posted Nov 9th, 2017 - The NSL News has covered the situation of Arizona Airspeed after the USPA Nationals 2017 and the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 as a part of several aftermath stories.

Today's news update is still very different, as the information was provided live by Airspeed captain Niklas Hemlin. His team is on a short vacation before the preparations for the 2018 season will begin, and he took the time to discuss the most interesting topics that came up after the results at the last two major events.

Airspeed had tough opponents at both meets, which included the reigning 4-way indoor and outdoor world champions from Belgium, NMP PCH HayaBusa. Niklas Hemlin said that his team was still mostly looking at the SDC Rhythm XP scores only in Perris, while they were trying to deliver the performance level that they had trained for.

He said that Airspeed was impressed when they found themselves one point behind Rhythm after Round 4. They realized that they had to pick up the pace if they wanted to win, and it became a tricky situation. Plan was to deliver the desired and planned performance quality, while this did not seem enough to outscore Rhythm. The scoreboard after Round 4 was showing a picture that did not fit to the plan.

USPA Nationals 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		O,4,9	G,21,A,H	N,D,J,14	L,16,12	K,19,6	E,2,10	P,11,15	17,3,22	F,7,1	Q,5,M,20	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	31	33	28	23	25	23	23	22	31	31	270	27.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	27	32	29	22	24	22	21	23	29	29	258	25.8
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	29	31	28	23	22	20	23	19	28	29	252	25.2

FAI Indoor World Meet 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		16,P,12	2,8,H	22,20,3	15,D,4	A,J,6,L	7,M,19	5,Q,21	18,B,17	G,14,C,N	K,E,10,11	F,O,9,E	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	30	29	25	30	47	33	34	34	37	28	-	327	32.7
2	Weembi High Rollers	FR	30	29	26	30	41	35	32	32	37	28	-	320	32.0
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	29	28	24	29	41	32	27	31	35	26	59	302	30.2
4	Black Cat	RU	30	27	24	30	39	34	32	28	33	25	58	302	30.2

Niklas Hemlin said though that it was not only the pace that was too slow. Airspeed had to lift the performance quality to a higher level, which would automatically result in higher scores. He is one of the most experienced current 4-way competitors in the world and still owns the highest 4-way outdoor average in history (27.9) that Airspeed's 2012 lineup had posted at the FAI Mondial Dubai 2012.

He was able to change the course of the Airspeed performance in Perris at the right time and secure the USPA gold medals in the second half of the meet.

Airspeed did not spend too much time with observing the HayaBusa performance. It was more important to win the U.S. duel, which was necessary to get on the path to meet the Belgians next year in Australia for the FAI gold medal competition.

However, NMP PCH HayaBusa has now become the major target, and the FAI Indoor World Meet in Montreal became the first step on the extremely challenging road to closing the distance within a year and stopping HayaBusa from completing their mission of three consecutive sets of 4-way gold medals.

Airspeed's plan includes a lot of meet practice. In fact, the best U.S. team will reduce the number of training jumps from 1,000 to 800 and accommodate the busy meet schedule, which includes several indoor events, beginning with the Wind Games in February 2018, followed by Paraclete XP Indoor Championships and World Challenge.

FAI Mondial Dubai 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open - Top 6		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	2,J,4	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27	34	27	22	23	23	32	25	40	26	279	27.9
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	25	34	27	21	23	24	32	27	40	25	278	27.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	26	30	27	21	23	25	29	23	37	24	265	26.5
4	Evolution	CA	22	31	24	17	19	21	28	22	30	22	236	23.6
5	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	29	22	21	21	18	28	20	35	20	233	23.3
6	Satori	UK	18	26	21	17	15	18	23	17	27	18	200	20.0

Airspeed will also attend four outdoor meets before traveling to Australia, and the Shamrock Showdown 2018 is the first one. Paraclete's Summer Classic and a 4-way competition in Texas will lead to the USPA Nationals 2018, which takes place a month before the world meet.

The timing seems to be perfect and well planned, and Niklas Hemlin said that it was very important for his team to learn from previous experiences in similar situations.

He was looking at the Airspeed situation in 1999, when the USPA Nationals took place approx. a month before the world meet, which was hosted by Australia.

The situation is almost identical next year, and Niklas Hemlin wants a different result than Airspeed's 1999 team. The 4-way lineup competed also in 8-way and ended up behind the French 4-way team in 2nd place.

Dan BC and Jack Jefferies have been consulting the current Airspeed with their first-hand 1999 experiences, even though Airspeed 2018 will not compete in 8-way. NMP PCH HayaBusa has already withdrawn from 8-way competition in Australia...

FAI World Meet 1999			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open - Top 7		9,24,A	O,M,2,Q	14,P,11	19,3,15	N,8,12	C,1,E,20	K,23,17	B,16,21	L,22,J,7	G,5,6	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	23	18	19	18	24	21	21	21	20	208	20.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	24	19	16	17	26	19	19	20	19	202	20.2
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	21	23	16	17	16	23	20	19	20	16	191	19.1
4	Sebastian XL	UK	21	23	16	17	17	23	18	17	20	18	190	19.0
5	Russia	RU	22	20	13	16	16	17	18	17	18	15	172	17.2
6	Australia	AU	20	21	15	15	14	19	17	17	15	16	169	16.9
7	Daedalus	DE	18	18	13	13	14	18	15	14	16	16	155	15.5