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.
Team USA and a very nice smiling South African !
US Soaring Teams
Pôle France Planeur
Left to right: Toby Freeland (Club Class) Tom Pavis (Standard Class)
Henry Inigo-Jones (Standard Class) Finn Sleigh (Standard Class)
Unfortunately the Dutch team only had video’s …very nice ones…..but for me they are difficult to use in my blog. But you will get to know them, with Ellen and her dog as TC and 3 pilots in each class, so a big team.
With in club class; Lars, Simon and Jelmer all flying LS 4
In Standard class; Mark,[ASW 24] Maurits [LS 8FES] and Nick.[Discus 2b]
And don’t underestimate the German team with Simon Briel [Discus 2b] and Nils Fecker [LS4a] and 4 other pilots and the Aussies, James and Ryan, both LS 8.
Tuggies [3] arrived and the weather looks great!!
After the opening they showed a nice fly-by as well. By the way when the teams started to march, it started to rain .
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