Post 1.530 on August 21 2024

Wednesday, My regular publishing day , but as you might have seen I try to publish every day. When you missed it , you just scroll down.
We just continue and concentrate on the biggest championship in our sport THE WGC.

Uvalde Texas..Garner Field, United States
18 August 2024 – 31 August 2024

August 21 flying day 3;
Arne wrapped the day in a few words;” We actually all made it back just before sunset. All so sweaty, dusty and not at little relieved. Final glide in the 25kph head wind from up north in the Texan Hills and the last 90km home was a beautiful sight with all the 18m gliders on glide in varying heights and all bent on making it home in a very intense atmosphere.“
When I had a quick look yesterday evening, to check if the scores were still the same, I noticed 650 km tasks for today. But they were changed at the grid, meaning later launches and starts AND finishes whilst the predicted “stop” of thermal-activity was at 7 PM..

18 m; 3.45 AAT…..with most starts at around 14.45 and finishes at around 19.30 ,the 18 m pilots had to fly for the set 3.45 minutes AAT. The later finish time “forced” some pilots to finish lower than they wanted or hoped for. In total 4 from the 32 starters did not finish. And among them experienced good pilots as Manu from Belgium and Lukasz from Poland, who flew 464 km. but had to use the engine to get back at the field.
Interesting!!!! 2 Pilots had the equal 1000 daily points with different start and finish times;
Simon Schröder from Germany, 506.14 km and a speed of 128.12 km./h [start at 15.42.13] and Radek, [start at 15.45] who flew there in 2012 as well and was 3d in open class then ; 485.41 km with 128.09 km/h. Most finished within 10 minutes from each other, which must have been a great sight.
Matthew was 5th , behind Stefan from Germany and Christophe from France and being an expert with weather , he created SkySight, his comment before the flight was interesting as well:
“I had a lot of questions at briefing today “why does SkySight say the task is impossible?”, and I guess after 2 hours on the grid watching the sniffer we got the answer.
The first task was… interesting, 650km in the low blue starting at 2pm, but the B task is 3:45 AAT with gate opening ~3:30pm (end of thermals expected 6:30pm). So, let’s see what happens, but I have a feeling it’s going to be the deciding day of the contest.”
As said he was 5th for the day but still a bit worried……
“We made it! We only got final glide from a bit of thermal wave on the top of the last climb. See the gaggle of 20 gliders all together for the best LD glide. I had a very solid result, having started early, turned a bit further then joined the back of the gaggle and fought my way back to the front. A couple others did so but further and will get a few points on me, but I’m pretty happy to have had an ultra-clean flight on a filthy task.”
His mate Lumpy mentioned; “;”It was 41 deg on the ground and felt like much more ..!
No Cu today which had most pilots a bit nervous as much of the task area has very little out landing options. Which brings me to the next point … all the gliders in Open and 20 mtr class have engines, either self launching or turbo’s ( piston or Jet ) All bar one glider in 18 mtr class has an engine, all the rest are Jet, piston or electric RES. I don’t recall going to a competition where 99% of the fleet had a means propulsion. Does this change the way we task set ? I know it changes the way you fly as a pilot. Sure they don’t always work …. But most of the time they do.
Speaking of which, every class today, had pilots using their engines to get home ! Thankfully not me, so a great day.”

20m multi-seat; 3.45 AAT….16 started and 10 finished, tough day for the 2-seaters with starts at around 15.35. Also in this class some low finishes but still landings at 19.40!!!
Good day for my Aussie mates Adam and Keith, winning the day; 448.44 km with 111.77 km./h.
Adam; “We had a late change of task on the grid, we calculated the gate to open at 15:30. No big deal right? Only that it was a 3.75hr AAT & that the end of thermals was predicted to be at 19:00.. Which turned out to be exactly true, because it was one very long final glide from altitude to cross the line at 19:40 & end of daylight declared for 20:00. Great to be home, that’s for sure!”
” We caught a climb at approx 2500’agl, which was 2kts & built into 3-4kts. The gaggle quickly joined us from below. The climb pettered out & we pushed into wind, got another surge, almost passed it up, but took an explorative turn, which turned into 4kts & up another 2000′ we went! This was the decisive moment, it kept us on top & in control.“
more on Adam Woolley’s Gliding Adventures
Good to see that USA team Sarah and Karl were runner up in their ARCUSM. They flew 2 km more and missed out on 2 km./h in time. Difference in points; 23.

And a picture shared by Pasi from the 2 seater class;

Open; 4 hour AAT....The German pilots in their EB’s changed their podium position, this time Felipe Levin was the daily winner and Michael 3d with in the middle, Peter Szabo in the JS5.
The top 5 had 2 EB’s and 3 JS5 ’s.
Only 1 from 17 was out and mind you , start-times at 3 PM and ALL finishes were after 19.00 the last at 19.24. So 24 minutes after the thermals were supposed to stop and half an hour before sunset.
Here is Rich looking back on the day:
“The Open Class on the other hand were the first class to go on task. Again, everyone left early after the gate opened. Most of the class found themselves below 600m (2,000ft AGL) in the northern section of the task area. Climbs averaged in the 2m/s (4 kt) range over most of the task area until the last 2 legs.

and in general.
It was always just one more climb and they would have all made it home. Congratulations to AXO and all the pilots who flew today. It was a very difficult day, but everyone was safe back in Uvalde at the end of the day. It was unique to have all the cars leaving the airfield in the dark after a very quick securing of all the ships.Tomorrow will be another day, and the weather should be stronger and the achieved heights higher than today. There are still many days left in these Worlds. Some of the leaders have gambled on getting a climb at the right time, and so far, it has paid off.”

Had some problems with my blog , it stayed grey,[only the blog not the laptop!!!] but I found out after an hour what was wrong. So a late Wednesday morning blog BUT A BLOG!!!!!

To finish a picture with Baldrick on it. He is a legend under the crew members and already as long as I know him ,crewing for Pete Harvey ,this time in 18 m, but in the past mostly in open class.

AND, finally 2 pictures from my album from 1991 in Uvalde where my daughter and a lot of her international friends had a splendid time.
PE with tubing! All went in a bus up to a high spot and down on tubes!!! I did it too and had arms on the inside, as strawberries .

From the opening when Miss Texas was in one of the cars and a “lot of other misses”.
Sorry I could n’t get the “misses” Straight up!!!!!