posted Aug 20th, 2018 - The NSL News story on 23 July 2018 included a new evaluation of the lowest scores for the slowest sequences posted by the best teams in the world. The topic was raised by Arizona Airspeed's team captain Niklas Hemlin during an earlier live interview.

The lowest AAA Class scores are usually posted when three of the slower blocks are drawn for a 4-way competition. That creates a situation when the technical skills of a team are challenged and that defines the lowest scoring level for a single round.

The evaluation of Airspeed's scores for the slowest rounds had the first outdoor competition in 2017 as the starting point, the Shamrock Showdown, and it was limited to only outdoor competition. The starting point was chosen because the Shamrock Showdown 2017 was the first outdoor competition for the new and current Airspeed lineup.

Airspeed has been showing consistent progression in the slowest and technically most challenging area of 4-way competition. This year, the lowest score was a 20-pointer in Round 8 (21-1-13) at the Shamrock Showdown and then a 21-pointer in Round 10 (16-21-20) at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic. The NSL News is now following up on the same topic with a closer look at the lowest scores and slowest sequences of one of Airspeed's two strongest opponents in the race for the FAI gold medals, the French national team in 4-way Open, Aerodyne Realfly.

French Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	E,G,10,2	9,Q,14	5,19,C	12,16,A	15,1,17	20,L,3	13,F,22	11,N,D,O	M,7,8	P,4,H,21	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Realfly	20	28	23	23	19	20	20	31	24	27	235	23.5
Coupe de France May 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	J,C,O,16	21,E,A,8	3,13,D	Q,N,9,2	M,B,12,K	4,11,5	G,6,H,L	17,1,18	19,P,7	10,14,15	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Realfly	34	24	21	33	28	20	32	20	26	19	257	25.7
Shamrock Showdown 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	B,J,17,20	M,10,O,3	Q,22,2	A,D,P,F,16	N,12,14	15,9,C	K,4,G,E	21,1,13	7,6,11	H,5,19	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Realfly	27	24	21	28	17	28	31	19	23	27	245	24.5
FAI World Cup 2017		1	2	3	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	L,O,F,K,11	C,3,7	13,2,G	1,17,20	-	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
1	RealFly-Sion	35	26	20	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	101	25.3

The starting point is the same one as for Arizona Airspeed, even though the French national team in 4-way Open had a 2-year head start. The current lineup had begun with training and competition at the beginning of the 2015 season.

Arizona Airspeed and Aerodyne Realfly have met each other directly only once at an outdoor competition in the same two years. It was the Shamrock Showdown 2018 where both teams performed the same ten sequences. The French national team had the lowest score in Round 5 (N-12-14) with a 17-pointer, and Airspeed won the round by four points. Airspeed's lowest score came in Round 8 (21-1-13) with a 20-pointer in DeLand, one point ahead of the French team.

Airspeed attended only one more meet after the Shamrock Showdown and had the 21-pointer in Round 10 (16-21-20) as the lowest score in Raeford.

Aerodyne Realfly competed three more times at outdoor meets after the trip to Florida in March. However, the evaluation of the lowest scores for the slowest sequences does not include one of the three meets, the Coupe de France competition at the end of June in Maubeuge, where the teams exited from a Pilatus Porter.

Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2018		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	F,M,C,10		14,P,A,15		19,11,9		E,B,22,7		2,K,G,12		3,O,1		4,17,J		Q,13,D,6		N,L,8,18		16,21,20		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	35		25	-1	24		27	-2	25		23	-1	25	-1	26		23		21		254	25.4
Shamrock Showdown 2018		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	B,J,17,20		M,10,O,3		Q,22,2		A,D,P,F,16		N,12,14		15,9,C		K,4,G,E		21,1,13		7,6,11		H,5,19		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	28	-1	26		24		34	-1	21		29	-2	31		20	-1	23		28		264	26.4
USPA Nationals 2017		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	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	Arizona Airspeed	27		32		29		22		24		22		21	-1	23		29		29		258	25.8
Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2017		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	K,20,17		8,7,11		P,G,14,N		H,C,9,15		J,F,3,5		Q,E,M,13		2,21,L		6,12,B		22,O,10		A,1,19		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	24		21		27		33		33		33		21		23		19		24		258	25.8
Shamrock Showdown 2017		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	4,E,P,12		20,5,L		J,6,13		N,7,K,C		15,1,F		G,B,18,3		8,11,Q		H,22,19		14,2,16		M,D,21,O		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	23		22	-2	25		34	-1	22		23		21		20		18		31		239	23.9

The French national team in 4-way Open has not arrived yet at the 20+ level for the lowest scores, at least not this year. Aerodyne Realfly mastered a challenging 3-block sequence (1-17-20) in Round 4 at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2017 and tied NMP PCH HayaBusa with the 20-pointer, which turned out to be the last score of the meet.

Aerodyne Realfly still had 19-pointers on the scoreboards at this year's 10-round meets in May and August. Even the highest 10-round meet average in the team's history, the 25.7 at the May meet of the Coupe de France, still included a 19-pointer in Round 10 (10-14-15).

Both teams seem to be closer with the scores for the fastest rounds. Arizona Airspeed has a 35-pointer in the books for Round 1 (F-M-C-10) at the Paraclete XP Summer Classic, and Aerodyne Realfly posted a 35-pointer in Round 1 (L-O-F-K-11) last year in Saarlouis. The French team followed up with a 34-pointer in May this year (J-C-O-16) and Airspeed posted their 34-pointer at the Shamrock Showdown for a similar sequence (A-D-P-F-16).

It seems like French national coach Mathieu Bernier has an area to work on with his 4-way Open Class team. NMP PCH HayaBusa is next...