posted Jan 16th, 2025 - The NSL News recently covered the new lineup of the German national team in 4-way Open, Airbus 4 Illertissen. The first update on January 4th of the new year included the official team announcement and the personnel changes. The story on January 7th followed up with a related topic, as the German 4-way team has been a part of the competition for the unofficial title of the world's amateur champion in the past decade.

German 4-way teams have made the Top 10 at FAI Outdoor World Championships each time since 1989, including two 5th places in 1991 and 2004. The Airbus lineup of the last five years finished in 6th place at Crystal Coast 2024, six points behind the new unofficial amateur world champions, Echochamber from Sweden.

The 5th places in 1991 and 2004 might have been more in reach for unofficial amateur teams, such as Airbus/EADS for Germany. There were not as many full-time teams and competitors at formation skydiving events two and three decades ago. NMP PCH HayaBua were in their development stage for Belgium in 2004, and Qatar was not a part of formation skydiving competition at that time. However, the opposition was still as tough at world championships as it is now. The Airbus/EADS lineup in Rijeka 2004 is showing the experience level of Operation Adler's 8-way lineup, the German national team and FAI bronze medalists last year. Olaf Biedermann and Goeran Meyer both finished in 5th place on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard 20 years ago, together with Airbus 8-way member Thomas Spielvogel.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 10		B,P,C,18	9,15,16	K,11,19	E,F,7,5	A,J,21,12	6,4,10	17,Q,L,1	H,14,3	13,22,O	N,M,D,2	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Majik	US	29	23	17	30	18	19	27	21	19	24	227	22.7
2	Maubeuge	FR	28	22	18	30	17	19	23	20	18	24	219	21.9
3	Sky Panthers	RU	24	21	19	25	22	15	28	19	16	22	211	21.1
4	Sinapsi PD	IT	22	21	20	28	21	18	23	19	16	22	210	21.0
5	EADS	DE	20	18	17	24	17	16	19	17	16	19	183	18.3
6	HayaBusa	BE	21	17	17	21	11	16	20	17	17	21	178	17.8
7	Endeavour	CH	16	17	14	19	16	13	19	14	14	-	142	15.8
7	Arcteryx	NO	19	14	15	21	15	13	17	15	13	-	142	15.8
9	Danez	DK	17	16	13	21	11	15	19	15	14	-	141	15.7
10	Spain	ES	19	16	15	21	15	11	16	12	14	-	139	15.4

Operation Adler's Thomas Mack is the only Airbus 4-way member in the previous and the new lineup who has collected a similar amount of 4-way and 8-way experiences, and he continues only in 4-way, now together with his son Tim Mack. He began to leave his mark in German formation skydiving competition history with 4-way team Final Four who eventually finished in 2nd place with a 17.7 average at the German Outdoor Nationals 2011.

He upgraded to Airbus/EADS in 2012 and continued with the same 3-way of Rijeka 2004 (Olaf Biedermann, Goeran Meyer, Thomas Spielvogel). It was the beginning of his collection of numerous national 4-way and 8-way championship titles and finally the FAI bronze medal in 8-way with Operation Adler.

Thomas Mack's returning team mate Felix Pfeiffer brings in his 4-way experiences on the international level that he collected with the previous Airbus 4-way lineup in the last five years, after his original introduction to 4-way training and competition in the Paranodon Futura project in Illertissen. Tim Mack started in the same Paranodon 4-way project and competed in the A Class at the German Outdoor Nationals 2023, then a year later with Teiwaz in the AAA Class. Now he continues in the new lineup of the German national team as the youngest member with unlimited talent and skills, and with the highest goals that he shares with his father and new piece partner.

