My best result in the Worlds

It was my best result in a World Championships, I hoped to be in the first three, but a couple of mistakes in the early part of the contest cost me too much and it was very hard to recover the lost points. Good results in the contest are not only the pilot's achievement. My wife Maria did an excellent job not only taking care of the glider, but my mental state during contest in addition she together with George beat the Brits with field retrieve by a good 30 minutes when I landed out together with Phil Jones. Unfortunately no extra points, but well rested pilot.
 
Our Team Manager Joerg gave me assurance that all is under control. In addition strategic and technical discussion with Joerg helped me to resolve some issues and concentrate on flying task. Dave helped me with the weather reports before and during tasks, in addition our professional radio broadcaster Virginia did an excellent job relaying information so I was able to gather information about the task situation during flight. Willem with his crew Diane and Pim gave me a big smile every morning ( Go Jerzy Go) Thanks to Dan Bush for letting me fly his glider in Europe and set his glider exactly the same way as mine so I didn't have to adjust to new instruments. His emails with analysis during the contest of my closest opponents were very helpful with my task strategy.  After the closing ceremony I was still in treadmill as I had to deliver glider back to Germany go back to Poland and return the car before I could fly back to Canada. All went as planned except GREAT SURPRISE at Pearson International where a group of pilots waited for me: Luke, Derek, Bill, Chris and Martin with his wife , what a Royal Treatment .

Thank You All for team support .

Jerzy

31st WGC - Reflections

These were the largest World Gliding Championships ever, in terms of participants. We had one terrible accident early in the game when an Australian competitor hit a truck on final glide, just before crossing the airport fence. Luckily the pilot was unhurt but the truck driver sustained terrible injuries when the wing sliced through the cab of the truck. From what we have heard he will never be able to work in his profession again. He is in his early thirties with a young family for which his income was the only support. Through OSTIV we have started a collection with the goal to help the family over the rough stuff until the insurance money kicks in.

For Canadians this tragic accident brings back painful memories. In the seventies Wolf Mix was killed at the World Championships in Yugoslavia, not all that far from Szeged, when he collided with a truck.

With over 140 gliders milling around in hazy conditions, weak thermals and cloud bases under 3000 ft, we were lucky not to have any mid-air collisions. This is probably largely due to the fact that most planes were equipped the FLARM collision warning system.

How many gliders do you count in the gaggle?

Oops - a little close. The rule of thumb is, if you can read the other guy's instruments, you are too close.

Photos by Maria Szemplinska

See you all back in Canada!

Awards Ceremony

Today we had the awards ceremony which was nice but didn't compare to the one in Luesse. For one, the winners on the podium were backlit in the hangar which made it next to impossible to take photos of them.

In each class they called pilots from 15th place individually to the front to receive a prize. As the numbers counted down, the applause became stronger. Jerzy with his 4th place received a huge applause which filled us all with pride. I have been told that the last time a Canadian achieved 4th place in a worlds was Wolf Mix in Marfa, TX in 1970. We definitely made history here. I strongly believe, with a bigger team, intense training in team flying and and sufficient financial support, Canada could have a world champion. The German team was so large, they needed to schedule an evening specifically for introductions.
Italy wins 1st and 3rd place in 15m

Poland takes 1st and 3rd place in 18m, South Africa gets Silver. Poland also won the Team Cup and leads the international ranking list.

Michael Sommer of Germay becomes World Champion in Open Class for the third time. Britain takes Silver and a two seater team from Belgium take Bronze.

After the ceremony we said our good-byes which is always a sad moment. Over the last three weeks we have spent most of our waking hours together, have sweated it out in the heat together, have explored back country lanes in Hungary and Serbia together to find our pilots and braved the mosquitoes while de-rigging gliders in fields. In all of this we have develped deep bonds and have become a tighly knit group. Then the end of the contest arrives and the group splits up and heads off in different directions.

For me it was a very rewarding experience to work with this wonderful group of people. I am always being asked "don't you miss flying, when you are out there around gliders every day?" Well, it was so exciting, I didn't miss flying for a moment.

I want to take this opportuntity to thank George Eckschmiedt from VSA who came on his own accord and expense to help us. George is not the youngest anymore and the heat clearly took its toll on him. But he was always there when we needed him, helping with translations, going on retrieves, finding local radio experts when we needed them and chauffeuring me around - thanks George!

Thanks also to the Burnay family who showed up just when we needed help the most because all of our pilots were in fields.

Off to the Closing Party

With the day canceled due to thunderstorms, we had almost enough time this morning to work on putting the glider back into the condition in which we received it.  After the rain stopped we went back to the airport and finished the job.  Papa Sierra is now packed away in its trailer and ready to roll after the closing ceremony tomorrow.

Tonight we are off to the closing party where we will have one last opportunity to socialize with our new friends and commiserate over lost opportunities during the contest.

With an overall result of 34/49 in the contest, I am not at all happy about my performance. I had some good days, but more bad days then I care to have in any one contest.  The weather was challenging, the tasks were challenging and fortunately the fields were big and flat!


Jerzy flew exceptionally well in the contest and I am very proud of his accomplishment.  He flew as an individual pilot, without the assistance of a team mate or wingman and was very close to beating those who flew with the added assistance - that says something!

Day canceled - it's over! Congratulations Jerzy - XG!

At 11:00 the day was canceled for all classes. After 8 competition days for Open Class and 7 competition days for 18m and 15m Class, the 31st World Gliding Championships for 15m/18m/Open Classes are over!Assuming there are no adjustments due to protests, yesterdays' results will be the final results.
After landing 27km short yesterday, Jerzy places 4th overall,well ahead of the defending 18m champion, Olivier Darroze who came 13th and a mere 11 points behind third.11 points difference is the equivalent of 54 seconds or two circles over a 300 km task on one of the seven days.

