posted Feb 12th, 2022 - The last two updates from Germany came in December last year, after a turbulent 2021 outdoor season. Both reigning 4-way champions of 2019, Oceanside AtomiX in 4-way Open and Skynamite in 4-way Women, lost their titles at the German Outdoor Nationals 2021. There were no national championships in 2020, and the new champions and national teams were the winners of last year's event.

The complete German Formation Skydiving delegation also canceled the participation at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August last year, and the national championships in September were a fresh start, which generated the two new 4-way winners. The Airbus 8-way team had no serious opposition in Germany and defended the national title easily.

The NSL News update on 3 December 2021 featured the new national 4-way team Airbus Oceanside Illertissen during a training camp in DeLand, and the story on 12 December 2021 explained the situation in 4-way Women after the indoor championships in 2019 and the outdoor event last year.

Nothing has changed in 4-way ever since, and the national outdoor teams, Airbus Oceanside Illertissen and Meltemi Illertissen, are in preparations for their trip to Eloy in October for the FAI Outdoor World Meet. Skynamite is the national indoor team in 4-way Women after outscoring Piteraq in 2019. Both 4-way Women teams will compete for Germany at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022, while no 4-way Open Class teams plan to travel to Charleroi in April.

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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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Max Thiele with the Airbus Illertissen 8-way team in Australia 2018

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Airbus Oceanside Illertissen explained in the NSL Live Talk, which was a part of the update in December, that they want to focus only on their 4-way outdoor event and the performance at the world meet in Eloy. They use the wind tunnel as a training tool at the times between outdoor training camps.

The team's focus on their 4-way outdoor performance became even more clear when team member and inside center Alex Prendinger stepped back from 8-way training and competition with the national team, Airbus Illertissen. He would have had double-duties in 4-way and 8-way at the FAI Tanay Mondial without the cancellation by the German teams.

Alex Prendinger decided to step back when the 8-way team began with the discussion of the lineup for 2022, while his 8-way team mate Linda Koeb is going the other direction and has added the 4-way Women competition at the outdoor world meet to her competition agenda. She is also in the Piteraq lineup for the indoor world cup.

Alex Prendinger's decision had logically implications on the Airbus 8-way lineup. In fact, he was not the only German 8-way competitor leaving the Airbus team. Uli Sehrbrock also decided to step back after almost three decades in different German 8-way teams and the last nine years with Airbus. He is aiming at more 4-way training and competition in his favorite event.

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FAI World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-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	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32		21		27	-2	24		22	-3	62	-2	22	-2	20	-1	27	-1	22		279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	-5	21		27	-1	24		24	-1	60	-1	26		22		27		20		277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	-1	19		24	-2	23		24		52	-3	20	-3	17	-3	24		19		251	25.1
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	-2	14	-1	24	-1	21		22		53	-4	21	-1	18		20		17		234	23.4
5	Echochamber	SE	25	-1	16		21	-1	17	-2	20	-1	48	-4	14	-3	18		21	-1	15	-1	215	21.5
6	Amnesya	IT	24	-2	14		20	-1	18		18	-1	48	-5	18		14	-2	21	-1	15		210	21.0
7	Satori XL	UK	21		14	-1	21		19		19		37	-3	19		17		18	-1	16	-1	201	20.1
7	Airheads	CH	22	-3	14	-2	19	-2	17	-1	18		44		16		16	-2	18	-1	17		201	20.1
9	Evolution	CA	21	-1	13	-2	22		18	-1	15	-3	43	-2	15	-5	15	-2	19		15		196	19.6
10	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	-1	14	-1	17	-5	17		16	-1	45	-1	15	-3	14	-1	18	-1	15		192	19.2
11	Tanay Wolves	RU	22		14		18	-1	17		16	-2	35	-3	17	-3	14	-1	18	-1	14		185	18.5
12	Rotor Out	AU	21	-1	13	-1	18	-2	14	-1	16	-1	32	-3	13	-7	13	-1	18		14		172	17.2
13	CTR Optimum	BR	19		10		17	-1	15		13	-1	31		14		14		18		13		164	16.4
14	Papea Masculino	ES	17	-1	13		18		13	-1	13		28	-3	14	-1	14	-1	13	-2	12		155	15.5
15	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	16	-1	11	-1	13	-3	14		15	-1	28	-2	15	-1	15		14	-2	12	-1	153	15.3
16	Meraki	ZA	14	-3	11		14		14		13		28	-1	12	-1	12		14		12		144	14.4
17	New Zealand	NZ	10	-4	9		12		11		10		21		7	-3	11		10	-1	11		112	11.2
18	Paraguay	PY	10	-1	8		10	-1	7	-2	9		17		7	-4	8	-1	10		8	-1	94	9.4
19	Cyprus	CY	13	-1	8		9	-2	8		7	-2	19	-1	7		8		9		5	-2	93	9.3

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Göran Meyer with the Airbus FSZ Saar 4-way team in Australia 2018

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The Airbus 8-way team did not need too much time to find replacements for the two leaving members. In fact, Max Thiele and Goran Meyer both have been affiliated with the the Airbus 8-way team, as they were filling open slots in the past years whenever it became necessary.

Both were training and competing with the German national 4-way and 8-way teams in the past and have together accumulated more international world meet and world cup experiences than the two leaving members. They were first opponents and German 4-way champions at different times, Max Thiele with Paratec-Saar, Goran Meyer with EADS/Airbus, and they eventually joined forces for the earlier lineups of the EADS/Airbus 8-way team.

Max Thiele discontinued with 8-way after the FAI Dubai Mondial 2012 and before Goran Meyer, who added a few more years before stepping back at the end of 2017. He still continued in 4-way with the Airbus team through the outdoor world meet in Australia 2018, where Max Thiele had his 8-way comeback.

Ever since, both have been helping out whenever the Airbus 8-way team needed substitutes in training or competition. Now they are back in full 8-way action and with full slots until the end of the 2022 season with the world meet in Eloy.