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

Only today and tomorrow you can read this news on the scoring site;
” Dear Competitors,
Grid on RWY34 from 08:30;
Grid time: 10:00;
Grid order: 18m — Open — 20m;
Confirmation of launch time/delay: 10:40 on FRQ122.810Mhz.
First Launch not before 11:00.
Task briefing at 10:00 in the Briefing Hangar“

More and more I hear or read;
“Another day in paradise” a huge compliment for the Hungarian organizers, though the weather is “a gift”.

John’s view yesterday was on the tuggies and so well deserved. Where would we be without them.
This is what flies around, tows and makes some good gliding-field noise;
“I’m remiss in not having mentioned WGC2022 towplanes. We have a mixed fleet that (if I have it right) includes two Robins (French low-wing tricycle gear design), three Pawnees, a Cessna 182, two Zlín Z–37 Čmeláks (Czech radial-engined ag plane; Čmelák = “bumblebee”) and one turbine Čmelák (690-hp turboprop, with winglets). This last one is easily the most notable – it’s said to represent one pilot flying 2.5 normal towplanes. In an Arcus at max allowed weight (800 kg) Karl reports that climb rates routinely exceed 1000 fpm. Apparently this is not at full power – because the climb angle that would involve is beyond anything that normal glider pilots have ever seen or could be expected to deal with. And it has “beta” for its propeller, which allows alarmingly steep descents and short ground rolls after landing.

This fleet manages to get 82 gliders in the air in about and hour and 10 minutes (to be fair, assisted by some glider pilots that choose to self-launch). It’s one of many aspects of this contest whose smooth operation we’ve come to take for granted.”
More on US Soaring Teams

“Our” Jeroen won 18 m. yesterday. He flew many WGC’s but never won a day. That’s over now!!!! Of course as a Dutchie , I am very proud on him.

AND
This is the overall number 1 at this stage

August 4; Day 12…..Task 10…competition day 8...2 days to go….
“Two days till the fat lady sings” according to team S.A and “the penultimate day ” according to our UK mates….much more sophisticated as my “one-but-last-day.”
Early in the morning cu’s popped up already. The forecast is for 2500m. in the beginning and later up to 3000 m. It’s hot again.
There was a security briefing too. It seems that quite a few pilots have complaint about the aggressive flying style of some other pilots. VERY important, ALWAYS important, but certainly on these last days as pilots are more tired.
Driving fast over the dry field with too high speed was a topic too. It happens EVERYWHERE, it should not happen ,it is so easy, keep the advised speed .
So indeed……KEEP IT SAFE AND CLEAN.
For 50 years I say; going to a competition is nice, good flying is nicer, but safely coming home again the nicest….

Prize-giving for the day before was on too. Here is 18 m. class;

Let’s look what happened on the last-but-one-day….18 m is upfront, then open and 20 m.
Lift was super with 5.8, to 6.2 and even 6.5. Speed around 160 km.
The S.A. team mentioned: “the pilots are screaming along at 160kph Average! Based on this, we expect them back just before 5pm! With even higher speeds!!”
The weather at 4

18 m; 654.94 km....start gate opens at 12.21…A lot started 20 minutes after the gate opened. So did Christophe . He flew for 4 hours and 13 minutes which means a speed of 154.95 km./h AND another number 1 spot, his 4th during this comps!!!!
Runners up for 2 and 3 were Michael Rass from Austria in AS 33es and Uys. With 5 pilots they flew with 154 km.h. also Wolfgang and Jeroen.
All 42 finished .LIKE….
Yes tomorrow: Christophe has 7,998 points. …Riccardo has 7,880 p and Davide 7,859 p.
Very close as well….Adrien with 7,822 and Jeroen with 7,816.
Tactics will be important! Tomorrow is THE DAY!!!!
And there is maybe also Wolfgang [7,788] or Uys. [ 7,784] or Arne [7,764]….
Let the best win.

20 m; 549.03 km....start gate opens at 12.54… They were the first to arrive back at the field and Joost and Erik, were fast; 3hours and 48 minutes is not bad!!!! Speed 144.71 km./h.. They left 7 minutes after the line opened and raced away. BUT it was not enough.
With 151.77 km./h the UK pilots Steve Jones / Garry Coppin raced to the finish. They were the last to start, and moved up to overall spot 3.
Nearly as fast and also a late starter , Italian team  Stefano Ghiorzo / Federico Mangano; 151 .13 km./h.
And on spot 3 our Czech friends Ivan Novak / Petr Krejcirik; 150.29 km./h.
What does that mean for the last day???
There are still 6 teams in the race. …I think.
1. Ivan Novak / Petr Krejcirik with 7,953 p.
2. Jakub Barszcz / Lukasz Kornacki with 7,840 p.
3. Steve Jones / Garry Coppin with 7,713 p
4. Aku Jaakkola / Juha Sorri with 7.665 p
5. Erik Borgmann / Joost Wolff with 7,663 p
6. Louis Bouderlique / Ulysse Merlin with 7,660 p.

