Closing Ceremony

Saturday morning we needed to get up early again to pack and be ready for the official closing ceremony at 10 am. Maria had brought along a book with wonderful photographs of Canadian landscapes. Virginia added a dedication, signed by us all, naming every staff member and thanking them for making our stay so memorable. I believe our hosts truly appreciated this memento of our stay when we presented it to them.

The awards and closing ceremony was very impressive. Once more, we were all decked out in our team uniforms. The top ten pilots in every class were named individually and called up on stage with third, second and first on the podium while their national flags were raised behind them and the national anthem of the winner's nation was played by a live orchestra. I kept thinking how close Jerzy had come to be in the top ten in the 18m Class. In the overall score Jerzy had placed in the top ten on five out of 8 contest days, getting as high as 5th on day 5. Even slipping to 11th on the last contest day, Jerzy made Canada the highest placing non-European nation in the 18m Class. Congratulations, Jerzy!

Some of the point results were very close. In the 18m class the point spread between 10th and 8th was 6 points and there was a tie for 6th place.


Besides having a World Champion in the 18m Class, France also won the Team Cup which is based on a team score of all classes, combining the results of Rieti and Luesse.


There was a big cheer in the German camp when Michael Sommer, the defending world champion took the center podium again in open class and second place also went to a German pilot.

Hungary, as the host of the next World Championships, was very happy with the decisive win of György Gulyas in the 15m Class.

The Russian aeroclub gave a special award to the three female competitors.

The FAI flag gets handed over to Hungary, the host of the next World Gliding Championships.

After the ceremony we said our good-byes to some old friends and many new ones, in particular the Serbian team from Vancouver, Branko, Nicola and Dimitri. I had a flight to catch, so I was the fist to depart. After having spent almost every waking minute with the Team for the past three weeks it felt strange and sad to leave the rest of the Team behind.

This was my third Worlds and my first as team manager.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you, the readers of this blog, for following along and for your messages of support. They helped a lot to motivate and encourage our competitors. Also, again a heartfelt thank-you to all our sponsor who supported the team and helped making it happen. I truly hope, one day we will see two Canadian pilots each in at least two classes, so we can effectively team fly.

End of Blog - 2008 Luesse

Farewell Party

It was raining pretty much all day Friday. We spent the day sorting out and settling outstanding accounts with the organizers as well as preparing the gliders for shipping and to go back to the owners.

At 7p we joined the other teams for a big farewell party. It was a nice surprise to meet our old friend Darek and his daughters at the party. Darek was a very active SOSA member in the ninties before he moved to the Carribean with his family. He and his daughters, who were a riot at SOSA then and are young ladies now, are touring Europe and decided to drop in for the closing ceremony of the Worlds. It turned out to be a great party, great food, great entertainment and great company. After two intense weeks, everybody enjoyed the opportunity to relax and have fun. The contest organizers put on fabulous fireworks before the party got pretty wild in the events hangar.

It's over!

Good Morning Canada!

The forecast today said no usable thermals! The day is officially canceled which means that yesterday or day 8 was the last contest day of the 30th World Championships.

The scores are still preliminary but I am not aware of any pending protests, so in all likelihood there won't be any significant changes in the final scores.

Jerzy finished an excellent 11th in the 18m Class. For many days he maintained a position in the first 10 which gave us hopes he would finish there. Placing within the first 10 or near it, means placing among current and former world champions! Jerzy placed just ahead of Doug Jacobs, 15m world champion in 1985 who was also on the podium in '87 and 91. Please join me all in congratulating Jerzy!

The 15m Class was dominated early on by the Hungarian pilot György Gulyas. He took the lead early on and managed to increase it steadily. Although he finished in 9th place yesterday, he still widened his lead to 335 points! Typically the margins between first and second are less than 100 points.

Janusz Centka from Poland, a three times world champion, had an excellent flight yesterday and managed to zoom up from 5th to 2nd place overall. I guess, for him it was really pedal to the metal.

Mark Leeuwenburgh, the young pilot from Holland who Dave had shared a field with on his best day of the contest, is ecstatic that he will be on the podium in third place. These are his first world championships.

