Preparing for a World Gliding Championship — the Junior World Gliding Championships in my case — is not something you do every day, or in a day for that matter. It takes time and careful planning, and my preparations have been in full swing for months already.
In this article, I will tell you all about my journey and share what I have learned so far in case you want to go to your first Cat. 1 competition yourself!
There are so many things a pilot needs to think about when preparing for a competition of this size: having a good crew, familiarising yourself with the area and procedures, finding good accommodation, managing everything regarding registration and, in my case, even finding a suitable glider and sponsors to help finance the dream of participating in a World Championship.
If we look at these things one by one, I will start with my crew.
I consider myself very lucky that, even though my family is not at all familiar with flying or aviation themselves, my parents have always supported me in everything I do. My mom has been my crew at multiple smaller competitions and by now knows exactly how she can best help me.
For that reason, my parents are joining me in Aalen for the three weeks of training and competition. To make sure they can also enjoy some holiday time while we are there, I started asking around at my club to see if anyone else would be interested in joining me in Germany as crew.
Luckily, I found volunteers pretty quickly! Thank you, Kris and Fons. 😊
Then, accommodation.
Although the organisation offers great camping opportunities right next to the airfield, I am a very light sleeper and we do not have much camping gear besides the pop-up tent I use during gliding camps. We therefore decided that renting an apartment would be the better option for us.
Very early on, we found what seemed like the perfect place: a house with three bedrooms, a beautiful garden and not too far from the airfield. Unfortunately, the owner later had to cancel our booking because she was going to stop renting out the house.
That meant starting again several months later, when many teams had probably already booked accommodation in what is otherwise not exactly the most touristy region.
Long story short: we found another place! It is a little further from the airfield this time, but at least we have somewhere to stay.
Then, the glider.
Since I do not own a glider myself, I had to find one to rent. For other competitions, I usually rent an LS4 from my club, but three weeks in the middle of summer is a long time for the club to miss such a popular glider. At the time, it was also not yet equipped with a flasher.
I looked into many other options, and the organisation offered several rental gliders too. Unfortunately, they were all types I had no experience on: an ASW 20, a DG-300, and so on.
That made me a little reluctant to rent one, because a JWGC is not exactly the place where you want to fly a completely new glider for the first time. If no other option had worked out, I would have chosen one and tried to arrange a week in May to rent and fly it beforehand, so I could at least get used to it.
Luckily, in the end I was able to rent the LS4 from my own club after all. We installed a second battery and a brand-new flasher from SOTECC, and it was ready to go!
Then came the actual competition preparation.
I tried to gather as much information as possible beforehand. The Belgian juniors received a very helpful and insightful briefing from former World Champion Bert Schmelzer about the area around Aalen and the flying conditions we could expect there.
I also spent time studying the airspace around Aalen and looking at flights in the region on WeGlide. Seeing where other pilots usually fly, which routes are common and how the area is used gives you a much better feeling for a place before you have even flown there yourself.
Another part of my preparation was getting my equipment set up properly. I received an Oudie N IGC through the WINGS programme, and instead of just leaving the standard interface as it was, I spent time customising the screens and data fields to suit me. I wanted the information I use most to be easy to find and, most importantly, I wanted everything to feel familiar before arriving at the competition. The middle of a task is probably not the best moment to start figuring out where a certain number or function is hidden.
I also read quite a few books that were recommended to me, including The Soaring Engine. I especially liked Part 3 and found it very useful.
During my own cross-country flights, I also tried to focus more on speed and competition tactics. Although I have to admit that I wish I could have flown even more this season. It is not always easy to “claim” a club glider for an entire day of cross-country flying when there are lots of other members who would also like to fly it.
And then lastly, there was the rather difficult task of finding sponsors.
I started that search all the way back in August last year. In the end, I was very happy with the sponsors I found, so I would like to introduce them here.
Firstly, I received financial support from three companies: Fibola, i-Golf and i-Active. Thank you very much to these businesses for supporting me. Without their help, planning my trip to Aalen would have been impossible.
I was also supported by several companies from within the gliding world.
LX NAV sponsored me with a NANO4 to use during the season.
SkySight supplied me with a one-year subscription, giving me access to excellent weather forecasts during my preparation and the competition.
SOTECC gave my club a discount on a new flasher so that I could have a properly equipped glider ready for the JWGC.
On top of that, I received an amazing Oudie N IGC from Naviter through the WINGS programme.
Thank you very much to all of these companies as well. Every bit of support has been incredibly helpful and very much appreciated.
To end this article, I want to share a few things I have learned during the preparations so far:
- Start preparing as early as possible. There are many more things to organise than you initially expect, and starting early saves a lot of stress later on.
- Ask for advice from pilots who have flown the type of competition you are going to before. In my experience, they are almost always happy to help and there is so much you can learn from them.
- Make sure your crew knows you and knows how to help you best. What do you need right before or after a flight? Do you prefer a quiet moment before take-off, or does talking help keep your nerves away? Small things like that can make a bigger difference than you might expect.
I am far from an expert, though. I am also just figuring out how to do all of this as I go.
So if you have any advice for me, please let me know — and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them too.
Let’s help each other along!
