WGC 2026 pilots safety recommendations.

[Karol Staryszak]

Dear All,

Let's try to open a conversation about safety at the upcoming WGC 2026 in Poland. Since I'm not aware of any other platform suitable for this kind of discussion, perhaps we can use this space temporarily to at least start somewhere.

I've received a letter from a friend of mine, and in my opinion it's very important and worth publishing.
I hope it can serve as a starting point for discussing current safety issues at WGC/EGC.

Karol.



Dear organisers of the 40th World Gliding Championships,

I'm writing to you to ask for your consideration regarding use of Flarm devices during the 40th World Gliding Championships.

Gliding is a sport for the pilots. It should be a fair sport where we race to the finnish line day after day enjoying the competition at hand. Best pilot should win. All the great pilots take pride on succeeding in their greatest victories because of their piloting skills. Unfortunately, that is not the case when we fly competitions Flarms on with live tracking sent to the pilots in the air to their devices. Everything has changed.

What happened? PowerFlarm and tracking did. One can say that there has always been gaggles and tactics in gliding. He would be right, but the current situation is in a different level. First generation of Flarm had a small effect on things, but once PowerFlarm became the standard things changed. Starting games became worse, gaggles larger and I dare to say that safety became worse. Last competition day of this years Europeans was most unsafe day I have ever had in my glider.

Flarm is presented as a safety device. From my personal experience nothing makes me more scared than the huge gaggles it creates. Nothing is as uncomfortable as the waiting games it feeds. I think it is a great help out there in cross country flights and some crossing situations, but many times the downside to safety is bigger than the upside when it comes to competitions.

Today we are living on a world where some pilots have several ground bases supporting them in task with the tracking data. Some have for years used special antennas in their planes. Those antennas are designed to see very well what's happening in front of them and to be as bad as possible for the behind them. These pilots even write daily comments online underlining how they waited the gaggle to leave so they can catch with late start thanks to their special tools. Once they reach the gaggle the days work is done. Gaggle gets bigger and bigger during the day and more unsafe while it happens.

Last Europeans we saw some gliders with 3 screens on them to be able to see all the info that is available. WeGlide live being the cherry on top. This is not measurement of gliding skills, it is a team tactics effort where the big teams with most resources take advantage. It was said that open data puts smaller teams to equal position with the big teams. This turned out to be false. It is the opposite.


Some pilots might be ok with all this and call it development, but I'm not. Luckily, I'm not alone. There is many pilots that share my view on this matter.

There have been some initiatives during last few years regarding starting methods and rules. Some very talented pilots have been in involved and some results are showing. Cylinder start is the first step to right direction. But it is only one step and we have a long way to go.

In 2024 I was fortunate to experience a gliding event that was run the way it should be. I flew Leszno Cup in August. Flarm on Stealth mode, No tracking activated and cylinder start in most of the days. It was the most fun event I have flown in years and reminded me how far we have drifted from the sport I fell in love with in my early years of flying.

I believe that the organiser can make a big decision and make things a lot better if they will. Stealth mode, No tracking activated on flight computers as a mandatory setting. If insisted, IGC-trackers on board but those should send the data out delayed. On speed tasks long 20km start line and long enough wait till the opening. AAT:s with cylinder start and low enough number in loss of height so that it makes difference in starting heights. It's not very complicated to make a difference. It's not a perfect solution like closing the flarm totally in competitions would be, but it will have less resistance because no one can resist the decisions with safety arguments. It would be a sportive decisions that enhances safety.

I'm aware that Poland has been in the front line of pushing for this kind of changes. I truly hope that you, the organisers of the 40th World Gliding Championships, would take this work your country has done to action in the biggest possible arena, The Worlds. I can assure you that most of the best pilots will be on your corner with this ideology. Give our sport back to the pilots!

[PG]

Ja to od jakiegoś czasu noszę się z zamiarem odświeżenia SZD-12 i latania w klubach B... tam mam wrażenie nadal duch przeważa nad "gadżeterią". "Skill" może nie ten ale za to walka z otwartą przyłbicą...

[Dennishx]

Hello,

I strongly support implementing this.

FLARM was introduced to make flying safer. However, in major competitions it has actually made things less safe and less sporting. In particular, PowerFLARM in combination with systems like LX, Glide & Seek, and WeGlide Co-Pilot leads to large gaggles forming and causes pilots to spend even more time looking at screens.

The PEV start method was a good idea, but it does not work sufficiently to prevent gaggles.

In Belgium, we have also experimented with various start methods, and the start circle combined with PEV and delta height seemed to work best for us. This was already proposed to the IGC years ago, but we did not receive support from the larger countries.

These larger countries nowadays have coaches on the ground who monitor everything and provide information and instructions to their pilots. That is probably the reason for the resistance.

I sincerely hope that action will be taken soon to limit FLARM to an anti-collision system only, and to ban systems such as WeGlide Co-Pilot and similar tools from the cockpit.

I truly hope you can get this arranged before the World Championships.

Kind regards,
Dennis