Thrilling air races on the second race day of the Sailplane Grand Prix in Elchingen

After a break on Monday due to the weather, the second race day of the competition was successfully flown at the Grand Prix in Elchingen on Tuesday.

The rainy and changeable weather took a break. Sports director Bernd Schmid closely monitored the weather developments in the early hours of the morning. Shortly before eight in the morning he gave the 32 pilots and crew the green light to set up the sailplanes. After the obligatory weather briefing at 10 a.m., it was clear to everyone that the race would take place that day. Due to the fact that the clouds were hanging very low over the Swabian Alb and the ground was moist, Bernd Schmid set the route for both classes to the north and east.

For the 15-meter class the turning points were Burgbernheim to the north near Rothenburg ob der Tauber, from there southeast to the Hesselberg in Bavarian Franconia and Reichenbach in the valley of the Altmühl.

The pilots had to fly a distance of 228 kilometers. After the last glider had taken off, the sports director released the departure line at 1:05 p.m. and the race began. The 20 pilots in this class had to deal with very pulsating weather conditions. Sun and cumulus clouds were alternating with shady phases during which the thermals decreased significantly. The strong westerly wind was particularly difficult for the pilots on the last leg from Reichenbach back to the airfield in Elchingen. Some pilots even had to land somewhere outside of the airfield. This also happened to Sebastian Nägel from Schwäbisch Gmünd and Nils Fecker from the Erbislöh Langenfeld Luftsportgemeinschaft. Fecker landed in a field just right before Bopfingen and Nägel on the glider airfield in Neresheim. That means, in the immediate vicinity of the Elchingen airfield.

Björn Gintzel from FG Dahlemer Binz (Eifel) won the second day of the competition. Jan Knischewski, also from Dahlem Binz (Eifel), came in second. Third winner was the multiple European Championship and World Cup participant David Bauder from SFG Donauwörth. Steffen Schwarzer from Aalen from Luftsportring Aalen came in fourth.

In the double seater class, the top Austrian duo, Andreas Lutz with multiple world champion Wolfgang Janowitsch, again won the race of the day. They were closely followed by the Arcus team from Aalen with Alexander Schmid and Erwin Ziegler. Like Eberhard Laur, Ziegler had already been a European champion. Eberhard Laur from Laichingen and his partner Robert Österle came in third.

The double seaters had to fly a distance of 205 kilometers. The pilots achieved average speeds of around 92km/h. The single-seaters with a 15-meter wingspan were a bit faster and reached average speeds of 98km/h.

On the second day of the competition again a fair number of visitors came to the airfield in Elchingen to witness this sporting highlight.