posted Sep 18th, 2011 - Two of the three Golden Knights lineups attended the August meet of the Carolina Skydiving League shortly after coming back from Germany where the female team and the Black lineup had competed at the World Cup 2011. Golden Knights Gold members were coaching and judging at the same event.

The last CASL meet of the 2011 season was hosted by the Raeford Parachute Center last weekend, and now it was time for the Gold lineup to put the first 4way outdoor scores on a leaderboard this year. The focus of the US Army team was on 8way this year, which worked out very well after bringing home the 8way gold medals from Germany and defeating the reigning world champions from France.

The most serious part of the 2011 season is over now, and the Golden Knights can enjoy the remainder of the 2011 season and have some fun in 4way, as well. It is unlikely that either Arizona Airspeed will be able to seriously challenge the Golden Knights in 8way at their annual reunion at the USPA Nationals or any other 8way team. However, the Gold lineup will still be challenged in the competition for 4way medals where Paraclete XP4, SDC Rhythm XP and Perris Fury are the other serious top contenders besides Airspeed. Both the Gold and the Black lineups posted impressive scores at their last test before the national championships.

CASL 2011 - September		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	17,5,16	L,A,9,21	20,15,2	19,M,1	Q,22,E,F	B,P,13,G	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights Gold	27	23	17	22	24	19	132	22.0
2	Golden Knights Black	22	20	15	17	18	17	109	18.2
3	Carolina Turbo XP	16	18	12	14	18	10	88	14.7
4	Team H	13	17	12	16	14	15	87	14.5
Rank	AA Class	21,2	L,A,9	20,15	19,M,1	Q,22,E	B,P,13	Total	Avg
1	TSC Ultra XP	10	13	9	11	10	10	63	10.5
2	Shenanigans	5	4	2	3	5	2	21	3.5
Rank	Rookie	O,N,D	L,A,H	C,J,K	M,L,B	Q,E,F	B,P,G	Total	Avg
1	VT Pon	3	3	1	6	-	-	13	3.3
2	Raeford	0	0	0	0	-	-	0	0.0

CASL Director Andy Honigbaum, Paraclete XP4's Center Outside, reported that the CASL teams and competitiors had a great end of the season event:

"We had eight teams at this one, four in the AAA/Open Class with a guest team from Australia, Team H. We would like to give a big thanks to Tim D'Annunzio who was our chief judge for the meet, Tony Thacker and the Raeford Parachute Center for providing us with everything we needed to run a nice smooth meet, and a big thanks to the Golden Knights for coming out on their time off and participating in the meet and helping out with coaching."

He said that Ryan McDaniel received the award to for best video at this meet and that Golden Knights videographer Scott Janise was honored for great video work at the previous meet in August. The Golden Knights won the 4way competition, but Andy Honigbaum said that the Army team is not allowed to receive a cash prize, so the Carolina Skydiving league donated the $100 cash prize to the Wounded Warrior Foundation.

World Cup 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Total	Avg
Rank	8way Open	7,M,15	8,14,D	5,18,J	B,9,2	Q,K,12,20	21,A,F,10	1,4,E	13,P,H,6	L,19,17	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	23	18	18	19	23	21	25	20	19	186	20.7
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	21	18	19	18	23	19	29	21	17	185	20.6
3	Sky Panthers Barkli	17	15	14 (-2)	17	16 (-3)	15 (-1)	19	19	15	147	16.3
4	Germany EADS	15 (-1)	13	14	9 (-4)	16	15	22	15	14	133	14.8
5	Switzerland VIVA	15	11	12	14	15	14	18	14	-	113	14.1
6	UK Brit Chicks	10 (-1)	10 (-1)	11	11	13	11	15	13	10	104	11.6
7	Germany Südwest	12	9 (-1)	8	10	11 (-1)	11	12 (-2)	12	11	96	10.7
8	Russia Phoenix 11	11	8	9 (-2)	11	10	11	9 (-3)	11	6	86	9.6
9	Netherlands M8Trix	8	6 (-1)	9 (-1)	6 (-2)	9 (-1)	8	9 (-2)	11	8	74	8.2
10	Germany Saar 8	7	7	4 (-2)	7	3 (-2)	5	5 (-3)	8	6	52	5.8

Andy Honigbaum then wrapped up the CASL 2011 season with a short summary:

"That was our third and final meet for the season. Overall I think we had a great competition season in the Carolinas. We had three successful meets with more teams that participated than the last few years. For next season we are looking to host six meets starting in May. Then we will launch tunnel league camps and meets in November. Stay tuned for details about the tunnel.

We are also working on bringing more fliers together in the tunnel over the winter to offer learning more opportunities about 4way and also individual flying. It's going to be fun, affordable, and a great chance for people to get together and fly with other people they might not have met on the DZ. We are hoping to generate a few more teams for the league by running these tunnel camps over the winter.

Our plan is for one camp per month starting on November 19/20. Spread the word, and all teams and competitors are welcome to join from all other leagues. One more big thanks to all of the competitors this year! If it wasn't for all of you we would not be able to do all of this fun stuff! Looking forward to the winter tunnel camps and a great season next year."

Interested skydivers can contact Andy Honigbaum or Jan Lane directly by e-mail or via the CASL Facebook page.