Dave had great days and terrible days. He had a costly landout early on, he finished second, only one point behind the winner on day 4, but in the end his hopes of placing well were sunk when he ran into airspace on day 7 and ended up with only 13 points on a 840 point day. An earlier error in setting a turnpoint zone correctly was not as serious but still took 50 points out of his score. It made the difference between placing in the low twenties and 37th.

The 15m Class Competitors

The 18m Class Competitors

As unwieldy they are on the ground, once in the air, Open Class ships are incredibly graceful and their finishes are a treat to watch.

Everyone here knows Art Grant, the contest volunteer from Manitoba. He is always in a good mood and always quick to lend a hand.

Day 8 wrap-up

Jerzy came in at 16:28 after spending 3:54 hrs on task. The resulting speed was 116.46 kph which was good for 888 points and place 23. Doug Jacobs (USA) won the day in 18m Class with a speed of 123.68 kph.

The conditions which had looked so good in the morning and early afternoon started to deteriorate later as thick cirrus pushed in from the south. The photo above was taken around 5:15p, 45 minutes after Jerzy had landed. This was a problem for the 15m Class since their turnpoint far to the SE was under the cirrus early in the game.

It turned into a long wait for Dave. I kept looking up while I helped Jerzy de-rig XG, as the sky got worse and worse . Finally, around 6p, Dave overflew the finish line after having been on task for nearly 5 hrs. We were all relieved he had made it home. Dave told me later that the last 170 km were just a struggle into the wind with weak thermals. He teamed up with some prominent British and French pilots but this time they happened to be slow. His speed of 84.87 kph was good for 675 points out of 1000 which landed Dave in 37th place for the day. The winner, Graham Parker of Australia had clocked 103.72 kph.

In the overall 18m scores, Jerzy dropped from 8th to 11th, just ahead of Doug Jacobs (US). Although we had all hoped he would manage to get back to 5th place, this is still an excellent result. Jerzy is the highest placed pilot from a non-European nation in the 18m Class.

The forecast for tomorrow is calling for solid stratus clouds and rain. It is quite possible that the overall results as of today will be the final results for the 30th World Gliding Championships. However the French team is not taking any chances and they sent their pilots to bed early. Stay tuned...

Day 8

Good Morning Canada!

Discussed yesterday's airspace penalty with Dave this morning. Unfortunately, it is a clear cut case and there is no point trying to do something about it - he was scored as landed out after 9.3 km. Getting 13 points on a 840 point day is of course a killer.

The weather today is great. Still the same airmass as yesterday but less wind and less moisture. This translates into plenty of cu but with higher bases and less tendency to spread out. The cu are lining up to form nice SW/NE cloud streets. Cloud base is forecast to go up to 6400 ft with up to 6 kts thermals. The only fly in this are some cirrus fields that might affect the task area.


18m has an interesting task today, taking them clockwise around the greater Berlin area. It's a 455.4 km assigned speed task. They will have the benefit of a long downwind leg north of Berlin where the WSW winds are forecast to be stronger than here south of Berlin. However, the area of the southbound leg east of Berlin, along the river Oder which forms the border to Poland, is known to be weak.

Jerzy (XG) went on task at 12:34. Assuming a speed of 130 kph, we expect him to be back around 16:00 (10 am eastern daylight). Keep checking the daily and overall score sheets.

Today is likely to be the last contest day, so many pilots will go on the all out attack. It's now or never!

Jerzy is currently in 8th place with 5221 points. Everything up to 5th place is within easy reach and less than 10 points ahead of Jerzy. On the other hand, current 12th place is only 84 points behind Jerzy. A lot can happen today!

15m is flying a 422.3 km assigned speed task to the east and south east. There have been many tasks in this part of the task area, so the pilots are quite familiar with it. Dave started at 13:06. Assuming a speed of 125 kph, he should be back around 16:30 (10:30 am eastern daylight).

Oh no! - day 7 wrap-up

The strong SW winds did not cause significant problems at altitude since there was good streeting. Dave told me, he was running cloud streets on the into wind leg and only needed two thermals. However, when the competitors returned to Luesse, the surface wind was gusting to 30 kts. We saw some hairy landings.

