37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

It’s Wednesday morning , normally the regular day of publishing this weekly-blog. Now I am not finishing the post, but wait for things to happen. Great fun!!!
3 more soaring- days including today.

In Szeged it is a day as usual. Briefing at 10 and estimated time of first launch not before 11 AM.
18 m. upfront, then 20 m and open as last today.

So time to look back on that long day yesterday. It’s pretty heavy on the body , certainly of those like Karl …in his eighties and Harry in his nineties, but then they fly ALL their lives and are used to the sun and long flights, indeed they are up to it!!!!

First I look back again of course with John;
“A big day today, with some of the longest tasks ever set at a World Gliding Competition. 18-Meter class had 756 km, Open 757, and 20-Meter (last to launch) 645. Speeds were typically excellent – as they would need to be for pilots to fly that far on solar energy. All but 3 pilots completed their task, yielding (by my quick calculation) a total scored distance of 59,841 km. That’s very close to one and a half times around the Earth, and slightly more than 15% of the distance to the moon.

Will such a day ever again be seen? Well, Hungary is enjoying a remarkable stretch of weather, and the forecast this evening says we might see another tomorrow. (In reality, I think not – even if the weather would support it: All pilots had 6+ hours in the cockpit today, some substantially more. Asking them to do the same tomorrow would be inviting problems.)”
More to be read on US Soaring Teams

Everybody was still enthusiastic about yesterday. Only superlatives….!!!
AND,… pilots are ready to go again. Most are well rested after a tiring day.

At briefing this morning at 10 AM, all winners were cheered on. AND WELL DESERVED!!!!!
These are the winners in open class from yesterday.

And these from 20 m.

And last but not least;18 m.

They do fly today and after today there are only 2 more days;
August 3 task 9....temperatures in the mid thirties.
Task postponed and confirmed to 11.15.
There were cu’s all around , but not yet over the airfield.
Base about 2500m. maybe even up to 3000 m. This could be another REAL FAST DAY!!!!
By the way the points for the TEAM CUP after 8 days of flying is;
1. France with 908 points.
2. Italy with 893.94 p.
3. South Africa with 882.43 p
4. The Netherlands with 877.64 p
5. Czech Rep with 871,34 p.

18 m; 550.68 km....Start line open at 12.23. Uys came back for a restart , something with the “pitot” , but he turned around quickly and before the 20 m. was launched, he was launched again. He could start together with his brother and they even finished together after a race with 150m km./h.
Lift from 2,5 to 4 m. per sec. is dream soaring. And before I knew they were on final glide, with eta on 4.30!!!!????
AND YES INDEED, when I looked the first pilot on the score board was “our” Jeroen, with a fabulous speed of 152.33 km./h .
When 31 pilots were scored it took a long time before the Italian pilots appeared on the scores.
The scorer had some problems.
With this kind of Rieti-weather, they could be even faster.
NO, they were on spot 28 and 31 and must have had difficulties en route.
So Jeroen won the day …GOOD!!!! He moved from 7 to 5 overall. He enjoyed EVERY minute of the flight. Even more than yesterday.
With the French and the Italians having a less good day today, Jeroen is not even 200 points behind Christophe, but Christophe wants to win too!!! So do Ricky and Davide. It ain’t over yet!!!!

20 m; 518.46 km..…Start line open at 12.38. a fast day for them as well. With a rather late start at 1PM, Ivan and Petr raced with 148 km./h over the track. …they were a class apart.
Louis and Ulysse were runner up [138 km./h] . Ferenc and Attila 3d and Joost and Erik 4th, together with Sarah and Karl…good company.[137 km./h]
ALL pilots finished and 130 km. was the ” slowest speed” .
Indeed fabulous weather!!!! I can’t say it enough.

open; 579.96 km.... Start line open at 12.54. I could read on the German site already that Felipe and Michael were leading the pact. With a speed of 158.95 km./h. they topped the scores.
Both on 1 again.
Polish pilot Łukasz Wójcik started ONE minute later and flew around with 157.84 km./h.
Oscar was 4th.
All pilots finished, the last but one still with a speed of 140 km./h!!!!!
A competition for the history books!

More news tomorrow.
Now it’s waiting for the scores from the “young ones”.

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12th FAI Junior World Gliding Championships
Tábor, Czech Republic
30 July 2022 – 13 August 2022

“POOR” young ones ,510 km. today for standard and 447.91 km. for club.
Pfffff …..BUT with the heat, it’s better high up in the air ,than on the ground.

De/pre-briefing yesterday by the French team with their TC.

AND,….. more about yesterday; The German team had 3 top-places in club and the first spot in standard. That is just GOOD/excellent.
I read that they were invited in the studio for an interview and here they are;

AND,…..The UK pilots had a good day yesterday as well and 2 were still full of adrenaline from the final glide:
“A tricky day that saw both teams stick with their class gaggles but saw an epic Grand Prix style finish from the standard class“

Something in between, but a great job…..Yesterday another young German pilot, Matthias Arnold, flew 1009 km[ 675 triangle] in Germany from Weinheim, in an 18m Discus 2c.; speed 110 km./h.TOP!!!!

And now over to today;
August 3; task 4.…
Matej’s view on the day;
“Another day, another gliding day! We have a boiling hot day ahead of us, which might not be the most comfortable for us who stay on the ground, but the pilots can definitely appreciate it. Due to the high temperatures, the clouds will be very high and thermals will be strong. Today pilots can look forward to long tasks which are planned to follow the best available weather conditions. Club class pilots will be flying almost 450 km and standard class pilots over 500 km.”

First launch postponed and confirmed at 11.45.
There are 7 tow planes at Tabor and the tuggies introduce them selves in a nice video to be seen on YOUTUBE.COM [JWGC2022-August 2-towpilots]

Impressing!!!! THIS IS REALLY IMPRESSING!!!!
Thanks to the amazing work of Wojcieh Scigala we now have live scoring during the flight! You can find it here:
Live Scoring Club Class – http://livescore.iq.pl/club.html
Live Scoring Standard Class – http://livescore.iq.pl/standard.html

Luckily the scores came in later than the WGC, so I could keep a GOOD eye on things.

Club; 447 km….start gate opened at 12.52. Quite a distance for club class gliders during a WGC, but I am sure the weather will be that good that they can fly it.
On that live-scoring system, I noticed that Dutch pilot Lars, was on his way to TP 5 with a height of 1748 m. and a speed of 108 km./h. He landed at 17.30….
Maciej was even at 2.694 m. with 66 km. to the finish. I could even see that he landed at 17.20!!!!!
In my time they went with a camera and barograph to the scores. LOL.
Believe it or not, that system works fabulous. Indeed Robert [Romenia] and Lars flew 111 km./h and were 1 and 2. Finn from the UK, was 3d was faster but, the ASW 20 has a different handicap.

standard; 510 km.….start gate opened at 13.22. It looks like Áron Érseki [Hungary] won the day, but not all pilots are counted for at 19.15. With 119.52 km./h he was the fastest.
Then Lucas and Jaromir from Czech.Rep …..then the French pilots Kevin and Enguerrand. [difficult but very nice name]
Maurits [ The Netherlands] on 6 and the 2 German pilots , Simon and Jan, on 7 and 8…..with all around 117 km./h
At 19.30 Swiss Claudio, Dutch Mark and Australian Ryan were sill not scored, so I look at that later or tomorrow!!
They finished and ALL pilots were IN.

More tomorrow on how their day was.
All scores of course preliminary.

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FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Bosnia & Herzegovina 2022 – Livno
Livno Brda Bosni, Bosnia & Herzegovina,
30 July 2022 – 6 August 2022

Race 4….413 km today for the 7 pilots in Livno…. 3 more races to go.
SO ,..also top weather;
regatta start at 12.50.
And they are ready.. Here are the 3 German pilots.

And indeed Matthias did with a speed of 125 km./h . Runner up was his mate Stefan with 122 km./h . Gintas was 3d with 114 km./h.
So the totals are now;
23 for Gintas, 15 for Matthias and 14 for both Stefan and Christoph.
2 were out after 188 and 114 km.
All scores preliminary!

Another EXTRAORDINARY day. 2 More to come for the WGC in Szeged.
I guess then they need a real REST.
CHEERS,

Ritz

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

August 2; It should be a great day with nice long distances. First start already at 11 and 18 m is upfront , then open and then 20 m.
I have written already often about my trip to Rayskala for the Europeans where Silva [R.I.P.] set a 1000 km task for open class on the first day! I remember the 18 m. was a bit upset, as they wanted to have such a distance too. In retrospect quite a few of the class would have flown in too. It will be a buzzing day, huge distances at comps, trigger the imagination. Not only for the pilots , but also for the crews, the organizers and all who follow these comps.

