WGC in Montluçon-Guéret
8 August 2021 – 20 August 2021

After a few difficult days, they have arrived at task 4. I had to leave yesterday early, so I checked the preliminary scores from Tuesday first….on task 3.
In the end all 36 were scored in Club class, with 3 pilots not flying over 25 km.
Some pilots still struggle with the finish altitude, no wonder when tasks are so marginal. There is a minimum altitude to cross the finish cylinder;
John Good from the USA wrote about club class :
“ In Club class, of 36 pilots, 27 finished the 128 km task – but only ten of these managed to cross the finish cylinder above the minimum altitude. Curiously, five of the finishers incurred penalties big enough to yield scores lower than some of the outlanded pilots – they’d have improved their scores by landing just short of the finish cylinder.  (I’d thought that – as US rules do – WGC rules had a provision that avoided this strange incentive.)“
Anyhow task 3 was won by Austrian pilot Miquel Schwan in LS 4WL followed by Robin Smit [LS 4] from Holland both flew just up and under 60 km./h.
Robin was not unhappy/ ” reasonable happy” he called it , with this blue day,..” the beginning was tricky and everybody came low , but later it was more stable with quite good thermals, and a higher inversion” .He was pleased with his” reasonable” final glide AND,” I did n’t finish too low today“
23 from 36 finished! Most starts after 5 PM.
In standard class all 29 were scored now, but the result I wrote was the same .
In 15 m. only 5 from 28 finished!!!! So not a good day for them a [blue] day with alto cu’s adding to the struggles of the pilots.
The sniffer had to sniff twice and was both times quickly back, but pilots had to try and do better.

August 11;task 4 flying day 3 for club and standard ; 15 m. flying day 2.

A day pretty similar as the day before, with again many out-landings. BUT,….
“Today’s briefing brought us A and B tasks of between 110km and 150km for all classes. Rather small tasks, as weather forecast is a tiny bit better than yesterday, but we thought it was a reasonable decision as tonight is the French Evening Party, so it would be nice if all pilots have the chance to land back at the airfield. Then, at 12 o’clock we got the surprise message of the day that a larger C task is activated, and that we have to keep A and B tasks as alternatives. Organization is doing their best to have a little surprise everyday. Today’s launch order is club, 15m, std. class, and is now scheduled at 14:00.” Belgian Gliding Team

Club class; 166.65 km….With around 84 km./h the German pilots Uwe [Wahlig ] and Stefan [Langer] , both in LS 3, won a day with less outlandings in their class. As far as I have followed them both real good pilots.
Most of the club- pilots went on track around 15.23. I was a bit sad to see that Killian [Walbrou] and Eric [Bernard] from France ,flying together both in LS 7,were OUT after 96 km. Killian is a former WGC champion and in Finland I had a nice interview with him about his military helicopter mission. A nice guy and a top-pilot.
Also G Dale from the UK was out,…a pity.
So 5 out from 36,…not too bad!

St. class; 170.68 km….they were the last at the grid, to be launched and stayed around the start line, as nobody wanted to go. BUT,…NOT Luca Urbani from Italy in his Discus. He left straight away at 15.46,… some others ONE hour later….and Luca was the ONLY ONE to fly and finish the task. Smart move!!! Good on you Luca!
So 29 from 30 OUT!!!! Luca was the only one over 100 km, 9 over 90 km…. so an invalid day!
Team UK wrote;” Hopefully you will have realized from the lack of updates we have been busy bees. Lots of trailer racing. We did have finishers well done Tom and Jake.[ In club class] Everyone else ended up dotted around the beautiful French countryside.”

15 m. class; 202.10 km....3 x a DIANA 2 in the top 4!!! Sebastian, Matthew, and Lucasz. Daan Spruyt from Belgium was on spot 3 with a real good flight in his Ventus 2ax.
They were the only 4 finishers from the 27 still flying in this class!!!
Sorry to say,…but the rest was OUT!!!! It was difficult to get height to fly over the line.
20 flew between 100 km. and 193 km.
According to Sebastian ,who won the day, was “dumping water in time ” the clue of the day…..very weak thermals and light gliders.
His first time flying the Diana empty. According to him his mate Lucasz dumped a bit too late and was 4th.
The French who know the area well, started and went ahead , Sebastian stayed with a group. With 0.6 they progressed slowly forward. Going ahead was “wrong” in the end, as the forest the French moved too, did n’t work.
here is Matthew;
“A day of lows and lows, weather worse than the day before with 1-2kt blue thermals to 3000ft AGL at best. The wing loading range really is showing as the critical factor here – those of us in Diana’s are not afraid to play start games until late, because we can climb much better in the end of day thermals than the turbo and jetted V3 and JS3’s. Eventually some of the heavy gliders seemed to panic start and the whole gaggle started moving, but it was too late – 80km from home the thermals dropped to 0.5kts and while we could eek towards home, the heavier gliders all either lit up or outlanded beneath us. I finally climbed in 1kt for 3000ft onto a 48:1 glide and crossed the finish line with 30ft, one of the only finishers.”
The day was NOT over for him!!!
“Then the fun started. My undercarriage folded up beneath me on landing – there’d been a heavy landing(?) some time in the past which had been fixed(?), but it seems there was more delamination below the repair which had given way and the whole undercarriage packed up. Through the heroic efforts of Jake Brattle, Tom Arscott, Jon Pring, with advice from Sebastian Kawa and Lukas Grabowski, we stayed up most of the night repairing the glider in Thierry’s workshop. I can now fly again today, albeit with only partially closing undercarriage doors. D2 lives to fight another day, but it’s again very difficult conditions and fatigue has long since set in. Hopefully we can survive until a rest day.“

By the way, I did not read or see anything about the French night!!!

