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Competition

Lithuanian gliding team is a sports team delegated by gliding federation to represent Lithunania in 34th FAI World Gliding Championship, which will take place at the airfield of Benalla, Australia, from 1st – 22nd January 2017. For more information please follow: www.wgc2017.com

One team one goal. Support us! 

More about competition

Team

Karolis Mikalauskas - Team captain
Gintautas Zubė - Ventus 2ax (15 m. class)
Adomas Grabskis - JS1B (18 m. class)
Linas Miežlaiškis - Ventus ax (15 m. class)

Crew members:
Elina Miežlaiškienė
Marius Jodris
Charlie Downes

Meet our team

Support us

The goal of this campaign is to raise €10,000 which would cover the cost of shipping 2 gliders to Australia and renting one glider fully ready to race

9539
left to raise, amount raised
461, 4,61%

Our gliders

Ventus 2ax

Read more

JS1B Revelation

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Ventus A

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Gliding

  • Gliding
  • What is Gliding competition?
  • Gliding competition - video (LT)

 

World Gliding Championships (WGC) is the competition organized biennially by the International Gliding Commission of the FAI. The two-year period is not strictly defined due to championships sometimes held in the Southern hemisphere during the summer there.

In 1936 at the summer Olympics in Berlin, the world gliding championship was conceived as demonstration with the goal in mind that gliding would be acknowledged as an official olympic sports in the forthcoming Olympics of 1940 in Helsinki. Unfortunately, the World War II broke out in 1939, and an Olympic gliding competition never happened. Thus the World Gliding Championships remain the top-ranking competition in gliding.

At present, these championships include six different classes of gliders. They gather great numbers of gliders on the hosting airfield with certain threats to flying safety, therefore championships are divided into two groups. So in 2016 the World Championships in the Standard, Club and Two-seater 20 m classes was organized in Pociūnai, Lithuania, while the competition in 18, 15 m and Open classes will take place in January 2017, at the Benalla airfield, Australia.

There are separate world championships for women and young pilots. Also separately held are Grand Prix and glider aerobatics competitions and championships in the 13.5 m class.

 

 

Gliding is aviation sports, in which pilots make use of warm updraughts – thermals, lee waves and ridge lift – to fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes. Gliding as sports saw its start in 1920. 

In the beginning, the goal of competing pilots was to stay in the air as long as possible, later competitions included cross-country flying. Fast progress of aerodynamics, composite materials and technologies allowed building better and better sailplanes, thus pilots became able to fly longer distances with greater average speeds.

Top-level glider pilots, given extremely favourable meteorological conditions, manage to cover huge distances at a high average speed. In 2005, during the championships in Finland participants had a task to fly a route of 1000 km. This was the first time in the history of gliding sports that such a long distance was offered for a contest. Finland is a favourable region for gliding due to long daylight hours and its soil which is very efficient in generating thermals.

Nowadays gliding competitions of various levels are held in many countries. The objective of flying is always to maintain optimum gliding speed in given meteorological conditions, so that the competition route would be covered as fast as possible. Pilots apply certain methods of achieving best possible speed, use GPS devices, fill the wings of sailplanes with water ballast. If weather conditions get worse and possibilities to fly all the pre-defined route dwindle, pilots might be forced to land in a field or a meadow. Some gliders are equiped with engines that help avoid landing in pastures in case of deteriorating meteorological situations and allow them to return to the aerodrome.

Every sailplane carries equipment that utilizes GPS signals to record the trajectory of the flight along with many other parameters. This system works as a self-recorder creating a file of a certain format which is submitted by pilots to the referees of a championship as a proof that the start line, fixed turning points and the finish line were overflown correctly. Each day fastest pilots are declared winners and awarded 1000 points. The one who achieves the highest total score during the two weeks of a championship is declared winner of a championship or a competition.


Glider classification

Open class

 No restrictions except a limit of 850 kg to the maximum all-up mass.

Standard class

Restricted to a maximum wing-span of 15 metres and fixed wing sections (flaps or other lift-enhancing devices not allowed), maximum all-up mass 525 kg

15 meters class

As Standard Class with lift-enhancing devices allowed, maximum all-up mass 525 kg

18 meters class

As the 15 metre Class with wing-spans up to 18 metres, maximum all-up mass 600 kg

Multi-seater 20 meters class

Restricted to a maximum wing-span of 20 metres, maximum all-up mass 750 kg. Crew - 2 Pilots

Club class

Allows a wide range of older small gliders within a specified range of performances, with the scores being adjusted by handicapping. 

13,5 meters class

Maximum span of 13,500 mm. Disposable ballast allowed but maximum wing loading permitted is 35 kg/m²


World championships in Lithuania

2001

World women gliding championships. First world women gliding championships, before 2011 it was held only in European countries.

2015

World 13,5 meters class gliding championships. It's a first highest rank competition for this new class. Participants number - 12.

2016

World gliding championships in  Club, Standard and Multi-seat 20 meters class. 111 participants in three classes, so far it's highest rank competition which was arranged in Lithuania.

Achievements of Lithuanian pilots

2009

World junior gliding championships, Finland, Vytautas Rasimavičius in club class won silver medal.

2015

13,5 meters World gliding championships in Lithuania, Vladas Motūza with miniLAK won silver medal.

2015

World gliding championships, Denmark, Edita Skalskienė in club class, won bronze medal.

2017

34th World gliding championships Benalla, Australia, Lithuanian team participate in 15 m. and 18 m. class.


Team
  • Alt

    Gintautas Zubė

    Pilot
  • Alt

    Karolis Mikalauskas

    Team captain
  • Alt

    Adomas Grabskis

    Pilot
  • Alt

    Linas Miežlaiškis

    Pilot


News

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