This year’s European Championships took place at Greifenburg in southern Austria in early June. There is a single south-facing launch part-way up the mountain at around 5,500ft with a café right next to the rigging area. Many of the surrounding hills are above 8,000ft so you are flying very much in the mountains as well as above them. The lower slopes are almost all tree-covered and forestry is clearly big industry. In good conditions the flying here is superb but the area can also have a lot of rain.
Places were limited so we only had a team of five rather than the usual six, although some of the higher-ranked teams did get six male and two female pilots as well. The British Team was Carl Wallbank, Dave (Shedsy) Shields, Graham Phipps, Richard Lovelace and myself, Bruce Kavanagh. Shedsy was the only member of the team that had been to the Pre-Euros last year so we were a bit short on local knowledge.
The weather immediately prior to the comp had been very poor with a lot of rain, and it set the scene for things to come. On the first official practice day we got in a quick top-to-bottom in the late afternoon after the rain stopped, and on the second we managed about an hour dodging showers in the middle of the day.
Day 1.
There was the chance of an early task before rain arrived. It came earlier than forecast and the task was canned, but there were gaps between the rain and most people opted to fly down rather than de-rig on launch.
After the flying Dennis Pagen led a discussion about pitch stability and sprog measuring and the implications of lowering sprogs too far . A year after the initial proposal to start measuring sprogs and penalising pilots who have them set below the certified limit, CIVL are now taking a more pragmatic approach. Most pilots were strongly against measuring and penalties as it was
considered unworkable for many reasons. A new approach is based upon pilot education, leaving pilots to make their own decision about sprog setting. Sprog angles were measured on all gliders and several pilots were surprised how low theirs were set. They were encouraged to raise them and many did. The figures were published anonymously, enabling each pilot to see where they sat compared to other pilots. In contrast to the earlier proposal, this approach was well received by pilots who were mostly keen to get their gliders measured.
Day 2: Task 1.
The forecast was for possible storms later and a modest 105km task was set. The route took us back past launch and Carl and Rich were up with the lead gaggle as they came back and crossed
the valley, but ended up getting very low. Rich landed out with ex-World Champion Oleg Bondarchuk and Carl took a long time to get up again. In the meantime Shedsy found a good climb after crossing the valley further along and Phippsy and I joined him. We had a good run to the second turnpoint on a completely different route to everyone else, with great clouds above but limited landing options below. Convergence had set up beyond the second turnpoint and we flew along near cloudbase for 5 - 10km without losing much height. Moyes designer Gerolf Heinrichs won the day. I was 1st Brit, in 18th place about 20 minutes later, followed by Phippsy, Shedsy and Carl, leaving us in 7th place. The task was stopped after most pilots had reached goal due to an approaching storm. One pilot didn’t get the message and landed in the gust front, luckily without incident.
Day 3.
There was the chance of a task before the storms arrived, but once up the hill the weather radar (!) revealed them developing faster than predicted and the task was canned.
Days 4 and 5.
For the next two days there was more cloud and rain and even snow above about 6,000ft, so no flying. On the first task there had been a lot of cloud flying before the start and this was discussed at length at the team leaders’ meeting. There was a greater will to address this than at previous competitions, and with two non-flying days time was available for the pilots, organisers and CIVL reps to discuss it. A new rule was introduced whereby task setters could specify a height limit under which all pilots must pass as they cross the start line, to be set around 500ft below the anticipated cloudbase. Pilots exceeding this would receive a penalty which increased rapidly if they were more than a few hundred feet high. This was enforced using GPS
height which caused some problems: the latest Brauniger and Flytec instruments cannot display GPS height even though they record it. Pilots without a backup GPS visible would have to play it safe to allow for the difference between GPS height and pressure height, but inevitably some got this wrong.
Day 6.
The cloud never got above launch and then it rained. The day was canned.
Day 7: Task 2.