Landing in the Puszta: After hanging on to weak thermals longer than most, Jerzy makes it far enough to secure 3rd place for the day, which moved him up to 4th place overall - his final place in the 31st Worlds

Although it is a bit disappointing that Jerzy missed the podium literally by a hair, for a Canadian to place 4th in the World Championships in a class with over 50 competitors, each of them being the best in his country, is an amazing success. Maybe the history experts and record keepers can tell us by way of comment if and when a Canadian ever placed better in World Championships - according to my recollection certainly not in the last 30 years.When I took on the job as Team Manager, I did this with the goal to see a Canadian placing in the first ten in any class. It feels good and I am ecstatic to see that one of our pilots did in fact much better.The winners in 18m Class are:1st Place: Zbigniew Niradka, Poland
2nd Place: Uys Jonkers, South Africa
3rd Place: Karol Staryszak, Poland
15m Class:1st Place: Stefano Ghiorzo, Italy2nd Place: Leigh Wells, UK
3rd Place: Thomas Gostner, Italy
After after an unlucky outlanding early on, Dave didn't have a good contest and places 34th. He is ahead of a former German Champion.
Open Class:1st Place: Michael Sommer, Germany - defending champion from Luesse
2nd Place: Steve Jones, UK3rd Place: Pierre de Broqueville, Belgium
Willem didn't feel well early in the contest and gave up on some tasks. He never recovered from the point loss.

After the cancellation was announced, gliders were prepared for travel and started to disappear into trailers. Everyone was relieved but it was bittersweet as we took down the Canadian Flag and the "Canada Base" antenna. The end of a contest, once the winners have been announced, is always very anticlimactic.


P.S. Just posted Maria's pix from the International Night a few days ago - have a look!

Friday, Day 13 - Open Class Day 9, 15m&18m Class Day 8

Good Morning Canada

The preliminary scoring for yesterday is now completed. As some of the late scores came in, Jerzy slipped from 3rd overall to 4th. However, he is only 11 points away from 3rd and the podium.

Today it is incredibly hot and humid. Bad weather with thunderstorm and hail warnings is on our doorstep to the west. Nevertheless they set tasks for all classes with a grid time of 11:15 and first take off at 11:30.

The Podium is within Reach!

Another day of heavy land-outs. Particularly the cloud cover north east of Szeged where 18m and 15m had their last turnpoints, proved to be very difficult.

In 15m Class only 12 of 49 contestants completed the task. 18m Class had only two finishers. All our pilots landed out. Olga Burany, Pim and I went with Diane to retrieve Willem who had landed just 10k short of Szeged. As we got close to his landing location, we could see the Serbian border crossing. Fortunately Willem had landed on the Hungarian side of the border. The extra woman- and manpower came very handy when we needed to maneuver the glider and trailer in a soft field so we could de-rig.

Jerzy is the hero of the day! He landed 27 km short of Szeged which puts him in third place for the day with a whopping 880 points. Since there were only two finishers, the scoring is basically like a distance day with a minimum amount of speed points. Right now, the overall score shows him in 3rd place, only 13 points behind 2nd place. Depending where Uys Jonkers from South Africa landed, Jerzy will either maintain third position or slip to 4th or 5th. In any case, I believe this is the best result of any Canadian in the Worlds in at least the last 30 years. We are all very excited and are keeping our fingers crossed!

It is questionable if tomorrow will be a flying day. Today's scores could very well be the final scores of these Worlds.

Task Delta

This morning at the meeting we were given tasks A and B of 435 km and 375 km.  The weather man then gave his briefing and said cloud base would probably be in the 1000 m range and maybe 1200.  He also pointed out a large area of high cloud to the east that would be tracking over the task area for both the A and B tasks.  I wondered if the task-setter had actually talked to the weatherman before he dreamed up these tasks.

Soon after the meeting a task C was devised that was 299 km, but still in the direction of the high cloud to the north east, and then once we were on the grid task D was announced that kept us closer in to the home field and was 294 km.  The final legs still went to the north east, and guess where most people landed out today! 

The first few legs went well, and I was able to keep with the gaggle.  On the fourth leg we came back towards Szeged and there was a large area of shade to the east and a large blue hole to cross to get to the a few cu just before Szeged.  After crossing the blue hole. the 15 meter gaggle worked some weak lift to get enough height to cross the shade and connect with cu to the east.  Some left low and went for it, and it seems that this worked for them.  From this point I was now at the tail end and could always see them one climb and a 1000 ft higher. Just before the fourth turnpoint I was down to 1300 AGL and was able to work my way back up to 1900 and attempted to reconnect with a gaggle ahead of me, but I got there too low and couldn't climb away.

The field was good and right beside the main highway, so the retrieve was quick.  Steve Burany joined Virginia on the retrieve and Olga went on the retrieve for Willem.

On Task

All Canadian competitors have started and are on task.
After several changes, the tasks are:

Open Class: Task A - 3:30 area task - 283.7 / 467.6 km, with the second turn area in Serbia.
18m Class: Task D - 289 km assigned speed task
15m Class: Task D - 294.6 km assigned speed task

The tasks for 15m and 18m posted on the contest website are incorrect.

Dave's SPOT shows him just around the second turnpoint.
Jerzy's SPOT data are too sensitive at this point to publicize.

Since it got pretty dark to the east, I went to the hangar to keep track of satellite data and radar. However, so far, there is nothing of significance.

Stay tuned...

Dave's Day 6

Yesterday we managed to get a task in, although it was low and weak.  Cloudbase peaked at 3000 AGL and while we had some good 3 kt climbs, the majority were less than 2 kts.  I averaged 1.5 kts for the day.

