posted Jul 2nd, 2020 - NMP PCH HayaBusa recently traveled to Germany for a training camp, as the NSL News reported on June 18th. The Belgians had permission from their military headquarters to spend a long weekend at Skydiving Paranodon. It was the first outdoor training for the 4-way world champions after the corona virus break of almost four months.

HayaBusa's last outdoor training took place in February at Skydive City in Florida. After the recent trip to Germany the team is hoping to jump from planes soon again on their home turf in Belgium, as they said in the most recent NSL Live Talk on June 29th.

The skydiving center in Illertissen, Germany, is also home for the two Airbus teams. In fact, the Airbus 4-way team was training side by side with NMP PCH HayaBusa on the same weekend days when the Belgians visited Skydive Paranodon. The Airbus 8-way team came to the same place a week later for a 3-day camp and completed almost 30 training jumps.

The 8-way team will compete for Germany at the FAI Mondial 2020 in Tanay next year, as the NSL News reported on May 26th, while the Airbus 4-way team has no travel plans to Russia in August 2021. Oceanside AtomiX is the reigning German 4-way champion of 2019, and the German skydiving federation sanctioned the national teams for next year early.

---

---

Airbus 8-way training at Skydive Paranodon in Illertissen, Germany

---

The Airbus 8-way team launched the 2020 outdoor training with the same lineup that will compete in Russia next year, and it is identical with the lineup that won the national championships in 2019.

Olaf Biedermann, Max Thiele, Airbus 4-way member Thomas Mack and coach Marco Arrigo have been sharing the 8th slot last year, as Olaf Biedermann was not always available for training. However, the team's training schedule for 2020 includes him for most of the time, and coach Marco Arrigo will probably be the only substitute and alternate in 2020 and 2021.

Max Thiele had competed for Airbus at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019, where the German 8-way team matched the meet average of the German Nationals (13.9) exactly. Airbus were an average point ahead of themselves in October last year, after the 12.9 average in Australia 2018, where Olaf Biedermann and Thomas Spielvogel both were not available. Max Thiele and Thomas Mack competed at the world meet.

Airbus will need two productive years to catch up again with Great Britain's MicroClim8 and Australia's JYR8 who both left the Germans well behind them in Australia. Airbus were battling neck-to-neck with MicroClim8 for the 5th place in 2016 and lost ground in the next two years.

---

FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		21,L,B,G		22,18,17		19,7,O		J,16,12		10,A,D,15		Q,M,F,C,N		H,20,P,13		6,14,11		E,2,5		4,1,3		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	24		21		18		24		19	-2	29		21		18	-1	17		33		224	22.4
2	Tanay	RU	21	-1	21		17		22	-1	20		28		16	-1	18		18		28	-1	209	20.9
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	19		16		15		18	-1	14	-1	21		16		14	-1	14		23	-1	170	17.0
4	MicroClim8	UK	17		15		12		14	-1	15		21		15		12	-2	13		18	-1	152	15.2
5	JYR8	AU	14	-1	14		13		17		11	-1	20		14		14		12		21		150	15.0
6	Airbus	DE	13		15		9	-2	15		11		16		12		12		10		16	-2	129	12.9
7	Brazil	BR	11		10		9		12		9		12		9		10		9		16		107	10.7

---

Airbus had a good progression in 2019 and finished twice with this lineup's highest average. The outdoor start into the 2020 season, eight months after the last jumps at the FAI World Cup in Eloy, was promising, as well, as the videos are showing that team videographer Erik Lorenz provided.

The plans of both Airbus teams depend to a certain extent on the support by their main sponsor, which is the world's largest airliner manufacturer. The 8-way team also receives some financial support from the German skydiving federation for representing the country at the world championships next year.

Unfortunately, the Airbus sponsorship is possibly in jeopardy at this point, as the corona crisis has its heavy impact on the airline industry, as well. The company recently announced that it will cut 15,000 jobs over the next year, as the airline industry faces unprecedented losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is obviously no surprise that there is a question mark behind the future of the sponsorship in the face of the budget cuts, even though the relationship seems to be a perfect fit.