| WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS IN YOUR HOME TOWN |
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By Åke Pettersson 
Would you believe, a World Gliding Championship (WGC) in your home town ? I
do, because it happened to me. In 1989, Bill Ivans, IGC president, after
the votes had been counted at the annual meeting in Paris, announced that
Sweden had won the bid. And, in June 1993, I was there with the 114 best
pilots in the world competing for the titles in Borlange where I had
started to glide 32 years earlier. The WGC '93 was to become the pride of
Swedish gliding for many years to come, and the people of Borlange,
including my old gliding mates, enjoyed it very much.
For Mark Huffstuttler of Uvalde, Texas, it was different. He used to be the
only glider pilot in town ! The site for the 1991 WGC had become
unavailable, and Mark found himself having to take over the event with only
eight months to prepare. Mark owns an aircraft maintenance company and is a
big hat in town. He had many helpers, in fact, every citizen of Uvalde,
population 15,000, was involved and all enjoyed it. The excellent Texas
weather played on our side and resulted in one of the most satisfying
championships ever. And the number of glider pilots in Uvalde doubled,
because a gliding instructor and member of the French team fell in love
with a Uvalde girl and stayed there.
What do you need to do to have a WGC in your town? 
First of all, you need decent soaring weather. It doesn't need to be strong
lift conditions, but the more soaring days you can count in two weeks of a
championships the happier everyone will be. Glider pilots become impossible
to live with when it rains for days.
You need to find a dozen-plus tow planes and the pilots to fly them. Some organisers have found tow planes and pilots in neighbouring countries, some have enjoyed using military training or utility aircraft but mostly they have emerged from domestic gliding clubs or operators. 
You need to find accommodation for participants and their assistants as
well as for your staff, about 500 people in all, for the three weeks of
training and competition. Tastes are different and the participants are
everything from poor to wealthy, so there is a need for different levels of
luxury to suit every wallet. Local business will prosper, so you can almost
certainly count on the support of many people who will earn some money from
the event. Some 500 visitors will turn up from all over the world.
You need the use of an airfield big enough to launch 100+ gliders and airspace for the tasks. If this seems difficult, have a chat with your Airport Manager, the Air Traffic Control Manager and someone in charge of the main commercial operations on your airfield. They may be more interested in helping out than you could have imagined. In Borlange, they managed to mix a moderate number of airline flights with the WGC operations and were proud of having the busiest operation in Europe at peak time. 
Then you need some infrastructure. Major items are a briefing hall,
competition headquarters, telecommunications and some 30 flagpoles.
Temporary arrangements have been used successfully, but don't forget they
can be costly. If there is a school nearby and the championships are
planned to coincide with the school vacations, a chat with the school
manager could save you heaps of money.
What you don't need: 
Your town doesn't need to be big. Marfa, Texas and Omarama, New Zealand, normally house only a few hundred souls (not counting cattle and sheep) but have hosted WGCs very successfully. The best soaring conditions in the world are found in remote areas. In one WGC, many years ago, pilots enjoyed going beyond a place named "World's End P.O." on many tasks. You don't need to provide all the experts necessary to run championships. There are many experts in organising WGCs available from all around the world to help you handle the sporting matters, met, scoring, verification, task-setting, to train your tug pilots or almost anything you could imagine. They will be happy to join your staff provided you feed them, lodge them and pay for their travel. Remember that the official language will be English so you may need help with the language but also include local school children to help interpret for teams and show off and improve their English skills. 
Why?
Why have a WGC in your town ? To earn lots of money, publicity or whatever ? We wanted to because it's a lot of fun, and an accomplishment to be proud of. So think about having World Gliding Championships in your home town. If you go for it and manage to be accepted, there will be a lot of work for you and your friends, of course. It will also be the experience of a lifetime. Bids are sought by the IGC four years in advance, starting with the event in the year 2003 and then every second year to come. |
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OTHER ARTICLES OF ASI FEBRUARY'98 ISSUE | News In Brief | Letters To The Editor | World Records | | Simulated Flying - Birth of A New Air Sport ? | | World Gliding Championships In Your Home Town | | John Roake talks about...My Turkish Adventure | | The 41st Gordon Bennett Race | | A microlight look at the 1st World Air Games |  More articles on Gliding
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