posted Jul 12th, 2026 - Germany's national 8-way Open Class team for the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026, Operation Adler, saw very little outdoor competition last year. In fact, the team's only competitive appearance came in Round 1 of the German Outdoor Nationals 2025, before the remainder of the meet was lost to bad weather. Even that single round was sufficient to secure qualification for the outdoor world championship in Arizona this October.

Operation Adler's longtime domestic rival, Airbus, did not attend last year's national outdoor championship and returned to competition only at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2026, an event that Operation Adler chose to skip. However, the close relationship between the two German 8-way teams continued. Airbus members Thomas Spielvogel and Max Thiele have long alternated between both teams for training and competition, while Steffen Schiedek also joined Operation Adler this year after competing with Airbus at the indoor world cup in April.

In fact, Airbus 4-way competitor Felix Pfeiffer is the only member of the current Operation Adler lineup who has never trained or competed with the Airbus 8-way team. All of his teammates gained a large part of their 8-way experience with Airbus over the years, beginning in 2007 when Olaf Biedermann, Göran Meyer, Thomas Spielvogel and brothers Jörn and Max Thiele were already flying together in the team's early lineups.

That shared experience has allowed Operation Adler to remain highly competitive despite a limited competition schedule. The lack of outdoor competition in 2025 has not significantly affected the veteran lineup, and the team's preparation for Eloy has again been based on relatively limited training. Felix Pfeiffer will also have a unique workload in Arizona, as he is expected to be Germany's only competitor contesting both the 4-way and 8-way events.

Paranodon 8-way Cup 2026		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	2,K,22	20,15,9	1,10,5	C,17,J,12	14,G,13	A,D,P,21	16,7,6	18,H,F,B	M,N,3,4	8,E,O,L	Total	Avg
1	Operation Adler	11	9	15	14	13	13	15	15	18	13	136	13.6
2	Coriolis	6	6	6	7	7	7	5	9	10	7	70	7.0
Rank	A Class	K,5	J,7	N,1	C,3	G,13	P,19	Q,18	F,6	M,4	B,16	Total	Avg
1	Paranodon 8-way	3	5	6	4	5	4	5	5	5	1	43	4.3

The Paranodon 8-way Cup last weekend provided Operation Adler with a welcome opportunity to evaluate its current performance level in the run-up to the outdoor world championship. The team may have one final competition before traveling to Eloy when Germany's outdoor championships take place at the end of August.

The only other AAA Class team in Illertissen was Coriolis, the same team that shared last year's small national outdoor championship leaderboard with Operation Adler. The Hildesheim-based 8-way team has attended the German Outdoor Championships since 2019 and appears ready for another appearance this season. Paranodon organizer and German national coach Robert Trögele also entered a local 8-way lineup in the A Class competition, this time without any of his younger family members. However, his former SOS world champion teammate Jan Rojek joined the lineup as well.

Operation Adler once again posted the kind of scores that have become typical for Germany's leading 8-way team, performances that could be sufficient to earn another set of FAI world championship medals at this year's event . Whether Germany stands on the second or third step of the podium in Eloy may depend largely on the participation of the Qatar Falcons. If the reigning FAI Outdoor World Cup champions travel to Arizona, they would likely take the silver medals while challenging Paraclete XP8 for the world title. If the Qatari delegation does not compete in Eloy, Operation Adler could improve on its bronze-medal finishes from 2022 and 2024 by moving up to the silver-medal position.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2026			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open Power Ranking		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Falcons	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Operation Adler	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Netunos	BR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Canada8	CA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

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Operation Adler performances in 2024

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