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

August 2; It should be a great day with nice long distances. First start already at 11 and 18 m is upfront , then open and then 20 m.
I have written already often about my trip to Rayskala for the Europeans where Silva [R.I.P.] set a 1000 km task for open class on the first day! I remember the 18 m. was a bit upset, as they wanted to have such a distance too. In retrospect quite a few of the class would have flown in too. It will be a buzzing day, huge distances at comps, trigger the imagination. Not only for the pilots , but also for the crews, the organizers and all who follow these comps.

Looking back on yesterday with John is every morning a pleasure. He gives SO much info. Here is a small part again . He writes also about the border with Serbia as well on US Soaring Teams
“As we’ve come to expect here, the task-setters got it right: all classes were sent on area tasks that first went west (toward the clouds), then east (back near home), then northeast. This fit the actual weather well, thought it did lead pilots into areas with cloud and even rain threats (west) and areas with blue, weak lift (northeast). Thermal tops ranged from 8000’ (west) to 4500’ (northeast). I’ll note that from a task-setter’s perspective, a variety of conditions during a task is a feature, not a bug.”

After an evening with good food, music and lot’s of talking/camaraderie in and in front of the hangar outside, pilots are ready for some LONG tasks. Why not, if the weather is there!!!!

At this 10 AM morning briefing, yesterdays winners were honored. 18m…20 m…and open class.

Let’s look at what happens today. I write and read and search all day, but after all scores are in, I publish. When you are not interested in tracking, to see how the pilots fly, maybe you like to do this on the last couple of days. Just try it out? Here is the link.
https://wgc2022.hu/tracking

August 2; day 10….task 8...Looking at the West, the cu’s pop up already. It looks like a TOPDAY!!!
Early activities at the field, to be ready with gridding before the briefing at 10 AM.
They started launching at 11 sharp!!! As the forecast was for LESS lift around 5.30, pilots will start straight away for their long flight.
During the long flight you do not hear a lot, but can look at the tracking. Often when they are out of reach, you can’t follow them over the radio either. Whilst they were flying I saw pictures with 200 km./h on it. PROMESING!!!!

18 m; 755.92 km…with 7 TP’s. Start line open at 12.06.The longest leg is nearly at the end; 153.59 km.
The pilots making this day extra special, were 2 from Italy, 2 from France AND Arne from Denmark!!!!
They all flew over 136 km./h!!!! Pretty fast over such a distance and with no wave.
Then a bunch [ 5 ] with 135 km./h. So I counted 10 pilots over 135 km./h.
1. Ricardo, 2 Arne ,3 Davide, 4 Christophe ,5 Adrian , 6. Wolfgang, 7 Derren, 8. Jeroen,9. Attie, 10. György 
Another 5 with 134 km.h. Melanie , Bert , Michael, Philip and Roman.
Have a look at www.soaringspot.com for all the fabulous results!!!

With 3 more days to go the overall score is CLOSE!!!!!!!
1. Christophe Abadie with 6,082 points
2. Davide Schiavotto with 6,050 points.
3. Riccardo Brigliadori with 6,049 points.
The numbers 4 till 12 have a difference from 5.908 points to 5.721, so a lot is possible!!!!

20 m; 645.50 km….with 5 TP’s. Start line open at 12.35. The eastern countries did well , so did Allan and Harry as flying in this kind of weather is what they are used to down under.
With 126.11 km./h Ivan and Petr won the day. Followed by Anton and Sandi . The Twin shark with Jakub and Lucasz was 3d!
Only 1 pilot was out after 598 km. OUCH….
Not a good day for Sarah and Karl and for The Broquevilles [ they flew for nearly 6 hours] they were 17 and 18 from 19.

