28 agosto PRACTICE DAY 1

Today first practice day of WGC 13,5m. First official competition day will be on September the 1st. From 1st to 8th Sept there will be “E-Glide Competition” and from 1st to 14th sept, the World Gliding Championship. We had a daily briefing about airspaces, radio frequencies and local rules by the contest director, Aldo Cernezzi, and the meteo man Ezio Sarti, today’s meteo conditions are very weak but probabily some pilots will fly to discover the area.

29 ago, PRACTICE DAY 2

The sun is shining for the second practice day! Pilots are managing to be ready for take off: they have an area task of about 180km. In the airport everybody is very busy with weigh gliders, Sky interviews, grid managing, contacts with the province of Modena, the municipality of Pavullo, the authorities.

30 ago PRACTICE DAY 3

Flight operations are prohibited, today, from 12.30 till 2pm due to eurofigter exercises and low pass over the airport. Some pilots taked off at 11.30am and other will fly from 2pm. After the briefing some pilots are still doing gliders weight. Bob Bickers, the FAI Giury President, and Brian Spreckley,   are already working and checking everything is going right.

31 ago Opening ceremony day

Mandatory briefing with competition’s authorities: Bob Bickers ().Brian Spreckley (IGC Chief Steward). Angel Casado (2nd member, FAI Int. Jury + eGlide Working Group member). Marina Vigorito (FAI-CASI- Executive Board member+FAI vicepresident)

Today at 5pm it was, unfortynately, raining heavily so that, the opening ceremony took place in the City Hall of Pavullo, only for authorities. In the main square we couldn’t do the ceremony for all people there with their umbrellas, but they saw the arrival of the Olympic flame after a run of 42 km!

The President of the Aero Club Pavullo, Roberto Gianaroli, welcomed all the teams, proclaiming they are proud to host the 3rd FAI WGC for the 13.5m class.

The FAI Jury president, Bob Bickers (FAI International Jury President) opened the 3rd WGC 2019 with special and grateful words to the organization and wishing to all the competitors “strong thermals in the tasking area, for the next fifteen days”. Tomorrow the FAI flag will be hoisted at 10am here in the airport.

At 7pm we had a great buffet dinner, at the airport, with many local specialities and good wine!

1 sett – Day 1. No task. Task only for e-Glide

Today at 10.15 we raised the FAI flag during the Fai anthem. The FAI Jury president, Bob Bickers, declared, for the second time, open the 3rd WGC. At the briefing, the contest director, announced there is a task for e-Glide competition but not for WGC pilots due a difficult meteo situation that was showed by the meteo man, Ezio Sarti, and his model.

2 sett – Day 2. Task only for e-Glide

Today’s weather forecast announced thunderstorms and lightning around. However, a task was given to both classes. In WGC 7 gliders out of 10 couldn’t find thermal climb at he start due to weak conditions, so the daily race is not valid, task cancelled. For e-Glide class the race is valid (not still done the ranking at the moment because every day the scorer sends the files to LX-Nav and they do the ranking but today they are busy in other things): they have the oportunity to use their eletric engine with allowance of 2 kWh!

Yestarday evening, in Pavullo’s main square, there was an intersting presentation of the book about the history of Paullo airport by Vittorio Sgarbi (art critic, essayist, academic, TV personality and Italian politician). There were more than thousand people! The aeroclub is doing a great job in occasion of this WGC: many cultural, sport, political and economic initiatives accompany this competition and show it off!

5 sept- Day 5

The contest direction is preparing Task B due to complicated weather conditions.
For this competition the finish circle includes Pavullo and Sassuolo airports: pilots can choose where to land. if they land in Sassuolo (22km from Pavullo) the tow plane will get there in 10 minutes to tow the glider back to Pavullo. Yesterday Uli Schwenk landed in Sassuolo and said: "When it's difficult to reach Pavullo, the finish circle is very useful to avoid having a heart attack!!"

A beautiful day, good thermals and fast flights with a maximum speed of 97 kmh! All the gliders were back at 5.30pm. The contest director, reading the latest weather forecast update declared REST DAY for tomorrow. Next briefing on Saturday 7th, at 10.30 a.m.

