posted Sep 2nd, 2017 - The recent national championships in Great Britain and Germany included 8-way competition, and the defending champions (Microclim8 - Airbus) both defended their titles successfully.

Neither MicroClim8 nor Airbus were facing any serious challenges, even though two other British 8-way teams had recently competed at the FAI World Cup 2017.

Airbus had four of the five newly crowned 4-way champions in the 8-way lineup. Thomas Mack, Goran Meyer and Andreas Trogele (Video) had defended their previous 4-way titles successfully a few days earlier, together with the new Airbus members Markus Bastuck and Jorn Thiele, who had won several of their own 4-way and 8-way titles years ago with the Paratec-Saar team. Jorn Thiele did not stay for the 8-way competition, and his brother Max stepped in.

Last year's Airbus members Olaf Biedermann and Christian Schaefer joined their former team mates for the 8-way competition. Thomas Spielvogel and Steffen Schiedeck completed the lineup.

German Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	17,18,H	11,21,2	1,3,5	A,13,G,B	6,L,O,16	F,8,7	M,C,N,K,4	E,20,J,P	Q,10,19	14,15,9	Total	Avg
1	Airbus 8-way	13	12	13	15	16	12	17	14	12	13	137	13.7
2	Wolf Pack / NeVa	6	6	9	7	8	7	9	8	6	8	74	7.4
3	Luftschl8 FSZ Kassel	2	5	2	3	6	4	6	3	4	5	40	4.0

Microclim8 had just as little serious competition in the United Kingdom as Airbus in Germany. Project Ride the Dragon and Awkward Turtles had made the trip to Saarlouis in Germany with their 4-way teams and also competed in 8-way before their own national championships followed shortly after.

The British national 8-way team of the past years included six members that had posted the 14.0 average at the FAI Mondial 2016. Ane Brentford and Ruth Morrison joined the team this year and completed 140 training jumps and ten hours of indoor training before the national championships, while 2016 member Phil Hartree has moved to the camera slot.

The new lineup matched the 14.0 average exactly, which was the highest number that MicroClim8 has posted so far.

The 2017 season was the first part of a 2-year MicroClim8 plan for the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia, where they might battle again with Germany's Airbus 8-way lineup.

UK Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	C,3,K,A	16,22,21	9,2,N	8,L,15	20,4,M	5,P,10	G,19,F,17	J,14,11	7,H,E,D	18,1,B	Total	Avg
1	Microclim8	17	14	12	13	17	13	13	13	14	14	140	14.0
2	Project Ride the Dragon	12	11	7	7	10	9	10	8	10	9	93	9.3
3	Sky Wars! The Farce Awakens	9	5	7	9	9	8	8	9	3	10	77	7.7
4	Awkward Turtles	9	8	3	5	7	8	6	7	8	10	71	7.1
5	L8 Way	3	5	6	6	8	5	6	6	3	9	57	5.7
6	Coalition of Confused Kaos	3	4	1	2	3	4	3	5	5	3	33	3.3

The British 8-way team had won the internal race with Airbus for the 6th place at the Mondial 2016 by four points.

The Germans won the first three rounds and allowed MicroClim8 to catch up when the competition schedule became more challenging for teams with double duties in 4-way and 8-way.

MicroClim8 competed only in 8-way. Satori XL represented the United Kingdom in 4-way and placed 7th with a 21.0 average.

Airbus finished right behind Satori with a 19.9 average and had to switch back and forth between 4-way and 8-way.

The 8-way competition at the FAI Mondial 2016 continued in favor of the British 8-way experts, who eliminated the 3-point difference in Round 4 and never gave away another round to the German 8-way team.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-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
5	Microclim8	UK	15	14	16	14	11	13	13	14	13	17	140	14.0
6	Airbus München	DE	16	15	17	11	11	13	12	14	12	15	136	13.6

MicroClim8 and Airbus both did not compete at the FAI World Cup 2017 after they had represented their countries at the FAI Mondial 2016 in September last year.

Both teams also started with different lineups at their national championships this year, which took place at the same time at the end of August, and the new MicroClim8 and Airbus 8-way lineups matched the meet averages of 2016 together almost exactly. MicroClim8 copied last year's 14.0 average, and Airbus finished one single point ahead of the 2016 lineup.

There is still one major difference between the two 8-way teams. MicroClim8 has an 8-way plan for the 2018 season, and Airbus has not...

German Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	17,18,H	11,21,2	1,3,5	A,13,G,B	6,L,O,16	F,8,7	M,C,N,K,4	E,20,J,P	Q,10,19	14,15,9	Total	Avg
1	Airbus 8-way	13	12	13	15	16	12	17	14	12	13	137	13.7
UK Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	C,3,K,A	16,22,21	9,2,N	8,L,15	20,4,M	5,P,10	G,19,F,17	J,14,11	7,H,E,D	18,1,B	Total	Avg
1	Microclim8	17	14	12	13	17	13	13	13	14	14	140	14.0