I would like to thank UPT‘s Riley Marshall, and Lesley Gale at SkydiveMag for showing off some of my photos and videos in a feature article about the Skyhook (MARD). To learn more about the Main-Assisted Reserve Deployment system, and how it differs from a Reserve Static Line (RSL), check out the full article MARDginal Analysis.
Brianne Thompson cuts away with the Skyhook, filmed by Niklas Daniel over Skydive Arizona, Video by AXIS Flight School.
On January 4th, 2015 AXIS Flight School created an experimental dive pool for what was then referred to as XRW (Extreme Relative Work). This is a still developing discipline where canopy and wing-suit pilots build formations. In essence, an XRW skydive is a dissimilar formation flight.
Photo courtesy of Dan Dupuis.
The first dive pool developed by AXIS was called XF. The name change from XRW was proposed similar to how RW (Relative Work) was changed to FS (Formation Skydiving); and since CF (Canopy Formation) is already taken, the XF abbreviation was introduced for “Cross” Formation. The first draft only had 3 Randoms and 6 blocks.
Dive pool images from 2015
Since wing-suit technology has dramatically increased flight performance over the past few years, new formations have become possible. The updated 2020 version now features 8 randoms and 10 blocks dispersed over three classes: intermediate, advanced, and open. In addition, the XF rules have been updated to evolve with the times and practitioners can even make use of the AXIS DrawGenerator. There are now two orientations for the wing suit pilot to fly in:
Back in the day 🙂
AXIS coach Niklas Daniel started experimenting with XF back in April 2010, and has posted videos and written articles about the subject.
2010 – Nik’s first few attempts at Skydive Elsinore.
2011 – Training Camp at Skydive Arizona
2011 – MOAB Boogie.
Photo by Taya Weiss.
2014 – Getting a bit braver. Post by Blue Skies Magazine.
2015 – XF gets some exposure on Discovery Canada with first 3-way Night Formation.
Continued fun, experimentation, and introducing the discipline to others.
Wing-suit pilot and photo by Alex Swindle.
AXIS Flight School instructor Brianne Thompson is featured on the latest Performance Designs advertisement flying the PDR.
Photo by Samantha Schwann
Being competitors at heart, Niklas and Brianne do their best to improve on a daily basis. This applies not only to competitions, but also their business and life’s work – AXIS Flight School. AXIS has gone through an incredible online transformation, which could be called a “Cyber Grand Re-opening”. These changes have been taking place behind the scenes for over two years.
The AXIS website has always been packed with lots of useful tools and information. In order to make the site more user friendly and to keep up with the times more than a facelift was needed. In fact, we started over. Major improvements include a color coded menu system which is easy to navigate, condensed information on every page, and not to be overlooked – The AXIS Skydiving Repository. Here we developed a digital sorting system that categorizes all or our articles and reference materials for faster recall. Now users can search for categories such as solo skills, canopy, camera, and much more to find what you are looking for.
In addition, AXIS Flight School now uses sig.ma, a platform on which you can keep track of accomplishments, IDs, licenses, merits, etc. in a digital form. This allows us to send merits to students who have demonstrated their proficiency to our AXIS Coaches™ and acknowledge their achievements. Available Merits are displayed at the top of each web page, and their colors correspond to the new menu system.
Our online tools are still available to all for free. All AXIS dive pool images, Draw Generator, and ChronoPrism have all been updated with the new 2019 formations.
2016 Skydive Arizona film festival submission. Video edited by David Arnett.
On August 11-14, AXIS Flight School went to Vector Camp #1 at Chicago Skydiving Center (CSC) to organize and coach in both FS and free-fly disciplines.
Brianne put together large belly groups and challenged them with formations AXIS put together. These jumps involved stepping out of the usual FS skill sets and rules and required participants to think fast and fly very precise. Nik provided video for some of the FS groups and also provided some free-fly organizing and angle jump coaching. The AXIS vs. Grillets big way belly sequential event ended up with a slightly different format than advertised. Because the turn out of the event was lower than expected, there just simply were not enough people to form four 10-way teams. Because of this, the participants were encouraged to come together and challenge their skills with more complex dives.
Performance Designes hosted their Backyard Accuracy Challenge, where participants were able to demo the Optimum reserve and fly through a simulated back yard with obstacles. The winner of the event walked away with a free OP Reserve!
Jason playing the didgeridoo after a couple of shots at 9am Australian local time.
On the evening of the 12th, three famous figures in the skydiving community were put onstage and asked to recall some of their favorite memories from their skydiving carriers. The evening took on a humorous mood as the mixing of crazy stories and alcohol continued. As Jason Cooke is located in Australia, he joined the event via a webcam and light projector. 
CSC hangar during drunken skydiver history
later in that evening…
For more images and info, check out the Vector Camp Facebook page.
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
