posted May 22nd, 2007 - The scores of three different meets last weekend (Denmark, Florida, Northern Plains) have already been posted, and the meet stories will follow. Additional scores from Finland and Carolina will be posted as soon as they are available. The weather at the Cross Keys did not allow the teams of the MidAtlantic Skydiving League to get in the air.

The Northern Plains Skydiving League had a hard time to get the meet started on Saturday. In fact, NPSL Director Sandy Grillet and guest coach Robert Chromy had planned training activities already for the Friday prior to the competiton.

Skydive Chicago's Twinotter arrived in time on Friday. However, the arrival landing at Skydive Iowa broke the cable that steers the front wheel of the meet's jump plane. The Friday was now desperately needed to find a replacement part anywhere in the country.

Skydive Chicago's owner Rook Nelson succeeded in finding the needed part in Florida, from where it was instantly sent to Iowa. The Twinotter was repaired Saturday morning, and the NPSL teams completed all six rounds the same day.

Sandy Grillet and Robert Chromy could not use the Twinotter on Friday for any training purposes and spent most of the day with seminars and workshops. Some local skydivers still wanted to experiment with the new information and used the Cessna to get in the air and fly the Mantis position. Robert Chromy reported that some of the locals were impressed how much quicker they could move now.

Teams and videographers got busy Saturday morning. There were two teams in each competition classes, except the Rookie Class. The teams in the AAA and AA Class came back from the 2006 season, while the A Class saw a repeat offender (I Don't Know) and a very new NPSL line-up (Foie Gras).

Gang Green is a familiar team name in the AAA Class of the Northern Plains Skydiving League. Miles Hubbard and Bob Stumm recuited two new members for the first 2007 meet: Todd Jacobson and Brian Polzay.

Good Game consists of two Fast Forward members of 2006: Bill Rehm and Steve Blake. 4-way veteran Jon Arnold had competed with NPSL line-ups randomly in 2005 and 2006 and joined Good Game last weekend. Mike Giliou is the newest member of the NPSL community in the AAA Class.

Microburst and Cockeyed continued with their friendly rivalry at the first NPSL 2007 meet, and both teams had changes in their line-ups. Microburst 2006 members Sandy Grillet and Cliff Roy teamed up with Jim Perkins and Mark Ferrell for the season opener.

Wendy and Mike Oolman carried on with the Cockeyed tradition. Their son Aaric missed last weekend's competition and was replaced by last year's Cockeyed videographer, Mark Wagner. Kenny Flint completed the line-up.

NPSL coach Robert Chromy reported that the local videographers had an extremely busy day. Karl Eakins and Chris Erickson filmed all teams whenver they were needed, and Mark Hubbs completed the video job with A Class team Foie Gras.

Foie Gras, with Tanya Graves, Tasha Hermermann, Elliott Kelley and Roland Sardeson, joined the NPSL 4-way community in the A Class at their first 4-way competition and won the first place with a 3.8 average.

I Don't Know came back from the four meets of the NPSL 2006 season with exactly the same line-up and had a much better start. Eric Blair, Marcus Burnham, Scott Dalby and Troy Johnson had posted a 1.2 average at the first meet of the NPSL 2006 season. The same line-up finished the 2006 season with a 4.0 average at NPSL Meet 4. I Don't Know of 2007 now opened the season with a 3.2 average, which included two low scores in the last two rounds (1 - 0). There seems to be a third NPSL battle on the way, one in each competition class.