Good Placings in Benalla

The participants in the 34^th FAI World Gliding Championships looked forward to the competition with suspense since usually we connect Australia with outstanding soaring conditions. While sailplanes are usually in a deep sleep during our winters, Australia often provides potential record flying weather during its summer.  Unfortunately, this time the soaring conditions during the 14 day competition period were more comparable to those found in central Europe in the summer.

Bernhard Eckey in his ASH 30 Mi as a thermal sniffer above Benalla

Passing rainy weather and at times high wind forced the organizers to cancel several days. On the other days the pilots had to deal with low bases and blue thermals so that task distances seldom exceeded 400 km. Correspondingly, the daily placings were very close together with usually only a few points separating those on the podiums and the rest of the field. As a result, even small errors were often very difficult to make up on subsequent competition days.

Fidler, Sturm and Temple gain daily victories

Matthias Sturm (D) - day's winner 18m

Peter Temple (AUS) - day's winner 18m

Nevertheless, Schleicher pilots were able to achieve many podium finishes. On the first day Louis Bouderlique (F) placed third with his ASG 29 in the 15m class and Dave Springford (ASG 29 E) from Canada came second in the 18m class.

ASG 29 pilots Sean Fidler (USA), Matthias Sturm (D) and Peter Temple (AUS) were daily winners on following competition days. Roman Mracek (CZ), Petr Svoboda (CZ) and Tom Claffey (AUS) joined the 29-trio on the podium on days three and six.

Mike Young (GB) - finishing third in 18m

By achieving good results on the last three competition days, Mike Young (GB) was able to finish third overall in the 18m class with his ASG 29 E while Matthias Sturm (D) came only a few points behind him. With Peter Temple (AUS, 8^th) and Erkki Heinonen (FIN, 10^th) a total of four ASG 29 pilots finished in the top ten.

Louis Bouderlique (F) - 4th place 15m

In addition, overall positions 12 to 19 were occupied by ASG 29 pilots:  Eric Bernard (F), Markus Ganev (S), Jerzy Szemplinski (CAN), Rolf Friedli (CH), Dave Springford (CAN), Maurits Dortu (NED), Tomasz Krok (PL) and Roman Mracek (CZ).

In the final 15m class results, Louis Bouderlique (F) missed out on third place by only a few points. Women’s World Champion Anne Ducarouge achieved an outstanding final placing of 9^th with her ASG 29.

Our congratulations go out to all the successful pilots and especially the new world champions, Sebastian Kawa, Killian Walbrou and Russel Cheetham.