posted Jan 31st, 2012 - A surprise visitor showed up at the NSL office yesterday and volunteered to endure a quickly improvised NSL Talk session in front of the NSL-TV camera. Mark Kirkby is on his way to the Paraclete XP Indoor Championships 2012 and spent a few days in Florida to visit sponsors and team supporters.

He talked about the upcoming 2012 season that he looks very much forward to. Arizona Airspeed has somehow missed out on the high-profile international competition last year after the Shamrock Showdown 2011 and the World Challenge 2011and is ready now to take on the top of the world with full steam.

Mark Kirkby expressed the desire of his team in memorable words: "Training is not quite the same unless you can back it up with a meet. I'm excited to be stuck into competition again."

Airspeed attended a total of seven meets last year, two indoor and five outdoor, which is actually one of the highest numbers in 4way competition. The beginning of the 2011 season was the busiest part, with four meets between February and April (Paraclete - Valentine's - Shamrock - World Challenge).

Mark Kirkby could have even set a new record in meet frequency if he had also competed with the previous Airspeed lineup at the 2nd Dubai Championship in January 2011. That would have made it five meets for him between January 8th and April 3rd, which is a time period of 12 weeks and comes to one competition every 17 days. That's almost like professional basketball... However, John Eagle filled the open Airspeed slot for him in Dubai.

No Airspeed member made it to the 3rd Dubai Championship 2011, but the rest of the first part of the 2012 season is the same for the top favorite this year. Paraclete - Valentine's - Shamrock - World Challenge is once again the Airspeed Spring Tour as in 2011.

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Airspeed will meet the US top contenders at Paraclete this weekend, as the NSL News reported yesterday. XL may even challenge Airspeed more than the other three top contenders, as the XL lineup is specialized on indoor competition.

The Valentine's Meet will not be a tough competition for Airspeed this year. It is little more than training on home turf since no other top team is registered for the meet this time. However, the scores will be posted as usual, and that's better than nothing.

The next two meets, Shamrock Showdown and World Challenge, are the real deal a few weeks later, as they bring the other two best teams in the world into the 4way game, Aerodyne Aerokart from France and NMP-PCH Hayabusa from Belgium, at an outdoor competition in DeLand and then again in the Bodyflight Bedford flying chamber. Both events are also attended by several other national teams from around the planet. There will be a lot of evaluating, thinking and planning after Round 10 of the World Challenge. The NSL News will bring live coverage from three of those four events.