How glider competitions work

"Glider racing is a spectacular sport! It takes a great deal of endurance, consistency and fast thinking to win a glider competition."

As in most sports, there are many ways to compete. Some competitions are all about who is able to fly the fastest and longest, other competitions puts the aerobatics skills of pilots to the test. Velocity gliding team are mostly involved in speed/distance contests. Some of the members do some aerobatics now and then too. Because it's mostly about the distance and the speed, that's what we will deal with on these pages.

Speed contests
In theory, a glider can stay in the air forever as long as the weather conditions allows it. Because of this, endurance contests was out of the question even in the early ages of gliding. Such contests would be pointless and dangerous as the participants would fall asleep after 20 hours of constant flying. What is much more interresting is to see who can fly the fastest around a given route or "task" as we call it. This really puts the skills and endurance of the gliderpilots to the test and also offers a much more intense excperience over a more sensible amount of time. This is the idea of most glider contests today.

There are two different types of speed contests that are commonly used today:

International/national Championships
This type of contest follows the rules mostly used in national and international championships around the world today. These contests can contain everything from 5 to 100 gliders(participants) depending on the contest. Most countries have several regional contests leading up to a national championship. The top pilots of the national championships from each country finally meets up to a world championship. For junior pilots(15-25 years) there are junior nationals and junior worlds too. There is also a world championship for woman. Small, regional contests typically runs over a weekend while larger national contests can last up to a week. International contests lasts for three weeks. The pilots fly one contest task a day, typically lasting for 2-5 hours. At the end of the competition the scoring for all the racing days are summarized to find the total winner of the competition. The scoring is based on a standarized 1000 points system.
Because gliders come in all sorts of colours and shapes, they are devided into classes. This is done so that the gliders compeeting against each other have about the same abilities. In most classes, the winner of glider races depends on the pilot skill, not at all on the ability of the gliders. For classes containing uneaven gliders, a handicap system might be used to justify the scoring.

The common, official classes are:

-Standard
Gliders in this class can have a maximum wingspan of 15 meters and their all-up mass no more than 525kg. The wingsections have to be fixed. This means that any devices made to increase the angle of attack and thereby the lift over the wings(like "flaps") are prohibited. Standard class features the most popular modern gliders today. The gliders compeeting in this class are very even when it comes to abilities and no handicap system is needed.

-15m
Follows the same rules as standard class, but with disregard to the rule of fixed wingsections. This means that the gliders can have flaps or similar features to increase lift over the wings at low or high speeds. This class can be refeered to as the "fast class". The gliders compeeting here usually have a very sharp handling and are able to fly much faster than gliders in most other classes, excpet for the newest 18m class gliders. 15m class usually holds gliders with similar capabilities and no handicap system is used.

-18m
Follows the rules of 15m class, but now with a maximum wingspan of 18 meters and 600kg all-up mass. The newest 18m class gliders are the best ones on the market today when it comes to high-speed abilities. Good high-speed abilities means that they can fly at high speeds loosing very little altitude in dead air compared to other gliders.

-20m/2 seater
A class made for 2-seater gliders. Restrictions are a maximum all-up mass of 750kg and a maximum wingspann of 20 meters.

-Open
This is a class has no restrictions excpept a maximum limit to the gliders all-up mass of 850kg. This class gives an offer to glider designers who want to push the limits and the technology into building large fiberglass ships with incredible abilities and still compete. Gliders in this class typically features a wingspan of 26-30 meters and a takeoff weight around 500-700kg. These large ships usually offers stunning perfomances at the lower speedrange. Long wings equals more drag and this holds the gliders back at higher speeds.

-Club:
Made for a wide range of older racing gliders within a specified range of performances. Maximum wingspan of 15m. A handicap system in the scoring is used to justify small differences between the gliders. This is one of two classes used in the Junior Worlds as club class gliders are cheap and most popular among young pilots. Ballasting systems may be installed on the gliders, but cannot be used during club class competitions.

-World Class
The only monotype class used. All gliders have to be of type PW-5 with a maximum all-up mass of 300kg. The PW-5 glider was built for the intention of having a monotype contest class. It's made simple and cheap wich comprimises good high-speed abilities. The point was to make the class available to everyone, but the class never became the big hit probably due to the PW-5's bad glide abilities.  

