Review of a flight-intensive and exciting world championship of the big classes (18-Meter, 20-Meter double-seater and Open) in Uvalde, Texas
On Saturday, August 31, the World Championships of the 18-meter, Open and 20-meter double-seater classes came to an end. With hot temperatures on the ground, the top pilots who had traveled from all over the world also delivered hot races in the air. With average speeds sometimes exceeding 160 kph and distances often greater than 600 km, it was a championship of superlatives. Average speeds of less than 130 kph were almost unheard of. The fantastic gliding conditions, with a high cloud base, strong climb rates and long energy lines, which Uvalde, located in southern Texas not far from the Mexican border, has to offer, made it possible to fly on 11 of 14 possible flight days. In the Open class, there were even 12 scoring days. 16 of the 65 participating teams relied on aircraft from Kirchheim to compete for the coveted world championship title - four of them in the 18m class and 12 in the double-seater class.
The Arcus - the proven weapon in the double-seater class
In the 16-team two-seater class, the Arcus was clearly the dominant glider. On the second day of the competition, the team of Andreas Lutz and Wolfgang Janowitsch took the first victory of the day with an Arcus. From then on, every day's victory was flown by an Arcus team - however with mostly alternating winners. The American team with Sarah Arnold and Karl Striedieck positioned themselves in first place overall with their Arcus M by flying consistently from the third day onwards, even though they conceded most of the day's victories to the others. They only won on the seventh and tenth day of the competition. Otherwise, the French team Bouderlique & de Péchy, the Dutch team Borgmann & Van Houweninge, the Australian team Woolley & Gateley or the Austrian team Lutz & Janowitsch were at the top of the daily rankings. The fact that Sarah Arnold and Karl Striedieck flew to the front of the field every day meant that they were able to maintain their first place until the end. In the end, they became world champions with their Arcus ahead of the Polish team Rubaj and Matkowski and the team from Austria. This is special in two respects, as Sarah is the first woman ever to win a world championship in the main competition and Karl is by far the oldest gliding world champion of all time at the age of 87. The Polish team was Vice World Champion with an ASG 32, Andreas Lutz and Wolfgang Janowitsch came third on the Arcus M. Apart from second place, only Arcus pilots were in the top 10 - remarkable!
Vice world champion in the 18m class
Schempp-Hirth gliders also celebrated success in the 18m class! Our former sales representative Simon Schröder flew the second Ventus-3E produced, the new electric self-launcher, and became Vice World Champion. His team partner Stefan Langer became world champion with an AS 33. The German team was able to position itself in the top places early on and Simon secured second place overall from the fourth day onwards, after a stage win on the third and a close second place on the fourth day. He was able to underpin this with another win on the seventh day and maintained this great position confidently until the end. Peter Harvey from Great Britain came 18th with his Ventus and the two Italian pilots, Stefano Ghiorzo and Thomas Gostner, came 22nd and 23rd.
We would like to thank the organizers and all the helpers, without whom such an event would not have been possible, and we congratulate the successful pilots and wish them all a safe journey home.
For more information, please visit official website:
https://wgc2024uvalde.com/38th-fai-world-gliding-championship/
