34th FAI World Gliding Championships

The 2017 World Gliding Championships (15m Class, 18m Class, and Open Class) will be held in Benalla, Victoria, Australia from January 9-21, 2017, with practice days January 2-7, 2017.

Canada is represented at the Championships in the 15m Class by Sergei Morozov (MS) and Luke Szczepaniak (W2), and in 18m Class by Dave Springford (4D) and Jerzy Szemplinski (XG). In total, the Canadian Team is comprised of 10 members including pilots, crews, and team captain. You can learn more about the team on their website and follow the team on their blog for all of the latest information.

For more information about the Championships, including competing pilots, competition tasks, and news, please refer to their website, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

The biannual OSTIV conference will also be held in Benalla from January 8-13, 2017. The purpose of this conference is to share new information and research in soaring and sailplane technology. The final program for OSTIV can be downloaded here.

This post was written by Selena Phillips-Boyle.
Photos provided by Maria Szemplinska.

Gliding Book Corner

The 4th Edition of Bernard Eckey’s book “Advanced Soaring Made Easy” is now available for order. This book was edited by Tony Burton. Priced at $75 (plus $17 shipping), you can place an order by contacting Tony directly (t-burton[at]telus[dot]net). To save on shipping costs, those in the Ottawa area can contact George Domaradzki, and those in the Toronto area can contact Dave Springford directly to place an order for the book. Click here for more details.

Announcement: Edmonton Soaring Club's Junior Camp 2016

The Edmonton Soaring Club will be hosting a Junior Gliding Camp from August 22-28. The camp is open to licensed glider pilots aged 16-25. More information can be found on the SAC Calendar, with full details here or on Facebook. You can download the registration form here.

ESC Junior Camp

Competition Update: FAI Sailplane Grand Prix USA 2016

From July 24 to 31, 2016, the first-ever FAI Sailplane Grandprix USA was held in Ionia, Michigan. In total, 16 pilots competed, including 5 Canadians (Jerzy Szemplinski, Sergei Morozov, Krzysztof Wiercioch, Nick Bonniere, and Emmanuel Cadieux). You can read more about all the pilots here.

Maria Szemplinska SGP Ionia 1

The goal of the grandprix racing style is to provide a new racing format for pilots and to increase the public visibility of the sport. The rules for grandprix racing differ from that of regular contests. In this style of contest, the start gate opens and pilots begin the race together. Each contest is a fixed task of about 200km. This results in closely flown tasks and exciting finishes. No more than 20 pilots may compete in one competition. You can learn more about grand prix racing here and read the full rules here.

In the end Canadian Jerzy Szemplinski won the contest, with American Jerzy Zieba taking second place and Canadian Sergei Morozov taking third place. Congratulations to all the pilots!

Maria Szemplinska SGP Ionia 8

Maria Szemplinska SGP Ionia 3

You can see more information about the Ionia contest on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. The full scores can be viewed here.

Stay tuned for the World Grand Prix in Potchefstroom, South Africa November 5-12, 2016!

Photo credits in this post to Maria Szemplinska. This post was written by Selena Phillips-Boyle.

SAC 2016 AGM Reports

For members who were unable to attend the AGM, a digital version of the SAC 2016 AGM Reports has been uploaded to the website. This document includes the 2015 AGM Minutes, SAC Board of Director Reports (President, Pacific Zone, Alberta Zone, Prairie Zone, Southern Ontario Zone, Eastern Ontario Zone, and East Zone), SAC Treasurer Reports, and 2015 Committee Reports (Airspace, FAI Badges, Flight Training and Safety, Free Flight, Insurance, Records, Sporting, Safety, Technical, and Website).

You can download it here.

SAC news feed

Visit this page frequently or ask your webmaster to publish our news on your club's site with this link

An example of integration of SAC news is given at this link