posted Jun 8th, 2018 - The story of the new German 8-way team on its possible way to Australia continues, while the team keeps working on the 13.0 qualification requirement that was set by the German skydiving federation (DFV).

The NSL News introduced the team on 8 January 2018 and followed up with more details of the qualification requirements on 14 May 2018.

The new Airbus lineup, with three members of the German 8-way team at the last world meet, the FAI Mondial, was hoping that the German federation would bring back the required 8-way average to 12.5 as it was at the German Nationals 2017. The federation lifted the required average to 13.0 for the new team instead that had little over six months to get ready for the special qualification event.

It became even more interesting when the new Airbus lineup had to realize that the federation went back to the previous 12.5 average for this year's 8-way winner at the national championships to qualify as the German national 8-way team at international events in 2019.

New Airbus 8-way lineup: Carl Enders, Alex Prendinger, Thomas Spielvogel, Linda Koeb, Erik Lorenz (Camera), Stefan Knoch, Marco Arrigo (Coach), Steffen Schiedek, Max Thiele, Uli Sehrbrock

This creates an unusual situation this summer in Germany. The qualification event was scheduled for the last weekend of July in Illertissen, and the 8-way team has to deliver not only the 13.0 average.

The German Nationals 2018 are scheduled for the last August weekend, and the 8-way winner will then need only last year's 12.5 average to qualify for the next international representation, four weeks after the required 13.0 average.

The German federation also required the team to invite three FAI judges and cover their expenses. The competition draw has to be done manually to ensure the integrity.

Germany went through a similar situation in 4-way Women before the FAI Mondial 2016. The national team was put together after the national championships in 2015 and had to report once to the national coach, Mathias Maushake, himself a former German national 8-way competitor.

The German 4-way Women team did not deliver the required qualification average in time. However, the national coach thought that the team had enough potential to compete well for Germany and recommended their participation at Skydive Chicago.

German Nationals 2016			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		1,17,B		8,15,20		D,M,13,A		12,5,7		G,O,3,P		22,F,11		18,21,6		16,2,C		14,J,19		L,Q,10,N		Total	Avg
6	Skynamite FSZ Saar	DE	11		11		14		13		13		12		11		11		11		10	-1	117	11.7
7	Skyfall	DE	12		9		15		11		14		11		10		10		11		9		112	11.2
FAI Mondial 2016			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		12,A,16		18,15,O		1,F,E,C		17,B,14		10,2,20		21,11,G		J,5,19		L,M,K,7		D,8,4		3,13,Q		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	21		21		30		20	-2	17		19		24		35		20		17	-2	224	22.4
2	French Girls	FR	21		18		30	-1	23		17		18	-2	24		34		18	-1	14		217	21.7
3	NFTO	UK	17		15		21		19		13		16		18		26	-1	17		13	-1	175	17.5
4	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	18		15	-1	19	-1	16	-2	14		16		17	-2	25		17		14		171	17.1
5	Les Stunts	BE	15		14		20	-1	16		11	-1	13		16		24		15		13		157	15.7
6	Bellatrix	AU	13		12		20	-1	16		12		13		15		22		13		14		150	15.0
7	Skymix	DE	13		11		15	-1	15		12		13		14		23		12		12	-1	140	14.0
8	No Mercy	PL	14		14		19	-1	13	-1	9		11	-1	12	-2	19	-4	14		11	-1	136	13.6
9	Infra Red Band	RU	15		12	-1	16	-3	13	-1	9	-2	11		13		17	-2	14		10		130	13.0
10	CZ Ladies	CZ	11		11		14	-1	13		9		10		12		19		9	-2	10		118	11.8
11	Valkyria	DK	10		8		16		10		9		10		11	-1	17	-2	12		10		113	11.3

It was a good call, as Skymix finished with a 14.0 average in 7th place on the 4-way Women leaderboard. The best German team in 4-way Women had posted a 10.1 average at the German Nationals 2015 and 11.7 a year later. The Skymix lineup was a combination of two Skyfall and two AtomiX YUU members who joined forces only for the FAI Mondial 2016.

German federation and national coach will apparently have the authority to send the new Airbus lineup to Australia, even if they miss the required 13.0 average and still present a strong and promising performance at the end of July. National coach Mathias Maushake recommended the 12.5 average for the qualification, as he seems to see the same potential as he did for the 4-way Women lineup in 2016, while the federation decided differently.

The team does not plan to depend on clemency after a potentially positive assessment by the federation. Their goal is to simply deliver the 13.0 average. In fact, the training has been going so well that the internal goal might be set even higher. The team had favorable weather conditions so far and has completed 150 training jumps by now.

The Airbus team is very happy with their cooperation with coach Marco Arrigo, even though he will not be able to work with the team at the 4-day camp this month. Airbus will have to show the coach that they can handle the 13+ performance level without him, four weeks before the showdown with three FAI judges in Illertissen...