posted Jul 29th, 2018 - The good news for the new German Airbus 8-way team continued on the second day of the qualification event, where Airbus had to finish with a 13.0 average to earn the tickets to the FAI World Meet later this year in Australia.

Airbus had finished with a 13.8 average for the six rounds that were completed on Saturday and copied this average for the last four rounds on Sunday. All question marks behind a German 8-way team at this year's world meet can be erased, and the discussion of the qualification norm can also be left behind.

It is also good news for the Formation Skydiving competition world, where this category is not as popular as 4-way competition, mostly due to logistical and administrative challenges for teams of twice the size. At least six of the nine countries that had sent 8-way teams to the previous world meet in 2016 (United States, Russia, Qatar, Great Britain, Germany, Australia) will be represented again in Australia for an exciting 8-way competition.

It was a very impressive performance of the new Airbus lineup that started the project only at the beginning of this year with indoor training. Half of the team members were completely new to 8-way competition, as the NSL News explained on 8 January 2018, and the 13.8 average this weekend is one of the highest results in German 8-way history.

July 28 - 29, 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	8,1,19	A,17,15	J,2,9	D,13,5	F,N,6,12	4,M,20	3,7,22	L,P,G,B,18	E,Q,11,H	14,10,C	Total	Avg
1	Airbus	13	12	12	13	15	18	14	16	13	12	138	13.8

The last time that a German 8-way team scored higher at any 10-round competition was the 14.8 average at the FAI Mondial 2012 in Dubai, right after a 14.5 average at the national championships a few months earlier.

The situation was very different though, as the EADS lineup consisted of the best and most experienced German 4-way and 8-way competitors, each with numerous national titles and medals in their records, and the core of the team was at the end of their 5th year together in December 2012.

Two members of the current Airbus lineup brought the experience of the 2012 season into this year's 8-way project, Max Thiele and Uli Sehrbrock. They finished in 4th place and with the 14.8 average with EADS in Dubai.

The highest average in German 8-way history is even five years older. It was posted 11 years ago by EADS at the FAI World Cup 2007, and the lineups was very similar, with six members competing at both events in 2007 and 2012. Current Airbus members Max Thiele and Thomas Spielvogel have the 15.0 average in their records.

FAI Mondial 2012			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		N,21,B,5	14,C,13	22,M,20	17,H,16	J,E,12,4	7,19,15	G,K,8,2	O,L,F,P,A	10,11,18	9,Q,D,1	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	21	19	27	26	26	18	20	28	19	25	229	22.9
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	FR	22	19	22	23	27	20	20	28	19	25	225	22.5
3	Barkli 8	RU	19	18	22	22	21	15	15	24	16	20	192	19.2
4	EADS 8	DE	14	13	15	15	18	14	14	16	13	16	148	14.8
5	VIVA 8	CH	13	13	15	15	14	11	12	17	13	13	136	13.6
6	Dubai Asaar 8	AE	11	11	12	11	10	10	10	12	12	12	111	11.1
7	M8Trix	NL	11	11	11	12	12	10	10	12	10	-	99	11.0
8	Brit Chicks 8	UK	11	11	12	11	14	10	11	11	6	-	97	10.8
9	South Africa 8	ZA	12	11	11	10	13	9	9	11	10	-	96	10.7
10	Qatar Falcons	QA	11	9	11	11	12	9	9	11	8	-	91	10.1
11	Australia	AU	10	8	9	11	12	10	9	13	-	-	82	10.3
12	The 8 Team	BE	8	11	7	11	12	9	10	12	-	-	80	10.0
12	CTR Optimum 8	BR	9	9	11	12	10	9	10	10	-	-	80	10.0
14	Austria	AT	8	8	9	10	10	6	7	8	-	-	66	8.3
15	Maximum Ride	CA	8	8	7	8	7	8	7	7	-	-	60	7.5
16	Singapore 8	SG	8	7	8	5	5	6	7	8	-	-	54	6.8

Uli Sehrbrock and Steffen Schiedek brought in additional 8-way experience from the two world meets in Croatia 2004 and Germany 2006 where they competed with 8-way team FSC Remscheid for Germany. They are now the longest standing German 8-way competitors at world meets and will add another one to their records, while the younger half of the 8-way team will attend their first one.

The 15.0 record average of 2007 and the impressive 2018 progression with the 13.8 average this weekend have something in common that may help to explain the success in both years. Both lineups also had the same coach, Marco Arrigo from Italy.

Thomas Spielvogel and Max Thiele probably remembered well how successful the cooperation with Marco Arrigo was in 2007, and the new Airbus lineup hired him as the head coach right from the beginning of the 8-way project.

The 13.8 average is the first number that the new lineup has put on a leaderboard, and it is not really that far away from the 14.5 average in 2012, which is only five points short of the German 15.0 record average. Airbus will not be able to win 8-way medals in Australia, and the team might focus on other goals, such as the re-match with MicroClim8 and the 15.0 average level...

FAI World Cup 2007			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		TBD	A,B,12,C	17,E,9	15,N,1	5,10,H	18,4,L	2,J,F,7	K,13,11	16,Q,21	3,19,20	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	20	18	27	15	24	19	17	23	20	21	204	20.4
2	Evolution Pro	RU	17	15	23	15	25	16	17	21	16	19	184	18.4
3	Ex3mo	IT	17	14	16	11	20	15	15	17	17	16	158	15.8
4	EADS	DE	14	13	21	11	20	13	13	13	16	16	150	15.0
5	Maubeuge NPC	FR	14	11	15	9	16	11	12	14	11	12	125	12.5
6	Sounds Grr8	UK	9	9	12	8	11	8	7	7	10	8	89	8.9