News and Information

WGC Closing Ceremonies

2024 WGC Uvalde
Last Morning Report
Closing Ceremony

The 2024 World Gliding Championship is now complete.  The trailer parking area is being turned back to the gophers and rabbits.  Just maybe the grass will grow back a little before we return (hear that Mark).  But before that happens, let me tell you about the closing ceremonies.

The ring of flags was the centerpiece of the event.  The Director of Championships, Mr. Eric Mozer, thanked all the volunteers and singled out several.  Sherman Griffith is the individual that sits in the background but makes everything happen.  They called him the Swiss army knife of the competition.  Whatever needed done, Sherman figured it out and made it happen.  He must have conducted about 1,000 Zoom calls to take care of all the Team Captains.  Mark Huffstutler is Mr. Uvalde.  He has been running contests out of Uvalde for the last 40 years, including 3 World Gliding Championships.  Every contest was run professionally, maintaining the highest standards of the FAI and the Soaring Society of America.  He also organized all the dinners, events and the fantastic rest day at the Ox Bow Ranch.  Where else can you shoot a tank gun on a rest day.  Now let’s get to the presentation of certificates and medals.

In the Open Class, here is the final standings and their scores:

6.  Jim Lee                                                     USA                            10,182

5.  François Jeremiasse                              Netherlands             10,331

4. Sylvain Gerbaud                                     France                       10,402

3. Laurent Aboulin                                      France                       10,485

2.  Michael Sommer                                   Germany                   10,782

1.  Felipe Levin                                            Germany                   10,887

In the 20 Meter Multi Seat Class, here are the final standings:

6.  Borgmann & Van Houweninge          Netherlands             9,212

5.  Bouderlique & de Péchy                     France                       9,417

4.  Woolley & Gateley                                Australia                    9,484

3.  Lutz & Janowitsch                                 Austria                       9,499

2.  Rubaj & Matkowski                              Poland                       9,552

1.  Arnold & Striedieck                              USA                            9,616

In the 18 Meter Class, here are the final standings:

6.  Sjaak Selen                                             Netherlands             9,234

5.  Matthew Scutter                                  Australian                 9,408

4. Jeroen Verkuijl                                        Netherlands             9,431

3.  Christophe Abadie                                France                       9,592

2.  Simon Schröder                                     Germany                   9,636

1.  Stefan Langer                                         Germany                   9,843

This is the best finish by the US Team in memory.  There are a couple of notable thoughts, this is the first time since George Moffat that we have had a multiple World Champion winner (Sarah Arnold).  The US has not had this many pilots recognized during the ceremonies for as long as anyone remembers.  Some comments from John Good, a long time US Team member, are right on topic “We have two World Champions!  At the 38th World Gliding Championship, Karl and Sarah today prevailed in the 20-Meter Multiseat class.  They are the first US champions in an “unrestricted entry” World Gliding Championship since Doug Jacob’s 1985 victory in Rieti, Italy (37 years ago).  Sarah is the first woman from any country ever to win at this level.  Karl, at 87, is far and away the oldest-ever soaring world champion.”

The Goran Ax Memorial Trophy which is awarded to the pilot who achieves the highest accumulated marking distance in the Open Class during the entire World Gliding Championship.  This award was presented to Felipe Levin from the Frech Team.  The Robert-Kronfeld – Challenge Cup is presented to the pilot flying the World Gliding Championship in the Open, 18m or 20m classes that have flown the longest marking distance flight during the Championship regardless of the type of task.  This award was presented to Jim Lee from the US Team.  Congratulations to these fine aviators.

The last thing I want to acknowledge is the tow pilots and ground launch crew.  Rex Mays and Dave Coggins and their crews safely launched all the gliders without incident or injury.  That was especially difficult due to the extreme temperatures during the contest.  The tow pilots operated in this heat without the benefit of getting in the cooler temps at altitude.  Here are the tow pilots that enabled this championship:

Jason Arnold                        Chilhowee Gliderport

Scott Smith                           Texas Soaring Association

Mike Hostage                       Private ship

Gary Evans                           Private ship

Marc Augustine                   Fault Line Flyers

Rich Schaefer                       Fault Line Flyers (shared towing duties)

Jayne Reid                            Bermuda High Soaring

Phileippe Heer                     Greater Houston Soaring

Manolo Guzman                 Greater Houston Soaring (shared towing duties)

Neil Muxworthy                  Private ship

Conrad Huffstutler             Wild Warbirds

Thanks to all the volunteers, staff and FAI personnel that made this a great World Gliding Championship!  See you in the next WGC in the Czeck Republic. 

