4th FAI Gliding Championship
Pociūnai, Lithuania
3 July 2022 – 15 July 2022

Wednesday July 13 task 9….2 hour AAT.
A valid day with still only 3 finishers! Polish Christoph, [161.13 km. in time 2.03 ] Lithuanian Darius [161.90 in time 2.08] and Dutch Nick [165.82 km. in time 2.18] . Robin was on 4 , but just out!
Darius and Nick started early at 1.11 PM and Christoph late at 2.26. In retrospect, daring but a correct decision.

Thursday July 14 task 10…..263 km. changed in 217.02 km…..on the one but last day!!!!!
Finally the weather-gods had mercy for the organizers and pilots/crews. Finally a longer task again. Some pilots flew in their AAT already 270 km. but now they had a set task.
7 from 8 finished and the best was Christoph with 95 km./h .Darius and Linas ,the proud Lithuanian pilots ,flying in their own country and keeping the honors high, followed. Behind them the 2 Dutch pilots. All had 93/94 km./h.
So no changes in the overall scores with one day to go.

Friday July 15 very last day!!
task; 2 hour AAT,BUT CANCELLED due to lot’s of rain.
So the winners of the 4th FAI 13.5 m. WGC are known now after 9 out of 13 days;
1. Nick Hanenburg from the Netherlands in Mini Lak with 5.025 points. WORLD CHAMPION 13.5m
2. Darius Gudziunas from Lithuania in Mini Lak with 4.720 p.
3. Linas Miezlaiskis from Lithuania in Mini Lak FES with 4.514 p.
Congratulations to Nick and to all other pilots who had to deal with miserable weather and many out-landings. A pity but it is as it is. Nobody can change the weather.
Still 9 out of 13 days, but not one 1000 -points-day.
The Dutch shared a video on the prize giving and I got a little tear when listening to the Dutch hymn.
Here are the boys from The Netherlands who are happy but “worn out”.

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21st FAI EGC in POCUINAI.
3 July 2022 – 15 July 2022

Wednesday July 13
Club; task 9….1.30 AAT….The day went between Danish pilot Michael Mix and Czech pilot Tomas . Both had 90 km./h . Michael, in his LS 3A, flew 146.66 km in time 1.36.49 and Tomas in his ASW 20, 135.51 km. in time 1.29.28.
3 Were out, among them “poor” Claudia…hope for her the glider was not damaged again. Tomas is gaining more and more overall points.
The 2 Dutch pilots , Thies and Roelof, started more than an hour later than the rest of the class, still being 7th and 11 th for the day.
Early starters left at 13.14, a big group around 13.50 and the Dutchies at 14.50.
Tom and Tapio swapped places overall.
“After more than half of July’s average rainfall fell in one day yesterday, we were back in action today. Short AATs for all classes to the South East, then South West.
Conditions were generally good, albeit in a narrow band with a very low close base for most of the day and rain approaching late on. A mixed day across the team, with one missed bubble being enough to put you in the weeds. After today, Tom has snuck in to the top three overall in the club class. But with 2 days of unpredictable Lithuanian weather ahead still, anything could happen.”British Gliding Team

standard; 2 hour AAT….Only ONE OUT, but still a challenging day. Most kilometers were flown by Polish Lucasz in his Discus 2A; 194.83!!! With the time at 2.12 he ended on spot 1 for the day.
Over the last days he moved up from spot 6, to spot 4 not far behind my Belgium mates Jeroen and Dennis.
7 Pilots still have chances in this class to be European champion.

15 m; 1.30 AAT....167.55 km. was the best distance by Czech pilot Karel Novak in his JS 3. Not enough to win as he needed 1hour and 42 min. , and some pilots needed less time. Oliver and Thomas from Germany combined distance and time best with a speed of 101 and 99 km./h. Oliver was the only one over 100 km./h. and moved to spot 3 overall, as Yves had a less good day on a daily spot 18.
4 from 25 were out.

Thursday ...July 14..quatorze juillet…one but last day……tasks longer than before ,but also the message from team Belgium;
“Today may be the last day, we’ve got B tasks for standard class and clubbies and C task for the 15m class. A lot of wind and not that high cloudbase is predicted. Let’s see what happens!”
They flew….. it was another challenging day with wind over 25 kts.
start times;
Start line for 15m class will be open at 12:45.
Start line for Standard class will be open at 13:14.
Start line for Club class will be open at 13:23.
Club; task 10….205.50 km...With hopefully one more day tomorrow the overall scores on this last but one day are;
Tomas 3.203 points…Thies 2.914 p…Tom 2.785… Tapio 2.759…and Danish Michael, who moved up over the last couple of days from 11 to 5!!!
A good day!!!!Certainly a great one for Tom and Jake from the UK. They won with a speed of 97 and 95 km./h . What about Tomas and Thies?
They both finished too on spot 4 and 8.
Nothing changed in the top 5 overall, only a few more points of course.
With one more day….
Tomas has 3.815 p….Thies 3.506….Tom 3.434…Tapio 3.379…Michael 3.345.
“finally some good racing weather with racing tasks in all classes.
With 20-25kts of wind, there was a fair bit of apprehension on the grid about how tricky it would be to find solid thermals, let alone make progress in to wind.
Our concerns turned out to be unfounded with conditions much better than forecast. The peak of the day saw regular 4-5kt climbs to 5000’ and epic streets deep in to Poland.” British Gliding Team
Tom, after winning the day ;“Starting just behind most of the class, we ran hard and climbed well on our first leg. Turning the first turn in the forest, close to the Belarusian border, we lined up on a perfect looking street heading West in Poland. Only stopping for 4-5kts, we had a great run to the turn, dragging a lot of the class with us. The run home was uneventful, and great to get a 1-2 finish for day.”

