nothing left of the 2003 facilities but a few little trees that survived the storms. The new hangar still needs to be built and is in the planning phase. The Florida Skydiving Center's management has set up a temporary center of operations at a different location, which is closer to the airport's entrance.

Team Fastrax has its own center of operations, which is closer to the location of the drop zone before last year's hurricane season. Fastrax leases a Twinotter for the training camps and sets up the headquarters right next to the taxi way. Landing and boarding area are identical, the Fastrax team truck with air condition, meeting and debriefing facilities is parked in the landing and boarding area. A tent for the packers is set up next to the team truck.

Team Fastrax had completed 16 training jumps at the time when the NSL News arrived. Another block of ten more jumps was on the agenda for the remainder of the day. Both Team Fastrax and Fastrax Select completed these ten jumps without a break or a shut-down of the Twinotter's engines.

Fastrax members said that they had a slow start that day. Eric Gin had an out-landing early in the morning, and it took him a while to find his way out of the Florida swamps. The team enjoyed telling the story and making fun of the circumstances. They were not really stressed over the slow start. Fastrax had already completed 125 jumps since Monday. The additional ten jumps of the day and another training day would easily bring the week's total number to 150.

Player coach Niklas Hemlin explained that the team was working on the pace this week by using specific speed sequences. Fastrax also jumped the sequences of the SSL Valentine's Meet and was happy with the results. The daily procedure finishes with debriefing and a "pass the rock" session.

The doors to the Fastrax truck were open for the NSL News at any time, including a debriefing session and the final meeting of the day. The NSL News used the opportunity to add some more questions to the earlier ones, which were answered by Fastrax for the January story.

The new questions were related directly to the rule changes. The Fastrax members had not provided their feedback until the NSL News visit in February.

Fastrax has no problems with the new rules and the dive pool. The team thinks that the changes seem to make the dive pool a little bit faster. "The new Block 5 is almost too easy, while the new Block 12 is challenging," mentioned Billy Andrews who is also the only team member who does not like the Star as a Random Formation. His teammates enjoy teezing him with his special feelings about the Star and created a customized design for his helmet. John Hart demonstrated the team's special humor when he added: "I like the Star since it makes Billy angry."

Eric Gin does not understand why the penalty rules were changed. He sees a discrepancy between the purpose of the changes and the possible results. "Teams will not skydive cleaner now, so judging will not become easier. There was no need for reduced penalties. I can see no other serious impact except higher scores."

The NSL News also asked for the techniques that Fastrax uses for the new block maneuvers. John Hart said that the final decision about Block 5 (Opal - Opal) will be made after the next tunnel training: "However, everything speaks for rotating the pieces forward with little sheering translation."

Fastrax tried different techniques for the new Block 12 (Bundy - Bundy) and voted for the forward rotation and the same technique that both Airspeed 4-ways and the Golden Knights applied at the Valentine's Meet. Fastrax' rear piece usually still waits for the front piece, and the team plans to find a better way to share the work between both pieces. All members agreed that the new Block 12 is surely faster than Zipper - Star.

The NSL News was interested in Fastrax reactions after the announcement of the new DeLand Majik line-up. All team members thought that it was exciting to have another team joining the top competition in the country. John Hart expressed the team's feelings: "The talent of Majik's new line-up is great. However, it is a new team, and they will still have to build a new foundation. Now we will have six teams shooting for a 20-plus average. That is very exciting."

The next question was related to the first scores of the 2005 season at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2005. The Golden Knights Black team had posted a 20.2 average at the relatively slow 6-round meet. Airspeed Odyssey finished with 19.5 and Airspeed Velocity with a 18.7 average in Eloy.

The Fastrax members said that these scores were very impressive. The great progress of both Airspeed line-ups in a very short time period caught special Fastrax attention: "The Golden Knights don't seem to be the big favorite any longer. Their advantage of a head start seems to have vanished, it will be a tight race for everybody," mentioned Eric Gin.

The NSL News was also interested in the reasoning and the story behind John Hart's decision to sponsor the current Fastrax Select line-up with Michelle Carlstrom, Elisa Behnk, Kris Byrne and Tammi Rettig. Hart explained that the future team members approached Fastrax at the USPA Championship 2004 in Perris.

He had already thought earlier about the creation of an all-female Fastrax team: "We had discussed a female team for Team Fastrax earlier. However, it did not work out last year. There has not been any competition in this class. Fastrax wants to support competition. So there should be multiple competition in the female class, too."

The approach in Perris obviously found an open door. Hart also had a good feeling when he met the future team members: "This team has a lot of energy. I am sure they will compete for the gold medal this year. However, they have to work hard with the same Fastrax training program. Our goal is to demonstrate the success of the training program and the project."

The Fastrax project includes different ways of training for skydiving competition. John Hart has a vision for the future of 4-way competition in the country: "Fastrax offers a different way of training. There have been Formation Skydiving dynasties in the past, like Airspeed and the Golden Knights. Majik seems to be building a new dynasty. We want to begin with a Fastrax dynasty, as well. Fastrax Select fits right into this project."