On course, I thought I was doing reasonably well and was flying with a group of gliders, but I was with a slow group and placed poorly on the day.  One of the problems I am having is deviating too much while on course.  Yesterday for example I flew an extra 30 kms beyond my scored distance, and for a two hour task this equates to 15 km/hr - just about the amount the winner was faster than me.

After the second turn area, we were able to run a street most of the way home with a tailwind, but then it abruptly ended with about 25 km left to go and I was at 1500 ft.  With little in the way of cloud options, I turned towards one cloud on the way to the home airport with the thought that if all else fails, I'll land there without making the steering point.  The final cloud offered 0.5 kts lift, that I worked for 500 feet and that gave me just enough to get around the checkpoint and home.

Thursday Day 12 - Contest Day 7 15m/18m, Contest Day 8 for Open Class

Good Morning Canada!

What was a clear sky this morning is now filling in with mid level cu / strato cu cloud. The forecast is calling for weak conditions. In light of this it seems strange that the organizers have set very large tasks with over 430 km for 15m on task A with task B not much smaller.

In the meantime they have issued tasks C for 15m and 18m but there still seems to be a disconnect between the forecast weather and the task expectations.

The grid will close at 11:15 with the first launch planned for 11:30.

It looks like this will be the last contest day of the 31st Worlds since we are expecting a system to move through tomorrow.

International Night

This evening was the International Night which was great fun as it gave everyone the opportunity to meet pilots and crews from other teams in a relaxed atmosphere while we were sampling the many foods and drinks some teams offered as as specialties of their home countries.Czechs had excellent beer and wonderful cold cuts, the French had the best cheese and select wines, the Swiss had the most healthy food, the Americans had the freest food and the Brits had the most amazing mint punch. We figured that not too many people would like seal meat so we didn't bring any.Maria captured the evening with her camera. We will add the photos later.
The Stewards Brian and Frauke


Talk to you all tomorrow

Day 11 Digest

The weather turned out to be better than expected and would probably have been good enough to set a task for 18m Class as well. Almost the entire 15m Class completed the task.

Dave's speed was a bit disappointing, causing him to slip one place to 35th. The good news is, he is only two points behind Mauricio Delfabro from Argentina and the next 4 places up are within 229 points. Daily score; Overall score.

These are the contest days each class has had up to now:

Open Class: 7 Contest Days
18 m Class: 6 Contest Days
15m Class: 6 Contest Days

Dave is back!

Dave just landed at the contest site - stand by for speed and points

Dave on Task

Dave started 80 minutes ago at 14:57. He was one of the early starters, let's hope this works out. The weather is actually quite nice with cu and a cool northwesterly breeze.

The SPOT shows him on the second leg, heading for the second turn area.

Update: Dave just radioed in that he is around the second turn and is heading home.

Wednesday - Day 11

Good Morning Canada!

A cold front went through overnight and we woke up to gray skies. They canceled the day for Open and 18m class but since 15m is one contest day short and there is a small window of possibly soarable weather behind the front, they just announced a 2 hr area task for the 15m class. First launch is planned for 14:00. Quite likely, this is just going to be a gridding exercise. Stay tuned...

Day 10 Results - Canadians slip by one position

Jerzy had a good run, achieving a speed of 113.3 kph. Unfortunately the winner of the day, Wolfgang Janowitsch from Austria was about 5 kph faster, so Jerzy lost 81 points against the winner which caused him to slide back into overall 6th place. This is still an excellent position, particularly since Jerzy remains within easy striking distance of 4th place, only 40 points ahead. But he also has Janowitsch breathing down his neck, 57 points behind him.

Dave unfortunately had a slow day. But in the overall standing he slipped only by one place from 33rd to 34th.

Too Slow!

Today was the best soaring day of the contest with thermals up to 5 kts and 5500 ft, but it also had its challenges and some of them got me.  Before the start we were able to get to about 4500, but the lift in our start area was weak as it was along the first leg and into the first turn area.  I decided to turn early, since the second turnpoint was still 150 km away and the leg home another 100 km.

On the second leg there was a large blue hole and I had some trouble getting across and was down to about 1500 AGL and dumped some of my water before I was able to climb away.  Once across the hole towards Romania, the cu re-appered and there was good lift and some streeting.


On the leg home, the cloudstreets were just about 90 degrees to our course line, so we had to jump from street to street and it was approaching 5 pm, so I wanted to stay high because it looked like the clouds were not really pulling lift from the ground anymore.

At some point on the leg home, I glanced at my computer and it was still showing 91 km from home, but the PDA was showing about 45 km.  I had to turn off the power to get the computer restarted and then it didn't show the correct final glide information.  I used the 1000 ft per 10 km rule of thumb to eyeball the final glide and was able to make it in from that point.  I took a couple of turns about 25 km out to make sure I was OK, but as it turns out, those turns cost me a couple of minutes and 1 km/hr or about 30 points.  My speed was way too slow for the day and my low score reflects it!

On Task

All Canadian competitors are on task. The start times are:
Willem OX: 12:57
Dave PS: 13:40
Jerzy XG: 14:01

The task for Open Class is a 427.8 km polygon, for 18m a 330 km polygon and a three and a half hour area task for 15m class with one turn area in Romania. Let's hope he doesn't land there.

Jerzy is again on the Yellow Brick live tracking, so you can follow his flight.

You can also follow Dave's SPOT track

Dave just did his second turn and is on his way back. We expect him here in one hour at 17:10.

Stay tuned...

