I took a behind the scenes look at some of the volunteer roles which make up the massive task of hosting a Gliding World Championships: CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FACEBOOK ALBUM

I also asked a variety of pilots why they fly: ANOTHER ALBUM LINK HERE

Payment for volunteers takes the form of opportunity; to see some amazing things and meet some amazing people. In my case, the highlight was another chance to catch up with Sdn Ldr Dan Kehoe, formerly the leader of a Air Force Roulettes, and now CFI at Central Flying School in Sale. I'd previously met him when the Roulettes came to Alice Springs in 2015. 

The two of us, plus Junior World Gliding Champion Matthew Scutter, will appear in a promotional film about gliding later this year. Dan has recently taken up gliding, and predictably went solo in just an hour!

He performed a brilliant "Roulette Solo" display to kick off closing ceremony proceedings at Benalla on Sunday January 22. 

Sqn Ldr Kehoe is reasonably new to gliding, and said he was keen to elicit some tips from the world’s top glider pilots. 

“I’m enjoying it. I like the challenge,” Sqn Ldr Kehoe said.

“I find it just as challenging to do low-level aeros as I do to hold a thermal!”

“It’s raw flying, and gliding teaches fundamental skills every pilot needs,” the 36-year-old said. 

“I’ve noticed you feel the aircraft a lot more. I’ve never felt myself move in the seat so much.”

The show will last approximately five minutes, and there will be good views from the clubhouse, as well as from the airfield in general. 

The general public are welcome to come along and watch, and everyone is advised to gather by about 10.30am for the show at 10.45am. 

Teams are reminded to hand their flags into the office, and winning teams also need to provide their national anthem. 

Contest director Terry Cubley said he was looking forward to the aerobatic display, and explained what would happen at the ceremony. 

“Well obviously have a podium there for first, second and third place,” Mr Cubley said. 

“We’ll go through awards for each of the winners and the first 10 places get a prize in each class. 

“A few dignitaries will hand out the prizes, including a team cup, and we’ll have a few speeches of course.”

The Roulette Solo show takes place at 10.45am, and the closing ceremony starts at 1100.

It will be streamed live via www.wgc2017.com.

The word “SCUM” is a prominent label upon many a t-shirt around the airfield at the 2017 World Gliding Championships. 

It stands for “Sailplane Crew Union Member” and while a feature of most gliding competitions, the popularity of SCUM t-shirts this time around has astounded one union representative. 

Paul Mason, known in gliding circles as Baldrick, is currently dealing with a huge t-shirt order.

“When I came here I just put a post on Facebook about SCUM polos, who wants one, and I got inundated for 300,” Baldrick said. 

“More by accident than design, because it fits in with my misdemeanant ethos and general fun side, I’ve sort of taken over on the European side,” he said. 

“Through no fault of my own, everybody comes to me regarding SCUM issues in Europe.”​

Benalla is Baldrick’s 13th world championship, and although he’s been flying since 1978, he is a proud crew member - the lone prerequisite of being “SCUM”.

“The only rule is, you can’t be a competition pilot. It’s ground crew only,” Baldrick said. 

“It really is a fun thing. If anybody does something daft, we try to involve SCUM.”

One of the main areas SCUM gets involved with during competition is the FAI flag. A tradition has developed where the flag is stolen prior to the closing ceremony.

“The FAI flag went missing on Thursday morning at briefing,” Baldrick said. 

“Which falls outside the rules of “Annex Z”, which is a fictitious, non-approved annex. But we made it look like the FAI sporting code.”

“I wrote that as a result of the same thing happening at the world championships in Germany in 2008, because the FAI flag went missing on day two, which is far too early.

“We have the allowable period, which is the final 24 hours of the competition, basically briefing on Friday, to briefing on Saturday, and then it’s a free-for-all."

Competition director Terry Cubley said he was aware of about 20 years of flag stealing, and most countries had some history with the tradition. 

“They have to return it before the closing ceremony, but that doesn’t always happen,” Mr Cubley said. 

“They’re meant to send a ransom note with hints about where it may be found. 

“It’s been found on top of towers, fences, and various other places, so we’ll see.”

Probably everyone who’s been hanging around the WGC2017 has spotted this motor…

Bob Dircks is a Libelle pilot from Lake Keepit, and the Australian agent and “service guy” for M&D jets, hence the eye-catching feature on the roof of his car. ​

He’s done 17,000km since registering his wheels six months ago, christening it on dirt roads in the Northern Territory. 

“It might not look it, but it’s a very tough car,” Mr Dircks said. 

“I’ve been a Citroen enthusiast for 40 years. The chassis is a 2CV. The engine, gearbox and brakes come from a GS, which is a ‘70s model. The bodywork comes off an early DS Citroen which is a ‘50s model, so some of the panels are the oldest bits on the car. The seats come out of a more modern Citroen, a Xantia. It’s a real mix. I just picked the bits I liked the most.”

