posted Mar 6th, 2007 - The NSL Schedule of Events for the 2007 season includes a new competition. The NSL News will travel to Great Britain in April and cover the 2nd annual wind tunnel competition at Bodyflight Bedford, the World Challenge 2007 on April 7/8.

Many teams have already provided the NSL News with very positive feedback of the wind tunnel in Bedford, including the competition in 2006. Team Fastrax even posted a story of their own experiences at the Bodyflight tunnel after a training camp in Bedford last year. Fastrax had only the best things to say:

"On May 16, 2006 Team Fastrax crossed the pond to visit our brothers in the United Kingdom. We had heard comments from a team that visited the Bodyflight wind tunnel; they said it was no different than the tunnels in the United States. We wanted to find out first hand so we scheduled a camp to the UK. The Bodyflight tunnel is located within an old military research compound that was built in the 50’s and used for testing aircraft spin rates, it was built to create turbulence free airflow. The perfect air!"

Team Fastrax is currently one of the hardest training teams in the world and very familiar with many different training facilities. All team members of 2006 and 2007 have trained in several different wind tunnels and know how the air for the training flows and feels like. They experienced the best air in Bedford:

"The air itself is pure and turbulence free. During our seven hours of flight it never choked once and our levels never fluctuated. We were able to perform 2 minutes of great skydiving because the air was always dialed in. It would have taken us ten hours of tunnel time at any other tunnel in the world to accomplish the quality of training we performed in seven hours in the Bodyflight tunnel. Every part of the design is about efficiency, getting in and out is easy and there is plenty of space to dirt dive the next session."

These conditions made it possible for Bodyflight Bedford to put together a competition that offers identical air flow for the participating teams. Of course, the size of the tunnel needs to accommodate the techniques for all 22 blocks if the whole dive pool is applied. Team Fastrax confirmed this important factor, as well:

"We were able to turn every block in the Bedford tunnel. Block one was a little cheated, other than that we could perform every variation of a draw possible."

The tunnel competition also requires proper judging, which is obviously guaranteed at the World Challenge 2007 in different ways. First of all, the judges can watch the competition jumps live and right in front of their eyes. Cameras with views from different angles back up for the judges, as Fastrax reported by then:

"The tunnel itself is 16’2" across, perfectly round with three different camera angles, one of which is located dead center with a high resolution. The angles are the best we have seen for viewing and debriefing your dives."

The environment for the high-profile competition at Bodyflight Beford in April also makes it easy for the teams and competitors to spend the whole day at the facilities, while the competition continues without interruption. The tunnel is configured in a way that allows flyers to exit at any time and get something to eat, drink or relax without shutting the tunnel down.

Last not least, the World Challenge 2007 offers a jackpot of more than £20,000 for the winning teams. Airspeed Odyssey (£4,000), Spa Hayabusa (£2,000), Team 42 (£1,500), Fast + Furious (£500) won the 4-way cash last year. Odyssey and Hayabusa will be back and go after the prize money again this year. The NSL News will follow up with more information.