Looking back on yesterday with John is every morning a pleasure. He gives SO much info. Here is a small part again . He writes also about the border with Serbia as well on US Soaring Teams
“As we’ve come to expect here, the task-setters got it right: all classes were sent on area tasks that first went west (toward the clouds), then east (back near home), then northeast. This fit the actual weather well, thought it did lead pilots into areas with cloud and even rain threats (west) and areas with blue, weak lift (northeast). Thermal tops ranged from 8000’ (west) to 4500’ (northeast). I’ll note that from a task-setter’s perspective, a variety of conditions during a task is a feature, not a bug.”

After an evening with good food, music and lot’s of talking/camaraderie in and in front of the hangar outside, pilots are ready for some LONG tasks. Why not, if the weather is there!!!!

At this 10 AM morning briefing, yesterdays winners were honored. 18m…20 m…and open class.

Let’s look at what happens today. I write and read and search all day, but after all scores are in, I publish. When you are not interested in tracking, to see how the pilots fly, maybe you like to do this on the last couple of days. Just try it out? Here is the link.
https://wgc2022.hu/tracking

August 2; day 10….task 8...Looking at the West, the cu’s pop up already. It looks like a TOPDAY!!!
Early activities at the field, to be ready with gridding before the briefing at 10 AM.
They started launching at 11 sharp!!! As the forecast was for LESS lift around 5.30, pilots will start straight away for their long flight.
During the long flight you do not hear a lot, but can look at the tracking. Often when they are out of reach, you can’t follow them over the radio either. Whilst they were flying I saw pictures with 200 km./h on it. PROMESING!!!!

18 m; 755.92 km…with 7 TP’s. Start line open at 12.06.The longest leg is nearly at the end; 153.59 km.
The pilots making this day extra special, were 2 from Italy, 2 from France AND Arne from Denmark!!!!
They all flew over 136 km./h!!!! Pretty fast over such a distance and with no wave.
Then a bunch [ 5 ] with 135 km./h. So I counted 10 pilots over 135 km./h.
1. Ricardo, 2 Arne ,3 Davide, 4 Christophe ,5 Adrian , 6. Wolfgang, 7 Derren, 8. Jeroen,9. Attie, 10. György 
Another 5 with 134 km.h. Melanie , Bert , Michael, Philip and Roman.
Have a look at www.soaringspot.com for all the fabulous results!!!

With 3 more days to go the overall score is CLOSE!!!!!!!
1. Christophe Abadie with 6,082 points
2. Davide Schiavotto with 6,050 points.
3. Riccardo Brigliadori with 6,049 points.
The numbers 4 till 12 have a difference from 5.908 points to 5.721, so a lot is possible!!!!

20 m; 645.50 km….with 5 TP’s. Start line open at 12.35. The eastern countries did well , so did Allan and Harry as flying in this kind of weather is what they are used to down under.
With 126.11 km./h Ivan and Petr won the day. Followed by Anton and Sandi . The Twin shark with Jakub and Lucasz was 3d!
Only 1 pilot was out after 598 km. OUCH….
Not a good day for Sarah and Karl and for The Broquevilles [ they flew for nearly 6 hours] they were 17 and 18 from 19.

The overall scores at this stage with 3 days to go;
1. Jakub Barszcz / Lukasz Kornacki with 6,035 points.
2. Ivan Novak / Petr Krejcirik with 5,970 points.
3. Erik Borgmann / Joost Wolff with 5,867 points.
The next 3 couples have chances as well; 5.847 till 5.835 points.

open; 757.38 km... with 6 TP’s. Start line open 12.20.
7 pilots with a speed over 140 km./h TOP!! certainly with such a distance.
Daily winner; Felipe with 142,81 km/h. Runner up in about the same time Sylvain with 142.52. AND what about our Belgian friend Daan; 142.46 km./h. Great effort!!!
Off -day again for Michael , who had the same speed 142.81 but got a penalty for “Self-launch above alt.limit.” Same punishment for Lucasz.
So in fact 9 pilots flew over 140 km./h
I try to find ALL the stories for you tomorrow.
After such a long and intensive flight everybody is worn out.
Maybe the TC’s will have a word tonight as well.

The overall scores with 3 days to go:
1. Felipe Levin with 6,198 points.
2. Oscar Goudriaan with 6,162 points.
3. Radek Krejcirik with 6,023 points. CLOSE!!!!!!!
The numbers 4 till 8 have chances too; 5.944 p till 5.708 points.

www.soaringspot.com

This WGC in Szeged turns out to be a WGC as a WGC should be !!!!!!

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12th FAI Junior World Gliding Championships
Tábor, Czech Republic
30 July 2022 – 13 August 2022

The morning news from Matej;
“Very nice cumulus streets have formed and competitors are already on their tasks. The standard class is flying 355 km racing task today and the club class is flying 318 km. We are expecting another day with high speeds. As always, you can follow most of the competitors on tracking:”
 https://link.glideandseek.com/jwgc2022

One of the high lights yesterday was the Turbo Cmelak. The towing seems to have been much faster!
One of the minor points for the young pilots yesterday was the wind!!!

What brings today???
The first launch was confirmed for 11.15 after a delay from 15 minutes . With the “fast wonder tug” and of course the other tugs, the pilots were quick up in the air and the start gates were opened.

Club class; 317.50 km.... Start gate opened at 12.21. The race to the first TP was fast. Within half an hour some pilots reached the first TP ; 63 km. At 3 some were 80 k out and looking forward to an early swim in the pool. It turned out to be a “German” day ; with a speed of 120 km/h. Toni and Nils in their LS4 were equal on spot1. Eric as part of the 3 German musketeers, was 1 minute slower and on spot 3.
Alexandre , who won yesterday, was faster in his ASW 20 ; 122.97 km./h [handicap 1.059] Now he was 5th.
only one pilot out, but such a pity he was so close , only 10 k out!!!

Standard class; 355.89 km.…Start gate opened at 12.51. Cloud base at 1000/1200 m.
“40 km in 20 minutes sounds good!!!” Their trip was a bit more difficult as I read, but some passed the 3d TP at 3 PM.
And an other German pilot , Simon , won the day as well; speed 118.82 km./h in the Discus 2A.
My Dutch mates had a really good day. The weather was super they mentioned. They flew with 3 together and finished on spot 2,4 and 5 . Maurits in the LS8 NEO, speed 118.43 km./h was runner up. Then there was Jaromir on spot 3 [Czech Rep.] . 4 Was for Mark ;113.19 km/.h and 5 for Nick;112.74 km./h.
All pilots have finished, so a terrific good day!

Great effort today from ALL the juniors!!!! All scores are preliminary.
Tomorrow is another day.

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FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Bosnia & Herzegovina 2022 – Livno
Livno Brda Bosni, Bosnia & Herzegovina,
30 July 2022 – 6 August 2022

Race 3 with 316.2 km. with 4 races to go
…..regatta start at 13.30.
Another win for Gintas; speed 126.8 km./h and 8 points for him.
German pilots Matthias and Stefan followed with 123 and 122 km./h.
Their mate Christophe was slower today ..spot 6… with 113.5 km./h and lost some points.
Yesterday he had 10 now 12.
Gintas leads overall with 21 points and Matthias has now 15.
BUT,…that changed as after the loggers had been read , it turned out that Matthias had an incorrect start and was disqualified!!!! So no points for him today and 9 in total.
Tomorrow race 4.

CU tomorrow!
Cheers Ritz

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

It was a more than challenging day yesterday. Not only for the pilots ,but for the tuggies as well. Compliments!!!
Also the wing runners had it tough, Benjamin Neglais from France mentioned:
“Wing runner must be also wise. Use the wingtip to the wind and lower it to avoid gust raising the wing when released. This is the basic,…. plus good fast legs to give it all.”
Again some damage ! This is a very special picture and shows the love and fraternity of our sport.
Wolfgang [WO] flies a Ventus 3 TS and as you see ,this time not in the little workshop from Attie and Uys from Jonker sailplanes, but in the hangar, the glider is repaired by them and Tilo [Schempp-Hirth] who was only in Szeged for a short visit.
GREAT PICTURE!!!!

John Good who is there has another good story on yesterday also on the damage of Wolfgang’s glider:
“,It seems that Wolfgang, in compliance with instructions here that insist on a long landing (to leave the runway clear for others) rolled long enough to cross the concrete marker that denotes the end of the grass runway. There’s plenty of grass beyond it, but this concrete object is not flush with the ground, and the impact managed to smash WO’s tailwheel up into its fuselage.”

And there was more on yesterday from John ;
“Today marked an end to trouble-free weather and straightforward soaring. Plenty of wind, extensive clouds and even some wave effects produced the first “shake up the score sheet” day at WGC2022. In 20-Meter class, Karl and Sarah managed to take advantage in a big way, taking first place in Arcus N1 by a convincing margin.” US Soaring Teams

Yesterday’s winners in 20 m. class with Sarah and Karl proud on top. Great to see Aku and Juha on 3 and Frenc and Attila on 2.

During briefing today, Wolfgang said a few words on what happened to him.

