posted Dec 19th, 2006 - Good news for the NSL-TV audience. Team Fastrax will kindly provide footage of the first training camp in DeLand this week. Actually, the NSL News was mostly interested in the very first jump of the camp with Thomas Hughes in the new slot, and neither Fastrax nor Thomas Hughes had a problem with the request.

However, there was no opportunity yet to dub the footage. The team was very busy today and completed 14 training jumps. The videos will most likely be available by tomorrow.

The NSL News became even more interested in older footage of the new Fastrax member when it became obvious that the access to the current videos would take a little bit longer. The NSL-TV archives allowed a review of videos with Thomas Hughes as a member of his previous teams.

It begins with a Florida Skydiving League competition in August 2000. Thomas Hughes trained and competed with DeLand Tunnel Rage that year. His team attended its first competition in August and had a rough start, as the video of round one shows.

Thomas Hughes flew the Point position for Rage, Eliana Rodriguez had the Tail slot. All four team members worked as wind tunnel instructors at SkyVenture Orlando by then.

DeLand Tunnel Rage posted an 8.8 meet average at the 6-round event in DeLand. Rage traveled to California a month later and left the rest of the Intermediate Class field in the dust with a 15.3 average at the USPA Nationals 2000.

The next NSL-TV video shows Thomas Hughes two years later at the season opener of the Florida Skydiving League 2002. Sebastian XL had offered him a slot in the British national 4-way team that he proudly accepted. He now flew the Tail slot for one of the best teams in the world in 2002.

It turned out to be a much better start for his team in January 2002. The new Sebastian XL line-up with Pete Allum, John McIver, Steve Hamilton, Thomas Hughes and Rob Stevenson (Video) finished the 6-round meet in Sebastian with a 20.0 average. The NSL-TV video shows an 18-pointer for Round 1 (C-G-12-4).

The last video of today's NSL News story shows Thomas Hughes two more years later in a new slot. He was back in the front piece as Center Outside for Arizona Blade. The Blade line-up included Center Inside Mark Kirkby, whose slot Thomas Hughes has now taken for Team Fastrax.

Natasha Montgomery flies the Point position in this NSL-TV video. Arizona Blade won the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2004. Natasha Montgomery and Thomas Hughes formed DeLand Fire in 2005 and won the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 4-way this year in Germany, Thomas Hughes as the alternate for the team.

The featured video shows the 23-pointer for Round 9 (H-K-18-G) at the NSL Championship 2004. Arizona Blade won the competition with a 19.9 average after ten rounds.

These three videos show Thomas Hughes in three different slots with three different teams. His interesting 4-way slot scramble of the past six years is now complete after taking the Center Inside position for Team Fastrax. The missing video will hopefully be added tomorrow.