Jerzy did very well, finishing 8th for the day with a speed of 115.03 kph and achieving 765 points out of 832 possible. Overall Jerzy is now tied for 8th place in the 18m Class. There are great opportunities to advance, since the point spread to 5th place is only 10 points! However, he could just as easily slip back since 11th place is only 45 points behind Jerzy.

Dave's speed of almost 100 kph would have put him in 18th place for the day. Unfortunately, as it turns out, he hit airspace on the first leg. The penalty for airspace violation is outlanding at the point where he entered the airspace. So for the time being, Dave ended up with 13 points for the day - ouch! He had turned off the airspace warning because he was climbing close to the bird sanctuary north of Luesse. Dave didn't turn it back on right away when he went on course and bumped into the FL35 ceiling of the Berlin airspace. I will be scrutinizing his file and discussing this with the scorer tomorrow to ensure Dave's altitude has been properly corrected for the actual pressure of the day and the calibration of the logger.

The weather tomorrow is forecast to be similar to today but a bit drier and less wind. In other words, conditions could be strong. Looking ahead to Friday, it is likely that tomorrow will be the last contest day of the 30th Worlds. A lot of pilots will be pulling out all stops.

How many trailers do you count?

This is what we see every morning when we arrive at the south side of the runway with our bikes - trailers lined up almost the entire length of the 8000 ft runway!

Day 7 Update

Both Dave (P8) and Jerzy made it home with good speeds. In 15m the winning speed was 112.9, registered by two British pilots, Timothy Scott and Leigh Wells. Dave did 99.93 kph which puts him currently in 18th place with 695 points. So far, maximum points for the day are 840 but this may change since not all scores are in. The results of six pilots are still missing but I don't see any big names there. There were 5 outlandings in the 15m Class.

With 145 points behind the winner of the day, I expect Dave's overall score to improve but it is too early to tell. However, we know for sure that Dave finished ahead of the US pilots Gary Ittner and Karl Stiedieck.

In 18m the winner Olivier Darroze (France) achieved a speed of 121.15 kph. Jerzy's speed was an excellent 115.03 kph which currently puts him in 9th place and only 43 (!!!) points behind the winner. This may change as scores are still coming in and at least one big name (Wolfgang Janowitsch) has not been scored yet. So keep watching the score board as things are unfolding. I expect Jerzy to improve in the overall results for 18m.

Day 7

Good Morning Canada!

Wx: A cold front passed through the task area over night. A moist and unstable airmass is flowing into the task area behind the front. This morning, when we biked to the airfield, the sky was clear. However, it didn't take long for big cu to fill the sky around the time of the pilots' briefing (10:00). Just as our met-man announced the possibility of rain showers, the prattle of rain on the roof of the briefing hangar could be heard. The met man carried on, saying any showers should be short lived and the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. That earned him a major round of applause.

In the meantime (13:40) it has dried up a bit but there is still rapid cycling with large areas turning dark and temporarily going dead after overdevelopment. Strong and gusty winds (SW 20 kts, gusting 25 on the surface) are making matters even more difficult. Winds at altitude will be SW 30kts. Click here for the soaring forecast.

The tasks for both classes are to the SE, which should be the area with the best weather according to the forecast. 15m is on task A, a 294 km assigned speed task. The 18m task is also A, a 313 km assigned speed task. The grid order was Open, 15m, 18m. Both Dave and Jerzy were in the last row of their respective classes.

The launch started at 11:30. Today it took less than 70 minutes to launch the entire grid.

There were a few re-lights in the 15m and 18m classes but fortunately none of our guys was affected.

Dave started at 12:53, Jerzy started at 13:32. The sky is still changing from minute to minute and the wind is whistling in the guy wires of the to antenna masts. Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned...

Day canceled

I woke up this morning to a light but steady rain. It improved a bit during breakfast but in the end the sky stayed gray. The weather presented at the 10:00 briefing didn't promise much chance to fly. The day was canceled at the second briefing at 12:30.