August 1 ;
day 9…competition day 6…task 7…. and after this,… still 4 days to go.
At 11.30 the first gliders were launched under a blue sky, for a “sit” of 3 hours and 30 minutes in their glider. BUT,…some cu’s popped already up in the West. With the early launches the pilots had a long day to do what they think they should/could do. It seems the first sector was OK, some flew it really to the end, others went to the next sector. So there will be differences in arrival times.
After the 2d sector it became more difficult. Height 1000 and 1500 meter , occasionally 1800 and lift with 1.5 up to 2 m.
What did the pilots do?
18 m; 3.30 AAT….Bad day for 5 pilots who flew out of the competition area. They got points till the violation; 124, 3x 122 and 121 points. They flew into Serbia, which is out of the boundary.
Winners!!!! YES,…. from Italy Ricky and Davide! They flew 453 km in time 3.35, 3.40 for 1000 and 973 points. Christophe missed out on 2 points on Davide. He was 3d and still leads the class, but with only 35 points.
Good to see Wolfgang was flying. He was 4th. He will be for ever grateful. He is such a nice , enthusiastic and kind guy AND still the current world champion!!![Hosin in 2018]

Roman Mracek flew 468 km, but needed 4 hours and 13 minutes. 7 Pilots flew over 4 hours.
32 Pilots finished, 10 were out.

20 m; 3.30 AAT….An INTERNATIONAL TOP 5. 4X an ARCUS and one Shark.
Winners; Louis Bouderlique / Ulysse Merlin with 421 km in time 3.30 at the dot!!!!speed 120 27 km./h . FRANCE.
Runner up; Steve Jones / Garry Coppin with 426 km in time 3. 36. speed 118.28 km./h. UK.
3d; Erik Borgmann / Joost Wolff with 428 km. in time 3.37, speed 118.22 km./h. THE NETHERLANDS
4; Ivan Novak / Petr Krejcirik with 419 km in time 3.34. Czech Rep. 117.28 km./h.
5; Jakub Barszcz / Lukasz Kornacki with 439 km. in time 3.47. speed 116 km./h. Poland.
ALL pilots finished! One team needed 4 hours!
Overall scores are very close so everything can still happen.

open; 3.30 AAT...Very pleased to see that Radek won the day. Good on him. He flew in his JS1 C/21m. 485 km. NOBODY flew that far. And with a speed of 119,83 km./h so in time 4.03. His dad was 4th in 20 m and he number ONE. BUT, Radek won the day together with Felipe ; equal 1000 points. He and Michael keep on flying together and Michael was on spot 3.
4 Pilots were out.
Felipe leads with 13 points overall on Oscar who was 6th today.

All scores still preliminary.

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12th FAI JUNIOR WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS.
Tábor, Czech Republic
30 July 2022 – 13 August 2022

Looking back with USA pilot David is possible. Here is a small part of his long story;
“I was gridded in the second row and my new flying buddy Mark Travner from Slovenia is also in my row so I was thinking that finding each other after launch will be easier. Alas, we had no problem navigating the start game shenanigans. We started about 5 minutes after the main gaggle and then caught up to them on the first leg. From there, for me, it was a matter of not losing the gaggle nor Mark.
Everything seemingly came together today, using what I have been able to learn about team flying, Mark and I flew fast and efficiently.” More on US Soaring Teams
He expected rain for today. But ….as you can see, they try to fly. AND,…they did!

“ It was a really hard day. The standard is really high. Lot’s of pressure, some tactical errors. ” Is what the UK boys said after the flight. In short; Challenging conditions and some technical issues made this first competition day interesting...” Team UK about yesterday.
AND
“The Turbo Čmelák has been woken from its slumber and the pilots have been warned “that everything happens really quickly“. Indeed today the Cmelak was towing and a lot of the juniors looked out to that moment. It is a very strong tug.
Matej Rendla , when I am correct Tomas son, said;
“Even though the weather conditions today do not ease the competition, the pilots fighting for the title of the junior world champion should succeed even in conditions like this. “
The first launch was confirmed for 12 .00.

August 1…Day 2 …competition day 2 …task 2
Club; 2 hour AAT…the line opened at 12.56 . Only in the 3d circle to the S. was a bit of rain , mentioned our Dutch team. The weather is GOOD!!!!
Just after 3 the first pilots finished already with French pilot Alexandre Fierain, flying 257.48 km. in time 2.01, so a nice speed of 126.82 km./h. Would he be the daily best???
yes he was!!
His mates had the same great flight, they flew with 3 together. Starting at 13.19 and the other 2 finished in time 2.05.
Alexandre leads the overall score now too.

After tea and cake, I looked again and they were still on 1,2 and 3, so a great day for the French. One of the members from the Jonker family flies an LS 3 and was 4th. He flew 122.67 km in time 2.01. Those young ones are really good in timing.
The UK boys were on 5 and 6 . My Dutch mates on 7,9 and 10.
The young Danes who flew so well yesterday were on spot 22,23 and 25.
43 from 45 were in, 2 out….GOOD DAY!!!!
19 Pilots have over- 1000- overall -points, all very close!!!
BUT,…there is a very long way o go!!!!

Standard; 2 hour AAT…their start line opened at 13.25, and most went straight on track. 13.43 was the last start time by Dutch pilot Nick. In the end he was 19th.
At 3.30 the first pilot appeared on the score board. Ryan from Australia; 222.27 km in time 2.01. Would that be good enough ?
No it was n’t! In the end he was 18 th.
With 135 km./h Wiktor Lacinski from Poland 285.34 km in time 2.06. He was the daily winner!!!!
Jacob Bøgelund Lassen from Denmark had enough kilometers, 348, but needed too much time ;2.53, but he was 6th for the day.
His mate  Emil Dalboe-Pedersen was runner up with 290 km. in time 2.17. speed 126.87 km./h.
So Wiktor was REALLY FAST!!!!!

The juniors had 2 pretty good days till now. More tomorrow.

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FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 2022
From LIVNO
30 July 2022 – 6 August 2022

“Race day 2 task set, an interesting route across multiple valleys and mountains.”
Follow live tracking on
https://bosniaherzegovina22.sgp.aero/race-coverage

Race for today; 331 km.
With 7 pilots still in the race Matthias [Sturm] had the best race today. The regatta start was at 13.30 and with 133.2 km./h he won the 7 daily points. He has 8 in total now.
Gintas [Zube] was runner up , nearly as fast with 133.1, for 5 points. He has 12 points now.
Christoph [Limpert] was 3d and has a total of 9 points now.
More tomorrow.

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And not long anymore and the next BIG event another [ cat 1 ] the WWGC in the UK flown from Husbos.
Here is already the schedule they shared. Their news will be on WWGC2022.CO.UK
“Saturday 13 August – opening ceremony. All welcome! Free entry!
Sunday 14 to Friday 26 August – contest flying
Saturday 20/Sunday 21 August – public open weekend. All welcome! Free entry!
Friday 26 August – last night party. All welcome! Ticketed event.
Saturday 27 August – closing ceremony“

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You are up to date.
Have a good night…..and enjoy this picture from the German team.
And for all teams…ENJOY THE HUNGARIAN NIGHT later tonight. Goulash????
cheers Ritz

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

After a party and good food at the INTERNATIONAL NIGHT, a day off to relax or recover from the “booze”, this new and last week starts in Szeged with enthusiasm, new hopes and hopefully the same great weather. Luckily the huge overnight-thunderstorm just passed by.
When you go to John’s link in this blog, more excellent writing about a lot of interesting topics, from the party and the rest day. AND I guess the WEATHER!!!!
US Soaring Teams

July 31, last day of the month.
“With great joy the South African team can report, that after serious investigation, interrogation and deliberation, we have successfully located and restored the FAI flag to its rightful position.
So we don’t have to worry about that anymore,….I hope.
Further on they mentioned;
“Weather forecast for today – lowish, slowish and windyish. “
The organizers hope for a “good window”, but B tasks have been set as well.
Temperature “only” 26 dgr. C, so long-sleeve shirts got out of the suit cases….20 kts wind with gusts.
Max it could be even 40 kts.

Further on …very interesting…. part of the tasks are very close to the border. There is an area where you have to stay above 457 m.!!! But the wind blazes in that direction!!!
That border is the Serbian border and 20 m. class comes close there . Serbia and Rumania DO NOT BELONG to the competition boundary.
At briefing tasks were set.

Day 8 , task 6, competition day 5; The wind is blowing, the wind sock in horizontal and the launches have been postponed; 12.15 now and still task A.
And …YES…off they went. First 18m ,then open and last but not least 20 m. Some needed the whole runway, 250 m. wide , to start with this cross wind. BUT,…all did well. Specially exciting for the self launchers, as I noticed on a SA video.
The cloud base after start was about 1500 m. Some went on track , whilst a quite a few hung around , waiting for better circumstances. It looks like a day with interesting scores , a shake up from the leader board and very challenging circumstances.
A day with the weather god, using for some, his sledge hammer!!!!
Let’s see,…..
18 m; 307 43 km…..start line opened at 13.20. The early starters had reasonable weather. Some late starters did not want to start so late, but had no choice. At around 3 some were on their way to TP 2, whilst others were still at the airfield.
At 3 some could only start as Uys , Attie and Arne. They finished just before 6PM.
8 Were out and 1 not scored yet.
There was a daily winner too. Polish pilot Tomasz Rubaj in the AS 33es.; speed 119.87 km./h. Chapeau. He started at 13.47.58 and finished at 16.21.31.
A runner up as well; Joris Vainius in the ASG 29.
Overall it looks with the preliminary scores that Christophe is still on 1. He was on 21 today . And Italian pilots Davide and Ricky follow with “our” Jeroen on 4 and Bert jr. now on 5 all small margins.

