posted Nov 21st, 2022 - Germany has been one of the most consistent nations in 4-way and 8-way at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985, in 4-way even more so than in 8-way. The German national teams in 4-way Open missed only the FAI Tanay Mondial, where the participation was still compromised due to the corona virus crisis.

Germany was finally rewarded for the consistency and continuity with the country's first FAI medals at a world championship, as the NSL News reported on November 9th. The competition in 4-way Open at world championships is naturally much stronger, with many more national teams attending the events in this category.

The 5th places of the German national 4-way Open Class teams in Lucenec 1991 and Rijeka 2004 have been the best placements at world championships since 1985. Competing with the other best recreational 4-way teams in the world for a Top 10 position at the events has become a more realistic goal ever since.

However, once in a while German 4-way teams finish even higher on the leaderboards, even though they cannot get close to the full-time teams who are in contention for the FAI medals. Germany's current national 4-way team, Airbus Oceanside Illertissen, had the potential to copy the 5th places of the teams in 1991 and 2004, as the NSL Power Rankings were showing in the previews of this year's world championship in Eloy.

FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	NSL Power Rankings 4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	France 4-way Open	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Chimera	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Papea Masculino	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Airbus Oceanside Illertissen	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	Ripper	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	HF Flying Circus	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	Out of the Blue	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	INIT-Y	BR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	Agera FS 2022	NO	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	4Astrophe	CA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	Sky4Four	PL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	Sequenz	DK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	HSV Red Bull Aerodynamix	AT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	Adventure Flyers	PY	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	Equinox	LT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	Tina & The Dinosaurs	NZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	La Playa	GT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Participation of German 4-way Open Class teams at FAO World Championships since 1985

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Airbus actually ended up exactly in the 8th place that the NSL Power Rankings were predicting, even though the German team could not keep up with the three teams ahead in the rankings, Chimera (Great Britain), Papea (Spain) and Echochamber (Sweden).

Airbus were in fact more involved with maintaining a Top 10 position than they would have liked to. They felt more pressure from behind than they could put on the three teams ahead of them. However, Airbus were eventually able to fend off the challengers and finish in the 8th place.

The pressure from behind came from other teams who were not expected in this area of the leaderboard (Agera, 4Astrophe), while other contenders ended up outside of the Top 10 (Ripper, HF Flying Circus, Out Of The Blue, INIT-Y). Airbus were the only team in the Top 10 behind the Top 5 contenders who confirmed the placing expectations.

The Germans finished below their previous scoring numbers. The slower competition draw did not allow many teams to post higher meet averages than at their previous events this year. However, the 18.7 average of the German Outdoor Nationals 2022 would have lifted Airbus into serious contention for the 5th place.

FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		20,16,B		P,D,21,13		17,K,11		E,A,19,22		2,9,M		C,14,F,12		3,6,18		4,10,1		8,Q,O,H		5,7,J		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	-1	28		27		27		31		23		21		20		32		31		261	26.1
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	20	-1	25	-2	21		23		28		20	-2	19		17		29		26		228	22.8
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	19	-2	23	-1	22	-1	21	-1	26		18		17	-1	17		28		28		219	21.9
4	France 4-way Open	FR	19		23	-1	22		23		27		20	-1	18		15	-1	20	-5	27	-1	214	21.4
5	Chimera	UK	16		21	-2	19		19	-1	18	-5	18	-1	16		14	-1	23	-1	24		188	18.8
6	Papea Masculino	ES	17	-1	20	-1	18	-1	21		21	-2	18		15		15		21	-1	20	-3	186	18.6
7	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	14	-1	21		19		19		20	-1	17		16		15		24	-1	20	-1	185	18.5
8	Airbus Oceanside Illertissen	DE	16		18	-2	19		16	-1	20	-1	13	-3	15		14		19	-2	22	-1	172	17.2
9	Agera FS 2022	NO	16		16	-2	17	-1	17		18	-1	15		15		13	-1	18	-3	21		166	16.6
9	4Astrophe	CA	15	-1	20		19		15	-2	21		15		15	-2	14		16	-3	16	-2	166	16.6
11	Out of the Blue	NL	16		16	-3	17		17		14	-2	17		12	-1	13	-1	21	-1	18		161	16.1
12	Ripper	AU	14	-1	16	-1	18		16	-1	21		15		12		10	-3	19	-1	19	-1	160	16.0
13	Sky4Four	PL	13	-1	14	-3	14		16		16	-2	12	-1	12		13		21		18	-1	149	14.9
14	HF Flying Circus	CZ	13		10	-7	16		15	-1	18	-2	12	-1	13		11	-3	16	-5	17	-1	141	14.1
15	Sequenz	DK	10	-2	16		15		14	-1	17	-1	12	-1	12		11	-1	17	-1	11	-3	135	13.5
16	INIT-Y	BR	12	-2	14	-1	14	-1	13	-4	16		11	-2	10	-3	12		17	-1	15	-3	134	13.4
17	HSV Red Bull Aerodynamix	AT	10	-2	16		14		15		15	-1	8	-3	9	-2	10	-1	15	-1	13	-1	125	12.5
18	Adventure Flyers	PY	9	-1	13		12	-1	11		16		11		10		9		14		14	-1	119	11.9
19	Equinox	LT	10	-1	12	-2	12		12	-1	13	-1	10		10		9	-1	12	-4	14	-1	114	11.4
20	Tina & The Dinosaurs	NZ	5		8	-1	4		9		9	-1	8		5		4	-2	10		8		70	7.0
21	La Playa	GT	2	-1	7	-2	5	-1	3	-3	7		5		3	-1	5		-		-		37	4.6

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Airbus - Agera - 4Astrophe at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022 - Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/ISC and OmniSkore!HD

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Airbus will try again. The team has a plan until the next world championship in 2024. The FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 was supposed to be the first world championship for the current lineup. The cancellation and rescheduling for August 2021 eventually caused the withdrawal of the complete German delegation, and the Airbus 4-way team made new plans for this year's world championship and the next one in 2024.

Only Outside Center Thomas Mack and team videographer Andreas Troegele had competed in 4-way Open at a world championship before. They were first together in the Airbus lineup of Ottawa 2016 (Olaf Biedermann, Goeran Meyer, Christian Schaefer), then again two years later in Australia 2018 (Markus Bastuck, Goeran Meyer, Joern Thiele) where they finished in 10th place with a 19.2 average.

The FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022 was their third world championship together, and the lineup was a very different one this time. Thomas Mack's previous team mates were the most experienced 4-way and 8-way competitors in Germany. He decided to rebuild the Airbus lineup in a very different way after Australia 2018 and recruited his new team mates from a new generation of German 4-way and 8-way competitors, including Felix Pfeiffer, who was officially announced on 3 August 2020 and introduced on 30 August 2020. That was after he competed for the first time in the AAA Class.

The same Airbus lineup will most likely and once again be a contender for the highest placing of a recreational 4-way team at a world championship. It will still be very difficult to improve the 5th place of 1991 and 2004. However, the highest German 10-round average will surely be in jeopardy in two years...