posted Jul 21st, 2011 - The NSL News reported on 3 July 2011 that the NSL Remscheid Cup 2011 in Merseburg will be the first stop in Germany on the way to the World Cup 2011 coverage in Saarlouis. The upcoming weekend offers two other meets for the German 4-way teams and competitors, as the NSL Calendar of Events shows.

FSC Remscheid's passionate club president Klaus Mathies recently made a long trip to the event location of the NSL Remscheid Cup 2011 to meet with the DZ operators and the owners of the AN 28 jump planes. The 1-day and 1000-km journey brought him from Remscheid to Magdeburg where he met with the owner of the AN 28 jump planes that will be used for the event, Michael Friedrich.

He also met with local skydivers who were jumping from the AN 28 that day and plan to attend the NSL Remscheid Cup on the July 30/31 weekend. The event is mainly offering an introduction of 4-way competition to the recreational skydivers in Germany.

Then he continued to the event location in Merseburg. Both drop zones in Magdeburg and Merseburg are located on airports that were used by the Russian military after the second world war. He reported that the space is "gigantic" and that the AN 28, also former Russian property, are in great shape.

The Remscheid club president said that he was exhausted back in Remscheid at the end of the day but that the trip was all worthwhile.

Klaus Mathies, who will turn 70 years old next year, made his first jump in 1962 and founded the FSC Remscheid skydiving club in 1971. The NSL Remscheid Cup 2011 is a part of the club's 40-year anniversary. He was passionate about Formation Skydiving from the very beginning, even though the sport was very young and in its exploratory phase at that time.

He met BJ Worth and Jerry Bird early in his career, was fascinated by their Formation Skydiving projects and invited them to visit Germany in 1972. Then he formed FSC Remscheid's first 8-way team and eventually traveled to Florida in 1976 where the Remscheid team attended the 10-way Turkey Meet with 110 participating teams.

His passion for Formation Skydiving competition motivated him to continue with his support of German teams. Many German top competitors were team members of the Remscheid 4-way and 8-way lineups over the years, and many of them are still competing.

He can also take credit for recruiting the first German lineup when the the female 4-way category was created. Kristina Monsees, Cindy Cooper, Birgit Brakhahn, Frauke Lympius and Marion Thomas competed for Parat Remscheid and Germany in Spain 2001, Thomas Friess was filming the first German 4-way team in the female category.

In fact, the whole German Formation Skydiving delegation at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2001 in Spain were FSC Remscheid lineups. Olaf Biedermann, Thomas Spielvogel, Göran Meyer and Jens Gönnemann competed for EADS Remscheid in 2011, with Richard "Rickster" Powell on camera. The NSL News story on 10 July 2011 explained that the same four competitors have an interesting reunion at the World Cup 2011.

Only Olaf Biedermann was also in Remscheid's 8-way lineup of 2001. Several other Remscheid 8-way members of 2001 (Henning Stumpp, Matthias Maushake, Uwe Soppa, Ulrich Sehrbrock, Steffen Schiedek) are still active this year, and the NSL News will find the names in German lineups on upcoming leaderboards, not only the one of the World Cup 2011.