Tuesday Day 10 - Contest Days 5 - 15m, 6 - 18m, 7 - Open

Good Morning Canada

We have blue skies but but the heat is back with a predicted high of 34 degrees. The forecast calls for isolated cu with bases of 4500 to 5500 ft for the peak hours of the day. We are fairly far east in the central European time zone which means that the sun day is ahead of the time. Based on previous experience, thermal activity dies quite quickly after 5:30 pm.

There is a weakening cold front approaching from the west which should not affect the contest area today but could shut us down tomorrow. The tactical question is how many days are going to be left.

Our gliders are on the grid - take off will be 11:45am

Day 9 Results - Jerzy in 5th Place!

The weather man was too optimistic again today but the task setting was conservative enough to compensate for it. There were no land-outs today in the Canadian Team. It felt great to just welcome our pilots back, pack up, go for dinner and then retire.

Jerzy was a bit down at the dinner table because he thought he had made a tactical mistake and lost precious time. The score showed him in 29th place for the day with 801 points. I am sure the problems with his Cambridge computer just before launch didn't help to put him into a good frame of mind.

We were overjoyed when we looked at the overall scores for the competition after dinner, to find Jerzy had actually moved up from 6th place to 5th place despite being a bit slow today.

Willem felt better today and completed the Open Class task.

Thanks for all your encouraging messages. Please keep them coming or post comments to the blog - I will relay them to the pilots. They help a lot to keep the spirits up as we go into the final stage of this race!

Slow flight but I moved to 5th

To my surprise I moved to 5th , I expected that my poor result will put me out of 10, but it looks that other competitors were slow as well and it helped me to survive in the first ten .
Four days to go, two pilots ahead of me blocking 3rd position, but spread points is very small behind me and those pilots are pushing hard.
Jerzy

61km/h in 18 meter glider

61km/h was average speed during yesterdays task until we landed in the field.
I don't know how we were able to fly in such conditions , very weak thermals spaced 20km apart 10-20 gliders working together to find thermals. We were not able to climb higher than 600-700mAGL. The last thermal was the thermal which decided about results. Long low final glide to the field. At 200m we were still cruising covering an extra 5km.  I arrived close to our third turnpoint found a nice field and landed close to the road. Just 5 minutes later a British pilot Phil Jones landed beside me. To my surprise my crew Maria and George showed up just one hour after my landing report , retrieve was without any problems.

Tail End Charlie

As we were sitting at the airport restaurant for dinner tonight the last 15 m trailer from yesterday's mass landout rolled onto the airport 25 hours after landing in Serbia.

Apparently the Serbian police were very helpful and provided an english translator and a dedicated phone for him to use from the police station to assist in the retrieve. 

There were two problems that caused the late arrival:

1.  He landed in a field that was a long way off the main roads and was basically impossible to drive into with the car.


2.  He was again held up at the Serbian border on the return trip for about 4 hours as they wanted to know why he didn't return last night with everyone else.

 I saw a lot of wet, muddy and inaccessible fields in the 20 km before I landed. Sure glad I picked a dry hay field beside a major road and between two relatively large towns that were "easy" to find.

Day 9 - Contest Day 5 for 18m / Contest Day 6 for Open Class

Good Morning Canada!

It is a nice summer day here in Szeged with a lovely northwesterly breeze. It is a mainly blue day with only a few isolated cu showing. The concern is that things may be fairly stable. Jerzy, our 18m pilot and Willem in Open Class are both on task. After the mass land-out with late (early?) returns, 15m has a rest day.

The organizers faced pretty stiff criticism for their task setting at the Team Captains' meeting this morning. They promised for the rest of the contest to set the tasks in such a way that landing out in Serbia or Romania is unlikely.

Both, Open and 18m classes have a 3 hr area task. We expect Willem back shortly before 5p and Jerzy at 5:30, local time (EDT +6)

Jerzy, being in 6th place was selected to carry one of the Yellow Brick trackers that enables live tracking with a 15 minute delay on the internet.
You can follow his flight through the live tracking section of the contest website.

There was a bit of a panic before the launch of the 18m class this morning because the Cambridge 304 in XG was not working. Fortunately, after having turned everything off for a while, it started working again. We think it was just an overheating issue.

Contest Day 4 (Open 5) Results

So far, the task setters have consistently overestimated the conditions and over-called the days. Well, now they hit the jackpot: On Sunday none of the contestants in any class completed the task. The 15m class had a mass landout in Serbia with more than 45 gliders.

I went out with Virginia to retrieve Dave from a field near a town called Kikinda. It took us two hours to cross the border into Serbia and one and a half hours to cross back into Hungary. The GPS has no database for Serbia and refuses to accept coordinates for areas that are not covered by its database - stupid. The only map we had was the contest aviation chart. The roads are terrible, sometimes just ending in a field, the road signs are mostly in Cyrillic and we couldn't find anybody who spoke English or German. Nevertheless, we found Dave around midnight and de-rigged the ASW-27 in record time while the mosquitoes tried to suck us dry. Fortunately, Dave had made a very retrieve friendly landing close to a "major" road. This morning at the Team Captains' meeting I heard horror stories of gliders still being stuck in muddy fields that are inaccessible by car.

By 3:30 this morning we were back in the hotel.

One of the more interesting experiences was with a police man, who flagged us down, talked to us in Serbian and got into the car with us. After about 50 km, he said "stop here - thanks" and jumped out. Later we learned that hitchhiking is the routine way of commuting for police officers in this part of Serbia.

Leaving the EU territory for the Republic of Serbia

About two hours after arriving at the border to Serbia we are all set to go again

Jerzy who had landed out in Hungary about 50 km from Szeged was retrieved by Maria and George.

From a scoring perspective the day was quite successful for the Canadian Team:

Jerzy placed 9th for the day with 933 points which puts him into 6th place out of 51 in the overall score, up one place from the day before.

