posted Apr 23rd, 2014 - Australia's national 4way team of the past years, Rotor Out, was founded in 2009. None of the original members (Steph Bensley, Jens Goennemann, Gary Nemirovsky, Darren Pearson, with Darren Griggs on camera) are neither in the current lineup nor won the national championships last week.

Current team member Craig Vaughan's wife Steph and Gary Nemirovsky were the last original Rotor Out members who stepped down after last year's national championships. However, the Rotor Out team project has continued, and the 2014 lineup (Craig Vaughan - Center Inside, George Attard - Center Outside, Simon DiSciasio - Tail, Rob Thompson - Point, Dan Rossi - Camera) will represent Australia at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014.

The previous Rotor Out lineup (Stephanie Vaughan, Craig Vaughan, Gary Nemirovsky, George Attard, Patrick Nygren on camera) had an exciting competition at the Mondial Dubai 2012 where they made the Top 10 and competed hard for a slot in the finals and Round 10.

Mondial Dubai 2012		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Open Class	5,12,E	6,D,B,K	O,8,7	N,13,18	10,21,M	19,H,11	C,G,1,A	20,9,15	16,F,P,Q	Total	Avg
7	Ex3mo 4 (IT)	17(-1)	24(-2)	20	14	17	19	22	18(-1)	28(-1)	179	19.9
8	Paratec-Saar (DE)	18	26	21	13	14(-2)	16(-1)	21(-3)	18	30(-1)	177	19.7
9	Rotor Out (AU)	14(-2)	25(-1)	18(-1)	15	17	18	22(-1)	17	28	174	19.3
10	Bardagi (SE)	17	26	20	14	16	15(-2)	23	17(-2)	24(-2)	172	19.1

Craig Vaughan and George Attard have recruited one of their old team mates of team Black in 2009/10, Simon DiSciasio, who tried together to defeat the Rotor Out lineup of those years. 4th member of the new 2014 lineup is Rob Thompson who trained and competed with Big H, the main opponent for Rotor Out at the national championships in 2012. Andy Honigbaum was Big H's player coach.

Rotor Out also has a new team videographer with Dan Rossi after Patrick Nygren returned to Sweden. The new lineup brought new slots for all team members, and coach Shannon Pilcher helped the team once again to sort out the pieces and techniques.

The new lineup completed four hours of indoor training at iFLY Singapore and approx. 90 training jumps before the national championships and the 17.1 average last week. Rotor Out did not have much domestic competition, and the 17.1 average was a good start into the world meet year.

Australian Nationals 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Open Class	2,10,12	G,Q,D,16	B,M,13,C	17,21,N	19,14,5	O,H,E,3	L,20,9	11,1,8	15,22,4	A,F,6,P	Total	Avg
1	Rotor Out (AU)	12	18	20	17	15	23	19	13	13	21	171	17.1
2	Sistamatic (AU)	10	9	12	11	9	14	11	9	9	15	109	10.9
3	Taipan Defence (AU)	7	9	13	9	7	12	9	9	7	10	92	9.2
4	Arizona Ayrchix (AU)	5	7	12	8	8	14	7	6	6	12	85	8.5

Now it's time to begin with the preparations for the major event of the 2014 season where the last slot in the finals will once again be the main goal for several teams, hopefully including Rotor Out. The Australian national team of 2012 started with a 17.0 average at the national championships and finished with 19.3 after the hunt for the finals in Dubai.

The situation could be similar this year. Australia has not made it to the finals at a world meet since 2001 on home turf, where Paul Smith, Lloyd Cofield, John Garlick, Jon McWilliam and Shane Dunn (Camera) placed 6th with a 16.9 average.

The Rotor Out training for this year's world meet will consist of a 1-week outdoor camp in Perris, California, and 4 to 6 hours of tunnel time at the new iFLY Downunder 16-footer in Sydney, plus weekend training locally. Rotor Out hopes to complete 100+ training jumps. Coach Shannon Pilcher continues to work with the team, as he has done since 2011.