posted Mar 6th, 2009 - The latest scores on the NSL leaderboard still show Hayabusa Defence on top of the AAA Class field that competed at the Aerokart indoor competition in Paris, France. The NSL News story on 2 March 2009 brought the scores and additional information to the attention of the on-line audience.

The NSL News mentioned in the same article that it would follow up with more feedback directly from the team's perspective. Hayabusa coach Joey Jones had already provided his brief comments after the event. An earlier story on 27 February 2009 explained the Hayabusa plans for the 2009 season.

Hayabusa's team speaker and Tail, Roy Janssen, now and once again provided the NSL News with this feedback directly from the team and also sent the latest team photos with the new Hayabusa Point, Waedong So.

First of all, Roy Janssen explained the schedule of the Aerokart Indoor Challenge. The teams had the opportunity to get familiar with the windtunnel in Paris on Saturday morning with four training rounds. Then the judges handed out the competition draw.

The dive pool for the indoor competition included all blocks except 1 (Snowflake - Offset) and 13 (Hammer - Hammer). Roy Janssen explained that the size of the tunnel doesn't allow an easy execution of these two blocks: "These two blocks are very hard to do at the Aerokart tunnel."

The working time started for the teams after building a Star (M) and dropping the first grip. Roy Janssen said that this start of the working time produces higher scores, compared to the World Challenge 2009 where the working time begins when the teams enter the flying chamber.

He added that this is the safest way to start the sequence at the Aerokart windtunnel: "Due to the way the tunnel is build, this is almost the only safe solution for organizing a tunnel meet."

Hayabusa Defence's Tail then commented his own team's performance in Paris: "We are more pleased with the lessons that we have learned than with the actual scores. We probably lost a total of 15 points. We did well in four of the ten rounds."

Next he went back to Joey Jones' related comments after the competition. Hayabusa's coach had mentioned one of the biggest challenges for the Belgian team: "Hayabusa Defence is showing its new more aggressive style with lots of promise. Of course, the timeless question of whether such an aggression can be handled well is definitely an issue. Only time will tell."

Roy Janssen said his team already knew that Hayabusa would not perform perfectly:

"We could not be flawless after just being back in training since January with the new lineup. But we are hopeful and enthusiastic about the next upcoming training camp in Ampuria where we can start working on these issues. I guess that after completely understanding now the things that we need to work on, we will be solving it all quite soon."

He thinks that even the World Challenge 2009 will still be a little bit too soon for a great Hayabusa performance. However, he is sure that his team will already perform better in Bedford than at the Aerokart Indoor Challenge, and he sees more the longer term perspective:

"We will take it step by step while we have the opportunity. Competing this year is very important for us to get more meet experience. It is especially the mental part of any competition that will have its payoff for us."

The actual flying skills and techniques are not an issue for Roy Janssen and his team: "The team is in good shape, and we will most likely catch up with our old performance of the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge very soon. So it will be up to us to get the according scores on the leaderboard now."

Hayabusa Defence trains from March 8 to March 20 in Ampuriabrava, Spain, and then travels to Bedford at the beginning of April.