Dave placed 19th for the day with 916 points which improves his overall score by 4 places to 31st out of 49.

Both results are still preliminary since particularly in 15m, ten contestants have not been scored yet.

Due to the mass land-out of 15m in Serbia and the late returns, they have declared a rest day for 15m on Monday.

Mass Landout!

Yesterday, they managed to do it - land out every single glider in the contest - and the icing on the cake was that about 45 out 49 in the 15 m class landed in Serbia.  There were previously problems getting crews across the border for retrieves and yesterday was no exception.

I landed in a field with 6 other gliders at 1820 and 6 hours later the crews arrived for the 60 km retrieve after spending over 2 hours at the border and navigating their way through the maze of poorly signed roads.  On the way home there was another 1.5 hour delay at the Serbian border as all the pilots had to wait in line and fill out paperwork to leave.

 The first three gliders in the field

The next three gliders behind me

To say that the tasks were over called again yesterday is a gross understatement.  The forecast weather was for 4-6 kts lift to about 5500 ft and cloud streets.  In reality it was 1-2 kt  to about 3000 ft and mostly blue.  My trace shows I averaged 1.3 kts for the flight for 41% of the time.  EDIT:  I just read on the Aussie blog that their open class pilot didn't fare any better yesterday, 1.1 kt average for 37% of the time!

The task was originally set at 360 km for the 15 m class going deep in to Serbia.  After the morning meeting, I asked the weatherman some questions about the mid-level cloud over Serbia and he said it should move out, but there was also 50 mm of rain in the area last night and the ground would be wet.  During the meeting, the Irish pilot, asked the CD why the 15 m class was being sent on a task to Serbia when the weather was obviously weaker in that sector.  The reply was that they thought it would be OK.  On the grid, a new task was issued to us I think, as a result of these two questions.  It was shortened to 330 km and moved a little further north from the wettest corner of Serbia.  This task changed probably shaved at least two hours off the retrieves!


We finally arrived home and were in bed just after 4 AM and fortunately, today is a rest day for the 15 m class.

As I was on tow and approaching release altitude, the clouds did not look much higher than 2000 ft,  After release I found that bases were 2200.  It took a long time for them to rise and by 2 pm they peaked at around 3300 AGL.  Shortly afterward, about 30 km into the task it went mostly blue with a few wisps marking what some might consider to be thermals!

When it took two hours to get to the first turnpoint 120 km away, I knew we now had a distance day on our hands and with the weak lift it was a gaggle day.

During the flight, I was able to keep with the gaggle which is both a blessing and problem all at the same time.  I am sure we had 25 gliders in the gaggle and typically they were working two thermals, usually with over-lapping circles.  Staying with the gaggle was the only way to go yesterday and netted me 915 points for the day.

Many thanks to Virginia and Joerg who endured the border, roads, and mosquitoes to get me back home on what has to be my most epic retrieve ever!

Canadian Team on Task

It is a nice day with lots of cu. They changed the task for 15m class in order not to go so far into Serbia. All our pilots started shortly before 2p. Willem (OX) returned because he wasn't feeling well.

We are expecting Jerzy and Dave back between 5 and 6p. Dave's SPOT of 4p shows him just having rounded the first turnpoint. Now he is on his second leg down into Serbia. I am a bit concerned because the cu seem to be drying up and the bases don't seem to be rising as one would expect in the peak hours of the day. At 2:30p there were nice cloud streets with solid bases. Now at 4p I see small, ragged cu hanging in the haze. Let's hope that all will work out and we don't have to go on a retrieve in Serbia.

Day 8 - Contest Day 4 (5 Open Class)

Good Morning Canada!

We woke up to blue skies this morning. For the first time since the start of the competition the weather seems to be uniformly good all across the Hungarian contest area without cirrus, mid level cloud or precipitation. However, there is still some mid level cloud hanging back over Serbia and that's where the 15m Class will be going today! Dave is certainly not happy about this. According to forecast northern Serbia should clear as well before the 15m competitors get there - hopefully it will work out.

All tasks are assigned tasks:

15m: 364 km (first on the grid)
18m: 360 km (last on the grid)
Open: 438 km (launch parallel with 15m)

First launch has been announced for 11:30 am

Results Contest Day 3 (Open 4)

For the second day in a row Jerzy has maintained 7th place in the overall results which means he is flying among world champions. Congratulations, Jerzy!

However, as he says, there are some big names behind him, so he will be hard pressed. For example, the defending 18m world champion, Olivier Darroze is currently in 12th place  and will be pushing hard to get ahead.

Dave made it around but unfortunately was a bit slow which landed him in 28th place for the day. In the overall results he still managed to improve his standing by 5 places from 40th to 35th place.

Dave's Days 2 and 3

 Day 2

I didn't have much time last night to write about yesterday's flight, but the big problem we had was cirrus shutting down large areas of the sky.  A thick band had passed through and was moving east towards our third turnpoint and I had 1:30 hrs left to cover 200 km, so I decided to turn for the third leg.  In hindsight, this was a poor tactical decision as part way along the third leg, I caught up to the shade from the cirrus and from there it was a smooth glide for another 20 km until I landed out.  I think those who managed longer distances, flew further into the second cylinder allowing them to connect with a few cu to the north and this also allowed the cirrus to move further away from the third turn.  In the 15m class only two made it home out of 49.

Day 3

Today was another tough day, and once again, the 15m class had the worst of it.  The 18 m guys had one turnpoint in the low weak stuff to the west, while the 15 m had the first two turnpoints in the bad stuff and Jerzy thinks that 100 km/hr was slow!  As you can see from my baragraph trace, we were not that high for most of those two legs, in general working around 2000 AGL and less than 1 kt average climbs.  For most of the time on the second leg I was with a large gaggle of gliders, there were probably 20-30 of us struggling to stay airborne.

