posted Sep 27th, 2005 - The NSL News on September 8 was still coming from Perris Valley Skydiving, host of the USPA Nationals 2005.

The story covered the two members of DeLand Fire, the new USPA 4-way champion and national team, who are swooping for the Performance Designs Factory Team at the same time, Ian Bobo and Shannon Pilcher.

The same NSL News story featured Ian Bobo with a live interview from the competition site in Perris after his first round of the Canopy Piloting competition of the USPA Nationals 2005.

He was calmly looking back at the 2005 season after a reasonable swooping meet opener, while DeLand Fire and PD Factory Team mate and friend Shannon Pilcher was not very happy with his first round.

Ian Bobo came to Perris as the new World Cup champion in Canopy Piloting after winning the August event in Austria. The competition in Perris continued for both freshly crowned 4-way champions as it began. DeLand Fire's 4-way tail Ian Bobo confirmed his top performance level with a 4th place in the overall standings out of 21 competitors. Center Inside Shannon Pilcher finished in 9th position.

The headline of the NSL News story from Perris assumed that both DeLand Fire members would pursue USPA's Canopy Piloting medals, and Ian Bobo missed this additional medal position only after a very low score in the Speed category, one of the three events that accumulate in the overall standings (Speed, Distance, Accuracy).

Shannon Pilcher had his peak performance in the Speed event where he took the 1st place, while Ian Bobo had to swallow the disappointing 18th position in the same category.

Both PD Factory Team members swoop with PD's Velocity 96. Ian Bobo would have surely won a swooping medal in the overall standings if Shannon Pilcher could have transfered his Speed result onto the account of his teammate.

However, the honors of the PD Factory Team, whose complete line-up consists of the two DeLand Fire members, plus Jay Moledzki, Jonathan Tagle and Neri Francisco, were once again saved by the former 4-way videographer for Elsinore GT, Jonathan Tagle and his first place in the final overall rankings.

The PD Zone at the Performance Designs website offers additional and interesting information of the PD Factory Team presented with a cool design and great features. The first image that appears at a visit in the PD Zone was taken at SkyQuest Florida, the championship event of the National Skydiving League at Fantasy of Flight.

The PD Factory Team has been competing with its top Canopy Piloting competitors at the Fantasy Swoop competition of SkyQuest 2003 and 2004, and it will continue the tradition at SkyQuest 2005. The PD Factory Team was also a part of the opening ceremony at Fantasy of Flight with a most exciting 4-way swooping demo across the Fantasy Swoop pond.

This year's event might become challenging for the multi-event competitors Ian Bobo and Shannon Pilcher. The four events of SkyQuest Florida (Kaleidoscope Dives, NSL Championship, Fantasy Swoop and Team Elite) all happen at the same time and at the same location.

Competing with both DeLand Fire and the PD Factory Team at SkyQuest 2005 would be a new challenge for the 4-way and swooping experts. However, true athletes like new challenges, the plans are in the works.