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