20 m; 294.52 km….start line opened at 13.54. Some had to start their engines [WK] not late after the start and were out today’s race. After the 18 m was up, a layer of high clouds moved in , creating problems for both 20 m and open class. Some flew straight back to the airfield. Still 13 from 19 finished.
It was a TOP DAY for Sarah and Karl from the USA in their ARCUS T with call sign N1. They were the only ones over 100 km./h. ;103. 93 km./h. The first starters left just after 2, but they left at 14.44 ,as the last on track. They might have been forced to wait that long, we will hear it tomorrow from John.
They moved up from 16 to 6!!!
The twin shark is still on top!!!!
2 have nor started .One is the German glider [WK] but I know they have used the engine to fly home.
It took Pierre and Arnaud over 4 hours to come back,…but they did!!!

open; 347.18 km….start line opened at 13.36. And when Michael Sommer has to start his engine, something is not right with the weather. He just motored back home after 18 km.
It might have been UK weather . Andy won the day ;122.03 km./h!!!!! He started with Russell but must have lost each other en route as Andy finished at 17.33 and Russell at 18.11 [ spot 13 for the day].
7 Flew over 110 km./h , runner up Oscar [121.72 m./h] , Radek with 117 km./h, Alberto with 114 , Felipe with 112 and Alena Netusilova in her JS 1C with 111 km./h TOP JOB!!!!!
Late delivery by Yves Gerster but he flew well; 3d for the day with 122 km./h.
Oscar leads now for Felipe and Alberto , and Radek moved from 8 to 4.
Michael dropped from 2 to 17, that really hurts!!!!
Landings with crosswind and strong winds are more difficult for the long wing pilots. But they did well.

More tomorrow!!!! WHATADAY!!!!!!
Some said “It could be the decisive race of the championship“.
Compliments to ALL who flew so well with this head- and cross wind .

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12th FAI Junior World Gliding Championships
Tábor, Czech Republic,
30 July 2022 – 13 August 2022

The opening was a nice event and everybody is eager to go flying. As eager as young ones can be.
I shared a picture from David {USA} yesterday but he looks totally different now.

July 31; day 1….The 74 under-25-year-old pilots , boys and girls, started their competition. The web cams over there, showed pretty good conditions, so off the went.
Launching at 11.15.

At around 3.15 the next message; “First gliders arriving in 10 minutes“. GOOD!!!!!!

club; 262.62 km.…The start line for the club class opened at 12:15.
At 15.14 the first pilot Zsombor Wéber, from Hungary landed already in this class with a speed of 111.24 km./h. and with that he was not the first back at the field, but also the daily winner!!!!Good on him!!!
It looks that the best start time was just before 1PM, as early starters so around 12.30 were slower or out.
Team DENMARK did well with a number 2 Lasse, 3 Jens and 4 Miles Kjær, his surname is at least Danish.
From 45 a total of 44 finished!

standard; 308.22 km….The start gate for the standard class opened at 12:49. It took a bit longer for these boys/girl , of course they had nearly 50 km. more to fly.
But, Czech pilots Jaromir and Lukas in their LS 8 and Ignas from Lithuania also in LS 8 were the 3 daily best. All 3 flew with a speed of over 100 km./h.
29 started and 3 are not yet counted for in the scores.
The beginning is there, tomorrow more.

“Please join us every evening at 20:00 CEST for a live broadcast of interviews with competitors hosted by Michaela Rendlová. The first broadcast will start today:” as shared by the organisers.
 https://youtu.be/WLHR3DTmf30

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FAI Sailplane Grand Prix Bosnia & Herzegovina 2022 – Livno
30 July 2022 – 6 August 2022

A task has been set for today
RACE 1; 309.40 km…. ready to go .

Take off from 12:30 CET.
Regatta start at 13.50.
With 143.5 km./h Gintas Zube won the day in his ASG 29E. So 7 points for Gintas.
German Pilot Christoph Limpert [ASG 29es] was runner up with 143.07 km./h.
 Jernej Lokovsek [JS 3]also flew around with big speed as number 3; 143.06 km./h
Only 6 started .

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To finish I HAVE to write about Max Verstappen who was in Hungary as well ,not in the air ,but at the Formula 1 ring.
In the qualifying race he had problems with his engine. Today he started from spot 11 to win the race, even with a “spin’. Great performance.
Now it’s off to see the soccer girls from the UK and Germany.

CU tomorrow. Cheers Ritz

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

With biltong, brandy and a real Braai, the South African Team was one of the first in front of the hangar and for sure the first to share with all of us, what they were doing. Again the Jonker family was very active, flying ,repairing gliders and “Cooking”.

And more South African news;”
“Rest Day – This morning, there is an aerie silence on the airfield. I’m unsure if this is the calm before the predicted storms or the sound of the collective hangover from the international evening last night.
Last night was a great success with fun had by all.
Team SA went through: 10 kg’s of Braai meat, 2 kg’s of Imported Biltong, 14L of brandy and 40L of Coke…
Unfortunately, against our best efforts, the FAI flag did not survive the evening… we spent most of our evening guarding the flag and ensuring the bolts were tight at all times (as can be seen in the below photos)
We suspect the British team had something to do with this as they very suspiciously disappeared early in the evening around a similar time to the flag disappearance.… As always blame has already been pointed to the innocent South Africans…
Once everyone rises from their cabins, we will establish an official flag investigation unit to get to the bottom of this problem.”

What would a WGC be without the “loss” of the FAI flag?

The USA with Sarah and John had typical USA stuff, as you can see on the picture.

The Dutch of course had cheese and orange-bitter, which is a pretty nice liquor and as always the famous stroopwafels [cookies with honey in the middle] and the British Team’s offering of Pimm’s and Eton Mess, were very popular. The Belgium team had there over-delighted Belgian waffles, this time “on sticks”. I even have not seen that before. AND,…as every year they were a huge success. Italy had delicious past with basilica , The Germans “sauerkraut” and the French real French chees , wine and pate.

Some quotes from the pilots after that great race the day before;

“The day went from under-promising to over-performing. It became a true race at 1.500 to 2.500m with groundspeeds often in excess of 220koh. The 437km was done in 2:46.” Arne from Denmark
“Yesterday – Putting the glider to bed after a great day of flying.” S.A. team
“kovanopeuksinen lentopäivä, kansainvälinen ilta ja vapaapäivä” Riku from Finland, my translator says it means huge speed, international night and a day off. So all ingredients from yesterday till today. And then a long story, in which he tells how proud he was to meet Karl.
“After more than a week, tough HEAT,… intensive and fast flights ,… announced heavy thunderstorms for the afternoon,….the international evening could be really enjoyed…to the fullest ” German blogger.

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12th Junior World Gliding Championship
Tábor, Czech Republic
 30 July 2022 – 13 August 2022

The 74 competitors in Club AND Standard class have practiced in the area and should be ready to go for good places in this JWGC. I have attended a few, as either TC or as competition editor, and those comps with all those young people are just lovely. They have fun, make friends for life , do their utmost best and learn a lot!!!
“Yesterday the welcome party took place. It was great to see young people from many countries chat together not only about gliding. Today the official opening ceremony which will commence at 16:00 in the historical centre of Tabor town on Zizkovo square. The official program will start with a presentation of teams with an introduction of their team captains and pilots. At 16:30 just after a flyby by a group of tow planes, official guests will begin with their speeches. The official ceremony will be closed by the speech of the president of the international jury and FAI anthem.  ” from the official site.

First times are always difficult but David is in Tabor, as only pilot for his country representing the USA. And he really practiced, by flying, with and behind other pilots in Tabor.
By the way in the USA , he is an instructor as well and studied at the  Ohio State University.
At his home field he flies the ASW 27 from his grand dad!!!!

“Confident not that I’ll place high on the score sheet, but confident that I am ready to compete to the best of my ability, and confident that I’m going to learn a ton. I’m excited to see how much better I can be by the end of this amazing experience! “
David McMaster

The young ones [with respect] are beginning their dream comps, tomorrow. I will try to follow them as much as possible.
Well known glider pilot Tomas Rendla is the CD. There is a Polish jury president and a Dutch chief steward.
You are up to date now.