When we finally got back to the east, a little north of Szeged, things got better again and we were able to climb back up to 4000 in 3-4 kt thermals.  After this point it was a pretty straight forward glide under some large streets.  As you can see from the route below, my last climb was just before the third turn area and then it was pretty much a clear run home climbing under the streets with no need to circle.

100km/h was slow today

Best speed in 18M class 111 km/h with 500m AGL cloud base in the first cylinder.
Very weak West part of the task then improving to the East and approaching thunderstorm from the West. Because of high speeds in my class each km/h is very expensive. Still hanging in the first 10, but big names just behind me. It looks that 18M class flies faster then open.
Jerzy

Update 2

Dave just radioed in saying he is around the third turn. Jerzy is at our base radio giving guidance based on local weather optics. Keep your fingers crossed...

...euphoria in the Canadian camp: Just got word that Dave is 15 km out with plenty of height to make it!

After heavy land-outs on the first day and a mass land-out yesterday, it feels good for a change not to have to go on a retrieve!

Dave is happy he is among the 32 out of 49 15m pilots who made it back on a tricky day.

Update

Jerzy just radioed in saying he is on final glide. We are all overjoyed!

Dave still has 100 k to go. I am watching the radar with concern, trying to steer him clear of some intensifying rain showers on his third leg and in the vicinity of his last turn area. He is flying in a gaggle that seems to comprise the whole 15m class. Stay tuned...

O.K. - Jerzy just landed back at the contest site after completing the task - bravo Jerzy!

I am hearing raindrops on the roof of the hangar -- hmm.

Here is the radar pic from 30 minutes ago:


Of concern are the small cells in the SE of the country

Tasks

18 m Class Task B is a two and a half hour area task with 3 turn areas and the control point 10k south of Szeged that lines them all up for a finish from the south. The distances are 202 km minimum, 383 km max. I expect that most pilots will finish close to the minimum distance.


15 m Class Task C is a two hour area task with 3 turn areas and the control point. The distances are 164 km minimum, 344 km maximum.

Day 7 - Contest Day 3/4

Good Morning Canada

It looks like we have another difficult day on our hands. The weather forecasts this morning were not very positive but we had hopes they would be wrong when we saw nice cu developing around the Szeged area at noon. Unfortunately, the tops just kept going up and now it looks like it will be over-developing anytime soon. There is rain and lightning west of the Danube which is to the west of here. Although the first leg for all classes goes to the west, they can turn well short of the showers. So far there is no precip in the eastern task area.

As of 13:50 the start gates for all classes are open. Jerzy and Willem are on task. Willem encountered dropping cloud bases on the first leg to the west and has announced that he is abandoning the task and will return to Szeged.

Initially both the A and B tasks for 15m were set almost completely into Serbia but fortunately, the organizers reconsidered and announced a C task that at least keeps them in Hungary. The crossing of the Serbian border for a retrieve, although a lot smoother now, is still an adventure and one never knows what will happen.

The tasks today are fairly short, so let's keep our fingers crossed that Jerzy and Dave complete their tasks and make it back!

Day 6 - Contest Day 2/3 Digest

To say the day was over-called would be an understatement.

15m Class had 2 finishers out of a total of 49 competitors
18m Class had 9 finishers out of 51 contestants
Open Class had 7 finishers out of 43.

The weather pushing in from the west started to cut off thermals in mid afternoon just as most pilots were on their way to the third turnpoint NE of Szeged.

As the cirrus thickened, the calls came in to get the trailers ready.

Seeing no chance of getting much further, Willem decided to call it quits on the third leg and to struggle back to Szeged after 132 km on task. Diane was glad not to have to go on a retrieve again.

The 15m Class was last to be launched and to start. From the time perspective alone, they didn't have much chance to complete the task since the day was forecast to quit early. Dave ran out of lift and landed in a good field on the third leg 70 km north east of Szeged with a distance of 143 km.

Jerzy is the hero of the day in the Canadian camp. It took him almost 4 hrs to complete the 2:30 area task. For the longest time we didn't hear anything from him, until he called in to announce he will try to make it to the airport at the control point (about 10km from Szeged).
I was in the car at the time on the way to retrieve Dave. Not long after Jerzy's last transmission my mobile rang and Jerzy told me he had completed the task and made it back to Szeged. This really made my day - wow!

Jerzy finished in 7th place for the day in 18m Class. There were only nine finishers in this class today. Congratulations Jerzy!! :-)

The total scores for all days so far, are not reliable yet because data are still arriving as crews arrive.

Day 2 18M

Today we had 2.5 hour task with minimum distance over 300km so no chance to finish task on time .
I started early in group of four gliders . Cirrus was approaching from the west with some windows of blue sky.First turn turn area we reached low but found 1.5 m/s thermal and slowly with the wind went for second area with large deviation to the north , then very long glide to
250 meters AGL then slow climb to 700m and again long glide. After second turn area ,chances to get home were very small, full cover of thick cirrus and no Cu clouds. Finaly at 200m just above edge of town I was able to climb to 750m AGLwith 300m below final glide slope. I followed some frontal clouds and had some low sink, after steering point 10km from the airport I decided that I will land just short of airport but in finish cylinder. But area of low sink helped me again and I finished the task.
I moved in to first 10 after day two . Still 7 days to go and all can happen. Worlds are unpredictable, all can change and rotation of places is very frequent.
Jerzy

Contest Day 2/3

Looks like this will be contest day 2 for the 15m and 18m Classes and contest day 3 for Open Class. We are now on task B for 15m and 18m.