_________________ Non official class commonly used in Europe__________________
-Sports class:   
All glidertypes can participate. Uses handicap system to justify the differences between glidertypes.

The contest
In the beginning of each competitionday a preeflight briefing is held. The organizors of the competitions give the pilots weather information and the task for the day. The tasks are typically routes of around 100-500km depending on the weatherconditions the given day. The routes contain certain waypoints the pilots have to fly trough to finish the task. The tasks usually starts and ends at the same airfield. At a given time, all gliders are launched into the air. The pilots will have a given amounth of time to prepare themselves for the start of the task after takeoff. After a given amounth of time the start is announced opened via radio by the organizers. To start, the pilots have to fly across a virtual startline typically placed near the contest airfield. After the task is started, it's a race against the clock. The pilots have to control the glider slicing trough the skies at 100-300kph, look out for other gliders and at the same time try to find the best routes trough the skies between the waypoints. The winner of every contest day is the one who can fly trough the task at the fastest average speed and not necessesarily the first one to cross the finishline (wich is a virtual line placed across the contest airfields ruwnay).
 Here are some insights of the Junior Worlds of 2009. Movie by Geir Grønlien from Norway.


Different type of tasks
There are two types of task used during a normal national/international contest:

Racing Task
This is the most common variant. Typically 2-5 waypoints are plotted on the map making a route of around 100 - 600km depending on the weather conditions. The pilots have to fly trough the waypoints in a given order and the pilot to fly with the fastest average speed trough the task wins.
 Picture is of a typical racing task, here shown in the Provence alps.(Made in Condor Soaring Simulator)


Assigned Area Task
These tasks are usually set during days with uncertain weather. Instead of tiny waypoints, the pilots are given large sectors of wich they can fly in. The sectors has to be flown in a given order, but the pilot himself decides how far into each sector he want's to fly. These sectors give the pilots the opportunity the decide were to fly and thus deciding the distance of their flight. The pilots are also given a minimum time to finish the task (typically 2 hours +/- 1). The winner is still the pilot with the highest average speed trough the task. What is different is that the pilot can change his distance in flight by flying further or shorter into the sectors. If he lands under the minimum time, he will be scored as if he flew at the minimum time. This means that if a pilot lands too soon, he could have got more distance out of the same time giving him a higher speed and score. These tasks are often the trickiest as timing adds as a new aspect to the competition, and these tasks are often performed in challenging weather conditions.
 Picture is of a typical AAT task, here shown from Hahnweide Germany.(Made in Condor Soaring Simulator)


The challenges
Why do a gliderpilot have to be fit and have good endurance? He just sits in the cockpit pushing on the stick all day!
While gliding might seem like a relaxing activity, competition flying is quite a different excperience for the pilot. It's thrilling and fun, but also quite exchausting.
The tactical desicions during a race are many: When to cross the startline, were to fly between the waypoints, how fast to fly in any situation(trading speed for altitude), mountains - to go around or spend time climbing over them. Contest pilots are taught that if they do not make a desicion every 30 seconds they are starting to doze off and have to sharpen up. Doing all this for several hours and fly the plane at the same time is obviously quite exhausting. Why? -Because when flying a glider the body of the pilot is constantly exposed to g-forces, the body is working moving the controllers of the glider and the mind is constantly busy solving problems. In addition, the pilot have to do this for maybe 6 hours a day for 7 days straight. This is why gliderpilots have to stay in shape to do good in bigger gliding contests. Flying practice, excperience, daily shape and focus are other factors that of course come to play.

Gliding Grand Prix

This is the other type of competition commonly used today. It runs almost like a normal gliding championship, but with some excpetions. These competitions are usually fast, intense, more simple and more spectatorfriendly than the normal gliding championships. The tasks are a bit shorter - Usually between 100 to 350km. Racing Task are always used and the gliders all start at the same time. From then on it's a mad dash through the waypoints towards the finishline. The first glider to cross the finishline wins. There is an international Gliding Grand Prix league held by the FAI. To participate in the World Gliding Grand Prix finals, you have to qualify by flying one of the several qualifying competitions. The pilots in Gliding Grand Prix represent the elite of gliding, and pilots have to obtain a bit of excperience and good rankings to participate. The World Gliding Grand Prix final is broadcasted online and on TV by aerosportslive and usually drags some media attention around the globe.
 Trailer from a documentary about Gliding Grand Prix in the Andes