AXIS Foundations of Flight: 2-way Belly Cat-accordion Drill
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Category Archives: 4-way
AZ X-FORCE 2018 season recap video
AZ X-Force takes 2nd at the 2018 USPA Nationals.
After nearly two full days on the ground due to weather, the first events wrapped up at the 2018 USPA National Skydiving Championships at Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Rochelle, Illinois. The vertical formation skydiving event completed five of 10 scheduled rounds, with five teams in each division.
In the open class, SDC Core once again took the gold, 30 points ahead of second place. Arizona X-Force won silver, and Golden Knights VFS took bronze.
In the advanced division, Skydive Midwest Chemtrails won gold, with Dynasty in second and STF Pickle Ricks in third. This year’s Nationals included an intermediate-class test event, with ECLIPTIK taking the top spot.
Arizona X-Force would like to thank all of its sponsors and supporters for making a successful 2018 season possible. Placing second, the team finished the USPA Nationals at CSC with a new personal best (17.8 avg).
X-Force would also like to thank and congratulate its fellow competitors for a great competition. A special shout out to all who participated in the intermediate test event. We welcome the new devision and look forward to having increased participation.
2017 USPA National Championships
The 2017 USPA Nationals were held at Skydive Perris, CA. AXIS Flight School members Brianne Thompson and Niklas Daniel entered three separate events: VFS open, MFS open, and Speed.
In the 4-way VFS category there were 3 teams in open, and 4 in advanced. After completing close to 400 training jumps at Skydive Arizona, and spending about 30 hours in the Skyventure Arizona wind tunnel, the team finished 3rd with a competition average of 14.20.
Left to right: Johnny Gunn, Seth Studer, Keith Fournier, Brianne Thompson, Niklas Daniel
VFS Competition draw, recreated using the AXIS draw generator:
(VFS team Arizona X-FORCE by David Wybenga)
In the MFS category there were 6 teams in open, and 8 in advanced. This is the first time AXIS competed in MFS at the USPA nationals. Without having trained this year, the team walked away with a 12 point average and a 4th place finish.
Left to right: Brianne Thompson, Keith Fournier (video), Niklas Daniel
MFS Competition draw, recreated using the AXIS draw generator:
The speed category had its largest USA turn out ever, with 15 competitors on the roster. Though speed is not an official USPA event, it is a FAI recognized world event. Therefore the discipline is still considered a “test event” in the states, because past participation has been very low. However, this competition was a qualifier for the World Championships that will take place next year at Australia’s Gold Coast.
Brianne Thompson ended up collecting 3 records as the fastest female in several 
categories: State (CA), Nationals (USA), and Continental (North America). Flying at 347.05km/h, approximately 216mph, in round 2. Nik’s best round was his first, with a speed of 447.32km/h (approximately 278mph).
Congratulations to all participants, and a big thank you to all our sponsors for their continued support!
The AXIS Flight School Draw Generator 3.5 is online!
Created for competitors by competitors, the AXIS Flight School draw generator is
already being utilized by the world’s top competitors and coaches. It is free to use by anyone, no sign up required, and has proven to be a great tool for competitors who wish to create a quick random draw for training purposes, or to visualize.
With competition teams and their coaches in mind, AXIS Flight School has taken the draw generator one step further. In addition to creating randomly generated competition draws for FS, VFS, MFS, XF, and CF*, coaches can now utilize the new «Training Camp» feature. This feature functions like a digital white board and lets coaches create a series of rounds from scratch, using any formation in any combination and as often as they need for a specific training purpose. Manually generated draws, like random competition draws, can be saved as PDF and sent out to team mates or students, for them to prepare for or to visualize.
Draw Generator 3.5 is mobile friendly and can be accessed at http://drawgenerator.axis.tools/.
Other features include:
– Updated formation images for all freefall, tunnel, and canopy disciplines.
– Easy access to the current competition rules and images.
– FAI:IPC / USPA, IBA, NSL, CISM, USPA** collegiate disciplines which require a random draw generator (sky and tunnel).
– Selecting different skill levels (e.g. open, advanced, etc.; when available).
– Selecting different tunnel sizes (12, 14, or 16 feet; where applicable).
– Saving any draw as PDFs (a detailed and a summary version are available).
* FS = Formation Skydiving, VFS = Vertical Formation Skydiving, MFS = Mixed Formation Skydiving, XF = Cross Formation Skydiving (Canopy and Wingsuit; by AXIS), CF = Canopy Formation
** FAI:IPC = International Parachuting Commission of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, USPA = United States Parachute Association, IBA = International Bodyflight Association, NSL = National Skydiving League, CISM = Conseil International du Sport Militaire
Arizona X-FORCE Parachutist center fold!
June, 2017
2017 iFly Virginia Beach competition
On April 22-23rd, iFLY Virginia Beach hosted the first meet of the 2017 IBA series. This competition acted as the US Team Qualifier for the World Championships in Montreal in October. AXIS Flight School‘s Brianne Thompson and Niklas Daniel took part in the event, competing in both the 4-way FS and 4-way VFS categories in the open class.
