The new 18m Class World Champion Stefan Langer ready to launch at WGC Uvalde
The World Gliding Championships in Open, 18m and 20m Multi Seat classes took place at Uvalde in August.
Uvalde is located in the Texas Hill Country in South Texas 130km west of San Antonio and 87km east of the Mexico-United States border. It is in a vast landscape at a similar latitude north of the equator as Lake Keepit is south. Surrounded by low hills and plateaus, it is a legendary open country soaring site.
The Texas Hill Country sits in between the American Southwest and Southeast with weather influences coming from all over the continent. Powerful sea breezes are sucked far inland from the long stretch of the Gulf of Mexico and meet air flowing east from the mountain ranges to the west. Huge thunderclouds form with the potential for powerful squall lines and tornadoes.
Cumulus can fill the sky from horizon to horizon, but the large distances ensure that the weather in the task area is never uniform.
The championships took place in high summer when temperatures on the ground were regularly 40 degrees and more. Not surprisingly, large tasks for all three classes were set on 12 racing days. This contest was a test of stamina, pace and planning as well as soaring skill.
Pilots from 24 countries flew in the competition. After a week of practice, the first day of the contest finally got underway. The Open Class gliders had a 528km racing task, with a 533km task for 18m class. Multi Seat class had 530km nominal Assigned Area Task. These big tasks on the first day demonstrated that Uvalde was a great site for a big wing championships.
A Marathon, Not a Sprint
On the second day, 500km-plus tasks were once again set, which emphasised that this was going to be a marathon, not a sprint, with the prospect of many long days in the air to come with very hot conditions on the ground.
New Gliders in Open Class
In Open Class, Claudio Schmidt from Brazil was flying his interesting Nixus. The Nixus is a one-off glider designed by Brazilian aerospace engineer Professor Paulo Iscold. He built the Nixus Project sailplane with help from his students at California Polytechnic State University. It is a 28m glider with a 53.3 to 1 aspect ratio, and Fly By Wire ailerons.
Apart from the Nixus, all the other gliders in Open Class were JS or EB gliders. The new JS5 had its first outing at a WGC with four of them flying in the class. Attie Jonker was of course flying a JS5, his newest creation. There were also five EB29Rs flying, and the remaining competitors all flew JS1s.
While this championships was clearly going to be a display of how these gliders performed against each other, it is not just the performance of the machine that determines the outcome, but the pilots as well. Many top WGC pilots were at Uvalde, including reigning World Champion Felipe Levin and fellow German and previous World Champion Michael Sommer, both flying EB29s.
After a long wait to launch the grid due to the day’s slow start, the gliders were launched at what seemed to be the latest time possible, while still leaving enough time to complete the race before the end of daylight.
The contest director would have been under considerable pressure to hold a race. It was a WGC, after all. But the tasks were clearly going to take right up to sunset and it was therefore uncertain if they were feasible.
The Open Class pilots were the first to set off on track. They left as soon as the start gate opened. Most of the class soon found themselves below 2,000ft AGL. At the end of the day, six of the Multi Seat class had started their motors. Everyone landed about 15 minutes before sunset.
Changeable Weather
For Race 5, the Multi Seat class was sent on a 4-hour Assigned Area Task. The live tracking showed climbs were averaging a consistent 4 to 6kts to over 8,000ft.
However, after a good race the day before, the weather for Race 6 was challenging. It was a low and slow day, but Australians Adam Woolley and Keith Gateley completed the 623.25 km task at 104.01 kph, finishing the day in 13th place.
On the Podium Again
Race 7 went well again for Adam and Keith in Multi Class. They finished in 3rd position flying 407.66km at 149.71 kph. After Race 8 the next day, Adam and Keith were back on the podium, this time in 1st place for their second Day Win.
The championships were clearly difficult - but what distances and what speeds the competitors had been achieving! However, the next day was a forced rest day due to adverse weather.
Looming Storms
With just three racing days to go, the jostle for podium positions was hotting up. Everything was to play for, but the weather for the final days was looking difficult.
The pilots at the top of the table would not have wanted to take any chances and did not want the weather to turn the race into a throw of the dice. But, by the time the gliders started launching for the Race 9, rain could be seen in the distance.
After the launch, storms loomed up from the east and headed straight for the task area. Staying in the air, avoiding rain, turbulence and strong wind became the only tactic.
Many gliders, even those with engines, were forced to outland due either to severe weather or to running out of fuel. One glider was forced to land in a lake. The landing and evacuation went well, but when local ranchers attempted to retrieve it from the water, the electrics caught fire and they pushed it back in.
The highest score for all classes was achieved by Claudio Schmidt in the Nixus, flying 341km and gaining 671 points. On some days, there is no substitute for span. Thankfully, there were no accidents or injuries.
Penultimate Day
Australian Matthew Scutter finished Race 10 in 8th place, gaining 914 points that kept him close to the leaders, but it would have taken an epic fail on the last race for Matthew to have ended up on the final podium.
The final race gave Matthew his first ever Day Win at a World Gliding Championship. He gained 1,000 points to finish in 5th place overall.
No one was able to challenge the near faultless performances of German pilots Stefan Langer and Simon Schröder, who took 1st and 2nd places in 18m class. Christophe Abadie, France and Jeroen Verkuijl, Netherlands were also ahead of Matthew in a fiercely fought contest.
In 20m Multi Seat class, Adam Woolley and Keith Gateley came 5th in the final race, finishing in 4th place overall just 15 points behind Lutz and Janowitsch, Austria in 3rd, Rubaj and Matkowski, Poland in 2nd and Arnold and Striedieck, USA – the new World Gliding Champions.
WGC 18m, Open, 20M
UVALDE TEXAS
18 - 30 August 2024
18M Class
1 GER Stefan Langer AS 33 Me 9,843
2 GER Simon Schröder Ventus 3e 9,636
3 FRA Christophe Abadie JS3 9,592
20m Two Seat
1 USA Arnold & Striedieck Arcus M 9,616
2 POL Rubaj & Matkowski ASG 32 Mi 9,552
3 AUT Lutz & Janowitsch Arcus M 9,499
Open Class
1 GER Felipe Levin EB 29R 10,887
2 GER Michael Sommer EB29R 10,782
3 FRA Laurent Aboulin JS1C 21m 10,485
Full results at soaringspot.com tinyurl.com/wgcuvalde
