posted May 12th, 2020 - The NSL Live Talk with Arizona Airspeed will be next, after the road trip of the NSL News to Raeford in North Carolina, home of the Paraclete XP windtunnel and skydiving center. The conversation was the first one with the complete new lineup, and it turned out to be very entertaining.

However, there is a good reason for a preview before the latest NSL Live Talk will be posted. Niklas Hemlin has selected and guided the current lineup to the current situation, together with Mikhail Markine, who joined Arizona Airspeed in 2016.

Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine had only two years with the same lineup (2017 - 2018), now going into their 5th year together. Niklas Hemlin's previous three years with Arizona Airspeed (2011 - 2012, 2015) were with two different lineups, as well. The short time periods were still enough to maintain the 4-way top spot in the United States successfully.

In fact, Niklas Hemlin's two years with Thomas Hughes, Josh Hall and Mark Kirkby even concluded with the highest possible reward, the FAI 4-way gold medals in Dubai 2012. The event turned out to be the last outdoor competition where any 4-way team in the world defeated NMP PCH HayaBusa, with one exception. Canada's Evolution lineup of 2014 outscored the freshly crowned 4-way world champions from Belgium at the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship in December 2014.

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5th DIPC 2014			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		Q,5,6	F,22,18	19,8,21	4,16,K	14,A,H,17	B,12,E,3	O,J,15,L	C,20,N,G	M,9,P,7	11,1,10	Total	Avg
1	Evolution	CA	27	21	18	22	27	24	33	27	34	19	252	25.2
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	26	22	18	22	19	24	32	27	32	19	241	24.1
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	24	22	19	19	25	22	29	26	35	17	238	23.8

Evolution - NMP PCH HayaBusa - SDC Rhythm XP at the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship 2014

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Niklas Hemlin is now the only active 4-way competitor in the world who has defeated NMP PCH HayaBusa once at a FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving - eight years ago. He took a 2-year break after Dubai 2012 and was back a year before Mikhail Markine joined Arizona Airspeed in 2016, after his three years (2013 - 2015) with SDC Rhythm XP.

Niklas Hemlin came back in the point slot, after driving the Airspeed engine for two years to the world championship title as the inside center. He moved back to the inside center slot when Mikhail Markine became the new point for a year.

With the new lineup in 2017, Mikhail Markine was back in the tail slot of his three years with SDC Rhythm XP, while Niklas Hemlin replaced Thomas Hughes as outside center. The new Airspeed lineup came very close to defeating NMP PCH HayaBusa again, this time at the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia.

Two more years with the same Airspeed lineup could have made HayaBusa's life very difficult, as it seemed at the end of the 2018 season. However, things turned out completely differently, as Airspeed's 2019 lineup came to an abrupt ending when Ari Perelman left the team early in 2019. Matt Davidson filled the slot, and Airspeed lost the 4-way battle with SDC Rhythm XP at the USPA Nationals 2019.

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USPA Nationals 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		13,16,20		C,B,M,D,1		N,Q,17,D		5,L,E,21		P,15,12		14,4,22		10,O,9		F,19,8		11,7,18		2,6,A		Total	Avg
1	Tanay 8	RU	20		23		23		19		26		21		17		16	-1	17	-1	19		201	20.1
2	XP8	US	19	-1	24		22		19		24		20		17		16	-1	17	-1	19		197	19.7
3	Golden Knights	US	18	-1	23		17	-5	18	-1	24		19	-1	16		17		18	-1	19		189	18.9
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	16	-2	21		21		17		18	-2	19	-1	16		15		15	-2	16		174	17.4
5	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	9		13		12		12		13		9	-1	10		11		8	-2	10		107	10.7
6	SDC Rhythm 9 XP	US	12		10	-2	9	-3	10	-1	11		12		10		9		11		10		104	10.4
7	Monster Mix	US	7	-4	10		9		9		9	-1	10	-1	9		9		8		9		89	8.9
8	Perris Riot!	US	9		7	-2	8		8		8	-1	9		9		9		9		7	-1	83	8.3
9	Fusion XP	US	7		8	-1	8	-1	9	-1	9		10		6	-1	7		7	-2	9		80	8.0
10	Lite 8	US	7		4	-2	6		6		4	-1	6	-1	6		4		5		7		55	5.5

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The disappointment of missing the next opportunity to challenge the Belgian 4-way world champions in Tanay 2020 did not keep Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine from making new plans. This time, they were looking for a serious long-term commitment by the new team members to catch up with NMP PCH HayaBusa and take back the top spot in the 4-way world.

Niklas Hemlin was now bringing a wealth of slot experiences into the new team. He won a 4-way world championship in the rear piece and has spent the past four years in the front piece. Mikhail Markine is looking back at seven years in the rear piece on the world's top level. It was actually not a big surprise that the new Airspeed members, Joey Marshall and Christopher Kuhlmann, learned very quickly how to fly their Airspeed slots.

There is still something new for Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine both. They will compete at the FAI Mondial Tanay 2020 next year as members of the Airspeed XP8 lineup. They have competed with Airspeed 8-way lineups at USPA Nationals without much training at all, last time in 2019.

This time, they are in full training with the 8-way team, and it will be the first world championship in 8-way for both. The NSL Live Talk with the complete Airspeed 4-way lineup will be next.