Unfortunately, Dave slipped a few places in the overall score as some late scores came in. The Hungarian pilot György Gulyas has been flying very consistently and is leading in 15m class by a large margin of 300 points. Quite remarkable for world championships!

Dave and Virginia are off to Berlin for sightseeing.

Day 6 wrap-up

Both Jerzy and Dave hit some slow spots on task that cost them speed. When he landed, Jerzy's comment was, I am ready to give up flying!

In 15m the winning speed was 114.24 kph. Dave came in at 95.28 kph which got him 30th place with 728 points, according to the preliminary scoring.

In 18m the winning speed was 123.97 kph. Jerzy's speed of 110.92 was only good for 28th place and 811 points, according to the preliminary scoring for the day.

Overall, Dave moved up from 31st into 24th place in 15m, on the heels of Katrin Senne. Unfortunately Jerzy dropped from an excellent 5th to 10th place in 18m, just ahead of Doug Jacobs and Riccardo Brigliadory.

Day 6 update

The cirrus has moved out of the contest area and the sky looks pretty good now. You can check conditions on the airfield webcam. It updates every three minutes.

Jerzy has been on task for 2:45, so we expect him back in about 15 minutes.

Dave has been on task for 2:10, so it will be another 50 minutes before he will come in.

Day 6

Jerzy and Maria take a break before the briefing.

Both our pilots are airborne, Jerzy went on task at 13:09. The 15m gate will open at 13:46 (now). BTW, we are 6 hrs ahead of eastern daylight time.

The weather today is somewhat unsettled behind a weak cold front that went through yesterday evening. When we towed out to the grid, there was a lot of mid-level alto cu and alto stratus but fortunately that burned off when convection started. The cu are large and watery with bases initially at 2500, going up to 4500. The start gate is height limited to 3000 ft because of the low cloud base. There is strong southwesterly flow at all levels. A particular concern is cirrus moving in from the W and SW. In the meantime, it has reached Luesse and the sky doesn't look very appealing. Fortunately, there is convection below the cirrus.

Dave doesn't like the alto cu - it burned off later but then cirrus moved in.

The grid order today is 18m, Open, 15m it takes about 80 minutes to launch the grid. Britain and Holland expressed concerns over the time it takes to launch the entire grid, in the team captains' meeting this morning.

The tasks today are relatively small:
18m: Task B - assigned area task - 3hrs - 252 km min, 520 km max
15m: Task A - assigned area task - 3hrs - 215 km min, 404 km max

This is another day where there is not much to win but a lot can be lost. Keep your fingers crossed!

Canadian Evening

Our hosts here at the Landhotel Dahnsdorf are doing their best to make us feel welcome. There is a Canadian flag flying along with a French and Italian flag on one of the three flag poles in front of the hotel. When we return from the airport, we usually find a digest of the daily results for the Canadian and the French teams posted in the lobby.

A few days ago, the owner of the hotel together with the restaurant manager put on a Canadian evening. They even tried to download the Canadian anthem. The evening was good fun and the food was wonderful.

Dave, Ian, Kathleen, Virginia, myself, Jerzy and Maria (left to right) are enjoying the "Canadian Evening"

The highlight of the evening was an amazing ice cream creation, specifically prepared for us by the chef.

Day Canceled

We woke up to a solid alto-stratus overcast with a few sprinkles mixed in. That's pretty much the forecast for the day as well. It was no surprise that the day was canceled. The organizer was nice enough to notify the team managers by text message not to grid before the briefing.

First thing every morning in the briefing is the announcement of the winners from the previous day. In 18m Class the speeds of the first three were within 0.65 kph. That means on a 370 km task, there is 56 seconds or two circles between first and third.

In Open Class Alena Netusilova, one of the three women in the competition came second. Alena is competing for the Czech Republic and flies an 18m ASG-29 against Open Class ships, some of them with 28m wingspan. The other two women, both in 15m, are Nina Shalneva (Russia) and Katrin Senne (Germany). Katrin, a mother of three, who is the current women's world champion, is the poster-girl of soaring in Germany. There is a lot of media coverage on her. I believe the pressure that comes with the media circus is affecting her performance.