Cheers,

Rich Owen
Media Team

Uvalde 2024 WGC – Final Day

Uvalde 2024 WGC
Late Report
Day 12

The party is still going on at the Grotto, the big white tent and various team houses around Uvalde.  Today there were a few changes from yesterday’s rankings. Let us go over today’s results first. 

In 18 Meter Class, there were a few pilots that made big jumps in the standing.  You probably saw Mathew Scutter’s Great Britian) post on his page that he flew a great flight to win the day.  Christophe Abadie (France) and Werner Amann (Austria) finished in third and second respectively. Uys Jonker (South Africa) moved up 4 spots from yesterday.  Also, JD Barrois (France), Lukasz Wojcik (Poland), Manu Litt (Belgium), Sean Murphy (USA), Daawid Pretorius (South Africa) and Jan Hasslid (Sweden) all moved up spots.  Nice job on moving day Friday!

For the Open Class. Laurent Aboulin (France) finished in third today with Michael Sommer (Germany) in second.  Winning the day was Felipe Levin (Germany).  However, when the music stopped, the team of Levin and Sommer finished first and second overall for the Worlds.  Felipe Levin flew a great flight, but it just was not enough to surpass the German team.  These three pilots flew a very consistent and error free Worlds.  Very nice job!!  Sylvain Gerbaud (France), Francois Jeremiasse (Netherlands) and Russell Cheetham (Great Britain) all made good moves up the leaderboard. 

In 20 Meter Class, Team USA comprised of Karl Striedieck and Sarah Arnold won the World Gliding Championship.  Sarah has previously won the Women’s World Championship and finished in second in another Women’s World Championship.  Karl finished second in a World Gliding Championship also.  The 20 Meter Class had the biggest shakeup in the three classes.  The team’s of Rubaj & Matkowski (Poland) and Lutz & Janowitsch (Austria) moved up to second and third overall in the competition.  Teams Bouderlique & de Péch (France), Theisinger & Frey (Germany), Pulkkinen & Teronen (Finland), Brunazzo & Acquaderni (Italy) and Novak & Krejcirik (Czech Republic) all moved up today.  A great way to finish up the competition!

Tomorrow morning at 9am will be the closing ceremonies for this World Gliding Championship, in front of the ring of flags. Missing from the ring of flags is the one that represents the FAI.  This flag is always stolen during the competition and is required to be returned for the closing ceremony.  At the raising of the flag during the opening ceremonies, it was almost stolen in the first 3 minutes.  Luckily, Andris, one of our FAI Jury Members, stopped the thief.  Many safeguards were enacted to protect the flag while it was in USA custody.   The flag was pad locked to the halyard, the halyard was padlocked to the pole, the pole was coated with poison ivy extract and covered in grease.  The perpetrators were very smart and just removed the pole from the ground and stole the padlock and flag.  You must hand it to these wily pilots and crews.  I happened to be accused of stealing the FAI flag at the Pan American Championship in Canada.  It was never proven but I did have coffee in lots of Tim Horton coffee shops where the flag was photographed.  This is a tradition that goes back a long way. The US organizers have offered an award to the group that stole the flag, but I do not think they will come forward to claim their prize.

Medals will be given out for the top 3 competitors and certificates will go to a predetermined number of pilots in each class.  There will also be two trophies that will be presented during the awards ceremony.  One is the Goran Ax Memorial Trophy which is awarded to the pilot who achieves the highest accumulated marking distance in the Open Class during the entire World Gliding Championship.  Also, the Robert-Kronfeld – Challenge Cup will be presented to the pilot flying the World Gliding Championship in the Open, 18m or 20m classes that have flown the longest marking distance flight during the Championship regardless of the type of task.

That is all for tonight.  I hope you enjoyed the competition through the eyes of a first-time volunteer.  I have enjoyed being here and working with all these fine people.  Tomorrow I will thank the organizers, but now I would like to thank my compatriot on the Media Team.  The past couple of weeks it has been a real pleasure to work with Paul Remde of Cumulus Soaring.  His interviews and unique photography skills certainly brought this competition to life in a way that has never been seen before. 

Cheers,

Rich Owen
Media Team

Uvalde 2024 WGC – Day 12 Morning report

Final Day, WGC Uvalde
Morning Report
Day 12

Here we are folks, on the last day!  We will look at the scores now and see what lies ahead for the competitors. 