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What happened more out side of the competitions?
Not far from Minden where I was in 1990, is a small airfield Truckee. We visited it one day. It has given pilots lot’s of joy , because of the great flights from there. This time it was well known pilot Ramy Yanetz, who flew to Crater Lake; 1.025 km. with a speed of 144 km./h
“Epic day from Truckee. 18K bases in all directions, including north! The goal was Crater Lake, Oregon. The day started an hour later than expected so an out and return to Crater Lake sounded unrealistic, so the backup plan was to land at Siskiyu and continue back tomorrow, or land at Bend. But when I made it to a crater lake by 4PM even with 10 knots head wind I figured I had a decent chance of making it back, as I did and some more! Extended the flight to Minden at the end of the day. This was my 2nd time to Crater Lake, the first time was a decade ago from Williams but with a stop over at Siskiyu on the way back. This may be the longest O&R north from truckee that I know of. Now I need to visit Crater Lake from the ground.”

And on Friday James Lee flew 1.459,37 km. speed 149.58 km./h in it….An FAI TRIANGLE from 1.218,68 km with a speed of 132.68 km./h!!! 9 hours and 45 minutes total in the air…pffff….Good high famous- Minden-wave all flight.
James flew the triangle in his JS1C./21 m.
Also another 1000 k for Ramy from Truckee.
Nic Bennett is flying from Minden as well. He has his 1000 already , BUT what about 999.73 km!!!!!He flew the ARCUS M.

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And the next FAI SGP is about to start now in Livno Brda Bosni, Bosnia & Herzegovina. They start today and continue till August 13.
Not too many participants , only 7, but a few good ones, Gintas Zube, Jon Gatfield and kilometer-eater Matthias Sturm and his German mate Stefan Langer, who visited Hungary for a few days as well, making nice video’s.
It’s the 5th event out of 10 with 5 to go in Livno in Bosnia Herzegovina,[30 july/6 Augustus ] in France in Vinon,[4 -10 September] in Australia at Gawler [2-8 January 2023] and in Vitacura in Chile [ 8-15 January 2023] and South Africa from Douglas Cape[ 20-26 January 2023]
THE BIG FINALY will be in Italy flown from Pavullo in 2023 ;August 26- September 2.

The 11th series from the FAI SGP in Germany from Eisenhuettenstadt have ended today, with a no-flying-day….the day was cancelled.
So the results I gave you yesterday stand;
1. Dirk Windmüller in AS 33es with 30 points.
2. Robin Förster in ASG 29e/18 m with 28 points.
3. Andreas Kühl in JS3 jet/18m with 26 points.
Dirk and Robin just got their tickets for the Finale next year in Italy!
www.sgp.aero

With rain in Hungary Max [Formula 1] might do well with his qualification. He likes rain. Tomorrow is the big race on the Hungaroring. Tomorrow also another day/week in Szeged and the first one in Tabor.
Will keep an eye on it!!Now an early evening!!!
Cheers and thanks for reading with so many.
Ritz

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
 24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

Looking back first again, this time with news from Belgium.
“Yesterday a few of our pilots in open and 18m class had a good flight. Daan and Koen had another strong day and were among the fastest pilots of their class. They seem to adapt very quickly to flying big winged gliders. Well done guys. Our doubleseater pilot Pierre wasn’t feeling very well, and together with Arnaud he decided not to fly. Very sad, but a good decision with regard to flight safety. Luckily Pierre was feeling well again today and the are ready for new fast flights.
In 18m class Tijl and Bert were caught in huge pre-start gaggles. Tijl elected to start about 15 minutes before the main gaggle and Bert started a couple of minutes in front of the gaggle. In the end, as so often, the gaggle was fast. Tijl lost a couple of places [ 20 to 24 now] and Bert managed to stay in front of most of the gaggle and made a jump forward in the general rankings.[Spot 12 now from 19]

Today was quite a different day: We woke up under a completely covered sky. As it should be, the organizers tried to make the most out of it. In the end only the 18m class was towed, but cancelled in the air due to low and weak thermals. The rest of the day was used to relax” Belgian Gliding Team

John , of course, had his report on yesterday and here is a small part again about the weather;
“We had a favorable weather forecast today, featuring a good airmass that needed only moderate solar heating to produce good thermal lift. We awoke to clouds that were confidently expected to dissipate, allowing the sun to do its work. But the clouds never got the message, and hung around all day.”
more on US Soaring Teams
His story about “engines in gliders” is so true. So I am maybe old fashioned too.

As a few people do not feel well the decision has been made to go on with the INTERNATIONAL EVENING , BUT, everybody should test before going. Of course when NOT feeling well you stay ‘Home” where ever that is.

For today they set tasks, with the announcement that showers would arrive in the early afternoon over Szeged. So waiting again IF the show can go on. For sure it sounds as a short day.
“Similar conditions to yesterday but with the possibility of showers. First launch not before 12noon. Racing tasks have been set and we have our fingers crossed!” British Gliding Team

July 29; day 6 ,task 5, competition day 4... B tasks were on. First start at 12.20.
Trigger temperature today is 31.5 degrees C. At 12 it was 30 and pretty humid.
B tasks; whilst the weather showed some significant overdevelopment.
They flew!!!! This picture is from during the start.
They could see lines of showers as well on their screen.

Off the went.
Start times at 13:20 (18m), 13:34 (20m) und 13:48 (Open)
Baer shared the message that a lot of pilots today USE their tracker.
Good news for ALL who want to follow the pilots. And there will be a few as this competition is pretty popular.
https://glideandseek.com/?

What happened?
18m. 362.07 km....changed in a 2.30 AAT….REALLY fast flights. WOW, 162 km./h by Christophe. He really was in a hurry to win another day. He flew 438 km. in time 2.42. Fabulous for a competition.
A class apart.
With the weather prognoses in the back of their mind the Dutch and Belgian pilots started straight away at 13.24.
Christophe and his French mate Adrien Henry, also flying a JS 3, started at 13.42 and finished together at 16.25. Adrien flew 10 km. less, but was a great runner up.
But it did not matter too much as the early starters flew around with 156 km./h as well.
25 Pilots flew over 150 km./h!!!!!
Overall scores after task 5;
1. Christophe Abadie in JS 3 with 3.452 points
2. Arne J. Boye-Møller in JS 3 with 3.403 p.
3. Davide Schiavotto in JS 3 with 3.401.
SO CLOSE!!!!!!
It will be a great second week!!!!

20 m; 347 km...changed in 2.30 AAT….All pilots are in and 3 flew over 148 km./h!!!!
Daily winner; Austrian team Peter Hartmann / Karel Krobath in the HpH 304 TS Twin Shark,
They flew 382 km in time 2.34.39.
Hungaryan team Igor Volkov / Vladas Motuza in the ASG 32 MI, had about the same distance and time but started 15 minutes earlier.
Equal at spot 2 so runner up was the ARCUS T with Italian team Stefano Ghiorzo / Federico Mangano.
The slowest team had 137.88 on their “clock” and my Aussie mates Allan and Harry had 140 km./h. I guess they are both so pleased to be in Europe!!!
Overall scores after task 5;
1. Jakub Barszcz / Lukasz Kornacki in the SHARK with 3.392 points.
2. Erik Borgmann / Joost Wolff in Arcus T with 3.359 p.
3. Peter Hartmann / Karel Krobath in the other SHARK with 3.354 p.
3. Steve Jones / Garry Coppin in ARCUS with the same amount of points.
I presume the HPH people are in 7th heaven!!!!!
Pierre and Arnaud are fit again, pleased to see them in the air again, certainly on such a day.

open; 371.08 km....changed in 2.30 AAT....At around 5, Felipe was in with a booming speed of 164.08 km./h. Would there be anybody faster????? He flew 440.33 k in time 2.41.
Further than the earlier -set- racing- task.
By the way only 2 km./ h faster than the JS3 from Christophe, in 18 m.
Then there is of course Michael. They flew together BUT, his speed was 164.20. Indeed faster!!! And one more point for him!!!
They all started within 16 minutes.
Great job from young Radek, who flew 449 km. in time 2. 45; speed 163.52 km./h. in the JS 1, so not an EB.
Overall scores in open class after task 5:
1.  Felipe Levin with 3.404 points
2. Michael Sommer with 3. 377 p.
3. Oscar Goudriaan with 3.323 p.
All EB’s. Even the first 7 are EB’s , so to see the glider you need to win a WGC, in open class.

The weather moved in straight after the finishes. I liked the S.A. comment after the fast day :
“Tonight is the international evening, and tomorrow is an official rest day (no flying), so you can only imagine how this party will go down… faster than a flag down a flag pole …. 

I guess only VERY happy pilots at the INTERNATIONAL EVENING tonight. More talking and flying with hands and arms. They should!!!! It was a great day!!!!!
And a drink is allowed too, as due to the weather forecast , …thunderstorms and wind with hail….the “day-after” will be a rest day.
So a day off tomorrow!!!!
Good timing from the weather!!! It really co-operates well in Hungary.