Katrin Senne, the poster-girl of women's soaring in Germany

Fortunately, the ceiling was high enough for the airshow to proceed. There were rides with the historic Ju52, demo flights of the Me 108, power and glider aerobatics, skydivers and model airplane demos.

The organizers even put a mock 20-glider contest launch, complete with finishes on. The finishes were actually quite spectacular with entire national teams doing worm burners in formation. Every beat-up I saw would have attracted penalty points if this would have been a contest day. Fortunately there were no accidents.

The half-way party yesterday was great: Great food, great entertainment. There also was a spectacular night glider aerobatic presentation with pyrotechnics and fire pots on the wingtips.

Photo by Maria Szemplinska

We are now half way through the contest and we have one pilot in 5th place. This is the best result I can remember, so let's keep our fingers crossed!

After having watched the airshow, the team is resting or shopping for the rest of the day. We will probably fly again tomorrow.

Day 5 Update 3

Both of our pilots completed the task and did quite well.

Dave (P8) got 858 points with a speed of 107.41 kph (winner 116.5). This was good for place 17.

Jerzy (XG) finished also 17th for the day with a speed of 117.14 kph (winner 124.91) and 874 points out of a possible 984.

The exciting news is that Jerzy moved up to 5th place overall and Dave moved up to 30th place from 33, ahead of Gary Ittner (US) and Katrin Senne (Germany)

These are just preliminary scores, so things may still change a bit.

We are off to the half-way party tonight.

Day 5 Update 2

Just heard from Dave (P8). He expects to finish in 10 minutes. That would make his time on task about 3:30, resulting in a speed of 107 kph.

Day 5 Update

We had some anxious moments during the 18m launch. Jerzy launched right into the down cycle and all the clouds in the area were falling apart. There were some relights but both Dave and Jerzy stayed up. They have gone on task now. Dave (P8) started at 13:16 - we expect him back between 16:15 and 17:00. Jerzy (XG) started at 13:54 - we expect him back between 17:00 and 17:45. Looking at the start times, I suspect that Dave may have started a bit too early.
You can see the start times and later the speeds here: 15m; 18m; Open

There is also a webcam on the clubhouse.

How many PDAs do you see? Our Japanese competitors rely heavily on technology - that's what we are up against.

The Junkers Ju52 is getting ready to take off. The big radial engines make a beautiful sound - the sound of an era gone by. The Ju52 is based on single engine Junkers designs of the twenties which were the first all metal airplanes. A single engine Junkers was the first to cross the Atlantic E to W.



This is one of the very few still flying Me 108. Willy Messerschmitt oversaw the design and production of this 4 seater in 1932. With retractable gear and constant speed prop, the Me108 was way ahead of its time. Powered by an air cooled 240 hp Argus V8 engine, the performance and size of the Me 108 are similar to that of the Piper Arrow or some Mooney models.

Day 5

Good Morning Canada!

It is a coolish day with lots of instability. Winds are from the WNW 10kts, gusting 20. Cloud streets are already forming but bases are still low and there is a bit too much moisture. The forecast for the afternoon is 2/8 to 4/8 scattered to broken cu at 4500, rising to 5500. Thermal strength is forecast to be 4-6 kts. Maximum temperature is 22 degrees.

Our pilots are out on the grid - grid time was 11:45 with launch starting at 12:00. The grid order is 15m, 18m, Open Class.

The task in 15m is a 372 km assigned speed task. 18m has a 370 km assigned speed task. There are shorter B options for both tasks.
The organizers clearly want to minimize land-out today because it is open house here and they don't want to disappoint the spectators who came out to see finishes. Tonight is also the "half way party".

The airfield has been prepared for a strong turn-out of the public, along with visits by high level dignitaries. A number of ambassadors of participating nations are expected.


They are also offering rides in a historic three engine Junkers Ju52.


The launch just started - so I better run!

Yes, Dave still has hair!

Yesterday, when Dave was up on the podium to receive the day prize for placing 2nd, his forehead was lit up by the power point projector just as I took the photo. Based on the photo I received the following comment from Marco:

Joerg, Your pictures have me confused about Dave`s hair..... where did it go on the last picture (receiving the kiss)???? Was this to celebrate, or does he wants to be more aerodynamic for future performance..... Anyway, so far great results for Team Canada!!! Keep it up!

