posted Nov 29th, 2006 - The AA Class competition at the NSL Championship 2006 featured an internal Air Force race between the cadets of CAD and 7XY. Both teams attended their 7th competition of the 2006 season. CAD competed at SkyQuest 2006 with the original line-up (Mike Bush - Outside Center, Joe Kreidel - Inside Center, Ryan Regan - Tail, Jon Vaage - Point, Steve Ramos - Video), while 7XY had to replace Caroline White with Matt Cunningham in the Center Outside position.

Each of the three AA Class teams, including bronze medalist DC3 from Virginia, enjoyed special attention at the last competition of the 2006 season in DeLand. Solly Williams, former 4-way world champion with DeLand Majik and 2006 USPA 4-way champion with DeLand Groove, and Pete Allum, bronze medalist at this year's World Meet in Germany with Italy's national team Sinapsi PD, served as event judges for the NSL Championship 2006.

Both 4-way veterans and world class competitors are also two of the most popular and successful coaches in the world. They did not only take additional time to carefully explain any judging issues to the participating teams. Solly Williams and Pete Allum also provided as much technical information as possible to help the teams prepare for the competition jumps. The six 4-way teams at this year's NSL Championship took advantage of this opportunity whenever time allowed.

The three teams of the AA Class competition had a pretty good idea how the leaderboard would look like before the competition began. Air Force CAD came to DeLand as the silver medalist of this year's USPA Nationals 2006 (13.1) and a 12.3 season average. 7XY placed 5th in Eloy (11.7) with a 10.8 season average. DC3 had a 6.6 season average in the books after the three meets of the regular VPC 2006 season.

Each of the three teams confirmed the previous scores almost exactly. Air Force CAD finished the 10-round competition in DeLand with a 13.0 average, 7XY ended up a few points below the season average (10.5), and DC3 had a 6.5 average on the scoreboard at the end of the meet.

It was not a big surprise to see both Air Force teams visit at SkyQuest 2006, as well. CAD and 7XY were obviously the most competitive teams of the AA Class 2006 season by attending a total of seven meets each. Only the CSC Sirens completed the same number of meets this year.

Once again, the scoring progression at the meets speaks its own language and shows how helpful the meet experience is. Air Force CAD (9.5 - 9.8 - 9.2 - 10.8 - 10.8 - 13.1 - 13.0) began the 2006 season with a 9.5 average at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2006 in February, attended four meets of the Colorado Skydiving League and the NSL Playoffs 2006 in May, June, August and September before competing for USPA gold medals in October.

Air Force 7XY (10.3 - 7.8 - 8.8 - 7.3 - 9.5 - 11.7 - 10.5) did not compete in February but attended each of the five COSL meets this year, then attended the USPA Nationals and finished the 2006 season at the NSL Championship.

The Air Force cadets really enjoyed the last event of their Air Force competition career in DeLand, as CAD member Mike Bush confirmed after being back at the Air Force Academy in Colorado: "SkyQuest was an absolute blast, we definitely enjoyed it and wish we could have stayed even longer! Thank you very much for having us."

SkyQuest 2006 was the end of an impressive 2-year cycle for the cadets. All team members of both line-ups are in the early 20's of age, except alternate Matt Cunningham who filled the open slot for 7XY. They made their first skydives in 2004, together with 200 other cadets, and were selected a few months later into a 60-member training group.

The line-up of the current teams was formed later during the skydiving training with this selected group. Then the 4-way training began in 2005 and included training camps in Colorado and at professional skydiving centers with experienced 4-way coaches. Air Force coach Bill Wenger supervises the whole project.

Both teams made no more than a few hundred training jumps this year and completed the 2-year skydiving career with impressive performances at the final events of the 2006 season.

Most of the team members do not really know yet where to go from here with their great experiences after these exciting two years. The professional career in the Air Force is currently more important than the next step in skydiving competition. However, the competition fun and the never ending progression is as addictive for the Air Force cadets as for other skydivers.

7XY's Center Inside, Abbie Crews, mentioned that she would like to continue with 4-way competition: "It is just difficult to find other people and form a new team." The Air Force Academy provides a very well organized structure, which does not require any recruiting efforts and not much management work from the cadets. They mostly have to perform well, and they did this year.

It was the fourth time that an Air Force team won the AA Class competition at the NSL Championship, as the champions page shows: Rick McClure, Jarrod Arandi, Patrick Kennedy, Rob Ice, Daniel Darnell (Video) in 2002; Joel Bier, Zach Fennell, Jalen Whitener, Charlie Goetz, Grant Adams (Video) in 2003; Pat Chapman, Joe Dawn, Brandon Felker, Matt Tuchscher, Marty Jones (Video) in 2005. The AA Class trophy went back to Colorado once again this year.

Each of these line-ups had new members, as the names show, since the 2-year cycle is always the same. The Air Force Academy has obviously created a lot of talented and skilled 4-way competitors. Hopefully, many of the former cadets will find their way back into 4-way competition eventually.

Arizona Divewerkz member Cindy Nieves is a great example for an Air Force cadet who continued after the end of the training cycle at the academy. Her skills and talent were obviously detected by her new team. She already won the gold medals at this year's USPA Nationals in the Advanced Class, and AZDW is not done yet.

Abbie Crews is now looking for the right opportunity to move on, and other former cadets will hopefully follow as soon as the professional careers are in place and order. The Colorado Skydiving League is probably a good place to start looking for opportunities, COSL Director Travis Roth has his network in place.

The most exciting event of the NSL Championship 2006 came at the very end for the CAD members, as Mike Bush also confirmed later. The NSL management had invited Natasha Montgomery, the first female 4-way world champion in the Open Class competition after the World Meet 2006, to hand out the medals to the teams in DeLand.

The former DeLand Fire member agreed and honored the award ceremony with her presence. The Air Force CAD members were proud to have a special photo opportunity with Natasha Montgomery and honored her own unique achievement their way. The award ceremony with the world champion concluded a great trip to Florida for the Air Force teams.