European Gliding Championships 2013


17th European Gliding Championships took place in 2013 in Vinon sur Verdon, France and in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland.

Events

The 15 meter, 18 meter and Open Class competitions were flown in Vinon sur Verdon,
the Standard, Club, 20 meter Multi-seat competitions are under way in Ostrów Wielkopolski. World Class competition was cancelled due to insufficient number of entrants.

Coverage

The Ostrów Wielkopolski site provides a fairly continuous live video coverage of the event at . There is a twice-a-day commentator reporting. The morning live report is done during the glider launches and is focused on the analysis of the previous day competition and a current task. The evening live broadcast has the glider landings in the background and carries "hot" interviews with freshly arriving pilots, team coaches and other competition participants. During the rest of the time there is , from professional video crews actively aiming and zooming the cameras at points of interest, so one can watch the airfield events quite closely. Independently, a video recordings of the day briefing are promptly posted to .

Results

The Vinon sur Verdon competition was fought in the mountainous area of Alps. While there are no reports of high altitude wave flying during this competition, most other modes of glider flight were utilized: thermal, ridge/slope, convergence, subinversion wave. Competitors were reporting unusual for the season amount of rain/wet weather.
The Ostrów Wielkopolski races will use the EPOM airfield. It is located in a rural setting approximately 5 km NNE of Ostrów proper. The field has a grass surface. Due to prevailing winds most often the 11/29 runway is used, but the field size allows emergency landing in any direction. There are no significant approach obstacles other than occasional pine groves or 2 story buildings, well off main runway axis.
The airfield vicinity is mostly farmland. There is no scheduled air traffic and very little GA activity. The airfield itself commands an on-demand exclusion zone of 10 km radius. For about 50 km more in any direction the airspace is unrestricted up to FL95. Farther away some controlled airspace areas do exist, but their positions still allow straight line, uncontrolled flights of about 250 km away from the field in most directions.
EPOM is a typical plains terrain gliding center, allowing good thermal flights. There is mostly arable land around, with some small/medium forests. Few water bodies except some wetlands down south. Some industrial thermals are available within daily task range. For July a typical cloudbase is 1200-2000m, with 2 m/s sustained lifts.
The Ostrów/EPOM location is a place of well attended annual gliding competitions "Ostrow Glide". Also, the 4th FAI European Glider Aerobatic Championships had been organized there.

Organizers

The Ostrów competitions are organized by Aeroklub Ostrowski – a regional chapter of Aeroklub Polski.