We all had a good laugh over that one. The official answer is - yes, Dave still has hair!

People of the Day

Maria has been on the prowl with her camera:

999 points yesterday! - the P8 camp is all smiles

Dimitri from Vancouver is on the Serbian team with his father. He helped us retrieve Jerzy yesterday evening. Thanks, Dimitri!

Virginia and I rented bicycles for the duration of our stay. The daily ride to the airport goes through sleepy little towns, along fields and through a pine forest. Quite often we see deer in th morning or a few storks.
My bike has become the official Team Manager's vehicle. It's decked out with a Canadian flag and gives me great mobility around the airport. It's all about reducing the carbon footprint!

Day Canceled!

Initially, the weather looked pretty good this morning but what were small cu at 11:00 turned into CBs by 13:00 and soon thereafter there was rain and lightning.

I received inofficial word early on that the day would be canceled which was confirmed during the 10:00 briefing. After yesterday's mass land-out everyone is happy to have the day off.

When towing to the grid, every glider has to pass over scales to make sure no one is above max gross weight. There are three scales with their associated crews to handle the 130 gliders. The Canadian Art Grant is one of the scale crew volunteers. Today, at the briefing, the scale crews were introduced and honoured. Art wasn't shy to take the microphone and say a few words on behalf of the crews.

Art Grant, a member of the Winnipeg Gliding Club is giving an impromptu speech on behalf of the weigh scale crews.

Wrap-up day 4 - a kiss for Dave

Good Morning Canada! Apologies for keeping you in suspense. Just after I had posted the last update yesterday, I got word that Dave and Jerzy had landed out. Jerzy was further away than Dave, so I went with Maria to find him (GPS is a wonderful invention!). Dimitri, a young Canadian from the Serbian team offered to come along. It was already dark when we arrived in the little town were Jerzy had landed. The GPS coordinates were dead-on and we had no trouble locating the plane, just figuring out the access to the field was a little tricky.

Everyone in 15m Class landed out. In 18m Class two pilots made it back out of 50. In the Open Class which was launched early, 20 out of 36 made it back.

The problem was a combination of late starting, particularly in 15m and the fact that the conditions didn't develop as expected.

As the results started ot come in we were overjoyed to learn that Dave (P8) had come second for the day with 999 points. In fact he had landed in the same field as the winner K1.

Dave Springford (P8) is up on stage to receive his day prize along with a kiss from Silke for coming second for the day.

In the overall 15m score Dave moved up to 33rd, ahead of Gary Ittner, US, Karl Striedieck, US and Katrin Senne, Germany.

Jerzy had landed on the third leg and had to give up 365 points against the winner in the 18m Class. Fortunately, it only dropped him from 6th to 7th place in the overall score, so he is still in good shape.

Getting tense

At 6p the first Open Class ships are on final glide. The Open Class task a 490 km assigned speed task. Open Class left fairly early, about one to one and a half hours before 15m and 18m.

The cirrus coming in from the west is getting thicker and it doesn't look like the blue thermals will last much longer. The wind is now fairly strong (about 15 kts from the south) which will be a cross wind for the competitors on final glide.

Just got word that Martin Theisinger (Germany), one of the top 15m pilots landed out. So far, there have been six land-outs in 15m, the US pilots Karl Striedieck and Gary Ittner among them. In 18m there have been 3 land-outs.

The open ships coming in have speeds in the range of 90 kph. I haven't seen anybody dropping water yet. This is not good news for the other classes. It is starting to look more and more like a mass land-out at least in 15m. Keep your fingers crossed!

Here another view of a blue thermal gaggle

On task

Both our pilots are on task now.

Dave (P8) started at 14:27
Jerzy (XG) started at 14:39

Both had good starts with the majority of their respective classes. In the blue one has no choice but to fly with the gaggle. The gaggles are huge though, with 20 - 30 gliders. No signs of the promised cu yet. However, there is thin cirrus approaching from the west now. We expect both our pilots back around 6p local. Stay tuned...

