posted Mar 3rd, 2019 - The NSL News reported on 14 December 2018 that Qatar's team coaches in 4-way and 8-way, Gary Smith and Jérémie Rollett, had switched their jobs. They explained together how it came to the new plans for the next two years.

The story on February 15th followed up on the same topic when the Qatar Falcons visited Skydive City in Florida for an outdoor training camp and then traveled to North Carolina for indoor training and the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship.

Gary Smith had his first competition test with the Qatar Tigers even earlier at the Wind Games 2019, where his team competed with and against NMP PCH HayaBusa, the 4-way indoor and outdoor world champions, who he had guided towards the top position in the world as the team's coach.

The Qatar Tigers did not make the trip to Paraclete XP, and Gary Smith was following the event action only from the distance. However, he was naturally very interested in results and performances at Paraclete XP, as the best U.S. team will become the next opponent for Qatar Tigers and NMP PCH HayaBusa at the FAI Indoor World Meet in April, and then at the outdoor world meet in Tanay 2020.

FAI World Meet 1997			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open - Top 10		13,Q,D,9	5,K,F,12	1,14,22	H,M,11,7	A,E,3,G	15,18,3	20,L,23	O,19,4	17,10,J	6,C,21	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	20	18	23	27	15	20	16	21	24	210	21.0
2	France	FR	25	19	17	22	25	16	20	21	20	21	206	20.6
3	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	25	20	16	20	20	15	17	20	21	19	193	19.3
4	Russia	RU	24	18	17	17	23	14	12	19	17	19	180	18.0
5	Sebastian XL	UK	24	17	14	21	19	13	16	19	15	18	176	17.6
6	DeLand Norgies	NO	20	14	12	18	20	12	14	17	16	18	161	16.1
7	Switzerland	CH	21	15	13	17	18	13	14	16	16	16	159	15.9
8	Australia	AU	17	17	14	17	19	10	14	17	17	16	158	15.8
9	Spain	ES	21	16	13	13	19	13	14	16	18	14	157	15.7
10	Daedalus	DE	19	14	13	17	20	12	12	16	15	17	155	15.5

Gary Smith has his eyes on the female 4-way competition, as well, where he has been working with the British national team NFTO for a while. The winner in 4-way Women at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship will also compete at the indoor world meet in April, and XPG4 has already confirmed the trip to France.

He took the time on Thursday last week to discuss the situation after the most recent indoor competition, and the conversation began with the U.S. race for the one slot in the Formation Skydiving delegation and the indoor world meet.

The NSL News was specifically interested in his observations of the Airspeed performance, as the Arizona team has been Gary Smith's main opponent for many years.

In fact, his regular confrontations with the different Airspeed lineups go back to the time when he was still competing with the South African national 4-way team DeLand Equanimity.

Gary Smith was the direct opponent when the original Airspeed lineup won the FAI 4-way gold medals in Turkey 1997. Equanimity won the bronze medals for South Africa at the same event.

USPA Nationals 2003		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	8,A,Q,F	15,3,G	4,N,22	J,7,B,H	O,13,17	16,K,1	21,D,L,14	6,5,2	12,P,11	10,19,18	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Majik	26	19	17	32	23	20	21	19	19	17	213	21.3
2	Golden Knights Gold	26	18	19	32	23	21	19	17	19	17	211	21.1
3	Airspeed Vertical	27	18	17	34	18	19	21	19	18	19	210	21.0
4	Airspeed Dragon	19	15	17	30	20	14	18	17	15	14	179	17.9
5	Golden Knights Black	20	15	16	27	15	17	17	16	16	14	173	17.3
6	Perris School Boys	21	15	14	25	18	13	16	14	12	12	160	16.0
7	DeLand Synchronicity	18	15	14	23	15	14	15	15	14	12	155	15.5
8	The Ranch Team	17	14	13	22	15	16	12	14	13	12	148	14.8
9	Teiwaz	17	13	13	17	15	14	15	13	11	11	139	13.9
10	DeLand Chikara	16	12	11	19	14	12	13	13	13	9	132	13.2
11	Optik Kurves	16	11	11	22	12	12	14	10	11	9	128	12.8
12	Elsinore Illusion	16	6	12	22	14	9	14	13	12	9	127	12.7
13	4 Something	14	9	9	16	7	9	11	8	9	9	101	10.1
14	Wingspan	11	10	7	14	9	10	9	7	7	8	92	9.2
15	Guy Chuck JP Billy Mike	7	7	8	9	8	4	0	7	3	6	59	5.9

The direct duel between Gary Smith and Arizona Airspeed continued when he moved to the United States and formed DeLand Majik with his South African team mate Solly Williams. DeLand Majik defeated Airspeed Vertical by two points at the USPA Nationals 2003 and won the FAI gold medals for the United States in Rijeka 2004.

The DeLand Majik lineup discontinued, while Gary Smith was not done yet with Arizona Airspeed. He joined DeLand Fire and won the U.S. qualification once again at the USPA Nationals 2005, this time over Golden Knights and Airspeed Odyssey. DeLand Fire then won the FAI 4-way gold medals in Germany 2006.

The second FAI gold medal was the end for Gary Smith's active career as a high-level 4-way competitor, and he began to focus mainly on coaching when he moved to the Netherlands. However, his competition with Arizona Airspeed continued in a different way when he became involved with coaching NMP PCH HayaBusa and now the Qatar Tigers.

He has battled with Arizona Airspeed as the HayaBusa coach since 2012 and lost the first duel by one point in Dubai 2012. Then he and the Belgians followed up with three consecutive FAI 4-way outdoor gold medals in 2014, 2016, 2018 and also added the indoor success. The indirect battle continues, and nobody knows Arizona Airspeed better than Gary Smith...