4-way FS: Competing under the name “X-Defy”, which is a combination of two team names: X-Force and Defiance, Nik and Brianne competed with local Arizona skydivers Cris and Joe Howard.
With only 3 hours of tunnel training over the past few weeks, the team finishing the meet with a 18.3 average over 10 rounds, placing 3rd.
iFLY VB 2017 4-way FS open podium
4-way FS open scores:
4-way VFS: Arizona X-FORCE managed to increase its competition average considerably since the XP Championships, just two month earlier – jumping from 21.3 to 23.7.
Unfortunately the team took a severe blow in round 3, loosing its 2nd place standing and dropping to 4th, which it could not recover from. In the end, Arizona X-FORCE lost the podium by 1 point to team Arsenal.
4-way VFS open scores:
VFS Rounds 1 and 2
FS rounds 5 -10, VFS round 3 starts at 1:14:55
Awards
Congratulations to all the teams that took part in this awesome event, and thanks to all of our sponsors for their continued support! Our next two major competitions will be the Skydiving World Cup (7-13 Aug) in Saarlouis Germany, followed by the USPA Nationals (20-23 Sep) at Skydive Perris California.
AXIS Foundations of Flight: Belly forward drive
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Arizona X-FORCE takes 3rd at the 2016 USPA Nationals!
The 2016 USPA Nationals were held at Skydive Arizona (SDAZ) in Eloy, AZ. In the 4-way VFS category there were 6 teams in open, and 4 in advanced –the same turnout as the previous year.
Last year, Arizona X-Force took 3rd place at the 2015 USPA Nationals in Eloy with a 13.13 average. After completing close to 200 training jumps at Skydive Arizona, and spending about 20 hours in the Skyventure Arizona wind tunnel, the team was only able to maintain their competition average at a 13.88 this year. Unfortunately Seth Studer (tail flyer) needed shoulder surgery 2 months prior to the competition, forcing him to stay on the ground. Luckely Jason Peters was able to fill in last minute for Seth; and with very minimal training, the team entered the competition.
Left to right:Brianne Thompson, Niklas Daniel, Kevin Mitchell (video), Jason Peters, Johnny Gunn. Photo by David Cherry.
Here is a look at the draw for the open devision:
- H-14-4
- 16-G-6
- B-L-A-E-15
- 12-13-J
- 9-D-2
- 11-F-5
- i-7-M-K
- 3-1-10
- N-17-8 (tie breaker round) not jumped
SDC Core and Arizona Arsenal ended up taking the first two spots on the podium. There was an exciting fight to the finish between Arizona X-Force, the ARMY Golden Knights, and Skydive California Super Serious as they battled for the bronze until the last round. In the end, X-Force managed to put two more points on the board than the Knights, securing their 3rd place finish. For more in-depth information, please visit omniskore, and for more media coverage check out SkydiveTV.
Arizona X-Force would like to thank Skydive Arizona, Skyventure Arizona, and all of our equipment sponsors who made this training season possible. Special thanks to Jason Peters for filling in last minute.
VFS Open team Arizona X-FORCE. Photo by Jochen Althoff.
VFS Open podium photo by Jochen Althoff.
Teams from left to right: Arizona Arsenal (2nd), SDC Core (1st), Arizona X-FORCE (3rd)
VectorCamps: Premier Skills Camps in the U.S.
Building on the success of the famous Vector Festival event in Europe, UPT has spearheaded a group of manufacturers, coming together to deliver a skills camp experience like no other. The goal is to work with top coaches and provide camp participants with a safe and personalized way to further their skills. Number of slots available per each day is limited. Coaches and organizers will come from teams like Fly4Life, SDC Core and AXIS Flight School, and focus on working with a small group of flyers. Participants will be entered into a raffle to win a custom Vector container at the end of the series, along with many smaller prizes during each camp.
The manufacturers and vendors behind the Vector Camps are Performance Designs, Vigil, Vertical Suits, Cookie Helmets, Squirrel, Airborne America.
In conjunction with each VectorCamp, we at Blue Skies Mag will deliver tips, tricks and interview from select coaches on a variety of topics – especially for those of you that can’t make it to the camps in person!
The first VectorCamp is to be held at Chicagoland Skydiving Center (CSC) August 11-14, 2016, featuring a variety of events and disciplines:
⚬ 10 Way FS Challenge (AXIS Flight School vs. the Grillet family)
⚬ Intro to Canopy Flocking (Greg Rau)
⚬ Angle Leadership Group (Andy Locke)
⚬ Mixed FreeFly Sequentials (Naomi Kotzee)
⚬ Multi Dimensional Wingsuit Flight (Lawrence de Laubadere)
⚬ HeadUp Formations and Big Way Skills (Gareth Bloodworth)
⚬ Intro to FS and Group Belly Flying Skills
⚬ Intro to FreeFly
⚬ Intro to Angle Flying
For more information on the CSC event, please visit this post on the VectorCamps page.
To keep up to date with future camps, check out the VectorCamps Facebook page.
Originally posted by Blue Skies Magazine May 12, 2016
