posted Jul 7th, 2023 - The NSL News reported on January 23rd that Germany's national 8-way team of the past years started the next 2-year cycle with a new lineup, after winning the first set of medals for Germany since 1985 at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 in Eloy.

Only team captain Thomas Spielvogel, Carl Enders and Steffen Schiedek were back for the new lineup, together with videographer Erik Lorenz. Thomas "Spieli" Spielvogel recruited five new members for the re-start: Carola Fietz, Shaline Dincher, Karin Bauch, Holger Sass and Andreas Höhne. The new combination of experience and talent has been planning to continue as the national team and compete for Germany in Israel 2024.

Teams in Germany qualify for FAI/ISC events by winning the national championships of the previous year. The qualification for next year's outdoor world championship takes place at this year's nationals, which is scheduled for the week after the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023.

Thomas Spielvogel is not taking his new Airbus lineup to Voss in Norway to defend the bronze medal position. Germany is only represented by Airbus Oceanside Illertissen in 4-way Open, and by Meltemi Oceanside in 4-way Women. The 8-way team captain may have recently learned that the national championships are the more important task on the way to Israel next year.

FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		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	NFTO	UK	18		23		21		21		25		15	-2	17		14	-1	23		23		200	20.0
2	Nephtys	FR	16	-2	20	-1	19		21		23		14		17		14	-1	24		21		189	18.9
3	XPG4	US	17	-1	21	-1	18	-1	20	-1	20	-3	16		15		15		21	-2	21		184	18.4
4	Meltemi Oceanside	DE	15		17		13		17		20		14		14		9	-2	18		16		153	15.3
Rank	8-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	Paraclete XP8	US	25	-1	20		20	-1	18	-1	18		19	-1	23		26	-1	16	-2	20	-2	205	20.5
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	21	-1	14	-2	16	-1	17		16		15	-1	19	-1	20	-1	14	-1	12	-4	164	16.4
3	Airbus	DE	18		14		14		13		4	-1	12	-2	16		16		12		14		133	13.3
4	MicroClim8	UK	16		9	-2	12		10		11	-1	7	-3	15		16		11		12	-1	119	11.9
5	Mojo Annecy-Clermont	FR	15		10		11		10		11		10	-1	8	-5	13		9		10		107	10.7

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Meltemi Oceanside Illertissen - Airbus at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022

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Two members of the bronze-medal lineup last year, Linda Köb and Göran Meyer, did not plan to retire from Formation Skydiving competition. They just did not want to give 8-way training and competition the same high priority any longer. They have been competing at the German national championships regularly and eventually signed up for a new 8-way lineup and the competition at the beginning of September.

Linda Köb continues with her 4-way and 8-way double-duties that she has been familiar with. Her 4-way Women team Meltemi will compete in Norway and then travel quickly to Saarlouis and win the 4-way Women qualification for Israel 2024. She will spend the rest of the time with the new 8-way team.

Three of the Airbus 4-way members have the same travel agenda, as Thomas Mack, Alex Prendinger and Felix Pfeiffer have also joined the same 8-way team. Alex Prendinger was Linda Köb's 4-way team mate with Paranodon Eyjafjallajökull between 2016 and 2018 before both were recruited for the Airbus 8-way team.

Alex Prendinger left the 8-way team at the end of the 2021 season to focus only on Airbus 4-way, Linda Köb at the end of last year for her Piteraq/Meltemi plans. They will compete in the two different 4-way events in Norway and then re-join 8-way forces for the German outdoor championship.

German Outdoor Nationals 2013		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way AAA Class	B,7,11	P,C,4,5	J,D,O,21	6,18,15	1,L,2	M,9,K,13	19,N,Q,12	G,22,14	E,H,A,8	F,20,3	Total	Avg
1	Paratec-Saar	21	20	25	17	17	22	19	16	26	19	202	20.2
2	EADS	22	21	25	16	16	23	18	15	26	19	201	20.1
3	Gamma Ray Kassel	16	15	19	13	14	17	16	12	19	11	152	15.2
Rank	8-way Open	B,7,11	P,C,4,5	J,D,O,21	6,18,15	1,L,2	M,9,K,13	19,N,Q,12	G,22,14	E,H,A,8	F,20,3	Total	Avg
1	EADS 8	13	16	15	13	12	16	15	7	16	12	135	13.5
2	Südwest 8	10	12	13	10	11	13	14	9	9	10	111	11.1
3	PinkAtomiXRay	8	11	13	9	8	10	11	7	10	9	96	9.6

Jörn Thiele, Markus Bastuck and Christian Schäfer are completing the high-caliber 8-way lineup, and they are bringing their own wealth of 4-way and 8-way skills and experiences to the team. Jörn Thiele and Markus Bastuck together have collected several German 4-way and 8-way championship titles in the past. The NSL News covered an indoor comeback of the complete lineup after the completion of the German Indoor Nationals 2022.

Christian Schäfer is very current as a member of the German national 4-way indoor team, Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource, who finished in 5th place at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023. He and Thomas Mack were 4-way team mates when Airbus posted the team's highest meet average (20.1) at the German Outdoor Nationals 2013. Their new 8-way team mates Jörn Thiele and Markus Bastuck outscored them by one single point that year.

Thomas Mack and Christian Schäfer then spent some time in 8-way together, as well. They trained with the Airbus 8-way team and competed at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016. Göran Meyer, Thomas Spielvogel and Steffen Schiedek were their 8-way team mates. They won one more German 8-way title together in 2017, this time also with Markus Bastuck in the lineup. Thomas Mack and Christian Schäfer then turned to 4-way with different teams, Thomas Mack with the new Airbus lineup, Christian Schäfer with his three indoor team mates of the German Bundeswehr.

Thomas Spielvogel, Carl Enders and Steffen Schiedek will have their hands full to win the national 8-way championship title this year. It seems like their new lineup has become the underdog. Only the winner in September has the right to defend the German 8-way bronze medals next year in Israel...

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open - Top 10		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	24	25	35	26	19	22	27	39	23	22	262	26.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	23	31	26	18	22	27	40	23	23	254	25.4
3	France	FR	21	20	30	21	18	21	27	39	21	20	238	23.8
4	Black Cat	RU	22	20	30	24	17	21	24	33	21	19	231	23.1
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	21	20	30	24	17	20	23	36	17	18	226	22.6
6	Evolution	CA	20	18	29	24	16	18	23	32	18	16	214	21.4
7	Satori XL	UK	18	19	27	24	16	18	22	30	18	18	210	21.0
8	Airbus	DE	16	18	29	19	15	18	22	29	14	19	199	19.9
9	Savolo	ZA	15	15	25	19	14	15	16	28	17	15	179	17.9
10	Final Fire	AT	16	15	25	17	12	16	18	29	17	13	178	17.8
Rank	8-way		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	31	25	26	22	20	22	19	26	24	24	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	20	25	18	16	19	17	23	19	20	199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23	19	25	17	14	16	16	21	20	19	190	19.0
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	20	15	7	10	13	16	15	15	146	14.6
5	Microclim8	UK	15	14	16	14	11	13	13	14	13	17	140	14.0
6	Airbus	DE	16	15	17	11	11	13	12	14	12	15	136	13.6
7	Australia	AU	13	13	14	12	9	13	12	15	10	14	125	12.5
8	Divergence	CA	11	10	9	11	8	10	8	10	11	11	99	9.9
9	Brazil	BR	11	8	10	9	5	9	9	11	8	13	93	9.3

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Airbus 8-way and 4-way at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016

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