posted Mar 11th, 2020 - The German Indoor Nationals are scheduled for the coming weekend in a 16-foot Hurricane Factory wind tunnel in Berlin. The event will include 4-way and 8-way competition.

The German 4-way teams had the opportunity to get a serious competition test two weeks earlier at the 3rd edition of the Fly Challenge, hosted by the Jochen Schweizer Arena in Munich. The flying chamber is not large enough for 8-way training and competition, while it is well know in Germany for 4-way activities. Germany's most experienced Formation Skydiving competitor, Thomas Spielvogel, works at the place directing the activities. He is currently a member of the German national 8-way team, Airbus.

It was a team from Russia taking the 1st place in Munich as a guest team though, and a Swiss team took the 3rd place in the 4-way Open Class. Germany's former national team Airbus was the best home team in 2nd place.

Sergey Shenin, Russian 8-way world champion of 2003 and 4-way bronze medalist of 2010, has carefully guided Russian Thunder to the world-class performance level that generated the team's new 26.1 record average at the end of February, after the 25.1 at the Flyspot Polish Open in November last year. Both 10-round results were supported by a Super Sequence that Russian Thunder mastered with 41-pointers in Poland and Germany.

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Fly Challenge 2020			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		C,D,Q,20	J,4,G,19	18,5,O	F,16,M,10	P,13,21	11,15,17	1,12,2	N,K,L,A,E	B,11,6	3,9,14	Total	Avg
1	Russian Thunder	RU	29	23	24	29	25	21	19	41	25	25	261	26.1
2	Airbus	DE	24	21	22	27	23	19	17	37	24	23	237	23.7
3	CISM Windwerk	CH	29	22	22	28	22	19	18	21	24	22	227	22.7
4	Skynamite	DE	24	16	17	23	19	15	15	28	21	19	197	19.7
5	Piteraq	DE	21	19	16	21	15	15	15	24	19	18	183	18.3
6	Paranodon Futura	DE	19	17	15	20	19	13	14	24	14	15	170	17.0
7	Hoo Lee Rest	DE	17	14	15	21	17	13	11	26	15	17	166	16.6
8	EOS	CH	19	16	12	19	16	13	13	18	15	17	158	15.8
9	Wintertunnel	DE	18	15	12	19	17	14	11	20	16	15	157	15.7
10	Feierabendflieger	DE	19	16	13	20	17	12	11	20	14	14	156	15.6
11	NeVa	DE	16	14	15	18	16	13	9	22	17	13	153	15.3
12	Bazinga FSZ Saar	DE	16	14	10	17	17	12	13	16	14	12	141	14.1
13	Phoenix	DE	16	10	13	17	15	11	11	21	11	12	137	13.7
14	Titten und Bier	DE	13	13	12	17	15	9	11	18	15	12	135	13.5
15	Paranodon	DE	12	12	11	16	14	9	9	15	12	10	120	12.0
Rank	A Class		H,7	P,19	E,M,Q	B,2	O,9	E,F,N	B,4	O,21	P,A,J	H,6	Total	Avg
1	Paranodon Futura	DE	17	14	24	14	24	20	15	15	23	12	178	17.8
2	Radiots	DE	17	8	19	10	19	21	8	14	17	15	148	14.8
3	Flüügende Fätze	DE	17	9	19	12	16	20	11	11	15	13	143	14.3
4	ZX-RW	DE	14	9	17	10	15	19	11	13	16	14	138	13.8

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The situation at the 4-way top level in Germany has become more interesting after the 23.7 average that Airbus posted with former eX3MO member and Airbus 8-way team coach Marco Arrigo in the lineup.

Airbus had won the national indoor championship in 2018 (24.0) with the previous lineup that discontinued after the FAI World Meet 2018.

The new and current lineup was not ready at the time of last year's indoor nationals, and indoor team Airfource won the national 4-way indoor title. AtomiX placed 2nd and followed up later with the team's first outdoor title in August 2019, Airbus finished in 2nd place with player-coach Solly Williams in the lineup.

The national outdoor championships last year was the last time that both teams opposed each other. Oceanside AtomiX then showed up as the first German 4-way team at the Wind Games this January and impressed with a 24.3 average and a 10th place in the strong international field.

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Wind Games 2020	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
AAA Class	Q,F,6,14		1,13,4		8,J,15		O,9,D,5		21,A,P,H		N,C,20,12		7,G,K,19		10,16,22		17,E,11		M,B,3,L		Total	Avg
Oceanside AtomiX	25	-2	21		19	-2	31	-1	31		19		27		17	-1	22	-1	31		243	24.3
Fly Challenge 2020	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
AAA Class	C,D,Q,20		J,4,G,19		18,5,O		F,16,M,10		P,13,21		11,15,17		1,12,2		N,K,L,A,E		B,11,6		3,9,14		Total	Avg
Airbus	24	-5	21		22		27		23		19		17		37	-1	24		23		237	23.7

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Airbus was next with new scores of the two best German 4-way teams and posted the 23.7 average at the Fly Challenge a few weeks ago, this time with player-coach Marco Arrigo in the lineup. Airbus boosted the meet average with a 37-pointer for the Super Sequence in Round 8 (N,K,L,A,E) where Russian Thunder had the highscore with a 41-pointer.

Airbus 8-way coach Marco Arrigo has been training with Airbus in 4-way and 8-way, and he is supposed to fill an 8-way slot at the upcoming indoor nationals, as Olaf Biedermann is not available. He has to find his way back to Germany first, after a short visit in Italy between the two events. Italy has currently very tight travel restrictions due to the corona virus.

However, the Airbus 4-way team is not registered for the indoor nationals, and Marco Arrigo would only have an active slot in 8-way. Oceanside AtomiX are planning to compete and oppose the Airfource indoor experts as good as possible before focusing on outdoor training and competition for the FAI World Meet in August. It seems like both German top teams will miss each other again this weekend. The next duel would take place at the German outdoor championships, after AtomiX's returning from Russia.