posted Sep 4th, 2019 - As Oceanside AtomiX did in 4-way Open at the German Outdoor Nationals, the national 8-way team Airbus Illertissen mastered the qualification for the FAI World Meet 2020 easily. There was no serious competition for the national gold medals, and the 13.9 average was well above the required 12.9 for the qualification.

Airbus Illertissen had to work much harder to qualify for Australia 2018. The 2017 lineup, winner of the national championship, did not continue, and the Airbus team had a completely new lineup for the 2018 season. The German federation scheduled a qualification event for July 2018, where the new lineup had to finish with a 13+ average for Australia.

The new Airbus lineup mastered the task with a 13.8 average, as the NSL News reported on 29 July 2018, and followed up with 13.7 a month later at the national championship. The same lineup then finished with a 12.9 average in 6th place at the FAI World Meet 2018 in October.

This year, the qualification was set for 12.9 at the national championship, which is the average that Airbus had posted at the world meet in Australia. Last week, Airbus actually ended up one point ahead (13.9 - 13.8) of the best average in 2018, which was posted at the qualification event.

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FAI World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	24	21	18	24	19	29	21	18	17	33	224	22.4
2	Tanay	RU	21	21	17	22	20	28	16	18	18	28	209	20.9
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	15	18	14	21	16	14	14	23	170	17.0
4	MicroClim8	UK	17	15	12	14	15	21	15	12	13	18	152	15.2
5	JYR8	AU	14	14	13	17	11	20	14	14	12	21	150	15.0
6	Airbus	DE	13	15	9	15	11	16	12	12	10	16	129	12.9
7	Brazil	BR	11	10	9	12	9	12	9	10	9	16	107	10.7

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It was not exactly the same new Airbus lineup that posted the 2018 and 2019 numbers. In fact, the circumstances were different at all five meets since the new Airbus team was formed at the end of 2017.

The complete lineup, with Max Thiele who was sharing a slot with Olaf Biedermann, mastered the qualification with the 13.8 in July 2018. Olaf Biedermann, member of the previous lineup of 2016 and 2017, took the slot for the national championship last year and finished with the 13.7 average. It was a third different Airbus lineup that competed then for Germany in Australia. Thomas Spielvogel was injured, and Airbus 4-way member Thomas Mack filled in with 4-way and 8-way double duties.

Thomas Spielvogel was back in Airbus action at the Weembinamic 2018, six weeks after the outdoor world meet. This time, neither Olaf Biedermann nor Max Thiele were available for the shared slot, and coach Marco Arrigo stepped in.

Finally, last week's lineup at the national championship was identical with the one that won last year's national gold medals, including the video slot. Erik Lorenz was actually filming the team at all oudoor meets. However, the situation was still different compared to the German Nationals 2018.

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German Nationals 2019 /th>			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		E,G,M,2		B,4,1		9,K,L,O		13,15,14		22,16,3		21,6,D		5,J,,12		P,17,7		10,H,C,11		8,F,19		Total	Avg
1	Qatar Falcons	QA	16	-1	24		16		14		20		14		14		14	-1	16		13		161	16.1
2	Airbus 8-way Illertissen	DE	14		18	-1	14		13		17		13		14		14		11	-2	11	-1	139	13.9
3	Veloce QRF	IN	12	-2	17		14		11		17		11		12		13		11		11		129	12.9
4	Coriolis	DE	6		9		8		7		8		7		5	-2	7		7		6		70	7.0
5	Luftschl8	DE	7		8		7	-1	5	-2	6		5	-1	6		6		4		6		60	6.0
6	MeightO Meissendorf	DE	5		7		6		6		5		4		6		6		4		4		53	5.3

Airbus Illertissen 8-way - Airbus Illertissen 4-way - Bardarbunga 2.0 at the German Nationals 2019

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The NSL News had mentioned earlier that the new Airbus lineup consisted of the members of two 4-way teams, Eyjafjallajökull and Bardarbunga, who joined forces and gave 8-way training and competition the highest priority. Both still competed with their 4-way lineups at last year's national championship.

Only Bardarbunga were back with three 2018 members (Steffen Schiedek, Uli Sehrbrock, Thomas Spielvogel). Their current 8-way team mate Carl Enders, former and original Eyjafjallajökull member, completed the lineup for Olaf Biedermann.

Eyjafjallajökull had disbanded as a 4-way team. Alex Prendinger trained and competed also with Airbus in 4-way and won gold in 8-way this year, plus silver in 4-way. He trained and competed fully in both teams and became the most successful Formation Skydiving competitor at the German Nationals 2019. His former Eyjafjallajökull and current Airbus 8-way team mate Linda Koeb helped out on a short call for Germany's 4-way Women team Skynamite. Olaf Biedermann and Stefan Knoch competed only in 8-way.

The Airbus 8-way team is now making plans for next year's world meet season and will focus on their prime event. Only Alex Prendinger plans to continue with the Airbus 4-way team at the same time. However, he is not facing double duties in Tanay 2020, where Oceanside AtomiX will compete for Germany - with a new team member...