17th EGC (Club, Standard, 20m) coverage

[Piotr Szafranski]

In case somebody was interested, the video materials from 17th EGC (Club, Standard, 20m) are available at http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa5hoVLTl803FzSQOiQVz6w

Today the video of the daily task briefing was posted about 9am EST (3pm local). So one could watch it while the competitors are still in the air. I think it gives a nice feel of the event. Hopefully this will be kept up, a local TV station is giving the event pretty much a continuous coverage, they have a crew stationed at the airfield (EPOM) for the competition. No fancy helicopter camera shots, but hopefully a nice collection of a fairly professional material will emerge. I will try to post links to some stuff in followups for this post. We hope for Internet live streaming at the time of landings, but we still have to wait and see how this will work out. It is all a rather grassroot effort.

[Piotr Szafranski]

At http://egc2013.eu/video/ there is live video streaming, right now we have landings (Sun Jul 7 11:30 EST). This will be available hopefully every day.


On Saturday, July 6, 2013 8:55:32 PM UTC+2, Piotr Szafranski wrote:
> In case somebody was interested, the video materials from 17th EGC (Club, Standard, 20m) are available at http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa5hoVLTl803FzSQOiQVz6w
>
>
>
> Today the video of the daily task briefing was posted about 9am EST (3pm local). So one could watch it while the competitors are still in the air. I think it gives a nice feel of the event. Hopefully this will be kept up, a local TV station is giving the event pretty much a continuous coverage, they have a crew stationed at the airfield (EPOM) for the competition. No fancy helicopter camera shots, but hopefully a nice collection of a fairly professional material will emerge. I will try to post links to some stuff in followups for this post. We hope for Internet live streaming at the time of landings, but we still have to wait and see how this will work out. It is all a rather grassroot effort.

[Piotr Szafranski]

Video from Day 2 starts is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IxywYm3O38
(no commentary, just video and ambient sounds).
Briefing for Day 2 (in English), starting with announcement of
the previous day results is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOxYdJVp5f8

[Piotr Szafranski]

Rather long sequences from Day 2 landings (no voice comments) and (in a later part) "studio" interviews (in Polish) are at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7F3dIP0c6E

No outlandings for Day 2, AAT tasks flown in 450km range.

An interesting bit for Day 2 Standard competition was I think that all 3 pilots from the Polish team seemed to manage to fly (and win) together using 2 types of gliders (Discus2a/ax and LS8).

[Piotr Szafranski]

OK, now we can I hope responsibly announce the regular and near constant live video coverage of the 17th EGC at the Ostrów Wielkopolski (EPOM). It is done by pro camera/reporting crews (active pan/zoom to points of interest), not some monitoring webcams. The video feed is available at http://www.egc2013.eu/video/ (just press the big "Play" button on the blank area, there might be other video windows with some canned material posted below).

There is a twice-a-day commentator reporting. The morning (usually 9:00am UTC) live report is done during the glider launches (in the background) and is focused on the analysis of the previous day competition and a current task. The evening live broadcast (usually 15:00pm UTC) has the glider landings in the background and carries "hot" interviews with freshly arriving pilots, team coaches and other competition participants. During the rest of the time there is live video streaming from the airfield, so one can watch the airfield events quite closely. Independently, a video recordings of the day (pre-task) briefing (in English) are promptly posted to the competition YouTube channel.

Right now I am watching the grid launches (88 gliders, 12 tow planes - good the field is wide :-) ) - the camera crews are doing a pretty good job, one can see much better than if actually being there.

[Piotr Szafranski]

We had a signal from South Africa that the EGC live video feed there is unusable (patchy transmission). I would like to ask people in and outside of Europe (if they tried to use it) how it works for them. If the problems are widespread we will investigate degrading the quality of the video so less bandwidth will suffice. This is not a local problem here in Poland, but possibly some international links require more restraint on the transmission volume. If you have (positive or negative) observations please e-mail me at , thankyou.