In 18 Meter Class, the top 4 pilots are separated from each other by 154 points.  It would be difficult, but not impossible to move up unless you had help from the pilot above you. However, for positions 5-10 the average point difference is only 34 points.  Well within the realm of possibility.  The task today is not a banquet task at all.  The 18-meter ships are going on a 4 hour Assigned Area Task going northwest to Tularosa, south to Loma de Cometa, northeast to Devine, south southwest to Lewis Ranch and then to finish.  This is a 368km (229mi) task that will tour central Texas.  Fortunately, there is no forbidden airspace in this task.

The Open Class has a different look.  The top two spots are the German team.  I do not think number 2 is thinking about beating Stephan.  Third place is 221 points behind.  However, the average difference between 3 and 6 is only 42 points.  A good flight could move a pilot up in standing.  The closest race is between 9^th and 10^th who are only separated by 2 points.  Open Class have been given a Racing Task that is 490km (304mi) long that goes to east to Connally, southwest to Cotulla, northeast to Freedom Springs and finally to finish.

The 20 Meter Class has the smallest separation of pilots in the 2^nd to 6^th position.  Only 2 points separate 2^nd from 3^rd. and there is an average of 31 points separating pilot’s 3^rd from 6^th.  Again, close enough for a change in standings today.  This class is going on a 400km (249mi) nominal Assigned Area task with a minimum time of 4 hours.  This task goes southeast to Los Cuernos, northwest to Unverified, south southeast to Taco, north to finish.

I am including a link to see the entire pilots briefing from this morning.  Review the weather and get ready to watch your favorite OGN viewer.  If you do not have one, go to wgc2024uvalde.com and click on the Live Tracking link. 

Today, my brother left for home after spending the competition here as a volunteer.  If you were a pilot, you would see him every day at the scales.  He also helped the US team in the parking area.  Not only did it help the WGC but he had a lot of fun.  Great to enjoy an event with family.  Thanks Paul!

Well, time to get to the line and help Team USA launch.  Good luck to all the pilots.  Fly fast, stay high and come home safely.

Pilots Brief Link

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:a08c398f-c617-4c28-9724-77e508192d24

Cheers,

Rich Owen
Media Team

WGC Last Day Tasks

The tasks are out, the ships are ready, soon the pilots meeting will be held and the launch commenced. Last day of the 2024 World Gliding Championship! Who will be our champions.

Uvalde WGC 2024 – Late Report – Day 11

Uvalde 2024 WGC
Late Report
Day 11

Today we mark the 11^th day the World Gliding Championship have taken to the skies.  There have been many things that have transpired over the past 17 days that I have been here.  As a first time Worlds volunteer, it was a very enjoyable experience to be around all the teams.  Renewing friendships with Adam and Pasi that we flew against in the Uvalde Glide last year.  Being with my friends Jerzy and Sergei from Canada. Talking with the Italian team about Rome, the British team about London, getting a trailer for the French team in payment for spilling a glass of wine at their table during International Night and hanging with all the crews when the pilots are flying.  The only thing that would be better is if I was flying with Pete in this contest in the 20-meter class.  Gone are the memories of 107F temperatures on the runway, lack of sleep, waiting for the team to show up on the trackers on a hard leg, airspace that seems to creep up on our pilots and the sad faces when they thought they did poorly.  It was always great to find out how well they did when the scores came out.  Pilots sometimes have bigger mood swings than a 4-year-old at Walmart.

The captains and their staff are a group that gets left out at these competitions when credit is being given.  Watching the effort they all give to their team to resolve all the issues that seem unimportant to many but makes the pilots’ lives so much better.  Any problem that comes up, the captain and his crew resolve it.  Whether it is standing up for their pilots during a penalty dispute, an issue with the tow or a friendly reminder when they a bad day that they did a great job of recovering from a bad break.  Pilots, before you leave on this next flight tomorrow, thank your captain and crews for the support that has allowed you to compete virtually worry free, at least on the ground.  Now for the flying.

 After a weather brief that had everyone thinking the day was going to be as bad as yesterday, the sky looked good.  Sitting out on the field in the afternoon, I was thinking it should be a fair day.  You could already see energy lines forming.  The tasks were long but achievable with smart decisions.  Today was not a day for start games.    

