At last, a flyable day. It was nothing amazing, but after a week of depressing weather our standards were not high, and this day worked.

After some delay, Open class was launched first, into a sky filled with much low cloud, allowing only a little sun to reach the ground. But these gliders need next to nothing to stay in the air, and with grim determination pilots duly set off on their 3-hour, 300+ km area task.

Reliable lift was slow to develop – the other two classes had to wait more than an hour. Eventually, tasks were shortened to 2-hours / 200+ km and at 13:30 the launch began. The timing was right: all gliders connected with lift – our contest was underway.

Lift was never high (3500’ above ground was about the top), and frequently weak, but the world’s best pilots made good use of it: all completed their tasks. Sarah and Sean had a solid day in 18-Meter class, finishing 7th and 12th.

Airspace restrictions are a significant issue here, as indeed they are throughout Europe. Glider pilots typically expect to fly tasks extending about 200 km from home. Here at Częstochowa, that circle probably contains more than 200 separate chunks of airspace in which glider flight is restricted or prohibited. This contest has done a good job of arranging for temporary use of numerous nearby airspace areas, without which fair tasks would scarcely be possible. But it’s clear that most tasks will be using an area west and northwest of home, and a slot east of home.

Standing on the launch grid today, we were looking at obviously difficult soaring conditions to the west and northwest (where tasks were set), while conditions to the south were clearly much better. But not far south is an airport that serves the city of Katowice, surrounded by airspace in which gliders must not fly. Those attractive cumulus clouds in the distance were off limits.

A question was asked (in Facebook comments) about the history of our airfield. It was apparently built in 1940 by the Luftwaffe (using forced labor, including prisoners of war) for aviation training – and later, glider instruction. This military origin probably explains the wide and long runway. I’ll note that, 86 years after construction began, the runway is still giving good service – but it may need resurfacing before long.