11th WWGC
Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom
14 August 2022 – 26 August 2022

The day started with the message that” 18m and Std. Classes have been asked to grid this morning. Club class is getting a day off!”
Club has already one day less!!!
The met man said;
“We have 2 occlusions coming. If one does n’t get us, the other one will”.

Liz had some words too yesterday evening about day 8;
“All still to play for half way through the competition, with very tight points on the leaderboard all three classes still have the chance to mix it up. Although it was forecast today to be similar conditions to yesterday – with rough weather and high winds – it really cleared up nicely to be a fine soaring day. It wasn’t without its challenges, the two AAT sectors were both amazing and awful depending on the timing that you were going through. With 6 knot thermals and 4500’ cloud base in some zones and the complete holes in others, today had a lot of luck involved. Back on the ground we had Suzanne Morgan and Mandy Hickson give inspirational speeches to the crowd gathered at the open day. They shared stories from their aviation careers – Airline Captain for British Airways and Tornado GR4 pilot in the RAF respectively. It was fantastic to host the local community at The Gliding Centre for the open weekend and we hoped they enjoyed it as much as we did.”

I was wondering how many tow planes there are and how many tuggies and if there were maybe female tuggies and YES there is one.
There are a total of 12 tug pilots available.  They try to operate 7 tugs each day, but it is usually only 6.

“Yesterday I flew together with my honorary team mate @la_nena_blu for a bit but then she left me for dead as usual , and she won the day (but I’m back up to 4th so that’s ok).
Well done Elena! ” Claudia’s Gliding Page

It’s Monday August 22 now and they start with task 9 for 2 classes.
Everything is early today, due to the expected rain.
Briefing at 10 and first expected launch at 11. It turned out to be at 11.45 for the A task.
When they can fly THEY FLY.….so they should.
Off they went , 18m upfront and then standard.

Standard; 121.77 km.…gate opens at 12.37…All pilots flew the task!!!! Most started 10 min past the gate opening and raced over the track to be back before the rain. All were back just after 3.
Daily winner is Aude with 87 km./h for 257 points. The UK girls did well, Ayala and Francesca had a speed of 86 and 85 km./h.

18 m; 148.94 km..….gate opens at 12.18…Within 10 minutes they were all on track! Pretty good speed for Astrid from France;106 km./h for 282 points. The 3 Czech girls followed and 2 more French girls , all flying over 100 km./h.

Another flyable day in Hus Bos was created in a short window!
They were all in and it started to rain.
Good set task!

———————————————————

I owe you a picture of the winners from the CIM, here they are. First the mixed class winners , then the open 18 m. CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN!!!!

———————————————————————–

And I owe you some pictures from THE KEIHEUVEL, where history was written , without I knew it.
The 2d day was unfortunately cancelled . I was a bit worried , but in the end not necessary.
There was a scramble at the military airfield of Kleine Brogel, very close to Keiheuvel. Such a thing never happened, but it did now.
A Turkish plane was on his way to London WITHOUT radio contact and had to be intercepted and escorted by F 16’s from Kleine Brogel which was QRA.
Everybody in the air had to stay under 2500 ft and return to the airport!!!!
In the organization from this competition was also an airline pilot from KLM and a traffic controller from Kleine Brogel and they solved the problem very professional.
All pilots were grateful, for the solutions to the problems and in the end they had a partial good day of flying as well…no scores though!!!
But what a way to loose a nice soaring day??!! HISTORY!!!
BUT, an important mission in these weird times.
So the winners from day 1 , were the winners of this 2 day-event.
1 in the sport class local “hero” Jeroen Jennen with 704 points.
1 in open 3 pilots team Snyers & Bielen in the ARCUS T and Daan Spruyt in the Ventus 2AX both with 849 points. Daan was on spot 8 from 24 in open class, in Szeged during the last WGC. [EB 29dr]

The Junior cup was , indeed, for the best junior and that was this time Noud Kaay flying in the 18 m. ASG 29 on spot 7.
This CUP is in MEMORY of the late father from Bert Schmelzer sr and the grand sons Tijl and Bert jr.
He was the very first instructor at the Keiheuvel, made the first winch start at the , at that stage new airfield on a sandy and dusty plain, which opened in 1956. He flew the first 300 km in an  Olympia-Meise , from Keiheuvel to Dieppe in Normandie in 1958, to achieve his Golden C and till 2002 when he died he was a member of the LSV Viersen at the Keiheuvel.
An interesting cup with huge history behind it, to receive.
Some pictures not from gliders but from pilots;

All happy young people who are the bright future!!!

Cheers Ritz.