The 18 Meter Class was sent off on a 4:30hr Assigned Area task of 591km nominal. After start, they went northwest to Martin Ranch, southeast to Laredo, northeast to Seven C’s Ranch and then northwest to finish.  The last turn area of this task had prohibited airspace in it, so the pilots had to be careful.  However, several pilots did suffer the penalty of entering forbidden airspace.  With all the technology we have in the cockpit, we still seem to make the same errors when we flew with cameras.  The first leg did not look bad.  However, the pilots who could get across the foothills higher all seemed to do better on the scoresheet.  Being higher allowed them to connect better with the clouds and maintain good forward momentum.  The foothills are like transition areas on ridges.  You cannot allow yourself to get low.  There were basically two places where pilots made their turn in the first area.  One was on the northeast corner and the other was right around the nominal point.  The second and third legs did not present too many problems until the 3^rd turn area.  The airspace did cause issues.  Some had to make a turn that was less than advantageous, but others journeyed into the forbidden airspace and were landed out on the scoresheet.  Final glides going downwind is always a joy, and unless you were landing at 7:30pm, did not cause many issues.  For the day, Ian MacArthur (Great Britian) finished in third with Zoltan Hamar (Hungary) in second just 5 points off the lead.  Winning the day was Jeroen Verkuiji (Netherlands) with a speed of 141kph (88mph) over the 640km (398mi) task.  Nice flight Jeroen!

In the 20 Meter Class, they were sent on 578km racing task that went west to Anacacho, southeast to Callaghan, north to Aero Saylee, west to Indio Faith and northeast to finish. Straight lines, good energy lines and staying consistently in the upper third of the height band worked for this group.  Not many issues on this flight.  In third place was the team of Lutz & Janowitsch (Austria) with Bouderlique & de Péchy (France).  Winning the day with a speed of 132kph (82mph) over a task of 578km (359mi) was the team of Borgmann & Van Houweninge (Netherlands).  Very nice flying.

The Open Class also had a racing task of 614km (382mi) that went south to Santa Maria Ranch, northeast to Silverhorn Ranch, north to Kerrville and southwest to finish. Again, straight lines, staying high and getting through the third leg and not get stuck, were the keys to a good finish.  Getting low in the foothills cost a few pilots minutes of being in the lower half of the height band.  Again, the German team showed how they fly so consistently well in all types of conditions.  Felipe Levin and Michael Sommer finished second and third respectively today.  If you did not realize, the Netherland Team garnered the top spot in all classes today.  Winning in Open Class, and completing a clean sweep was Franois Jeremiasse (Netherlands) with a speed of 130kph (81mph) over the 614km (382mi) task.  I think we should give the pilots and captain a round of applause in the morning.  Nice flying!!

Tomorrow is the last day and I’m looking forward to seeing how the leaders approach this flight.  Do they trail their competition, or do they fly the way that got them to this point.  In the morning report we will look at the total scores again.  It is too late tonight to continue.  Tomorrow, I plan to be the first customer at a new coffee and breakfast restaurant called the Local Fix.  I have been a loyal customer of theirs for several years and they have moved into a brand-new building.  Hope to see you there at 7am.

Cheers,

Rich Owen
Media Team

Day 11 Morning Report – part 2

Photo of Sarah Arnold and Karl Striedieck, winners of the 20 Meter Class yesterday.

The tow planes are being manned up and soon the launch for Day 11 of the WGC will be underway. The race for the podium in each class is still close. Today there is a little bit of uncertainty in the weather, but not like yesterday. The tasks are all to the west of the unstable weather around San Antonio.

An update on the ship that landed in the water. Like all sailplanes, it does float. The pilot had been using its electric propulsion system when the motor failed at low altitude. The terrain was rough, and the lake was the safest option. The sailplane was being pulled from the water when the batteries started to make noise. There was just a small amount of fire coming from the batteries that did not damage the glider. The ground retrieve crew opened the engine bay doors and took the battery out of the ship and left it in the water. It continued to smoke under water for some time. Although the glider may be a total loss, no one was injured during the landing or retrieve of the ship.

During this day we had 14 ground retrieves that required several borrowed trailers. It was a study of teamwork and cooperation as trailers were lent out to those who needed them. Crews helped each other to affect rescues of gliders in fields. We discovered that law enforcement in Texas have a good relationship with the ranchers and were instrumental in opening gates to retrieve gliders. It is also helpful to have a helicopter to get help to a scene fast. Thanks to all the crews, volunteers and those who lent trailers to other teams. Now, let’s move on and fly!