August 12; Task 5 .. flying day 4 for club and 3 for standard and 15m

Finally the better weather arrived hence slightly bigger tasks and hopefully less out landings!!But it was waiting again…..The sniffer “sniffed” and had to land again.
“Today we will have the first AAT tasks of the championship, standard class will launch first for a 3h task. The two other classes, club and 15m class, will go up for a 2h30m AAT task. Weather will be mostly blue thermals again with a possibility of cumulus clouds and even thunderstorms in the late afternoon and evening. Temperatures are creeping up everyday, it’s about 30°C now and much warmer on the hot asphalt runway. Max for today will be 32-33°C. Staying cool and hydrated on the grid is very important for the pilots. First launch is pushed back to 13h15” Belgian Gliding Team

Club class; 2.30 AAT...
Standard class;3.hour AAT,...
15m; 2.30 AAT….
and then the message;
“All 3 classes scrubbed in the air. Impending thunderstorm approaching. Runway is somewhat busy at the moment.”
Pffff,…. not a lot of luck for the pilots and the organizers.
BUT…. seeing it on the sunny side…NO out landings today!!!!
Though,…as everybody was in the air, some standard class pilots already over the start line, all gliders had to land back at the airport. Some returned in the rain and got a hand from many to de-rig quickly, a few went to the airport of Issoudun.
HECTIC ,… was the most used word for this mass-landing!!!
What I heard the decision from the CD was indeed the correct one!!!
And what happened to Matthew today? “My new undercarriage passed it’s test of a full ballasting, launch and landing, so I can continue the contest. Will tackle the gear doors in coming days.“

NOT a lot of overall points of course after 3 flying days in club after nearly one week;
1.303 for Dutch pilot Thies Bruins…..1.288 for Uwe Wahlig[Germany] and 1.191 for Rasmus Orskov [Denmark]
In standard class the overall scores are after 2 valid days; 672 for Danish pilot Filip Bojanowski…659 for Jeremy Hood from the UK and 645 for Sjaak Selen from The Netherlands.
In 15 m.Sebastian Kawa from Poland leads after nearly a week and 2 valid days with 1.104 points followed by Polish mate Lucasz Grabowski with 1.097 and Aussie Matthew Scutter with 953 points. All 3 fly a DIANA 2. Followed by 4 JS 3 gliders.

Another part of John’s report . I met John at many occasions and he truly is a nice guy!! VERY wise, certainly when you talk soaring. AND his reports are really GOOD READING.
“The WGC2021 task area is something impressive: 240 turnpoints cover an area about 40% the size of France.  In theory, pilots here could be sent north almost to Paris, or northwest to Mont Saint Michel (just over 400 km from Montluçon-Guéret airport). Only a few turnpoints are found in the rising ground south of here, presumably because landability declines there.  But we’re now told that this vast collection has been deemed inadequate, and we will soon receive an updated collection.  The idea is apparently to add some points near home, the better to cope with weak soaring conditions.  Whether this can be accomplished smoothly remains to be seen.”

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The C.I.M. in Rieti
August 3-August 13.

A few days to go after the heavy circumstances specially for the open class pilots, who had to deal with the loss of a mate.
Task 7 was cancelled due to the weather and the day before NO task was set to reflect and mourn.
Then there was
Task 8;
Combi class; 2.10 AAT…140 km./h for the Bouderliques in their ARCUS M. 309 km. in time 2.12.
[I guess] Sylvain [Gerbaud] and Arnaud in the ARCUS T were runner up.
20 in 3 out!
18 m. class; 2.30 AAT...354 km was flown in the AS33 by Jon Gatfield in time 2.29,…brilliant! Davide was a good runner up ….missing out on ONE point!!! Arne was 3d …all started more or less together.
22 from 24 still in competition , 3 out.
Open class; 2.15 AAT...sadly enough only 9 flying in this class now. I do understand!!!!
6 Pilots from Germany and 1 from Austria and 2 from Spain.
347 km by Filipe in time 2.22 gave him a runner up spot behind Arne Neumayr in the JS 1 c/21m.

Task 9 today ; with good convergences. Cumulus base: from 3.000 m up to 4.000; temp. max 35/37 ° C.
Combi class; 451 km…With a speed of 134 km./h Stefano Ghiorzo and his mate seem to have won, the day; preliminary 1000 points.
They are 3d overall at this stage , 2 points behind my Dutch mates Eric and Joost.
14 From 22 finished. Off day for the Bouderliques , they were out after 276 km. loosing nearly 700 points. OUCH….that hurts…
18 m. class; 528 km….Davide turns out to be a REALLY excellent pilot now. Another daily win for him.;153 km./h “gives” him the 1000 points.
At this stage with one day to go he is overall, more than 500 points ahead on runner up Jon Gatfield in the new ASes 33.
3 were out
open class; 507 km….The EB combination with Felipe is a great one; 1000 points and 147 km./h on the clock. He leads with less than 100 points on Michael, when they fly again tomorrow for the last day.
Good to see Alvaro flying again in his ASH 31 MI/21 m. Runner up today!!!
yesterday he was the best ,Arne Neumayr, today he was unfortunately out, after 362 km. A pity.
Scores from today are preliminary.

Tomorrow or Saturday, depending on what happens, the final/last day of the C.I.M. and the continuing story on the French WGC, with hopefully much better weather, but it is as it is!!!
Cheers Ritz

Storms in CIM 2021!https://youtu.be/_-ACXjqLhOI
Great short video “Raiders of the storm” with Alberto Sironi and A. Venturini.