Scruteneering is over….the practice days are over including 3 official ones and today task 1 will be set.
No task yet, but briefing was at 10 and the grid time at 12.
Great practice days as well, with good tasks and pretty strong weather…..high temperatures though; 38 dgr. C. Base often up to 3000 m. and even 4200. One of the pilots mentioned; “Never seen such awesome weather over flatland”.
Last Wednesday , on the first official practice day, all classes got tasks around 500 km. with quite a lot of smoke in the air from fires. Only 3 tuggies so a bit of waiting, but more tugs will arrive soon.
Most teams flew together, so won team France [Christophe Abadie and Melanie Gadoulet] in 18 m. class with a 532 km set task; speed 148 km./h both in JS 3.
Team Belgium with Bert jr and Tijl Schmelzer followed both in Ventus 3T with 146 km./h and the Austrians Michael Rass and Wolfgang Janowitsch with 145 km./h.
Only 24 from 41 flew. 9 Of them had their first out-landing-experience.
20 m. class had 471 km and the UK pilots Steve Jones and Garry Coppin had the best speed; 138 km./h.
Quite a bit faster then runners up Merlin Ulysse and Louis Bouderl;ique from France; 134 km/h.
11 from 19 teams flew!
Open class; 532 km and won by Andy Davis with 145 km./h on the “clock’. [MD JS1 c/21 m].
Italian pilot Alberto Sironi was runner up in his EB 29R; 143 km./h.
15 started, 6 started an out-landing and 7 stayed at the ground , still busy with other things.

Last Thursday all classes got 3 hour AAT’s.
Good flights of those who flew , were the result.
In 18 m. Henry Adrian flew 414 km in time 3.07 so a good speed of 132 km./h.[ 1000 points] followed by his French mate Christophe. They started and finished together with a small margin in distance. Christophe flew 6 km. less, for 977 practice -points.
only 23 flew and one was out.
In 20 m it was Swiss team Rainer Cronjäger / Guido Halter in their ARCUS T with the best time and distance combined; 375 km in time 3.05….speed 121 km./h.
About the same speed as runner up Czech team Ivan Novak / Petr Krejcirik in the ARCUS M.
12 Started from 19 …from those who started nobody was out.
In open class, 454 km was the best distance combined with time 3.16 for the German EB boys ,Felipe and Michael, practicing together,…. but Michael flew a few kilometers less.
2 were out and 9 did not fly.

Friday ; last practice day with on Saturday the opening and on Sunday the beginning of the comps.
18 m; 362 km...Roman Mracek won the day with a speed of 140 km./h. He flew together with his Czech mate Petr Koutny both in JS3.I was impressed to see young Petri from Finland on 3 in the AS33es.
30 pilots from 41 flew from them 15 were out. Enough penalties as well, also for airspace violation. Better now than tomorrow. That’s why flying on practice days is GOOD.
20 m; 333 km...Only 5 from 19 did not fly. Winner was again team UK with Garry and Steve;127 km./h.
open; 393 km…..142 km.h. for Russsell the UK is doing fine!!! Andy was 3d with 140 km./h In between Felipe with 140 km./h in the EB 29 R. Still pilots who “fiddle around” and not practice on an official practice day, but I know there is SO MUCH TO DO.

The opening was in town, last Saturday, a beautiful old town.

After today much more news about the comps. Here a picture from the briefing on day 1.

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Some newsy WGC-news;
Oscar [team SA] had a minor problem during practice. After the first 5 m of their first start the undercarriage collapsed from their EB.
“A quick derig, and inspection found the problem. Now fingers crossed that the replacement parts will arrive within the next day or two. (Nothing too serious)”
They did and arrived in time for a nice practice flight on Thursday :”The mighty EB29DR (AC) has taken to the skies!!”
Team USA has a nice picture as promo for the worlds as well. Sarah Arnold and Karl Striedeck in the ARCUS. Photographer Bo, who is a real good photographer. I am allowed to use quite a lot of pictures from her.

Team UK ;”Day 1 WGC Hungary:
Thunderstorms overnight have resulted in a delay in task setting. Waiting for a cold front to go through but maybe not clearing in time for us to play. Next briefing 12noon local.
Pilot quote of the day: “First contest day ends three month Hungarian drought!” Andy Davis.”

By the way the opening yesterday was at 16.30,…the temperature 41.5 dgr.c , so HOT very hot!!!!!!
An invitation for dinner by the organizers followed .
I expect a lot from team UK, here they are, so you know /see who I am talking about. But as said before there are many possible champions in Hungary.

