posted Aug 22nd, 2016 - Three more national teams competed last weekend and will soon travel to the U.S.A. and represent their countries at the Mondial 2016.

The UK Nationals 2016 feature British 4-way Open Class team Satori XL and 4-way Women team NFTO one month before the World Championship of Formation Skydiving at the Mondial 2016. H4O also visited from Ireland before the upcoming trip to Skydive Chicago.

Bad weather did not allow the completion of the national championships at Skydive Hibaldstow, and the British 4-way teams have to come back this weekend to complete the 4-way meet, while the 8-way teams have their turn at the same time. Roving Reporter Joey Jones, powered by Sun Path Products, is back home in England to compete with his team 4mula, and he provided more details from the 4th national championship event that he visited this year.

UK Nationals 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		22,B,8	L,C,10,14	19,H,E,7	12,11,16	N,J,4,G	20,18,5	Q,O,A,15	3,6,M	D,F,P,K,2	1,17,21	Total	Avg
1	Satori XL	UK	17	20	26	15	22	17	25	-	-	-	142	20.3
2	4mula	UK	15	18	22	15	20	15	24	-	-	-	129	18.4
3	Eclipse	UK	15	17	19	13	22	14	20	-	-	-	120	17.1
4	NFTO	UK	15	16	19	14	20	14	21	-	-	-	119	17.0
5	Chimera	UK	15	16	19	13	18	13	17	-	-	-	111	15.9
6	Vision 99	UK	15	17	22	16	14	22	0	-	-	-	106	15.1
7	Phoenix	UK	13	12	19	12	18	11	16	-	-	-	101	14.4
8	Antimatter	UK	14	14	16	11	15	11	18	-	-	-	99	14.1
9	H4O	IE	11	13	17	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	53	13.3
10	Eros	UK	11	13	13	12	16	10	16	-	-	-	91	13.0
11	Unicornmagic Flytastic	UK	10	12	15	9	15	10	16	-	-	-	87	12.4
11	Helios	UK	12	11	17	11	13	8	15	-	-	-	87	12.4
13	Revolution	UK	10	12	18	9	13	8	14	-	-	-	84	12.0
14	Skyfool	UK	6	11	12	10	11	15	12	-	-	-	77	11.0
15	ACM	UK	10	12	17	11	17	9	-	-	-	-	76	12.7
16	Aurora Blue	UK	9	10	13	7	12	8	11	-	-	-	70	10.0
17	Slot Us In	UK	9	9	11	6	11	7	9	-	-	-	62	8.9
18	Fr4gment	UK	9	7	12	5	6	5	10	-	-	-	54	7.7
19	Mental Blox	UK	6	6	11	6	9	6	8	-	-	-	52	7.4
20	PTW	UK	6	8	3	7	7	6	8	-	-	-	45	6.4

"It is also my largest nationals of the year with 56 registered teams. The weather is looking shocking, the wind is blowing like crazy and it does not look too calm until tomorrow. There is lots of tea drinking, card playing, video watching going on. I hope we get a break with the weather, let the Hib machine loose and get this meet going."

Joey Jones did a few interviews with AAA Class teams on the weekend to find out how their seasons have gone so far. He said that reigning national team Satori XL is the definite favorite. They have been training quite a bit this season at both Skydive Hibaldstow and in the Algarve. They have completed approx. 350 jumps and plan another 100 before the Mondial in Chicago:

"They are feeling good but wish they had hit closer to their 600-jump target. It seems the weather has bitten into everyone's plans this season. Julia said they are looking to get into that 22-average range and peak in Chicago using this meet as a training meet."

UK Nationals 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	JO	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		22,B,8	L,C,14	19,H,E	7,11	N,J,4	G,20,18	Q,O,A,15	6,M,D	F,P,K,2	Total	Avg
1	Tyanno4us Rex	UK	10	10	12	9	14	-	-	-	-	55	11.0
2	RAFSPA Lightning	UK	10	9	11	10	11	-	-	-	-	51	10.2
3	Tyrano4them Rex	UK	9	7	10	9	10	-	-	-	-	45	9.0
4	Vanilla Sky	UK	8	7	10	9	10	-	-	-	-	44	8.8
5	Kesshin	UK	9	7	9	9	9	-	-	-	-	43	8.6
6	Helix	UK	9	9	3	7	9	-	-	-	-	37	7.4
7	Where's Kel?	UK	5	7	6	3	6	-	-	-	-	27	5.4
8	ChatterChimps	UK	6	2	5	6	6	-	-	-	-	25	5.0

He said that Eclipse, last year's 5th place team, has completed 70 jumps and eight hours of tunnel time, all with rigs:

"Hard Core! This is also their 7th year together, and they think they have almost 700 jumps together. For Jenny and Ben, Eclipse team jumps constitute over 70% of their total skydives. ACM's lineup is identical with Raykipo of two years ago. They have completed six jumps and one hour of tunnel time this year and are looking for a fun reunion and see what happens.