There was one little / minor point today…… the SCALES. Not everybody was pleased this morning, with how that went. Some teams seem to be not very friendly, words were” unsupportive” . I could see on the pictures, a long queue waiting .
It was the topic of the day, BUT the fast flights and a day off tomorrow and ALL is forgotten again.

No a 1000 points day in each class they were just TOO fast.
All scores still preliminary.

CU tomorrow hopefully with some pictures from the party.

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12th FAI JWGC in TABOR in CZECH REP.

July 28 Report:
“Greetings from Tabor, Czech. Today was a picture perfect soaring day here in Tabor. The Club Class flew a 300 km speed task with light wings, cu filled skies and bases near 6000 ft AGL. Tomorrow looks to be a bit wet so we have decided to take a rest day as we have flown many successful practice flights with the ASW-20. Tomorrow we will be sure to enjoy the welcome party following the mandatory safety meeting“
Captain’s report from @Tom Cassetta US Soaring Teams

July 29; official practice day 3, with the opening tomorrow. I read that not a lot of pilots will fly today. A day for a bit of rest, a trip to Prague and the finishing touch of “things” .
The weather was not that good either.
There were no tasks on soaring spot.
“We are currently waiting for further development of the weather. There may be a chance for a short AAT in the afternoon before rain arrives. In the evening we will have a safety briefing at 19:00 and a welcome party at 20:00.” message on the official site at noon.
Tasks were shared; Club..1.30 AAT and standard the same.
Next message :
“First launch confirmed for 13:45. Team captains please come to collect task sheets at 13:25 to the front of grid and confirm change of start gate opening time to 20 minutes.”
Only 14 club class pilots flew and 6 of them got to know the area better by landing out.
In standard the Aussies tried but got back No day.
Opening tomorrow!!!!

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Series 11 of the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix;

In Eisenhuettenstadt  they were ready for a small task , race 6, on the one but last day; 156 km.
A new face for the 10 daily points. Only Dirk Windmueller , from the top 5, got 8 points and extended his scores to 30. He leads now. Robin has 28 points and Andreas 26.
Best speed today 136 km./h. by Rolf Gerzman. A tad faster than Dirk with 135.7 km./h.
They will be the pilots with the possibility to win this GP.
More tomorrow , after their last day!

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Arne Martin Güettler from Norway just got himself a new glider…an 18m JS 3, and he really is trying it out to it’s best.
” Today I was able to visit all the 3 highest mountain ranges in Northern Europe in one flight!
It was slow and careful, keeping high all the time. But what views!” indeed stunning pictures.
Here is one of them;

https://www.weglide.org/flight/194664

CU, tomorrow!!!
Cheers Ritz, a very busy but very pleasant day.

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
 24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

Looking back at yesterday.
This time with the picture collage from the South African team,….they really had a good day…., these are the winners from yesterday in each class.

Here is a small part of John’s report on yesterday, the rest is on US Soaring Teams
“There’s always a sense of relief when it’s actually time to cross the line and race.
Which pilots finally did, mostly around 14:00. All tasks sent gliders east, on zig-zag style tasks. Lift was not as strong nor as high (best climbs were to a bit over 7000’) but still quite good by normal European standards. Compared to yesterday, speeds were down roughly 10%. It was definitely easier to get low, and typically harder to “dig out”.”

The South African team was so kind to publish a list of the tugs ,so I share them also with you, as they always do such a fabulous job!!!!
The nine tow planes of the competition:
1 x Zlin Z-143
2 x Radial Cmelak Zlin Z-37
1 x Turbine Cmelak Zlin Z-37T
1 x Cessna 182
1 x Robin DR400
3 x Piper Pawnee PA25C

AND,….I was really pleased to see my Aussie mates Allan and Harry in 20 m. on spot 9 yesterday!!!!! GREAT EFFORT!!!

Lets go to TODAY!!! Briefing at 10,

Tasks have been set, but the day started different. Not sunny and blue skies ,but cool and clouds….overcast. They even spoke about B-Tasks.
The start has been postponed to 12.30 .At 12 still 7 / 8 clouds . The trigger temperature is still 2 dgr. too low.
My UK mates say it so much better than I, with my Ritz-English. “Currently waiting for cloud to clear & trigger temp of 30c with tasks sets for later. First launch not before 12noon“. perfect!
THEN,……Postponed to 12.45. Clouds were supposed to burn off, but they did not yet.
In the end the pilot and crews got confirmation from the first launch at 13.30.
AND,…with TASK A.
They started with 18 m. Their start line opened at 14.37. Then they STOPPED!!! BUT,…the good thing, the cloud base got slowly higher up to 1100 AG.

July 28; day 5 ,task 4……only the pilots from 18 m will fly………

18m; 301.58 km…..!It was waiting for a long time to get rid of the overcast, but the organizers decided to launch the 18 m and then stop and let them be the only flying class today. They left with 1100 m height AG. But some had problems to get high enough to depart. There are quite a few forbidden zones around the airfield, so pilots have to take care of that too,….and the PEV….and looking around for other pilots.
WELL,…they could n’t stay up, the day was cancelled in the air at 2.30 , so all 42 gliders had to land and also their day has been CANCELLED.

20m; 268.47 km...CANCELLED !!!!
open; 323.89 km...CANCELLED !!!!!
By the way, Felipe who is on spot 1 overall in open, was junior WORLD champion in 2009 in Rayskala in Finland and in 2011 in Musbach in Germany. So an excellent pilot for MANY years!!!!

Tomorrow is another day. A day with the INTERNATIONAL EVENING.

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Good news from Dutch pilot Peter Millenaar, former junior champion.[2013 in Leszno]
“What a day! Declared 1000km out and return to Reinsdorf from Aachen Merzbrück. The conditions weren’t always so easy, but luckily the day was long. The power plants in the end didn’t really give great thermals anymore due to the wind. Another hop to Bergheim would have made the 1200km, which was possible. However too tired to continue, and my 4 liters of drinking water was finished!”
https://www.weglide.org/flight/193829
Great job Peter! 1.163 km.
Still good weather in parts of Europe where it still is hot. Fuente has so many 1000 km flights already this year , too many to mention BUT, you can find them on the OLC or WEGLIDE.

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THE 12th FAI JWGC
Tábor, Czech Republic
30 July 2022 – 13 August 2022

Talking about the JUNIORS. I told you already that they start on July 30. There will be 2 classes standard and club. Today was practice day 4 , this time the 2d official one, with tasks just over 300 km. in both classes.
Matthew Scutter the junior world champion from Narromine in 2015 is NOW the TC from the UK, with some “strong” pilots . But the French, the Dutch and Aussie pilots are very good too and for sure a few more I don’t know now.
The first official practice day in Club class, yesterday was won by Jelmer Vis from the Netherlands . Over the 1.30 AAT he flew 162.82 km in time 1.29.18; speed 108.55 km./h.
Not everybody went up only 33 and several [11] were “out”.
In standard it was James from Down Under but only a few flew the 1.30 AAT. In the end their day was invalid.

The 2d official practice task today in CLUB CLASS, was won by Simon Siska [SVK] in an ASW 24.Speed 105.36 km./h
Danish pilot Jens Andersen was runner in Mosquito103.87.
43 did fly and 39 finished. 4 Were out.
7 Warnings, so hopefully lessons learned.
9 Pilots flew over 100 km.
USA mate David was on spot 38 , but IN. The UK boys Toby and Finn on 9 and 10, and my Dutch mates Jelmer and Simon on 14 and 15.

In standard class Polish pilot Wiktor Lacinski won the practice in a Discus 2A with 118.61 km./h.
2 Czech pilots , flying together, were on 2 and 3.
My Aussie mates James on 6 and Ryan on 15.
24 from 29 were in and 4 out ,one not scored.
Incorrect PEV and finish altitude were lessons to learn from.
The official site mentioned:
” The weather in Tábor was good the whole day with cloud bases up to 1500 m AGL. Everything for the competition is now prepared and when the last few pilots finish their registration and scrutineering, the only thing left to begin will be the official opening ceremony that will take place in the Tábor centre on Saturday at 16:00.”

Lets see what happens during the comps. I look forward to this JWGC.

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The FAI Sailplane Grand Prix in Germany was busy with race 5 today ; 374. 99 km.
And with 2 races to go, Pete Harvey had a great day in his Ventus 3TS and won with a speed of 127.8 km./h. Just a tad faster than Christoph Matkowski in the AS 33; 127.7 km./h .
Robin was 8th today with 126.2 km./h
He still leads with 27 points , followed by Andreas Kühl with 24 points, Dirk Windmüller in AS 33 with 23 and Pete now with 22 points.
As said 2 more days to go race 6 and 7.
Exciting!!!

Early evening so CU tomorrow again.

cheers Ritz

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
 24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

You might have noticed I published a post yesterday as well. The scores were so quick that I could straight away start with my view on the day.
A picture from the glorious winners , this time from open class, I can share with you now.