German Outdoor Nationals 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	L,Q,2,8		K,19,N,13		17,12,20		C,3,1		6,M,11		14,9,O		22,15,16		G,18,21		J,10,H,7		B,F,D,E,A		Total	Avg
1	Airbus Illertissen	15	-1	17		13	-1	18		18	-1	17		13		14	-1	18		42		185	18.5
2	Oceanside AtomiX	14	-1	17	-1	15		17		19		19		13		15		17		32		178	17.8
3	Bardarbunga 3.0	16		17		15		15	-1	15	-1	18		13		14		18		30		171	17.1
4	Paranodon 4way Illertissen	15		14		11		13		15		14		9		11	-2	14	-1	30		146	14.6
5	NeVa FSZ Saar	11		15		12		13		14		13		11		9		15		21		134	13.4
6	Sudwest NOG	11		13		11		12		13		13		9		11		14		21		128	12.8
7	Phoenix	11		11		10		11		11		11		9		9		6		17		106	10.6
8	Das KO's Saar	10		6		7		10		11		9		7		9		11		20		100	10.0

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Airbus 4-way Illertissen - AtomiX at the German Outdoor Nationals 2021

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Placements of German national teams in 4-way Open at FAI Outdoor World Championships between 1985 and 2024

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Claire Rebhahn completes the new Airbus 4-way lineup. She is not new to 4-way competition at all. She was in the AtomiX lineup who lost a 3-point lead after Round 9 at the German Outdoor Nationals 2021 in the dramatic Round 10 with a Super Sequence. Airbus 4-way won Round 10 by ten points (42 - 32) with the previous lineup.

AtomiX did not continue, while Claire Rebhahn moved on to other 4-way projects, before she now meets Thomas Mack and Felix Pfeiffer again as her team mates. She was in the point slot for AtomiX and moves to tail for the new Airbus lineup.

There was more 4-way interaction between Airbus 4-way and Claire Rebhahn. She joined a Weembi lineup as a guest team for the German Indoor Nationals 2023 (Christine Malnis, Sian Stokes, Roy Janssen). Weembi finished on the top of the leaderboard and left the Airbus 4-way team, with Claire Rebhahn's same two new team mates in the lineup, in the dust (267 - 229). Last and not least, she also joined Germany's national team in 4-way Women, Meltemi Oceanside, for the FAI Outdoor World Cup in Norway and the German Outdoor Nationals in 2023. She continued with Meltemi until the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships at Crystal Coast where she finished with the team's 17.9 outdoor record average.

German Indoor Nationals 2023			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		J,16,6	3,4,E	11,Q,L,20	7,A,M,G	O,17,2	10,19,D	B,F,12,15	C,K,8,9	1,18,21	5,14,N	Total	Avg
G	Weembi	FR	27	23	23	32	29	23	29	32	22	27	267	26.7
1	Jochen Schweizer Arena Airforce	DE	26	24	27	38	28	23	27	29	20	24	266	26.6
G	Kuddelmuddel	UK	23	22	23	33	24	21	21	27	19	23	236	23.6
2	Airbus Oceanside Illertissen	DE	24	20	23	36	17	20	23	24	19	23	229	22.9
3	Piteraq	DE	21	17	18	31	20	18	23	24	19	21	212	21.2
4	Skynamite & Friends	DE	18	18	18	31	22	21	22	19	17	20	206	20.6
G	Airdrops	CH	21	18	17	30	19	17	21	22	13	17	195	19.5
5	Juss Illertissen	DE	15	15	17	26	16	16	17	18	15	16	171	17.1
6	Neva Lazarus	DE	14	13	16	27	17	16	18	20	14	11	166	16.6
7	Feierabendflieger	DE	16	14	15	23	14	16	17	19	14	16	164	16.4
G	Air-W	CH	15	13	13	26	16	16	17	16	14	15	161	16.1
8	Wintertunnel	DE	15	12	15	24	15	14	17	17	14	14	157	15.7
G	Fire Phoenix	IT	12	12	14	26	11	14	17	17	12	14	149	14.9
9	Coolgang 2 light	DE	14	13	9	20	14	13	15	15	12	11	136	13.6
10	Django Untrained	DE	14	5	9	20	14	11	14	14	11	11	123	12.3
G	Airvolution	AT	13	9	10	15	12	11	15	13	11	12	121	12.1

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Weembi - Airbus 4-way Illertissen at the German Indoor Nationals 2023

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