Open Task A:

15m Task Bravo

18m Task Bravo
All our pilots are airborne. Jerzy and Willem have started. The start gate for 15m opened 7 minutes ago at 13:56, so I expect Dave to start shortly. All tasks have a short leg to the west and long legs to the NE, into the eastern part of Hungary.

The concern is an approaching weather system that is already spreading high cloud into the Szeged region which is visible as a layer of cirrus. However, at this point, there are still cu showing under the cirrus. The edge of the heavier cloud is still west of the western turnpoints and we are all hoping our pilots will complete the western part of the task before the crud moves in.


There is also a band of rain west of the Danube but it has dissipated over the past few hours.

Another Day another Chance

Good Morning Canada

It is a sunny day here in Szeged but there is a strong breeze from the south. At 11:30 there is no sign of convection around the airport, although there are some cu showing in the distance in the north. Grid time is 11:45 with a possible first launch at 12:00 noon. All our pilots and crews are out at the grid ready to go. The forecast is calling for a few cu with a base of 1000 - 1500 meters, going up to 1500 - 2000 meters in the peak hours of the afternoon (14:30 - 15:30).

Task A for all classes are assigned tasks with 356 km for Open, 353 km for 18m and 304 km for 15m. Open Class and 18m Class are to launch first, 15m following.

There was a gaggling problem yesterday, so they set very different tasks for Open and 18m today to spread out the field.

There is also a new finish procedure with a 3 km finish circle and a minimum height in response to the terrible accident yesterday.

Dave's Day 1

I had trouble climbing away from tow and had to take a relight which wasn't much better, but I did manage to get to 3000 feet and then into the start cylinder where I thought a nice looking cloud would get me to start height.  I couldn't find any lift under it and nothing else was close by, so I started at 2000 feet and headed out on course.

Five km on course I was down to 1000 feet and the water was all gone. I managed to climb away and make my way around the course and caught up to some of the guys who started 15 minutes before me.  In the end we were all too late and ran out of day about 6o km from home.  The last climb to 4000 provided enough height to glide closer to home, but not to the finish line!

First Contest Day for 15/18m - Digest

"Canada Base" is providing weather and other tactical information to the Canadian pilots while on task.

It turned out to be a tough day. Dave and Willem landed out on the last leg, Dave about 30km short and Willem 16 km from home. Jerzy made it around but said it was very tough. Dave’s relight of course, caused him to start rather late. The 15m start gate opened at 13:20 and Dave didn’t start until 14:15. The early starters apparently also had problems, so Dave managed to catch up with some 15m guys of the German team.
The results: Open Class, 18m Class, 15m Class

Dave ran out of day and landed 30 km short in a farmer's field.

Willem found a good field and was picked up by Diane, Pim and George.
Photos by George Eckschmiedt.

Sadly, there was a bad accident at the contest site, just as we hooked up the trailer for OX. A glider came in so low that it hit a truck or bus on the road that runs outside the airport fence. The glider then cart-wheeled into the fence which is wire mesh between massive 10 ft high concrete posts with barbed wire on top. Everything on the glider was broken – wings and fuselage, except the cockpit. I saw the canopy open, so I hope the pilot is o.k. I felt helpless as I watched it happen. I didn’t even have a radio to call in a mayday. It seemed to take forever until emergency vehicles appeared.

We later learned that the pilot apparently was not badly injured however the driver of the truck is in serious condition.

18M First Contest Day

It was challenging day today, weak lift with hard to centre core.
I started right on time had good run to second turn point, but I kept to much water for too long .
Large group of gliders were flying together and it was very hard to centre thermal with heavy glider.
On final glide I noticed that I'm 300'under slope 30km from finish and no chance to get extra lift before last turn point. I had to deviate 4km to dying cloud ,but lucky me I climbed extra 600'and made home losing 10 minutes ,but I finished. Other pilots which didn't deviate landed 8 km short of finish line some just 300m from edge of the field. Unfortunately Australian pilot from 15 M class was low over road and had collision with truck. No full information as yet.
Dave and Willem landed out , their crew are on the way to pick them up. In 15M class only small group of pilots finished.
Jerzy

Trouble in Paradise

Dave just called in to hook up the trailer because with his late start he doubts he will make it around. We have already seen a fair number of trailers go out. Both US 15m guys are down. Let's all keep our fingers crossed. You can follow Dave's progress on his Spot trace.

Day 5 - Open Class Contest Day 2, 15/18m Contest Day 1

Good Morning Canada

Weather at 4pm local time: It is a sunny day with good cu but there is also thickening cirrus pushing in from the west as the next system is approaching. There are still cu under the cirrus but they look a bit sick

We have assigned speed tasks for all classes:
Open Class: 5 turnpoint polygon, 379 km
18m Class: 5 turnpoint polygon, 337 km
15m Class: 5 turnpoint polygon, 334 km

The last turnpoint is about 10 km north of the contest site with the purpose to line all the traffic up for the finish.

The launch started at 12:30 into a blue sky with weak convective activity. Pretty soon there were huge gaggles with gliders struggling below release height. There was a steady stream of relights.

Dave fell out but was cleared to land on the hard surface runway which allowed him to keep his water. We had him back in the air a few minutes later.

All our pilots are on task and must have rounded the first turnpoint, perhaps also the second since they are coming back into radio range. The first two turnpoints are to the northwest and west of Szeged. Turnpoints 3 & 4 are to the east and northeast of the contest site. Once they have passed the second turnpoint, things should get a little easier since the cirrus is pushing in from the west. From the airfield here in Szeged we see good cu to the east and northeast. To the west it looks now pretty blue with a few ragged cu under the cirrus.

Let’s hope for the best.

