posted Jan 3rd, 2006 - The NSL News story on December 16, 2005, introduced the newest NSL Profile of Thomas Hughes. The same article mentioned that Thomas Hughes has joined Arizona Airspeed for the 2006 season. Even though Airspeed and Hughes have already tied the knot, his eligibility as a team member of the US team at the World Meet in Germany 2006 still depends on USPA's ruling.

FAI/IPC have already revised the rules for eligibility at international events, which would allow Thomas Hughes to compete for the USA this year. Nothing seems to be in the way for him to be eligible for the US team, as USPA's Chair of the Competition Committee, Marylou Laughlin, confirmed for the NSL News at the World Cup 2005 in Eloy (see NSL News on November 8, 2005).

USPA's winter meeting is coming up on February 17 - 19, and the Board of USPA Directors will most likely adopt the FAI/IPC rule change, as Marylou Laughlin mentioned at the World Cup in October 2005. Thomas Hughes will already have completed his first training sessions with Arizona Airspeed by then.

The NSL News will now take a closer look at the new Airspeed line-up. The 8-way team is qualified as the US national team and will represent the country at the World Meet this summer. The competition in Germany will be similar compared to the situation at the World Cup 2005 where France and Airspeed fought it out over ten rounds.

Airspeed ended up three points ahead of France (20.5 - 20.2) on home turf in Eloy. The French 8-way team continued with the same line-up after the World Cup, while Dennis Rook and Neal Houston left Airspeed at the end of the 2005 season. Thomas Hughes and Eric Gin have been selected to fill the open Airspeed slots.

There is no doubt that both new players have the skills and the experiences to become valuable Airspeed players. Thomas Hughes' career has already been laid out in detail by the NSL News, and Eric Gin has been training and competing with Team Fastrax in 2004 and 2005.

However, 4-way and 8-way are technically still very different. Especially the world's top level competition in each event requires a lot of training to get to the 20+ average and further. Airspeed surely needs the best talent in the new slots to maintain or get back to the highest level of 8-way competition in the world.

Dennis Rook and Neal Houston were not only very experienced 8-way competitors, they were also two of the Airspeed veterans in key positions. Dennis Rook looks back at three complete years with Airspeed, including a silver medal and a gold medal at world championships, plus several 8-way battles with Russia and France at other international meets.

Neal Houston is one of the most experienced competitors in the whole history of Formation Skydiving. He joined Airspeed Vertical in 2000 and has won several national and international gold medals with Airspeed in 4-way and 8-way.

Airspeed with 8-way captain Craig Girard has always been extremely successful in bringing up the new team members to the top level of 8-way competition very quickly. There is not too much time left this year. The World Championship of Formation Skydiving in Germany is scheduled for August 5 - 11. The pressure is on, and the Airspeed training with the new line-up will begin this month.