standard; task 10….248,92 km….Another top day for Lucasz winning with a speed of 108.83 km./h. Good on him. Dutch pilot Stephan Grunder, in his LS 8 was runner up.106.69 km./h. My Belgian mates were 9 and 16 . This had influence on their overall scores; Dennis moved from 2 to 3 as Lucasz moved from 4 to 2. Jeroen from 3 to 6.
here is news from the Belgian Gliding Team
“Yesterday there was a huge disappointment, again. Dennis and Jeroen had a great start and caught up some planes at around the turnpoint. After a little better path they could catch a long cloudstreet and by zigzagging under it the leg on with the head on wind was going quite quickly. The key point was at the second turnpoint. With a 2m/s lift just before we were kind of sure that we could catch more than a meter on the way back which would be a lot better with 40kmh wind. There were still other gliders to point us were the thermals were bit unfortunately this didn’t work out as planned. We got lower and lower by searching this lift and lost each other. Dennis managed to stay a little higher and got a good path home but he had to deviate a lot to the south. Jeroen had some more time struggling but managed to finish after some ridge flying at the river. We tried to gain that one place and were on a good run until everything collapsed and now we tumbled down a bit.
Today looks not really great, lot’s of rainshowers which already started to form.”

Swedish topper Jan-Ola is still on 1 overall with one day to go, with 3.068 p. followed by Lucasz with 3.578 and Dennis with 3.572 p. ONLY 6 points difference!

15 m; task 10…314. 66 km.…The Polish pilots flew very good during this EGC and on the one but last day they are on top of the overall scores;3.600 for Sebastian and 3.495 for Lucasz. So with all this marginal flying, it will be difficult to beat them in 2 days.
Between 3 overall and 8 there might be possibilities. 3.217 and 3.006points.
So off they went and they had finally a race on their hands.. Werner Amann in the AS 33 was the best ; speed 116.81 km./h. But Sebastian is Sebastian and flies AAT’s and set tasks/races without a problem. He and “his” Diana 2 FES V were runner up;114.92 km./h.

Friday; July 15…very last day! CANCELLED….
So the winners and champions are now known after 8 out of 13 days. No last-day-tactics, no tension,…it’s over now.
Club class;
“Final day – scrubbed! After gridding in the rain we were scrubbed at briefing, so that’s the comp finished.
It’s been a typically difficult competition, with plenty of landouts and tricky days; well done to all the pilots for their flying and resilience, and congratulations to Tom on a Bronze medal in club class.”
British Gliding Team
1. Tomas Suchanek in ASW 20 with 3.816 points. EUROPEAN CHAMPION!!
2. Thies Bruins from the Netherlands in ASW 20 with 3.508 p.
3. Tom Arscott from the UK in LS 7 with 3.434 p.

Standard class;
With 7 out of 13 days here are the champion and winners in this class.
1. Jan-Ola Nordh from Sweden in Discus 2T with 3.611 points. EGC CHAMPION.
2. Lukasz Blaszczyk from Poland in Discus 2A with 3.578 p.
3.  Dennis Huybreckx from Belgium in LS 8 with 3.575 p.

15 m class;
Winners and champion from 8 out of 13 days;
1. Sebastian Kawa from Poland in Diana 2FESV with 4.452 points. CHAMPION!!!!!!
2. Lukasz Grabowski from Poland in Diana 2 with 4.328 p.
3. Oliver Springer from Germany in AS 33es with 4.027 p.
Congratulations to all, specially Sebastian with his “so-maniest-WGC-title”. I got lost…..He never gets bored and flies and flies……

For sure the HAPPIEST CHAPPIES!!!!

EGC team CUP:
1 Poland
2 Czech Republic
3 Germany

It must have been “hell” for the experienced organizers from Pocuinai. Rain, rain and more rain. The weather can be very good there. But what I heard, the organizers did a good job and EVERYBODY in Lithuania was so kind. So pilots and crews are very tired now, but will look back with a good feeling ,[ even with the scratched bellies from their gliders ] and on many new friendships!
That’s what it is all about!

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After the 13.5 WGC and EGC the next big “stop” is in Hungary…Szeged.… with the WGC and in Tabor for the JWGC in about 2 weeks from now. [Czech Rep]
The Hungarian unofficial practice days start Monday on July 18.
Opening ceremony on the 23d and contest flying between July 24 and August 5.
There are at this stage 82 participants in 3 classes; 18m, open and 20 m/double seaters.
I will keep you informed.

The 47th Polish open Class Nationals just finished and those Polish pilots are always good; We just saw a few toppers winning at the EGC, more TOPPERS were flying the Nationals in Ostrow between June 30 and July 9.
They finished already on July 9 but looking back the 28 pilots had good weather and tasks in the beginning, not so much later.
The first day was cancelled but then they had a 3 hour ,3.45 and 2.15 AAT. Gintas Zube [ASG 29] won the first AAT with 393 km. in time 3.13.[speed 122.20 km./h]
The second long run was won by Zdzisław Bednarczuk [JS3] with 492 km. in time 3.53 [speed 126.65 km./h] Task 4 by Łukasz Wójcik366 km. in an EB29R 28,4m., in time 2.31 [speed 144.76 km./h!!!!]
Then a few 1, 1.30 and 1.15 AAT’s with in the end pilots from “my time” winning the comps. They flew 7 out of 9 days.
1. Łukasz Wójcik in EB29R 28,4m with 4.242 points.
2. Karol Staryszak in ASG 29 with 4.051 p.
3. Tomasz Rubaj in Diana 3 FES with 3.795.
 Janusz Centka also from “my time”, is still going strong on spot 9.

That’s it for now. Enjoy.

Cheers Ritz