posted Jan 28th, 2021 - The NSL News covered the Russian Indoor Nationals 2020 with a few updates, which included the VDV team of the Russian Air Force. The 30.4 average catapulted the unknown team in the western skydiving community to the world's top rankings of 4-way indoor competition.

The exciting and unexpected duel for the top spot in Russia between IFS Moscow and VDV caught the NSL News attention naturally. Russian FAI/ISC delegate and IFS Moscow member Egor Gusev and VDV coach and Russian Thunder member Georgy Miroshnichenko then kindly provided the NSL News with more information of the team history and the plans for the future.

Georgy Miroshnichenko and the VDV members met in 2015 when they were still far from 4-way competition. They trained and competed in the traditional military disciplines, Style and Accuracy. However, Georgy Miroshnichenko suggested one day to launch a Formation Skydiving project, as well, which was well received by his team mates.

Georgy Miroshnichenko already had some 4-way experiences with weekend teams coached by the Russian Formation Skydiving legends Oleg Shalamykhin and Vladimir Pavlenko. Eventually he presented the 4-way project idea to the military management and did not find much support from the traditional Style and Accuracy competitors.

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Russian Indoor Nationals 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	22,9,11	6,12,N	16,L,7	B,F,P,21	4,K,G,8	O,C,H,3	17,5,E	J,10,20	A,1,D,14	18,19,M	Total	Avg
1	IFS-Moscow	25	26	34	42	29	35	39	22	29	27	308	30.8
2	VDV	25	26	34	37	24	37	41	24	28	28	304	30.4
3	Russian Thunder	25	24	34	38	26	34	37	20	26	26	290	29.0
4	Bubbles	21	23	27	33	25	29	37	22	25	23	265	26.5
5	Team 42	18	19	26	32	22	27	25	19	26	23	237	23.7
6	Antitela	20	20	26	27	19	29	29	17	23	23	233	23.3
7	DDW-Team	20	17	25	31	17	29	33	17	22	18	229	22.9
8	No Limits	16	17	24	28	20	27	26	17	20	20	215	21.5
9	Quatro	19	18	21	24	17	26	29	16	18	21	209	20.9
10	5th Element	19	15	21	28	20	24	27	13	18	15	200	20.0
11	Bumblbee	14	15	21	24	17	23	23	14	19	14	184	18.4

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Georgy Miroshnichenko's group of military 4-way fans did not give up on the idea and even began with ground training. By 2016 all potential team members had their own equipment and had made creepers for their ground work. They started training and soon participated in 2-way competitions after approx. 5 - 7 hours of indoor training and 50 jumps.

4-way training eventually began in 2017 with the A Class dive pool and the CISM program. The new military 4-way team of the Air Force attended their first competition in December 2017 at the Russian Indoor Nationals, where they won their first A Class title right away. Sergey Seregin, Evgeny Shatnenko, Arthur Kindzer and Sergey Yalpayev were in the first lineup. Sergey Yalpayev is now a member of the Tanay 8-way team.

Georgy Miroshnichenko, who initiated the team project, was not in the first lineup. He had committed earlier to the 4-way AAA Class team "Partners", and Sergey Yalpayev replaced him a month before the 2017 championship.

The Air Force team was back with a new team member (Alexander Izmalkin for Sergey Yalpayev) at the next Russian indoor championship in May 2018, where they took the 2nd place on the A Class leaderboard. Once again, Georgy Miroshnichenko was not in the lineup, as he was now training and competing with "Russian Thunder" and player-coach Sergey Shenin. However, he continued with guiding the Air Force team and could forward valuable 4-way information and experiences to them.

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IFS Moscow and VDV at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2020

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The resources were still limited for the 4-way project in 2017 and 2018, and VDV completed 10 - 15 hours of indoor training per year and around 100 training jumps, paid for by the team members. At that time, the military school in Ryazan had started building their own wind-tunnel. Finally, the team got permission to use it early in 2019, and the Air Force command officially agreed to include a 4-way team.

VDV instantly started with indoor training and won the next Ruusian Indoor Nationals with a 34.3 average, once again in the Russian A Class (Star exit, all 16 random formations, blocks 2,4,6,7,9,14,15,21) and with the same lineup as in 2018. VDV followed up at the national outdoor championships in Tanay with a 25.6 in the A Class.

However, VDV had now begun with training of the AAA Class dive pool and were planning to attend their first competition in this category at the indoor championships in December. In the meantime, new military 4-way fans (Rodion Pashkanov, Andrey Rybakov) had joined the project, and a second team was put in place, with Arthur Kindzer and Denis Erokhin completing the lineup.

The VDV lineup, again with substitute Sergey Yalpayev for Russian Thunder member Georgy Miroshnichenko, were ready for their first AAA Class competition in December and finished in 3rd place with a 23.9 average. VDV-2, with Arthur Kindzer, Denis Yerokhin, Rodion Pashkanov and Andrey Rybakov competed in the A Class and took the 2nd place with a 29.5 average.

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NSL Cloud Mondial January 2021			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		11,10,22	16,H,D,8	13,5,F	A,9,2	Q,14,J,P	B,19,G,7	17,O,L,21	1,N,6	12,M,20	18,4,3	15,C,K,E	Total	Avg
-	VDV-1	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	Agera FS 2022	NO	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

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VDV-1 Footage of the NSL Cloud Mondial January 2021

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The 2019 season was a continuation of the project's progress and success. The two 4-way teams finally received support from the military command with the official status and sufficient training time in the wind-tunnel. They spent about 40 hours indoors and added about 100 more training jumps, mostly still on their own account.

The VDV teams remained on the upside in 2020, even throughout the time of the corona virus crisis. VDV-1 won the national outdoor championship in Kolomna with a 21.0 average after the six completed rounds. VDV-2 won the A Class competition.

Then came the indoor championship in December, where VDV-1 battled with IFS Moscow for the 1st place and indoor championship title and posted the 30.4 average. VDV-2 won the A Class with a 35.6 average.

Georgy Miroshnichenko said that VDV-1 plan to participate in the NSL Cloud Mondial January 2021, and the videos of the eleven rounds have been uploaded. The InTime judging procedure will begin on February 1st, and the slower competition draw will make it hard for VDV-1 to beat their own indoor record average. The next 4-way meet in Russia is the Russian 4-way Cup event in April.