Bas from the Dutch team was one of the pilots from open class, landing with severe crosswind yesterday. In total 8 pilots landed after 4.
Bas had light damage on the aileron by touching the ground. How good is it then, that Attie and Uys are flying this WGC as well. They helped straight away and the JS 1 was ready to go this morning. TOP job from Jonker Sailplanes!!!!
The Dutch TC Baer Selen, as said twice world champion, sits alone under the team tent with the radio and maps; he got corona there . He has no symptoms , but must/will be careful till the test is negative. His team is doing well with Jeroen on spot 1 overall in 18 m. at this stage and Erik and Joost runner up in 20 m yesterday.!!!!!

Here is also a short part of John Good on yesterday.
WGC2022 – report for July 26

Today’s forecast predicted challenging condition in the form of a cold front approaching from the northwest.
In the event, the weather was perhaps just a bit better than the forecast. Except in areas well to the west, lift was often strong, climbs went high (sometimes above 9000 ft, and thus close to the contest altitude limit of 2800 m), and some unusual “half cumulus / half wave” clouds provided useful clues. The late starters actually did reasonably well, and the day lasted long enough to get everyone home (though a few finished low enough to earn penalties).
His words about air space and the PEV are also clear;
“An interesting – and, yes, controversial – feature of this contest is the PEV. This stands for Pilot EVent: a time-stamped notation that a pilot can cause to appear in the electronic log of each flight, from which speed and score are calculated. The rule here says that when you choose to cross the start line and begin your task, you should first create a pilot event (by pressing a button associated with your logger). You then must let a defined time (here, 5 minutes) elapse at which point a start “window” of defined length (here, 8 minutes) opens for you. If you cross the start line during this window, all is well; should you start outside such a window, you’ll be hit with a 50-point penalty. And during any one flight, you can create only three such windows for yourself – once the last has closed, the only way to avoid a penalty is to land and re-launch.“
In 18 m and 20 m., one pilot was out the PEV and in open nobody.
This is John by the way if you wonder who he is….The rest you can read on US Soaring Teams

The front that brought strong winds and short showers moved away overnight, another day, other chances…..It created good pictures here is one from the French team with Eric and the just-in-time- in glider 72.

Here are the tasks,……. time to start with TODAY;

July 27 day 4 task 3;
The meteo opened this morning with :” “We have a very good weather today...” So that opens perspective for all pilots. Good tasks as well, so all ingredients to make it a super day! The day will be blue with homogeneous thermals up to about 2000 m. Problem-free weather,…. HURRAY!!!!
First launch at 12.
NOT a good day for Team de Broqueville from Belgium, I got the message ” to day sick no flight “
I wondered already a 17th place out of 19 yesterday was not de Broqueville-like.

Indeed the weather was perfect with 3 m. lift up to 2000 m. I read only happy messages. I get news via FB , from a lot of countries , so I keep myself busy with reading and waiting. And then combining and making a story. I am very pleased with the quick scores by the organization!!!!
So what happened today?
Start line opened at ; 13:07 (18m), 13:20 (20m), 13:36 (Open)
A lot of pilots started after 2PM.

18m; 409.95 km…..The first pilots appearing on the scores-list were Christophe and Uys ; speed 137.3 km./h and 133.46 km./h with starts around 14.03. Christophe remained there,…..good on him.
Danish Arne was GOOD today AND runner up!!!136.79 km/.h.
So Uys was 3 and Attie followed on 4 ; 133.46 km./h and 132.61 km./h
11 Pilots flew faster than 130 km./h Another 2 ,Mac and Wolfgang had 129 km./h.
All 42 pilots finished. LIKE!!!!
The best daily pilot flew 2hours and 59 minutes, the “slowest” one , with respect , 4 hours and 45 minutes. BUT,…he was IN.
the overall’s till now;
1. Christophe Abadie with 2.571 points.
2. Arne J. Boye-Møller with 2.568 p.
3. Davide Schiavotto with 2.565 p.
Close very close here as well.

20 m; 384.84 km...18 started and finished. As you read already Pierre and Arnaud could not fly due to illness. So no scores for them. I wish them WELL, indeed THE VERY BEST !!!!
The winning team was Anton Šibanc / Sandi Kavalič in the ARCUS M; speed 122.41 km./h.
The Swiss winners from the 2 days before were last, so I hope they are not sick either. They dropped from 1 to 5, pfff…that hurts.
Runner up from S.A. Dawid Pretorius / Nico le Roux had a speed of 122.34.
Daily number 3 was Louis Bouderlique / Ulysse Merlin.
Looking at the overall’s till now;
1.  Jakub Barszcz / Lukasz Kornacki in the TWIN SHARK …pretty special…with 2. 585 points.
2. Erik Borgmann / Joost Wolff with 2.555 p
3. Steve Jones / Garry Coppin with 2.540 coming from 7.
It’s all VERY close.
VERY happy Shark-people, so they should; “After 3 competition days Twin Sharks are currently in 1st and 4th places!” HpH Sailplanes UK

open; 407.33 km…with 140.49 km./h. Oscar raced over the track BUT,…Russell started later and finished at the same time…result faster ;141.63 km./h.
He moved from 9 to 6 overall.
Runner up; Oscar and on 3d place Sylvain [140,14 km./h]from France.
The Italian “Alberto’s” had exact the same points [885] flying together to the limit.
When you were 10 km./ h. slower than Russell, you “only” got to spot 17!!!!
Only one was out ….he started as last pilot….and one forgot the PEV.
Looking at the overall’s after 3 competition days;
1. Felipe Levin with 2.534 points.
2. Oscar Goudriaan with 2.507 p.
3. Michael Sommer with 2.506 p.

Celebrations from team UK for Russell …..well deserved!!!!

———————————————————-

THE FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX in Germany had RACE 4 today.
410 km. was set for the 19 pilots.
After 3 days there are 2 pilots leading with 18 points; Tobias Meiler in Ventus 3 T and Dirk Windmüller in AS 33es.
Robin Förster in ASG 29/18 m has 15 and Mark Wering {The Netherlands] in JS 3 jet/18 m. has 13.
Robin flew around today with a speed of 133.2 km./h gaining 10 more points; 25 now and he leads “the pact”.
He got 60 s penalty as well, for an incorrect landing lane.

————————————————————————-

The juniors at the JWGC, are busy with scruteneering and some fly today at the practice day. The JWGC is between July 30 and August 13 from Tábor in the Czech Rep.
There is good security as I read on the site;
“The police is now taking over the security at the airfield. Be prepared to see police cars driving periodically around the airfield, especially at night, including in the glider tie-down area. New CCTV security system is now also installed for your safety. Nonetheless always keep your valuables with you or lock them in a safe place.”
With security I always think of Rieti when during a competition, young guy’s drove with scooters between the gliders at the grid in the middle of the night. Next day police took care of the field straight away.
There are 45 pilots in club class and 29 in standard class. A total of 74 pilots . NOT BAD!!!!
I even noticed James [Nugent] and Ryan [Driscoll] from faraway AUSTRALIA. Not too easy still , to fly over from down under to Europe in this corona world.
Both top pilots!!!

In between the Dutch showed great initiative by asking for wood at a sawmill, to make a table and “other important stuff”. With a trailer full of wood they went back to the airfield.
Look what they have now

That’s it for today……More tomorrow.
All scores still preliminary.

Maybe one more nice picture shared by the organization.

Cheers Ritz

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
 24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

Here is part of John Good’s report on contest day 1 , as he is there and I know him as a good writer,…. the rest you can find on US Soaring Teams
“Today’s conditions produced the first scores at WGC2022 – and a high percentage of task completions (two 18-Meter pilots “ran out of day” and came up just short). The absurdly good weather of the practice period may be a thing of the past: today was merely very good. It was a mostly blue day, but with occasional “haze domes” to indicate thermal locations; lift was typically around 5 kts, occasionally extending as high as 7000 ft.”

AND then to the third day…..
Tuesday July 26; DAY 3, task 2….
a sunny day with 30 dgr. C, blue and 1/8 cu’s and the expectation that around 4 PM, a front , [already over the North of Hungary in the morning] , might/will have influence on the task area. For that reason it was announced that the thermals could get less around that time. Something to keep in mind!!! Also the Westerly wind would increase and ‘kill” the thermals. So the goal is a fast flight and being back in time. EXCITING,….you can follow them every day on link.glideandseek.com/wgc2022
AND,……off they went,……..First launches at 11.30.

18m; 354.30 km….A start at the right time was important today, not too early ,but certainly not too late either ,when the forecast would be correct.
Clearly better circumstances after start for 18 m. ,than yesterday ,when it was a bit of a struggle for them. Though,……”en route” some 18 m. pilots got pretty low ,…..500 m. but …….got out.
Hungarian pilot Péter Szabó started with a few others, early at 12.45 and at around 14.30 they had passed already TP 2. They passed Bekescsaba and who flew the comps there in the past, 1992, might remember the area and take advantage of the memories of that EGC. Then they start a long leg of 107 km.
Around 3 PM, some only had to fly less than 70 km.
And around 15.27 the first pilots were in, nicely in time as cu’s/ac slowly arrived from the West.
With a speed from 146,78 km./h French pilot Christophe Abadie is the daily winner!!!! WOW , what a day!!!! Runner up Zoran Frenc [Serbia] with 146.67 km./h….. pffff……missing out on 2 points. WELL DONE!!!
Uys Jonker and Melanie Gadoulet had a speed from 146. 46 and 146.36!! TOP job!!!
All 42 finished , slowest speed; 120 km./h….best 146.78 km./h.