Let’s wait and see!!!!

open; 661.24 km....start gate opens at 12.35…Today there was ONE point difference between Michael and Felipe ONE point; 1000 and 999. Their speed ; 157.10 and 157, 05.
Lucasz came close with 156.39 km./h.
Not such a good day for Radek on spot 12, he is still on 3 OVERALL, but with ONE point as Sylvain now has 7.750 p and Radek 77.51
How does it look?
Felipe and Oscar have more than 8000 points they are pretty “safe” BUT, then there is Radek and Sylvain to “fight” for spot 3 . Andy has 54 points less than Sylvain.
Think about it tonight!
I will do too.
Nerves???? maybe not both Felipe and Oscar are very experienced . Radek is the youngest, so sleep well Radek.

Around this time tomorrow WE KNOW!!!!

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12th FAI Junior World Gliding Championships
Tábor, Czech Republic
30 July 2022 – 13 August 202

Matej’s early morning news;
“We had another very successful day here in Tábor and both classes finally have 1000 points tasks. The podium positions were more diverse today. In the next two days, we expect very hot tropical days with temperatures soaring past 30°C and correspondingly blue thermals.”
Expected first launch: 12:00. Later confirmed at 12.15.

AND…..”We are happy to have another exciting flying day here in Tabor ahead of us today. However, today will be much different than the previous days. We expect a clear blue sky, no cumulus clouds and very hot weather. Hopefully, the pilots will have some spare energy after the challenging and exhausting week, because there will be a Czech evening today. We look forward to show our guests from all around the world some shreds of the Czech culture.”

9 more days to go.
Some pilots did it “tough” yesterday, during what they called the longest , hottest race yet.
“A difficult day, both in terms of tasks and due to a number of equipment failures (stay tuned tomorrow). Both teams stayed in the air for over 5 hours and fought well!” team UK, but in club, Finn was 3d and Toby 13th. In standard 10 and 11 for Henry and Thomas.
Others have never seen such weather ,so fast, so good with 6 kts. climbs, like in Namibia or Australia..

After the long flight’s from yesterday, the tasks for today are smaller. Blue skies, no clouds, is not liked by many, but still high ceilings.
That new system learned me that Jelmer [Vis] is on his way to TP 1 with 88 km./h height 1652m.
He started at 13.59.
AND,..at 4 he was leading the pact after turning the last TP with still 46 km. to go.
A Swedish pilot flies around with 102 km./h. He had a late start at 14.22 .
BUT then in an hour it’s ALL different!!!!

So looking at the point of arrivals;
club; 226.21 km..start gate open at 12.52…There were huge differences in start times. Some started at 1 PM , others at nearly 3 PM. AND,…that’s what the UK pilots did. Finn and Toby started at 14.53. AND,…they earned the 652 and 646 daily points for a speed of 106 km./h. .
In the end Jelmer was on spot 37.
2 were out, maybe 3 as one is not yet counted for or he did not fly.
All scores on www.soaringspot.com

friendships for life. David from USA[r] and Mark from Slovenia.
David was 11th today!!!!Mark 5t,both fly ASW 20. Good on them.
” are collaborating with some team prep and flying .” It seems to work.
as shared by US Soaring Teams

standard; 236.93 km....start gate open at 13.22…The French team-building-meeting in the bush helped. They were on spot 1 [Engeurrand] ,2 [Florian] and 3 [Kevin] today, with 116, 115 and 112 km./h.
Jan and Simon [Germany] followed on 4 and 5. Our Maurits was 7th BUT, he goes steady and leads after 5 days the overall scores! BUT ,…with only 4 points on Lukas Kriz from Czech rep. And then 100 points between Lukas and Simon [Briel]
Start times here closer; between14.32 and 14.57.

Have fun at the special Czech EVENING with the buffet at 7.30 , the music , there is a BAND from 8PM onward and with each other!!!!

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

Race 5 is on today!!!! 402 km....
regatta start at 12.50.
With 144.9 km./h Stefan won the day…..so 8 points. Total now 22.
Matthias was runner up with 143.4 km./h for 6 points. His total now 21.
Gintas finished nearly 8 minutes later. His speed was 138.5 km./h. He has a total of 28 points and leads.

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In between also the CCR started in Italy for the Coppa Città di Rieti 2 August 2022 – 9 August 2022
They fly in 4 classes you can find their scores on www.soaringspot.
I always love the CCR and CIM in Rieti. So I had a quick look at open class with 24 participants, where after 2 days Max Seis leads in JS C/21 m. He won day 1 and was runner up on day 2.

Well,…you are up to date,…..time to do something different now.
CU tomorrow again for the exciting final in Szeged, what a great competition it is/was and my goodness me, were they lucky with the weather.
All scores are preliminary!!!!

Cheers Ritz