posted May 29th, 2017 - The next outdoor scores of the 2017 season were posted last weekend, and the teams from the Czech Republic and the Northern Plains Skydiving League carefully separated each other on the latest leaderboard. The four Czech teams posted their scores in the AAA Class, while the NPSL teams were by themselves in the other three categories.

Only four Czech teams showed up for the first outdoor meet this year, and most of the indoor experts, including the multiple 4-way junior teams, were apparently not ready or eligible for outdoor competition yet.

However, it was still a very important meet for the winner of the AAA Class competition last weekend, HF Flying Circus.

The 10-round competition in Most was the first outdoor meet in the AAA Class for HF Flying Circus. The young Czech team competed first in the A Class last year, and then moved up later into the AA competition, where they won the ESL Championship with an 11.4 average.

May 27th, 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	G,H,15,14	D,L,J,20	O,16,21	3,C,N,K	17,1,M	5,6,P	7,2,Q	4,9,13	B,8,18	19,11,10	Total	Avg
1	HF Flying Circus	10	10	9	11	11	9	13	11	9	10	103	10.3
2	Hvezdy	8	8	10	8	9	10	9	9	8	9	88	8.8
3	HF Skycentrum	4	9	2	7	8	8	6	8	7	7	66	6.6
4	Accord	0	8	0	5	7	7	6	5	9	7	54	5.4

HF Flying Circus used the indoor winter season of the World Tunnel League at the Hurricane Factory in Prague to get familiar with the complete FAI/IPC dive pool and mastered it very well, as the indoor scores at the World Challenge 2017 were showing.

There was not much transition time from indoor to outdoor training and competition, and last weekend's 10-round meet was the first serious outdoor test for the new AAA Class team.

The 10.3 average does not look like much, while the Czech team must have been proud to break the 10-average benchmark at the first 10-round meet. In fact, HF Flying Circus has posted a higher average only once in the AA Class, with the 11.4 winning average at the ESL Championship.

The first 10-round outdoor competition brought six exits with blocks to the Czech teams in the AAA Class, and five of the six slot-switching blocks were drawn out in five different rounds. Teams had the option to swing out of the memory challenge in two of the five slot-switching sequences. HF Flying Circus did not take advantage of the swing options and also launched the Satellite (O) as the exit formation in each round. They also lost a few points due to the video angle in the first two rounds.

World Challenge 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		D,B,6,22	12,E,17	20,G,C,10	N,M,15,H	Q,19,K,4	8,21,L	P,9,J,7	O,11,1	13,A,16	3,18,5	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	33	29	29	46	34	28	47	28	28	29	331	33.1
2	Weembi Lille	FR	33	31	29	43	35	28	46	29	29	27	330	33.0
3	French Weembi Girls	FR	30	29	28	38	32	24	43	28	26	25	303	30.3
4	RealFly-Sion	FR	29	29	26	38	31	26	42	27	24	23	295	29.5
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	29	26	24	37	30	26	40	27	24	23	286	28.6
6	Gavroche Weembi	FR	27	26	23	35	29	23	39	23	21	21	267	26.7
7	IFS-Moscow	RU	26	26	23	35	29	21	40	24	24	18	266	26.6
7	Espoir Saumur Weembi	FR	27	26	23	33	28	23	37	24	23	22	266	26.6
9	Volition	UK	25	24	19	34	23	21	36	24	22	21	249	24.9
10	ISR FireFlash	BE	25	21	21	33	23	21	35	22	21	20	242	24.2
11	Chimera	UK	27	21	22	35	24	21	32	23	18	18	241	24.1
12	Amnesya Fly-In	IT	25	22	20	35	25	21	34	21	17	19	239	23.9
13	NFTO	UK	20	22	21	29	26	20	32	22	21	18	231	23.1
14	ACM	UK	25	15	18	31	25	19	34	21	21	20	229	22.9
15	Tenanine	MR	23	19	21	28	23	21	28	21	21	20	225	22.5
16	Pro Team	FI	23	20	16	32	22	21	30	22	19	18	223	22.3
17	Savoodoo	ZA	22	20	17	31	22	18	33	18	19	17	217	21.7
18	HF Flying Circus	CZ	20	18	16	28	19	18	29	19	17	15	199	19.9
19	Antimatter	UK	21	18	17	23	20	17	25	19	17	15	192	19.2
20	Flyspot Sky4four	PL	21	14	16	23	22	18	27	19	16	15	191	19.1
21	Flyzone Les Affranchise	FR	17	16	17	25	19	16	26	18	16	15	185	18.5
22	Aladeen	HU	18	17	15	22	18	15	29	16	16	15	181	18.1
23	JETMAX	BE	17	15	17	24	17	15	24	18	15	15	177	17.7
24	Equinox	LT	18	15	16	23	20	15	25	15	15	12	174	17.4
25	Corbas Coyotes JCM	FR	17	16	17	20	20	16	20	18	13	14	171	17.1
26	Eros	UK	17	16	17	24	14	16	25	17	12	12	170	17.0
27	H4O	IE	17	15	14	20	18	15	23	17	15	14	168	16.8
28	Formihyrodynamitevisionx	UK	16	12	16	22	19	16	24	16	14	11	166	16.6
29	Skyfool	UK	18	15	15	21	17	15	23	17	13	10	164	16.4
30	HF Skycentrum	CZ	16	11	14	21	17	15	20	15	14	13	156	15.6
31	Nova	SE	15	13	13	18	16	13	19	12	12	12	143	14.3
32	Quasar	UK	15	11	12	14	15	12	20	14	10	10	133	13.3
32	Mental BloX	UK	15	11	11	17	12	12	21	13	11	10	133	13.3

It is not unusual that the scores and meet averages are dropping significantly when teams switch from indoor to outdoor competition. In fact, the Sun Path Products NSL News evaluated the indoor/outdoor transition more carefully on 21 September 2014 and detected a 4-point difference in average for a mixture of experienced AAA Class teams in the world.

HF Flying Circus has their own and even more dramatic experiences with the same transition in the previous categories. The team posted a 23.1 average to win the Rookie Class competition at the World Challenge 2015, which was followed by a 7.0 average at the team's first outdoor competition in the same category a few months later.

Then they posted a 21.7 indoor average in the A Class in November 2015, followed by a 13.5 outdoor average in July 2016. The last step was from the 17.8 average in the AA Class to the 11.4 at the ESL Championship last year.

In other words: The HF Flying Circus outdoor career went from a 7.0 average in the Rookie Class in July 2015 to a 10.3 average in the AAA Class last weekend...