The Last Day of WGC 2026 in Poland: A Thriller for the US Team

[Tomasz Sielicki]

Excellent reports and reflections by the team captain, John Good. Really worth reading:

https://www.facebook.com/ussoaringteams?_kx=pG02ehIBE6Kq9TeJwaZYRlLqFtnw-AXAB0ejXWo1huM.WFNpes

A great contribution to the question: Where is the sport of soaring heading?

Tom BravoMike

[Dave Nadler]

And this is inaccessible to the many of us who do not use Facebook..

[Dan Daly]

WGC2026 – 29 May report by John Good (US Team Captain)

Another fine day for soaring in Poland – the 11th soarable day in a row, and the final day of WGC2026. The practice period for this contest was consistently cold, cloudy and downright grim. We finish with a contest that will be remembered for its beautiful weather and the excellent flying this allowed.

At the morning pilot briefing it was announced that the total distance flown yesterday was more than 55,000 km. To put this in perspective, note that the circumference of the Earth at the equator is approximately 40,075 km. It’s apparently conformed that the Open class task (848 km) was the longest ever set at any World Gliding Competition. No word on where the 18-Meter task (755 km) ranks – probably quite high.

Unfortunately, this was definitely NOT a good day for the US Team here. No one actually got hurt, but we endured a series of small and not-so-small disasters, some simply unfortunate and others self-inflicted. Readers with patience will find the full story below:

It began with a flat tire on Sean’s AS-33e. Its main wheel has been giving problems: it’s prone to losing air more or less at random. Today it was fully inflated during the tow to the grid, then went mostly flat sitting on the runway. A pump was located and the tire was re-inflated, but there was no way to be sure this would not happen again shortly before launch. We watched it closely and it held air (perhaps it was ashamed to leak in public) and Sean launched successfully. It then held air throughout the flight and subsequent landing. The glider is now disassembled and in its trailer, where the tire is free to leak as much air as it chooses.

Sarah’s Ventus had worse problems. During WGC2026 it’s been infested by electrical gremlins that have caused issues I’ve previously related. Today at the pre-grid weight check it registered slightly overweight (perhaps due to some fluky wind) and the electric ballast dump valves failed to work properly (there’s no way to manually dump water ballast). As before, the electrical control box was putting up strange messages. She’d acquired a replacement, and decided it was time to install this. The new controller declared itself content, and was happy to dump the necessary small amount of water ballast.

But when Sarah turned on power in preparation for launching, the electrical control box displayed various alarming messages – it apparently objected to something about the avionics batteries (which it had previously tolerated) and refused to connect to them. With little time available for troubleshooting, the workaround was to power instruments and avionics from the large batteries designed to power the self-launch engine. The mostly worked, but left the radio in a strange state: locked to the last frequency used (the airfield landing / safety frequency) with no way to control volume or even turn it off. Sarah grabbed a handheld radio and successfully launched; she’d be forced to listen to the locked frequency during the entire flight.

They launched into a good sky, with plenty of thermal lift available. There was time to look around, and they used it to connect with wave lift, which offered climbs well above cloud base. They found a great climb near the south end of the start line and used it, taking care to stay clear of some nearby airspace where the maximum allowed altitude is 3500’. And they were careful to stop their climb short of 9500’, which is the absolute maximum for gliders anywhere in Poland. What they – and their Team Captain – missed was that just north of the 3500’ airspace is a sliver where the maximum is 8500’. This is high enough that in normal Polish weather it is unimportant, and I think we all had formed the habit of regarding it as insignificant Their great climb had taken them into this, and they are thus scored as having landed at the point of entry (which is to say: before having even started the task). Brutal – but entirely our own fault.

At this point you’re thinking “How could the day get worse than that?” Well, in Sarah’s case it definitely did. Having made a pretty good flight (she and Sean successfully threaded their way through a veritable minefield of tricky airspace), she finished. As you’d expect, the Ventus engine batteries are lithium-based, and it’s believed these should be stored at no more than 70% of full charge. They have enormous capacity; using them to power instruments (and an annoying radio) all day scarcely makes a dent in this. She decided the polite thing to do was to do use the engine for a simulated self-launch.

She hit the switch that raises the electric engine from a bay in the fuselage behind the cockpit. It emerged, then stopped, with the controller displaying a “low voltage” message. No big deal – just land straight ahead and sort out the issue later. She moved the switch to the retract position – and things got very exciting: without any action by Sarah, the engine started.

Because it had barely emerged from the fuselage, the engine bay doors were in the path of the propellor. It hit one, which broke loose (fortunately not damaging the tail as it departed). The other stayed in place, but took damage from the spinning prop. The sounds were alarming. The glider retained just enough energy to reach the airfield and land short, engine still rotating. By securing the master switch, Sarah was finally able to get the prop to stop.

It was hoped that the WGC2026 photographer would be able to use his photo drone to help search for the missing part. But he wasn’t available, so the US Team deployed into the fields short of the airport runway here. And we found the missing engine bay door – in two pieces. To our inexperienced eyes, it looks repairable. We’ll wait for a detailed report. It looks like a case where an expensive repair should return the glider to excellent condition.

I should note the results of our contest, and the effects of the final day’s racing.

In 18-Meter class, the two French pilots - Victor Mallick and Christophe Abadie – won the day and thus Mallick is the champion (at his first WGC). The French were simply more consistent than all their competition. Stefan Langer, who’d surged to second overall, had a dreadful day, causing him to fall to third place.