We finally got another day of good weather but a warm front approaching from the west brought high cloud later in the day. The task was 101km to a goal near Villach, 60km to the east
to avoid the approaching front. At launch it was still very cold and there had been a frost overnight. The start height limit rule was set to 2,200m. In the hour before the first start base rose from 2,300m to 2,600m, where it was bitterly cold and my fingers went numb despite my winter gloves. The start height limit made things much more relaxed, with no need to wait near cloud for a
competitive start. However positioning was not ideal as the start line intersected a ridge and the height limit was below the top so everyone bunched up on the end of the ridge at the start time. The task had several big valley crossings which were challenging with the relatively low cloudbase. Carl and Shedsy made good progress with the lead gaggle while the others all got stuck
low at various points. The task was won by Austria’s Thomas Weissenberger in just under two hours. Carl was 11th,12 minutes later, with Shedsy not far behind. Richard and Bruce both landed
short after struggling with the increasing cloud. Phippsy would have got to goal but forgot that a goal line was being used instead of the more common cylinder and landed 400m short. Overall
we were still 7th. After landing we heard that Richi Meier from the Swiss team had tumbled shortly after the start in a particularly turbulent area. His parachute did not open and he was killed. The Swiss team later withdrew from the competition.
Days 8 and 9.
More rain and cloud. No flying.
Day 10.
Low cloud was forecast to lift giving a chance of a late task. By 1pm the cloud was above launch but didn’t lift much further and at 2:15 the task was cancelled. Many felt that we should have waited longer before giving up. By 3pm conditions had improved and most pilots flew. Conditions remained good and many felt we could have had a short task.
Day 11: Task 3.
With a good forecast a longer task of 154km was set, up and down the valley. We were now nearly 700 points off a medal position with a maximum of two tasks left. We needed to push harder and take some risks to have any chance of a medal. The altitude limit was used again and we all got a good start. Climbs were generally good though very rough low down in places. There were a few big valley crossings which left people struggling if they set off too low or got the line or timing wrong. Carl managed to stick with the lead gaggle most of the way round and came in 4th, four minutes after the Italians who took the first three places within six seconds of each other . Alex Ploner was first over the line but had a penalty for exceeding the start height limit so Filipo Oppici won the task. I was in half an hour later having got stuck low, and the rest of the Brits made it in after that.
Day 12.
An early start to avoid storms on a 92km task proved fruitless and it was cancelled.
Italy’s Elio Cataldi was overall winner . Carl was the best-placed Brit in 8th place, his third consecutive top-ten finish in a Category 1 event. True to the form book the Austrians took team gold, but the very strong Italian team was not far behind. Germany’s Corinna Schwiegershausen was first woman by a comfortable margin.
| Thomas Weissenberger:Corinna Schwlegershausen:Elio Cataldi :Michael Friesenbichler |
| 1 | Elio Cataldi | Moyes Litespeed RS 4 | Italy | 2,885 |
| 2 | Thomas Weissenberger | Moyes Litespeed RS 4 | Austria | 2,835 |
| 3 | Michael Friesenbichler | Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 | Austria | 2,751 |
| 4 | Gerolf Heinrichs | Moyes Litespeed RS 4 | Austria | 2,719 |
| 5 | Marc Utrillo | Aeros Combat L | Spain | 2,624 |
| 6 | Christian Ciech | Icaro Laminar Z9 | Italy | 2,606 |
| 8 | Carl Wallbank | Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 | GB | 2,518 |
| 22 | David Shields | Moyes Litespeed RS 4 | GB | 2,154 |
| 25 | Bruce Kavanagh | Wills Wing T2 | GB | 2,023 |
| 32 | Graham Phipps | Wills Wing T2 | GB | 1,818 |
| 49 | Richard Lovelace | Aeros Combat | GB | 1,272 |
| 1 | Austria | 8,305 |
| 2 | Italy | 8,163 |
| 3 | Germany | 7,188 |
| 4 | France | 7,108 |
| 5 | Spain | 6,934 |
| 6 | Great Britain | 6,752 |