Day 4

Good Morning Canada! It is contest day 4 again, since only actual contest days count and yesterday was canceled for all classes.

We woke up to blue skies and a southerly breeze. The forecast for today is good thermals in the blue, initially up to 3000 ft AGL. At 3p thermal tops are forecast to be at 4500 and later in the afternoon we should see 6kts to 6000. There is a possibility of cu with bases at 6500 later in the afternoon but there is also a risk that an advancing system will spread cirrus in the task area.

The forecast high for the day is 32 degrees. The combination of the dry airmass and the breeze make for comfortable conditions in the shade.

The tasks for all classes are going to the NW first, second leg to the south of Luesse, 3rd leg to the east and return.

The grid order is Open Class, 15m, 18m

The 18m task is a 412 km assigned speed task. 15m is flying a 406 km assigned speed task.

The impressive Wilgas are firing up in preparation for the launch begin. The Wilga is a Polish STOL design, powered by a big Russian radial engine turning at 1800 rpm max.

The launch for Open Class started at 12:15. I guess the conditions in the blue weren't all that great because it didn't take long for the entire class to form a low gaggle right over the airport between 1500 ft and 2500 ft. There were a number of re-lights in Open Class.

Open Class formed an impressive gaggle low over the airfield - how many gliders do you see?

They halted the launch for the other classes for 15 minutes to give conditions a chance to improve. 15m class is currently launching.

Team XG is relaxing at the grid.

Day cancelled for all classes

At 16:00 the day was cancelled for the remaining two classes. Everyone is tired from sitting around at the grid all day but relieved.

In the evening was the official opening of the OSTIV congress.
OSTIV stands for Organisation Scientifique et Technique Internationale du Vol a Voile or International Scientific and Technical Soaring Organisation. The OSTIV congress is always parallel to the World Gliding Championships. The organization studies areas such as glider design, soaring meteorology, flight training and safety including human factors. Met some old friends from my days in aerospace design.

Day 4?

Initially the weather looked good in the morning but by mid morning a thick layer of high cloud, associated with a warm front, was covering the sun, son only the disk was visible.

The organizers are hoping that the overcast will clear out in the afternoon. We went out to the grid for a 12:00 noon grid time and an expected first launch of 12:15. Well, conditions at 12:15 were not suitable to launch gliders, so it is turning into one of those dreaded days where you wait around forever at the grid. The grid order is Open, 15m, 18m. At 13:10 they canceled the 18m task and Jerzy (XG) went back to his trailer.

Dave in P8 is still out in the 15m section of the grid. The launch for 15m and Open was just delayed again and is now set for 14:30. On the good news side, the overcast seems to be getting a bit thinner and there are some cu showing under it. There is still a chance the 15m Class will fly. Just got notified by text message that there is a Team Captains' meet at the grid in 10 minutes - better run!

Scoring update Day 3

Jerzy's points got re-instated. Seems they gave us extra credit for rushing the file in last night. Jerzy is now tied for 6th place for the day yesterday with 976 points, 24 points behind the winner. Overall Jerzy has also slipped into 6th place with 2139 points (winner 2303).

In yesterday's 18m Class score, the first three places are only separated by 0.34 kph - talk about close!

Due to his 50 point penalty, Dave placed 38th for the day. Overall he is also in 38th place which still puts him ahead of Katrin Senne, the women's world champion and also the famous US pilot Karl Striedieck.

Human error - Day 3 wrap-up

Even though the weather wasn't all that great and the wind was still above 20 kts and strong enough to break up thermals, good speeds were achieved in all classes:

15m Class: Best speed: 118.47 kph
18m Class: Best speed: 119.51 kph
Open Class: Best speed: 121.17 kph

Jerzy (XG) came back a little earlier than expected. Initial calculations showed Jerzy's speed to be at 117 kph which put him in 7th place and also 7th place in the overall score. Unfortunately, after a long and excellent flight, Jerzy uploaded the previous day's flight to the scoring program. Even more unfortunately, after we were back at the hotel, I left my cell phone in the room while we were in the dining room, enjoying a special dinner our host had put on for us. We were just on our way to bed, when Chief Stewart Dick Bradley told me that he had been trying to reach me by phone all evening because there was a problem with Jerzy's log. Although the scorers had quit for the day, I decided we should rectify the situation as soon as possible and drove to the airport to upload the correct file. I also apologized for the mix-up. Hopefully they will not assess any penalty. For the moment Jerzy has dropped to the bottom of the score sheet. Hopefully tomorrow we will see Jerzy back in 7th place.