6 sept – REST DAY

7 sept – Day 6

From early youth Luka was passionate builder and designer of many free flying models. Soon he become the winner of his first nationals as the youngest competitor. Luka participated on many international gliding competitions, including three World gliding championships. He achieved 1000km diploma, 3000 flying hours, on more than 30 different sailplane types. He is today the WINNER of e-Glide in Pavullo flying Ventus 2cxa FES "LZ". Many congratulations Luka!

This evening at 7.30pm we had the prizegiving ceremony of e-Giding competition at the flagpoles. All the competitors were very happy for these days in Pavullo with good meteo conditions in six race days, exelent food and beautiful landscapes.

The Contest director, Aldo Cernezzi, thank you all staff and all the participants. The President of the Aeroclub, Roberto Gianaroli, awarded the winners on the podium. After the awards delivery, pictures were taken of the podium with so beautifull cups and of a big group of all the people involved in the competition. A very good dinner with “tagliatelle” and finger food closed the last day of e-Glide! Tomorrow the pilots of e-Glide will leave back to their countries and the WGC will go on till 14th sept. Cheers Clara

12th sept Day 10

Monday was really a nice day for gliding, but these other days, during the week, are very tricky. Pilots here are really capable: they try, they are however happy to fly and are feeling positive. Yesterday, all except one, completed the task! Today the weather conditions are very weak and broken thermals are expected. For this reason the Contest Director has prepared tasks (A and B) with very big areas for each turning point and a remote circle finish, easier for the altitude in Serra at 12 km north of Pavullo. Take offs at 12.45, there are 17 degrees and QNH is 1029 hPa.

13th sept - Day 11

 Program of the Closing Ceremony of the World gliding Championship 13.5 m

For the participants and their families there wiil be the final dinner in Cesare Battisti square in Pavullo, at 7:30 pm with typical food of the region.

Around 9:30 pm the prize giving will start in the main square, Piazza Montecuccoli: all participants will receive the prize, gifts and diploma.

After the prize giving a show will follow: the tenor Claudio Mattioli will perform and “Amarcord Group” will perform the show “Music on Fly “.

We hope it will be a great finale to this marvellous edition of the World Championship, we hope the participants have enjoyed their stay in Pavullo and we look forward to seeing them again to fly with us or even to spend a memorable holiday with their family in the region.

14th sept - Day 12

The WGC 13.5m it's already finish! All the gliders are back. The choice to do longer task, task C, by the contest director, was excellent!
Now the gliders are in the trailers, we are preparing for the dinner and Price-Giving at 9pm in Municipality square of Pavullo.

Closing ceremony and Price giving

It was an excellent dinner all together in the town square with exquisite local specialties, in joy and friendship, with the satisfaction of an Italian victory!  Uli Schwenk intervened to thank the contest directory, Aldo, who called him in April to invite him to this world competition because if it hadn't been for him he wouldn't have enjoyed it as he did and he couldn't have known this beautiful area of ​​Italy!

The awarding ceremony of the 3rd World Championship was presented by Lara Mammi and the President of the Pavullo aeroclub, Roberto Gianaroli with Romeo Monti, the Vice Contest Director. They thanked so many people that made it possible for this gliding competition to take place along with 90 other events: cultural, gastronomic, sporting and musical events! All pilots were called for the awarding of the prize and the diploma. Bob Bickers, President of the FAI jury, also thanked the organization and the contest diractor Aldo Cernezzi for his great job, and declared the competition valid, underlining that the pilots showed a high level of sports competence due to the difficult weather conditions. Subsequently he gave the medals to the three pilots on the podium and the President of the aeroclub, Roberto Gianaroli, awarded the prizes: not cups but a work of art that represents the Earth in the spiral of a glider. Very special and beautiful prices! 3rd place for the italian Thomas Gostner, 2nd place for the german Uli Schwenk, 1st place for the italian Stefano Ghiorzo! Afterwards the Italian National Anthem and the group photo with all the athletes! After, Bob, declared the 3rd WGC 13.5m closed, with the FAI anthem the FAI flag was lowered . Some talented local musicians played and sang Italian songs which are known all over the world! A perfect organization for an unforgettable closing ceremony!