Mr Dircks is attending the worlds at the request of M&D, and Jonker Sailplanes, and he tows a jet testing bench, ready to tweak any issues with the estimated 30 jets on site at Benalla. 

His unique vehicle is attracting attention both on the airfield, and around town. 

“There would be at least 50 photos per day, and I would get stopped probably 10 times a day,” he said.

In the 15m class, and flying their new JS3 gliders are brothers Attie and Uys Jonker. 

“We’re a family affair and we’ve established a fantastic team spirit over the years,” said Uys Jonker. 

“We give each other nice support and we’re having fun.”

In open class another set of brothers, Laurens and Oscar Goudriaan, say they’ve cultivated a successful team dynamic over a number of competitions. 

“Part of being a successful team is you have to have a strong understanding, even between the pilots and crew, so we put a lot of effort into selecting our crews as well,” said Oscar Goudriaan.

The brothers have been flying together for more than 30 years and say there’s no family politics involved in flying together. 

“If he wants to go his own direction that’s fine, but generally we discuss things and from there we make a decision,” Oscar said. 

“Sometimes we go his way, sometimes we go mine, and generally it works well.

“We know each other’s flying styles but I don’t really think it’s a competitive advantage.”

Possibly the youngest pilot in the championship, 21-year-old Marcus Nouwens, is flying with his father, Pieter. 

Marcus made the decision to fly at the World Championships, rather than the junior worlds, so he could fly with his father. 

It is the first world competition for both of them, and Marcus said the family atmosphere works in the team’s favour. 

“We’re very chilled,” he said. 

“We take it seriously, but not so seriously. We’re not here to joke around, but we are here to enjoy ourselves.” 

As for flying together, the 18m competitor said he could be much more open with his father. 

“And he can definitely be very open towards you!”

The six pilots all fly out of Potchefstroom, about 120km from Johannesburg; a club founded after Attie and Uys Jonker attended University in the town, and their father had moved there to be closer to the boys. 

“We decided it was time to have a club,” says Uys Jonker. 

“So myself, Attie, Oscar, my Dad and one of our other friends, we were five guys, all instructors, we had a meeting and we started the club,” he said. 

“Because we started cross country flying and intensively preparing for competition we attracted other high-level members like the Nouwens’s who live 350km away.”

It’s a great training ground for people like Marcus Nouwens, who is aiming to be South African national champion by the time he’s 30. He said he aspires to follow in the footsteps of the Jonker brothers. 

“I’m extremely competitive,” he said. 

“When I go flying I don’t just launch and hang around the airfield. I always want someone to fly with because I want to have a race with them. It’s my competitive side that keeps me going."

With an estimated 30 competitive pilots in South Africa, they’re a rare breed. ​

Team captain Carol Clifford said there were only 420 glider pilots in their country, and just a handful of those were women. 

“It’s a once off,” Ms Clifford said of the team full of relatives. 

“I don’t think there’s ever been such a family affair in a worlds,” she said. 

“The fact they’re also all flying Jonker sailplanes is a fantastic success story. It’s just 10 years since they first test-flew the first Jonker sailplane, it’s incredible.
​
“It gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling about what they have achieved.” 

In a tiny town in a tiny country, nestled between Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary, there is a hive of activity in the world of glider instrumentation and accessories. ​

Logatec, not far from Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, is home to the Front Electric Sustainer, designed by glider pilot Luka Znidarsic. 

“We are two pilots, a team captain, Maja and Nika,” Mr Znidarsic said, explaining the make-up of his team. 

“And Nika is the most important!”

Baby daughter Nika was loosely the inspiration for Mr Znidarsic’s invention, known as the FES. 

“Maya was crewing me for many years and eventually we got married and had our first daughter, so I had to figure out something because she was not really eager to pick me up from fields anymore,” Mr Znidarsic said. 

“I supported it because I believed it was the safest way for him to come to dinner on time,” said Maya Znidarsic. 

‘I said ‘go ahead and cut the nose off!”

Mr Znidarsic fitted a propellor to the front of his glider, and hasn’t out landed since. 

“Sales are going pretty well. We have already equipped 110 gliders,” he said. 

“Half of them are self-launchers and half of them are sustainers. People like it because it’s a different way of flying.”

Mr Znidarsic is in good company within the Slovenian team, along with fellow pilot Erazem Polutnik, the owner of instrumentation company LX Nav, and the man who developed “See You”.

“I don’t know how it happened but there are a lot of producers of gliding instrumentation and parts in Slovenia,” Mr Polutnik said. 

“We also have one of the largest producers of Ultralight aircraft. It just happened like that.

“They start calling us the Slovenian Mafia!”

