posted May 12th, 2006 - The official registration of the national teams for the World Meet 2006 in Germany has slowly picked up the pace. Only Germany and Australia had all their teams signed up for quite a while, and Brazil's 4-way Open Class team CTR Optimum was one of the first registered teams, as well.

The Netherlands and Russia recently added teams to the line-up for the World Meet. The Netherlands registered one team each in the 4-way Open and Women's Class, while Russia will have teams competing in each of the eight disciplines of the World Meet, including 4-way Open, 4-way Women and 8-way.

Australia and Germany were the first nations that had registered their teams for all three Formation Skydiving events. The NSL News already introduced the German team in the Women's Class with the story on May 7. The Australian 4-way team Airtite is next in the preview of the upcoming World Meet.

Airtite was formed in 1999 and is one of the longest standing and most successful Australian 4-way skydiving teams in recent times with a passion for competition. Over the years, several different line-ups have been used until the current team members (Jeremy Langford - Point, Gary Nemirovsky - Outside Center, Rob Tasic - Inside Center, Simon Disciassio - Tail and Andy Oakley on camera) joined in June 2005 to set about re-defining the team's objectives and improving the team average at the two major events in 2006.

Airtite's international appearance began at the World Cup in Spain 2002 with an 18th place and a 12.9 average. The team has won the past three Australian championships and also represented Australia at the World Meet in Croatia 2004 where Airtite finished in 13th position with a 14.0 average.

Having recently won the team's third successive Australian Nationals with a 14.3 average, the team will again represent Australia, this time at the World Meet in Germany this year. The second major event on Airtite's 2006 schedule is the Malevsky Cup 2006.

The 14.3 average at the last Australian Nationals is the team's highest result of the mentioned previous events. However, Airtite has set the goal for this year on a much higher level. The 17-average performance that the team aims for at the 2006 competitions is well prepared.

Airtite has currently been coached by Solly Williams and just completed a 65-jump camp at Skydive DeLand. The same camp included 10 hours of SkyVenture Orlando wind tunnel time and a few jumps and tunnel hours in Eloy, Arizona, on the way back to Australia. Former Airspeed and current Fastrax member Mark Kirkby worked with Airtite during the short layover on the west coast.

There is no wind tunnel training available in Australia, and the team used the tunnel time in the USA to fine-tune body flight techniques. Solly Williams and Mark Kirkby worked on the individual skills with each team member and also "took a number of blocks back to square one", as the team reported.

"The training camp was a huge success", commented Airtite's Point, Jeremy Langford, "now we can build from there." The scores are already on a significantly higher level and has brought a "noticeably healthier scoring average", added Jeremy Langford.

The final phase of the team's preparations for the World Meet 2006 begins in June with Solly Williams coaching the team in Australia. The training plan includes a total of 120 jumps at Sydney Skydivers in Picton. The dz's owner, Phil Onis, and manager John McWilliam, who is a world meet veteran with the Australian teams Rigidij and Lightspeed, have supported Airtite over the last 2.5 years extensively. Other team sponsors include Aerodyne and Icarus.