20 m; 316.01 km...with a 45 km. long leg to TP 1 and 3 legs from 78, 73 and 81 km and final glide over 34 km. Hungarian pilots Ferenc Tamás / Attila Korom finished at 15.30,44, so a good speed of 131.86 km./h. after an early start at 13.06,56. BUT NO ,.it was not enough to win.
The French must like this weather as Louis Bouderlique / Merlin Ulysse flew around with 134.90 km./h. They started at 13.32, the last start of this class and finished as number 3.
BUT,….EVEN BETTER…..Rainer Cronjäger / Guido Halter, their 2d win!!! Speed 140 km./h!!!! For the day a rather late and daring start at 13.30 and finish at 15.46!!!!!! But my goodness what a performance!!!!
What about my mates Eric and Joost; runner up for the day…speed 135.71 km./h!!!!! Good on them.
Weird to see Pierre and Arnaud on spot 17.
All pilots are counted for.

open; 346.70 km....also for open class not one long leg as in 18 m. but 4 from 67.7 km, 64.5 km, 76 km and 86.5 km. final glide from 48 km.
Alberto Sironi, flying the EB 29R, was faster than fast ; 154 18 km. /h Daily winner!!!!
His mate also an Alberto but now Pozzi was runner up; 151.99 km./h . They started together but the final glide from the EB was faster than the JS 1. Only 19 points difference though.
Oscar Goudriaan was a fast and on spot 3, also over 150 km./h ; 151.51 km./h
Sylvain Gerbaud, Felipe Levin and Michael Sommer also flew over 150 km/h

Everybody is back. ALL ARE COUNTED FOR!!!
WHAT A FAST DAY!!!!!
AND,..…..WHAT QUICK SCORES!!!! Compliments for the organizers!!!!
The last finishers felt the forecasted strong wind, as that wind arrived half an hour faster/earlier than forecasted. It turned out to be 20kt. and it blew straight through. So gliders had to be de-rigged or brought the the tie-down area with speed.
Luckily ALL pilots were IN!!!!

Looking at the overall scores,….. after 2 days AND …..days like this, can have huge impact.
In 18 m. Jeroen moved from 2 to 1 and Davide from 1 to 2. But,…Petri from 3 to 14 and he flew around with a speed of 132 km/h.??!!! Bizarre.
In 20 m. no doubt till now about the Swiss team, Rainer and Guido. Winning 2 days means, being on top of the overall list. The Twin Shark with Jakub and Lucasz is a strong runner up and my Dutch mates went from 5 to 3 .
In Open a bit the same situation; number 1 and 2 Felipe and Michael stayed on their place with 10 points difference , but Daan moved from 3 to 6 after todays 9th spot,…still 149 km/.h!!!???
Oscar is 3d now, coming from 7 and Alberto Sironi moved from 10 to 5.
BUT,…tomorrow ALL MIGHT BE DIFFERENT again.

—————————————————————–

The JWGC is about to begin too and in Germany there is an FAI SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX in progress [ July 24 July 30] flown from Eisenhuttenstadt.
There are 19 pilots among them 1 from the UK Pete Harvey, 1 from the Netherlands Mark Wering and 5 Polish pilots!!!
They had 3 days till now;
Race 1 was 246 km and won by German pilot Tobias Meiler in Ventus 3
Race 2 was 357 km and won by German pilot Tobias Breithaupt. The other Tobias was now runner up.
Race 3 was 204 km and won by Dutch pilot Mark Wering in JS3 jet.
Race 4 5 6 and 7 to go. I keep you informed.
https://germany22.sgp.aero/news

Giving my neck ,back and fingers a bit of rest now.
CU tomorrow again,
Cheers Ritz

37th FAI WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIP
Szeged, Hungary
 24 July 2022 – 5 August 2022

The briefing on day 1, last Sunday, moved from 10 to 12. They had thunderstorms overnight and with that, a long time of dry weather ,stopped.
The weather for day 1; tough wind, clouds and 24 dgr. C. but supposed to get better at noon. So hope for a [small] window!

Task 1 on July 24; Unfortunately they had to CANCEL the first competition day.
The weather for Monday seems to be better so…over to….

—————————————————–

Task 2: on July 25, with blue skies and thermal activity …3m /s up to 2200m.
Expected first launches: 11:45
18 m. upfront ,then 20 m and open class.
They moved the launches with 15 minutes, but then at 12 ,they all went on track.
They use PEV(Pilot Event Marker) Starts. This means that 5 minutes before a pilot intends to start they need to activate the event marker on their Flight computer. This then starts a 5 minute countdown after which they may start for an 8 minute window.
No PEV means that they automatically get a 50 pt. penalty.
This way they try to avoid gaggles and pilots following each other.
Perfect!!!!

18 m; 407 km.……the first 1000 points were for Italia’s Davide [JS 3] who won the day with a speed of 134.25 km./h. .That was 2 km. faster than Dutch pilot Jeroen[JS 3] ; 132.07 km/h. who really flew good.
Petri from Finland was 3d. I won’t start again about how he arrived with his parents in Tocumwal when he was around 6 years old. BUT,….Every time when I see his result I think how is it possible!!!! Time flies AND Petri now flies an AS33es in a WGC!!!!!
From 42, 40 finished, and those 2 Swedish pilots nearly were “home”.371 and 3363 km.
4 pilots in this class were out of the PEV window.

20 m; 380 km….a Swiss triumph meaning 1000 points for team Rainer Cronjäger / Guido Halter [ARCUS T] ; speed 124 .71km/h. after a late start. Just a tad faster than Polish team Jakub Barszcz / Lukasz Kornacki in the Twin Shark;124.11 km./h. On spot 3 Czech team Ivan Novak / Petr Krejcirik in Arcus M.
The early birds started at 13.36, the later ones at 14.14[the daily winners]
Somewhere I read that the 18 m had difficulties with the weather in the beginning, as it was not so good over the field, so a late start in 20 m sounds the way to go. All in retrospect, …..indeed!!!!
Only 2 Aussie mates in Szeged, 2 lovely guy’s Allan and Harry flying the ARCUS M. They were last today, but I am sure they will love every day, just by being there.

open; 416 km.…outstanding performance from Felipe and Michael in their EB’s; 133 km./h. for 1000 and 995 points. Great result as well for Belgian pilot Daan who in his EB was 3d; 126 km./h.
All 22 pilots finished, the last one flew 4 hours, but Zoltan was IN!!!!!
There are 9 EB 29’s in this class and 11 JS1’s.[21 m] 1 ASH 31 MI and 1 EB 28.

All points of course are still preliminary.

Newsy WGC news;
—“There are 3 Twin Sharks flying in the world championships in Hungary.”HpH Sailplanes UK
—“One of the tow planes – A turbine Čmelák (Zlin Z-37).I’ve seen on the tracking yesterday a 60 second climb average of over 8m/s @ 150kph !!! Almost better than a winch launch!” South African Gliding Team

—#WGC2022 Task annullata” the Italian gliding magazine Volo a Vela about day 1.
—“Gwennie Jones from wing cleaning cloth (New Zealand 2007) to British Team Captain (Hungary 2022) in 15 years!” quote by Steve Jones.

—In 18 m there are 42 entries, biggest class and 21 are JS3. 4 are JS 1 and 11 Ventus 3 gliders with 4 AS 33es and 2 ASG 29’s.
—-John Good the TC of team USA is a great writer/blogger as well, here is part of one of his stories about glider shipment!!!
“I alluded yesterday to the problems of shipping gliders to Europe for this contest. At WGC2022, the Jonker brothers (Uys and Attie) have fallen victim to this situation: they (characteristically) prepared tuned and tweaked examples of their JS-3 design to fly in the 18-Meter class here. These went on board a ship weeks ago, with delivery promised in a German port well in advance of this contest. The ship apparently was held up in one or more ports along its way, and now these gliders are predicted to arrive (at a port around a thousand miles from Szeged) this coming Tuesday. Fortunately, Jonker gliders are now found all over the soaring world, and it appears Uys and Attie had little difficulty arranging examples they could borrow. Uys has decided to stick with the one he has borrowed; Attie has secured an arrangement (with the concurrence of the contest organization and all Team Captains) that when (if ?) his arrives he will have a one-time chance to decide – irrevocably – whether he will switch.
https://www.facebook.com/ussoaringteams/posts/

So that was the first day in Szeged. Some will be very pleased and some a bit disappointed, BUT it’s only day 1. AND,…they flew.

CU on Wednesday again.
Cheers Ritz