posted Oct 17th, 2006 - It has been a quiet and interesting competition season for the Golden Knights in 2006. The NSL News introduced the new line-up for the 2006 season with the story on January 2. The new line-up included a female Army member, Angela Nichols, for the first time in the Golden Knights history, and the training agenda included many competitions.

The plans were completely different than the outcome at the beginning of the year, as team captain Brian "BK" Krause explained in the NSL News story on February 21. Next he had to look back at changes of the original plan and problems for the Army team this year when the team missed the season opener of the Carolina Skydiving League in April.

Brian Krause was still hopeful in April that the Golden Knights would be back in competition action later in the season. However, his team also missed the May and June meets in Carolina due to the same service obligations, but Brian Krause remained optimistic as of his team's plans for the remainder of the 2006 season. He still had the USPA Nationals 2006 and possibly the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2006 in mind.

Half a year later, and a week before the start of the USPA Nationals 2006, the situation at the Golden Knights headquarters has changed completely. The line-up is not the same as it was at the beginning of the 2006 season. Only Brian Krause, Matt Davidson and Larry Miller on camera are still current team members.

Kurt Isenbarger and Eric Heinsheimer are back in the team, and this world class line-up even attended the 32nd World Military Parachuting Championship (CISM) in July in Ryazan, Russia. The US team placed third overall, and it was no surprise that this line-up won the first place in 4-way, one of the three categories (Accuracy, Style, FS 4-way).

The rules and the dive pool of the military 4-way competition are different, and each jump begins with a Star as the exit formation. The working time begins with the break of the Star. One of the meet videos is posted on the internet and can be viewed by clicking here. It shows the new line-up in full action.

The quality level of the Golden Knights performance on this video is very similar to the standards of the last strong and experienced line-ups. Brian Krause, Matt Davidson and Larry Miller on camera competed together with John Hoover and Brooks Weiner in the exciting battle, including a jump-off with DeLand Fire, at the USPA Nationals 2005. Kurt Isenbarger was the alternate in Perris last year.

The new active 2006 members, Eric Heinsheimer and Kurt Isenbarger, have trained and competed together in 4-way and 8-way with the Golden Knights since 1999. They won the USPA Nationals 2002 and competed as the US national 4-way team at the Mondial 2003 in France where they won the silver medals behind France. They both retired after this event.

The current line-up for the USPA Nationals 2006 includes four of the most experienced 4-way competitors in the USA, and the video shows that the Golden Knights will probably in medal contention next week. The Golden Knights in Russia completed 32 points within 35 seconds. It was a fast sequence (M-J-Q-13) and did not include exit and a subterminal page. However, the team was on medal pace, at least in this competition jump.

Brian Krause does not think that the team has a realistic chance. The current line-up did not get enough training before the upcoming competition. He provided additional information of the current situation:

"The new line-up includes Matt Davidson, Kurt Isenbarger, Eric Heinsheimer and myself. Larry Miller will stay on board for video, and Sean Sweeney will be the alternate. We got together earlier this summer for the CISM competition, had some wind tunnel time and made 30 something jumps. We did a set and did very well, then went to Russia for the CISM competition.

After winning the 4-way event in Russia we decided to take this team to the USPA Nationals 2006. We have not jumped together for a few months but plan on making 20 jumps and some additional wind tunnel before the competition. Angela Nichols went back to the Style and Accuracy Team to fill her vacant position from earlier this year. She will complete the 4-person accuracy stack for the Golden Knights."

The new line-up will not be done after the USPA Nationals 2006. Brian Krause mentioned in April that the team might compete at the NSL Championship in November. However, the new plans reach even much farther than only until the end of the 2006 season. This very strong line-up has already plans for the 2007 season, as Brian Krause explains:

"We will have this team going full time in January 2007. We will start our winter training in February 2007 and finish it up with the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007. Eric is still assigned to the US Military Academy, but he will already compete with us in Eloy. Then he will be reassigned to us in January."

The results at the USPA Nationals 2006 are obviously not very important for the new Golden Knights line-up. The event serves more or less as a training and warm-up event. However, it will show how close to the other top contenders the Army team is without much training. It is quite unlikely that this line-up will allow much distance to the top positions.