WGC2025 enjoyed its best weather of the contest thus far – though you could be excused for not expecting this based on morning forecasts, and indeed not until pilots were home. The prediction was for decent thermal conditions with a fair chance of cumulus clouds, especially in areas north of Tabor. But the cumulus might thin later in the day, and there was a warning about cirrus clouds invading.
In the event, the cirrus threat never materialized, cumulus clouds persisted and even streeted (uncommon on a day of low wind), good climbs to over 7000’ were available, and speeds were the best of our contest thus far. In Club class, the formidable German pair of Stefan Langer and Uwe Wahlig, who’d stumbled a bit on Tuesday, were back to their usual form, taking the top two places. Stefan’s winning speed was 128.4 kph – significantly better than the best in the other two (nominally higher-performing) classes. We hear reports that the two German LS-3 gliders have received a lot of careful attention and tuning (which to various extents is typical – and fully legal – here).
In these good conditions, the Racing tasks of 350 to 366 km proved a bit short. In two of the three classes, it was another day for delayed starts: in 15-Meter class, the delay was over an hour; in Club class, it approached two hours. And in both these classes the winners finished in under 3 hours, and thus earned fewer than 1000 points. All US Team pilots concluded that they started too early. Mike Sorenson was able to catch and stay with a good gaggle, posting a respectable speed of 110 kph for 13th place.
Czech drivers and roads get good marks from visitors. Drivers seem predictable, tolerant and law-abiding, though their use of turn signals is perhaps not exemplary. Horns are almost never heard – you could spend several days in Tabor seeking evidence they are actually allowed to be installed here. I’ve mentioned that traffic circles are common, and at normal levels of traffic they work notably well (at rush hours, lines can form of cars trying to make their way into the circle).
We’ve encountered a few anomalies. Yesterday, on the road into central Tabor a large sinkhole mysteriously appeared. This knocked out power – including to traffic lights – in a broad area, as well as narrowing a moderately busy road to one lane. Early in the contest, Ken Sorenson witnessed a strange accident in which a delivery truck veered off the road, ran up on a concrete barrier, perched there for about 10 seconds, then fell over onto its left side. Two apparently uninjured occupants proceeded to make their way out the right (now top) side door. The authorities had this scene cleared up promptly.
-John Good