The briefing for Day 3 is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIh46T9LoHQ

[Piotr Szafranski]

Summary (in English) of Day 3 by the Contest Director at minute 46:00 in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRS9T6b2Fg8

Also, an interview (in English) with Christophe Cousseau (before task of Day 3) at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUVxMl0Sb2E
Christophe is in high spirits, saying effectively "I might be trailing a bit at the moment, but I am the younger and therefore still getting better all the time, so let the leaders beware...". I cheer for him and all the competitors :-)

An "after task" comment by Sebastian Kawa (in English) on Day 3 for Standards is at (4:11)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPIbNW3-4Qs

[Piotr Szafranski]

For those who do not know yet, there is a really interesting and voluminous blog by an Australian competitor (HC) in the Championships, Matthew Scutter: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding
I really like his inside remarks on competition flying. Also, a remarkable achiever, he is what - 21 years old?

Another remarkable competitor - Adam Czeladzki. I wrote short note on his participation at http://egc2013.eu/news/78/ - yes, I know everybody knows him but just in case...

The usual Day 4 briefing and Day 3 results/award ceremony (all in English) is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efTAn1mvUf4 Do not ask me what the prizes were - did not look like cheese this time though.

At 17:10 in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lkGErqY-ZQ there is an interview (English) with the head of the Jury, Bruno Ramsayer, who explains and comments on the competition rules and the dispute resolution procedures.

[Piotr Szafranski]

An interesting photo of Club gliders yesterday on final.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=522924384428417&set=a.400217613365762.94399.194241090630083&type=1&relevant_count=1
Those who watched the transmission know that there was a moment of a nearly simultaneous landing by 9 gliders. You may take notice of the briefing for landing procedures at yesterday task briefing (available on YT).
The photo above is put into public domain by it's author (Marcin Kasprowiak).

[Clay[_4_]]

On Wednesday, July 10, 2013 4:01:31 AM UTC-4, Piotr Szafranski wrote:
> For those who do not know yet, there is a really interesting and voluminous blog by an Australian competitor (HC) in the Championships, Matthew Scutter: https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding
>
> I really like his inside remarks on competition flying. Also, a remarkable achiever, he is what - 21 years old?

The Aussie kid's blog is a good read. Thanks
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding

[Piotr Szafranski]

Today the meteo forecast was predicting an afternoon storm over the airfield, so the (AAT) tasks were shorter. As usual, English language briefing for the Day 5 is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-j2klbYPlQ

Looks like the winning pilots in all 3 classes had chosen to fly about the same distance. I will have to have someone explain it to me, maybe just a coincidence.

Those who know polish language could listen (live) to various heroic exploits as told by the guests of the reporters getting a bit bored waiting for the arrivals. I liked the story of harvesting the young apple trees saplings (15m swath - not many harvesters can do that :-) ).

[Piotr Szafranski]

The current competition leaders (after day 5), unofficial. Full results at http://www.soaringspot.com/17egc2013/results/
Club: Roman Mracek of Czech Republic flying STD Cirrus G
Std: Sebastian Kawa of Poland, Discus 2a
20m: Wolfgang Janowitsch and Andreas Lutz of Austria, Arcus M

There are still many days ahead.

[Piotr Szafranski]

No tasks today. Officially due to a low-pressure system right over Poland, but perhaps the "International Day" celebrated last night had something to do with it :-)

Yesterday the meteo forecast was calling for a storm over the airfield around 1600 local, with mediocre conditions before. This time (as opposed to previous days) seems the reality turned better. Matthew Scutter describes in his blog how the forecast affected the race of this day.

Four (safe) outlandings near the airfield (inside the finish circle), one (of several) low energy final recorded at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXdkURfcSY4

[Piotr Szafranski]

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTVKP3BNzI there is another video of the same final, shot from the cockpit, with the external (ground) shot video inserted and synchronized. Worth looking at the panel and listening to the instrument audio.

[Piotr Szafranski]

Another cancelled day (Jul 12). At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q_Un_V904M there is an English language (from 31:27 on) commentary on Day 5 and current competition status. For those who know Polish (you all do, don't you?), at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3wbX1dyU8 �ukasz Błaszczyk gives a rather detailed inside story of Day 5 race in Clubs.

