The 2016 USPA National Championships of Wingsuit Flying completed Wednesday, August 24—two days ahead of schedule—at Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Rochelle, Illinois. This marked the second year for USPA’s newest Nationals competition, both years hosted by Chicagoland.
The meet included four teams in the acrobatic team event and 20 competitors in individual performance flying. In acrobatic flying, which involves three-person teams—two performers and a videographer—Flatspin edged out Wicked Wingsuits Carolina by a single point in the final round for the gold. Tumbling Pigeons took the bronze. Guest team Bonzai Why So Serious had the highest total score but couldn’t earn medals as a guest. The top three medal teams earned slots on the U.S. Team that will compete at the World Cup this November at Skydive City Zephyrhills in Florida. Full acro scores are available on OmniSkore!HD.
The performance flying event included 16 open and four intermediate competitors scored on three tasks—time, distance and speed. In the open class, Alexey Galda, last year’s intermediate winner, took gold. Chris Geiler won silver, and last year’s national champ, Travis Mickle, earned bronze. In intermediate, Jerrid Atwood claimed the gold, Haley White silver and Joel Williamson bronze. Complete scores are available on the Paralog website.
Several competitors also set new national performance flying competition records:
- Longest time: Kristian Szczepitko, 88.6 seconds
- Fastest speed: Travis Mickle, 300.5 kilometers/hour
- Greatest distance (three records set in sequence): Chris Geiler, 4.087 km; Alexey Galda, 4.218 km and 4.263 km
The top eight open-class performance flying competitors earned slots on the U.S. Team that will compete at the 1st Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
Wingsuit Fying World Championships at Skydive City in November. The team includes Galda, Geiler, Mickle, Szczepitko, Joe Ridler, Anthony Zerbonia, Jason Bresson and Scott Callantine.
Chicagoland once again proved a superb host. Meet director James Hayhurst and chief judge Michael Cooper and CSC’s entire staff helped the meet run smoothly and quickly. Look for a complete report on the Wingsuit Nationals in the October issue of Parachutist.