"Newly formed team Chimera has been training hard this season. They completed 14 hours in the tunnel, lots of it with rigs, as well as 120 jumps. They planned 200 but the UK weather got 'em! They showed well at the first UKSL meet and are hoping to hit the 17-average mark this weekend or maybe next weekend..."

UK Nationals 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	JO	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		B,8	L,C,19	H,E,7	N,J,4	G,Q,O	A,6	M,D,F	P,K,2	21,9	Total	Avg
1	Viento 99	UK	9	8	12	9	10	-	-	-	-	48	9.6
1	Colostomy	UK	8	7	11	10	12	-	-	-	-	48	9.6
3	Dive Hard 4.0	UK	11	8	9	8	11	-	-	-	-	47	9.4
4	Team TBC	UK	7	4	10	9	13	-	-	-	-	43	8.6
4	Blue Steel	UK	8	7	10	10	8	-	-	-	-	43	8.6
6	4Tune	UK	6	7	13	6	10	-	-	-	-	42	8.4
7	Skybolt	UK	9	9	4	7	12	-	-	-	-	41	8.2
7	Fall Play	UK	10	3	12	9	7	-	-	-	-	41	8.2
9	99 Problems but a Beech Aint One	UK	8	8	11	7	6	-	-	-	-	40	8.0
10	Tempest	UK	6	5	11	8	9	-	-	-	-	39	7.8
10	ChatterChaps	UK	7	8	11	5	8	-	-	-	-	39	7.8
12	Doesn't Matter	UK	7	5	12	4	9	-	-	-	-	37	7.4
13	Triceroblox	UK	6	7	10	5	8	-	-	-	-	36	7.2
14	Falling Stones	UK	4	7	7	6	7	-	-	-	-	31	6.2
15	Go4tz	UK	4	3	6	5	3	-	-	-	-	21	4.2
16	Ice Bank Mice Elf	UK	0	7	7	0	-	-	-	-	-	14	3.5

Joey Jones said that last year's bronze medal team Vision 99 has added experienced competitor and coach, former XL member Steve Hamilton, to their lineup:

"Si Guest had to leave the team due to military commitments. They did eight hours of tunnel training and only 90 of 200 planned training jumps at Skydive Buza from the Beach 99. Despite the fast aircraft, they were also brought down by the unpredictable UK weather. Should be interesting to see how Steve's experience in the middle helps the team.

He finished up the AAA Class coverage with his own Team 4mula: "Last year's silver medal team, and the one I am both playing with and coaching, also had a member change. Renata left the team due to family commitments and Sian Stokes filled in this year. Sian works in the Algarve, so it made training a bit difficult. We did manage to squeeze in approx. 110 jumps at Skydive Langar and another 20 here before the meet. We are feeling good and hoping to hit the 19+ average mark at the meet.

UK Nationals 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	JO	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie		B,L,C	H,E,N	J,G,Q	O,A,M	D,F,P	K,Q,N	A,B,F	M,C,D	O,G,L	Total	Avg
1	Lightning Ducks	UK	11	10	7	10	9	8	-	-	-	55	9.2
2	Trojan Rabbits	UK	6	10	7	11	7	5	-	-	-	46	7.7
3	Fourgasm	UK	6	8	6	15	8	-	-	-	-	43	8.6
4	Fat Birds Can't Fly	UK	4	8	6	9	7	7	-	-	-	41	6.8
5	RAFSPA Raptor	UK	6	7	4	10	5	6	-	-	-	38	6.3
6	Pajama Pumas	UK	5	7	6	6	5	7	-	-	-	36	6.0
7	AGC Red	UK	5	6	7	5	6	5	-	-	-	34	5.7
8	4loceraptor	UK	3	3	6	8	1	6	-	-	-	27	4.5
9	Doodlebugs	UK	4	5	4	10	-	-	-	-	-	23	5.8
10	Deep Spot	UK	2	4	2	5	2	1	-	-	-	16	2.7
11	HSC 4ney Gorillas	UK	2	0	2	4	1	1	-	-	-	10	1.7
12	Dodos	UK	1	1	0	2	-	-	-	-	-	4	1.0

Joey Jones had a separate story for the 4-way Women competition, as well: "There are three teams this year in the female category. Leading the way is NFTO. They have been training in Empuriabrava this year with coach Gary Smith and indoor with HayaBusa's Dennis Praet in the winter. They completed 250 jumps and about 10 hours of tunnel time. They are looking at the nationals as a training meet for Chicago and will have one more training session before the Mondial.

"The other team is called Unicorn Magic Flytastic. It's a pick-up team with Lynne Murray, Rai Ahmed, Helen Honeybone and Debbie Lamsley. They are all experienced competitors and should be fun to watch. There is also a third team, PTW, with some big plans for the future. They are looking to gain a slot for the World Cup next year and plan on making 10 hours of tunnel and 100 jumps. It looks like the UK might get back to their former glory in the female category with so many teams training now and for the future.

"Guest team H4O from Ireland is looking to break the Irish national record of 12.9 this week. They have worked hard this season making 150 jumps with coach Steve Hamilton and 10 hours of tunnel time. May the Irish luck shine on them and let's see some records fall this weekend or next..!