There was a bit of a tense wait for Dave and we were all relieved to hear "P8 on final glide".

Unfortunately, Dave had encountered a bit of trouble on the 420 km course which reduced his speed to 97 kph. Dave had set up the task in his on-board computer by modifying yesterday's AAT. In doing so, he missed resetting the radius of the last turn point from 1 km to the standard 500 m beer can. As a result he missed the observation zone by a little which resulted in 50 penalty points.

Both incidents show that we have to put procedures in place to eliminate slip-ups like these that have really nothing to do with flying but can still bite us badly.

Day 3

The high pressure behind yesterday's cold front is building. It is still very windy but the cloud base is higher than yesterday and was going up during the morning. The sky is filled with cloud streets running west to east. However, due to the instability in the airmass, there is still some cycling and large areas can be shaded.

15m Class was at the front of the grid and Dave (P8) in the front row, was one of the first to launch at around 11:20. Unfortunately he got caught in a down-cycle and had to land for a re-light while the launch of the 18m Class was in progress. Dave was launched again behind the 18m class.

The 130 gliders are being gridded in two blocks, one on the north side of the 1000 ft wide (yes, wide!) runway, the other on the south side. Within each block the gliders are lined up four abreast and 17 rows deep. The whole grid is being launched by now 11 Wilgas and one Robin Remorqueur in a little more than an hour. There are some complaints that the launch is still taking too long, so the organizers are trying to get two more tow planes.

Jerzy (XG) was one of the first to launch in 18m.

The 15m task is a 420 km speed task mainly to the south east. The 18m task is a 492 km speed task also in south easterly direction, crossing into Polish airspace. Open class was sent on a 3.5 hr area task in the same general area with a distance between 381 km and 582 km. That is pretty ambitious for the class at the back of the grid. According to Dr. Jack the conditions in the southern part of the task area should be the best. (Luesse is marked with the number 6 on the chart).

Jerzy started at 12:58 - we expect him back between 5:30 and 6p.

Dave started at 13:40 along with the majority of the 15m Class. It looks like a good start to me - I don't think the delay due to the relight was a disadvantage, except for the extra 50 Euros (80 dollars!) he had to spend on the tow. We expect Dave back around the same time as Jerzy.

Stay tuned for the next post!

Day 2 - results

It was a tough day with a 25 kt surface wind breaking up the thermals. The lift also quit early, around 5 pm, as forecast.

According to the preliminary score, the winner in 18m Class was Makoto Ichikawa from Japan with a speed of 113.97 kph. With this flight he is also taking to overall lead in this class. Six pilots landed out.

Jerzy made it around the task with a speed of 101.97 which landed him on 18th place. Read details about his flight on his blog. Branko (DG) came 30th with a speed of 97.55 kph.

Overall Jerzy moves up from 13th to 11th place, only two points behind Doug Jacobs and Petr Krejcirik who are tied for 9th. - Bravo Jerzy!

In the 15m Class the day was won by the Hungarian pilot György Gulyas with a speed of 106.95 kph.

Unfortunately Dave's luck ran out on the last leg. He was fooled by a few clouds that didn't work and had no choice but to land on a little airport, just 38 km short. The penalty for missing the last thermal was a harsh 41st place, right behind Gary Ittner from the US. I went out with Virginia to retrieve Dave.


There were even more unlucky pilots in 15m class: Georg Theisinger from Germany who dominated the Pre-worlds, team flying with his brother Martin, lawn-darted after the start into a field. The same happened to Katrin Senne, also from Germany, the current women's world champion. To make matters worse, Martin hit a deer during his landing. In total, seven pilots landed out in the 15m Class

The weather tomorrow should be better. We will meet at 7:30 am for breakfast.