In 20-Meter class, the German team of Karsten Leucker & Jan Omsels did not have a great day (7th place) but held on to win the championship by 38 points. Second is the Polish team of Lukasz Grabowski & Judyta Czyz (“shoosh”). Third is the Hungarian team of Peter Kassai & Zoltan Mészáros

There was big excitement in Open class, where local hero Sebastian Kawa posted a remarkable speed of 135 kph, and for a while looked as if he’d overcome a 146-point deficit and taken the lead over Felipe Levin. But a couple of pilots were very slow – less than two-thirds of Kawa’s speed – which has the effect of moving points away from speed and into distance. The result is that Kawa finishes a close second, just 7 points behind Levin. Under the quirky scoring used here, if the two pilots who did just 88 kph had managed just over 90, Kawa would have won.

[Dan Daly]

WGC2026 – 30 May report by John Good (US Team Captain)

A short addendum to yesterday’s long report.

I was incorrect in saying that the contest photographer didn’t appear: we’ve learned he definitely did, with drone in hand, ready to help with the search for the missing engine bay door. But through some mis-communication, the US Team had departed a minute earlier to search on the ground.

We did receive help from the Scorer, who looked at Sarah’s flight log, found the place where the engine noise began, and produced a map image showing this - thus indicating where to search. With some help from Google Translate, the farmer whose field it was proved very friendly.

I’ll note that there was nothing unusual about the great support we got in dealing with this problem. The contest organization at WGC2026 deserves the highest possible marks for the way the contest was run and in particular their help with issues small (low tire pressure), medium (how to buy a handheld radio) and large (shredded components in a nearby field).

[Greg Arnold]

Is there a reason why the US Soaring Team is relegated to publishing on Facebook rather than on the SSA website?  

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[Eric Mozer]

I agree with Greg!  I don’t now and never will use Facebook.  The SSA website should be the place to read about the US Teams that we support.

Eric

On May 30, 2026, at 15:28, Greg Arnold <1gregor...@gmail.com> wrote:

 Is there a reason why the US Soaring Team is relegated to publishing on Facebook rather than on the SSA website?  

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rasprime/d31c1eba-f4e8-40c1-8386-2275c1160ebb%40gmail.com.

[Andrzej Kobus]

Same here. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rasprime/96D09874-A543-4860-9B9A-40A1E10251F3%40gmail.com.

[Tomasz Sielicki]

And to make things even more interesting/funny, I - who started this thread - don't have a Facebook account either, and have made a resolution not to ever open one. But in case of a great urgency or necessity a friend allows me to access his...

Tom BravoMike

[Deane Williams]

I totally agree. Why would we use ANY other account (especially not Facebook) than SSA website? 

[Hank Nixon]

Because many are very familiar with FB and use it every day.

Posting on the SSA web site is messy and clunky.

Hopefully these kinds of issues will be addressed with the new web site.

If SSA wants to be the place to go for soaring information, it must be usable for readers AND providers.

Grumpy 64 year member

UH

[Brian Nightingale]

Read ‘em from the book . 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rasprime/34bf12d9-663d-49ff-9dfe-ef3c4d932d23n%40googlegroups.com.

[Uli N]

Couldn't agree more! :-(

Why not posting it on the SSA website?

Uli

'AS'

On Saturday, May 30, 2026 at 2:34:49 PM UTC-4 Dave Nadler wrote:

[Gregg Leslie]

I curse every time I try to log on to SSA.

Gregg Leslie

On May 31, 2026, at 4:22 PM, Hank Nixon <uncl...@earthlink.net> wrote:

 Because many are very familiar with FB and use it every day.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rasprime/34bf12d9-663d-49ff-9dfe-ef3c4d932d23n%40googlegroups.com.

[Gordon Wingate]

Same. FB has an excellent User Interface and Experience (UI/UX). I don’t see the SSA site getting close to that. No need to reinvent that wheel

Gordon Wingate

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rasprime/CH0P223MB01370595A1AEDF8D7F54A981A1152%40CH0P223MB0137.NAMP223.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.

[Hank Nixon]

That is not our point.

We would like to get the reporting without being forced to sign up for Facebook.

UH

[Ryszard Krolikowski]

There is more on FB from Laurence Hardman!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rasprime/45aef377-87b2-4915-a2c6-458bdf58e378n%40googlegroups.com.

[Hank Nixon]

In response to my request to Sanjay Subramanian- SSA digital media person, I got the following message:

Good Morning UH,

 

The daily reports are here:  https://www.ssa.org/aviation-news/

 

The link to them is on the SSA.org homepage (no login necessary) see attached.

 

They have the reports for 13 days uploaded. I guess the final day will go up today/soon.

 

I am not involved in this part of the process, but when the Hobbs Office opens I will look into it and find out how it works - and that it is in place for the JRs WGC when that happens.

 

More when I find out more.

 

Best wishes,

-Sanjay

[Moshe Braner]

Thank you!  (Another never-facebook-er here.)  In the "day 13" report, the last one posted there at the moment, John Good included "a short rant on the profusion of electronics in modern gliders", lamenting some prior glitches.  The next day's disasters turned out a lot more severe, as quoted in this thread.  Motor turning the propeller when the pylon is not fully extended?!?!?!?!  That is totally inexcusable and unacceptable.  Radio totally not controllable for no apparent reason?  Manual water dumping impossible?  What next?