posted Nov 3rd, 2007 - Ellie McCoy caught the attention of the NSL News the first time when her 4-way team of teenager girls and younger trained in the SkyVenture Colorado windtunnel. The NSL News story on May 1 introduced the team, which was under the wings of Gary and Emma Beyer. The story included links to videos of the flying teenagers.

The NSL News story on June 27 followed up on the exciting earlier news and explained how original team member Ellie McCoy continued to train with Gary and Emma Beyer and Paul Gatling, a former Arizona Divewerkz member. This pure windtunnel team was called "Aeon".

The same story also included links to training videos that showed how Team Aeon copied some of the competition sequences of the World Challenge 2007 and was able to keep up with many of the real skydiving teams.

Team Aeon with teenager Ellie McCoy in the Point position became really serious in October 2007 and signed up for a windtunnel competition at SkyVenture Arizona, the "Gauntlet".

It was a 4-way money meet with a purse of $10,000 for the teams that signed up in the Pro Class competition.

There were only four teams that competed in the cash class, and Team Aeon had no chance to beat Airspeed Odyssey or Perris Fury. Odyssey won the $5,000 for the first place with a 26.1 average, and Perris Fury took the $3,000 for the second place with a 23.5 tunnel average.

However, Arizona Divewerkz was a very worthy opponent and gave Team Aeon a good run for the remaining cash. Aeon finished with an 18.2 average at the windtunnel competition, and Ellie McCoy happily accepted a check of $2,000 for her team, plus 20 minutes of free flying time.

This tunnel competition was only another step for Ellie in her windtunnel career. Team Aeon has plans for the future, as Emma Beyer reported:

"This was Aeon's first meet together, and it was good to see Ellie perform so well under pressure. The meet was really an opportunity for the team to prepare for the Bedford meet next April. We are now going to enter into the next phase of Aeon training, which includes flying at SkyVenture Arizona, in Raeford and at Bodyflight."

Bodyflight Bedford will once again hold the World Challenge 2008 in April next year, and Paraclete XP has plans for the next tunnel competition in 2008, as well. Emma's husband and Aeon teammate Gary Beyer added:

"I was really proud of Ellie. When she first saw how many spectators were there it took her breath away a bit, but when she started competing she was as calm as any competitor I've ever seen."

It sounds as if the NSL News will eventually meet Team Aeon and Ellie McCoy at one of the windtunnel competitions, which become more popular every year. The Aeon story will obviously continue.