posted Oct 15th, 2026 - Day by day, Skydive Arizona is getting busier as teams and competitors continue to arrive, warm up, and familiarize themselves with the facilities ahead of the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026. Thursday was one of the final four days available for participants to complete their preparations, with Round 1 of the Formation Skydiving events scheduled to begin on Monday morning.

Thursday once again began with both French 4-way teams on the earliest loads of the day. Nephtys Maubeuge is under relatively little pressure to fine-tune the team performance ahead of the competition. With limited opposition expected in the 4-way Women event, the team may instead keep a close eye on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard, where they can compare their own scores with those of the Open Class teams competing on the same draw.

The situation is quite different for Aethers Lille, with Clementine Le Bohec filling Mathieu Quizy’s tail slot in the revised lineup. Every training jump in Eloy is likely to be particularly valuable as the team works to compensate for this unexpected change. Ultimately, only Round 1 on Monday will reveal how well Aethers Lille can maintain its scoring pace and performance level following the lineup change.

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NSL TV Unfiltered: Thursday, October 15th, at Skydive Arizona

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NMP PCH HayaBusa is not facing any comparable pressure, as the Belgian team has maintained the same lineup for the past three years. The team arrived in Eloy having completed all its essential preparations during earlier training sessions. Its remaining task is to familiarize itself with the facilities, particularly for Ray Lodens, who has never competed at Skydive Arizona before. All his teammates were in Eloy 2024, where they won silver medals behind Arizona Airspeed.

Aethers Lille’s complete lineup, including Mathieu Quizy, competed at the same event in 2022, finishing fourth and just outside the medal positions. David Ricard was filming the French team at the time, while Cameron Malie has now taken over the camera work. Nephtys Maubeuge won bronze medals in 2022 with a completely different lineup. Only Gaelle Giesen returns from that team. In 2022, she competed alongside Sophia Pecout, Elise Poindron, and Jessica Thebault, with national coach Mathieu Bernier on camera. Now, the team will be looking to turn its bronze-medal finishes in 2022 and 2024 into FAI gold.

Mathieu Bernier was wearing his camera suit again on Thursday, this time taking freefall photos of the team during its 4-way training. Godeleine de Saint Just has handled the team’s training and competition camera work since 2023. The videographer who filmed the team in Eloy in 2022 was now capturing images of the new camera flyer at work.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		20,16,B		P,D,21,13		17,K,11		E,A,19,22		2,9,M		C,14,F,12		3,6,18		4,10,1		8,Q,O,H		5,7,J		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	-1	28		27		27		31		23		21		20		32		31		261	26.1
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	20	-1	25	-2	21		23		28		20	-2	19		17		29		26		228	22.8
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	19	-2	23	-1	22	-1	21	-1	26		18		17	-1	17		28		28		219	21.9
4	France 4-way Open	FR	19		23	-1	22		23		27		20	-1	18		15	-1	20	-5	27	-1	214	21.4

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Aethers - Nephtys at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022

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FAI Outdoor World ChampionshipMeet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		20,16,B		P,D,21,13		17,K,11		E,A,19,22		2,9,M		C,14,F,12		3,6,18		4,10,1		8,Q,O,H		5,7,J		Total	Avg
1	NFTO	UK	18		23		21		21		25		15	-2	17		14	-1	23		23		200	20.0
2	Nephtys	FR	16	-2	20	-1	19		21		23		14		17		14	-1	24		21		189	18.9
3	XPG4	US	17	-1	21	-1	18	-1	20	-1	20	-3	16		15		15		21	-2	21		184	18.4
4	Meltemi Oceanside	DE	15		17		13		17		20		14		14		9	-2	18		16		153	15.3

The three German Airbus 4-way team members, Thom, Tim, and Moritz Mack, wrapped up their stay in Arizona Airspeed’s team room at Skydive Arizona at the end of Wednesday’s 2-2-plus-video project. The session brought together newly crowned U.S. 4-way champions Alisson de Vargas and Doug Hendrix with the German trio for a world-class training experience. The rest of the Airbus lineup, Felix Pfeiffer and Alex Prendinger, has since arrived, and the complete team was in action during Thursday’s training. Italy’s national 4-way Open Class team, Amnesya Fly X, took over the Airspeed team room after the Germans departed. The Italian team also benefited from coaching and video debriefing with Alisson de Vargas.

The Paraclete XP8 world champions, now featuring former Airspeed member and Golden Knights coach Niklas Hemlin in their lineup, were still waiting to assemble their full team. Alternate Ian Pedowitz filled in for Jeana Billings, while the team awaited the arrival of reigning 8-way and 4-way Women world champion. Reigning 8-way world champion John D’Annunzio may also be called upon if Billings cannot reach Eloy in time.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s two teams were preparing for their respective events: Vortex in 4-way Open and Falcons in 8-way. The Falcons and their coach, Jérémie Rollett, are following developments in the U.S. 8-way delegation with particular interest.

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