Heading up the team is captain, Darko Gagula, a familiar name to anyone interested in a personalised luxury interior for their glider. 

“I’m a glider pilot of more than 30 years and I have never been satisfied by how gliders look in the interior,” Mr Gagula said. 

“My friend Erazem Polutnik challenged me, but I am not from the upholstery business. My official job is as a sound engineer,” he said. 

“After a few months I produced the first one and Uys Jonker saw the interior and he was happy with how it looked and he published it on a website with a name “Delux interior from Slovenia” and people started to share it, so then I had a name.

“My company has only had two years on the world market and 35 gliders of the 116 here have a delux interior so I’m very happy.”
The three men said it was important to have a presence at the World Championships so they could support their customers, but their real passion was gliding, with Mr Gagula comparing addiction to the sport to “hard drugs”. 

“My girlfriend tells me I am crazy for spending time, energy and money on gliding. But I like this!”

She said she had been able to continue in the sport thanks to great family support, including the “best husband in the world”. ​

The couple are kept busy with two children, aged three and five, sharing the childcare responsibilities equally. 

“In France we are lucky, there are many structures to keep the young children and more and more women work, so it can be equal in the couple,” Ms Ducarouge said. 

“For me at least it played a big part in the fact I could take part in this championship.”

Ms Ducarouge’s husband, Yann Forestier, is also a glider pilot. His passion started with flying model aircraft, but high costs prevented him from going into power flying so he took up gliding instead, and never looked back. 

“We met in a glider. Literally,” said Mr Forestier, of how he met his now wife. 

“Anne was just new in the club and it was a weak day, we didn’t know whether we were flying or not, and we eventually decided to fly two seater gliders,” Mr Forestier said. 

“I just had my passenger licence and she was my first passenger. 

“We literally met in the glider, and talked for two or three hours. That was the beginning.”

Ms Ducarouge said she wished there were more women in the sport, and there was no physical reason why there shouldn’t be. 

“It’s more or less cultural,” she said. 

“But I think it’s evolving quite a lot and in France we’re seeing more young women come into the sport, competing and performing.”

Ms Ducarouge is an engineer in the military and a Colonel, currently managing a design office in the French Air Force. 

She previously worked as a flight test engineer, planning the missions and sometimes flying them. 

“I’ve got a pilot’s licence in the military but it is an occasional occupation,” Ms Ducarouge said.

Contrary to popular rumours, Ms Ducarouge doesn’t hold a helicopter licence, although she can fly them. 

Asked why she loved gliding she said it was a “real sport” and quite different to flying powered aircraft. 

“I like both and I fly both, but gliding is a real sport and it requires much more piloting skill than flying an aircraft, which is closer to driving a car,” she said. 

“Also the challenge. You never know where you’re going to end up in the day, which is very interesting, even if you don’t get home very early!”

​A packed week of presentations kept OSTIV president Dr Rolf Radespiel busy for the first week of the World Gliding Championships 2017. 

The congress is always held alongside the competition, and many of the presentations attracted pilots, as well as those in Benalla specifically for OSTIV. 

“Ostiv is the worldwide scientific and technical research organisation for sailplanes, and we try to promote technical progress of sailplanes,” Dr Radespiel said. 

“We give advice to sport organisations like FAI and the International Gliding Commission to get many things right in the sport.” 

Subjects covered by the 43 presentations included flutter in ageing sailplanes, monitoring physiology such as oxygen saturation levels in pilots, FES development, mountain wave research and a report from the Perlan Project’s year in Argentina. 

“We had great evening presentations that attracted not only the OSTIV members, but also the pilots, team captains, and the public of Benalla,” Dr Radespiel said.

“We had lectures on sailplane design; the biggest ships you see in the sky now, how they will look in the future. So we had five great manufacturers for a podium discussion. They shared their views on what the open class will look like 20 years from now. 

“There is a general optimism that sailplanes will be much better in the future,” he said, before joking “they will probably not land anymore!”

Dr Radespiel believed pilots could look forward to more access to knowledge about the weather, and progress in aerodynamics. 

“There will be drag reduction, and very good progress in material science to make them lighter and more versatile, and there’s also strong discussion about safety,” Dr Radespiel said.

“In Formula One they improved safety so much that an accident would not be fatal anymore, and sailplanes have to become safer in case of a crash. 

“There are a lot of things to be done still.”

Dr Radespiel started flying as a student with Akaflieg Braunschweig in Germany, at the age of 18. He built a sailplane himself. 

“That is something I’m still really proud of,” he said. 

“It’s still in Braunschweig, it’s more than 40 years’ old, and it flies! I fly it every year.” 

Dr Radespiel said many OSTIV members were glider pilots. 

“We have 300 members all over the world and most of them are fascinated by gliding,” he said. 

“Most of them are glider pilots and I am one of these crazy people.”​

Find out more at www.ostiv.org