posted Dec 10th, 2018 - The most recent update from the Weembinamic 2018 covered Germany's national 8-way team Airbus at their first indoor competition, and it connects to other related developments in the country.

The story mentioned that Airbus 4-way member Thomas Mack had to step into the 8-way lineup at the world meet in Australia when Thomas Spielvogel was injured shortly before the competition in Australia.

Thomas Mack had experiences with double duties after the FAI World Meet 2016 where the complete Airbus FSZ Saar 4-way lineup competed in 8-way, as well. Airbus 4-way did not like the world meet experiences of 2016 too much, and the team members had no plans to repeat a similar situation. However, it was an emergency situation in Australia, as the 9th member of the 8-way lineup, Olaf Biedermann, was not available for the trip to Australia. Thomas Mack helped out in 8-way when Thomas Spielvogel could not compete.

This story connected Thomas Mack with the Airbus 8-way lineup, even though he was not in Lille for the recent Weembinamic 8-way competition. Coach Marco Arrigo stepped in when only seven team members of the 8-way lineup were available for the indoor competition.

German Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	B,11,7	C,9,3	K,4,1	5,L,H,G	18,19,M	D,17,13	22,P,12	E,20,8	O,14,N,10	16,Q,J,15	Total	Avg
1	Airbus 4-way FSZ Saar	22	24	19	26	19	19	15	19	18	19	200	20.0
2	AtomiX-YUU Skydive	20	18	16	21	18	16	13	14	16	17	169	16.9
3	Paranodon Bardarbunga	19	17	15	16	16	14	14	15	15	-	141	15.7
4	Dark Energy	17	19	13	17	15	14	12	14	14	15	150	15.0
5	NeVa FSZ Saar	17	14	12	16	13	12	10	13	13	13	133	13.3
6	Skynamite FSZ Saar	17	14	11	15	12	11	11	13	11	10	125	12.5
7	Wolf Pack	14	13	10	15	12	11	9	12	9	12	117	11.7
8	Skyweed Illertissen	14	14	12	14	11	10	8	12	11	10	116	11.6
8	Paranodon Eyjafjallajökull	16	15	14	13	11	11	11	14	11	-	116	12.9
10	HorschD FSZ Saar	14	13	8	11	11	6	9	11	8	12	103	10.3

The situation changes again in 2019, as the update from Weembi Lille reported. Thomas Mack is now officially back in the 8-way lineup that will most likely win the national championships next year and then compete at the next world meet in Tanay 2020.

This is probably not the case for his Airbus 4-way lineup, which needs a complete make-over. However, priority for Thomas Mack is still the 4-way team that continues next year, as well. He will share his 8-way slot with the same 9th team member, Olaf Biedermann, and give the 4-way team the necessary attention.

Airbus 4-way will have two new members, and Markus Bastuck will be available only for a limited schedule. AtomiX, with the same lineup and an intensive training and meet schedule for 2019, seems to be too far ahead at this point in time, and Thomas Mack expects the main opponent to win the national championships in 4-way next year and compete for Germany in Tanay 2020. This situation would not create new double duties for Thomas Mack in Russia, where he will probably be in the lineup and Olaf Biedermann in the alternate slot.

Another Airbus 8-way member will join the Airbus 4-way team, as well, which will create double duties at least at the German Nationals 2019. Alexander Prendinger was one of the Eyjafjallajökull 4-way team members who were selected for the new Airbus 8-way lineup at the end of 2017. His former Eyjafjallajökull team mates continue in 8-way, while he is now joining the Airbus 4-way team, as well.

8-way partners Paranodon Bardarbunga and Paranodon Eyjafjallajökull at the German Nationals 2018

Sarah Mertes completes the new Airbus 4-way lineup. She trained and competed with Germany's 4-way Women team Skymix in 2016 and competed at the FAI World Meet the same year. This year, she competed with Chilly Pink Tigers at the German Indoor Nationals before becoming the alternate for Skynamite at the FAI World Meet 2018.

Due to Markus Bastuck's limited availability in 2019, Thomas Mack plans to spend a lot of time with player coaches filling the 4th slot.

NMP PCH HayaBusa member David Grauwels will take care of the indoor training in the coming winter, and Solly Williams takes over for outdoor training at the first camp in DeLand in March 2019. He will also visit the team in Germany later, and Roy Janssen may also fill the player coach slot at some point.

Thomas Mack said that the new Airbus 4-way team will probably complete up to 250 training jumps next year before competing at the national championships, where Markus Bastuck or one of the player coaches will be in the lineup. Thomas Mack and Alexander Prendinger will also compete in 8-way at this event.