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Last but not least;
I wrote about the WGC 13.5 m in my last blog.
How I had contact with some reliable mates to find out what happened with the Italian team.
Their thoughts about it. Their opinions. Not more, not less.
What I wrote was what I heard. They were not facts ,as I did not have facts, otherwise , as you know, I would have told you.
I got some comments on my last blog, that I had the facts wrong.,… I appreciated the comments very much. It means I should give no room for confusion, be even more clear.
I got it.
Now I can share the jury report with you, these are facts and OFFICIAL, they are public and in the Public Domain, but I know how difficult they are to find there.

Jury Decision

4^th FAI World Gliding Championship 13,5m Class

Pociunai, Lithuania 3^rd – 15^th July 2022

To whom it concerns;

This Jury Decision refers to the two Protests lodged by the Italian Team on the 7^th July 2022 at 21.44hrs with the Organisation of the above Competition relating to Penalties received on their scores for Task 3 on the 5^th July 2022 in the above Competition.

The  Penalties applied by the CD were according to the FAI Sporting Code Section 3 Annex A.

Mr. Thomas Gostner – Cheating, First Offence, Disqualified from Competition (not returning direct home to Pociunai Airfield after Technical GNSS Outlanding by using his FES engine)

Mr. Stefano Ghiorzo – attempt to accept external help, First Offence, Day Disqualification (returning on same track as Mr Gostner and benefiting from Mr Gostners search for Thermals)

 For both these protests the Jury examined and decided the following;
1. The Jury examined the IGC flight recording files i.e 275VS.igc from Mr. Stefano Ghiorzo and 275GT.igc from Mr. Thomas Gostner with the SeeYou V.10 flight Analysis Program. Detailed print outs were made to show critical factors such as point of Starting engine, heights of gliders, Distances involved ,exact flight routes etc.
2. The Organisation of the Competition was interviewed by the Jury President for all the details about their Reasons to apply the Penalties and were invited to explain their points of View to the full Jury Panel but they declined.
3. The Jury President also had a meeting on request of Mr. Thomas Gostner with Mr. Luka Znidarsic from the F.E.S. engine manufacturers of the engine in Mr. Thomas Gostners glider. Mr. Znidarsic showed the JP an Excel Spreadsheet with Data downloaded from the engine flight recorder. He was asked some precise Details by the JP  about Battery status at beginning of flight, the way engine was used for return to Airfield, alarm of overheating etc. I asked Mr Znidarsic if he could make this Data available to the Jury and he agreed. This offer has been withdrawn today as Mr. Gostner instructed Mr. Znidarsic with the words “the data could be used against me”. Please note Mr. Znidarsic is also a fellow competitor in the 13,5m Class but contacted us as already stated above on request of Mr. Gostner.
4. All the above was correlated by the JP and distributed to the remote Jury members. Subsequently with e-mails and What’s App a lot of questions were discussed and we were finally ready on the 8^th July 2020 to hold a Zoom Meeting at 6pm Lithuanian local time to make our final Decision.
5. Mr. Ghiorzo and  Mr. Gostner were invited to this Zoom Meeting to speak to all the Jury members and make their Points which they accepted and did. They understandably were very emotional about this whole issue but appeared to be more concerned about their Reputation and Integrity and accused the Organisation not to treat them fairly and equal.
6. The Jury subsequently continued their Meeting with a long Discussion and Examination of the Fact present, to see if the Penalties applied were correct and if there were any mitigating circumstances to change them. It is surprising that both Pilots with such vast experience in Competition flying claim that they were not aware that they committed an Offence and were breaking the Rules and they want to ignore the evidence which clearly proves the opposite that they were guilty. The Jury Decision taken at the end was unanimous in agreeing  with the Penalties applied by the Championship Director  as mentioned  above in this Document.
7. All parties involved were notified immediately verbally by the Jury President  and the Team Captains and pilots during the Briefing on the Competition on the 9^th July 2022 at 10 am. Also by the Jury President.

Please note that this Document is only a “short” version for formality and a full comprehensive Report with very detailed data and explanations will be submitted by the Jury President in his Report to the FAI after the Competition.

Pociunai, 11^th July 2022

Jury President                  Bruno Ramseyer

Remote Jury Member     Frouwke Kuijpers

Remote Jury Member     Peter Ryder

So you know the official in’s and out’s. A lot to think about!!!
I don’t know how this all continues, but I will keep you informed.

CU SOON
Cheers Ritz
to finish my Dutch mates in Hungary with 2 times WORLD champion Baer Selen in the middle as TC.