The overall scores at this stage with 3 days to go;
1. Jakub Barszcz / Lukasz Kornacki with 6,035 points.
2. Ivan Novak / Petr Krejcirik with 5,970 points.
3. Erik Borgmann / Joost Wolff with 5,867 points.
The next 3 couples have chances as well; 5.847 till 5.835 points.

open; 757.38 km... with 6 TP’s. Start line open 12.20.
7 pilots with a speed over 140 km./h TOP!! certainly with such a distance.
Daily winner; Felipe with 142,81 km/h. Runner up in about the same time Sylvain with 142.52. AND what about our Belgian friend Daan; 142.46 km./h. Great effort!!!
Off -day again for Michael , who had the same speed 142.81 but got a penalty for “Self-launch above alt.limit.” Same punishment for Lucasz.
So in fact 9 pilots flew over 140 km./h
I try to find ALL the stories for you tomorrow.
After such a long and intensive flight everybody is worn out.
Maybe the TC’s will have a word tonight as well.

The overall scores with 3 days to go:
1. Felipe Levin with 6,198 points.
2. Oscar Goudriaan with 6,162 points.
3. Radek Krejcirik with 6,023 points. CLOSE!!!!!!!
The numbers 4 till 8 have chances too; 5.944 p till 5.708 points.

www.soaringspot.com

This WGC in Szeged turns out to be a WGC as a WGC should be !!!!!!

——————————————————————————————

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

The morning news from Matej;
“Very nice cumulus streets have formed and competitors are already on their tasks. The standard class is flying 355 km racing task today and the club class is flying 318 km. We are expecting another day with high speeds. As always, you can follow most of the competitors on tracking:”
 https://link.glideandseek.com/jwgc2022

One of the high lights yesterday was the Turbo Cmelak. The towing seems to have been much faster!
One of the minor points for the young pilots yesterday was the wind!!!

What brings today???
The first launch was confirmed for 11.15 after a delay from 15 minutes . With the “fast wonder tug” and of course the other tugs, the pilots were quick up in the air and the start gates were opened.

Club class; 317.50 km.... Start gate opened at 12.21. The race to the first TP was fast. Within half an hour some pilots reached the first TP ; 63 km. At 3 some were 80 k out and looking forward to an early swim in the pool. It turned out to be a “German” day ; with a speed of 120 km/h. Toni and Nils in their LS4 were equal on spot1. Eric as part of the 3 German musketeers, was 1 minute slower and on spot 3.
Alexandre , who won yesterday, was faster in his ASW 20 ; 122.97 km./h [handicap 1.059] Now he was 5th.
only one pilot out, but such a pity he was so close , only 10 k out!!!

Standard class; 355.89 km.…Start gate opened at 12.51. Cloud base at 1000/1200 m.
“40 km in 20 minutes sounds good!!!” Their trip was a bit more difficult as I read, but some passed the 3d TP at 3 PM.
And an other German pilot , Simon , won the day as well; speed 118.82 km./h in the Discus 2A.
My Dutch mates had a really good day. The weather was super they mentioned. They flew with 3 together and finished on spot 2,4 and 5 . Maurits in the LS8 NEO, speed 118.43 km./h was runner up. Then there was Jaromir on spot 3 [Czech Rep.] . 4 Was for Mark ;113.19 km/.h and 5 for Nick;112.74 km./h.
All pilots have finished, so a terrific good day!

Great effort today from ALL the juniors!!!! All scores are preliminary.
Tomorrow is another day.

———————————————————————–

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

Race 3 with 316.2 km. with 4 races to go
…..regatta start at 13.30.
Another win for Gintas; speed 126.8 km./h and 8 points for him.
German pilots Matthias and Stefan followed with 123 and 122 km./h.
Their mate Christophe was slower today ..spot 6… with 113.5 km./h and lost some points.
Yesterday he had 10 now 12.
Gintas leads overall with 21 points and Matthias has now 15.
BUT,…that changed as after the loggers had been read , it turned out that Matthias had an incorrect start and was disqualified!!!! So no points for him today and 9 in total.
Tomorrow race 4.

CU tomorrow!
Cheers Ritz