Team USA Report – JWGC Contest Day 12-13

The penultimate day of the contest – and our 9th flying day. We were treated to cumulus fields again today with drying from the west later in the afternoon and chance of overdevelopment and showers to the south, with some chance of high cirrus encroaching from the south.. The task for both classes was an east-west flattened cat's cradle of 430km for Club class and 505km for Standard. Tasks were long enough that most pilots started reasonably early without too much of the dreaded start game roulette. Our club class pilots started 10 minutes after the gate opened, with standard starting 3 minutes after their gate opened some 15 minutes later. Fatigue is starting to creep in now and Groundhog Day syndrome is a real factor – the pilots are all in good spirits and maintaining a great attitude. We are maintaining our regular routine – flight debrief and planning in the morning. The wind was a little more brisk than yesterday at 15-25kph westerly which made getting low consequential – hard to get back up again with slower climbs.

Our club class pilots had a mixed day with David and Steven both getting separated from their partners and missing climbs or opportunities to gear change and Jacob managing to stay high making it around fairly comfortably. I don't think I've ever seen terrain more friendly to land outs – large flat cut crop fields everywhere – (See Stevens land out photo here).

In Standard Class Thomas continued his strong push for the lead and managed a 7th day placing at 963 points – it is very close and competitive at the top! Overall leader Max Maslak from Germany also had a great flight and maintained his lead over Thomas in 2nd by earning just 5 more points than Thomas. I am encouraging all my pilots to get as much rest as possible before the last day tomorrow – and take a hard look at the day traces one last time to extract learnings and lessons.

Lucky thirteen – the last day of the contest and the 9th contest flying day for our team in Poland. We had a long and broad ranging discussion about yesterday's flying this morning – looking hard at common emerging patterns and what to do about them. The weather window for soaring was a little shorter today with the forecast of high and thick cirrus and mid-level cloud approaching fast from the west late in the day. The task for both classes was a 3hr turn area task and launches started at 11.45am. The club class task is included here. Even though the task time was a mere 3 hours, the strength and timing of the shutdown at the end of the day was the key factor. Conditions were strong and mostly blue at first and most teams did not wait too long to start – our teams started around 12.15 to 12.20pm. Thomas managed the PEV well and started 3 minutes after the very strong German team.

Our club class all started together at 12.17pm (their gate opened earlier) and had their best team flying and speed performance of the contest for 90% of the task. Their captain, watching and listening with the (frustratingly) sporadic OGN fixes and long range radio, was a much happier captain for most of their flight. In standard class the big battle was between Tom and Phillip, and the 3 German pilots Max, Nils and Jan. Tom and Phillip caught and passed the Germans for a large part of the flight however Max had a strong run back north and closed the gap considerably by the end of the flight.

With the importance of not having too much risk in the flight without leaving points behind being paramount, Tom and Phillip pushed as fast as they could but the final kick in the day was the thickness of the quickly approaching cloud from the west – it was shutting conditions down fast and as the clouds were so high and coming from the west late in the day the final turn area was rapidly becoming much weaker. By this time our club and standard class pilots had all converged and were all making good progress together however some pushed a little too far into the last turn and didn't make it around. Thomas and Steven both turned early enough to guarantee finishing with only a small under-time of a few minutes each. Max had done enough to keep his place in the overall lead and Thomas, while shooting for a challenge to first place, had done enough to seal second place!

Once all pilots were back at the field we began the frantic breakdown process of gliders, tents, masts, tables and all the paraphernalia of the last 3 weeks of flying in time for congratulations to the winners and the farewell party at 8pm – a fabulous spread with libations provided by the organizers. The contest was over. The end of an intense 3 weeks is always an odd feeling – but the social bonds and friendships were strengthened further at one last party.

This was held the following morning (Saturday) at 10am and followed the expected protocol for approving and concluding the contest. A big hand for the organizers Karol and Wojciech who worked tirelessly to make the event run smoothly and most of all safely. Of course, the highlight for our team was Thomas's performance and Silver medal finish. I was delighted for Tom and proud to have played a small part in his path to this very impressive podium finish for the USA. It has been a big day for all of us.

Signing out….Peter.