Day 4 - Canceled

We woke up to a gentle drizzle this morning. A grid time was announced and task sheets were handed out at the pilots' meeting. The cancellation at the end of the meeting came as a bit of a surprise, particularly since XC Skies showed the potential for a soarable window for this afternoon. In fact, the sky is clearing and the sun is coming out.

A number of Open Class gliders landed out in Serbia yesterday. Some pilots and crews didn't come back to Szeged until 3am this morning. Apparently, the Serbian authorities had o.k'd flights into Serbian airspace but the fact that gliders would actually land there had taken them by surprise. Consequently, there was intense scrutiny of all documentation at the border. We learned that it is necessary to have all documentation for pilot, crew, car, trailer and glider handy. It may be a good strategy to send out a car for the pilots, so they are back in time to get sufficient sleep and deal with the retrieve of the glider separately. After all, Hungary is the south eastern frontier of the European Union and its borders with Serbia and Romania are also the borders of the EU.

Ferenc and Dezso, our local radio experts showed up this morning with a new antenna for us. Very generously they declined to be compensated - even for the materials.

The team will take care of housekeeping chores, such as laundry, shopping, etc today. After so many rain days, there is a danger that pilots and crews may have trouble switching back into competition mode, when the weather turns good - something we need to watch for.

Day 3 Results

While 15m never got off the ground and the 18m task was canceled just before the scheduled opening of the 18m start gate, Open Class actually got a contest day in.
Two Danish pilots flying an ASH 25 and a Nimbus 4 made it around. Everyone else either landed out or started the auxiliary engine at some point in the task to fly home. There was a rumor going around saying that a Russian competitor was stuck in a muddy field in Serbia.

The day was of course heavily de-rated with the finishers receiving approximately 470 points. I am saying "approximately" because the day factors will only be final when all the scores are in and there still seem to be some missing. Click here for the Open Class score sheet.

Interesting to note that even a 42 km "lawn dart" yielded over 100 points or 21% of the winner's score. A 100 km flight, which for an Open Class glider means one climb after the start, yielded 250 points, over 50% of the winner's score.

With rain showers all around the field, the 15m Class is being towed back from the grid to the tie-down area.

18m Class lands back at the field after the task is canceled.

All photos property of Maria Szemplinska

Day 3 Update

Another very difficult day for the organizers to call.

18m and Open Class were launched, 15m never got off the ground. The 18m task was canceled just before their gate opened but Open Class went on task. Some of them are still flying and we are following the progress on screens in the airfield restaurant. The people from "Yellow Brick" arrived yesterday and installed some live trackers in the gliders of the top pilots. The can be viewed here:

15 meter Class:
http://gliding.adventuretracking.com/GliderCompetition/WGC2010-15m

18 meter Class:
http://gliding.adventuretracking.com/GliderCompetition/WGC2010-18m

Open Class:
http://gliding.adventuretracking.com/GliderCompetition/WGC2010-open

I am sure the organizers' rationale for sending the Open Class on task was that the majority of them have engines and can come back without landing out if they get rained down. Unfortunately Willem, our Open Class pilot, is flying a pure glider and didn't have that option. Looking at a dense line of rain showers on course and a pretty certain off field landing, Willem decided to call it a day and to return to the field. He is also flying an 18m plane in Open Class which is o.k. in strong conditions. But in conditions like today, the big Open Class ships with up to 28m wingspan and glide ratios of over 60:1 have the legs to go through large dead areas behind showers and connect again on the other side.

Maria captured the situation today in a tremendous photo - I will add it later.

Day 3

Good Morning Canada

The weather today is mainly overcast with overdeveloped cumulus. Presently, there is no sun on the ground anywhere. We are simply too close to the low and it's not moving out. At the briefing this morning the weather man let slip that he doesn't see a good chance of flying today. The radar is showing some showers developing to the west of us.

Nevertheless, tasks have been announced for all classes and our gliders are all on the grid. So far first launch is planned for 1p local, one hour from now. Our pilots are resting and preparing.

Stay tuned....

The Canadian Team gets help from local HAM radio experts

Two years ago, in Luesse, we learned the hard way how important it is to be able to reach our pilots on task to relay the latest weather and other information. Based on this experience we brought a powerful ground station and materials to rig a 4m tall antenna. Unfortunately, transmitting through this antenna during the practice days yielded disappointing results. In fact our simple, quarter wave car antenna turned out to be much better.Fortunately George knows a lot about HF transmission technology. Using the internet and his Hungarian language skills, he made contact with local HAM radio experts who came out to the field today with the necessary instruments to look at our antenna. It turned out that this particular antenna isn't designed for transmitting but for receiving and scanning. What adds further to the problem is that the Canadian Team frequency with 132.025 Mhz is at the top end of the VHF aviation band while antennas are typically optimized for the 122 Mhz range.

Since not much could be done to improve our antenna, our local experts, Gyulai Dezso and Provics Ferenc were so kind to offer to build a new antenna for us in the next few days. "Canada base" should soon have a much clearer voice. Please join me in thanking Dezso and Ferenc for supporting the Canadian Team in such a tremendous way! I will make sure to relay all your comments to them.

On a different subject: We are lucky to have our very own team photographer. Many of you have probably seen Maria Szemplinska's photos in Free Flight and Soaring.

Below are a few of Maria's pictures, capturing the action on the grid, the weather and the mood today:

All gliders have to go over scales as they are being towed out to the grid. Any glider found to be over its maximum take-off weight has to drop ballast water.

The grid boss and his line crew are relaxing before the launch. Once the launch starts, they will be running flat out to hook-up and launch 145 gliders in less than 50 minutes.

145 of the world's best sailplanes are assembled at the launch grid ready to race.