Thursday, September 19, 2024
 • Uvalde Time – 11:35 am • 
GMT-0500

WGC 2024 Uvalde

WGC 2024 Uvalde

Early Report

Day 5


We have a daily ground crew award that goes to the best ground support team in the glider parking area, departure and arrival back home. The amount of hustle, camaraderie and outfits all go into selection for the award.  The South African Team won today.  In recognition for their hard work, the team took a nice picture of all the group and put it on their website with the pilots’ thanks.  Really nice job patting the folks on the back.  We fly the ships, but they do a lot of work to get each glider ready, launched and secured at the end of the day.  Well done!!

If you are wondering how we are getting the speeds and high climb rates we have achieved this week, there are very good pilots flying in this competition.  However, the fact that the temperature was 44.5C (112F) in Del Rio yesterday probably helped.

Today there will be dry air to the southwest and more moist air in the northeast.  There is a possibility of some convective activity at the coast that will move towards Uvalde, but that should not affect the task area today. 

The weathermen both projected climbs up to 16,000m (10,000ft) and lift in the 2-3.5m/s (4-7kt) range.  All the classes are on task right now.  Their gates opened between 1418-1427 CDT.  We expect for the ships to return around 1830 CDT.

That is all for now.  We are still trying to upload all our pictures to the WGC2024Uvalde.com website.  Word Press is frankly kicking my butt right now.  The pilots should be returning in a couple of hours. We will bring you an update as they arrive.  Hopefully will be able to get a beer and a slice of pizza in the grotto today.

Take care,

Rich Owen
Media Team