posted Jan 7th, 2025 - The new lineup of the German national team in 4-way Open, Airbus Oceanside Illertissen, was covered by the NSL News a few days ago. The team announcement indicates that Germany will continue to have a team that contends for the unofficial amateur world championship title, as the Airbus 4-way team has done in the past years with the previous lineup.

The official team announcement mentioned that the new lineup will follow the same or similar goals that Airbus have pursued in the past years. On the list of goals were the position on the international leaderboards behind the full-time teams who are out of reach for the unofficial amateur teams on their recreational level.

The previous Airbus lineup made the Top 10 at their first outdoor world championship with the 8th place in Eloy 2022 (17.2) and moved up to the 6th place (19.0) at Crystal Coast 2024. The desired 5th place, which is unofficially the top amateur position, came with an 18.8 average in Eloy 2022 (Chimera) and with 19.6 (Echochamber) last year. It seems to be obvious that the 20-average benchmark has to be the goal for teams who are aiming at the top amateur position in 4-way Open on the FAI leaderboard of a world championship. The same benchmark has been on the list of goals for the Airbus 4-way team, as well.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2010			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	21	22	56	20	22	24	22	24	40	26	277	27.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	22	21	53	23	20	24	23	25	40	23	274	27.4
3	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	21	56	21	19	21	23	22	41	21	264	26.4
4	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	21	21	55	20	17	20	23	22	36	18	253	25.3
5	Evolution	CA	19	19	51	20	18	22	21	21	31	18	240	24.0
6	Sinapsi	IT	19	19	49	16	20	17	21	19	37	19	236	23.6
7	Paratec-Saar	DE	16	18	53	17	15	18	16	19	30	-	202	22.4
8	Satori	UK	18	18	47	16	17	18	17	18	29	-	198	22.0
9	Dynamic Fource	NL	17	18	44	16	16	15	16	18	26	-	186	20.7
10	Pro Team	FI	17	16	43	14	15	17	17	17	28	-	184	20.4
11	Bodyflight Voluntas	DK	17	15	37	16	15	18	16	18	-	-	152	19.0
12	Voodoo	ZA	15	15	31	13	14	14	15	17	-	-	134	16.8
13	Bardagi	SE	12	13	35	12	14	12	14	16	-	-	128	16.0
14	X3M4S Elements	NO	14	11	30	14	13	15	13	16	-	-	126	15.8
15	China	CN	12	13	30	13	12	14	14	14	-	-	122	15.3
16	Atmosfera G4	PT	12	10	28	13	13	14	14	14	-	-	118	14.8
17	Sky Dragons	SI	12	12	21	12	12	11	13	13	-	-	106	13.3
18	Kazakhstan	KZ	10	7	17	9	10	11	10	11	-	-	85	10.6
19	Ukraine	UA	6	7	11	9	9	9	9	9	-	-	69	8.6

Progression of German national 4-way teams at outdoor world championships between 1985 and 2024

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Germany has a 22.4 average in the records for the highest scoring number at a world championship, even though the Paratec Saar 4-way team did not make the last cut in Menzelinsk 2010 and finished in 7th place after Round 9. The competition draw included a Super Sequence in Round 3 and another fast sequence in Round 9.

The two rounds boosted the average for all teams and generated the record number for the German 4-way team in Russia. Dieter Schwarz, Markus Bastuck, Joern and Max Thiele, with Alexander Hau on camera, had the 22.4 average on the leaderboard after Round 9, while the eight rounds without the 53-pointer for the Super Sequence accounted for an 18.6 average.

The same Paratec Saar lineup finished in 8th place with a 19.7 average in Dubai 2012 and continued with Petra van Overveld for Max Thiele and Luc van Britsom on camera in 2013. The new Paratec Saar lineup then had to go through one of the most exciting national championships in German 4-way history when a new Airbus/EADS lineup (Thomas Mack, Olaf Biedermann, Goeran Meyer, Christian Schaefer, Andreas Trögele on camera) tried to take back the top position in Germany. Paratec Saar defended the top spot successfully by one single point (202 - 201). and the event was the only one where two German teams broke through the 20-average benchmark together in a 10-round meet. A new Paratec Saar lineup competed for Germany in Prostejov 2014 and did not continue in 2015.

German Outdoor Nationals 2013		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	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
4	Usual Suspects	13	15	17	9	11	16	13	12	15	14	135	13.5
5	Neva	14	14	18	10	12	15	13	11	15	11	133	13.3
6	MiMiKRi	14	12	17	9	10	15	13	10	16	13	129	12.9
7	AtomiX	13	13	16	9	11	15	11	8	13	13	122	12.2
8	Pink Saulgau	11	8	17	11	10	15	11	11	17	9	120	12.0
9	Quaterna	12	8	11	7	8	11	8	7	11	9	92	9.2
10	Schmetterding	9	8	13	7	8	11	8	7	10	8	89	8.9
11	Coolgang Lite	9	9	11	7	8	11	6	6	11	3	81	8.1

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Paratec Saar - EADS at the German Outdoor Nationals 2013

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The new Airbus lineup, with outside center Thomas Mack, then posted the highest still standing world championship average of a German team in a 10-round meet with the 19.9 at Skydive Chicago 2016, which was still only enough for the 8th place.

The next Airbus lineup (Thomas Mack, Markus Bastuck, Goeran Meyer, Joern Thiele, Andreas Trögele on camera) competed for Germany in Australia 2018 (10th - 19.2) and missed the 20-average benchmark once again.

The magic number was still on the list of goals when Thomas Mack recruited the next Airbus lineup for the new era after the corona virus crisis. The new Airbus 4-way team was happy with the progression from 8th with 17.2 in 2022 to 6th with 19.0 in 2024, as the team announcement was showing, while the list of goals has not changed, including the 5th place and the 20-average benchmark. The Paratec Saar and Airbus team mates and opponents of 2013 have joined forces for the 8-way team Operation Adler, while Thomas Mack continues to push the German 4-way standards to a higher level, now with his son Tim Mack in the lineup. The path to the unofficial amateur world championship title seems to lead once again past the Airbus 4-way team, and probably Sweden's Echochamber, as well.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		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
11	Ex3mo	IT	18	15	21	18	13	14	19	25	17	14	174	17.4
12	Rotor Out	AU	16	16	24	14	13	16	18	22	14	13	166	16.6
13	Pangaea	DK	15	16	24	19	11	13	16	25	12	13	164	16.4
14	China	CN	14	15	21	15	12	11	16	24	12	12	152	15.2
15	M4trix	NL	13	13	16	11	11	12	14	20	12	12	134	13.4
16	H4O	IE	13	13	17	8	9	12	9	15	10	10	116	11.6
17	MeXtreme	MX	8	8	13	8	9	9	9	12	8	7	91	9.1

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Airbus at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2016

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