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huufZhT23t8 one can see the grid being set up, from a different perspective.

[Piotr Szafranski]

Tasks cancelled (Jul 14) for all classes. The gliders were waiting on the grid for 3+ hours, with the tasks down-moding through A, B and C variants. Cloud base obstinately at approx 700m, with the news from meteo office "base in Poznań is 1000m now" and the pilots commenting "we are not in Poznań".

[Piotr Szafranski]

Today's (eventually cancelled) day briefing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFfkWlz68as
You can see the contestants in high spirits despite three in a row cancelled days before. Perhaps the kart racing championship contested the previous day helped. The awards handed out at the briefing this time were for kart racing, but it was still racing!

[Piotr Szafranski]

A low-key interview with Sebastian Kawa (in English) at 31:52 of http://www..youtube.com/watch?v=mkiIUl6HaUo
Also, at 32:23 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMaKDT5Be4 Sport Disrector Artur Rutkowski tells (in English) about his job, and at 41:10 of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMaKDT5Be4 the Competiton Director (Maciej Całaka) talks about some organizational aspects of the competition and the next year events in Ostrów (in English).

[Piotr Szafranski]

Finally (Jul 16) a flying day (Day 6). The day briefing (English) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvm8BVwnAzQ , the interview with task setter (English from 1:47) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTrm009SXt8

Apparently the weather forecast for the day was again unduly pessimistic, more on how it affected the race can be read in task recaps by Matthew Scutter http://www.facebook.com/MatthewScuttersGliding, Sebastian Kawa (use e.g. Google translate) http://www.sebastiankawa.pl/4132/dobry-polski-dzien/
and in the British team blog http://www.glidingteam.co.uk/?q=blog/bug-wipers-are-brilliant

The day was an interesting one for a Polish team, at the moment all 7 Polish crews are at the medal positions (after Day 6th).

Adam Czeladzki (flying 20m Multi-Seat with Krzysztof Trzewik) took first place today. Adam talks about his experience as a handicapped pilot in an (Polish language) interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGH2p3iWU2Q (9:00). We will try to add English captions - Adam's story is an inspiring one.


At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-ouFnC0Ekw Artur Rutkowski comments (English) on the decisions of setting and/or cancelling the tasks due to weather in the past days.

[Piotr Szafranski]

For Day 8, according to Sebastian (http://www.sebastiankawa.pl/4149/wreszcie-mozna-sobie-polatac/), the pilots had a wide array of weather forecasts to choose from, to best suit individual weather preferences.

Winners of the day - Club: Roman Mracek, Standard: �ukasz Wójcik, 20m: Janusz Centka and �ukasz Grabowski.

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xrDLQ61474 you may see Discus 2a and Arcus T racing each other on final (cockpit take).

[Piotr Szafranski]

Day 9 had caused some reshuffling. Landouts. Sebastian Kawa in http://www.sebastiankawa.pl/4164/zony-nalezy-zawsze-sluchac-sluchac/ (Polish) writes about flying basement level in 30cm/sec lifts, also about 30+ knot headwinds on the final. Links to inside relations gathered at http://egc2013.eu/news/81/

[Piotr Szafranski]

The unofficial results:

Club: Roman Mracek, Jakub Barszcz, �ukasz Błaszczyk
Standard: Sebastian Kawa, �ukasz Wójcik, Paweł Wojciechowski
20m Multi-Seat: Wolfgang Janowitsch + Andreas Lutz, Florian Theisinger + Thomas Starck, Pierre de Broqueville + Arnaud de Broqueville

Team Cup: Poland, Germany, Czech Republic

The prize giving ceremony at 7pm UTC. Expect YT video soon at http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa5hoVLTl803FzSQOiQVz6w

In the Bulleting no. 2 at http://egc2013.eu/media/download/biuletyn_2_2013_v2_s.pdf an interesting take on the Championships from the support volunteers' point of view.

Great competition from the spectator point of view. Once more I recommend the news/posts written during the Championships, the links listed at http://egc2013.eu/news/81/ and multiple reports, interviews and shots of takeoffs and landings at http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa5hoVLTl803FzSQOiQVz6w